Chương 188: AF Chapter 187 – The Assault Continues

Most of the paramounts were feeling like fifth wheels on the wagon as they watched their juniors rip through the Shaded with clear tactics, probably uncomfortably thinking about just how effective such simple measures would be against them, as well! The nets were all woven with steel wire, couldn't just be chopped apart without some extreme measures, and escaping from them would be nigh-impossible, what with the other soldiers binding up any weapons and shields.

It was to the point the Aun, whose smallest members had a real knack for doing this stuff, ran right up the backsides of the bigger soldiers to get the first corners hooked in place, and then spun around their targets in practiced fashion as the primary combatants ducked away just long enough for them to do so. In seconds, their targets would be bound up, and the wolfpack would collapse from all sides with a roar, thrusting and pounding at the helpless target with enthusiasm, energy, and hard-practiced skill.

The Mick's eyes met Selena's gaze, who just glanced and nodded him off in the direction, standing on a Disk for altitude as she and her brace of fellow archers retargeted.

"Singol, Chappy! Roll left!" she ordered, and the two men with Dark Poles shifted ten steps left immediately, opening up the street to the next Summons point… who immediately saw living people only sixty feet away, and reacted instantly.

"Ahead, twenty paces!" she called out, and the two men broke into a run, ignoring the Summons who they ran right on by with their globes of darkness, ignored in turn as one margul, a floating Panumbris, and a Void Lord archer moved to engage the soldiers streaming at them. The soldiers parted, the incoming margul veered sideways, and the weighted net crashed down upon it, driving it to the ground before it could vent more than one breath.

The Panumbris crashed into three Shields, pounding with supernaturally powerful fists, but the men held, shoving her back as powerful arrows laden with corrupted Elemental energies cracked and lashed against their barrier. C ounter-shot arrows trailing misty fire sank into her in lethal series as the yellow flash of a Slashing Vuln flared over her and magnified the power of the broadheads driving in to her.

The Mick went right up over their backs with his lightfoot, kicking off their heads and coming down on the Void Lord archer behind the female. Bunita's swath of Lost Light chopped through the thick reddened bone of the Summons' bow, continuing on to bite deep into the exposed muscle of its arm as the Mick landed… and kept falling, down to his stomach, then his back as the Void Lord pulled a massive spiked axe out of nowhere.

It then found its legs bound up with the Mick's, and it was swept forcibly off of its feet with enough force to send it crashing to the ground on its neck with a bellow of surprise. Chiholee was on it with a roll of green fur, hooking his net in, and the Mick twisted over counter to the Aun's roll, taking the shade with him into the circle of the net once, twice.

The off-balance and confused Void Lord abruptly found itself wrapped up tight as Chiholee and his mate Sunnana grabbed the net's edge and braced themselves against the creature's backside to hold it tight. Kopf was over there with other Vanguards enduring multiple blasts of Incantor Fire Magic to Bulwark, but Gross, his partner, lifted up a two-handed Hammer dripping vivus, appropriately named Sledge, and led a group of three other lugians in bringing the doom.

"One!" he grunted, and "Two!" was already sounding from his teammate Joks as the first Hammer came down, leaving a massive dent in the unnatural steel of the Summons' breastplate. The Mick kept its legs pinned and unable to twist effectively as the two small Aun braced side by side to keep the Void Lord's arms pinned, and the lugians smashed with all the speed and power they could. He heard Selena call the next move, nodding as more space was cleared.

A roar rose behind them as the Shadow Pillar finally came down, spurting vivus as it did so. He took the moment to look at the progress of the other attacks, judging they'd all be down within the next sixty seconds. ---" Vuln and Imperil the Fire Pillars!" came the order from Warlord Kristie Rantha, who was de-limbing a grievver on the other side of the town, somehow around the verses to the Trembling Song that was reverberating inside the Sound Bubbles via Singing Swords spread out among the Marked soldiers.

"Undead mages and archers in position, prepare to fire!" Guarded by their own shield walls, the undead forces outside the town rolled forward between the misting remains of the Shaded. The Pillars were huge, and they and the Vortexes had to be destroyed before the Shadow Pillars regenerated, disrupting the confluence of energies among them and allowing the vivus to do its work.

If it didn't work, the Shadow Pillars would thrust up out of the ground once more, and the cycle would start over as they magnified the incoming corrupted energy past the threshold the vivus could Seal against so easily. Magic from the most experienced undead mages flared and flickered over the Pillars, drawing instant reprisals from the things, multiple streaks of fire lashing out through the sky against the incoming magic.

Still, the things had never been known to counter- B uff, only attack with endless amounts of Fire Magic, and the gathered Shields of the undead were there to take the hits, even if their inferior equipment mostly sent the undead tumbling while being set aflame. On the tactical view, he saw the Shadow Pillars fall rapidly one by one, the last of them down in thirty seconds. It had taken a lot of practice to get all the teams to bring them down so concurrently, and random chance was the only divider.

"Kill the Fire Pillars! Roll towards the Vortexes!" From four quarters, massive rains of bone-like arrows edged with the Nether magic of the undead and over two hundred spinning blades of Force Magic converged on the towering Pillars of Elemental Fire, ripping and tearing apart the sheaths of magic that kept them contained and allowed their energies to gather and intensify. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

The rupture turned the flames into an explosion of vivus from the living archers who had joined the bombardment, black and crimson fires blowing out into a rain of heavy white mist that fell sparkling to the ground for the moment. The Lumberjack Teams spiraled in on the massive writhing black tendrils that were the Shadow Vortexes, ignoring the way they lashed down like living gargantuan whips and sent half a dozen Vanguards ahead of them flying at the impacts." Vuln and Imp them! Hack them apart!"

Kris was the first to reach a Vortex, and as Quaver bit into it, the air seemed to suddenly tighten with a sense of massive weight.

"Full convergence! Hold that line! Undead, smack 'em in the back!" she snarled, and swore.

"Here comes your Doom, the blade of Life!

"Here comes your Fate, an end to Strife!

"Your madness falls where duty calls,"And now' s your turn to feel the knife!

"Tremble, you unclean thing!

"Tremble, where stout hearts sing!

"Tremble, vivus bites deep!

"Tremble, as now you weep!

"Tremble, WE COME!" roared over a thousand living souls, and magic and vivus ripp ed through the Vortexes, lighting it up inside in what could only be called writhing agony, tearing apart its own breaches in the Veil and using that energy to flood inside, back to the forces empowering them! The overwhelming blast of the White-out was expected and called ahead of time. T he undead had prudently retreated beyond the edges of the town and back up to the hillside as rapidly as their feet could take them.

Any who didn't make it in time were swallowed by the whiteness, and wouldn't be coming back. A significant number didn't bother to flee at all, content to watch the damned things that had bedeviled Dereth for over a generation die. They actually raised fleshless hands to embrace the explosion of unwhite that came for them, not resisting as it tore apart the magicks that bound their souls to this place and gave them final rest.

"No resting! If you've got a Vivic Weapon, start cutting everything still black! I want vivus Burning anywhere and everywhere!" Kris' voice was uncompromising, spurring the tottering soldiers who thought they were going to be able to exult in the moment into sudden, urgent motion again. Every dark spot meant enough corruption to defy the explosions which had just blasted multiple sixty-foot craters into the ground, blown swaths of whiteness throughout the town, and leveled a good portion of the remaining ruins.

But tellingly, not all of them. The lugians were the first to respond, misting Hammers raised and energetically pounding away at all the black stones which hadn't crumpled to powder around them. Smashing into them inevitably revealed a core of oozing darkness, which was set alight as they and everyone else who could began to cut, hack, and pound everywhere.

It was another hour of frantic chopping and hammering before Kris' Voice rippled out one more time.

"Enough, we have done it." I'd been setting off Bursting Shards over larger areas of corruption, driving vivus into broader areas, while the soldiers focused on no stone remaining on stone and just pounding the whole Tainted town down to ankle height.

The unwhite heavy mists of vivus covered the whole area under the sun now, sparkling faintly and feasting as vivic fires Burned everywhere, only growing as they overcame the resistance of the corruption and any vestigial flows coming through the Veil, building and penetrating deeper into the Land. At her call, I stopped with everyone else, closed my eyes, and turned my head to the sun.

"Receive the thanks of the Land. This… is Glory." And it came down. Thunder in the S oul. It was nothing material, nothing physical, and if you wanted to be serious about it, it was the same damn thing you earned chopping down Summons and other unnatural stuff, proving your skill and imprinting your name and truth onto Creation. This, however, was Creation acknowledging what you had done, and saying 'Thank You!' It swirled over the soul in a quiet flood of K armic reward.

The old-timers had known Quest Rewards, but those were things from the System on this island, magical actions that could be replicated, parceled out like candy and sweetmeats to make people jump through hoops. This was the gratitude of existence itself for doing something that was right and proper. The Land and Creation and who knew what else had noticed and were paying attention to us, and this, this was a true reward! Something that had to be done, was finally done.

It would not be replicated on the morrow with a new army and new team. It was not even a one-time show for those watching, because such a play could always be rescripted, if that was the truth. No, this was Glory, this was Thunder in the Soul, and no mere Quest Reward given by an NPC in the system was going to compare to this sensation. It also instantly popped an Isparian Level on anyone and everyone below paramount, psychedelic lights going off literally everywhere on everyone.

They were likely plopping a whole lot more down into Reserves, because people had been popping off all through the fight as they fought these extremely high-Level opponents and took them out. Furthermore, this was a Glory Award, and Creation saw everything. If all you did was scout things out so your team could come in and crush them more safely and thoroughly, you were rewarded.

I could feel the massive amount coming through to me because of my Eagle's Vantage, and just what the spell had done for coordinating efforts among the entire force.