NOVEL WEB (Vol 5) Chapter 60: Chaaaaaarge!
New Quest unlocked: “The Sky of Limits” — Defeat the pack of Dominion flying wizards.
● Rewards: +40-70 FE, 3-6 exp in [Goddess], 4-7 exp in most relevant sub-class used during quest, +10 or 20 Maximum MP.
The first thing Sammy did was bring her crew right back under cover, so she could prepare more properly for battle and add some more members. Buffs began to fly like mad.
Meanwhile, Ba Ra re-contacted her. “I spoke with the Antimage — if I pull him and suffer some extra damage for a bit, he can prepare a disruption in their protections. It won’t last long and will be a one-off, but if you believe you can take advantage of it, it’ll be well worth it. Our offense here is sorely lacking, as you can no doubt tell.”
Sammy sent a mental thumbs up. “Yes, it’s pretty obvious. No flyers?”
“Not in numbers. We’re rationing them and their energy, as we’re exceptionally spread thin. I have three Gloomies I can send in coordination when you strike, under strong buffs.”
“Alright, let’s do that. Just watch it on the AoE’s, because my people are often where you think they aren’t.”
“Understood.”
She added several more Servitors to the mix and furthermore created a pack of phantasmal constructs. She went primarily for speed instead of size, wanting to reduce her potential ambush profile as much as possible, not to mention focus on maneuverability. She made six snake-like demon-things whose noses and tails ended in a wicked blade, so they could charge like a living spear and whip their tails around as a follow-up.
She also made a slew of darts for her and Ozra to utilize. Learning from the last time she’d had them all wiped out at once, Sammy stowed away two batches in her dimensional sack. It would be far quicker to open and power-pull them out than to recreate them.
Naturally, she also utilized [Mirroring Duplicates: Strange Phantasm 0] to summon Ozra.
When Ozra appeared, she looked around, then raised an eyebrow at Sammy. “Emo convention?”
Snickering, Sammy shook her head. “We were going to appear before the Naugites looking all formidable, but now we’re going to ambush some flying wizards.”
“Roger that, Boss Lady!” Ozra saluted and in a puff of smoke, appeared in a 50’s bomber pilot outfit, but with a rocket pack on her back. She dropped her huge flight goggles down and gave a big grin as she struck a pose with her hands on her hips. “I look forward to using my new toys! Or maybe even the old ones!”
“You don’t look intimidating or evil, though…”
A curling mustache appeared above her lips. “Happy now?”
Rolling her eyes, Sammy was otherwise interrupted by Azure utilizing her more instantaneous version of portaling herself through Sammy’s Avatar. She appeared like shaping glass, which morphed into a perfectly on-point armored fantasy dark sorceress outfit, with perhaps some hints of ‘dominatrix.’ A bunch of the gathered clapped.
Dart whistled. “Major top energy!”
Constance also whistled. “You can say that again. Is anyone else feeling it's a bit warm out here?”
Porthos looked puzzled. “No. It’s quite cool, isn’t it?”
Meanwhile, Sammy sputtered in annoyance. “A-Azure!? What do you think you’re doing? Everyone else here has expendable bodies.”
Azure waved a hand to dismiss the argument. “I’m only becoming a tougher nut to crack, Your Majesty. I’ll be perfectly fine. And I insist on being here for this. Shall we stop wasting time and proceed with the final buffing? I believe Ozra and myself can assist.” She suited her words by turning and beginning a spell, eyes closing.
Grumbling under her breath, Sammy followed suit, layering a few final group buffs, and then making sure Azure was well-protected with defensive bonuses and wound negations.
The dragons reduced their size for the approach. There was an invisibility layer, which the wizards were inevitably doing to see through, anyway, but it reduced profile and detail at a glance, regardless. Sammy also layered an illusion that blocked [Detect Magic] and [Infravision] through [Sensory Expansion]. She’d guess that at least one would be an informational specialist and have [Truesight] or the like, but hopefully his guard was down with the impunity with which they were attacking the fortress.
To improve their chances, instead of lifting off right from the cliff, her party went down and circled to the general rear of the flying wizards, utilizing tree cover as long as they could. Unfortunately, the enemy group was more directly over a relatively open, barren plain leading up through the dry valley to the fortress.
Sammy coordinated with Ba Ra for the timing of the flying charge. Using them as distraction seemed the best play, to take them unawares from behind. The sparse numbers of priests and Servitors of Zadkiel present did have some flying summons available — weak demons, but they would make an otherwise hopeless attempt seem more plausible. Furthermore, thanks to a buff from the War domain that protected champions from AoE, they would give the Gloomies a chance at surviving the onslaught they’d face.
As her group waited under the cover of trees, Sammy sent the go-ahead to Ba Ra. Dozens of dark, winged shapes under the magical glow of protection spells took flight from the walls, separated into three groups. Soon thereafter, an energetic flash could be seen zipping across the space between the fortress and the wizards. Exclamations could be heard as their powerful orb-like protections sputtered and flickered out.
They acted quickly, however. Spells of many elements as well as pure Dominion ‘null energy’ arced out or simply erupted in the midst of the coming demon packs, blasting through their layers of protections with layers of destruction. Half of them were gone in mere moments.
The instant the spells of their enemies were away, Sammy gave the signal, and her small army of Servitors led by a pegasus-riding Samantha charged silently upward on a diagonal bent, first keeping to a loose rowed formation to reduce their profile. Azure, for her part, opted to fly free by means of a spell while taking up the rear.
For the first and most critical leg of the charge, while they were picking up speed and not at a good range, they were successful in avoiding notice, the wizards completely engaged and distracted by their unleashed flurry of spells. In the process, all of the Naugite summons were annihilated, and only the three Gloomies remained charging.
The wizards split their efforts, half on one target, half on another. One Gloomie was blasted by lightning and went careening down in a freefall, while another took damage and had blue flames burning him. He retreated, leaving only one lonely demon left.
Fortunately, help was imminent on the opposite side.
Nearly too late, a wizard finally snapped his head around and saw them, calling warnings immediately with fear deep in his eyes. Only he and the two nearest to him turned immediately. Four others were too involved in their ongoing spells and separated by distance.
Sammy gave another mental signal to everyone, and most of them slowed and fanned out, while she, the Faerie Dragons, Gabriel, and her flanking blade snake constructs kept charging forward. The dragons simultaneously ballooned in size along the way, making themselves prominent targets. A small horde of Resemblants dropped dispels and the first curses, expecting to trigger protections. From the back of dragons, Cat Siths cast the hopefully stickier, stronger curses.
Those that fanned out dropped a slew of ranged attacks, the first being multiple AoEs in sequence in the hopes of busting through wound negations and the like. Two of the wizards were pristine even after this, though it certainly gained their attention. One cried out as he was scoured by too many successful blasts, left smoking and heavily injured. The rest seemed to take minor wounds.
Ozra had a massive rocket launcher in her hands. She tried to aim the unwieldy thing and struggled with it, then it went off prematurely as she cursed, the rocket firing downward to the ground… or so it all appeared.
The rocket curled from under and around behind the group of three that was just facing their enemies. From here the rocket detonated and a big cloudy jet of explosive gas and smoke cascaded at the backs of the wizards. They did not notice or evade in time and were swept up by it, which threw them through the air with ease… right into the charging dragons.
Haha, she modified Pillar of Force again! Awesome.
Dart and Porthos were ready for it. Dart caught one right in his mouth, chomping down and eliciting a scream from his prey as his body crunched. Pothos had to pitch to the side and catch his gift, doing so violently with his hind talons. The act would have snapped the man’s spine but a wound negation saved him. However, he was pinned and in serious trouble.
The other careening wizard managed to steer his wild tumble away, but Sammy’s automated blade snakes were in range, and they took advantage to slice and dice him. Wound negations were cut through along with his flesh as he took a nasty diagonal cut on his back that sprayed blood. It would tie down a couple of the constructs, but he was likely done for in the following round due to the stun of a Major Wound.
Azure targeted a wizard who had taken a lesser wound, dropping one hand to send a storm of dark, gleaming blades at him. He defended himself feverishly with a magical shield against this onslaught, but then Azure flung her other hand, and a twisted arc of some glittering, glass-like substance shot from it in a continuous line like a connecting cable. When it touched the shield, it exploded into a dozen expanding, whipping fibers moving fast enough to cause the air to crack with booms.
It all happened in an instant, and the fibers disappeared, but before they did, they’d passed through the shield and the wizard from multiple angles. A gory spill of body parts, diced robes, and a shattered shield free-falled downward.
Daaaamn.
Finally, though, it was Sammy’s turn to join the spank-fest. She utilized the superior speed of her ‘sprinting’ mount to get closer while she prepared her attack — even though they all were going to fall short of melee. She measured that she could still use one of her most powerful ranged attacks, however: [Pneumanic Plasma].
Firstly, she utilized her customary [The Unseen Animus], picking who she regarded as the second strongest, being less confident she could beat whom she regarded as the top dog there. It worked! Barely.
With that, it was time to blast them. Taking advantage of her extended staff as an emanation point, Sammy thrust it out and a gout of continuous luminous plasma sprayed, the distance such that she could catch all three of the remaining enemies in the wideness of the cone. One was already badly wounded, and he died with a cut-off scream as he was seared and nearly melted into nothing. His burning corpse fell from the sky.
The other two were made of far stronger stuff, but the power effect they faced was stronger than the other bombs they shrugged off by a fair margin. It shredded a wound negation on both, and then — fortunately — [Pneumanic Plasma] dealt two attacks in one use.
The top dog, a bearded wiseman in gray, rune-lined robes, had a contingency spell fire off and save him from damage with another wound negation. The other wizard, younger and clean-shaven, had his arm and an entire side that shielding against the spray seared and burned, and he cried out in pain and offense. Rather than catching on fire exactly, his robes seemed to just smoke.
It was a successful ambush, but a total wipeout it was not, unfortunately. So her party’s strong showing to the Naugites remained in question…