NOVEL WEB Chapter 42 - Wolfbat Event Part 2
There was one clear advantage that Dan had over all of his invaders and enemies in the zone. He had instant and clear communication with all of his monsters while in his territory. And this upcoming fight was going to be one that he put that advantage to use. Not only did he see all the monsters coming for him, but he could then communicate what he saw with his monsters, who were waiting for combat. Even more importantly, he could direct his air forces where to strike the enemies best and when it was best to retreat.
It would still take about another 30 minutes before the invaders clashed with his forces, and in his commander mode, Dan had almost forgotten to do one of the most important things, which was to give pure mana to his D-rankers. He quickly accomplished this goal and filled all the D-rankers with pure Mana as they waited for combat to start.
Around ten minutes before the enemy was to make contact with his monsters, Dan recalled all of his aerial forces. The retreat clearly marked the correct path for the enemy to take in order to find his small battle clearing. He had decided that retreating was the correct course of action as he wanted his birds to have some rest before they truly engaged in combat with the enemy aerial forces. The enemy had few aerial forces, mostly the owl monstrosities and the smaller magical birds. Technically, the wolfbats could count as aerial forces as they could glide, but Dan thought they would likely engage in the melee.
Eventually, the confrontation came as the invaders got closer to his small hold. Thankfully, the enemy boss did not bother to use any tactics. It didn't bother to do much of anything. The boss stayed back behind the horde of monsters with his other D-rankers and simply seemed to command his forces to go head-first. In the end, the monsters did follow Dan’s plan, but not to the extent that Dan wanted them. A large majority of them funneled into the walls as they charged at the bears and the gorillas, but enough of them went outside the walls that Dan knew he had to rely on his other monsters to stop them from flanking or going over the walls. Still, the large majority of them were heading towards his own frontline, and he got ready to give the command to his monsters.
A dozen or so feet before the horde crashed into his front line, he told the bears to begin the assault. The bears used some of their mana to activate their Entomb skills, but a rather weak version of it. Still, the emerging store did its job and appeared in front of the incoming horde's front line, causing the monsters to stumble into the surfacing stone. The stone easily crumbled underneath the assault, but it also made many of them stumble. The frenzied horde didn't care about their allies, and the fallen monsters were crushed. Another result of the stone was the disruption of the enemy lines, who, as much as they tried, were still tangled by the domino effect of the falling monsters. This then cascaded into the final clash as not as many monsters slammed into Dan’s front liners as they would have otherwise.
Even then, there were still too many monsters for his bears and gorillas to hold back, and many of them ran past his frontline to engage the jaguars and panthers, who eagerly also charged forward as the battle truly began.
As the front lines engaged each other, the monsters that hadn’t entered the walled area began attempting to climb over said walls or go around them. However, just as Dan had planned, the cheetahs were there, along with the worms and the moles, who began taking out the much smaller wave of monsters. All the while, the aerial battle also began as the eagles and the hawks engaged the incoming owls, who shot their spikes. The enemy also had the magical birds who used smoke, fire and sheer pecking force to deal damage. Not that Dan was worried about his aerial forces, as they outclassed their enemies.
It was only a matter of time before the incoming horde also made their way through his jaguars and panthers, as there were too many of them. Thankfully, he still had the baboons who engaged with their spear wall. For the moment, the baboons could hold back the monsters that got past the panthers and the jaguars. It was thanks to that-that the doe’s could do their job, and Dan saw healing beams hit the most damaged of his frontline monsters. It was then that Dan finally gave the final order of this phase of the battle. He had wanted the enemy to truly engage him before he told his monsters to start activating their abilities. And when he did so, the battlefield changed.
His bears enhanced themselves and began smacking boars and wolves while also squishing snakes under their feet. The gorillas also engaged as they activated their smash skills, doing large amounts of damage as they spun around while their skill was activated. It was an interesting move as they were able to do some real area damage by spinning around. Also impressive were the jaguars and the panthers when they activated their metal slashes. Dan witnessed as all sorts of monsters were cut apart, from the bear monstrosities to the raptors, who lost tails and limbs like they were nothing. It didn't mean that he hadn't taken casualties, as he had lost some of his monsters, but so far, he was winning the fight without question. The fight was especially easy up in the air when his eagles and hawks began using their Wind Slashes, causing enemy birds to fall by the dozens. Sadly, their upper hand didn't last for as long as Dan wanted as the enemy boss roared and a wave of energy passed through the battlefield.
The effect was clear as it passed over the invading monsters. The monsters had already been in a frenzy, but the roar seemed to double the dose of whatever they were on, and they became even more frenzied as their strength doubled. This caught Dan’s own monsters by surprise as they had already unleashed many of their skills to turn the tie, and their mana was low. It was also when Dan began taking more casualties. Still, if the enemy boss wanted to get involved, then Dan would have one of his bosses get involved, and he ordered Ingot to activate his Roar of the Mountain skill.
After his rank-up, Ingot was truly something to behold. He had grown in size just a bit, not enough to bump into the next category but enough to be noticeable. His size was then added onto by his earthen armor that covered his body giving the appearance of a moving mountain of earth and stone. The armor had plates of dark brown stone covering his body, all of which were padded with dirt.
Rearing up, his earthen armor shifting, Ingot unleashed his skill, causing the earth to shake slightly as a wave of energy was released. The effect was noticeable in the fight as all his monsters became more resilient or healed slightly, and their skins even became tougher.
Unhappy with the change of events, the enemy boss finally decided it was time for the enemy D-rankers to engage. The issue was that the enemy D-ranker were not going after his bosses. Dan didn't know why, but he had expected the enemy to ignore the lesser minions and fight it out with his bosses. However, instead, they were charging right into the fray of the normal beasts. That was the last thing Dan wanted, as that would cause more casualties on his side. Thankfully, the moment he saw the enemy rankers start to charge, he sent his rankers forward as they began building up their powers.
Just as the ranker charge was beginning, he noticed that he had won the aerial battle, and he quickly sent all his birds to help kill all the monsters running outside the walls. Additionally, he told his stags to stop holding back their mana. They had been waiting to use their earthen walls in case the doe’s were threatened, but Dan didn’t have time for that. He needed to win the non-rank skirmish as soon as possible. As such, the stags were commanded to start using their Earth Spikes on enemies in order to help turn the tables entirely.
As he gave that command, he was already watching as Ingot made his way straight through the battlefield, bouldering over enemies while making a path for George, Fir, and Fur. Naturally, all the others were already gone, starting their own strategies. Kinetic and Eagle the Hawk were charging up. Balbatzar flew over the battle while Itsy had been waiting all this time rather close to the enemy rankers, still unseen. Meanwhile, Xinos went invisible and joined the unseen gang of Jamole and Chomp. Thus, the first to strike the incoming rankers were Itsy and Hawk the Eagle.
Hawk rammed into one of the wolfbats as her talons gripped it, and she began to unleash her Wind Slash, which, at such a close range with the amount of mana she put into, tore the D-ranker apart. Annoyingly, this let all the other rankers know that they couldn’t take this as a joke, and Dan felt their mana spike as they all enhanced their bodies with their own pure mana. Honestly, Dan wished it had happened just a little later as, just as they did, one of the wolfbats was struck by five metal needles infused with venom. The venom was strong, and the damn bat felt it, but it wasn’t enough to kill it now that it was enhanced. Additionally, it gave Itsy’s position away, and one of the wolfbat rankers moved toward the spider.
That left ten wolfbats, two of which targeted Hawk the Eagle and hit the bird with an unexpected silent sonic scream that visibly vibrated the air, forming ringed waves. The bird, obviously unprepared, lost consciousness and began falling to the ground as the two wolfbats converged on her location. The other eight kept rushing towards the still ongoing battle and would soon clash with Ingot.
On the battlefield, where the majority of the monsters were clashing, the battle finally started to fully swing in Dan’s favor. All the outlying monsters had been taken care of, and his remaining monsters were converging on the main battle.