Mana was drawn toward the golden man as Jurumba roared, hacking into the last guard, his armor holding his blade there.
Others fired on the golden man gathering his mana.
He formed a barrier that shook with impacts.
Erik climbed out of a shattered wall only to be sliced by the woman’s blade of water.
Erik’s armor took the first blow. The second cut his left arm, while the third cut his legs. He had no time to hiss in pain as blood welled from the new wounds, his silver bones showing through his skin.
There was a wild look in her eyes. Green veins traced around her head, distorting the clean tattooed lines. Mana and elements surged under her command as her power increased. The formation on her hip glowed as if it would spark into flames at any moment.
Erik’s punches were met with blades as they sped up, their attacks becoming blurs as the building they were in came apart under the force of their attacks. Erik used falling blocks as spikes to attack her from the rear.
She jumped clear and pulled the building down, collapsing it upon Erik.
Erik smashed out, leaving a trail of dust.
She was there in an instant, attacking him with her violent, direct attacks.
Erik fended her off as she leapt backward and pulled out twin blades, one black, the other brown.
“You are stronger than I thought you would be. Then again, you are a dungeon lord, but just one from the Earth Realms.”
Their attacks struck out at one another. Erik was thrown backward; she took the opening.
Mana vapor emanated from her mana channels and eyes as she stabbed forward. Lightning hit him straight on, burning through his eyes as it hit him in the side.
Erik gasped in pain as he struck the ground, rolling away. He pressed a healing spell into the wound as he pushed away from the ground. Spikes shot from where he had been lying.
A path of lightning forged through the ground, melting it.
Erik was breathing heavily as he pulled out his rifle and fired.
Her blades snapped out. Lightning ran through the path of rounds, causing them to explode. Erik was peppered with shrapnel as she flicked her swords and shot toward him. Her blow sent him flying out of the building, back into the plaza.
“He forced you to use your mana formation, Bela.” The golden man was standing behind his half mana barrier. He threw a potion bottle to the side, wiping his face.
Erik stood up and charged the woman. She struck out as he halted his movement and unleashed a mana drill into her front.
A shocked expression formed on her face as her medallions cracked and the drill surged through her body.
“Bela!” the man roared as the world seemed to compress around Erik.
Erik was hit with mana blasts and mana spears. His leg was blown away as he was tossed backward. Another blast threw him forward. Attacks rained down on him as a spear drilled into his arm.
Gilly’s attack on the golden man threw him to the side.
“You beast!” The man pulled in power, consuming his shield as a pillar of mana struck Gilly.
“No!” Erik yelled as blood blossomed and Gilly smashed through the building she had protected the wounded from.
He didn’t care about surviving to lead Alva anymore, nor did he consider the long-distance ramification of his survival. He should have destroyed his core from the start and taken them both with him!
Power rippled out from him as he grew. Fire, earth, metal, and wood. The elements circled him. Wind tore through the square as he extended his domain. He blinked to the side, a cracked line in the ground where a spear of water crashed into the ground.
He used finger beats fist on the attacks coming from above. A ragtag group of four guards and the man in red armor rained attacks down on Erik.
Erik roared, taking a hit to his left arm in exchange for killing one of the guards.
“Ranko, I cannot hold him for long!” the man yelled.
“No, you don’t!” Erik turned and hurled spells at the golden man.
The man tore a spell scroll. A red and blue light embraced him and hurled him into the sky away from Erik’s attacks.
Erik drew on the power of the area. The buildings came apart, forcing the special teams to run for cover as Erik used finger beats fist.
A chaotic light of green, red, silver, and yellow cut the sky. The golden man’s sphere transformed into a barrier, expending the last of his power.
Erik’s attack colored the barrier and caused it to waver and then break before it struck Ranko in the side. The energies spread through the wound and the man, wreaking havoc.
Attacks rained down around Erik. He raised a barrier against them, feeling his energies dissipating. He’d stressed his body way beyond its limits.
The attack volume died down, revealing the weapons fire from the railguns.
The teams drove off the armored man, who chased after Ranko on his mount with two guards.
“Gilly!” a voice thundered from above before something slammed into the ground, throwing wind through the area. Erik was unable to see as he poured power into his body to fight.
Two more impacts shook the ground. He looked over to see a familiar figure.
“William?” Erik was feeling weak from the stamina and mana fatigue as he sped up the healing of his body.
William roared as rain suddenly poured from the skies above, rushing toward the building Gilly had been thrown through.
Erik felt his connection to her; it was weak, so weak. He pushed himself to his knee, using his good leg and arm as the other two regrew. He clambered toward the restaurant.
Special team members were being pulled out. The rain washed the dust away as the sky started to clear.
Roska was coordinating a defense, ignoring her broken right arm. Others rushed to help Yang Zan with the wounded.
Yao Meng stabbed a revival needle into what looked like Tian Cui.
Erik pushed on, picking up speed. Gilly had smashed through several walls. She lay on her back. From her neck down to her abdomen, mana still burned. Her wounds were horrific as she keened against the stone.
A man with long hair was patting her chest.
“There, there little one.” His voice was choking up.
It was Fred. He turned, looking at Erik with tears in his eyes.
Erik pushed away from William, hopping forward and reaching out to Gilly. “Oh, Gilly, girl.”
He pulled out a revival needle and used organic scan. As he drove his hand forward, the man held his hand. Erik turned to yell at him, seeing Elder Fred’s tear-stained face.
“There’s nothing that even you can do, Erik.”
Erik wanted to argue, but his organic scan told him the truth.
Gilly nuzzled him.
He fell to the ground, letting her put her head on his lap. He took out another needle and pressed it to her neck and injected it. Her body relaxed as the pain killer took effect.
I do good, master?
“You did great, Gilly. You saved me.” Erik ran his hand down her head.
She had a pleased expression on her face as she got comfortable in his lap and closed her eyes.
A few seconds later a tombstone appeared over her body.
He lay down Gilly’s head gently and scratched her favourite spot. Something raw and rough reached into him, twisting his guts and heart. He looked down at his ruined body. He slammed a revival needle into his leg and took a sudden breath, letting out a shuddering sigh. “I need to check on my people.”
Fred nodded, moving to where Erik had sat.
Erik hobbled on his regrowing leg into the square. He didn’t see Fred buckle to his knees as he leaned his head over Gilly’s still form.
There were more wounded than healthy. Everyone sported injuries of different kinds.
Roska, Yang Zan, Yao Meng and Rajkovic worked on those needing critical care. They were laid out in the street. Jurumba and Tully put another body on the opposite side of the wounded.
Three bodies lay there. They moved to help the others.
Erik joined them.
“Pri Alpha, Bravo, Charlie,” Roska pointed at the different groups she’d created. “Erik on Alpha, you two on Bravos.”
They bent to work.
“Roska, find out what the situation is. We need to get moving before we have more people on our asses,” Erik said.
“Yes, sir,” Roska said in a terse voice and stepped to the side to use her sound transmission device.
Rugrat saw the attacks raining down on Erik and his teams in the distance. “On me!”
They banked and turned, picking up speed as the sky darkened.
“Barrier!” Rugrat yelled as he felt a surge of mana.
Water spears crashed into the barrier, just short of breaking it.
“Get low, between the buildings! They have the altitude!”
Rugrat led them down into the streets. They blew up dust as they flew between the buildings just above the street.
“Where the fuck did these guys come from?” Niemm yelled.
“They’re strong!” Gong Jin grunted.
Water spears rained down ahead of the group. They hammered their barrier as they drove through.
Rugrat conjured fireballs that shot out, striking the water spears, and shattering the ones that would have hit his people. He raised his hand, firing a fireball into the houses at the end of the street. The houses exploded, creating a new pathway for the teams to squeeze through.
“Shit, there’s a park up ahead!” Niemm yelled.
“We need to pass it to get to the others!” Rugrat cast a speed buff over them all. Their speed increased, and they surged over the large park. It was pockmarked with signs of fighting, formation plates, and undead skeletons. The sect’s ground fighters and aerial forces that had broken through here were only corpses.
“Incoming!” he shouted. George and the other mounts slowed as a group of fighters raced past them and rode over the ground. They dismounted easily and landed in the park as their mounts flew away.
Spells appeared above Rugrat and his teams.
“They’re forcing us to land!” Gong Jin hissed.
“Do it!”
They stored their mounts and dropped to the ground. Rugrat took the impact with his legs, his rifle up and ready. He fired at the man he could sense the least about, but who was drawing in the most mana.
The man’s barrier stopped his round, stunning Rugrat.
“Break into two. Take his guards. I’ll deal with the dungeon lord!”
The teams fired as the guards and their leader charged.
Their barriers sparked with impacts or deflected the rounds into the ground.
Niemm, Deni, and Setsuko fired grenade launchers.
The explosions sowed destruction among the eight guards, but four of them still stood.
A tombstone appeared over one guard. Two others hit the ground on their feet and kept running. The fourth was stumbling, barely remaining upright.
Rugrat fired on full auto. His heating blocks shot up as his explosive shots covered the leader’s barrier.
His barrier broke just five meters from Rugrat.
“Rugrat, what’s your situation?” Erik’s voice rang in Rugrat’s ears.
Spells rained down on the teams as Team Three dropped two more fighters.
A spear shot out at Rugrat as the leader took a round to the chest. His armor stopped it from getting any farther. His wild eyes and grin scared Rugrat more.
Rugrat hit the ground and threw himself back up. He attacked the man with mana blades.
“Melee!” Niemm yelled.
They stored their rifles and pulled out their blades as the guards tore into the special teams.
The spear-using leader lashed out at the mana blades that attacked him, using his armor to take the hits.
Rugrat fired at his feet. The man jumped and used the resulting explosion to propel himself forward.
Rugrat created a fireball and hurled it at the man. He cut it away with a flick of his spear and landed on the ground, shifting his spear to the ready.
Rugrat could see the fighting behind the spear leader. An Alvan was cut down and another hit with a spell that sent them flying backward.
The teams were strong. The fact they could stand up against these fighters was a testament to their ability.
Rugrat cast chains under the feet of one of the guards. Chains captured him as Deni separated his head from his shoulders.
The spear leader charged forward, using the distraction of his guard’s death.
Chains of elemental mana tore free of the ground, trying to capture the man. The field of chains grabbed his right arm, pulling him to the side.
Rugrat aimed and fired in one fluid motion. The man twisted and jumped, and the rounds struck his leg armor. His leg below the knee disappeared.
The group of guards fighting Team Three broke their formation and all the remaining fighters joined in on the fight. They were a whirlwind of attacks. Only the special teams’ coordination kept them alive.
“Simms, left!”
“Tyrone!”
“Now Jackie!
“Deni, duck!
One mistake, one pause, could mean dying.
The spear user struck the ground and his domain surged outward, clearing the spells around him.
Rugrat changed his magazine as the other man’s leg regrew at a visible speed.
“Interesting weapon you have there. You’ll have to teach me how you use it!”
There were still five guards, unleashing techniques on the team members, pinning them into place. Simms was thrown backward with an attack, crashing and rolling on the ground.
“Simms!” Han Wu yelled, still fighting. They didn’t have time to help the wounded.
The spear leader launched his attack. Mana blades attacked the man, but he wove through them, his spear stabbed into Rugrat’s shoulder.
Rugrat felt his mana being drained from him.
The spear user had a cruel expression on his face.
“Not the first time I’ve not had mana, fuck head.”
Rugrat wrapped his teeth around a pull tab inside his helmet and yanked on it. Chains of air coiled around the spear user, locking him in place. Rugrat raised his rifle.
The armored man held out his hand, creating a barrier. Rugrat fired. The piercing round hurled the man backward. All the railgun’s heat blocks popped and smoked as one.
The man tore his spear from Rugrat as he landed. Rugrat stumbled. Mana flowed back into his body. He yelled, turning it into a roar as the ground shook. His domain expanded to its limit.
Chains exploded from the ground, their bladed ends seeking Black Phoenix Clan members.
The guards were captured, distracted, and killed. The spear user fought on with only five guards left of his fifteen.
“To Eternus!” the red-armored spear user yelled.
He jumped into the sky, pulling out a mount. His guards rushed to follow him into the sky. One mount was caught by a chain, exploding and killing the guard that had pulled it out.
Another guard dodged a chain attack as Han Wu punched him in the chest, throwing him backward.
The man stumbled as the explosive Han Wu put on his chest went off.
Gong Jin’s war hammer smashed another guard to the side, and he fell to the ground. Deni shot him with her railgun.
The team fired on the fleeing group, spell scroll barriers protecting them.
Rugrat lowered his rifle, withdrawing his domain. “Report!”
“One dead, three wounded!” Gong Jin yelled.
“Two wounded!” Niemm said.
“All right, get them stabilized. Niemm, stay here. Gong Jin, and whoever you can spare, we’re moving for the other teams.”
“Father’s gone over there to support them.” Racquel’s voice came from above.
“What the hell?” Rugrat lowered his rifle, waving to the others.
“We came when we heard
you were under attack. We got into contact with Commander Glosil and assisted Colonel Yui’s people on the outer wall. He couldn’t raise any of you, so he sent us to assist.
“Colonel Yui, this is Rugrat. Report.”
“We got the teleportation pads back online. We’re pulling back. What’s your situation?”
“We dealt with the threat.” Rugrat watched as Simms’ body was gathered into Gong Jin’s storage ring.
“Yeah, you should watch out. The groups that were attacking us shifted away.”
“Got it. Meet you back at the castle compound.” Rugrat cut the channel and felt a wash of fatigue. “Fuck me, operating at two hundred percent is a bitch.” He pulled out a stamina potion and drank it.
“So, hello?” he said to Dromm, Racquel, and Elizabeth.
“We heard things weren’t going so well. The ship wasn’t part of what we heard,” Racquel clarified.
“A new addition.” Rugrat’s voice was sickly sweet as he turned and jogged to the teams.
“We’re linking up with the others. They’ve dealt with their threat. We’ll head into the under city and run for the castle compound. That ship is fucking up our teleportation abilities, so we have to move quickly. Good to go?”
“Good, sir.” Gong Jin nodded.
“Yes, sir,” Niemm agreed.
“We’re going to Lagola Plaza. Let’s pick up the pace.”
62
Best Laid Plans
Commander Glosil’s brows pulled together as he studied the map of Vuzgal.
“Colonel Yui has gotten into contact with the special teams. They’re heading toward the compound through the under city,” Major Hall reported.
“Has the enemy gained access?”
“No. We collapsed any section of the city where they tried to get into the under city.”
“Good.” Glosil watched the markers of their forces retreating to the castle compound. “The Rail cannons?”
“They are being disassembled as we speak, and all materials of the Vuzgal Academy have already been removed,” Hall said.
“Good. Without supporting weaponry, the railguns wouldn’t be able to do anything. We may need them in the future. I don’t like how that frigate is getting closer, but at least they’re not rushing in. Egbert!”
Seventh Realm Part 1: A LitRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 8) Page 72