When the first pale rays of sunlight struggled through the fel-tainted clouds over Mooncrown City and fell upon the Eastern Beach, the Revenge Fleet's beachhead had already changed beyond recognition.
After a night of almost frenzied work, a ring of defensive walls made from stranded hulls, rough planks, sandbags, and reef rocks stood in place. Crude as it looked, it possessed a savage vitality.
At key points along the walls, assorted cannons unloaded from the ships had been mounted, their dark muzzles all aimed at the ominous Crystalsong Glade.
At the very center of the position, the makeshift Mechanicus Cult church had been completed.
Its cold stone walls reflected a faint gleam in the dawn, while the rumble of machinery drifted from within... the Resurrection Point had been activated.
This meant that the soul imprints of every player on the fleet's roster were now linked to this church.
Shanghai Pirate King stood behind a gap in the defensive wall, the designated sortie point.
He chewed a tough strip of salted jerky. His bloodshot eyes held no trace of exhaustion, only blazing eagerness for battle.
Behind him stood a dense mass of players who had finished assembling.
Unlike the worker ants who had toiled on construction the night before, the players were now fully armed. Bayonets were fixed to their flintlocks, the cutlasses and axes at their waists were polished to a gleam, and their ammunition belts were stuffed full.
Even the logistics players were pushing wheelbarrows loaded with Hundred Tigers Charging Rockets and shouldering heavy Crouching Tiger Cannons, clearly intending to follow the combat players and give the demons a few surprises of their own.
There was no prebattle speech, nor any lengthy adjustment of formations.
Shanghai Pirate King simply swallowed the last mouthful of jerky, slapped the barrel of