A petite woman arrived next to Bloody Edge, smming her rge shield into the enemy warrior's chest. Iront's team was still surprised by the sudden reinforcements, their reaction rather slow.

  When the warrior received the blow, it didn't deal a lot of damage but drew aggro towards the tank.

  Aggro in PvP worked differently than in PvE. It was a temporary effect which negated the damage one dealt to all enemies except for the one afflicting the effect. The only exception were AOE attacks.

  Iront bellowed angrily watching his human team member failing to dodge:

  “Idiot! Stop sleeping!”

  The burly orc ignored the frozen Bloody Edge, jumping towards the front. He raised his shield, barely blocking a sword aimed for the other warrior.

  [Stance -19]

  Iront took an incredibly deep breath, his longs filling with tons of air, causing a small storm in the forest.

  “AH!”

  His deafening shout echoed through the forest, ringing in everyone's ears. It drew the enemies’ aggro while intimidating them, reducing their ability to deal damage.

  The third warrior in Glorious Hotpot's team, a tall high elf, could only grit his teeth and ssh his two swords towards Iront. A fme flickered to life at their tips, causing Iront's eyes to turn solemn.

  The tank was in the process of closing his mouth, which was still part of his skill, preventing him from defending against the magical fme.

  [-224!]

  [-32!]

  The attacker frowned upon his own damage. Being one level below Iront diminished his output greatly.

  Iront's roar finally woke up his teammates, who cmoured for revenge. The human warrior gritted his teeth, swinging the weighty club in his hand at the enemy tank.

  A fierce fight erupted between the two teams, each seeking for the first kill. Glorious Hotpot and Settler stood in the back, supporting their warriors with magical attacks.

  Iront ughed happily, his eyes red with excitement. He and his teammates reveled in the fight, their vision fixated on bringing down the enemy, forgetting their surroundings.

  They even neglected a few suspicious points like 'Why didn't Glorious Hotpot use any skills?' or 'Where did the ice pilr go?'.

  Bloody Edge was amazed how someone could tunnel vision this brutally as he sneaked around the fight in stealth. He arrived behind the enemy mage, closing the distance one step at a time.

  Suddenly four daggers appeared out of thin air, their bright light instantly falling in Settler's eyes. He watched the daggers stabbing into the enemy mage, nailing him in pce.

  [-12521!]

  “Iront! Save me!”

  The man panicked but Bloody Edge wouldn't give him a chance. The thief focused like never before, his daggers fshing like lightning,

  [-1131!]

  [-565!]

  When Iront gnced over his shoulder he only watched his teammate's body falling to the floor in defeat.

  “Damn! When did that thief escape?! F*ck!”

  “Boss, should we escape?”

  “No! We can still do this...”

  Iront spoke with conviction, trying to uphold morale. But when he turned his head back, he was just in time to witness a spell fall on the enemy tank, recovering the woman's HP. His face fell as he realized this fight was lost.

  “Well pyed Dream Avenue, but don't get compcent!”

  Iront gritted his teeth as he gave his team the sign to retreat. The others could only accept the situation, breaking lose from the fight, which was only possible by paying a certain amount of stance.

  They turned around, escaping in the direction of the hut.

  But Dream Avenue naturally wouldn't let them leave that easily. Settler waved his staff, producing a barrage of ice spikes which chased after the enemy warrior.

  [-272!]x3

  The warrior endured the hits against his back. He knew he couldn't afford to dodge as his stance was about to run out, which would slow his movements. But this only increased his indignation.

  “F*ck! Boss, let me kill that mage!”

  “Don't do anything stupid! Boulder's team is not far away, they have a healer!”

  The warrior opened his mouth to say more but Iront's stern gnce shut him up. Glorious Hotpot, listening to their conversation, thoughtfully stared at their backs.

  [Settler: Do you think there are more enemies in the area?]

  [Bloody Edge: Who knows. Let's not risk it. We will recover for a bit before continuing to do our job.]

  [Settler: Alright.]

  Back in the base, Liam thoughtfully looked at a rge table standing in the center of the town. Its surface was covered in fog, which slowly receded, showing the fruits of Dream Avenue's exploration in real time.

  Whenever the fog's movement stopped, the scouts must have discovered something, most likely an enemy. Liam also noticed the line which represented Bloody Edge's path. He wasn't anxious, trusting that his friend would bring him a pleasant surprise.

  A few seconds ter a number dispyed before everyone's eyes suddenly dropped. It dispyed the remaining members of the respective guilds.

  Liam grinned as the enemy's score dropped by one shortly before Bloody Edge began moving again.

  He focused back on the map, memorizing the topography of the battlefield. His main goal was to find a favourable location to force the enemy into a fight.

  Suddenly a red light blinked towards the left of the map, hidden in the fog.

  “Expert, what is this? Didn't you say the map doesn't show pyers?”, asked Cyclone curiously.

  Liam didn't send out all pyers at once, and especially Cyclone and Balm had to stay behind. If their guild leaders fell early, it would be a disastrous hit for the guild’s morale.

  “Well, that's an exception. Someone picked up the relic.”

  “What?!”, excimed Balm anxiously. “We need to do something! They are stealing our points!”

  “Let me think.”

  Liam stared at the moving red light. He knew that the pyer carrying the relic would be forced to walk slowly, which gave him ample time to react.

  But Force of Nature would surely send reinforcements, which would lead to the first major fight.

  Dream Avenue's advantage was that they knew exactly where the enemy was. But Force of Nature must have already scouted that area, allowing them to y an ambush.

  While Liam was still thinking, his eyes suddenly narrowed dangerously.

  The red light had disappeared. This meant the enemy dropped the relic. Liam grew solemn, attempting to guess their pns.

  He had no choice but to send a scout.

  A grin subconsciously formed on Liam's face as he looked towards the only two thieves left in the base. The pair, one man and one woman, immediately straightened up listening to the commander's orders.

  Liam spoke a few encouraging words as he sent them out. One of the thieves would forge ahead, pying the role of scout while the other followed at a safe distance.

  In case the scout got attacked his priority was to inform the other thief, who would bring the message back to the base.

  After arranging for this, Liam went back to studying the map. As more area got revealed the guilds began cshing frequently, with both sides losing and winning.

  This went on for a while before Liam noticed the numbers stabilizing. Just as he attempted to find the reason for this, one of the scout teams returned.

  “Commander! Commander!”

  An urgent voice echoed through the base when the team saw Liam, their expressions briming with excitement.

  “Commander, a rge group of enemies is heading for our base! At least a hundred people!”

  “One hundred?! Are they trying to breach the base?”, questioned Cyclone in shock.

  Everyone turned towards Liam, seeing him frown. In his opinion, breaching the enemy's base is this guild war is purely a trap. The pyers you might lose in the process were more valuable than the reward.

  He didn't think Force of Nature would make such a low-level mistake. So, this was either a faint or they had absolute confidence.

  “What about the scouts we sent towards the relic?”

  “They haven't returned yet.”, answered Cyclone anxiously.

  Liam gnced at the map again, coming to a decision. He raised his head, his sharp gaze capturing the guild members.

  “We leave the base! Now!”

  “What?! But...”

  “No buts! Get moving!”

  Liam's commanding voice rang through the town, creating a tense atmosphere, permitting no rejection.

  Everyone shut their mouths, realizing the seriousness of the situation. For the pyers present this was the real beginning of the guild war.

  Under Liam's lead they left the town through a gate to the right, sticking close to the battlefield's edge. Liam wasn't afraid of being discovered. This pce was the farthest from the enemy's base, definitely hidden from them by a thick wall of fog.

  Dream Avenue advanced for a while until they reached a dipidated temple which could hide them from view. Liam told the guild members to enter while he, Cyclone, Silver Bde, and a few others carefully peeked out of the broken gate.

  At the beginning of the war Dream Avenue's priority was to scout their area close to the town, which also included the temple. Thus, they clearly saw a group of enemies stepping out of the fog some distance away.