On his map, Eldrian noted a handful of red dots moving towards them. All Night Terrors, one of which was even Tier 7 — which was moving terrifyingly fast compared to the others.
Clashing with it would most likely spell their defeat. Eldrian had a feeling air superiority wouldn't help them much either.
"I have an idea." Eldrian said, noticing that the demon was no longer contesting the light in its surroundings. Its mana near depletion.
Having learnt that it could not overcome the summoned light, it was focusing on retreating and stalling. This was the smart move, but it also allowed Eldrian to notice a way to do significant damage.
Few spells involved using light as an attack. Normally, such spells fell into the divine category. However, Eldrian felt he could do something similar with the normal aspects. After all, light was still light. It just wouldn't have the holy attribute of divine magic—which was where all the power came from.
"Aura?" Ceph asked, his tone betraying his worry. Eldrian had thought of it, but his control was still too lacking. He couldn't risk relying on it within the confines of a city. Though, if things continued as it was going, it might not matter for much longer.
"No. Just need a way to attack with light." Eldrian smiled. Simply surrounding them with light caused the demons to become light tapped. So an attack of light should do significant damage.
To counter being trapped, the demons could snuff out the light by absorbing its mana source. Eldrian and Ceph, however, had plenty of mana to spare. The Night Terror had less than a thousand. It could not contest them like it could normal soldiers and mages.
'I need a laser,' thought Eldrian. The idea was simple enough. The problem was that he had never tried to form a laser before. 'Let's start with a simple concept.'
Envisioning a flashlight, Eldrian let his mana gather and focused the ray onto the demon. It paused, but the spell did no damage. Moving on, Eldrian tried to focus the spell's light. To concentrate it and form a small but deadly beam of light.
'It isn't enough.' Eldrian sighed. He had concentrated the spell until it was a beam a single centimeter in size, but it was still not a laser. 'I'm not sure what I am missing?'
Not having the time to refine it, Eldrian went with the brute force method. Adding fire to his spell, he formed a beam of super heated flames moving from his forefinger. 'Mmm, that did something. But the upkeep is...' Dispelling the beam, Eldrian sighed. His plan had failed.
'Ceph, it's here. Retreat to the magic tower.' Dashing higher, they avoided hundreds of shadow shrapnel, reducing the surrounding buildings to rubble. The light they had trapped the Tier 5 with disappeared in the blink of an eye, returning the area to darkness.
As they flew away, Eldrian observed the Tier 7's stats. It stood atop one of the undamaged buildings, taking aim.
[Nychterninos Tromos (Alpha); Demon]
[Tier 7 ; Level 55]
[HP: 29313] — [Mana: 6675]
[Attack: 16.9k]
[Agility: 1435]
'Another Alpha?' The idea that all the demons were of a special grade wasn't a pleasant one. Eldrian could only pray that these two were the strongest that had infiltrated the city.
'It's about to attack. Go as fast as you can,' Eldrian told Ceph, taking a proper seat and grasping Ceph's mane with all his strength. The two reaching supersonic speed as an assortment of shadow weapons trailed behind them. Unable to reach them, the shadows returned to their owner.
Eldrian contacted Erik as soon as he and Ceph arrived at the magic tower. Ceph moving to ensure the tower was secured and to disable its combat ability. [We need help here. Get the duke to move if you can.]
Naturally, Erik had been exasperated receiving the message. [I'll do what I can.] He replied, already on the move as a member of Phoenix.
[Here is a video of our battle.] Eldrian also attached the Tier 7 Night Terror's stats, hoping that it would help when selecting who to send to reinforce Elomir. [I'll share it with the rest of the guild in a bit. This Tier 7 is going to be a problem. We need someone who can contend with it or the city will fall.]
The city was in flames. The devil's plan had been meticulous. Not only had they stationed their people at all the gates and magic towers, they had even neutralized the cannons that the city owned. The only saving grace was that the enemy's reinforcements were still on their way.
[Eldrian, are you free?] Elizabeth asked, trying to form a direct connection when Eldrian confirmed he had time. [Buy the damn function!] she shouted when he told her he didn't have the option to accept a call.
"How bad is our situation?" she asked as soon as Eldrian accepted her call. His first time actually making use of this feature. The devs had added it somewhere along when streaming was updated.
"Bad. The enemy is powerful. They have all the key structures neutralized, some even in their hands." A massive boom echoed through the city, another city block destroyed. "I'll move with Ceph to try to stop the magic tower attacks, but..."
Sharing the video on the flaming heart chat, Eldrian continued, "This Tier 7 Night Terror is something neither of us can face. It will kill us before we can react."
With an agility value of nearly one and a half thousand, it was twice as fast as Eldrian and just as well twice as fast as Ceph. In a simple race of distance, Ceph would win thanks to his ability to enhance his flight with magic. But in a battle, the Night Terror's advantage would be overwhelming.
"What are our options?" A voice, not Elizabeth's, asked.
"Who's this?"
"As the situation is dire, I've formed a call with all the guild leaders in the city. Just keep it on and ignore them when you are busy. There is a mute option if you need it." Elizabeth explained, knowing full well that Eldrian had likely missed when this function was added.
"Our option is calling for help, that's it." Eldrian replied. He wasn't sure what the military structure of the city was, nor how competent the mayor was. If this was Kynigo, he would be able to form a better plan, but this was Elomir. A city he had only visited a handful of times in the past week.
"Surely there is more we can do." Someone else countered. Eldrian didn't know them well enough to recognize them by their voice alone.
Taking a look at the callers, Eldrian sent each one the video of his battle. Not wishing to waste time explaining how dire things are. "Take a look at the video I sent you all. It should clarify that we stand no chance. That thing has nearly thirty thousand HP and an agility of a thousand four hundred."
"It will instant kill any player it comes across. We can't do anything against it." Eldrian finished, turning to Ceph who had finished disabling the magic tower. Better have the tower disabled than in the hands of their enemy. "I'm muting now."
Eldrian did just that, making him unable to hear the leaders trying to stop him. Jumping atop Ceph, they took off towards the next tower after he confirmed that all being inside it was Tier 5 or lower.
Midway to the tower, it turned a hail of spells in their direction. "Guess stealth isn't an option." Eldrian grumbled in annoyance.