World Conquest Online

Cheng Pu soon arrived from the walls as Dom and Dong Xi discussed their attack, Lu Meng had also arrived with some additional warriors from the navy, who were controlling their eagerness to storm inside. The four of them agreed to enter through the main doors, whilst Dong Xi would keep the building surrounded and make sure no one could escape through the rear.

Cheng Pu volunteered to take the lead, whilst Dom and Lu Meng followed him with the infantry and the six Batavi Guards that currently stood with Dom. The Cavalry were dispatched to assist Dong Xi with the encirclement, whilst the Sabre Tooth Tiger Cavalry would join him inside, unmounted and ready to inflict fear and destruction .

"Let’s do it then!" Dom stated as Cheng Pu grinned and had some of his men attack the doors, that had been barricaded from the inside. Lu Meng had brought a ram from a ship, and Cheng Pu’s men began using that to smash away at the door. They could hear the defenders inside shouting at each other, whilst Dom grabbed his sword tightly, ready to attack, his mind overflowing with confidence and the aim to catch Huang Zu and complete the conquest.

The sun was no longer high in the sky, and Dom hoped to have the battle over before darkness hit. Part of it felt strange that he wasn’t currently surrounded by any of his own Commanders and was only with a small group of his own men, but the alliance had been successful so far and he was confident that would continue. To Dom, it felt like a side quest from a game that would always be remembered and he had enjoyed it thoroughly so far.

The ram smashed in to the large headquarter doors several times, with the wood splintering and gaps appearing from within. Some spears appeared through the gaps directed at Cheng Pu’s men, but they were easily swatted aside before the ram continued to break the doors down. Eventually after a short while, the centre of the doors buckled and the doors were pushed wide open, with Cheng Pu and his men charging straight in to a melee with the defenders inside.

"The Battle is lost, surrender and your lives will be spared!" Dom shouted from behind Cheng Pu as he and Lu Meng entered and walked through. Cheng Pu’s men easily outnumbered those inside and Dom could see that other than a few bodies at the door, the rest had been pushed to the sides and were being disarmed quickly. He remembered the pain of taking the Town Centre of Tongpai Town and hoped it wasn’t a room by room battle again.

Lu Meng separated from them and headed down one the corridor in to the main part of the Headquarters, whilst Cheng Pu headed up to the second floor of the three floored building. Some of Dom’s Sabre Tooth Tigers and Forbidden Guard riders followed both Generals. Dom directed the Warriors that entered to which direction they should take, before heading up to the second floor behind Cheng Pu, it felt strange to Dom that he was suddenly in charge of the whole battle as neither Sun Quan or Zhou Yu had arrived yet.

Most of the rooms now had Sun Warriors in them, pulling out surrendering Warriors of Huang Zu’s and taking them downstairs, where as Lu Meng was doing a similar job on the ground floor. The situation didn’t change until they reached the top floor, where Huang Zu’s personal office was currently barricaded and Cheng Pu and his men were banging away at the doors.

"Open the doors and surrender!" Cheng Pu shouted at them loudly, his sword held tightly in his grasp.

"Just leave us alone, we’ll leave in the morning!" A voice shouted back at him, which caused Cheng Pu’s anger to spike as he didn’t want to wait. Dom found it a strange response at first, but then realisation began to sneak in as to who was in the room.

"Open the doors or we will tear them from the wall." Cheng Pu bellowed, but only silence followed. The Sabre Tooth Tiger’s behind him were sniffing at the door, whilst his Warriors hammered away at the doors with the hilts of their swords.

"Let me speak with them." Dom stated as he arrived, his large guards towering over everyone else and having to lower their heads slightly to not touch the roof.

"As you wish Lord Lazarus." Cheng Pu smiled, calming himself down as he stepped back. Dom walked up to the doors and knocked on them politely as if he was knocking on a neighbours door.

"Is Huang Zu inside?" Dom asked, a question that should have been asked before anything else. "If he surrenders, this battle is over and no more lives will be lost."

A few seconds went by and Cheng Pu was about to bang on the door again, but Dom held his hand up for patience, anticipating a response from those inside.

"He is not inside." A voice replied after seemingly thinking it over for a few seconds.

"Then surrender and your lives will be spared, I promise that on my own honour." Dom stated, as Lu Meng also appeared in the corridor behind them. The corridor was now silent as ten tigers and around one hundred Warriors stood there waiting for a response. Dom could hear conversations behind the door, with the occasional groan of pain from someone that was seated within there.

"How can you guarantee that?" The voice asked again. Dom had no idea who was in the room, as far as he was aware most of the enemy Generals were captured and the only ones left to catch was Huang Zu.

"Lord Lazarus has guaranteed the safety of all citizens within Jiangxia." Cheng Pu declared loudly beside Dom. "If anyone breaks this peace, they are to be executed by order of Lord Sun Quan."

Whilst Dom appreciated Cheng Pu’s interference, he didn’t think his name would have any impact on this situation and potentially could aggravate it. Dom was a foreigner, but using Sun Quan’s name should at least move the conversation on slightly if they weren’t the other player.

"Lazarus?" The voice asked in a different tone, before silence returned. There was some more noise behind the door, before a second voice appeared.

"Do you guarantee our lives, knowing that if you betray us, the whole world will know about it." The second voice asked, in a slightly superior tone.

"Li Shang?" Dom asked, not knowing him personally, but realising that it must be the other player that was behind this door. If Dom did betray his promise now, Li Shang could go to Golden Sun’s blog and tell everyone not to trust him. Dom had no intention of killing Li Shang, but now he was being threatened the temptation did sneak in.

"Most people refer to me as Prince Li Shang." The voice laughed, "But I have heard from Prince Dong Cheng that you are a decent person. Open the doors."

"Step back!" Dom ordered everyone behind him, as the damaged doors were slowly opened, revealing the sight of around thirty men, the Warriors were dark skinned and wielded a spear each, whilst Li Shang himself stood at the front in shiny silver armour. Behind him was an ugly looking bald man with a ponytail and sat on a chair being tended to by a tall man in armour, was the General from earlier who Subutai had shot with an arrow. There were also some other people sat at the rear of the room, seemingly looking through some documents and having a conversation.

"Who would have thought that another Player would mess up my plans." Li Shang laughed, realising why he had lost so bitterly. "I assume my life is safe then?"

"With some compensation." Dom put forwards, as the winning party, Li Shang owed him something in response. For Dom, the victory was great, but for Li Shang if he lost his life, then he would be a regular player and couldn’t start as a Lord Class again.

"I think that is fair." Li Shang agreed with no pause, as he would have done the same thing in the other position. If it wasn’t another of the top Lords, he probably would have killed them there and then and been rid of them. However, Dom didn’t have the same public backing as Li Shang did, nor his connections.

"So what are you planning to offer as compensation?" Dom asked him in a serious tone, as Li Shang noticed the Sabre Tooth Tigers behind Dom.

"I heard about some excellent Horse Archers that decimated my Cavalry before they had chance, and some strange Tiger riding Warriors. I assume these are both yours?" Li Shang asked, he had only received little information from his injured General, but what he had received had already caused him enough stress.

"They are amongst some of my units." Dom replied evenly, realising that this was a time to use him being the Top Ranked Lord Player to it’s fullest. "I have only brought a small detachment on this mission, I suspect you are in the same position. I hope your General recovers ok."

"General Murong Ke will recover fine, a bit of rest should be enough." The ugly looking General stated. Li Shang looked at his General and nodded, allowing him to step forwards. "I am Chanakya, Prince Li Shang’s Strategist. You have out played us today in the battle of information, I hope our arrival was just as much a shock to you as your arrival was to us. We will give you our surviving horses, a promise to support you once if a situation arises where we are allied and this Random Building Cube."

"Why did you bring a Random Building Cube?" Dom asked, accepting the other offers as it was a formality for the victor to receive something and he didn’t want to push too hard. Dom had definitely over succeeded and Li Shang’s shopping list had brought him a lot more than he could have hoped for. Dom never would have had the chance to recruit Zhao Yun without Li Shang’s interference. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"We wanted to see if it would work." Chanakya laughed bitterly, "Before you ask though, it didn’t work."

"When will you leave?" Dom asked them, willing to escort them from the city and glad to have received a random building cube.

"Tonight." Li Shang replied in frustration. "We have been here for two weeks and my log out and forced mission end is tonight. We expected the battle to have commenced days ago!"

This information that Li Shang shared showed Dom that the time difference was around five days to one, which allowed him the peace of mind that they may not have to rush as much. His explanation also allowed Dom to realise that you could fail a quest by running out of time. Each quest seemed to have different time distortion, so calculating it was challenging.

"I hope this wasn’t a total waste for you." Dom said honestly, knowing that gathering Golden Tokens for random missions was difficult and was also the best opportunity for quick growth.

"It wasn’t, I may have not hit all of my goals, but we have still achieved some." He replied with a coy smile, not willing to share more. "My biggest frustration is the loss of some of my Cavalry, my Numidians haven’t let me down before and It will take me a good few in game weeks to recover my losses."

"I am sure they would have performed well in an open battle. I have to finish clearing the battle, but I will leave some guards to protect this room until you all leave." Dom stated, which Chanakya and Li Shang thanked Dom for.

"It’s great meeting another player, it can be lonely as a Lord." Li Shang laughed as Dom was about to leave. "Next time, let’s meet in a more pleasant way. I’ll see you at the next Auction or on a Battle Map."

....

Dom arrived back downstairs, where Cheng Pu and Lu Meng waited for him, they had left after the doors had opened per Dom’s wishes and only Dom’s Batavi Guards and Forbidden Guards had stayed behind. He asked Lu Meng to send trusted men to camp in the corridor until the morning. Lu Meng accepted the order with little understanding as to why, whilst Dom and Cheng Pu walked back in to the now darkening City.

"No Huang Zu then?" Cheng Pu asked as he looked around as the Sun Marines knocked on the doors of the buildings and offered some food to the terrified Civilians. Dom looked as a woman opened the door, shielding her young children from the Marine that was attempting to be friendly. If anything, he was glad to have arrived and stopped the death of families like these.

"No Huang Zu." Dom replied as he looked to the North where Liao Hua was based. In the information he had received, once the City came under attack, Huang Zu would abandon it and head north. Dom hoped that this part of history hadn’t changed and Liao Hua was capturing him now. Dom knew it would be a difficult one, but even though Huang Zu had many downfalls, he could be a good recruit as a Mayor of a Naval Town.