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Shaken by the crystal flying towards her at a blinding speed, the flames following it unspellable, and her instincts screaming at her, Selena panicked.

Instead of keeping her focus on securing Eldrian, she summoned her strongest defensive spell to protect herself.

Eldrian used that split second of panic to escape. He had no confidence in killing the scarlet haired vampire, but to escape would not be too difficult. Not with the plans he had long since laid.

As she focused on the crystal heading for her, her own spell obstructing her vision. Eldrian took a smaller crystal to quickly recover his own mana. Which he then used to teleport to Ceph, who he informed via Elizabeth to send him the request.

When Eldrian arrived amidst the players, scurrying around to get all the rescued slaves to move, the pain finally hit him in full.

He had to cancel wrath, else the risk that he would attack those around him was too great. Yet, he was in no condition to survive the aftermath.

As he collapsed, Ceph immediately focused on healing him. Elizabeth, stunned for a few seconds, quickly followed. Together, they barely managed to keep Eldrian alive for the moment. But they could tell his condition was past their abilities.

Elizabeth thus took out a dozen potions. Forcing them down Eldrian\'s throat. The potions came from Erik and they were either high grade healing potions, or extremely expensive resurrections potions.

\'Surely they will achieve something!\' was Elizabeth\'s thoughts as she continued to force feed Eldrian the potions.

Honestly, Eldrian wished they would have just let him die. By attempting to rescue him, he was experiencing all the pain of his condition as his nerves returned. It was beyond agonizing.

But he also understood the need for this. If he lost consciousness now, the damage would be irreparable. Doing his best to push the pain from his mind, Eldrian focused to maximize their healing.

He was in no condition to draw any further mana. His body was far beyond its limit, his soul was in tatters, and his mind felt like breaking. Maximizing the soothing mana flowing through him. That was something Eldrian could still do. It even allowed his mind to relax, if only for the moment.

Once his condition was stabilized, though he was still near death, Eldrian forced them to stop.

Healing was now not even 5% as effective as before. When they used a spell that would normally replenish a hundred health, Eldrian now only received 5 in healing. His wounds didn\'t even recover by a millimeter. Even a hundred spells wouldn\'t make a difference at this point.

It was a waste to do more, and it would lead to mana poisonings. It was normally not something Eldrian had to worry about due to his unique circumstances, but he was certain the following weeks were going to be dreadful.

\'Like always, I wasn\'t cautious enough.\' Eldrian lamented. He had tried his best to plan for everything. But that one attack had caught him off guard and cost him his... Cost him a dear friend.

Still unable to confront the pain of that loss, Eldrian turned his focus to the task at hand. "Elizabeth, give me an update."

Elizabeth was of a mind to go off on a tirade about how he needed rest. One look, however, told her Eldrian needed this. Yes, he appeared beyond battered. Yet, he should be dead by all rights.

That was not what made her realize this. It was the look in Eldrian\'s eyes. She had never seen him so frail. Like he was about to lose the will to fight altogether. She could tell Eldrian wouldn\'t survive if the mission failed. He would certainly become depressed at the very least.

Elizabeth did not know what had happened, but it was clear Eldrian was in a great deal of pain. And he wanted an escape from it. Realizing this, she was happy to offer him an escape for the moment.

"We\'ve managed to secure close to ten thousand slaves. We\'ve already organized everyone into groups and the first are already being guided." She explained.

"We can\'t protect everyone..." She continued. This was a devastating fact, perhaps even more devastating, she knew they couldn\'t even attempt to rescue everyone. "We hope that by splitting into multiple groups, some might make it to safety."

"How many others joined?" Eldrian asked next. The entire Phoenix guild had put almost everything aside for this mission. Luckily, due to the other guilds growing in competence by the day, this would not cause the kingdom to suddenly collapse.

While the players had grown imperative in monitoring the movement of the enemy, as was their assistance with logistics, their combat strength was still lacking. Even though there were now a handful of Tier 5\'s. They couldn\'t do much on the battlefield.

As long as enough stayed to keep the kingdom updated and good flowing, more players weren\'t really needed.

"Not many. In total, we have around a two thousand players cooperating. Each group of a hundred is being led by twenty players. Sadly, this mean most can\'t survive an encounter."

Eldrian nodded. It was just like the time he had tried to guide the females he had saved from the goblins. It was likely that each group would also suffer the same fate. With that in mind, Eldrian turned to the objective of this entire mission. It was not to save as many people as possible, it was to save one person.

"And the target?"

"We\'ve discovered three named Adriana. One Tier 5 and seemingly the commander of the resistance, another Tier 2, and the last is but a baby."

Elizabeth already understood the likely outcome for the baby. But Eldrian had enough death for today. Taking a baby along wouldn\'t slow Ceph much. The mother, on the other hand...

"I\'ll take them to safety without fail." Ceph replied as Elizabeth turned to him. It was time they withdraw in full. While Eldrian had caused a lot of chaos, it was impossible to hide what was happening on the opposite side of the city.

\'We can only hope it was enough...\' Elizabeth thought, watching Eldrian with concern. He was leaning on her shoulder, incapable of standing on his onw. And glaring at the dark walls of the city. She could clearly tell he was going to do something reckless.

She wanted to stop him. She already knew what Eldrian had in mind.  However, she also wanted those they rescued to survive. To not be simple decoys. This tore at her heart.

The cost of playing ANW was learning its realism. Living it. To experience a war of immeasurable devastation. Something most soldiers would never recover from once their return home.

"Their really doing it..." Eldrian mumbled through a sigh, the pain in his voice caused Elizabeth\'s voice to catch in her throat. Even she could see the miasma filling the city.

"Their killing everyone..." She whispered, unable to give her words any more force. The realization that their actions had perhaps saved a few thousand, but cost a hundred times more their lives hit her like a truck.

It was her first time being the catalyst for something like this. The blame wasn\'t on her. She knew that. It was the undead who were killing everyone. But it was also a fact that without their actions, these people would still be alive.

Terrible lived where they lived like cattle. But they would still be alive.

Confirming their worst fears, a horde of fresh zombies soon appeared from the city.  "Elizabeth." Eldrian spoke softly, his voice barely a whisper. "Let\'s make them pay."

Without hesitation, Elizabeth nodded. Helping Eldrian move towards the horde of zombies. Welcoming her death here. She refused to let someone else carry Eldrian forward.

AN: Hope you enjoyed the chapter :)