blacksmithoftheapocalypse
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1211. Under Pressure
🕑 Added 2024-11-10 16:59:37 +0000 UTC“Off, off with their heads~ Dance, dance 'til you're dead ~ Heads will roll~ Heads will roll~ Heads will roll! On the floor.”
The sound of drumming echoed, as the roots started attacking the barrier again. They didn't have the time to be shocked for long, as the song became faster and stronger, prompting the tree to restart its attacks, adding new enemies to the roaster of dangers they had to face.
The golden giant, the titan, and the absurdity were rushing at the barrier, giant fists adding to pressure on Krista. Even when the barrier was a legendary skill, there already was a giant legend trying to crush it, they couldn't afford to let those three giant beasts attack too.
“Cleave!” Unbothered by the roots surrounding the barrier, the Minotaur appeared at the barrier and attacked directly with his giant labrys. The attack didn't compare to the earlier energy blade, but it carried the same unholy attribute, leaving spiderwebs of dark cracks on the barrier that only recovered slowly.
“Someone stop that dumb bull first!” Krista, the Benign, exclaimed angrily, as she barely managed to stop the damage from the attack and that of the strike to merge. If the cracks connected, she feared the unholy energy may spread. “If that ox keeps adding more, I might not be able to keep up the barrier!”
“I'm sorry! We are having a hard time resisting the urge to dance and chant at the same time!” the leader of her own mage squad apologized in panic, sweat dripping from his forehead. His whole body was twitching, as he tried to focus and chant the spell.
Members of all parties had now started outright dancing, with their limbs flying everywhere in a choreographed dance, like puppets on strings. It was hard to get any kind of organization back into the different squads the legends brought along.
Maybe Krista could have done something against the dancing, but she was currently the only one stopping everyone beside them from being devoured by the tree. Sharing glances, Soti and the other legends decided on their next moves in moments.
“Death Claw!”
A transparent shadow was fired from Jarvan's claw weapon, chasing the Minotaur, who had retreated between the roots. The wooden tentacles smashing into the barrier were cut just above the ground, not even slowing down the blade's energy.
The bull had nowhere to run! But when the blade was about to bisect him, it suddenly crashed into a shield of golden light surrounding the bull-man. Sparks were flying for a moment before the golden barrier was shattered in two steps. the Minotaur was thrown back by the explosion of the double-layered barrier and escaped the fate of living in two halves.
~Haha, did you think you could kill anyone with the great me and my little brother around?~ a haughty voice boasted over the music still playing. Weren't they underestimating them a little too much? The elven archer thought with a smirk as her skill finished charging. She let her arrow loose in the middle of the creature's sentence.
“Cooking ass. Make it fast-” The music halted when Soti set her arrow loose. It had vanished after leaving the bow and appeared directly before the bard in heavy armor without losing any time traveling the distance. The projectile struck the thin barrier covering his armor, crushed it, and hit his neck.
<Ding! Your skill <Ownerless Blade> allowed you to dodge the reflected damage.>
The arrow had hit the hidden gorget that protected the bard's neck and disintegrated under the reflected damage it had to take because it couldn't be reflected onto the attacker. Despite this, she suddenly felt incredibly sick. Her body felt weak and she tumbled.
<Ding! You have been affected by <Tisiphone's Mirror> and contracted “disease”.>
A skill effect that affected her? She felt like the world was turning and her head was burning up. One moment to the other she had a high fever, her vision turned blurry, and chills shook her body. Her status window was filled with various ailments.
The elf knelt down on the street, afraid to fall from the vertigo. How long had it been since he had felt this sick? Centuries. Never since she became a legend. The music had stopped, but she suffered the price.
...
---Outside of Delta---
Peering through the portal in the sky above Delta, Natina watched the situation unfold. Although she clenched her fist tightly, holding herself back upon seeing the hateful bard finally appear on the scene, she couldn't help but gloat at other people's misfortune.
She already expected their struggle, knowing that even Kalzemir had struggled to harm the tree with his breath. Without her distracting Minas Mar, they had actually assembled their forces on the legends, just as she expected.
Her smile grew even wider at the other situation. Natina had not expected that a hidden figure would manage to set up two more gates, but seeing them fleeing through the gates and being captured by the natives was a welcome surprise.
When she realized, that the other side beyond the gates, was also struggling to keep the tree from invading THEIR world, she almost cheered for her enemies. After all, if there was someone she hated more than the bard, then it was those conservative royals, especially Byron, that son of a bitch.
Natina had no hard time, recognizing some of the legends that appeared, especially Soti was a household name for the Byron Royal Family. That old bastard actually tried to set her up, they only deserved to lose his territory to that tree.
He could all go and suck it. it would be best if he just went ahead and died there. She would have a perfect excuse for all the things that went wrong on this expedition. “Obviously” someone was sabotaging her, so she couldn't be held fully accountable for the losses she incurred on the way here. Who could prove her wrong?
Byron? Who would believe him? His legends were all here, and they were actually struggling. Right now, the legends were locked in a battle against Minas Mar's creations. Four legends were being besieged by two extremely powerful legends and several super-massive beings.
The fire titan also came as a surprise to the Chosen of Kali. She really had not expected to see even more high-caliber monsters to come out of Minas Mar. If she was lucky, the invaders would be able to take down some of them, making her job easier. It was a shame they managed to assemble before Minas Mar attacked. Without Krista's shield, they wouldn't have lasted this long
Things became chaotic when the archer's arrow shut off the music. Although Soti seemed weakened, they started their counterattack with their parties able to move freely again. Krista's mages pelted the golden giant in powerful magic to keep it at bay.
Warriors and tanks of all parties, strengthened by the priests of Covdite and Krista, were defending against and pruning the roots that were attacking the shield, ensuring their survival. Leaving the position to their parties and the Parties to Krista, the other three Legends finally made their move.
Natina clicked her tongue, but it was to be expected that just the roots of the tree, were no great danger to the legends themselves. Before, they just had a hard time defending their party and attacking the tree simultaneously.
While it seemed like Jarvan entered the jungle of roots to kill the bull that kept putting cracks into Krista's barrier, Demus rose to the sky, stepping on the backs of small golden cupids that appeared below his feet. The bishop went off the offense against the lightning bird.
It seemed like Soti, despite her obvious weakness, was also about to attack, but Natina's attention was crapped by a different part of Delta. If she remembered correctly, this was the demon district, where the demons should have invaded to raze the city. She frowned, thinking of the demonic incompetence.
She found two figures fighting in this place, away from the main attraction.
PS. i hope accounts that "sell posts" and are the cause of this stupid setting go fucking bankrupt.
