His eyes blazed with power inside his hood. Her eyes, empowered by arcane sight, saw the changing formations of the spells, enabling him to alter them in real time to get the most out of them.
That was Dave’s strength: augmenting others or himself to incredible heights.
Deia didn’t have any more time to look at what was going on with the wall. With the new spells, it looked as if more of the Demons had learned to fly. They rushed away from the main road leading toward the keep and around the cliffs.
“Keep them contained and make sure they don’t pass!” Vrexu yelled.
Silver and black flying disks seemed to appear, right as they slammed into the encircling flying Demon Horde.
“I can hold them back for a bit and maybe kill some of them, but it won’t last for long,” Koza yelled.
“I need cover and somewhere to hide,” Induca said on the party chat.
“I can do that.” Malsour rushed off and away from the battle; Induca followed him.
Deia knew that they would be doing what they thought best. She didn’t have any time to argue with them. She moved and fired as fast as possible. Her rounds weren’t as powerful as her arrows. However, her plasma and fireball shots exploded, tearing the Demon Horde’s fighters apart.
***
Dave watched over the battle as if he saw it through another’s eyes. To him, he could see the spells being thrown by the allied mages and the Demons in the sky.
His Touch of the Land extended all around him to provide a complete picture of the battle.
He altered a spell here, turning it against its creator or making it stronger. He conjured repeaters along the wall. The Aleph fighters jumped into them, filling the air with bolts.
To Dave, the battle was no longer a chaos of melee and fighting. His Inference skill and perception allowed him to predict the actions of the Demon Horde and most of his allies. He was now an ethereal spirit. A touch here, a change there, barely a nudge of magic and the battle started firming up.
Some Demons hurled rocks down on him from above. His Mana barrier glowed blue. Dave didn’t even seem to notice or care as he continued to reinforce the allies.
His eyes turned to the skies. It was messier but his higher Intelligence allowed him to remember the lore and books he had read on the Demons and angels’ battles.
Well, this is going to be a pain in the ass, but we’re weak in the sky. The Demon Horde are getting through all over the place and killing our people. First, we need to have a base that is safe from them. If we have wounded, then they can just target the healers so we can’t get anyone back in the fight.
Dave kneeled and his hand touched the stone. Mana rushed through his hand as he had to use his own Mana to create the complicated magical coding.
A blue barrier appeared over the keep, stopping stones and the Demon Horde’s spells cold as they hit the shield.
Archers no longer needed to duck because the Demons could no longer reach them.
“Focus on the forces in the sky if you can!” Kim yelled out.
Dave conjured what looked like a locker. Coding covered its sides as Dave staggered to his feet slightly. He started recovering his Mana that he wasn’t used to expending yet.
The closet opened to reveal a repeater. Dave grabbed it and put it down among some Beast Kin.
“Shoot them with this!” Dave said. “I need ten people to run more of these things across the wall!” Dave said.
“With the Dwarf!” one of the Beast Kin leaders said. The motley crew followed Dave, finding another repeater being pushed out of the closet-looking factory.
He’d conjured the factory, which was easy enough, making a magical tap from his armor to the factory and feeding it from his reserves instead of his actual Mana. It meant he could make more than a dozen, without keeling over with Mana fatigue.
“Take these and put them out along the wall. They use bolts from the factories I’ve made across the wall!” Dave yelled at the Beast Kin over the noise.
“Gronel! Take this down to the west side!” the Beast Kin leader said, taking over from Dave, who now looked back to the skies.
The barrier was meant to keep out magic and rocks; it wasn’t made to stop people. The Demon fighters were now coming down inside the Mana barrier, trying to kill the defenders.
Dave jumped from the wall; his conjuring rods flew to his hands. His right turned into a sword he planted in the back of a Demon Champion. The creature plummeted to the ground, now lifeless with Dave’s sneak attack.
Dave’s left turned into a shield as he rolled off the Demon as it slammed into the ground, softening his fall as his sword turned into a spear. A Demon raked at his shield he’d raised high to cover himself. His spear slammed into the Demon and the head exploded into spikes. Dave pulled the spike-covered spear back and turned it into an axe. Dave raised his shield, covering his body to deflect stones that slammed into him.
Using his Touch of the Land, he knew that three Demons were advancing on him with speed. He threw his axe with his right hand, burying it in the chest of the level 215 Demon and turning out of the way of the other Demon’s charge.
He recalled the axe, parrying one Demon’s claws with his shield. It screeched like nails on a chalkboard as Dave felt the axe return to his hand. It transformed into a needle-point rapier longer than a great sword. He slammed his shield forward, applying a stun effect to the Demon to his front. He turned; his rapier darted out with surgical precision. The second circling Demon looked down, confused by the barely one centimeter-wide wound in its chest before it collapsed. Dave’s rapier turned into a great sword.
With his monstrous Strength, he could wield it easily in one hand as he cut the remaining Demon nearly in half. Blood sprayed out, hitting Dave’s barrier. He looked around and found a band of Demons who were advancing on the Dwarven artillery.
The Aleph’s behemoths came into play. The large lumbering beasts moved with a grace that belied their size, their blows savage and brutal.
Seems like they updated their fighting style off Steve. Dave saw similarities in their fighting styles.
More behemoths and other forces were protecting the healers. A small Mana barrier was erected around the healers’ camp. Already, there was a heavy flow of wounded rushing in. The Stone Raiders, Aleph, and DCA healers were pulling people back from the brink of death and right back out into battle at an alarming rate.
An army with enough high-skilled healers would be one hell of a scary thing.
Dave’s attention turned to the wall. The Stone Raider melee types, Aleph fighters, and Beast Kin soldiers protected the archers, mages, and those who manned the repeaters.
Dave concentrated, remembering Anna’s attacks: the form, the way that the spell flowed, and its true formation. As he slashed his great sword, magical coding flared to life on it; minor changes to its base made it release a hungry howl.
Dave conjured Anna’s spell, fueling it with stored Mana.
A blade of wind rushed outward over the heads of those at the wall and through the Demon Horde fighters trying to land on or beyond the wall.
Dave had found that conjuring a spell was easier if he made it within an item. He’d simply taken the two parts of Anna’s attack, the spell and her sword’s movement, and incorporated them into his sword.
The fight for dominance raged above Dave. He looked up. It was like a war of demi-gods. Thousands filled the sky, clashing in a terrible battle with no true direction.
There was just too many of the Demon Horde. Most kept the aerial forces occupied while others swept down toward the keep.
Dave conjured a bow. Ten Demons, seeing the defiant Dwarf, collapsed their wings, diving in an arrow formation.
Dave’s arrows ripped at the very air, letting out sonic booms. His aim was unnerving. Five were dead in as many seconds. The Demons howled out their rage; their prey wouldn’t leave the battlefield alive.
Dave took down three more. He conjured metal, sinking it deep into the
keep’s ground and bracing himself. The final two tried to decapitate Dave with their claws. Instead, they found their hands broken by the Mana barrier that covered his body. Dave dismissed his conjured metal as the two Demons let out angry and pained yells.
His arrows found them before they were able to regain altitude.
Dave turned, letting loose an arrow that slammed into a Demon trying to get around Gurren. The creature was blown off the wall. Gurren waved his sword in thanks, gutting another Demon and tossing them off the wall with his shield.
An aura seemed to cover the area around the keep. Dave’s legs shook under the power of it.
A Dragon’s roar could be heard in the distance.
Chapter 21: Power Unleashed
Lox lost himself to his training, standing beside Gurren and Steve as they defended their allies. They were being swarmed on all sides by the Demon Horde.
A bellow, the likes of which Lox had only heard one time before, echoed through the forest and over the cliffs of Devil’s Crater.
On the ground and in the air, Fire seemed to swirl, growing and becoming more solid as magma formed into flame atronachs. They darted through the Demon Horde’s airborne fighters, leaving trails of Fire and destruction in their wake.
Gurren growled, kicking a Demon off the wall. It yelled, but rose up again on its own wings and rushed back in. Lox’s blade rammed into its side while Gurren came out of his shield stance and took the creature’s head.
There was no time for words as they continued to fight with everything they had.
The atronachs numbered in the hundreds and were fighting a valiant battle, but there were four or five Demon Horde fighters for every defender left.
They were cutting them down in great swathes, but there wasn’t enough of them.
Summoners called on their creations and bound creatures that could fly.
Lox looked upward. Time seemed to slow as the Demons of Devil’s Crater and the Demon Horde tore into one another. Stone Raiders, summoned creatures, and any remaining Aleph drones fought fifty meters above the keep, slowly being pushed back by the swarm of Demon Horde.
Repeaters fired along the wall while those manning them yelled at their attackers. Here and there, the Demon Horde picked up one of the people within the keep, hauling them off, dropping them, or cutting them apart in the sky.
The Fire atronachs’ flames melted away opposition. Lox let out a yell as he saw a Demon take down one of the repeaters’ defenders.
The Beast Kin firing the weapon didn’t know what happened as the Demon’s claws tore through its chest.
Lox watched as they were thrown off the wall by the Demon while two others impaled the Demon with sword and spear.
There was not an inch of the keep that was not being fought over.
“We can’t hold; we need more forces now or we’re going to get run over!” Josh yelled.
“I can get more people to you within twenty minutes,” Alkao yelled.
“That’s not enough. We’re going to need defenses down from the keep in the crater. Koza, Fonrir, Malsour—see to it. We will hold them there. Move reinforcements in. I want the POEs to begin evacuating. The Player Stone Raiders can get you a few minutes!” Josh said.
Malsour seemed to drop from out of the sky. Demons swarmed toward him as he walked down the line; pebbles accelerated out of thin air and tore apart as he cleared the walls.
“We can leave the automatons here to help you. As our allies, we give control of them to you,” Koza said.
“Thank you, Council Member,” Josh said. “Get people organized and out of here! Fonrir, I’m going to want that artillery right on the keep.”
“Can do.” Fonrir’s voice was gruff and filled with grudging respect.
Lox knew of Fonrir of Aldamire, a Warclan leader many veterans were proud to call their own. He would keep his end of the bargain.
“Wounded first, then able-bodied POEs! Stone Raiders, hold the Demon Horde as much as possible. Trap the ground and be ready to pull back outside the keep!” Josh yelled.
“Melee, regroup in the keep’s main courtyard!” Dwayne called.
“Battle mages, support melee and pull back to the keep’s gate toward Devil’s Crater!” Kim coughed. Fire had started to burn anything flammable inside the courtyard. A few mages were tending to it, but most were fighting the Demon Horde.
Lox killed off another Demon as Malsour reached them.
“Going down?” Malsour asked as part of the wall came away and they were lowered down to the base of the wall.
“Move!” Steve yelled to the two Dwarves.
Lox gripped his sword tighter. He wanted to stay with his friends, the Stone Raiders, but he knew that he would just be a hindrance as they’d be distracted in keeping him alive.
“Kill the bastards!” Lox yelled, clapping Gurren on the back as they rushed toward the artillery that was now pulling down their guns and trying to move them.
Gurren and Lox knew the guns from their time as shield bearers. They quickly dismantled them and put their Dwarven backs to the carted weapons. They quickly built up speed, headed through the keep’s gate as the battle raged behind them.
Fire seemed to illuminate the late afternoon, once again making light cover the crater.
Lox took a look back to see the flame atronachs spread across the front of the keep. Between them, they made a wall of Fire. The DCA fliers made quick on their escape, rushing toward the fort that was now growing along the road from the southeastern keep to Unity.
The Dwarven Warclan that had been left as reserve within Unity was making quick work of the fortifications.
Lox looked back as the wall of Fire between the arrayed atronachs started to bend.
The atronachs held for a moment, casting spells into the aerial Demon Horde. The Stone Raiders’ Players retreated from the fortifications slowly while making a rear guard of under two hundred.
Then, the aerial Demon Horde was just too much.
“Artillery, fire on the keep! Stone Raiders, ready yourselves and draw from the vaults!” Josh barked. Lox could make him out. He stood on a rock outcropping as shadows seemed to coil around him like flames with his twin blades glowing red in their hunger.
The atronachs’ wall was torn apart, the atronachs themselves being set upon by the Demons who made it through.
Lox’s heart paused as his eyes went wide at the number of Demons who filled the air.
“If you’re about to die, get someone to kill you or kill yourself. It’s better than giving these Demons some experience!” Dwayne yelled.
“Only use soul bound weapons!” Josh chorused.
“Ready your spells! Let’s see what you can do!” Kim whooped.
All across the Stone Raiders’ lines, amulets that had been drawing power from the guild members now started to flood their bodies with it. Buffs lit up the battlefield like bonfires, solid sheets of protections and enhancements glowing across the Stone Raiders. Many of the mages started to glow; the very Mana they channeled through their bodies tore them up from the inside.
There were no howls of pain or cries for mercy. The Stone Raiders whooped and cheered. Even now, Lox could see the hungry grins on their faces as they stood in the face of that Demon bulwark.
“Stone Raiders!” Josh’s voice tore through the air as a shadow of a Xelur Demon Lord appeared around him. His rallying call sent chills down the spines of everyone who heard it.
One hundred and seventy-three voices rose up to join the battle cry as Mana seemed to become a tangible thing as the Stone Raiders pulled on their vault soul gems.
Chapter 22: Rear Guard
Dave’s eyes might have been closed, but his senses were open to the universe around him. He pushed his Intelligence to his limits, using healing to wipe away his fatigue. It was physically harming his body, but he needed it to stabilize and strengthen the dozens of spells that the Stone Raiders had created.
Dave found his own voice rise up with the Stone Raider
s’. His runes glowed across his body and bloody red lines appeared at the edges as they couldn’t handle the power output.
His body hurt, but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt in Earth’s simulation. Also here he was being constantly healed by his armor.
“Fire!” Kim’s voice filled with hunger as the ranged battle mages released their weapons.
It was as though the gods themselves had called down magic upon the keep.
The dead rose from their slumber, eager to kill the Demon Horde. Columns of light poured down from the heavens. Rain turned into ice as hard as arrows. Lightning arced across the sky. Barrages of spears and Mana bolts of all Affinities charged through the sky.
Swathes of the Demon Horde were washed away; many Stone Raiders fell unconscious from the Mana expenditure. Malsour was at the rear, creating golems and metal skimmers to pick up those already out of the fight, shipping them toward the growing fort in hopes to save them from dying and losing their gear and experience.
Wind turned the sky into a maelstrom; tornadoes erupted as plasma cannons fired.
It was an awesome display of magical firepower, but there was less than a hundred of them, and nearly three hundred and fifty thousand in the Demon Horde. They took out nearly a hundred and fifty thousand with their opening fire, their spells taking a toll on the Demon Horde.
Seeing their opportunity, the Demon Horde charged onward. The smart ones were able to move around the area where the Stone Raiders’ spells were. Most were going too fast or there were too many Demons around them to escape the worst of the spells.
“Melee, support the squishy mages! Summoners, keep our skies clear and make sure nothing gets behind us!” Dwayne barked.
Dave opened his eyes. His hands fell to his rods as a shield and a sword extended from them. He glanced to Suzy, Steve, and Anna on his right, and then Deia and Malsour on his left.
Induca was still hiding from everyone’s eyes, conjuring and controlling her flame atronachs to try to bolster the aerial forces.
This is Our Land (Emerilia Book 5) Page 20