After leaving behind Beast Den and Morning glow, Liam and his friends paid them no more attention. They kept up the speed and quickly entered the sandstorm zone.
[-30!]
[-30!]
"Whoa, that damage…"
"Quick, activate the sand shields!"
The friends were shocked by the sandstorm but luckily they came prepared. Transparent shields quickly formed around each of them, holding back the terrifying sandstorm.
"Nice! Now it's time for revenge!", exclaimed Cyclone with an unusually fierce expression.
"Yes, but how do we find the enemies?", asked Quickstep.
Cyclone opened and closed her mouth, stumped. She looked towards Liam for an answer.
"Let's roughly travel in Final Fend's direction and kill everyone we see on the way. If we still have time after saving their group, we can hunt some more. But by then it's questionable if anyone is still alive."
Cyclone and Balm looked at each other. They were not entirely satisfied, really hoping to deliver a fierce blow to their enemies this time. But without better options they could only follow Liam's plan.
"Ok. Let's go.", said Cyclone. But Silver Blade quickly interjected:
"Shouldn't we recover our stance first?"
"We don't have that much time…"
"But my stance has decreased to 103 points. Fighting might be quite risky now."
"We have such a big advantage. We can take the risk.", responded Silent Acacia earning him the other's agreement.
Silver Blade saw that her friends didn't share her worries and fell silent. The young women involuntarily glanced at Liam, who reassured her with a confident smile. Trusting the expert's judgement, Silver Blade buried her doubts.
After the brief break the party continued. Liam moved through the disorienting sandstorm as if it was his second home, following a clear path.
After a few seconds a group of five players suddenly tumbled out of the sandstorm, entering the area protected by the sand shields.
"Did we make it out?"
One mage, walking at the back, patted her chest in relief. But when she didn't get an answer, she turned her head towards her companions, realizing that they stood still like statues.
"Guys…?"
The mage turned her head a bit more and instantly froze in place as well. Her thoughts were in turmoil as she recognized the ten faces staring at her.
When did Hotpot arrive…?
The small group belonged to The Only Way. As Fat Tiger and Glorious Sunrise forgot to inform the other guild immediately, The Only Way didn't know about Hotpot's arrival yet.
Just then a message appeared in the guild chat.
[Soaring Above five Lakes: Attention! To all guild members: be careful! We just received the news that Hotpot has entered the sandstorm!]
The group of five showed wry smiles.
"Attack!"
Bleary Mirage's shout brought everyone out of their stupor.
"What should we do?"
"Run!"
The guild players instantly came to a decision. They had already lost a lot of their HP. Staying to fight would be purely suicidal. But just as they began to move, a grey aura spread from Silver Blade slowing them down. With their mounts already slower than Hotpot's basilisks, there was no getting away.
Instantly Cyclone's first attack arrived.
The targeted player, a tank prioritizing physical defense, had just turned towards Hotpot after realizing he wouldn't be able to get away. Caught off guard he didn't manage to react to the incoming attack.
[-2269!]
"What is this damage?!"
"Hm, so weak?"
Two surprised voices came at the same time. While the tank was shocked, Cyclone was almost not used to dealing so much damage with a normal attack. The gap between facing the player and an NPC boss was too big.
The members of The Only Way found themselves quickly drowned struggling to survive. Liam ordered Reen to attack the tank.
[-1970!]
The veteran found his high damage only natural. The enemies were tier 1 characters, lacking the boost gained after improving three skills to rank 2. Additionally, they are three levels below the party and their gear was far worse.
With all advantages stacked in their favor, Liam and his friends naturally overwhelmed their enemies. If they even allowed one enemy to escape, they might as well quit the game on the spot.
But fortunately, nothing unexpected happened. Hotpot barely faced any resistance as they eliminated the already injured enemies. Soon, all of them were sent to resurrect.
The players dropped a single item. Cyclone only took one look, noticed the magic quality, and instantly placed the item in the guild treasury without a second thought. None of her friends would consider wearing items below uncommon quality.
"Now we are branded with red names and all we got to show for it is magic equipment. Is this even worth the effort?", commented Bloody Edge.
Radiant Shield looked at his friends as he said:
"It is all about sending a message, my friend."
"Shield gets it.", agreed Balm with a smile.
Hearing this, Bloody Edge shrugged his shoulders and remained silent.
Subsequently the party continued heading deeper into the sandstorm. On the way they encountered a few more enemies, easily disposing of them.
But after a while no new enemies appeared. The message of their arrival had finally spread. Members of The Only Way either did their best to avoid them or even left the sandstorm completely.
***
Elsewhere, a team of three players, all on their last legs, suddenly broke out of the sandstorm.
"We did it!"
"I'm never going in there again!"
"We survived!"
The players raised their hands towards the sky venting their emotions. But just then an ominous voice came from the side:
"Hehe, welcome."
The players stiffly turned around. Despair appeared on their faces. They stared at a group of around forty people led by Glorious Hotpot, all staring at them with mocking eyes.
Suddenly another message spread among The Only Way. Despair gripped their hearts as they realized that even outside the sandstorm a death trap was waiting.
Just as they lost all hope, Silken's message was like a beacon in the dark.
[Silken: I have found a place where the storm is weakened. Try to find a big, red rock. You can find it by following the area where you take less damage. Let's gather here and heal up before moving as a bigger group. This is our chance to defeat Hotpot!]
[Rexy: Boss is the best!]
[Owned by me: Haha, right! We are still enough people. If we gather, we can definitely take revenge!]
The survivors suddenly found hope. They urgently searched the storm for the spot described by their guild leader.
Meanwhile, Liam and his friends had finally found Final Fend's group. After hiding within the sandstorm for so long, Final Fend and the others were glad to meet some friendly faces.
But the group of four still had no sand shields to protect themselves. Thus, they had to awkwardly stick close to some of the party members, borrowing the protection of their shields.
Liam also conveniently took the NPC treasure seeker who protected Final Fend's group along. This was the target of their earlier accepted quest.
Final Fend strolled next to his sister as he clamored loudly:
"Such a humiliation! I was forced to hide for an entire day! Silver, we have to take revenge!"
Silver Blade suppressed a chuckle of schadenfreude as she answered:
"Let's see if our opponents even managed to stay alive. We can only leave it up to chance for now."
"Hmpf. They better died. Or else…"
Final Fend waved his fist angrily as the threat lingered in the air.
The large party kept advancing through the sandstorm, trusting Liam's orientation. Soon they noticed an area where the power of the storm was weakened.
A couple of seconds later their vision cleared up a bit. An enormous, protruding rock braved the storm, offering some shelter to wary travelers.
Liam and his friends opened their eyes wide as they found the large group of people huddling below the rock.
"Damn, they are still alive!", exclaimed Final Fend half excited half apprehensive.
"Haha great! Our revenge is coming! How dare you mess with Dream Avenue!"
While shouting loudly, Cyclone stuck out her chest and walked towards the front of the group. An unpleasant female voice responded her:
"You actually dare to appear here? Perfect. You can hand over your equipment!"
Cyclone turned towards the speaker, finding a human woman with brown hair wearing light warrior garbs. The blond mage furrowed her brows, scrutinizing the opponent's face, spotting a certain familiarity. Suddenly her eyes shot wide open.
"Theresa?!"
"Tsk. Afraid, Cynthia?"
Cyclone balled her fists tightly. She never expected to meet her adversary from college here. Now she wasn't surprised that a newly emerged guild suddenly targeted Dream Avenue.
But the surprise didn't end here as Final Fend stared at the man next to Therva, alias Theresa, asking in a low voice:
"Ken Delancy?! What are you doing here?"
"Don't take it to heart, Colville. It's all just business.", answered Silken nonchalantly.
"Whatever. I don't care who you are. You dare to mess with Dream Avenue, you have to pay the price!", said Cyclone fiercely as she took out her wand.
With a swoosh both sides readied their weapons. Time seemed to freeze for a second as a tense atmosphere engulfed the players.