Rioneed: VRMMORPG

Ibro smiled as he whispered his plans to him. At once, Gorsag started to prepare. He didn't come here alone after all but brought some of his direct disciples. They were all capable of flying. 

The attention of the whole battlefield had witnessed a sudden shift from the ongoing hot air battle to the ground frontline battles. The skeletons had changed their tactics suddenly from defense to a mighty offense. 

Within half an hour, all the frontlines had been pushed to a great distance. The skeletons didn't stop coming from inside the basin. In front of Ibro, it was as if a skeleton sea had swarmed the land. 

This change was accompanied by the high death rate of the players' armies. At this moment, Ibro gave Gorsag the order to start his surgical strike. Ibro wasn't worried about AOE scrolls. 

They have a wide range of attack but can be used only a few times. Also, their amount shouldn't be much for players at this level. He predicted the highest AOE scroll would be at grade 3 only. 

What he worried about were these siege weapons. He must not allow them to leave this battlefield intact, or else the future consequences would be more severe. 

He followed the movement of Gorsag and his small team till they vanished from his eyesight. He then looked at the air battle. Erond and his men had taken a lot of hits in the past hours. 

Their numbers had decreased by nearly one fourth, but they managed to destroy nearly one-third of the siege weapons. Also, they managed to kill a lot of hidden experts in the players' ranks. 

After the sudden outbreak of the skeletons, the air battle became a lot easier. When Erond was about to feel some relief, a sudden appearance of many AOE scrolls had made their situation worse. 

This wasn't the only place where these destructive AOE scrolls had been used, as the frontline had many areas that became under the attack of these AOE scrolls. 

Ibro didn't stop the assault, as he was positive this was a temporary tactic from the leaders of the guilds. They were trying to make Ibro panic and fear the lives of his skeletons. 

Ibro didn't concern himself with the frontline or the air battle; he was focused mainly on the siege weapons area. 

After 20 minutes of initiating the all-out attack, Ibro noticed the presence of chaos in an area near the siege weapons. 

When everyone on the battlefield had noticed this sudden ruckus, very loud explosive voices sounded at once. It was followed by the appearance of 10 huge dome-shaped explosions that lasted for nearly 10 seconds. 

These 10 seconds, though, were enough to destroy every single piece of these siege weapons. Ibro was glad by the success of his small trick. He didn't send Gorsag through the air but the ground. 

They used their high speed and penetrated the lines of the players. The huge loss to the players combined with the start of the aerial retaliation that came from the cultivators led by Erond made the players' morale very low. 

It was a single individual who started to retreat, and then they were followed by masses of players. This battle was his victory, but Ibro didn't celebrate. 

He was looking to the horizon trying to confirm something he noticed before. His eyes were following the retreating groups of players. 

When these players reached a certain distance away from the battlefield, they suddenly were surrounded by flashes of light then disappeared totally. 

Ibro had two guesses for that, either they used city return scrolls, or they log off from the game. The two options had two different impacts on him and his plans, so he kept watching these players very closely. 

After a few minutes, he became sure that these players were logging off from the game. The time needed for players to move back to the city needed some seconds to be executed. 

Those players just disappeared completely in one second. No player could use return scrolls while running. That meant that the real world of those players was still intact. 

That meant this world was still new to enter this game. He had a feeling that this game was very similar to his first game… Rioneed. This world then was still young. He needed to get more info. 

He looked at the running players with his skeletons hot after their tails and shook his head. He had no chance now to get any info from these players. 

Ibro waited for nearly half an hour before the whole battlefield became completely quiet. Those players were really noisy, that's what Ibro thought after the place regained its calm. 

Ibro then noticed the return of his army's three leaders. When they reached him, Erond was the first to speak:

"I didn't expect those players to be this hard to deal with, my king."

"That's just part of their strength. Players you killed will be resurrected with losing a small part of their power. 

This was an open field battle, which was the weakest aspect of players. If you want to see the strength of them, you should see the siege battles over big cities."

Erond looked towards Ibro and kept his silence. Today, he had felt humiliated when he dealt with these weak players. He also lost the lives of some of his disciples. He felt the deep desire for revenge burning inside him. the second one to talk was the alpha death knight as he asked:

"What are your orders, my king?"

"Gather all the dropped items from the killed players and gather them in front of me. Also, send some scouts to monitor the area around us. 

Any group of players appeared somewhere and sent a large army to finish them. Don't delve deeply for now," Ibro then looked at the distance. He recalled he had seen some monsters before battle, so he instructed:

"Also send separated teams to hunt down all the monsters in the area around us. Tell them to bring any dropped items from these monsters. And also,"- Ibro then looked towards Erond as he continued-"send some cultivators too with these teams. Danger here isn't only players."

"As you wish my king."

Both of them answered at once. They moved to execute the orders, while Gorsag remained alone with Ibro as he asked:

"What will we do now, my king?"

Ibro didn't answer his question directly, instead, he asked:

"Have you experienced the way players used to fight?"

Gorsag sighed as he said:

"It was a strange battle tactic. It was like they have no tactics at all."

Ibro tried to explain patiently:

"They don't battle without tactics. They only have varieties of items that can help them in battles. They usually do not work alone. They work as teams. These teams started from 5 players until they reached 1000 players."

Gorsag knew that Ibro had more experience than him in dealing with players, so he didn't waste this chance as he asked:

"Then what are these items that can help them in the fight?"

"When you come with me now, you will know some of these items."

Ibro moved descending his hill towards the vast space his skeletons created for him. There, countless skeletons came and put different items on the ground. 

These were very familiar items from the game world. Ibro recognized a lot of weapons, different pieces of equipment, potions, scrolls, and even many coins. He was surprised by the presence of coins. 

Was the game here slightly different than his previous two games? Or was the game considering him and his army as entities different than players with special drop rules? Whatever the answer, Ibro was grateful for this.