MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online - Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Kuroshima Surrounded
An army of the Blackhearts surrounded the peaceful town of Kuroshima. Their numbers seemed to increase with each passing moment.

However, they were unable to enter the town, which was occupied by more and more mercenaries.

A translucent barrier emitted a faint hum as it repelled all attempts at breaching its defenses.

It was a barrier that was fueled with Magick Energy. It’s something that five major cities also have, but it’s much larger in scale.

It was created for situations like this, where the safety and security of the city’s inhabitants were of the utmost importance.

However, Kuroshima’s barrier wasn’t as strong. It was starting to crack and show signs of weakening, causing concern among the mercenaries.

The strength of the Blackhearts varied drastically, but most of them were Archwarrior level or even above. Such firepower was very formidable.

Thus, cracks appeared, pushing the barrier closer to its breaking point.

Inside the town, worry grew.

Nearly a hundred mercenaries managed to return to the town before the Blackhearts had it completely surrounded.

The rest of the mercenaries were spread across the island, possibly not knowing what was happening.

In the town, the mercenaries just stood with their own guilds. Some were whispering about abandoning their posts and fleeing the town altogether.

After all, it was just a town, and it didn’t seem worth it to risk their lives over it.

However, after gazing outside the barrier, they realized the escape was simply impossible, unless they wanted to fight through the hoard of creatures that surrounded them on all sides.

“Everyone.” An old, calm voice sounded.

Everyone turned their heads to Kory, who was walking towards them with a black-haired young man by his side.

“Adam.”

Digby and the rest of the Crimson Hounds stood up, relief washing over them after seeing him fine and well.

“This is truly a bad situation,” Kory said with a chuckle. “We’ll all die unless we work together.”

“Where the hell is the Imperial Order?” A rough-sounding guild master of Fairy Whip asked, his voice filled with frustration. “It’s their job to keep this town safe.”

“No need to worry about that,” Kory said with a smile. “Mikael is coming.”

Hearing that, many frustrated folks quieted down.

With such a simple sentence, the tension in the air dissipated like a fart in the wind.

Mikael, the right-hand man of the king, was coming.

“So, what’ll we do?” A person asked.

“The barrier won’t last long; most likely, it will break apart before Mikael arrives.”

Kory said, and then continued:

“We could try to reinforce it with our Magick, which will buy us a couple of minutes, but I have other plans.

“We could isolate the Blackhearts. If we make a hole in the barrier, barely the size of an adult human, they might stop trying to force their way through and instead use that opening to enter the town.

“If the barrier completely breaks apart, we’ll just be surrounded and overwhelmed. We need to stop them from breaking the barrier, and the only thing to do is let them inside the town.”

“I have a question.” Sapphira stepped forth.

Since Orion wasn’t right here in the town, Sapphira was in control of the Dying Star guild.

As soon as some of the mercenaries saw her, they quieted down and relaxed significantly. Her presence had a calming effect on them.

Adam looked at her, and he felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him.

‘She looks young and healthy. I only remember her having black eyebags under her eyes from her sleepless nights.’

Adam chuckled to himself. It made him happy to see her like this.

“Miss Sapphira, what is it?” Kory asked with a smile.

“What if the Blackhearts don’t buy it?

“They are not stupid. If we make the hole small enough, it’s easy for us to kill them since they have to enter the town individually.

“It’s an effective strategy against weak Chaosbeings, but we are dealing with something much stronger.

“I have a feeling that if the hole is small, they’ll just choose to not enter the town and destroy the barrier instead.”

Without realizing it, she said “Blackhearts” as if she didn’t care about revealing it to everyone else.

The mercenaries frowned, wondering what this “Blackheart” was and whether it was just a name she thought for those black-hearted individuals.

Most of the mercenaries, who weren’t aware of the truth, called them “The Palewalkers.”

“So, you want to make a larger hole?” Kory asked and chuckled warmly. “Not a bad idea. However, it’ll put more pressure on our tanks.”

He had a simple plan—have the tanks at the front, then infantry in the middle, and archers and magicians at the back.

“Do we have enough tanks?” Sapphira asked.

“Hmm~” Kory looked around and counted the number of tanks.

Once he was done, he wryly smiled and shook his head.

“Eight. That won’t be enough.”

“Brother.” Sapphira turned to Arkham. “You do have a shield, right? You can act as a tank for this time.”

“Mm.” Arkham nodded, then strapped his axe to his back and took out a long shield.

Other guilds also chose a few of their damage dealers to act as tanks.

“Kory, may I as well?” Adam asked.

“Huh?” Kory turned to him with round eyes. “That’s a pretty dangerous job for someone like you. Are you sure?”

“Adam.” Digby walked over to him with a stern expression. “Return back inside. It’s still too early for you to be fighting on the front lines.”

Adam frowned.

He wasn’t strong enough to fight Blackhearts, but he believed that his tanking skills were needed.

“Ah, unfortunately, he can’t leave the frontlines.” Kory said with a wry smile. “Otherwise, the plan will not work.”

“What do you mean?” Digby asked with a frown.

Others turned to them after hearing their conversation, curious about what Kory meant.

Kory took out the brown, dirty pouch and showed the broken crystals inside.

A few didn’t recognize them, but the ones that did exclaimed in shock.

“Broken fragments of Respawn Crystal?!”

“Adam destroyed the respawn crystal,” Kory said. “Those creatures outside the barrier are here for him.”

All eyes landed on Adam, shock evident on their faces.

A thought arose in their minds.

Wasn’t this the second respawn crystal he destroyed?

Lucette covered her mouth in shock and looked at Adam with a gaze of disbelief.

Sapphira looked with her round eyes at Adam, a deep frown on her face.

She thought he seemed ordinary—like a neighborhood kid you can find anywhere—but he had accomplished several impossible tasks.

“Hmm…” Kory thought about it further and smiled. “I think Adam being on the front lines works in our favor. They are already after him, so he already has their aggro. I say we use that to our advantage.”

“Agh…” Digby crossed his arms, not a fan of the plan.

He had heard that Adam did well as a tank in the raid on the tenth floor. However, the tenth floor was nothing compared to this.

“I can do it,” Adam said to Digby.

“Alright, fine…” Digby scratched the back of his head. “I’ll be your support fighter; I’ll help you if need be.”

“That’s fine.”

A slight distance away, a group of mercenaries looked at them with hostile gazes. They were all holding shields that looked like they were cracked, but they were just painted to look that way.

They were the members of the Shattered Shields.