All the players fought their best to hold Shazjae down for 3 hours. Some even threw their weapons at him because they had no other choice. They lured Shazjae back to the city while the knights and the generals showered Shazjae with bolts and boulders. They never thought that their plan would be efficient and went smoothly even though they sacrificed a lot of their friends and clan members to do it. Shazjae was so aggressive that he didn't show any mercy to them. He swung his tail around and stomped the players without even looking at them first.
Shazjae opened his mouth and cast the ball of light toward the knights and their artillery. The generals then fired the bolts toward his mouth to stop him from forming the ball of light in his mouth. They found out that Shazjae could be interrupted during that, and Shazjae won't use it for the players that are near to him because it would backfire on him.
Ivonna and Kingstar with the rest of their teams were watching and controlling the formation from afar. It was not they want it, but they were requested by the players to stay behind and give them orders because they both and their teams are their last hope. They heavy-heartedly accepted their request and did their best to guide the players.
2 hours have passed and it started to not looking good for them. Almost half of the players are dead and scattered around the city and on the street. Half of the artillery got destroyed by the debris that was thrown by Shazjae. Ivonna and Kingstar were struggling to find a solution to this situation, but they couldn't turn their heads around since they ran out of options and opportunities that they should have taken but they didn't.
Ivonna gripped her lance so tightly and looked at the battlefield anxiously.
"What should we do? I don't have anything on me..."
Kingstar shook his head while sighed.
"Me neither. If only we still have those barrels. It was a mistake to use all of them at once. We should have saved some for this kind of situation. I'm so stupid."
Leo and Hans looked at each other. Leo raised his eyebrows and Hans shrugged. Leo then walked toward Ivonna and whispered.
"We still have those. We can get them for you if you want..."
Ivonna glared at Leo from the corner of her eyes.
"Do you know where to find those?"
Leo slightly nodded.
"Yeah, we remembered where we found those. Let's just hope it's still there and didn't get explode from the explosion from Shazjae's attacks."
Ivonna hummed with understanding.
"Can you get those?"
Leo tilted his head and raised his eyebrows.
"We can, but we can't just give those to anyone. It's either you or Francesca that should do it. But we both know that you can't go out there to do the job since you will get the debuff status on you as soon as you entered the city. I'm not trying to underestimate you or anything, but I don't think anyone including you can climb up there when our stat value is reduced to 1. We need someone that's athletic in real life."
Leo looked around and then looked at Ivonna.
"Do you know anyone that is athletic from our party? Because Mike and Hans are definitely not, including me. I don't know about William and Emma though."
Ivonna looked at Emma who was chilling on the back. Francesca had been staring at her for quite a while and then Ivonna tilted her head to signal Francesca to come toward her. Francesca approached Ivonna and then they both started to whispering to each other and told the idea that Leo and Hans proposed. Francesca nodded with understanding and then looked at Emma.
Francesca approached Emma then sat next to her.
"Emma, can we ask you a favor?"
Emma looked at her and nodded.
"Yeah, sure."
Francesca explained their plan to Emma. The reason why they chose Emma was that she was the only one who managed to climb up without breaking a sweat and it amazed them since compared to them, she was better and thought that this plan was the perfect job for her. Emma nodded with understanding and immediately gathered up with Leo and Hans to retrieved the black powder.
Ivonna told Kingstar and the others that Leo and Hans had prepared a plan and they will proceed with it. At first, Kingstar was skeptical about it, but as long as it's just the three of them, it won't be a problem if they lost them on the battlefield. Kingstar was then convinced of their plan since Leo was the one who beat them in the skirmish event and believed that the plan would work.
The three of them went to the city to go to the warehouse, and the debuff aura made them walk so slow and their stamina was reduced quite a lot. Thankfully their level was high enough so they had enough stamina to kept on running without stopping and didn't consume a lot of stamina potion.
The warehouse was flattened and there was nothing left, but thanks to the building foundation and the basement were still in a good condition. The three of them collected more than a dozen of sacks and filled them with black powder. After they were done, Leo and Hans transferred the sacks of black powder to Emma then left the warehouse.
Emma looked at Shazjae and she was anxious. Leo looked at Emma.
"You're on your own now, Emma. Are you ready for this?"
Emma sighed nervously.
"F*ck this... my heart is racing..."
Hans looked at Emma.
"I really don't want to pressure you or anything, and I really do want to tell you to take your time, but the more time we are wasting in here, the more players will die. We really have a very limited player resource at the moment."
Emma took a deep breath and exhaled deeply over and over, then she nodded.
"Alright, I'm ready. Wish me luck, guys..."
Leo and Hans nodded.
"Ivonna will tell you when to blow it up. So I want you to stay alert and be ready whenever."
Emma nodded and then ran toward Shazjae on her own. Leo and Hans went back to be with Ivonna and the others.
Emma managed to sneak around Shazjae's back and climbed the rope. When she was halfway to the top, the rope snapped. Fortunately, she had anticipated it by climbing the rope as close as possible to Shazjae's back, and she immediately jumped onto Shazjae's back when the rope snapped. She started climbing and she was really fast.
Emma finally reached the hole on Shazjae's nape and it took her 2 hours. Emma messaged Ivonna that she's already inside the hole, and she also told Ivonna that someone is already torn the wall of tissue. They both knew that it might be Trevor who did that, and so Emma put all the sacks of black powder inside the narrow path, and just stood outside the wall of tissue and wait for Ivonna's command.
Kingstar looked at Ivonna weirdly.
"So what was the plan? I saw Leo and Hans came back after they left with Ruscheller, but I didn't see her with them."
Ivonna looked at Kingstar.
"The plan is finished, everything is set now. It's something that I will do when the time is right. Trust me, we can at least buy some time when everything gets worse. Emma will wait for my command and when I give her one, you will see it for yourself."
Francesca then grabbed Ivonna and pulled her away. Queenstar then grabbed Kingstar and pulled him away as well. They both were surprised and debris fell near them. They were both shocked and looked at the debris, and then they looked up and dozens of debris flew toward the artillery and destroyed more than half of them. They were all confused and looked at Shazjae. He used some kind of telekinesis and thrown any object at them.
One of the generals ran toward them.
"Lady Ivonna! It is too dangerous here, we cannot do this any longer! We must retreat and save our lives! There is no longer a safe place around that thing!"
Ivonna furrowed her forehead.
"What are you talking about! Keep shooting and assist those at the battlefield! Hold the lines and keep firing!"
The general was sweating and gulping nervously. He looked back at his knights.
"Fall back! Everyone retreat!"
Kingstar punched the general, but little did he know that the general is way stronger than him in all aspects. Kingstar was shocked that his punch didn't do anything to him. The knights and generals were looking at him with hatred, the general then glared at him.
"Empire's dog, you will regret doing that. Everyone fall back! We will no longer assist the people from the two empires! Let them suffer on their own."
Ivonna looked at Kingstar with disbelief and then covered her face with disappointment. Ivonna sighed and messaged Emma.
"I never thought to do this so early. Blow him up, Emma."
A massive explosion came from Shazjae's neck and he roared so loudly that everyone had to cover their ears. Shazjae then lifted his head and cast a ball of light to the sky. Ivonna looked at the generals and the knights, but they were all leaving and didn't care about what was happening. Shazjae release the ball of light, but it wasn't a ball of light, instead, it was a blinding light beam and he shot it to the sky.
Everyone looked at the sky including the generals and the knights. So many shiny objects that looked like stars were falling down. When it hit the ground, it made the same effect as Shazjae's ball of light, but this time, there were hundreds of them. Everyone gulped and felt hopeless. Some of them ran away, some of them already accepted their fate and just watched the falling stars hit the ground.
Ivonna scoffed and weakly smiled while stared at the falling stars.
"This is the end..."