Adrian's POV
I swung the sword and lopped off another head just to see it disintegrate into ethereal particles.
'There goes the 20th one...I think. I have lost count of it anyway.'
Right now I am one of the guards, killing these wannabe saviours left and right. I can see reinforcements on our side entering the fray as well.
Their arrival brought me at ease.
I feel so damn tired. I am no longer what i used to be...my lvl 0 body is just a husk of my previous self, incapable of holding huge reserves of stamina so as to fight for such a longer duration of time.
'Just a bit more before I can rest...'
As if offended by my thoughts, one saviour swung a greatsword aimed at my neck. I crouched forward, pushing my left foot against the ground, dodged the fatal swing and dashed towards him.
Realising the danger, the player tried to block my attack by bringing his greatsword in front of his chest.
It's just that I had some other plans as I passed by him and stabbed the chest of the mage right behind him, who was busy concentrating on preparing a Fireball.
Instinctively, I crouched again and felt the wind blow over my head.. Turning back i slashed the sword sideways on his now exposed belly.
"FUCK!!"
The player flailed, his greatsword dropping from his hand and instead using it to cover his wound.
'Weak...'
The sword in my hands stabbed his chest and passed completely through it. As expected, both of the bodies turned into dust.
Looking behind, I saw the guards and the saviours engaged in a heated battle.
I was panting, inhaling in huge amounts of air to sustain myself in this battle.
My plans have gone completely south, as each scheme felt apart as if someone was deliberately peeling them away, carefully.
The night before, I had mixed with the players in the town. I had talked with them, extracted information about them without gaining suspicion.
I now knew what was happening behind their backs; they think this world as just a game they had entered for playing, while they have no idea of how they are being trained here instead... with them being completely unaware of the fact.
Today, everything was going on according to my plans...or so i thought until the guards unexpectedly began attacking these players.
I was the one who killed Sykes indirectly and also the blacksmith.
But I was not the one to kill the blackmailed guard neiher did I made the guards enter a frenzied state.
But if not me, then who was it.
I was sure it wasn't Nyx... Back there, she had that expression on her face as if her mind was stuck in a maze, trying to find the right way.
Then who? Was it some third party? Or are there other powers in this city playing their own games?
Atleast those were my thoughts...before I ended up in this small skirmish.
Nyx had ambushed the group of patrol I was in. I wasn't blind. I could see her following me, always keeping me within her sights.
Now that was worrying...how could she recognise me when literally my entire head was covered by a slitted helm and while my entire figure was a different one thanks to the Protean Veil?
That led me to a certain conclusion. The one causing the problems must surely be the one backing up Nyx.
It wasn't like I was underestimating Nyx, she was actually intelligent. But knowing this girl albeit briefly, I could safely say she was the type of girl who would brute force her way through something rather than sit back and analyse it.
All this chaos, to sow a fight between the two groups, to kill so many of us...no, none of them were my plans.
I wanted to use all that uproar during Sykes's death just as a distraction to escape.
But someone beat me to it, and ended up initiating chaos in a large scale, making it almost impossible to escape from Trios, without getting tracked or ending up facing a large group of players alone.
After what felt like an eternity, both sides disengaged...most of my group either dead or lying on the ground, bloody and exhausted.
I wasn't faring any better as I somehow kept on walking, trying to find a refugee to spend the night.
Come morning, I would go back to the temporary military camps set up by the City Guards.
But...
As I came out in the open, all I saw were burning buildings and screaming people. It was pure destruction, sprouted from hidden malice.
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3rd person POV
It has been two days since the melees started.
Trios was now under complete lockdown. People rarely left their houses, and the guards themselves distributed rations among these people.
Nobody could run away from the city. But internally, each day the city was being destroyed more and more.
Lives were lost without any reason.
At this point, the guards no longer showed any restraint towards the players. Wherever they appeared, the guards rushed to kill them.
Except at the summoning tower, the only place which was now heavily guarded by the players.
And each day, they kept on growing stronger...whereas the guards became weaker and weaker.
Among the guards, only Adrian and the City Guard Chief, Housten looked just the same, if not a little bit tired.
Housten was a monster in his own rights. At just level 37, he was fighting and killing hordes of players at the same level.
Seeing Adrian's sharpness in the battlefield, Housten had immediately promoted him as one of the six captains under him.
Where on one side Housten slashed and killed, Adrian,on the other hand, was the only support and assassin unit of their team.
He made sure the guards themselves didn't die. If they die, they shall actually die!! Unlike the lucky players.
Though he was indeed curious on how they were able to resurrect each and every time they got killed. The situation was dire and he was unable to spend any time on it. He could only note it at the back of his mind, promising himself to later go to the depths of this matter.
Another day passed by.
The tensions showed no signs of descalation.
Adrian wasn't even sure what the players were even angry at. It was supposed to be a game for them,right? Then why the unending attacks? Was it one of those missions he had heard them talking about?
What was certainly more confusing was the fact that the King and the Entities were yet to intervene in this matter. He had presumed that either of them would have come to the rescue and start their long strings of negotiations.
But the silence from both the sides were oddly defeaning.
It has now been a week since the escalation.
The city was completely silent, even in the morning.
Rubbles filled the entire city. Even the camps of the guards were no longer safe. They had already been hit multiple times.
No longer being able to bear the attacks, they had started planning a strategic abandonment. Obviously it came with risks involved but now it was truly necessary.
And as a result of all the planning,right now almost all of Trios had left the city under the protection of batches of guards that were dispatched along with them.
Adrian didn't want to remain in the city any longer. But he still didn't leave. Mainly for two reasons.
Firstly, he wanted to hear the reports from the scouts on whether the others were even able to reach safely to their destination. He hadn't seen Nyx for several days and naturally, he was suspicious. Thus he wanted to confirm that the routes were safe.
Secondly, it was out of a moral obligation...he couldn't simply abondon the place that was in this state partly due to his own failure...until he could see every citizen out of this place.
In any case, even if he left away, he would surely return here as...this place...would be his future base.
He just needed to meet the First Seat before that, which he felt wouldn't be anytime soon.