Chương 102: Chapter 101- The Battlements

Astra's POV The crackle of flames surrounded her as Astra strode across the ramparts, blade in one hand as she lifted the other to send out a lick of flame to ignite the oil soaked monsters the chittering wyvern left in her wake. A small smile was plastered to her face as she chuckled to herself in amusement as Tia flicked her wings and rose back into the sky after her last dive.

Franklin and Taylor advanced down the walkway ahead of her, rebuffing the small crowds of creatures with their shields while leaving a gap between them for her and Sasha to fire through, the others following in their wake, dispatching those that survived their onslaught as well as using a set of long spears to keep the walls clear of any new arrivals.

The resistance on the Ramparts would have been horrific in any other situation, but after the charnel pit of the passageway to the Fracture Yard, it felt more as if she was taking a simple tour around the grounds. First and Sixth squad had integrated like a dream, and while she knew she would miss the quiet confidence of Ms Hastert and the subtle humor of Mr Craft, her new guard squad operated like the hundreds of hours on the practice yard together instead of the dozen they had so far.

Mr Taylor and Mr Smith made an excellent pair of front liners, holding the crowd of rendlings at bay. Mr Smith worked his hammer with confidence, focusing on stunning and disabling blows to allow her and Sasha to dispatch their foes with ease, and Mr Taylor was no slouch either.

He had occupied a back line position with first squad but, after acknowledging Sasha's much greater skill with a bow, he readily took up a shield and spear, taking up the new position with the same agreeable nature that he approached the rest of his duties with. They fell into an easy rhythm, the shield bearers would catch the charging enemy, angling them bodily with their shields or using low or mid guard strikes to cause the monsters to rear up, exposing them to the mid range strikers.

Once Astra or Sasha had dealt a crippling or killing blow they would step past, Astrid and another private from 3rd squad following in the rear would strike forward with spears, either landing the killing blow or simply ensuring the foe was truly dead. She had resisted assigning a dedicated guard for the longest time, but there was comfort in being surrounded by those you trust both in mind and deed.

If Mr Cooper has his way, my personal guard will outnumber the whole platoon, the man is worse than Mason, almost as bad as Mira herself. As Tia swooped back around, the angle of her flight caused the oil from her next strike to splash on one of the ballista with some over spray. Astra sighed as for the third time she extended one hand to smother the kindling flame that wicked across the fuel before the emplacement could ignite.

We will have to reign the little devil in a bit or she will be an absolute menace with close support in the future. Her amused smile grew a little as she felt a ripple of faint amusement down the tether, glancing over to wave at the other squad on the wall she found herself wishing once again that she had the same kind of easy comradery that Eli shared with Tia. She felt a little greedy wishing for a companion bond of her own as she already had so much in her life to feel grateful for.

A spike of fear washed through her heart as she spotted one of the Antler Fiend mounted the ramparts from below, striking blindly at Eli from just below the battlement. Her anxiety eased as he swayed backwards dodging the blow, before doing something she could not see to push the creature back off into the pit below. I swear the man must be part beastkin, what kind of human moves like that.

She shook her head, glancing forward as the slight grin on her face turned to a frown as another one of the antler fiends mounted the ramparts ahead of her, she triggered [Appraisal] to check its level. Ding [Antler Fiend, Death Affinity, Tier II Elite Variant, Lv 34] She hummed, thoughtful for a moment as her humming blending in with the low chant that her hymns had subsided to as the frantic pace of the battle had calmed.

The creature swiped ineffectually at Tia as she buzzed past, one of her small javelins thudding into its shoulder, as Astra eyed the clear path between them and the creature and, glancing just past it, the lack of collateral targets in the background. A fairly tough one, might be a good chance for a live test for [Crimson Lance], the situation is turning and if I run too low I can run [Combat Trance] for a while to recover a bit.

Mana: 837/1400 Astra flicked a glance down at her mana pool to check she had room to spare before waving to the squad to brace for a long cast. She spoke to them in a low voice while gesturing at the monster, " I want to test out something new, you may need to hold it off for a bit." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. A low chorus of " Aye, my Lady"'s came back in return as she sheathed her sword and spread her feet, leaning forward to brace for the recoil.

Astra brought up her arms and began channeling her mana into the new spellform, the streams of energy leaving her core in a flow of warmth. Where the blast earlier in the passageway had been a stream of embers drifting through her arms, collected and condensed into orbs, this was a river of flames, a dense flow of heat as thick and inexorable as lava flowing from her core to between her hands as it pooled into the massive spellform.

The convoluted network of flows suspended before her in her mind's eye took shape, manifesting as a knot of glowing orange red plasma, slowly forming into a rod shaped spear suspended mid air between her open hands. She had only had just enough time to test the Skill previously once, but the test had taught Astra that not only would the Skill take at least twenty to thirty seconds to manifest, it would take a full minute to reach full power.

This was practically a lifetime in the midst of a battle, but even worse, at her current skill level she had trouble keeping the flows aligned and would need to stay rooted in place. Eyelids hooded in concentration, Astra half watched as the small wyvern was able to keep the fiend distracted for a while, but as the manifestation coalesced Tia was unable to keep its focus on her as the creature turned towards Astra.

Detecting the swell of mana flowing into the spellform, the creature focus shifted, rightly assuming which was the greater danger. As the fiend turned to roar in their direction, the rest of the squad braced, forming a line with polearms to ward off the charging beast. Astra gritted her teeth and pushed, the flows taking form faster and faster as she grunted, " Hold the line!" racing against the uncanny speed of the approaching monster.

The spellform finished as the spell coalesced into a cavalry lance of plasma, decorated in pyroclastic flows as if covered in a finely etched filigree from a diligent artisan, and Astra angled it upwards ever so slightly. As the center line drifted towards the creature's hunched over chest, the spell strained against her will vibrating in place with an ominous hum, as if it was an over eager Ridgeback straining against its leads.

The deadly intent of the construct was all the propellant that was needed as Astra released her hold and the lance rocketed outwards in a flash, beyond sight or spent in the blink of an eye she was not sure. The spectacle left behind a fading actinic shadow in her vision and, after splitting the air, a sonic boom thundering in its wake.

The section of the fiend from just above the pelvis to the sternum had simply vanished, the immense kinetic force of the lance vaporizing almost a third of its body as the shoulders and head of the creatures fell upon the ground with a wet splat and the bottom half tumbled forward. A wave of disorientation flooded her senses as the massive amount of mana required to launch the lance was ripped from her pool, but a slow grin spread on her face as Sasha guffawed behind her before breaking out into quiet laughter.

As the discomfort faded Astra flicked a glance down at her resources to check just how expensive the spell was. Mana: 137/1400 She grimaced slightly, the cost only slightly tempering her exuberance at the fantastic results from the first test of her new Skill. I'll have to pick and choose my targets for now, Mira can probably help me train the Skill into a more efficient version.

As they approached the next turn of the ramparts Astra realized that she may not have aimed quite high enough, as the top of the battlements was missing. A shallow arc a few feet across was slumped and glowing, the stone itself melting just from the nearby passage of lance, at the very least you can not argue with the results.

A sharp feral grin spread across her face as she envisioned the kind of havoc she could wreak in the future, putting the fear of the Ancients in those that would threaten those she called her own, as the hymns in her chest rose and fell slightly in approval.

Elias led the squad, as they followed him around the ramparts lining the enclosure. The smell faded slightly as the blood dried, but they still kept their distance and most certainly did not approach voluntarily. Fortunately most of the monsters that had successfully climbed the walls had gathered around the doors to the gatehouse, most likely deducing with whatever intelligence they possessed that the stairs would be the most likely exit into the town beyond.

His team did beat Astra's to the mid way point, but as they watched on from a distance it was easy to see that this was less due to their lethality or more to the fact that Astra had to keep stopping to put out flames on the ballistae they passed due to Tia's enthusiastic carpet bombing.

Eli was glad that his bond was having fun and was able to make herself useful despite having not yet initiated her System, but took a mental note to monitor her ammunition levels in the future and maybe have a nice long talk about collateral damage. Her infectious delight made it hard to condemn her actions, and the fond but exasperated sense he got from Astra told him that her feelings on the subject weren't too far off either. I mean it's hard to call someone a pyromaniac when you have the fire bug too.

They watched as the other team dispatched the final rendling on their half of the wall and trotted over to join them. Astra gestured at Taylor to sound the all clear, and strode boldly over as Tia chittered away in her ear. Brother, Brother, tell Sister that I think we should swap the pouch with loops so I can grab them faster, and we should get a few different sizes…

hurghhh Elias couldn't help but laugh, still feeling slightly bad about it, as Tia recoiled and dropped to ground before scrambling backwards as her claws scrabbled and clacked against the stone of the ramparts. Astra continued but looked on in confusion until the wind shifted, and it caught her full force as she let out a gag of her own.

Eli sighed as the wind swirled around him before drifting onwards with suspicious accuracy to share the dubious joy of his stench as the sound of the quiet muffled laughter of a far away elven man filled the back of his mind.