Under Dream Avenue's relentless attacks Venuoav faced more and more pressure. When her HP dropped below 100.000 points everyone could see that Dream Avenue was about to emerge victorious.
"I will not let you ruin everything! Mortals!"
The Dark Bride sounded hysteric. Suddenly she flew into the sky again, looking down on the players with blazing eyes.
"Stupid boss, come down here!"
"Such a coward. She's only wasting time!"
"AHH!"
Suddenly Venuoav let out a high-pitched screech. Her body began to burn with bright blue flames. The flames slowly devoured the world boss from the edge of her black robe all the way to her skeletal head. When only the bright blue flames were floating in the sky they suddenly scattered, falling on the zombies below.
Each zombie touched by the flames froze for a moment before their eyes erupted with a blazing blue light and their power rose sharply. But this time it was at least one in five zombies who received the empowerment. The players watching from the stronghold felt their hearts skip a beat.
"Careful guys. Don't stick too close to the zombies!"
"Melee players, draw back! Defend the stronghold!"
"Mages, take out those burning zombies! Give us some fireworks!"
Orders were shouted among the guild members, waking everyone up. Immediately the players attacked with renewed vigour targeting the blue flame zombies.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three explosions rocked the hill. The thick bolt of a ballista had impaled one of the zombies, causing it to explode in a beautiful blue firework. The flames showed no mercy to the other zombies. As two of those were already on low health they died as well, setting off a chain reaction.
Scenes like these could be seen in multiple spots. While this was a great way to cull the zombies quickly, it was also extremely dangerous for the melee players. They had to be careful, keeping their distance from low HP zombies and were slowly pushed back towards the stronghold. Casualties couldn't be prevented.
"Damn, the zombies are coming closer!"
"They are almost reaching the stronghold, do something!"
The pressure on the guild increased continuously. When the zombies got close to the stronghold, their explosions damaged the defensive structures, and the players weren't left with much room to dodge.
[Bleary Mirage: Focus on the blue-eyed zombies! Use everything you have!]
[Bleary Mirage: Cy, don't hesitate to buy some bombs!]
Everyone moved according to Liam's instructions. The players who thought about saving their ultimate skills before now used them all. Flames fell from the skies, ice cold winds spread, arrows flew as if fired by a machine gun.
For a moment the zombie hordes were pushed back but it wouldn't last long. Cyclone gritted her teeth and bought one hundred bombs for two hundred points. They were quickly distributed among the players. For a while two kinds of explosions could be heard from outside the stronghold. The zombies were kept at bay and the players fought for some room to breathe.
Suddenly Venuoav's hysteric voice could be heard again:
"I will not go like this!"
Instantly there was a change in the zombies. Most of them lost the buff brought by the flames. Blue sparks flew through the air and concentrated on a select few zombies. The lucky undead suddenly had flames burning on their heads like long blue hair. Their bodies grew taller and blue flames engulfed their hands.
With their blazing eyes focused on the players they suddenly rushed forwards at a menacing speed.
"Quick! Tanks, block them!"
"We need some slows here! Oh no…"
"Careful! They are breaking through."
The new zombies received a powerful boost. They made life extremely difficult for the melee players. It took at least five players just to stop them.
Suddenly one of the new zombies exploded. Flames swept over a radius of a dozen meters. Many unsuspecting players were touched by the flames, instantly losing a large part of their HP. The flames also reached the stronghold, causing continuous damage to this part of the wall. But the worst part of it was that the explosion threw the surrounding players away, ripping a hole in the defence. Immediately other zombies followed and threw their bodies against the stronghold.
"They reached the walls! Quick, take them out!"
"Bombs! We need more bombs!"
Distressed voices came from multiple sides. The new zombies caused a lot of trouble for the players. After another minute it was finally time for one of the segments to drop critically low.
Cyclone glanced at the HP bar displayed in her view. It showed the HP of the world boss, which had been continuously decreasing with every flame-touched zombie they killed. Now there were only a few thousand points left. Realizing this, Cyclone gritted her teeth and decided to evacuate the endangered segment of the stronghold. She decided not to repair it and save the points instead.
"Get down, get down!"
"Leave that part of the wall, the guild leader has spoken!"
"Evacuate segment 10!"
The order caused some chaos among the players. They realized that the segment they had been standing on was doomed. Mages, hunters and more quickly escaped to the left and the right.
Suddenly a tremor went through the hill. The segment of the wall broke apart. Dust and rubble scattered in all directions.
Liam had already positioned himself close to the segment. He stared at the dust cloud. A second later two conspicuous blue dots shone through the dust. They came closer and the tall body of a flame-eyed zombie got revealed. Liam nodded towards a nearby tank who swiftly use a skill to secure aggro.
As soon as the zombie was focused on the tank, Liam rushed forwards. His swords were covered in a sharp gleam. They flashed, aiming for the zombie's legs.
Right at that moment another two explosions echoed through the battlefield. Liam's swords touched the enemy, and the zombie suddenly lost all its strength. The flames in its eyes extinguished. The zombie powerlessly fell to the floor turning into a lifeless husk.
"Huh, what happened? Was the zombie already hurt so much or is Mirage's damage just unreal?"
"Is it dead? Where is the explosion?"
The surrounding players were confused for a moment before a hysteric voice rang in everyone's ears:
"Mortals! This is not the end! I will come back! Enjoy your lives as long as you still have them!"
When the voice died down an eerie silence engulfed the battlefield. Everyone stared ahead at the zombies now all lying dead on the floor.
"Somehow this is worse than when they were still moving…"
Balm whispered while shivering unconsciously. Her words immediately broke the ban. The guild members suddenly realized that the fight was over. The world boss wouldn't come back. Victory was theirs.
"This… we won! Haha! We won the guild war!"
"Damn, we're so good! Hahaha!"
"Dream Avenue!"
"Dream Avenue!"
The cheers started slow and quickly ramped up. The guild members almost didn't care when C's voice sounded out, congratulating them for completing the last challenge.
However, Dream Avenue wasn't allowed to leave yet. They relaxed, talking joyfully while watching the other guilds still caught in the boss fight. Cyclone took out the megaphone she bought at the beginning of the war, sending her voice to the other guilds.
"Mountain Lord, first place is gone. You can take it slow."
"TwinThieves, come on, attack us again. Or should we reciprocate the earlier gifts now that we have 10.000 points to spend?"
"Fat Tiger how about we send a few assassins your way?"
The other guild leaders gritted their teeth. But they didn't start a verbal battle with Cyclone. Instead, they turned towards their guild members, making sure that morale wasn't taking a hit.
Especially Beast Den's members were disheartened. No one dared to say it, but they blamed their boss for taking so long in his challenge. Fat Tiger knew how they felt but the information Glorious Sunrise gathered was their new trump card. He couldn't share it openly with the guild.
While Dream Avenue was leisurely watching Infinito pushed the Dark Bride's HP below the 100.000 mark. Venuoav turned into a bunch of flames and strengthened the zombies. Immediately Infinito was under a lot of pressure. They struggled to hold back the zombies, suffering multiple casualties.
Just as it looked like they got the situation under control the flames concentrated on a few zombies. With renewed vigour the zombie hordes managed to break the into the stronghold from two sides. Mountain Lord furrowed his brows. He knew he had no other choice but to spend points to keep the zombies at bay.
Infinito lost another 400 points before they managed to kill enough zombies. Finally, they completed the boss fight, securing second place in the war.
After almost getting their statue destroyed TwinThieves barely made it out alive a couple of minutes later, finalizing the ranking. Sadly, this meant that Beast Den wasn't even allowed to finish as the boss they were facing suddenly disappeared.