Dungeon Core Online 161 Chapter 161

The charge of the Dicken Brigade was…amazing. That was all James could consider it. Truly, it had to have been one of the most inspired, crazy, hilarious, and effective things he had seen in his years of gaming. Not only were the dickens ridiculously buffed by Charles, even if the World Boss was only level 20, but the visual, of watching that many crazed, angry, demonic chickens running through the forest, seeking out BLANKs players, was just awesome.

On top of that, surprise in and of itself, took down more than a few of BLANKs players. Unfortunately, the charge of the Dicken Brigade also didn't last as long as James had wanted. However, while it was short lived, it still served its purpose. Well, actually, it served a few purposes.

First off, it drove a decent chunk of the fog of war away from James's field of view. The charge by the Dicken Brigade, which was roughly 400 dickens, meaning about 120 players strong, made it past the midpoint of the battlefield, and about another 200 yards into BLANKs side of the map, before it was stopped.

During the charge, led by Charles the Dicken, with Trogdor and his infernal dicken quick on the world boss's claws…er…heels, they managed to pick off over a dozen of BLANKs players, mostly rogue and thief classes, who had been working their way slowly towards James's spawn area. It seemed that BLANK's players were sending out scouts, to slowly map out and plan around James's setup. The scary part was a few of the scouts had gotten near two of James's siege weapons. Meaning he was certain those were likely going to be targeted, before they could ever get fully used.

Of course, that information was paid for quite nicely by the essence James's players received from the mad rush of the Dicken Brigade. Because of the effects of Charles the Dicken's ability, the dickens that were part of the Dicken Brigade attacked any enemy they came across. It was like watching a hungry swarm of locust overcome the land. No sooner was an enemy sighted, than the player fell to the ground and was trampled to death by the dickens. James had thought the Great Dickening was going to be a single, isolated incident in his dungeon. However, it seemed his players wanted to share that Dickening with any and everyone… He was certain this was going to become a tactic commonly used by his players in dungeon wars in the future…if they got that far.

As James noted, it was effective early on. However, as they blasted their way past the irradiated remains of the Perfect Cognivore, and into BLANKs portion of the battlefield, it became evident BLANK had definitely planned against James. While BLANKs players might not have been prepared for the crazy antics by James's players, BLANK had been.

It started when Charles the Dicken stepped into a pitfall trap. These traps, as James had noted, were rather inexpensive. As such, it seemed BLANK, who James had no doubt had fully utilized all 2,000 of their BP across their field, and not wasted a lot of points on a Core Shield or Cannon, had spread such traps liberally around their side of the battlefield.

And by liberally, James meant it seemed like they had created a mass of trenches for any invading players to stumble across. What's more, there were walls set up all along their side of the field, creating choke points, funneling players, or in this case, dickens, into easily defendable portions. These portions had BLANKs players stationed alongside cannons, with towers provided for their ranged players to get a better scope of the battlefield.

Behind BLANKs defensive line, which saw dickens getting funneled into kill zones, cut down by cannons and AOE spells alike, James got a good glimpse of rows and rows of siege weapons. James watched as the Dicken Brigade continued onward, seeming oblivious, uncaring of Charles the Dicken, who was soaking up loads of damage, his health pool quickly diminishing. The dickens rushed to their death, taking cannon fire and spells from all sides, arrows raining down upon them from an organized defensive group of BLANKs players. They continued onward, pecking and clucking and cawing, leaping through the air, launching gren-eggs of their own. It was pure chaos. And, in that chaos, even though BLANK had obviously prepared for it, BLANKs players hadn't.

Even as dickens fell left and right, so too did BLANKs players. James couldn't help but grin, cheering Trogdor on as he rode across a bridge, surrounded on all sides by dickens. His body glowed as he hefted his Chainsword wide in the air, blowing his battlemaster cooldown to buff the nearest 10 allies around him. All 10 dickens surrounding him, already buffed by their own dicken buff, and Charles the dicken, grew even larger. Their stats buffed once again, they tore deep into the enemy line, wiping out BLANKs players.

Of course, that chaos still wasn't enough to overcome the players. They may not have been ready for the dicken brigade, but they were definitely used to facing extremely difficult and dangerous opponents. What's more, the ones dying were the lower leveled players. The stronger players, James noticed, stayed back, watching the chaos unfold. They used their lower leveled players as fodder, to ensure they could best take control of the battlefield.

And take control they did. Even as Trogdor and his dicken entourage turned about for another charge, a single lightning bolt crashed into the Dragonkin from above. The blast instantly turned him into an orb of light, while consecutive bolts of lightning channeled off of him, arcing onto the mobs that had surrounded him, killing them as well. James scanned the field, looking for the figure that had cast the bolt of lightning. It had come from a player that had to be at least level 30, though James figured, from the power behind the bolt, they were higher level.

Not only that, but he was fairly certain whoever had launched the attack, had burned a cooldown, in order to boost the power of the attack. After all, Trogdor had been an off-tank class, he had a good amount of hit points, as well as defensive stats. Even if his magic resistance wasn't obnoxiously high, it was still high enough that, combined with his health pool, he shouldn't have been able to be one shot so easily.

"Trogdor." A random player from James's side called out, and a party of four players, atop their dickens, rushed across the bridge towards the orb that was the dragonkin. A quick scan of the players showed that one of them was a healer, meaning it was possible those four were the dragonkin's normal party members. And, amidst the chaos, they intended to get their friend back up.

Of course, BLANK's players weren't having any of that. Spells and ranged attacks rained down upon the players. The enemy forces, at least the higher leveled ones among them, were masterfully singling out players with their abilities, while the weaker players in the defensive area worked on Charles the Dicken, and the dicken mobs. However, while it was a skilled tactic, James could tell the battle, at the very least, was likely going to end in a draw.

He came to this conclusion, as he watched as a level 37 lightning mage, who he was pretty sure had been the one to bring down Trogdor, let out a cry of surprise, which had brough James attention to him. The mage, it seemed, had been making a retreat, though he was running, instead of teleporting, as his mana was likely still recovering from his massive devastating spells. An arrow was protruding from his knee, which was likely what had brought him down.

The source of the arrow, James found was almost poetic. While dickens and players fought one another, there was another set of forces on the battlefield, that were doing quite a bit of damage. James was of course, referring to the forces of FlashFyre and Axel42. The necromancer and summoner had moved forward with the players. However, they hadn't stopped when they reached Trogdor's fallen orb. Instead, FlashFyre seemed to have moved her pets forward, towards a hill atop which the mage seemed to have been standing.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Beside her, Axel42 had canceled out his dicken mobs, and instead summoned two break-i-asarus. The massive, steampunk dinosaurs let out their metallic roars, causing some of BLANK's players to pause in surprise and concern. The purpose of the breaker's James realized, was to provide cover for Axel42, FlashFyre, and the players that had rushed to Trogdor's aid. Because of the massive size of the dinosaurs, all the ranged attacks flying towards the party was actually being intercepted by them. Axel42 had summoned his mobs simply to be meat shields. And it was working.

James watched as more arrows rained down upon the poor mage. His magical power was vast, considering his level, but he was still squishy. And, it seemed he hadn't expected to be attacked by skeletal archers. After all, with all of the dickens flooding the battlefield, it was rather hard to make out the skeletal archers amongst the pack. Furthermore, James had to guess the chaos on the battlefield had been more than a little distracting.

"Get him up, and let's go." Axel42 called out to the players who had rushed to the fallen dragonkin's orb. The healer's hands began glowing, as he started channeling a resurrection spell. It was a powerful, full revival spell, that took 30 seconds to cast. During that time, they would have to keep any and all damage off of the healer, otherwise the spellcaster would be interrupted.

A task, that was going to prove difficult, considering they were sitting right in the middle of the enemy's fortified position. Already, more dickens lay dead, than alive. And while BLANKs forces had suffered a good amount of causalities, there were still enough to man the weapons BLANK had so kindly provided them with. Furthermore, as had been the plan, many of James's players had already pulled back. This had been meant as a shock and awe, lightning fast attack. They were to cause as many casualties as possible, and then pull back, to use the essence they gained to further increase their advantage on the battlefield.

Trogdor's heroics, followed by those of his friends, and brother it seemed, had put them in unnecessary danger. To put it in gamer terms, Trogdor had gone full stupid, and Axel42 and the others had been dragged into harm's way, because of it. James figured that had to be another reason why Axel42 and FlashFyre didn't want to dungeon dive with the Barbarian. Though, to be fair, players that chose barbarians often were a bit more on the reckless, impulsive side. James couldn't help but cast a sidelong glance at Rue as that thought crossed his mind. After all, the pixie had chosen not only barbarian, but barbarian berserker as her avatar class.

"I don't think so, white knight." A voice said from the battlefield, and James winced in anticipation, even as his eyes shot towards Axel42. Even as the voice spoke, James saw the glowing of two red eyes moving rapidly towards the summoner. A candy cane sword drove deep into Axel42's mount, killing the dicken instantly. A second one drove into Axel42's chest, punching completely through.

The form of SoulDemon shimmered for a moment before Axel42, as the Phantom Blade's cold voice growled. "Revenge is sweet."

Chapter end