MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

The team arrived right behind Alex, and like him, they also realized they were on a floating island, but their surprise was suppressed by their curiosity to check the sound of ongoing chaos.

As they moved out of the alley, they saw a few figures in the distance engaged against the majestic creatures.

A towering wall was lined with armored figures raining down elemental cannon shots, massive mage towers in their surrounding that hummed with elemental might, as a few rained down elemental attacks and others kept the one-way barrier alive.

The group examined their surroundings as everyone moved to the nearest highest roof and saw that they were closer to the front of the city, which stretched for less than a kilometer from its central points, protected by a high stone wall from all sides.

The city was situated on a medium-sized island spanning nearly ten kilometers, with only a third of the island boasting a flat, habitable terrain and the remainder being dominated by rugged mountains and dense forests.

The city was surrounded by hundreds of creatures who had pitch-dark eyes with no sclera, giving them a menacing appearance as they madly and fearlessly rushed into the barricades and trenches dug all around.

The number of corpses littering the battlefield made it clear that no more than an hour had passed since this chaos had begun, and seeing that the soldiers were currently dominating the battlefield, the team quickly decided to first gather intel on the whole matter.

Everyone knew that, unlike the first stage, the second stage didn't have a simple goal of slaughtering creatures, but its focus was on quests, and to get the best of them, they needed to gather intel.

Alex was well aware that players were mere adventurers, the same as the thousands invited to the cities for protection, while the reason behind the frenzied creatures was the Dark Eclipse, a natural phenomenon occurring once a decade known to the inhabitants.

However, the extent of its calamitous effects this time was going to be more than anything the inhabitants had expected, which was going to be the reason why every city was going to struggle despite meticulous preparations.

The team decided to separate to cover the majority of the city area and meet back in two hours, and that is exactly what they did, learning what Alex already knew and acquiring nothing of real value.

The team also quickly learned that all the adventurers were given an island that they needed to protect, and all the bridges leading to the main island or the lower island were closed, so leaving the island for the time being was not an option.

Alex knew that on the fourth day, the three smaller islands were going to be lost, a small number of adventurers and guards surviving thanks to the mass teleportations, while their medium-sized island was also going to survive only because of the intervention of the Seraphian nobles.

The team spent the following hours showing their strength on the battlefield to create an image, understanding that they needed to meet with figures in power to get better quests.

Alex knew that for the first two days, things were going to stay calm and would begin to get heated on the third day as the number of Fifth and Sixth Rank creatures grew and the first pseudo-Beast King made its appearance on every island and from then on the doom would arrive.

In the following two days, Alex did some decent quests and even killed a number of creatures, earning slightly over two million points, which was enough to keep their team at the top, but the difference in the top ten was less than two hundred thousand, so only a single mishap and their ranking could drop.

The most common quests required collecting beast carcasses that could be exchanged for valor points that, in turn, could be exchanged for currency and specific body parts for rare quests, while there were also quests that required protecting someone, gathering intel, and even killing an adventurer or clan servent.

There were all sorts of quests, while the loot sites in the surroundings were nothing special because it was just the start, and the difficulty of the beast tide was at easy mode.

On the third day, things went as Alex remembers, as the pseudo-Beast King, a creature that was a step away from becoming a true king and taking the form of a complete human, made his appearance.

The creature was a dark eagle, a hulking beastly humanoid calamity that needed the assigned commander of the city and a group of support to take down.

Alex didn't interfere because the commander was taking things lightly, seeing the beast time as no more than an event, and every adventurer carried the same energy, and getting on their bad side for points was not worth it when the very next day there was going to be a free for all.

The worst thing about the Beast Tide was that while the battle only lasted sixteen hours, and a barrier protected them for the following eight hours, it didn't mean the number of creatures outside stopped growing.

The creatures that number in thousands on the first day were reaching the mark of tens of thousands, painting the city's surroundings in carnage as beats pushed against the barrier and small skirmishes broke out that ended the lives of hundreds of beasts.

The fourth day began with the opening of the barrier as its core reached its limit and went on cooldown, and what followed was the roaring of canons as hundreds of shots were taken, mage towers roared to life as large-scale spells were used, the front liner delivered their best long-range attack before mentally preparing for a long and brutal battle.

In mere moments, surrounding tens of meters of land was engulfed in elemental phenomenons, taking the life of any creature weaker than Fifth Rank and, in total, taking down a third of the gathered creatures.

The soldier and adventurers roared in valor as they charged ahead to keep the incoming horde from spilling into the city, with a few entering into beast lines, assigned figures taking their positions whether as support, long-range, or just scouts, working in sync to make most of their organized numbers.

While Alex and the others were collecting points on the battlefield, Halagax, the assassin, was working on the mission that best benefited him.

As Alex remembered, three pseudo-Beast Kings led by a Beast Kings arrived on the battlefield at the last hour, instantly making the commander use the emergency alert and inform the higher-ups of the situation.

Alex took the opportunity to tackle one of the pseudo-Beast Kings, and Nereus and the Monk also teamed up on his advice and attacked the second one, while the last was left to the group of adventurers led by a middle-stage Elementalist.

Lady Rosalba decided to support the commander from the sideline, who was struggling to keep up with the moon bear king.

Alex didn't engage with the Beast King because, besides keeping the creature at bay, he wouldn't be able to stop the creature from causing mutual destruction without using the majority of his long cooldown skills and doing that was not an option at such an early stage.

It didn't take long for Alex to take care of his target, and without delay, he moved to help against the Beast King, who had broken a massive hole through the city wall and the front line, causing hundreds of deaths and hundreds of creature to spill into the city.

After Alex joined, they were able to push the creature out of the city, and after fifteen minutes of intense battle, the winged beauty arrived, which didn't take extra than three minutes to kill the already-injured creature, putting an end to the threat.

The battle of the fourth day was coming to an end, and the losses the city suffered by its end were vast, with close to three-tenths of the fighting force having been killed, with multiple strong figures additionally eliminated.

As the barrier once again pulsed to life and everybody returned to the city, Alex was approached by the commander, telling him that the Seraphian lady wanted to meet him and his group.

As the group was making their way to the meeting room, they received a message from Halagax that he had found a big quest that could lead them to an ancient weapon of grand power, and it could earn their team a reward of 8 million points.

Alex was quite surprised as he didn't remember any quest that gave such a large sum of points, and extra so as he was very clear that the best quest could only be acquired from the elevated authority figures working for the Seraphian clan or the members of the clan itself.

The best quests, loot sites, and things that could help them save the city were all located on the main island that would be open to them on the fifth day, so learning about such a big quest raised a few red flags.