(II) Battle

79 (II)Battle

Then he released his spell, and she quickly discovered what it was meant to do. From the many, many bodies descending to the rivers below came streams of howling corrosion. The heads of these streams transformed into a swarm of ghostly faces, faces of the fallen, faces screaming and begging to be put back to rest. They surged towards Confriga, but they also shot toward the Blood Horror Uva used as a sleeve and even the Gate Lord's own men.

She avoided the oncoming Necromancy by jumping to a few different bodies further away and abandoning those that were too close, but most were not that fortunate. The Necromancy smashed through them, ripping their souls asunder. She heard them howl in ways that went beyond pain. It was the howl one made when they lost a limb or something essential to their being. That was the sound of skills shattering, of souls being wounded, and Uva knew that pain. She had reached into Shiv and felt how much it hurt.

But unlike Shiv, most of them broke immediately, their eyes rolling as they blacked out, their bodies spasming as they fell from the sky. Through the chaos, she spotted a new opening. A screaming wyvern tore through the air, its black, insectile body glistening with the blood of its rider. Only the lower half of the man still remained, but she could still make do with the beast itself.

She jumped into its mind and immediately began to push her way through the Blood Horrors. She used her strands to strike at them, to drive them away and fill them with the urge to avoid her. And then she flew towards the second column of magi, a small elite group of Dynamancers who were beginning to summon the beginnings of what seemed to be a colossal force-spell. Her controlled wyvern crashed into them before the force-spell could ever fully form.

Their commander proved hardier than she expected and endured the blow, pushing back on the wyvern. But even so, his Physicality lagged behind his Toughness. He was driven into the rest of the column, and several of them broke focus. The Dynamancy spell died, and a wave of heavy force exploded everywhere. The wyvern she used splattered apart. The soldiers casting the spell crumpled and turned into cooked flesh within their armor. In a sudden instant, ten percent of the elemental magi formation was dead, and far more were wounded, falling from the air.

The Blood Horrors surged through the gaps, attacking all the disorganized magi. But they were intercepted by the elite Pathbearer teams and the final barrier of Master-Slayer contingents.

Confriga roared. "Hold, vanguard, hold! Hold, or I will have your heads!” He swept his wings through the oncoming Blood Horrors, uncaring if he hit his own men in the process. Everything burned. Confriga's own forces, the Blood Horrors, the high vampires, everything. His wings unleashed tides of flame so hot, so severe, that just being in the vicinity caused flesh to melt. It was then that Uva realized the Gate Lord likely wasn't limited to one or two Heroic-Tier Skills, but that he was something more akin to a true Hero.

She was going to need to grind him down as much as she could.

But to do that, she needed to compromise his army even more. And so she sought out a third contingent of mages, her strands already reaching, and she found another opportune victim. The third formation of magi was a large group of specialized Aeromancers. They were especially useful because she wanted to inflict disorder on Confriga's forces and make this a direct break. That would force Confriga to confront the enemy directly.

This time, she pried her way into the body of another Umbral. A mercenary. Uva scorned mercenaries. No faith, no loyalty, no higher cause, merely wealth, and she wore them with the same casual cruelty that they treated slaves with. The mercenary cried out, but it was worthless. As the Aeromancer formation began to shape a spell, Uva drove the mercenary to control and twist the spell into something unstable. Rather than unleashing a hurricane upon the Blood Horrors, a blast of wind rippled through the air, knocking most of the mercenaries out of position, but also scattering every surrounding formation within Confriga's army.

The disorganization became too much. As lines broke, Blood Horrors spilled through, and it quickly became “every man for himself.” Whatever coherence the vanguards had was gone now. They were surrounded on all sides by teeth, fang, and flesh. Biomancers reached out and liquefied who they could. Armors shattered while Magical Resistances cracked and broke. Death reigned in the air, and Confriga let out a roar.

"Worthless vermin!" he declared. "All of you, pathetic! I do not need you. I do not need your whimpering ways." And the Gate Lord descended for the first time.

Uva felt a twist of anticipation in her gut. She prepared to jump to another body, but then the Gate Lord did something unexpected. He reached out slowly and grasped his blade.

he declared.

And as Confriga split the sky behind him with a single stroke, Uva's mind reeled as she tried to process what she was seeing. There, through the gap Confriga left on the surface of the world, emerged a shadowy shape. It was a colossal monster, perhaps half the size of the Jealousy. It had far too many eyes, far too many mouths, and from its body extended far too many clawed limbs. The thing chittered, it sang, and it plunged forth, reaching out and snatching anything it could out of the air. It consumed some of Confriga's own forces, but it mainly devoured the vampiric forces.

Flashing spells of crimson crashed against the creature's body, but it simply cackled in response.

And from its eyes surged beams of darkness, beams that swept across the first blood hordes, and slowly she saw the creature, once nothing but quivering blackness, lined with maw, eye, limb, and claw, fill. The beings it ate and consumed with its rays of darkness filled its interior. As it unleashed its power, she felt several mana fields spreading out from its body. Cryomancy. Psychomancy. Neither at anything higher than Master…

Uva took a chance and jabbed it lightly with one of her mana strands. The monster grunted and launched a lashing limb in the direction of her strand but failed to notice her.

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Uva considered.

Master-Tier. She could break Master-Tier with enough focus. And suddenly a new, wonderful opportunity opened for Uva. She extended her tendrils from all over the battlefield as she began to jab at Confriga’s summoned monster. If he thought this creature was going to be his salvation, he was wrong.

She was going to turn this creature against its summoner. In fact, she looked forward to discovering just where the Gate Lord's capabilities truly lay.

Parallel Thinking > 57

"Alright, Valor, let's… try to make sure this works," Adam said. He did his best to maintain his concentration as he formed a large spatial barrier around the adamantine elevator shaft connecting Confriga’s obsidian tower to the third gateway. Adam and Valor hovered just a few meters away from the shaft, and behind them bobbed the colossal bulk of the Graven Cage.

So far, they were unnoticed. Mainly thanks to Adam’s Veilpiercer. He shot a patrolling dimensional, and a second later, they appeared right beside the obsidian tower without exposing themselves to any danger. Sporadically, though, a mana bomb would go off somewhere, and Adam would flinch as he felt an invisible tension grow. Still, he and Valor were in position. All they needed to do was burn through the shaft with Necromancy and intercept the falling elevator.

It was going to need every bit of timing Adam could muster, but he could do this. He and Valor could both do this. It was practically an easy job compared to what Shiv and Uva were probably going through right now.

"Alright. Ready, Valor?" Adam said. He activated his vambrace and immediately nocked a Veilpiercer arrow. The corrosion spread from the small Necromantic fissure he left in the air, and he aimed his shot at the spatial bubble he formed around the elevator shaft.

"Let your mind go blank," Valor intoned. “Your muscle memory will be enough.”

"I got it," Adam said, annoyed.

"Do not focus too much."

"I said I got it!" Adam snapped.

The Legendary Pathbearer grunted and slowly drifted back, ceding the moment to Adam. He was close, the Graven Cage was right there, he had enough mana, he could melt right through that adamantine. Or maybe, maybe he'd pour a bit more dimensionality… A little bit more, yes. He paused as he unleashed some more of his mana. The spatial sphere around the elevator shaft thickened, turning into a shroud of darkness coated with distortions.

Once more, he prepared to fire his corroded Veilpiercer—

Something smashed into his back. It launched him out of the air as he went tumbling. His corroded Veilpiercer went off to the side and tore a hole through another building.

Valor snarled and barely avoided a hit himself. Something crackled through the air, something Adam couldn't perceive because it was either invisible or too fast. The Young Lord coughed as he adjusted his position. He flexed his burning wings and dashed to the right, only to take another blow in the chest. This time the wind was fully knocked out from his lungs, and his eyes rolled.

"What the hell is—"

"Sniper!" Valor shouted.

But just then a shot cracked into the back of Valor's skull, and the Legendary Pathbearer went reeling off into the air. The outline of Necromancy that traced his body vanished as every separate fragment comprising his current form dropped, descending toward the molten rivers below.

"Valor!" Adam cried. Then two more shots hit him. One hit him right at the ankle, tearing something. The Young Lord cursed. The other crashed into his collar and made him twist backward. But as Adam reeled, he activated his vambrace on instinct or reflex, and it was good that he did. For the moment he created another corrosive fissure, two pulses of pressure spread through the air before him.

His corrosive fissure expanded into a small realm that drew all Dimensionality and spatial mana into it like a micro-anchor.

Two sets of screams filled the air as the twin teleportation spheres of enemy Jump Mages were drawn into Adam’s corroded domain

The insides of the realm lit up with an eerie, acidic green. What emerged from the fissure in the end within were two badly withered corpses—both of them wearing crow masks.

For a second Adam thought he had dealt with the people who were ambushing him. Then another heavy shot smashed into his back and he went tumbling forward across the open air.

Repulsion Shroud > 58

"Shit!" he growled to himself. His Repulsion Shroud managed to launch him off a bit further, and the next shot hissed by him. He focused his Seer of Horizons, allowing his Legendary armor to take a shot for him. He searched and then directed his senses out to observe himself from a third person perspective. The next shot came and impacted his lower rib. He felt something click, but nothing tore or broke. It just hurt to breathe a little.

He didn't see the projectile, but he did spot a flashing glint far in the horizon from the window of a distant descending building. Immediately, Adam cast his senses there and found himself looking at a raven-helmed bastard.

Seer of Horizons > 111

The Young Lord sneered. He formed a Veilpiercer arrow, and he infused it with the corrosive mana of his vambrace. His senses were locked on the raven even as they cycled what seemed to be some kind of long-barreled ballistae. It let out a brief whine, and he had a feeling that once it finished making that noise, it would fire again.

But the Young Lord didn't give them that chance. He knew where they were, and even if he couldn't see what they were shooting at him, that didn’t matter. He just needed to kill the shooter first.

Adam fired his Veilpiercer. A splash of corrosive mana tore open a rift in front of him, and it continued down, creating a dimensional pathway all the way to where the raven lay in wait. They didn't even see the arrow that killed them.

They were shooting at him from over two kilometers away, and in the span of a single second, Adam spotted them and fired back.

The Necromancy-charged Veilpiercer smashed into their skull at immense speed, fast enough to render the raven-helmed stranger a function of physics rather than biology. The Necromancy, then, was a final dishonor. It shattered their soul just as their body dissolved into nothing but ash and paste.

Veilpiercer > 107

The Young Lord laughed. "Let's see you shoot me now, you bastard."

And then, Seer of Horizons alerted him to something else. There was another glint from a building three kilometers away, and another from a building one kilometer away, and a glint from a bridge just a few hundred meters away. Then three shots hit him at once, and this time Adam felt his left shoulder dislocate.

"Godsdammit!" the Young Lord roared, the frustration far greater than his pain. “System! You bastard! Just give me a moment! Just one!”

More shots came from all around. Every impact rattled the Young Lord, and a few chipped off pieces from the Graven Cage. Adam’s eyes widened as he adapted. He formed a Hydrokinetic limb and fired a shot back at the nearest enemy. A crow atop a nearby bridge burst apart as a dense Veilpiercer crashed into them.

But Adam wasn’t done. He flexed his wings and arced through the air. He slammed his left shoulder into the Graven Cage and did two things at once. First, he relocated his shoulder. Next, he pushed the construct through the new dimensional pathway he just made and left it stashed there to hide it from further risk of damage. When that was done, he dove out onto the bridge and splashed down against the hot blood of the crow he just killed. Adam cast his Awareness out again while prone, recalling where his enemies were as he shaped a few more arrows.

They lost track of him now, but he could still find them. And he was very, very unhappy that they shot him. And even more unhappy that they shot his in the back of the head.

A second later, he found another raven staring down the barrel of another strange weapon. They looked confused. And they died confused as Adam released a trans-dimensional arrow into their throat, decapitating them.

“One,” Adam growled. “I counted at least one more.” He prepared another arrow. Paused. And then prepared four more in each of his newly shaped arms.