Neither Steve, Lox, nor Gurren had spells or the power to keep themselves flying with the DCA like the girls did, so they tagged along with Dave and Malsour in case they ever wandered into the Demon Horde crossing the cliffs.
Dave closed his eyes, using Touch of the Land that he cast on an almost subconscious level. Now he concentrated on his senses and the massive area that he could look through.
“There’s a small group of Demons here, about twenty of them. We could clear them out before moving to the next section.” Dave shared a waypoint to the rest of the group.
“Be good to break up all this wall building,” Malsour said.
“’Bout time we got to put the blade to some of those bastards,” Lox said.
“Woo-hoo! Let’s go huntin’!” Steve said, giving a painful attempt at a Southern accent.
“Jump on,” Malsour said. A section of rock came free of the ground around him. Everyone got on.
“Steve, don’t move,” Malsour said.
“I’ll do my best,” Steve said.
The stone platform shot forward. Dave and the others had to lean into the direction they were going.
“This is what I’m talking about!” Gurren laughed. All of them grinned with excitement.
The stone platform moved over the cliffs, rough valley dips and changes in the ring around Devil’s Crater with ease.
“We’re less than five hundred meters.” Dave changed the waypoint to where the Demon Horde’s group lay.
The platform slowed slightly as they turned around a large outcropping of boulders, looking down at Demons who were trying to ascend the cliffs.
They let out a cry, rushing toward the platform. Malsour didn’t slow; the platform raced forward to meet them. Some tried to get out of the way; others tried to board. Those who tried to board were met by a metal wall of spikes.
Gurren, Lox, and Steve finished off the impaled Demons. The platform rode over boulders and along the side wall of the valley they were in, coming back at the twelve remaining Demons.
Dave felt the world slow down; his two conjuring rods turned into a bow. His fingers pulled back on the string and an arrow appeared between them.
He drew and released. He didn’t need to check the flight of the arrow, already conjuring another arrow as he drew the bow string back again. It followed barely a second after the first.
He saw a Demon try to rise in the air with its wings.
A spear of light flashed across Dave’s vision.
Then the platform reached the Demons once again. It lowered to the ground as Steve let loose with the repeaters in his right hand.
Dave’s arrows took two Demons split seconds apart. His conjured spell ripped through the air, leaving a sizzling hole through the Demon trying to fly, it plummeted back down to the ground.
Gurren slammed a rock away with his shield. Lox leaped into the fray, stunning one Demon with his shield and hamstringing another. Gurren jumped in after him.
The two of them had changed since Dave had fought at Boran-al’s Citadel. They were stronger, more sure of themselves. They had the eyes of veterans. Their armor was customized and rougher-looking than that of the Warclans of Mithsia. It was functional. They cared for it but they’d been through many battles, changing their manners and ways.
Steve’s hand reformed as he threw his massive axe in his right, taking two Demons down at once. A rune glowed on his hand and on the axe. The axe returned to him. He turned once and slammed the spike on the back into the Demon Gurren was fighting.
The Demon’s side was caved in as Gurren had to shake them free of his axe.
“Kill steal!” Gurren complained, as he took out another Demon.
It didn’t take long until the remaining Demons were dispatched.
Dave looked around for any more to kill.
“Huh, well, damn, we need to finish off these walls faster.” Dave destroyed his bow, spinning one of his conjuring rods in his hand, eager to fight more.
“We should be done shortly,” Malsour said.
“Better be. That was only a taster,” Gurren said.
Steve made a noise of agreement. Lox shook his head and smiled as he cleaned the black Demon blood off his blade.
There was no time to loot the bodies; they needed to continue onward.
***
Dwayne looked over the moving Warclan and supporting elements. It was an impressive sight. Five thousand shield bearers lined up, marching to meet a twelve thousand-strong Demon Horde.
The DCA were in the skies, protecting them from aerial attacks. The Stone Raiders created a formation off to the left side while the right side of the Dwarves was anchored at the base of Devil’s Crater’s cliffs. The Aleph scouts and drones were updating the positions of the Demon Horde, with the rest of their members moving to the nearest keeps to help with defense.
The Demon Horde rushed forward as a single screaming mass.
They were met by a howling noise. Dwarven artillery bloomed into destructive Mana above the Demon Horde, tearing down great swathes of the Demons. The artillery continued to fire. Controllers called out changes at the rear of the Dwarf formation. The artillery shells guided onto the biggest groups.
Two people with flames beneath their feet seemed to crackle with Mana.
An eardrum-shattering explosion of Fire swept above the Demon Horde. Demons were torn apart, their inner organs ruptured, or their blood boiled by the heat generated by the two Fire mages’ fuel air bombs.
“Damn, I wish I could do that spell,” Kim complained.
“Deia and Induca are something else when it comes to Fire spells,” Dwayne said.
“Yeah, freaking awesome!” Kim smiled.
“Shields!” the Dwarven Warclan’s leader called out. The Dwarves’ shields slammed together; a ripple of buffs glowed over the connected shields. As the rear ranks connected, those bare coverings of buffs turned into a solid wall of color. Magical Circuits spread over the entire Dwarven formation.
The Demon Horde smacked the Dwarven lines. It was like seeing a truck slam into an armored pylon. Their movement was arrested. Some flipped on top of the shield formation; others got crushed under the press of bodies.
Dwarven leaders called out; swords stabbed forward through openings in the shield wall as the Dwarves pushed forward.
“Clear the front,” Dwayne bellowed.
The Demons who met the Stone Raiders had been stopped by the melee fighters. Now the mages unleashed their attack. Spells ran through the Demon Horde, clearing the front of the Stone Raiders’ formation.
The Stone Raiders pushed through the weakened and stunned Demon lines. They cut down anything in their path. The Stone Raiders boxed in the left side of the Demon Horde. Dwarves flowed with them.
“Good positioning. Move forward—speed and damage buffs!” Dwayne found himself now at the front of the line moving across the Dwarves’ front, flanking the now committed Demon Horde.
“Demon Champion!”
“Focus on it!”
“Need a speed debuff on it!”
“Need heals!”
The Stone Raiders kept yelling out to one another, keeping information flowing as they charged through the Horde’s lines.
More and more of the Demon Horde took to the skies, trying to close with their enemies. They were pretty dumb; they didn’t realize that they were boxed in and getting hit from two sides. They’d already lost over half of their number. The Dwarves’ lines were like a blender, tearing the Demons apart with casual skill. Their stacking buffs and bonuses from working together was an incredible sight to see.
The DCA was there to meet them. They had been able to get more weapons and all of the forces beyond the cliffs had some kind of weapon and buffs. They fought in the air. Their mastery of flight made the Demon Horde’s beginning fliers easy to manage.
Dwayne flinched as a bolt of lightning tore into the Stone Raiders’ formation.
Heals flew and a Demon turned into a bloody pincushion as
archers took down the attacker.
Damn Horde woke to their magic. Friggin’ pain in the ass. The spells and the Demon Horde mages weren’t that powerful, but it added just another thing to look out for. Dwayne found himself sinking in mud.
Dwarven Earth mages countered the Demon Horde’s magic. Dwayne and his line rose out of the ground, still hurling themselves through the Horde.
Dwayne felt the Stone Raiders’ frustration building as they got into the rhythm of the battle.
Some of the Demon Horde started to turn and flee but the DCA weren’t about to let them escape. Airborne DCA soldiers wielding swords cut down the fleeing creatures.
Dwayne’s shield cracked a Demon’s head; his blade took the leg off another.
The Horde was strong, but the Stone Raiders were bloodied veterans with more experience and an understanding of teamwork that the Horde didn’t have.
Artillery fell silent and spells thinned out. The different allies were too close to the Demon Horde. Any support they provided had a good chance of hurting friendly forces.
Dwayne slowed his advance, taking his time through the Horde to save his Stamina and armor, so it wouldn’t need as much repairing later.
The Demon Horde broke, trying to flee and save themselves. The DCA hunted them down. Archers and mages sent spells after them.
“Okay, everyone heal up and we’ll group off to the side again,” Dwayne said.
“Shields! Switch front rank!” the Dwarven leader yelled. The shields came apart to reveal the Dwarves underneath. The front rank turned; the following ranks walked past them, snapping forward as soon as they were past. This continued until the first rank was the last rank. Healers checked them over, as Dwarves checked their gear and got some water into them.
“Prepare to march!” The Warclan divided into their box-like formations once again, so that they could get through the rough terrain, in smaller, more versatile packets.
“I’m always impressed by the Dwarves. Their coordination, especially among their veteran units, is as scary as it is reassuring,” Anna said, beside Dwayne.
“That it is. I keep on forgetting that Dave is a Master Smith with them. I didn’t realize how much power came with that. Dwarves always stay in their mountains, so it’s hard to know how powerful they really are,” Dwayne said.
“Well, a good way to think of it is that the Dwarven Master Smiths are like a senate that has proved themselves through their work and their abilities. They vote on things to lead their people. The president is whoever is leading that council at the time. The lords and ladies who rule the mountains are like retainers that the Dwarven people and the Master Smiths agree to lead them. When the Dwarves go to war, the Master Smiths must give their permission as the Warclans are under their command.”
“Damn, that is a lot of power,” Dwayne grunted.
“It is, which is why they are not simply elected and the president is only for a month or so. They only deal with large issues; the rest the lords and ladies or other elected people deal with. I think the fact that they hate politicking and really just want to build awesome things makes the whole thing work.” Anna shrugged.
“The more I learn about all the lore about Emerilia, the more excited I am. I don’t know how the Jukal Corporation did it, but they made one hell of a world here,” Dwayne said.
It was Anna’s turn to look thoughtful as she studied Dwayne. “One day you’ll understand the true extent that the Jukal went to create this place.”
Her voice was hard, but Dwayne couldn’t help but feel that she sounded almost sad.
“We’ve got another decent-sized Demon Horde group a few kilometers from you. It looks like they saw the battle and are turning toward you. Kala and her forces are moving through the cliffs to deal with the Demons that got in there,” Koza said over the northern clearing force’s chat.
“How many in the Horde?” Fonrir, the Warclan leader, asked.
“We’re counting twenty-five thousand, though there are other groups joining them. Might be around thirty thousand by the time they meet you,” Koza said.
“Shall we make a defensive position and let them throw themselves against us? We can keep a creeping artillery barrage at their rear, pin them to us. Once we thin them out, we can advance, killing them or driving them into the artillery,” Fonrir said.
“Sounds like a plan to me. Most of my Earth and Dark mages are off working on sealing the cliffs, so we will probably need some help getting our defenses up,” Dwayne said. The POE’s AI was incredibly brilliant; their speech tree was incredible. They could remember a great litany of things, making the experience every person had with them different. Just like interactions between real people were.
“We have a bunch of fortification circuits we can use to make walls and other such things,” Fonrir reassured Dwayne.
“Perfect. Well, let’s get to work then!”
Chapter 19: Time To Step It Up
Steve cheered as Malsour’s rock-surfboard crested over the cliffs and started racing them down toward the northern group that was engaged in battle with a group of Demon Horde.
Dave laughed out loud as they flew down the slopes.
Five pillars of golden light ripped through the air, right into the middle of the Demon Horde’s lines. The light killed enemies but healed allies at the same time. Dave destroyed the conjured staff that was slowly melting in his hands.
“How are you able to do that and not collapse?” Malsour asked. The two of them were at the rear of the surfboard, away from Gurren, Lox, and Steve at the prow; a small railing kept them from falling off.
“I was going about using the armor’s power wrong. I was channeling it through myself and then pushing it into spells. It strained the hell out of my mind. What I’m doing now is making objects; I magically code them to create some effect and tie it to my armor’s power source. I just point, activate, and the power goes right from my armor to the conjured item. Instead of painting a masterpiece inside my mind, I’m writing it out. It’s not as flexible as spell casting, but it means I can do some really massive spells without having to worry about my mental fatigue.” Dave smiled.
“Every time I think I’ve seen the upper limit of your abilities, you show me something completely new.”
“Well, what about this?” Dave’s conjuring rod appeared in his hand and a rune glowed on the back of his hand. Runes glowed across his body, his eyes shining. The rod turned into a wand; magical coding covered it.
The air crackled with power as similar creatures to Malsour’s darklings appeared.
“Darklings, but how are they in the light?” Malsour asked, astonished.
“I guess they’re technically lightlings. I just took their constructs and made them from Light instead of Dark. As fast as darklings, but gather power from the Light instead of the Dark. As your darklings can grow with the consuming of their victims’ bodies, lightlings grow with consuming souls.” Dave calmly observed the lightlings that spread out among the Demon Horde. The Demons, being Creatures of Power, could hurt the lightlings but they were nowhere as fast as the shimmering half-formed creatures.
Other creations and soul bound creatures appeared on the field of battle, helping the lightlings, forcing the Demon Horde to fight a battle on multiple fronts even as the casters and summoners remained safely behind their defenses.
“Look at that.” Steve pointed to a Demon Champion who dove into the Demon Horde, cutting through it, supported by the Stone Raiders’ myriad of controlled beasts and the Dwarf’s war golems that erupted from the ground.
“Someone must have soul bound the Demon Champion to them,” Malsour said, a note of respect in his voice.
“That must’ve been a hard thing to do,” Dave said.
“Probably, but if they were injured or nearly dead, then it makes it easier to soul bind them. Also with the soul binding contracts, it could suppress the Demon’s hunger for souls and remove the Dark Lord’s compulsions.”
“Soul bin
ding contracts help to stabilize the contracted creature. I’m happy Suzy’s as strong as she is. Without her, I might have lost my bearing on reality.” Steve shuddered.
“Well, now you can stand by us and hunt down this Demon Horde.” Lox patted the metal giant’s leg.
“Nearly there!” Malsour yelled. The rock platform left the cliff for a bit as they sailed through the air. A pillar came up, grabbing them and pulling them into contact with the cliff once again as they continued to race forward.
“Here we go!” The platform sprouted spikes as it slammed through the Demon Horde’s formation closest to the cliff.
Bands appeared around Dave’s hands and his eyes blazed with power.
Lox, Gurren, and Steve roared as the platform came to a stop. They smashed into the Demon Horde. Dave turned to face the flanking Demon Horde, cutting one down with a thin blade and throwing an axe into another Demon before he recalled it to his hands. Malsour cleared the way to the Dwarven lines to their right.
The fortifications around the clearing forces lowered as they marched forward. The army of thirty thousand was now barely a third of its original size. Artillery continued to blossom on the party’s right, killing anything that moved into their barrier formed from firepower.
“Well, let’s see how this goes.” Dave released his conjuration rods, letting them float as the conjured bracers started to rotate. The different runes on the metal glowed a brilliant blue.
Light projected from his hands, directed into the Demon Horde. It took but a few seconds. Dave turned and moved. His conjuration rods moved to his belt as he used short bursts, firing the Light cannons on his arms tens of times per second, pushing his higher Intelligence as he seemed to flow through the battlefield. Nothing could touch him as he fired the Light cannons.
It was impressive but it couldn’t last as he had to keep stabilizing his bracers, so the conjuration and magical coding wouldn’t fall apart. They disappeared, as he came up under an attacker trying to claw his face.
His axe slammed into their back as he turned around and dragged his other axe across their neck. A metal spear slammed through a Demon about to claw at Dave.
Emerilia Series Box Set 2 Page 49
