Chương 492: AF Chapter 491 – Octopus Flambe?

Our opening volley was thus impressively deadly, Endure streaking out faster than most of the arrows and drawing a near-frozen line of crystallized air as it hit one Fire Elemental that had decided to hold up and take up a Casting Stance. The Hammer's impact blew it apart, and yet somehow Endure ricocheted off it without losing any momentum whatsoever, ping-ponging to the next nearest Elemental, then the next, the next, and the next!

It came roaring back end over end back to his hand, definitely happy as five Elementals were blown into whitespray. Briggs just caught it on the fly, spun in a long step, and hurled it forth again, forty yards between him and the front of the onrushing Summons who were targeting him. More Fire Elementals exploded, as did the last of the rifts. Shades and marguls were screaming as they charged at him…

and then he stopped, the line of Vanguards bulled right past him, and the shields of Gros and Kopf slammed down directly in front of him, stopping the Summons lunging after him right in their tracks with solid clangs of impact. He hopped up and back, and my Disk was right there to receive him, giving him a fine view over the heads of the towering lugians as Endure spun back to his hand. Half the Fire Elementals were already dead.

On the right side of the formation, violence erupted as Princess Kristie gladly took three charges in a row, spit a margul and two shades completely dead while doing so, and then she was flanking and her Skeeters were rolling out beside and behind her to start the reaping. Nobody else joined them, directed to envelope from the left flank as the reduced numbers of Summons couldn't fold around the Vanguards effectively, which meant we could fold around THEM.

"There's definitely something moving in the lava there," Kris reported aloud without looking behind her.

"I can feel it in my Tremblesense, it's more than steam and molten rock in motion. Good call there." I watched Endure go streaking out on its best pinball imitation, and five more of the Imperiled Elementals bit it in whitespray. Shields opened and closed, shades and marguls came through, ran into Wolfpacks, and died with great speed as they tried to turn on the Vanguards and paid for it, the Spears working support staggered out and continuing to thrust beyond and punish the Summons outside the line of Shields.

The flankers were rolling down the line at sure speed. Lenses flared with Fire Vulns and Imperils, and Summons died with alarming speed. I was flashing Darts at distant Summons points. The Archers had picked off two more virindi before the rest retreated out of range hurriedly, having learned the value of survival instead of thinking they were unkillable and immortal like normal virindi did. It made them annoying, but not untouchable.

We had at least fifty people in this force who could catch them on foot, and there was nothing they could do about it. We just had to Seal those Spawn Points first or this was just a Benny Hill farce, repeating endlessly. Spots of white flared on the Cauldera floor as the virindi retreated beyond them, unable to wipe them clean. A couple made the mistake of leaving the safety of their fellows, and didn't notice Princess Kristie and Master Oswald go missing.

A couple minutes later, the two of them were standing over two abruptly dead Shadow-touched Virindi, and the others learned that lesson a bit late.

"Vibrations!" Briggs called out, all his Elemental targets dead and just throwing around Summons with alacrity now as some really cringe-inducing impacts sent the hapless things flying around him. Most crashed off Vanguard Shields, hit the ground stunned, and never made it back up before three or four Firephased Weapons did for them.

"It's not directly magical, maybe a venting attack of pure lava?" I said back, Magevoice making sure I was heard as easily as his Warlord Voice.

"Tight circle until I see what needs to be blocked!" The Vanguards marched into position without turning their heads, reading everyone else's positions perfectly, while the Wolfpacks slid between Shields and were inside the Formation in mere seconds, like water flowing through sluice gates that slammed shut behind them. I was facing the center of the Cauldera, the white-streaked black stone visibly quivering and cracking as pressure built up below.

Then the sound got REALLY loud for just a second, before Bunita's Kiss put up her Sound Bubble and protected everyone from the thunder of the explosive release from below. A Roman Candle fueled by a volcano is a nasty thing, especially when the sparks and streamers are boulders and flows of red-hot lava flying into the air, spreading out like flowers and raining down randomly in all directions with tons of viscous, clingy, and very, very hot molten stone.

I swept out Crown, and the double -Extended, Widened Wall of Force shimmered into slightly-translucent place above us, just above the Vanguards. The big lugians and gearknights put up hands to make sure of where it was, and then their Shields shifted rapidly and smoothly to just underneath its edge. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The first rocks and boulders and giant globs came crashing down on the Wall, but slid off it as if greased, nothing there to grab, and it was completely impervious to them. Everyone looked at the geyser lighting off there, the flashes of black Shadow and purple Void magic seething on and about the pillar ahead of us, whipping the top in all directions, and forcing the virindi there to dodge actively or be splatted by a lot of heavy liquid stone. This wonderful little effort I Spellflared.

Aerbax had a heck of a Caster Level, definitely north of Fifty here, drawing on massive mana reserves from down below and using it to power some incredibly powerful magical effects. The raining lava was covering everything randomly for over a hundred paces around the lava moat there, with bigger, heavier rocks actually shooting out close to the Cauldera's walls. Very impressive, very stylish, showing off a lot of magical power.

My Spellflare hitting it with a Dispel Check in the +80's was definitely NOT what it was expecting to run into. The Roman Candle Volcano Vortex kindly went ka-blooey.

The fountain itself exploded directly, hurling bullets of lava in all directions as the Spellflare followed the magic down, down, down, and the center of that little island there lit up with a hundred instant cracks and lights of every sound and noises of every color venting up out of it as we tasted a hundred different crystals vibrating and smelled so many things breaking, melting, shaking, moldering…

The central island there shattered like brittle glass, the noise of it hurting our eyeballs as the sight of it was deafening and shrill. Everyone sort of gagged and gasped at the crazy sensory mishmash of magic going wild and doing a hellacious amount of feedback damage to the source. Something in the lava didn't like that much, and fully heaved itself to the surface.

It wasn't an octopus, more like a fiery blob with a lot of tentacles and size issues that indicated staying in liquids was good for the ole weight problem. A bunch of those tentacles were now crawling with toy trains and marching brownies and bubble baths and self-writing medical prescriptions in lower Aklo, acidic sodas bubbling maple flavors and an orchestra of hummingbirds zipping around while the vibrations from their wings shook its fiery flesh…

Yeah, Spellflare was always interesting when it hit actual flesh and didn't just detonate something in midair. This fucker was also not native to this world, a really big spirit anchored into elemental mass, probably drawn from the Aether, considering it was almost all fire and not Void.

"Oh, go home," I said to it, sweeping Crown over Kopf's head from under the Wall of Force' s umbrella, even as the first towering tentacles were lashing out. They came over and down and slammed into the Wall above us harmlessly, superheated residual lava spraying in all directions, the tentacles drooping over the edge. There was no need to go out and play with this thing. Summoned things come in, Summoned things go out. The Banishment hit it in an arc of a dozen shining Silver Magic Thaumaturgic Circles.

The Veil crystallized around them as they tore through and past half-a-dozen tentacles each over a meter wide, shoving them back, back, towards four molten eyes staring at them in astonishment and shock, because the air was howling and shuddering as it froze solid, sucking away the fire and the heat and instantly freezing tons of molten appendages as they converged on the source of them.

It bellowed something nobody heard, Sound Bubble still in effect and protecting most people's ears from conventional sound (not visible sounds, of course). The Banishment hit this Aetheric Fire Blob with cryokinetic cold equal to the deepest parts of space. It could have been part of the sun, it still wasn't going to remain here as the core of its power met anathema, and the magic binding it to form and function froze, shattered, and collapsed.

The implosion of the creature sucked all that killing cold down into the lava, taking away a whole lot of magical heat and devouring it energetically. The lava moat became a solid magma floor, steaming from the conflict of temperatures, cracked and unstable, but clearly overpowered and dimming.

"Someone was expecting us to actually anticipate it would Summon in some other out-sized monstrosities," Kris sniffed, somehow right up next to me and watching the fun out there. The massive pit and sundered top of the black island out there, now far more white than black, was shaking and venting dust and rubble.

"I think our good, good friend is finally coming to the surface!" Briggs called out, reading the vibrations through his tremblesense, and Kris nodded agreement.

"Slap that Void Bane on your Shields now!" he ordered grimly, and the Vanguards hastily focused to do just that with the newest Infusion Harlune and his team of spell-wielders had managed to work through. Runes of red-silver flickered over the adamantine of their Shields, sinking into them and getting ready as lightning, fire, and void energies billowed and spit at the top of the pit. Aerbax came rising out of the pit slowly and grandly, knowing it was not in danger of being attacked.

It still had to rotate to find us, and its white mask was distorted into a ferocious scowl and cut with streaks of purple-black that hadn't been there before. Seven tentacles rose from its backside, the jagged edges flickering with lethally sharp edges of electrical and void energies, while shadowed fires danced and leapt between them, licking and pulling at the weave like a spider that wanted to command all the magic in the area.

My Sublime Chord was up and thrumming with the power of the Heartsong on the mana threads, defying its control with ease and power, ready and willing to be expended here and now. Tentacles writhed, twisted, pulled, and the Void Rays that had chased Kris and I back then raged out at the line of Vanguards. The sound they made as they hit that adamantine and ruby-silver flared in defiance was unearthly.

Foot-thick lances of purple-black energy that should have torn through normal matter were vented skywards, even clipping through and shredding part of the Force Wall still extant above us. Not a single Shield was even scarred, however, although Void Magic residues seethed over bosses and spikes there in angry knots and clusters, trying to find a way in. My Hexar Shields were stuck to the backs of five of the central Vanguards right now, protecting the whole front from other Elemental attacks.

With a gesture, I brought a Chain snaking out of my Masspack and lunging forward, stretching across above the frozen moat that nobody wanted to try running or flying over.