Chapter 194 - A Marsh Battle (2/2)
Though the toads are fast, they would escape or attack only when they notice players which was not possible with Balthazar in stealth. So, he could easily gain aggro and kill the toads. He had equipped a buckler on his left hand to be on the safe side and began to attack. Once, he got their aggro, he didn't have to worry much. A few hits with his weapon were enough to put it in dire straits.
He had specifically asked to be allowed to engage monsters alone only for the opportunity to kill these smaller toads alone without having to share the experience. As the toads were fast and none of the berserkers wanted to play with them either. So, they didn't complain or criticize him for killing the toads on his own. Moreover, the toads were already marked most dangerous due to lack of an intermediate antidote and Balthazar had already asked permission to handle beasts alone if he could. So, even the ones who felt that he was rude let it go whenever the heard notification of one of their team killing a horned toad.
He also lured back serpents and gharials alone occasionally, so that his teammates wouldn't have any complains, but made sure to kill the toads on his own before coming towards his team. He also made sure to carefully collect the remains using gloves so that he could extract poison for research of an antidote. He planned to return to the place again on his own. So, he was already making the required preparations. He was able to get through now as the animals had their focus divided among many players, but he doubted it would be the same in his next trip. So, gather antivenom was most important to him. He also planned to gather the gall bladders and the similar organs of the other beasts. As they were living beside the toads it was clear that they are resistant to its venom and their organs would most probably be crucial for making antidotes based on the game design.
After a couple of hours of toiling in the marsh, they finally managed to move ahead enough to see the advanced party. The advanced party were in an orange colored force field which kept the monsters at bay. There were langstonia, gharials, toads around them, just beside the orange force field. Being the scout in forward team, Balthazar was one of the first among them to notice the advance party through his scope.
”They seem to be stuck. They are surrounded by monsters and are only alive due to an orange colored field around them which is keeping the monsters at bay,” he said to the others in his team. ”Have come here to save them?” he asked Puba.
”That is a part of the mission, but we need to move further ahead. If we have come close to the advance party, we need to discuss with Kiriti about the next part,” said Puba as he led them towards the direction of Kiriti who had been behind them.
”You have noticed them too?” asked Kiriti as he saw Puba coming towards him to which Puba nodded in agreement. ”OK. Join the main group. It will be a defense oriented fight now. There are too many packed near them and I hear they haven't budged yet. We will need all guardians to hold them at bay.”
”You know why we are changing tactics?” asked Zoras who also joined them back. Balthazar just shrugged his shoulders and redirected it to Puba. He had a certain expectation but wasn't sure if the Valhalla Raider were actually doing it as it would cause certain amount of damage and losses to them too.
Soon, his doubts proved to be true. He felt that these guys were crazy for attempting it. They pulled out barrels about 2 feet tall which had a fuse at their end. Using this was a crude way to disrupt beasts in aquatic environments. Soon, six of the barrels were ready. The players were arranged in a formation so that berserkers could run and lob these barrels into the distance after lighting the fuse. This was a very risky and a costly way to clear beasts in water-logged places. He had been avoiding damage all this time to keep his disguise intact, but he knew that this attack would inflict some damage onto him too. Still, he pulled out a large level 10 shield to cover himself and was ready to get away in case he was found out.
As the lit bombs were thrown, the players were all instructed to move back and prepare for the beasts' attack in a semi-ellipse like fashion. This time, the outer layer was completely covered with players with big shields while assassins, swordsmen, martial artists and berserker stood right behind them to put in attacks. Behind them stood a crowd of healers, archers and mages ready to attack. There were a few melee players even among the long-distance attackers and healer as there was always a chance that few beasts might get near to them. So, these were supposed to be as guards for the others. This was a standard formation for wars in games as they were expecting a charge of the beasts after the explosions.
Balthazar had specifically requested to be placed among the long-distance attackers and healers. It was a very small job and most of the players expected those wouldn't see any action. So, he was despised by the others in his team for requesting it. Puba felt it was odd but he didn't care as many others were asking to not be put along with the mages as they wanted to participate and get more experience and pay. So, he was sent to his requested position without issue. He had even suggested the three friends that he made while scouting to join him, but only Zoras took it seriously and followed him. Balthazar had no intention to participate in the fight. He asked for that position so that he could stay away from the explosion and go into stealth and escape. Any damage would remove his disguise which he didn't want to happen, and he knew no way to avoid damage for the upcoming excercise other than running away.
They were risking a lot for the well-being of the advanced team. As the barrels burst, most of the monsters close to the barrels have suffered serious injuries. All the players stayed behind the guardians and their shields to avoid environmental damage due to the explosions, but still something that they didn't expect happened that through them into panic.
The beasts that had the least weight were the poisonous horned toad. These were pulled off the water and into the air and fell on the players in pieces. They had already been warned of water falling on them along with some debris causing a visibility problem, but they had overlooked the horned toads whose skin was also poisonous causing a number of players to be suddenly poisoned.
Within ten seconds of the blasts, over 30% of the members were already notified to be poisoned. The majority of these were from the line of berserker, assassins, swordsmen and martial artist. The first line made of guardians and others with shields cowered behind their shields and hence the number of poisoned among them were low less than 10%. The ones behind them weren't so lucky. The mages, archers and healers got lucky as they were too far for the poisonous pieces of toad flesh to fall on them.
It was during that time, the majority of them realized the folly of their actions. The poison rain caused by the death of the toads paralysed a good amount of the physical attacker among them. Though a majority of tank players were fine, they alone could continuously keep a monster charge at bay. They could block the attacks, but while they were focused on blocking others need to make attacks on the monsters to lower their number. Else, the tanks would be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Due to the poison rain, the formation in which almost all the players were confident wasn't effective any longer.
As expected, the casualties spiked when the gharials and bipod serpents attacked. The bipod serpent by virtue of their magic and the two legs could jump distances and they landed behind the tanks. They were physically weak and could be routed quickly by close-combat attackers, but due to the paralysis from the poison most of them ended up being cover for the serpents against the other players like archers who were still in action while some even attacked the tanks from behind.
The gharials were stopped by the tanks at the front, but they couldn't always block their attacks. Their tail attacks are particularly fierce robbing the health of guardians by chunks of 10% or more. Without attackers like berserkers and martial artist who had high strength to support them, they were also in a losing fight.
The worst part was that the tanks realized that floating pieces of toad flesh would still be poisonous. These floating pieces were blocked by their shields and fell to their sides. They didn't consider these a danger as their focus was on the beasts that were attacking them, but any tank whose skin or thinner part of armor came into contact with these dead toads were also poisoned.