Rather than launching the typical explosive ball of fire from her hands, it seemed that Erani’s new and Upgraded Firebolt Spell caused a meteor to fall from the sky. It hurtled to the ground, set to collide with the closest group of monsters charging at me, and I’d be lying if I claimed I didn’t stare in awe a little bit.
It looked like a lesser version of another famous Spell, Star of Extinction. That one was much, much larger in scale and cost so much Mana that Erani would probably be physically incapable of casting it, though, so I wasn’t worried about it killing everyone nearby, at least. In this case, the Firebolt itself had transformed into a mass of flames falling from the clouds, like the gods themselves were showering us in burning oil.
The inferno crashed into the ground, spreading chunks of fiery mass across the desert sand and killing—or at least severely injuring—anything it touched.
In that instant, I also got a good few kill notifications letting me know of my contribution to some of those deaths and the XP rewards that came with them.
I stood in shock for a moment, staring at the mess Erani had made of the battlefield using a single Spell.
“...What the fuck?”
But I was pulled back into my head the next instant by a Sand Sifter bursting from the ground near me, aiming itself for my leg. I hurriedly hit it with Gravity Well, throwing its arc through the air off-course, and stepped away.
Right. This fight was far, far from over. I wasn’t sure what in the hells Erani was capable of right now, but I needed to focus myself on killing as many of these things as possible before they killed me.
In the few seconds that’d passed, any of the monsters that’d been killed had been replaced by twice as many arriving on the scene, having started beelining for us the moment the battle started.
Another few Sand Stompers charged in, alongside several of the winged Stingers. I hurried to cast Crippling Chill on all of the Stingers as I dashed to the side to avoid the Stompers’ attacks, while at the same time trying to keep aware of the fact that my movements could be interrupted by the worm-like Sifters at any moment.In the background, I could vaguely hear the sounds of combat between Ainash and the horde of monsters, as well as distant Explosions from Erani thinning the pack and keeping herself protected, but for the most part, I was fighting on my own, separated from my allies by a wall of enemies.
At this point, so many had arrived from off in the distance that it would be impossible to flee even if I wanted to. And not just because they’d outrun me, but also because there was literally nowhere to go. I was fully encircled by them—a circle that was closing in rather quickly.
More and more Sand Stingers kept flooding in, and while Crippling Chill made them easy to deal with, that didn’t mean knocking them out of the sky didn’t cost me anything. With each one I paralyzed, I had to spend another 35 Mana on Crippling Chill—a cost that added up much faster than I’d have liked it to. And it didn’t seem like a single cast of the Spell would actually kill them, either. They’d recover from the Spell after 15 seconds, meaning I’d need to spend another 35 Mana to hit them again—something I was just now beginning to face, with the first wave’s worth of the things taking to the skies once again, rushing for me.
Another Sand Stomper came at me and I just narrowly avoided getting trampled beneath its feet, throwing myself to the side, then getting back to my feet only to find another charging in my direction, where I somehow managed to dodge to the side once again. Then the first one turned around and charged right back at me again, and before I could even think about dodging, two Sand Sifters burst from the dunes and aimed for my head. I hurriedly moved to curse one of them and dodge the other, but then the Stomper’s foot kicked into my chest, throwing me back and tumbling across the ground.
You have been slammed into something. 132 damage.
Your Health is 221.
Several more explosions echoed through the desert, fires lighting the battlefield. Erani had been casting her meteor-like Firebolts to try and control the Sand Stompers, but she still had to spend a lot of time just making sure they didn’t kill her—especially the Stingers, since she didn’t have nearly as much of a helpful Spell as I did when it came to protecting herself from them. Seemed like I needed to figure out a solution of my own, especially with the Sifters coming up to interrupt me any time I was in trouble.
I cast a few more copies of Expedite on myself, draining my Mana down below 1k and pushing my bodily control to its limits. I already wanted to keep as many as I could active on myself at a time, since each stack of the Spell would give me extra Stamina every minute that could be spent on Regenerate, but right now I was really just looking at the Dexterity boost.
Another Sand Stomper came charging at me; at this point, that was pretty much constantly happening. This time, though, I didn’t leap over to the side to dodge its stampede. Instead, just before it reached me, I hit it with every curse I possibly could and then leapt into the air, using my boosted stats to launch myself much higher than I would ever be able to normally. It stumbled and lurched forward, falling to its knees just as it crossed paths with me, where I frantically grabbed onto its sagging yellowish skin and held on for dear life.
It roared and shook its massive body, trying to throw me back onto the ground, but I held strong, the level of control my current Dexterity offered helping me keep myself affixed to the monster. I was currently holding onto its shoulder, and slowly began making my way up to its back. The whole time, of course, keeping Noxious Grasp active.
Ironically, I was much safer while literally on top of the monster than I was while on the ground, able to be crushed beneath their feet and exposed to the Sand Sifters, always ready to strike at my weakest moment.
I got myself up onto the things back, despite its best efforts, and used my very shaky, very hostile vantage point to survey the chaos.
Erani had made several still-burning craters in the surrounding area, but had also been chased back, steadily losing ground to the nigh-endless onslaught of monsters. Ainash, too, had her work cut out for her, currently surrounded and finding herself in a constant struggle to keep herself from getting overwhelmed. I’d been getting frequent notifications of my own contribution to random kills—mainly of the Sand Stingers—but also from the Bond with Ainash giving me a small percentage of all XP she got, which had been slowly adding up throughout the fight.
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I felt a rumble from beneath me, almost falling from my unwilling steed. It’d been doing its best to shake me this whole time as I slowly drained its life away with Noxious Grasp, but hadn’t been successful, and at this point it was in a sort of panicked state, clearly unsure of what to do and now just running in circles. These things were numerous and powerful, but they weren’t smart.
However, they still knew where I was, and they knew that they wanted to kill me. So, even though the Sand Stomper that I was currently riding atop didn’t know what to do about it, the others figured it out pretty quickly. One of them charged forth and rammed straight into the one I was atop, hitting it with its tusks full-force and sending it stumbling back.
It didn’t immediately fall to the ground, but when the second of its allies charged and hit it again, blood spewing everywhere from the tusks digging their way through the beast’s skin, it shakily fell to the sand, and me with it. Another contribution message entered my mind alongside the others, and I hurriedly sprinted along my now-dead ride’s back and leapt from the corpse straight onto the next Sand Stomper.
This one tried to step back and avoid me, but I caught onto its flapping flesh and dug my fingers in, quickly pulling myself up its flank and onto its back. It, too, attempted to shake me, but—
You have been pierced. 97 damage.
Your Health is 153.
You have been poisoned. 81 damage.
Your Health is 72.
“Agh!” I screamed out as the sword-like stinger of the giant flying monsters pierced through my back mid-climb. Instantly, I reached into my mind and hit it with a Crippling Chill and the thing fell straight to the ground behind me, but the pain didn’t go away. At this point, my Health was much lower than it started, and the shield it provided was weakening. The Sand Stinger had broken skin with its strike and stabbed straight through my back and into my body. I leaked blood and venom as I fought to stay on the side of the Stomper.
Another contribution message as the monster I held onto unintentionally stepped onto the paralyzed Sand Stinger in its attempt to throw me from its body. I just barely held strong, my legs flapping to and fro as my fingers fought to keep their grip onto the thing. If I could keep this up for a little longer, maybe Regenerate could work its magic and—
Your Bond with Level 34 Draconiad has been severed.
Due to your Bond being severed, you have lost the following effects:
-Your Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are no longer increased by 22.
-Whenever Draconiad gains XP, you no longer gain 11% of that XP.
-You no longer have 49.4% Resistance to all heat-based damage.
-Your Mana is no longer increased by 110.
-Your Mana/Minute is no longer increased by 8.1.
-You may no longer transfer memories between yourself and Level 34 Draconiad.
Instantly, I felt a massive portion of my Stats—particularly Strength—leave my body. The shock combined with the pain from my wound caused my grip to loosen from the Sand Stomper just enough that I slipped off, tumbling to the sand.
Fuck, I thought, did Ainash die?
But before I could even consider what the answer to that question could be, I felt a shadow cross over my face, and watched as a Sand Stomper did what its name implied.
You have been crushed. 189 damage.
Your Health is 0.
You have died.
In the in-between space, I took a moment to shake off the post-death jitters.
Well, that seemed like a pretty good run, all things considered.
Time to see the spoils of war.