Chapter 352: They See

Chapter 352: They See

Tala barked a laugh as Terry flickered into being beside the closest beast, ripping off its stubby legs with a series of flickering strikes before retreating back to her shoulder.

The eye-beast that had been delimbed plopped to the ground with an odd, squelching sound, even as all eight eye-stalks oriented on Tala and Terry, even behind the walls crenellations. She was watching their enemy through her mirrored perspectives, which were out to the sides for better vantage.

Do our defenses not count as permanent? Can they see straight through them?

Whether that was the case or not, it seemed like at least this enemy was able to see her and Terry.

Maybe they can see anyone who has hurt them?

-Its a possibility. Ill notify others of the potential.-

Eight tight lines of magic connected the eyes to their stone in an instant, most did absolutely nothing against Master Girts heavily reinforced battlements. Even so, one degraded the rock an inch deep in less than half a second.

The magics had punched through her aura faster than she could oppose them, leaving her utterly unable to deny them from working against her rock. She had never seen magic move quite that quickly.

A blink later, seven attacks cut off, and Tala dove to the side, carrying Terry with her. Even as she dove, however, Terry flickered away.

Behind her the entire wall-top defensive position, within which she had stood, vanished.

Only then did she recognize the magic.

Ending magic?

She laughed, rolling to her feet, lifting her hand and flexing her will.

Her metal rolled back from her hand just as the eye-beam swept sideways to intersect her flesh.

Her aura resonated with her authority as she threw it forward.

She had built up an incredibly potent resonance within herself, and now, with only one opening in her iron layer, the power that had been building within her shell was shunted out in that direction, most of it being the direct counter to ending magics.

Her aura kept the power focused even when it wanted to blast outward in all directions, and together the magic and her aura held back the eye-blast for the moment that she needed.

Beyond the mental flex to pull back the metal, she had altered the target of her amplified gravity on one scale, sending it cracking through the air to drive straight through the main central eye.

The impact was such that the beast entirely burst, coating the surrounding buildings and street in purple blood that immediately began to evaporate, sizzling away the stone as it faded.

A second after shed sprung to her feet, her metal rolled back over her hand, and she was encased once more.

Master Girtwho was closely monitoring the walls with Alats coordinationreformed Talas missing defense. While she was grateful for the stone protections quick return, she and the entire unit took the previous destruction for the stark reminder that it was; these were powerful creatures.

Based on what theyd learned, with such an obvious counter demonstrated in Talas defensive magics, no more beasts would be created, or grow new eye stalks, with that dissolution magic.

That was frustrating as it meant that Tala wouldnt so easily defeat an attack again.

It was good, however, because she was the only one on her team that would be likely to survive such an insane magical blast of that type.

Tala reached out through Alat to her team. Being the first to take a direct hit, she had information to pass on, It wasnt a question of magical weight at all. I havent seen anything like it since the arcane elite. The eye-beams lance in so quickly that we should expect to be subjected to direct magical effects. Dont assume that the attacks will be of the affect, direct, and forget types like a fireball, windblade, or hurtled rock.

A chorus of understoods came back through Alat.

Alat was really doing an amazing amount of work.

Each of their unit-mates had given Alat explicit access to their Archive connections, and through that, Alat had been able to reach through their soulbonds to those connections to speak into their minds and hear thoughts specifically directed at her.

No part of the system was really intended to work as they were using it, but none of it violated the purposes, or went against the intention, of the magics too much.

-Speak for yourself. Im holding this together with spit and spider silk to be clear I mean mundane spider silk, not any of the overwhelming number of magical varieties.-

Yeah, I understood that.

Tala panned her focus across the creatures outside the wall and realized that she couldnt use a scale for every incoming enemy. She simply didnt have enough of them.

Her quick count showed more than a hundred of the beasts within easy view.

This has always been my weakness, Alat. Hordes of enemies.

-Ahh, but your weakness was hordes of weak enemies. These are strong.-

How is that better?

-Better? No, no. This is worse. Im glad we arent here alone.-

As if to emphasize the point, seeming clouds of glass rolled across the near sections that she could see. Abrasive particles were thrown to drift across the eye-covered beasts, and immediately had a noticeable effect.

Those that the clouds affected began thrashing and throwing magic around themselves randomly, clearly in pain and unable to comprehend where that pain was coming from.

Master Limmestare would then use the distraction to disguise finishing attacks in many cases, mainly lances or blades of glass that pieced deeply through the main-eyes just as her scale had.

Oh, rust. Im going to have a rather difficult time if I try to go get that scale. I dont want to leave any of the white metal, though

-Yeah, use siege orbs going forward.-

Agreed.

A bit away from the clouds of glass-dust-thistles, Terry was demonstrating his prowess as he did a rather convincing impression of a living hurricane made out of blades.

The beasts werent particularly resilient, so their higher advancement wasnt an issue for the terror birds talons and beak.

He had been thoroughly warned not to cut off the tempting, tasty eye-stalksTerry had worked very hard to convey that that is how he viewed themand Tala trusted her friend. So, there wasnt a concern that hed render their enemy more dangerous with his frenzy of cuts and strikes.

He also somehow had time to find and toss her one white steel scale back up to her.

You are a wonder, Terry.

Tala couldnt see what the others were doing, but she knew that Alat was helping them coordinate their efforts.

When so many had been turned to dust thatpaying dozens for each inch gainedthey had almost reached her, Tala knew it was time.

Now, Master Girt! Alat carried her message to the Refined at the speed of thought.

Master Girt had known the tactic Tala was going to be using, so hed reinforced the sides of this passage specifically against the incoming result. That would keep the wall well intact.

When she sent him the notification, Master Girt jerked a slab of stone up in front of Tala, carefully crafted to be concave on the enemys side, while still being incredibly robust.

Without hesitating, Tala relaxed her hold on her dissolution magics.

The corridorfilled with dust so fine that it filled the space like a mist, hovering almost weightlesslyignited in a concussive blast that would have staggered Tala even through Master Girts stone if she werent once again anchored in place.

The explosion incinerated or threw every one of the tightly packed beasts from the kill-box with extreme effectiveness.

Tala might have been concerned about ripping off eye-stalks with the attack, but fire would cauterize the wounds, if anything, and the force of the explosion should kill all the creatures affected, regardless.

A moment later, the shaped slab of stone retracted, revealing an empty, smoking canyon of death.

Lets do this again. She took a deep breath, filling the air in her lungs with magic before exhaling in a controlled manner.

Control the terrain, control my breath. She readied siege orbs, a smile pulling at her lips despite her burgeoning fatigue. Fire and Ice.

Mistress Deigh and Master Doitean would be proud.

Tala began the cycle again, killing the first groups that came into view with her siege orbs, positioning the ice blasts to help create slowing terrain and give her unit more time to whittle down the never ending tide of nightmare manifestations.

She saw more and more creatures with at least some eyes taken out by Master Limmestares glass. Quite a few also had deep cuts in their torso or missing legs that slowed them down, showing Master Clevnis contributions for all to see.

From the side that Mistress Cerna was manning, the beasts came variously bent and broken, scorched or fried. It seemed that the Refined was still working out exactly what magics were most effective.

Master Girt was working beneath the surface, quite literally.

He made pitfalls full of stone spikes, broke up footing, and otherwise slowed the horde.

Terrys contributions werent as evident due to the mere fact that all those that he engaged were dead by the end of their brief engagement.

After the fifth cycle of Tala fighting back the waves, filling the kill-box with dissolution magic, then igniting the resulting powdered beastie to clear the near-field, Terry flickered to her shoulder, clearly panting with exhaustion.

More than exhaustion, Terry was injured.

He was cradling one leg up against his chest, and there was blood already dripping down onto her shoulder. His feathers were mussed, quite a few were out of place, and there were several wounds elsewhere on his body.

Tala was so startled that she stared open-mouthed at him for a long second before Alat snapped her back into focus.

-Ive notified Mistress Vanga. Hopefully, Terry will let her heal him. His exhaustion makes sense, too. Hes removed more from the battle than any save Master Limmestare. Its hard to compare, however, given that Master Limmestare isnt killing them.- Alat didnt mean that derisively at all, and Tala knew it.

It had quickly become clear that without the glass Mages clouds of micro glass-thistles theyd likely have been overwhelmed right near the start.

The point was that Terry had been incredibly effective in thinning their incoming opponents.

Now, he was worn out.

Honestly, they all were struggling.

Alat let everyone know that Terry was at least temporarily out of commission.

After the alternate interface had clarified that Terry wasnt mortally wounded, more exhausted, there was a series of acknowledgments and well-wishes.

Mistress Vanga offered to come and heal the avian as soon as she could, and when Tala conveyed the sentiment, Terry reluctantly accepted.

That dealt with, Tala scratched Terrys seemingly sleeping head and reoriented on the next cycle, the first eye-beasts coming into view of her position once again.

Two cycles later, the cycles ended.

The eye-beasts werent that smart, but theyd finally put together that the wall shouldnt be there, and it was an impediment to them.

An unholy stillness came over the battlefield as every one of the monsters stopped, orienting on the wall.

Their magics lanced out as one, stressing the wall but not threatening to break it just yet. Then as every creature selected its most effective magics, there was a zeme-shaking thrum.

The magic throughout the entire cell trembled in resonance to the synchronized attack and the wall was utterly obliterated.

Some sections were vaporized, some shattered, some turned to dust the results were as nuanced and numerous as the attackers. The final state of the wall, however, was not nuanced.

The wall was gone, and they had an entirely different battle scenario to deal with.

There was the briefest hesitation as it seemed like every part of their surroundings took in a collective breath.

In the momentary pause, Tala saw the disposition of her entire unit.

Master Girt collapsed beside Mistress Vanga, clearly having overextended himself trying to resist the attacks.

Hed failed to keep the wall intact, but his interference explained why none of the magics had broken through to create havoc beyond. That alone was incredibly impressive.

Master Limmestare was held aloft by swirly torrents of glass, creating an incomprehensible maelstrom around the Refined.

Master Clevnis was standing up from the crouch hed landed in, magical blades poised around him like a ready army, awaiting its generals command.

Finally, Mistress Cerna was encased in what at first appeared to be a cage of precious metal, but on closer inspection was in fact many overlapping and intertwined spellforms, some powered, others awaiting the proper time.

They were as ready as they could be.

Mistress Suiles voice snapped out into the silence, Ten minutes. Thats all I need.

Tala felt herself smile. This would be far from easy, but they could do this.

Their units only response was from Master Clevnis, his voice equally strong in the fraction of a second before the roar of battle resumed. Understood.