It wasn’t long before the rest of the monster horde still noticed their presence. The stone-controlling ants paid no heed to them – they continued swarming the wall, where the defenders desperately tried to fight them off. The nearest Vinebears proved to be the most immediate threat. Several of them broken off from the wall entirely, and whirled towards the group with hungry expressions.
Allira started singing of a lost city, and of rocks that fell from the sky as an army ruined everything bright and happy in the world. The air around them rippled, and buildings and corpses started to appear in the midst of the battlefield. Children and adults huddled in broken buildings, as Sigmusi Mages rained death upon the town from outside the walls.
The vinebears seemed stunned by the disappearance of the natural plant life in the area – and much to Alice’s surprise, some of the started to retreat. This wasn’t behavior that she was used to. Most monsters simply charged until they were dead.
For a moment, Alice was relieved. If the monsters started fleeing from this battlefield, it would be a good enough outcome. The city would be saved, and the group would be free to continue on their journey. However, it only took a few moments for her to realize she had been too optimistic.
The Vinebears were fleeing from the battlefield. They were just regrouping. The Vinebears had clearly realized that Allira’s illusion nullified their strongest weapon, so they were trying to find a way to get their advantage back. A moment later, the first Vinebear awkwardly clambered over to one of the non-illusory ruined houses.
Then, as if it were an Olympic champion winding up, it grabbed one of the rocks and awkwardly threw it at the group. A moment later, one of Ethan’s shrapnel pieces ripped through its throat, killing it instantly.
Alice resisted the urge to swear.
The damn creatures hadn’t even used a Perk, but they had somehow figured out a way to counter Allira’s illusions.
Luckily, it meant almost nothing to the group. The moment the rock was close enough, Alice reached out with a magic tendril and stopped the rock. It was surprisingly difficult – while bears didn’t have thumbs, making their grip on the stones awkward, their limbs had an awful lot of power behind them. That meant she needed to sink a lot of mana into the rock to stop its motion again. Alice also noticed a small cluster of moss on the side of the rock that felt oddly… sticky.
It must have been how the bear-liked monster had managed to throw it in the first place.
Alice grimaced as she thought of how much smarter and more dangerous monsters were getting. It was all because they were so intelligent now.
Intelligent… Alice blinked, and then took a closer look at the Vinebears. Were the vinebears themselves intelligent, or were the alpha monsters the only ones that were more intelligent than usual? If it was the Vinebear alpha that was more intelligent, perhaps there was something she could do about this…
A few weeks ago, she had watched a monstrous glimmerspren evolve from a regular monster into a monster alpha. During that time, it looked almost as if the monster had formed a sort of… paired enchantment between the monster alpha and all nearby glimmerspren.
Alice had also spent several hours on Allira’s conjured ships, analyzing the ‘strings’ of mana that seemed to connect monsters to other monsters.
How had she… never connected the dots before? They didn’t quite look the same, sure… but at the end of the day, both types of mana connection were fundamentally ‘connections’ formed by mana. They might not be exactly the same, but Alice would be shocked if there was no similarity at all in how both types of connection were constructed. In fact, it was obvious that she should have been analyzing the similarities and differences between both types of connection.
Alice grinned as she realized she might have a much better way to contribute to this fight. If monsters were more dangerous because the alpha was intelligent, the solution was simple. Cut off the connection between the monsters and the alphas.
Alice used {Dimensional Camouflage} in tandem with three of her magic tendrils, to maximize the range and coverage she could manage with her anti-magic mana. Each portal was positioned right next to the vinebears, but thanks to {Dimensional Camouflage}, she didn’t need to worry about getting counterattacked through the portals. Then, Alice stuck her mana tendrils through the portals she had opened. Once the tips of her mana tendrils were as far away from her portals as she could get them, she started flooding the battlefield with anti-magic mana.
The vinebears near her targeted area lost any semblance of cohesion and intelligence. They seemed almost like they had gone crazy – they started desperately running in different directions, trying and failing to use their magic on Allira’s illusory city, and a few of them simply charged the group again. They had a strange appearance – as if they were truly desperate to escape the area.
Alice remembered that monsters usually suffocated in minutes if they were cut off from mana. It was similar to an army suddenly lost contact with their commander, and at the same time they started suffocating. Panic was natural.
This tactic… was surprisingly effective.
Some of the Vinebears pounced towards the group, trying to rend their flesh from their bones, and Ethan killed them all with a spray of shrapnel. Many of the other panicking Vinebears were drawn over to the area, and Ethan quickly finished them off. Now that their commander wasn’t feeding them hints and commands, the creatures were like headless flies. They were still dangerous, but nowhere near as threatening as before.
Alice was somewhat satisfied with the result, but she quickly noticed another problem. This tactic required flooding an area with anti-magic mana, and Alice didn’t have that much anti-magic mana to spare. With 171 Magic stat, 192% Stat effectiveness, and 40% mana conversion ratio, she had about 131 Mariums of anti-magic mana available to her. Not a terrible amount, but not enough that she could just flood the battlefield like this and hope for the best. Just to break down the intelligence and strength of about fifty vinebears, she had spent nearly thirty Mariums. At this rate, she would run out of mana long before she made a noticeable impact on the battlefield. Not to mention, Ethan was a terror on the battlefield already – most of the things Alice had done so far, Ethan could have managed on his own anyway.
Alice glanced towards the front of the group, where Ethan and Jonathan had blocked off a different group of vinebears and swiftly eradicated them.
Also, Alice noticed that Jonathan was surprisingly effective in combat, despite how much he had downplayed his combat abilities when they first met. He had none of the grace of a proper [Swordsman], but he had sheer [Strength] and [Endurance]. Alice suspected that the man would seriously struggle against some types of enemies – fast, nimble opponents could probably dance circles around him. People with ranged attacks probably wouldn’t have a hard time dealing with him either, as long as they stayed out of range and whittled him down. However, when it came to these Vinebears, after Allira had stripped away their most direct combat magic?
The man could almost ignore the scratches and bites of the monsters, and each wild haymaker punch was enough to shatter Vinebear bones like they were brittle glass. Even if his aim could use some work, he still killed a good number of vinebears within two or three punches, and each punch left vinebears reeling.
With three Immortals, the vinebears had almost no chance to turn the battle around. The ones still under the command of their alpha retreated, while the ones who got caught by the group were eradicated in seconds.
Alice frowned at the Vinebears, wondering what they would do next, and quickly realized that the other monsters had started coordinating with the Vinebears. Since vinebears alone posed no threat to them, the flying birds had started to maneuver towards them.
However, Cecilia and Jonathan’s children weren’t idle during the fight. Jonathan’s children had pulled out bows and started firing at the monstrous fliers, while Cecilia had launched a blast crystal into the air and then detonated it in the middle of a flock of birds. Alice also realized that Cecilia’s aim wasn’t that great, so a lot of her blast crystals were just exploding in midair… but it was enough to make the ice birds wary.
Their combat skills were nothing special, but they were at least taking some of the pressure off of the Immortals while the group advanced.
Still, it was nowhere near enough to keep control of all of the monsters attacking them. The first spray of icy shrapnel came less than thirty seconds later, when the first flock of ice birds got close to Ethan and unleashed their first volley. Alice tried to help deflect some of the frozen projectiles, and winced in annoyance when her kinetic mana came into contact with the airborne missiles.
Something about these projectiles felt ‘slippery’ when she tried to manipulate them. She didn’t know if it was an inherent property of whatever mana these monsters used, or something else entirely, but it was much harder for her to latch onto these missiles and deflect them. Ethan, seeing Alice fumble, stepped in and sent the wave of icy projectiles away – but that also meant Jonathan was left to his own devices for a few moments. It wasn’t enough for him to get overwhelmed, but Jonathan did start retreating back towards the group as vinebears took the opportunity to charge at him and try to dogpile the Immortal [Farmer].
Alice quickly realized she had little to contribute to the defenses of the group, so she swapped back to offensive measures. She started popping open portals near the ice-controlling birds and then ripping them apart with her enchanted bracelet beads. Unlike the icy projectiles she had failed to deflect, she ran into no problems just tearing into the monsters with her own projectiles.
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In this way, the group managed to create an uneasy stalemate with the monsters. They hadn’t dragged over enough monsters to truly tilt the scales in favor of the human forces, but they had at least taken some of the pressure off of the defenders. The flying monsters, in particular, were important, because the Mages on the walls were finally free to help knock down the stone-controlling giant ants.
However, the group wasn’t having an easy time either. Some of the monsters displayed their access to Perks, something that Alice hadn’t needed to deal with when the group was handling the imprisoned manaborn monsters. This meant that from time to time, one of the monsters would whip out a new, dangerous ability that would sometimes even catch Ethan off-guard. Three minutes into the battle, Alice started sweating as an icicle teleported right next to her skull and nearly pulped her brain. Luckily, {Adrenaline Rush}, followed by {Reflection}, saved her before she met an untimely end. However, the close call shook her out of the growing sense of complacency she had started to form during the battle. Even with three Immortals here, if she got unlucky enough, she could die. The monsters weren’t unintelligent computer-generated monsters that would rush towards their deaths. They were intelligent creatures led by commanders that wanted the group dead.
After an icicle nearly brained her, Ethan moved a little closer to her, making it easier for him to respond to future threats. He sent her an apologetic look as the battle raged on. Alice simply looked at the monstrous horde again, and sighed. As monsters assimilated more Perks and learned to coordinate better, they were becoming increasingly difficult to deal with. She could see why, even with Fendrallia’s walls and Mages, they were struggling to fend off the monster horde – they acted almost like a human army.
Alice started thinking as she tried to find another way to turn the tables. Her mana reserves and number of magic tendrils were pitiful compared to Ethan. She had no ability to make a meaningful impact on the battlefield. Her greatest strength was the ability to come up with new, innovating tactics. How could she do that? The anti-magic flooding worked, but it was too mana intensive to make a big impact on the battlefield. Her enchantments were nowhere near good enough to make a huge difference here, and she didn’t have time to make new ones. What could she do?
Frustratingly, Alice came up blank. The situation was just far too large for her to change on her own, as much as she wished she could find a way to flip the tables around and give the human forces a big advantage.
Alice gritted her teeth as she activated another set of bracelet beads, killing another wave of ice-birds, when she saw something shift out of the corner of her eyes. Some of the stone ants were finally taking notice of the group. They seemed annoyed by the fact that the ice birds and vinebears hadn’t finished off the group yet. Nearly four hundred of them broke off from the assault on the wall, and started stomping towards the group.
That was not good. The group was barely holding on as-is. If the stone ants joined the fray, Alice wasn’t sure if they would be able to survive. At best, they might be forced to retreat, and at worst, the group might actually die.
Just as Alice started sweating, a giant maw made of shadows suddenly tore out of one of the ruined buildings in Allira’s illusory city. It grinned at one of the densest clusters of stone ants, before it surged forwards and snapped shut with a resounding crunch. The sound had an unnerving note of finality to it.
Just like that, nearly a third of the stone ants that had been heading towards them died. The remaining stone ants froze in their tracks, before they eyed Ethan’s group more warily than before. More importantly, they stopped moving to reinforce the birds and the bears.
Alice glanced at Allira, and saw that the Immortal of Song and Shadow was panting heavily as she eyed their surroundings. Clearly, the shadowy maw, as well as maintaining the illusory city, had taken a lot out of her.
Allira noticed Alice glancing at her, and she gave Alice a strained smile.
“Don’t worry, I’m not out of Perks quite yet. That one is just unusually exhausting,” she said, shaking her head. “I still have more tricks up my sleeve.”
Alice hesitated, before she nodded. Ethan typically fought with Kinetic Magic, but she still remembered just how many weird and unusual perks and items he had pulled out when the Sigmusi Immortal [Assassin] had come for her a few months ago. She didn’t doubt for a second that all Immortals had a wide variety of powerful Perks that could be activated in emergencies.
Even so, seeing Allira so worn out was worrying. Most of the walls were still under siege, and the number of monsters heading towards them was increasing rapidly. A few of the walls were starting to resemble swiss cheese. Alice could see a few [Masons] and [Laborers] repairing the wall at a speed that even modern machinery could never have achieved – but it just wasn’t enough. The monsters were punching holes in the wall and the defenders faster than reinforcements and repairs could take effect.
Worse, after Allira’s intervention, even more monsters started to take notice of their little group. Another five hundred stopped besieging the walls and whirled towards them. Alice felt the back of her neck prickle with fear as she realized that nearly a hundred monsters were now fixated on their group instead of the defenders. At this rate, the defenders would finally get a real break – but their group was about to be in deep trouble.
Alice started straining her brain to think of another strategy, but she just wasn’t coming up with anything. She flipped open her Status Screen, just to see if she could find anything that could help her. Flooding the area with {Anti-Magic} mana was impossible. {Adrenaline Rush} had already been used, and she only had two uses of {Reflection} left for this battle. Most of her Perks helped with research and growth, instead of direct combat, and that made scrolling through her list of Perks far more difficult than it would be for a proper combat class. Alice resisted the urge to growl in frustration as she came up blank.
Nothing she could think of was enough. Alice briefly thought about all of the abilities Ethan had displayed during the fight with the [Assassin], and started to feel frustrated. Why wasn’t he using any of them? Wouldn’t a few of the things he had used during that fight help?
Alice glanced at Allira, and saw that Allira was firmly eyeing their surroundings. It wasn’t just to keep track of all of the potential threats. With a flash of realization, Alice understood why the Immortals were mostly sticking to ‘normal’ combat. They were still prepared to escape if anything went wrong. They were trying to help – but they were also fully prepared to abandon the city and flee if things went wrong.
She could understand that… but she wasn’t happy about it. The idea of leaving the city to die if the defenders failed didn’t sit right with her. She wanted the people of this city to survive while she searched for a final solution to this world’s problems.
She turned back towards the approaching army of monsters. Above them, ice birds soared through the skies like kites in the wind, preparing to unleash frozen hell upon the group. Vinebears tramped through the illusory city of Allira’s creation, their vine control magic weakened but their massive forms still providing cover for their allies. Stone-manipulating ants strolled towards the group like death on six legs.
And then Alice seized upon a new idea. Something that might actually let her help. She wasn’t sure if it would work or not… but it was her best idea.
Anti-magic mana was useful, but it chewed through her mana reserves too quickly. But a big part of her anti-magic mana was wasted. After all, she was flooding an area with anti-magic mana – that meant that a lot of the anti-magic mana just ended up floating around in midair, not hitting anything important.
There were far too many monsters for Alice to target each individual monster with anti-magic mana and sever their connection to their alpha. That was totally unrealistic.
But what Alice did have was Communication mana. Mana that, when used in the System, was capable of making other types of mana ‘share information’ with each other. And pure mana, which seemed like it was capable of manipulating other types of mana, at least to some extent.
Maybe… it was possible to make her anti-magic mana itself find the targets she wanted to hit?
Alice closed her eyes, and tried to push the invading monsters out of her thoughts. Ethan could keep her safe for a few seconds, or even a few minutes. She couldn’t just stand around with her eyes closed forever, but she had time to concentrate, at least.
Then, she put three magic tendrils in front of her face, and started to experiment. What she wanted was simple – she wanted to use communication mana and pure mana to create a sort of ‘monster-seeking’ missile. This missile would be composed of anti-magic mana, and would hopefully only target the connection between monster alphas and their subordinates. If she succeeded, she would have a way to seriously weaken most of the approaching monsters, and with any luck, they might start fighting each other instead of the group. After all, monsters working together was a very new thing, and only happened with monster alphas were controlling their subordinates. Alice suspected that cooperation would fall apart the moment the alphas lost control of their minions.
She activated {Speed Experimentation}, since this was one of the few scenarios where it was incredibly useful. Instantly, Alice felt time start to pass more quickly for her compared to her surroundings. She paid all of the mana out of her half-build System seed – she had a mana conversion ratio of 182% for that seed. It was far more mana than she needed right now.
Then, she started rapidly assembling and disassembling different types of ‘anti-magic homing bullets.’
At first, the anti-magic mana simply outright deleted the pure mana during her attempts to make everything work. It was as if the communication mana were an unwelcome visitor being kicked out by security.
But Alice kept trying. After a few failed experiments, she started creating ‘communication-disrupting projectiles’ that had multiple layers to them. One layer of mana was made of anti-magic mana, and the other was made of communication mana and pure mana. The pure mana ‘commanded’ the entire projectile, sort of like a homing device, while the communication mana relayed information between the pure mana and anti-magic mana. It wasn’t perfect – the anti-magic mana still ate through the communication mana, so each projectile would break down after about five seconds.
Alice tossed in some math mana, and tossed in a few more specific ‘targeting’ specifications. It wasn’t perfect, since she wasn’t as familiar with math mana as she wished she were – but it was at least good enough to clearly define targets. Alice quickly ‘programmed’ in roughly what a monster core looked like. It was a bit of a mess – but it was good enough.
Alice held her breath, and then released her monster-core seeking anti-magic bullet.
The little speck of mana lazily sailed away from her face, before it locked onto the nearest vinebear. In a flash, it sped towards the creature, and then burst into a small cloud of anti-magic mana a few meters in front of its face.
Alice winced.
The projectile hadn’t quite made it before it imploded.
However, she was on the right path.
Alice spent the next few minutes refining her idea, trying to make the whole mess more stable, while the three Immortals and the others kept the monsters off of her. Until, finally, on her sixteenth try, another communication-sealing bullet flew out of her hands and hit a Vinebear.
This time, the missile worked as intended. Right after the anti-magic mana reached the creature, it found the little part of the monster core that resembled a dual-enchantment, and then it simply… sealed it off.
The vinebear froze, as if it had been struck by lightning. It raised its eyes towards a nearby stone ant, its expression still radiating confusion… and then it sank its teeth into its fellow monster.
The stone ant reeled back in shock, before it ripped a cobblestone out of the ground with its stone manipulation magic and then crushed the vinebears skull. It didn’t seem to think much about the odd incident, perhaps because it had realized Alice had done something to the vinebear first.
But even though it didn’t cause a sudden collapse of the monster alliance, Alice still grinned.
It had worked.