Being so close to the eastern castle, the Nerhoun was unable to defeat many of the high-powered plasma cannon grand workings that were tearing its barrier apart with ease.
Still, it was capable of blocking Suzy’s darts, which she was now detonating away from the Nerhoun’s Mana barrier so as to at least affect it somewhat. However, that was becoming risky for her as the explosion of her creation’s core could also hurt the castle’s own Mana barrier. So many of her darts were being cut apart before they left the castle’s barrier and reached the Nerhoun’s.
Suddenly, the Nerhoun’s barrier disappeared.
Dave didn’t pause, increasing the speed of his grenades as the Nerhoun looked to retreat behind the center Nerhoun who had been waiting to switch out.
The unshielded Nerhoun took multiple hits. Its armored scale-covered head was able to take impact after impact. However, its powerful tentacles were easily cut apart by the high-powered attacks.
Dave had released nearly two hundred grenades. The Nerhoun or the Nalheim destroyed a hundred of them by accident or on purpose as they closed with the Nerhoun. Only ten were able to make it through the forest of tentacles and up toward the top of the Nerhoun.
Dave commanded them to fly with all speed upward.
Three more were destroyed by small inner tentacles before the seven remaining grenades touched the bottom of the Nerhoun’s fleshy underside that lay within the scale-covered head.
The sound of their explosions wasn’t even audible under the attacks that thundered through the air, tearing the very ground and air apart with their passage or destructive end.
The Nerhoun’s flesh was actually weaker than the tentacles that drooped down from their head. The grenades tore deep holes in the Nerhoun, heating up the creature’s internal liquids, which boiled at an incredible rate. The Nerhoun’s brain was boiled within seconds as the Nalheim inside was cooked with it.
The Nerhoun’s tentacles went slack. Smoke poured out from between its tentacles as it dropped toward the ground.
Nalheim moved to get out of the way of the falling Nerhoun. Dozens were crushed under the Nerhoun.
“Change target!” the Edon Kingdom commander who was in charge of the eastern castle yelled out.
A new objective was placed on the Nerhoun who had moved out from the center of the Nerhoun formation. Now there were just four of them left; there was no way for them to retreat and try to gain cover from the attacks.
However, the Nalheim had just reached the walls.
Howls came from the Nalheim’s mouths as they charged toward the eastern castle. The gates that had been on the castle’s walls had been removed, taking away with them the inherent weaker doors.
The Nalheim’s spears flashed as they struck the Mana barrier that was just centimeters off the wall.
The Mana barrier shook with the impact of thousands of those disrupting attacks. The new Nerhoun who faced them also hammered against the Mana barrier as it started to turn a darker shade.
The war lizards didn’t care to attack the walls; instead, they dug their talons into the walls and started to climb up.
The Terra Alliance fought back, hurling rocks down at them or sending down attack spells, arrows, and bolts. Here and there, they fell, but most continued to advance. The riders used their spears to break apart boulders and hit those who passed through the castle’s Mana barrier to hit the attackers below.
The rider’s shields and spears moved fluidly to defend and attack simultaneously as they moved.
Dave looked up. His face turned grim as gryphons, sky screams, and their masters rushed out from under the Nerhoun.
They attacked the Mana barrier, but it was clear that this was not their target. As they descended toward the ground, the sky screams let out their stun attack.
Many people were put off-balance by this attack. However, all of the anti-air repeater batteries were manned by Aleph automatons. They weren’t organic and couldn’t be stunned by an audible attack.
Some people were using just chats, but the majority of the fighting forces were actually people of Emerilia and they relied on their own voices instead of the party chats to command their forces.
Bolts tore through the air, trying to bring down the gryphons and sky screams. Both of these creatures had their own Mana barriers. They were nowhere close to the level of the Nerhoun’s, but it was enough to deal with a few dozen impacts.
Sky screams fell here and there, but mostly the batteries made them cautious rather than decrease their numbers heavily. Their riders attacked from long range as they raced over the castle, killing maybe one or two people here and there, or luckily bringing their sky screams’ claws to bear.
The gryphons targeted these batteries; whether they recognized them as a threat, or because they simply angered the gryphon riders, Dave didn’t know.
Their Mana barriers failed but the gryphon’s innate defense stopped the bolts from penetrating at long range, only lightly bruising them.
The gryphons descended out of the sky like golden flashes, their riders war gods as they let loose with disrupting attacks, hitting the walls of the castle tower and the various defenses. Rocks fell down, opening holes in walls and leaving craters where they struck.
Their gryphons’ claws struck out, leaving deep grooves in the ground as they grabbed the repeaters and Aleph automatons, crushing them.
“Mages, get those gryphons!” Esa yelled out.
While the Nalheim could bring in air support with the gryphons and sky screams, the Terra Alliance had theirs continuously bombing the Nerhoun from above.
The Nerhoun’s tentacles inspired fear within those ranks of aerial forces. They had easily gutted the four hundred DCA aerial force that had gone up against them before.
While the Nerhoun were at the walls of Eastern Castle One, the aerial forces didn’t dare to help. To do so would be inviting their death.
This left the sky screams and gryphons largely to themselves.
“Zero, take out those Nerhouns!” Esa growled. In just minutes, Eastern Castle One had descended into chaos, with spells being hurled into the skies, lighting up the battlefield in front of the castle or along the walls.
A melee was underway between the war lizards atop the castle’s walls and the defenders there.
Bolts continued to thrum, filling the air with their fire as gryphons roared and cleaved through defenders and repeater positions.
The replacement Nerhoun was almost in position. The dwarven artillery guns were mostly based next to the repeater batteries, both of them needing the greatest elevation in order to have the greatest range and impact on the battlefield.
Even as the gryphons continued to rake their positions, actually killing a number of the dwarven artillery crews, the dwarves continued on. Their rounds howled through the air and slammed into the Nerhoun’s barriers.
Even under this onslaught, the Terra Alliance had hard faces filled with determination. This is what they had come together for, from all across Emerilia: to defend it against those who would see it burn.
“That’s suicide!” the Edon Kingdom commander yelled at hearing Esa’s words.
“No, that’s Party Zero,” Deia said. Flames appeared around her body; her hair waved behind her as she slowly rose into the air.
Induca was similarly covered in flames; a covering of white vicious Air blades formed around Anna. The shadows seemed to cover Malsour as a metal board appeared under his feet and the feet of Gurren, Lox, and Steve. Steve swung his massive axe in his hands as a massive dwarven shield and sword appeared in Gurren and Lox’s hands. Their shields were covered in an earthen green aura as their swords were covered in an aura of Air.
Dave and Jung Lee simply rose into the air as if gravity had no bearing on them; Suzy’s creations split apart from their hybrid formation. She held out her bag of holding, tossing out Earth creations over the wall. The metal and Fire creations in the air fell with them. The Air creations surrounded Anna, raising her up into t
he air as well.
Deia stepped over the edge of the castle’s walls and dropped toward the ground below. The rest of Party Zero followed. Flames burst out from Deia’s back, forming wings of flame as her fall turned into a glide over the Nalheim below and toward the Nerhoun.
Sky screams, seeing them leave the walls, dove to attack the party.
Lox and Gurren swung their swords, unleashing blades of Air. They weren’t mages but with their Devastator armor enhancing their strength and the power of their conjured Air swords, making blades of Air wasn’t hard for them.
These attacks smacked against Mana barriers but didn’t pass through. Anna added in her attacks, cutting through the weakened Mana barriers and severely wounding the creatures hiding within them.
Deia fired out an arrow. This one arrow split into a hundred. As they hit, they erupted into concentrated Fire Mana, burning away shields and killing those who hid within. Without needing to pull out arrows from a quiver, Deia’s speed had increased in leaps and bounds. As she fired at these oncoming creatures, the sky was filled with fiery arrows.
The sky screams, sensing the danger of Party Zero, tried to pull away, fighting their riders who attempted to spear them with their distorting attacks. These attacks hit a Mana barrier around Party Zero. The Mana barrier was grounded at orbs that seemed to appear from nothing.
Quickly, the party left the castle walls behind and entered the Nerhoun’s Mana barrier. Tentacles attacked the Mana barrier with frantic and powerful attacks.
Dave grunted, keeping the barrier active.
Induca unleashed a firestorm around the Mana barrier. The Nerhoun let out a pained noise; its powerful but fragile tentacles were burnt as they passed through the powerful spell. Still its master continued to force it to attack even as its wounds became more severe.
Suzy’s creations on the ground formed together, an earthen body with an arm of metal and an arm of fire. Together, the three different Affinitied creations worked as one symbiotic whole. Their strength was on par with a war lizard and its rider but more maneuverable. They started attacking the ranks below, weakening them and taking their attention away from Party Zero.
“Move!” Malsour yelled.
Around him, magical circles appeared; from them, spears of metal sped out—just faint blurs that tore into the Nerhoun’s tentacles. Some of the spears were destroyed, but the others impacted the tentacles.
Lu Lu—now standing on Suzy’s shoulder—unleashed her lightning attack. Her attacks were no weaker than they had been in her larger form.
The tentacles drew back and withered under the attacks but as Party Zero got closer, the attacks of the Nerhoun increased in speed and ferocity. Even if it was in pain, it seemed to understand the threat that Party Zero presented. It wasn’t going to give up its life easily!
The last of the sky screams had fled from the party’s attacks.
Around Deia, the air seemed to become increasingly heavy as threads of Fire Affinity Mana were pulled in from the world around her. The fire around her shrunk as she rose so that she faced the Nerhoun. “I’ll open a path!” she yelled out to the rest of the party.
They focused on Deia, ready to act at a moment’s notice.
Magical circles formed around her, and then in front of her bow in varying sizes. She let loose her arrow. It left the string of the bow; it looked no different than any other arrow except it was made from bright-red and blue materials.
However, one merely had to look at it to feel the terrifying power that was contained within.
Deia was a three-hundred-year-old mage who had long ago come to understand the power of archery. She had come to a high understanding of Fire magic and had the power of a Fire Affinity demi-god. With her mother and sister’s guidance, her control over Fire Mana was close to the top. When she had fought while pregnant, she hadn’t been unable to unleash her power at a high level for fear of harming her baby. It had taught her to refine her spells, increasing the power of her spells and decreasing the Mana cost.
Now she was able to unleash that power she had held onto, and combine it with the impressive control she had built up.
The Nerhoun, sensing the power of the arrows that sped through the air, turned. Its tentacles wrapped together, creating a drill underneath its body that faced the arrow. Its Mana barrier condensed, becoming more powerful and focused.
Artillery spells and shells hit the other Nerhoun and Nalheim below but this Nerhoun was wholly focused on the arrow that hit its shields. The weak-looking shields held for a few moments; the arrow became weaker and weaker as air seemed to distort around it as it spun at an incredible speed.
The Nerhoun unleashed disintegrating attacks along all of its tentacles, focused on the arrow that faded faster and faster.
The barrier rapidly changed colors before failing. It exploded with the sound of breaking glass. A shock wave of air blew out from where the arrow and barrier had been. The arrow exploded as the disintegrating attack of the tentacles that was focused upon it tore it apart.
Deia was under a cooldown time as her Mana worked to ready for the next.
The attack passed through where the arrow had been and struck Party Zero’s Mana barrier.
Dave let out a grunt as he altered the barrier’s strength and the power draw from the vault soul gem within his bag of holding. “Can’t hold this more than three minutes!”
The Nerhoun’s attack was still fairly wide and so passed around them, and struck the castle walls behind them, making the Mana barrier fluctuate wildly.
Induca fired a plasma round at the Nerhoun. It barely made it ten meters before it was destroyed by the Nerhoun’s ongoing attack.
“Focus your attacks as we advance!” Deia called out as she held her hand out. A pillar of red light lanced out from her hand, impacting against the Nerhoun’s attack.
Induca’s attack melded with hers, pushing the distortion attack backward slightly as they all pushed forward. The attack was so powerful it actually slowed their forward progress.
No one tried to get close to Party Zero and their Mana barrier. The ripples of energy that were being thrown off around them were enough to severely wound a gryphon.
A stream of white was added to the other four when Anna joined in.
Lox, Gurren, and Steve put away their weapons and unleashed spearheads formed from Mana.
Slowly, they pushed forward; the Nerhoun’s distorting attack was slowly pushed back.
Dave continued to alter the barrier to give the best coverage and reduce power usage. His right hand moved; his eyes glowed with gray light as runes lit up across his body.
The power of the mages’ attacks was changed and altered, becoming one single stream. Dave felt the stress lessen on his body as he felt another presence helping him. He opened his eyes and looked to his side, where Jung Lee stood. His eyes glowed with similar gray light as gray smoke drifted away from his body.
Dave saw Jung Lee’s smile. Dave looked back to the pillars of Mana that were fighting against the Nerhoun’s attack.
Dave and Jung Lee solidified the attack made by the others, increasing its strength and allowing them to advance faster.
Jung Lee and Dave poured power into the combined spell formation. The power ripples coming from their fight with the Nerhoun increased as the Nerhoun frantically poured more power into its attack to fend off Party Zero.
“Fire!” This simple word barely registered in Dave’s ear as his senses picked up a half-dozen plasma rounds flying through the air as one before hitting the Nerhoun.
The Nerhoun let out a pained shout.
Six of the dwarven artillery crews had been holding their rounds, waiting, ready to support Party Zero. Seeing their chance, they’d fired their plasma grand working rounds as one.
They hit the Nerhoun’s tentacles. Without a barrier, the Nerhoun took the attack at full force. Its tentacles convulsed in pain. In that moment, its disrupting stream was broken.
Party Zero’s combined att
acks drilled through the flailing tentacles and through the fleshy interior of the Nerhoun’s scaled head. The Nerhoun twitched a few times before going slack and dropping down toward the ground.
“Pull back!” Deia yelled to Party Zero.
They all followed her orders without hesitation. They moved back to the safety of the castle walls, which were filled with chaotic fighting as artillery now fired down directly onto those trying to advance for the walls.
The people of Eastern Castle One had no time to celebrate the defeat of the Nerhoun as they were all engaged in the fight of their lives.
“Split up and support people on the walls,” Deia said as they landed, firing arrows as she spoke.
Lox and Gurren moved down the walls to their right, their sword and shields appearing.
Dave let out a breath of relief. The amplification Magical Circuit that was within the eastern castle allowed one to speed up their recovery of Health, Mana, and Stamina at nearly twice the rate.
Dave threw out grenades; explosions rippled down the walls, killing dozens. Gryphons moved to attack them. Anna and Jung Lee took to the skies in a flash, tearing through those who opposed them.
The wall shook as Dave stood in the air.
“They just broke through the wall!’ Malsour called out.
“Well, that’s pretty shitty.” Steve wielded his massive axe in one hand, sparring against a Nalheim on a war lizard’s back as he fired spearheads of Mana at sky screams.
Suzy’s creations jumped onto the walls before they dropped into the courtyard below. Already the dismounted Nalheim were quickly advancing into the castle.
There were nearly three hundred thousand Nalheim outside of the eastern castle; there were but forty thousand people within the castle.
The disparity of forces was too great to overcome easily. When they had been fighting from the walls, they had bled the Nalheim. But now that they were inside, there might be a large amount of players and powerful POEs but the Nalheim were all powerful foes, not including their beasts and their abilities.
“POEs, pull back to the ono. Players, cover their retreat!” the Edon Kingdom commander yelled.
Beyond All Expectations (Emerilia Book 8) Page 21