The jumper didn't feel safe until he moved away from me. Without any further words he darted towards the incoming monster army and started killing with all his might.
"Tsk, I didn't know he is this easy to handle," I shook my head in amusement before things started to change all of sudden.
Two minutes didn't pass from his participation in the battle before something started to shine behind. I turned and was surprised to see two portals flashing in bright dark red light, appearing less than a hundred meters behind me.
"Weird," I didn't feel any pressure but I turned to watch the distant dragons who stood all idle before. As expected, the moment these two portals appeared, the dragons started to move as well.
They aimed at the jumper up front. I knew that the jumper feared the dragons, but it seemed they also feared him.
Or to be more precise, they feared the two of us standing together. I didn't know why, but I doubted their ability to handle the jumper this easily.
That if the jumper stood and waited for them to attack him.
*Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*
Roars started to appear so close to the portals. I knew the monsters were about to come out and that would instantly put more pressure on my forces.
"You and you move to there and stop them," I pointed towards two of the shield warriors before adding, "the rest advance towards the craters up front. We will station ourselves there. And you, come with me."
I didn't plan to follow the arrangement of my enemies. If they sent these forces to pincer me like that, it wouldn't be wise to stay idle.
Like the dragons, they moved to intercept the jumper and I planned to move and support him.
My orders were executed smoothly as my forces moved as I planned. At the same time, the jumper tried to retreat but he was instantly surrounded with more enemies to handle.
"Hit the rear," I pointed towards the group of monsters blocking the path of retreat on the jumper, "be careful not to hit him."
The archers were the best option I had. Each one would kill one monster, but their attack would be precise and easily controlled.
*Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*
As we finally reached the area of craters, the monsters appeared from the two portals. They came in large numbers and great momentum, not fearing anything in their faces.
"Burn them all," I didn't depend entirely on my two groups of shield warriors. After all, their skill would take a few seconds to ignite. "Wait for a few seconds before attacking, and if the shield warriors hit, wait until their skill is gone."
I left this job for almost one third of my magician warriors. They were able to cause enough damage to control the influx of monsters out of the portals.
The enemies didn't seem to see this weakness until now. They thought by sending the two portals towards me to put me in a hard position.
But as I moved myself away and created a buffer zone, then the monsters could be easily killed by my magicians.
The short distance wasn't just an advantage for them, but also a great weakness. I even didn't see any need for my shield warriors to be there. Even if the three portal monsters united together at this moment, I didn't care.
They would never be able to threaten me. Plus I knew this came as a diversion from the real target here; killing the jumper.
As the jumper feared the dragons, it seemed like the dragons feared him as well. Or perhaps someone else was fearing him, asking the dragons to make sure the jumper would be dead.
That shone light on their true aim here. It wasn't me they were after, but my strongest asset, the jumper.
"Try to retreat," I shouted while watching the arrows killing more monsters and alleviating the pressure over the jumper.
Without the need for me to speak, he felt my help and was smart enough to start retreating. However he was moving slowly, slower than the incoming dragons.
"Get ready to start a cover up fire," as things seemed to head that way, staying here was meaningless. I slowly ordered the rest of the magicians and the archers.
They knew what they had to do without the need for me to explain, or I hoped they would.
"Make sure to heal all of us out there," finally those healers who stayed all this time doing literally nothing had part in this battle. Just as I said so, I started to run fast towards the front.
"Come with me," I ordered my Bulltors, "the target is those arrogant dragons."
The distance between the dragons and the jumper was really short. In a span of a few breaths they would reach him, so did I.
If they aimed at hitting him, then why not I aim towards them? The rich rewards I got from a single dragon youth was still lingering in my mind till now.
Seeing twenty valiant dragons coming so close to me was a temptation I couldn't resist. Anyone killed by them would be a gain, an awesome gain to me.
"Don't come here, they got the orb of destruction!"
Just as I moved, the shout of the jumper came in warning. But it was too late. Of course I read about such orb, and I knew it wasn't a game.
"Shield warriors, unleash your skill now!" without any hesitation I gave the order for a countermeasure. Also I replaced one sword with the strongest shield I could wield with my current stats.
The shield looked thin and hexagonal in shape, but it was really heavy. Its surface was covered in a thin leaves falling engraving like a gale of wind just hit the place in autumn.
It was really heavy. The moment I held it out, I felt my entire body lose balance and it went directly towards the ground. But it wasn't bad after stabilizing myself. Yet I had to take in my other sword and held the shield with both arms.
*Rumbl!*
Just as I started moving, I felt the entire world around me getting darker. It wasn't the same as when the sun died out, but it was like the entire lights were sucked away and only darkness persisted.
This was the beginning of the scary attack of that orb.
"Shield warriors… Now! Healers, release your strongest skills over us!"
I knew I couldn't get out from this kind of attack without paying some price. Yet using the healers wasn't directed at healing our wounds.
The orb of destruction was considered a killer item in this stage of the apocalypse. It was an orb festered in a world of hell, storing away all the lava and fire until all the light was eaten by its destructive force.
Once used, it would unleash hell upon us. It wasn't just about fire and lava, heat wasn't also the problem. This kind of attack was directed at the soul; the orb of destruction was a soul weapon.
And that weapon used darkness as its deadly blade. Luckily for me and that useless jumper, healers were here.
Healers could be considered strong light magicians if things are seen from the angle of the soul. Their souls were situated at the rear opposite from the darkness.
Even their healing skills would be considered the best nemesis of such an attack, only topped by the light magicians.
And I didn't have any holy or light based magicians here. So my best option was using the healers to weaken the intensity of such a brutal attack.
In addition to that, my shield warriors combined skill was enough to shake any other damage accompanying the darkness assault from that orb.
"Get ready to move at my mark," despite being surrounded by that darkness, I didn't stop thinking about dealing a deadly strike to those dragons.
They were close, so close to let them go smoothly like that. Using the orb of darkness was for sure targeted at me and my Bulltors, but not the jumper.
They wanted to isolate the jumper from my reinforcements. This was a brilliant move, but it wouldn't work against me.
*Sizzle!* *Sizzle!* *Sizzle!*
The moment the darkness intensified and I couldn't even see the shield I was leaning against, I felt roses of light shining all around, dispersing the darkness and leaving behind sizzling noises.
"Now!" without even raising my head to look around, I knew this was the attack of my healers. Also I could feel the strong pressure clashing in between the orb of destruction from the front and my shield warriors' skill from the back.
That meant the effect of the orb of destruction was now being controlled. What I lacked was the definite info about the time of the orb of destruction and also the scale of its force.
So when I sensed things were under control, I didn't hesitate to use the best method to remove this orb of destruction; killing the one controlling it.
*Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*
Once I gave the order, I heard the loud and angry roars coming from the Bulltors around. They were also defending using their big shields just like me. But for some reason, they seemed to struggle more than I did.
I thought as they held better gears, had their strong bodies and strong stats, facing such an assault would be nothing. But they looked more angry and threatened than myself at this moment.
So when I gave them the order, all I felt was for their giant bodies to flicker in the air while roaring in defiance.
Then sounds of loud clashes came from the front. A big battle seemed to erupt at this moment.
"Keep attacking," I shouted and didn't aim for anyone in particular by my words, "don't falter, we will win this!"
I couldn't even raise my head at this moment fearing for the incoming brutal assault of that orb of destruction. Even the shield I had couldn't be controlled except with my two hands.
So all I could do was to ignite the morale of my small force, making sure they wouldn't be shaken by such a coordinated attack.
The sound of clashes kept coming for ten seconds that seemed as long as an entire year. Before I knew it, good news started to pour at me in batches.
[You killed a dragon race. You got the dragon soul, a special form of soul. You can check it later inside the class panel]
[You killed a dragon race. You got the dragon soul, a special form of soul. You can check it later inside the class panel]
[You killed a dragon race. You got the dragon soul, a special form …]
Messages kept lining up at a faster pace while the sounds coming from the front became louder and louder. I didn't know when but all the pressure coming from the front instantly vanished, even though I was almost this close from losing my balance until the last moment.
I couldn't dare to put the shield away until examining the situation. The situation was simply described as an overwhelming victory for me. The dragons were being shattered and killed all around, and a small group of five were running back as fast as they could.
But they weren't getting far enough before the jumper moved faster and intercepted them. He finally got the courage to do something good. As for my Bulltors, half were killing the remaining dragons here, and the other half were giving a chase to those five.
"Kill them and then wait for me," as I saw this, I couldn't help but give such weird orders.
In fact, just as I was bathed in the brutal attack from the orb of destruction, a weird message appeared in front of me coming from my channel. And now I had finally the means to deal with what came in there.
[Anonymous god sent you a privileged message as the subscriber and the top donator to your channel]
[The message is paid to be received regardless of your setting to neglect any messages from the channel]
[The message is as follows: As a god who sympathizes with the Bulltors, and as someone who is showing respect towards them, I have to warn you… A third attack of that deadly star weapon is being ready to launch. Its location is predetermined and won't change. Figure things out on your own.. Survive this and I will give you a handsome reward. Make sure the Bulltors survive]