World Conquest Online

Fire Arrows continued to rain from his forces in to the enemy Fort as he vaulted over the wall in to the body of a Persian Warrior who was trying to take cover from the Arrows coming down on them. The sound of shouting could be heard all around as the Warriors inside the Fort who were currently trying to repel the Athenian and Spartan fronts now had a new enemy appearing on their flank, with fire spreading across their base.

Dom used the momentum from his drop over the walls to push his Zhan Lu blade in to the Persian below him, a yelp escaping his victim as Pericles and Archidamus arrived around him, a mixture of Legionaries and Hoplite from their own units soon also arriving on the wall as Pericles blocked a swing of a sword with his own as Archidamus dived from behind Dom to stab Pericles attacker. The two fought together on Dom’s right as a Legionary appeared, his shield being thrown up to him as he became a barrier on the wall to any oncoming Persians who tried to dissuade those climbing the wall from doing so.

Dom himself blocked an oncoming spear, the tightness of the balcony on the wall restricting his enemies movement as he slid his sword down the spear shaft and straight through the fingers of his Persian foe. His enemy screamed as his weapon dropped from his now fingerless hand, the stump spurting blood as Dom’s sword angle changed and with a swift swing took the Persian’s head with it.

"Secure this side!" Dom shouted to no one in particular, knowing that someone would follow his order.

More and more men arrived as Dom watched as the two Heirs continued to fight together, one blocking whilst the other struck, both using short swords leant to them by the Legionaries that easily pierced the thin bronze armour of the enemy Persians. Pericles blocked with his shield, whilst Archidamus stabbed forwards, before rotating and repeating. Some of the swords the Legionaries now used had been reinforces or freshly made with new materials and techniques, easily centuries ahead of the bronze of their foes.

The arrows continued to fall in front of them, waiting for a signal to stop that their own forces had made it inside and made a stronghold. Dom wondered how many more Arrows they had as the fire continued to spread in the enemy camp, multiple lines of smoke now starting to raise above the wall that he was stood on. A group of Legionaries had began taking over the other side of him, leaving him with no one to fight.

Dom looked around the large fort, thousands of men gathered at the two walls on each flank as they prepared to or were currently trying to push back the Athenian and Spartan forces, whilst others were in the middle trying to put out fires as the camp began to become loose control of the flames that were taking control.

Dom felt exposed for a few moments as more and more men landed around him. If the enemies forces all turned towards him now, he would have to retreat quickly. Thankfully however the fire was causing more of a distraction as planned, allowing the Spartan and Athenian flanks to push themselves harder against the gates on each side. There also seemed to be disagreements between the forces, as the Persian forces were made up of different groups.

This part of the wall was his now, at least fifty of his side where on the wall, whilst a similar number were on the other side of the gate under Sun Ce’s command, having followed a similar tactic after seeing what Dom was doing.

"Let’s get our gate open!" Dom ordered, with Centurion Septimius arriving beside him and accepting the order.

His men around him climbed below, creating a semi circle with their Legionary shields, whilst a group of Hoplite quickly dispatched the enemies at the gate and began opening it. Dom stood and watched as this took place, confident in the guards around him to protect him, as he looked at the fighting taking place.

The Athenian’s were clearly in the lead on the two flanks, the fighting at that flank the most vicious as the Spartans on the other seemed to lag behind for now, but Dom knew that it wouldn’t stay that way. In history, the Athenian’s had pushed through first, but the plan for this battle had changed and the Spartan’s should have Ionian reinforcements joining them.

Dom was planning to send Archidamus to the Spartan Flank, to help cause the enemy forces in that side to divert some resource and reduce the pressure on Leotychides men. However, he noticed a group in the centre that weren’t putting out fires or joining either flank. They seemed to be similarly waiting to make a decision on which side to reinforce. Dom also knew that it would be risky to send any forces to that side and split his limited distraction force.

"Someone get the Archers to aim in that direction, we need to cause chaos in the centre of the camp more!" Dom ordered behind him, shouting down to the forces below that had not yet climbed the wall. He knew

The gates below him started to move, the noise causing the enemies in the camp near them to take their presence more seriously, especially the undecided group in the centre. Gan Ning appeared below at the sound of Dom’s order as he led the men through the now open gate, the rest of their forces breaking through as Meng Ai climbed the wall from behind Dom.

"We’ll take over here Lord." Centurion Meng Ai said politely as one of his fellow Wu Dang Archers released an arrow in to some Persians that had been sent to reclaim this gate. "I think this is going to be a busy one."

"I would have to agree." Dom replied, taking in the sight of the battle around him. Dom climbed down, joining up with Sun Ce who was also climbing down, the two heirs of Pericles and Archidamus following them after their own small forces took over their part of the wall.

"Where to now?" Archidamus asked, a tinge of excitement in his youthful voice.

"We either split and support both gates, target one gate, or deal with the enemy reinforcements in the centre." Sun Ce explained as more Arrows flew from abive them on the wall in to more enemies that started to charge towards them. The semi circle shield wall from the Legionaries being more than good enough to keep them protected.

"Let’s deal with the reinforcements in the centre, it will reduce pressure and if we are successful, the forces fighting against our fathers will need to split or their rear will be exposed to our attack." Pericles replied, receiving nods of agreement as Centurion Octavian charged past and began expanding the Legionary shield wall that protected them.

"Our aim is to be a distraction so that our allies can push in with less resistance, whilst causing as much chaos as possible. Let’s aim for the enemy reinforcements in the centre, but I also want us to send some small units to cause the flames to spread and target enemy commanders." Dom added, their position now more obvious to all of the forces taking part in the battle.

"I will take a small unit and cause some chaos on the Athenian side." Gan Ning offered, "I’ll take some of Meng Ai’s men and some of the Spartan’s. We should be able to disappear within the camp and cause enough chaos."

"Do that, also look for the Ionian’s and see if we can make contact, they will definitely switch sides if they haven’t already been taken care off." Dom replied, as Gan Ning nodded and began shouting some names of men that he trusted.

"I will go to the my grandfather and do the same." Archidamus stated, but was quickly shot down by Dom.

"No, you will stay with us. We will send Centurion Meng Ai to the north, he can control the wall and aim for enemy Commanders." Dom ordered, before turning to Centurion Septimius who was stood nearby. "Septimius, keep this wall gate open for our retreat."

"We will Lord, I will monitor the situation and send word to you if we are short on time." Centurion Septimius agreed as he began shouting orders to some of the men that were with them. Half of the Praetorians would follow Dom, whilst the rest would take command of the Wall and the supporting forces that stayed with them.

"I’m taking the front Brother in Law, this isn’t about me being hot headed, this is because I am your General and my life is less valuable than yours." Sun Ce stated seriously, even though Dom had explained on multiple occasions that their forces couldn’t die here, even though they wouldn’t want to go through that.

"Then let’s go!" Pericles declared, his own close men stood behind him, a group of young Athenian Warriors who all seemed to have a look of excitement on their face. Archidamus said a similar sentiment, his own Spartans looking fierce behind him.

"Sun Ce, lead the way then." Dom stated, as Sun Ce grinned and pushed his way through the centre of the Legionary Semi Circle, flanked by his own Batavi Guards as they started cutting through the oncoming reinforcements, a small group having detached themselves and heading towards them.

"They look like other Players!" Dom heard from behind him, the voice of GiantWrangler catching him off guard as some of the Player Forces joined them. He noticed Dom turn in his direction and smiled, "We won’t get in your way, but if GeneralSlaughter is amongst them, I really want to take him myself!"

"Then happy hunting!" Dom replied as Pericles took the left of the triangle formation just behind Sun Ce and Archidamus took the right.

"Only if I can get past your men first, I do not want to come against you when we return." He laughed in response as he flanked to the left himself to join up behind Pericles.

Sun Ce crashed straight in to an enemy Warrior, a pale man with an axe and shield. His Batavi Guard quickly dispatched the enemy, before Sun Ce stabbed the man behind him. The second lines soon crashed as Pericles engaged an enemy as Sun Ce continued using the motion to push through the thin line of enemies in front of him.

There weren’t many enemies for Dom to hit at this point, but he knew his opportunity would appear soon. The enemies came at them in unaligned groups and Dom could tell that even amongst the Players there didn’t seem to be one senior commander amongst them anymore. Dom watched as an enemy went to swing a giant double handed blade towards Sun Ce, a weapon that Dom hadn’t seen before. The enemy didn’t get a chance though as an Arrow from one of the Wu Dang Archers working as overwatch took a shot and protected Sun Ce.

They continued pushing forwards as one of the Batavi Guards picked up the large blade, which even looked big in his hands. Dom suddenly had a realisation that he had seen a similar weapon before in one of the Ancient Underground Cities amongst the bodies of the Type Two’s. These were definitely Player forces and he wanted to see if they had also found traces of the Type Two’s or others. The enemy forces were supposed to be from a different part of the map of World Conquest Online, so he began looking if he could see who the Player was.