Jung Lee’s hearing was enhanced so that he could easily hear the drums of the War Clans as they entered the castles and advanced toward the area between the castle and the outer walls.
“Esa wants us back in the castle to deal with the last remaining Xelur Grand Demon Lord!” Deia yelled over the party chat.
“Ready when you are,” Dave said, cutting through Xelur.
“I can leave these spirits here. If they consume all of their power, it will take only a few hours for the originals to regain their lost energy,” Jung Lee said after having gained a better understanding of the Free Affinity spirits within his body.
“Okay, let’s go!” Deia shot off into the sky, a ray of fire, conjuring a raging fire storm in the midst of the Xelur.
Dave jumped into the air, dumping a bag of grenades that created a trail behind him. The runes lit up on them as they were hurled out by different fields created by the orbs that circled Dave.
Explosions rippled out of the Xelur ranks, killing and severely wounding many.
Jekoni left his massive water sphere covered in spinning blades they expanded as the sphere collapsed inward. It let out a terrifying buzzing noise as Jung Lee was freed from protecting Jekoni. The water blades spun and shot outwards, cutting through the Xelur that were clashing with the reinforcing Dwarves trying to contain the Xelur that had broken through the eastern side.
***
Dave looked at the crater that the remaining members of Party Zero, frowning as he saw no signs of Induca, Suzy, Lu Lu, and Anna.
They altered their course to meet up with Party Zero.
The southeastern wall exploded outwards, the rocks stopped before reaching the crater. Malsour threw them at the Xelur around those in the crater as a Grand Demon Lord let out a roar of victory as they exited the wall, entering the open area between the castles.
Dave, Deia, and Jekoni dropped to the ground.
Steve, Gurren, and Lox were all showing signs of heavy fighting. Their armor was broken in places, with Gurren and Lox conjuring up hands as well as weapons in order to fight. Their chests were slowly reforming where it looked as if a hot poker had been stabbed into them.
“Where are Suzy, Anna, and Induca?” Dave landed in a run, a claymore in his hands as he smashed into a Xelur Demon Lord, cutting them down and whirling away under another’s attack. His claymore turned into a war hammer as he smashed it into their side and threw them backward.
“They were hit badly by the Grand Demon Lord—they’re in Terra.” Lox savagely punched a Xelur in the face with his shield to vent the anger that he turned in on himself.
“Advance!” The dwarven War Clan leader’s order carried over the castle as the dwarven lines moved forward. Behind them, lines of ranged fighters, from mages to archers, javelin throwers and destruction staff users, unleashed their attacks, tearing into the Xelur Demons’ lines. With the victory of Lox’s group and Deia’s group emerging victorious over their Grand Demon Lords, the dwarven lines were sweeping up the Xelur soldiers and lower-ranked Demon Lords within the castle’s defenses. This allowed their engineers to repair the walls and counterattack the Xelur.
“For now, we need to focus on killing that final Xelur Grand Demon Lord. If we can get rid of him, then the Xelur’s morale will break and we can push them out of the castle and chase them back to the ones that they came from,” Deia said.
Deia was as close to Suzy and Induca as sisters might be but right now she couldn’t let that distract her from her position as leader of Party Zero.
“If Steve, Lox, Gurren, and I are to attack, we can fully suppress the Grand Demon Lord,” Jung Lee said.
“Malsour and I can weaken him,” Dave added.
“Jekoni and I should be enough to support you all and hit him with strong spells. Together we can destroy him,” Deia said.
“Then we will need a path.” Malsour’s voice carried over the open area as he stomped his leg. The black flames that surrounded the crater parted in front of the party, spiked walls appeared from the ground, impaling the Xelur in the way.
The Grand Demon Lord looked down the corridor that connected him and Party Zero.
A circle of stone appeared around them, cutting them and the Xelur within from those outside.
Malsour leaned forward. Black flames rushed forward, the corridor serving to direct the flames. The weaker Xelur couldn’t even defend against the attacks.
Party Zero rushed down the corridor as the Grand Demon Lord took to the sky, his aura becoming more powerful.
“It’s whack-a-mole!” Steve’s whole body glowed with power as he shot upward into the sky. Lox, Gurren, and Jung Lee were beside him as they appeared above the Xelur Grand Demon Lord.
“Come on then, you big bastard!” Gurren yelled. He and Lox attacked together, distracting the Xelur Grand Demon Lord and putting him on the defensive.
“Down. You. GO!” Steve yelled, his his armor glowed with runes as his soul gem-constructed body lit up the holes in his armor as he brought his axe downward, glowing with its own runic lines.
The Grand Demon Lord looked like a meteor tearing through the heavens as he rose. His twin swords stabbed out at Steve.
“Didn’t you hear the man?” Jung Lee yelled, his his own power ignited. It was less than when he had fought the other Grand Demon Lord but he moved in a flash, his sword expanded until it was ten meters long and smashed against the Xelur Grand Demon Lord’s seven-meter-long swords. He grunted with exertion as he pushed them backward slightly, opening the Xelur Grand Demon’s defenses just enough for Steve’s hit to connect.
The Grand Demon Lord was pushed downward ten meters, still in the air.
Malsour created metal spears that killed off those who hadn’t died with his flames while Deia and Dave raced forward, their bows letting loose arrows that tore through the Xelur.
Jekoni gestured; water droplets sped through the air, leaving holes in the Xelur’s foreheads as they dropped to the ground. He floated beside Malsour as they moved forward at a relaxed pace.
Steve had been tossed back by the impact of his attack had the Grand Demon Lord more angry than anything that the hit had impacted his soul energy but not his Health.
Again, Lox, Gurren, and Jung Lee kept the Grand Demon Lord wrapped up as Steve pounded on the Grand Demon Lord as if he were nothing more than a nail to be hammered into wood.
At their backs, the Dwarven War Clans were advancing, opening to allow POE and players to pass through their lines as they cut down the Xelur without mercy.
Archers on the castles and mages supporting the dwarves took out the Demon Lords, allowing the dwarves to only deal with the normal Xelur forces.
These War Clans had been trained at the Mithsia Mountains for months and tempered in the Ashal wilderness around Aldamire Mountain. Their strength and fighting abilities were greater than most other War Clan’s that had been fielded in the past.
They took injuries here and there but it was hard to notice as they pushed onward like an unstoppable juggernaut of shields and swords. Even in the eyes of these venerated shield bearers, there was a look of respect as they looked upon the members of Party Zero. They were powerful and decisive. Even if they were weak and wounded, they continued forward against any that stood in their way.
Dave and Deia rose up into the air, Malsour between them as the Grand Demon Lord was smashed into the ground by Steve’s axe.
“And stay there!” Steve slammed against a wall from the recoil of his attack, using the wall to push off and return to the fight.
Dave was linked to Steve, as well as Deia, Lox, and Gurren’s armor. The fighting had not been easy on Lox, Steve, and Gurren’s power reserves.
He directed the power that was being captured by his armor through specialized circuits and shared it with the other three instead of storing it within the vault soul gem that he carried in his bag of holding as his own armor was fully charged.
The others’ power levels climbed upward. Their upwards their s
trength increased as Lox and Gurren’s missing hands and melted chest started to repair itself at a faster rate.
The three’s attacks increased in speed and power while Jung Lee continued to add his own attacks. The four of them were able to fully suppress the Grand Demon Lord, even getting hits on the Grand Demon Lord who was now fully enraged, unable to escape or move, being treated as nothing more than a demon punching bag.
In no more than it would take a person to blink, Deia clicked the wheel on her bow over to a new setting. Power surged through the bow, lighting up new runes as blue flames flickered over the bow. She pulled on the bow’s string; an arrow of solid blue appeared between her fingers. She drew the string fully back before she released it.
The air shuddered and exploded outward in a pressure wave. The blue arrow turned into a ray of blue light as it passed under Steve’s raised arm and over Jung Lee’s shoulder before it hit the Grand Demon Lord straight on.
The Grand Demon Lord was thrown backward at Gurren, who turned his shield and sword into a war hammer that he swung with all of his strength, his runes blinding as they were overclocked by the power surging through them.
The war hammer hit the Grand Demon Lord and stopped his momentum.
Gurren’s conjured war hammer and hands were destroyed by the forces placed upon them.
From around Dave, orbs shot forward, creating a hexagonal prism with orbs digging through the ground to create all of the various major points. Gray light spread between them all; magical formations appeared along the faces of the prism that surrounded the Xelur Grand Demon Lord.
The Grand Demon Lord didn’t have time to get from its knees when the ground around it shattered, gravitational forces acting upon the Grand Demon Lord.
If we weren’t restricted by the AI’s damn parameters, I could just make it so that he couldn’t move at all, Dave hissed in his mind.
The Grand Demon Lord’s injuries from Deia’s attack were repairing; his soul aura took a few moments to stabilize itself. Deia’s attack had actually blown off his arm. The soul energy still regrew the limb at a speed visible to the eye.
The Xelur Grand Demon Lord, because of his size, was having more trouble in the gravitational prison than a smaller person might, but he still regained his footing. He was in the center of the gravitational forces.
Lox and Gurren hurled out conjured javelins; their wrists and hands were still broken, so they couldn’t fire out Mana bolts. The javelins, upon reaching the edge of the gravity prison, sped up even more, smashing against the Grand Demon Lord.
He howled out in anger as Jung Lee and Steve unleashed their powered attacks with their weapons, axe, and sword light racing toward the Grand Demon Lord. He blocked Jung Lee’s attack with his right sword, waving his left hand as his other sword leapt from the ground and raced to meet his newly formed hand.
Steve’s hit made him stagger backward; the gravity prison pulled him back into place even as his aura fought against the pull of the prison.
At this time, there was no one left. Malsour had killed the last of the Xelur soldiers that had been trying to escape the walled area, not caring for their Grand Demon Lord that was being completely suppressed.
Deia fired another arrow at the Grand Demon Lord as Malsour looked upon them, unleashing his most powerful attack, flames of the abyss. Wherever the flames passed, the ground was torn asunder, reduced to its molecular components.
The Grand Demon Lord pushed his aura to the maximum, creating a solid shield of pure soul energy in front of him as he wildly attacked one of the gravity prison’s orbs that created it.
Even the soul energy was slowed as it passed through that gravity prison, hitting a Mana barrier around the orb.
Dave laughed coldly. “You think that you will be able to break my gravity prison? Think again. I might not have your soul energy, but I’m a dwarven master smith. I work with soul energy every day and I made magical coding. With just your strength, you won’t be able to defeat my creations,” Dave said with the utmost confidence.
The Grand Demon Lord let out a roar of anger, not willing to accept his fate as he pushed away from the center of the prison, wildly slashing out at Party Zero.
“Finish him off,” Deia said. With his power reduced by twenty to thirty percent in the prison and his speed cut to a third, he was a much easier opponent to deal with.
The Grand Demon Lord wasn’t given time to gather himself as all of Party Zero unleashed their finishing moves. Deia used her modified plasma cannon with her bow. Dave continued to enclose the Demon Lord, altering his orbs’ coding here and there to keep continuous pressure on them. Gurren and Lox hurled javelins while Steve unleashed powerful slash attacks that penetrated through the octagonal gravity prison. Jung Lee held up his hand; a swirl of all the Affinities came together to focus into a gray stream of Mana that pierced through the Demon Lord’s soul energy. With the Free Affinity spirits now being allowed more freedom, these creatures that had tried to take over Jung Lee for hundreds of years now tore through the Demon Lord’s own soul, weakening his control over the soul energy he had collected. Rain fell from the sky, each drop as fast as a bullet and concentrated on the Grand Demon Lord as Jekoni looked on with cold eyes. Malsour’s breath was concentrated and condensed, eating away at the Grand Demon Lord’s soul energy.
The Grand Demon Lord’s Health rushed downward. Even though it had Legendary abilities that it could use, it needed to have control over itself, its body and its soul energy in order to use them. Right now it didn’t have control over anything; racked by pain, thrown off by the attacks and the suppression, its mind was frantic and filled with panic.
Its size greatly reduced as its soul energy was spent, shrinking from a dominating fifteen meters tall until he was only two meters tall. He combusted his own soul but it was under attack by Jung Lee’s Free Affinity spirits, reducing his control over it and making it more chaotic.
The attacks tore through the Grand Demon Lord’s body. Malsour’s breath reduced the Grand Demon Lord to nothing more than ashes.
The attacks stopped as all of Party Zero looked at where the Grand Demon Lord had been. All of them looked at the spot, as if not believing that it was truly over.
“Stamina, and Mana potions!” Deia said, bringing everyone out of their stunned state.
“Lox, Gurren—get over here. Let’s see if Malsour and I can’t help fix up your armor,” Dave said.
They wandered over as the orbs around the Grand Demon Lord’s ashes powered down and faded away from view as they moved toward Dave. They were still there but their stealth abilities made them practically invisible.
“What happened with Induca and Suzy?” Dave inspected the armor, pulling metals from his pack.
Around them, the sounds of fighting could be heard as the dwarves moved past the walled-off area Malsour had created, pushing the Xelur backward.
Many of them, no longer sensing their Grand Demon Lord, were completely disheartened. Even the Demon Lords were having trouble in trying to keep them fighting. They understood that if the Grand Demon Lord had been killed, then it would be easy for them to die.
Even though they lived in a world of fighting in an attempt to gain more soul energy, they didn’t want to throw their lives away. They wanted to survive to use that energy and not lose it to anyone else. As such, they were giving ground, allowing themselves to be pushed back to the breaches, fighting those that they could.
Before Lox, Gurren, and Malsour could respond to Dave, Esa sent a message to Party Zero.
“Good work on the Grand Demon Lord. The Xelur are in disarray, as soon as you’re ready, I want you to get out there and hit them with everything you have. As you do, I’ll unleash everything we have in reserve. If we can break them here, then they’ll pull back to their castles.”
“We’ll be ready in five minutes,” Deia said.
Chapter 8: Rout
Anna watched as Induca’s body started to repair itself.
The heal
ers talked to one another, directing their healing spells as well as using the healing potions in order to speed up recovery. The healer in charge and his assistant continued to focus on her head. Induca’s face was still covered in blood but it had recovered to her original structure.
“Seems that she’s coming around,” the healer in charge said.
“Damn, looks like she’s got a strong Willpower. It’s a pain to keep her suppressed so that she doesn’t come to with her body in its current state.”
The lead healer and his assistant grunted and sweat as they fought Induca, who was trying to wake up, her face wrinkling with effort.
“Induca, let them work!” Anna yelled out in a panic, seeing how Induca’s stubborn personality could let her wake up, see her injuries and then make everything worse for the healers to deal with.
Induca’s face relaxed.
“Looks like she was conscious enough to hear you,” the lead healer said with clear relief as the other healers continued to work. Together they repaired what was left of Induca before allowing the healing potions to get to work. The healing potions could have done it all themselves, but with healing, they took energy from the person they were putting back together. With Induca, that kind of strain might be too much on her weak body.
Also, with them repairing what was left, it meant that they didn’t have to use as much healing potion and that the patient would heal faster.
As sections of Induca were set in place, the healers would then spread the healing potion over Induca.
Bit by bit, her body was coming back. Already her organs were working; her bones were fused together and regrown in places. Muscle and skin reformed as Induca started to look more like a person.
Anna didn’t know how much time went by as she looked on anxiously before Induca’s body was fully recovered.
The healers, all tired from their exertions, drank Stamina potions, while one of them laid a cloth over Induca’s body.
Of Myths and Legends (Emerilia Book 9) Page 12
