Chapter 90 Incoming!
“They’re coming.” Isaac informed everyone else present as soon as he felt the first one with his Polarity Sense.
“We could take this opportunity to temporarily retreat to a safe location. As long as we have returned before the seventeen hour mark I will not have an issue opening the gate.” Karthen informed them.
Isaac tossed the wizard a look as if he had just grown a second and third head. “Why would we leave? Tunnel Horrors need to be dealt with when the opportunity arises.”
“I am afraid that I have not been in a combat situation in a very long time.” Karthen said with growing concern. “I do not doubt your considerable combat prowess but there will be far more than one on the way.”
“Three, no, four, already.” Isaac replied. “Alexander, cast Quicken on Lenna and then Flight on yourself and get off the ground.” By the time Isaac had finished his order Lenna was already wreathed in shadows with burning embers glowing beneath the surface. “Karthen, if you aren’t going to be helpful, return to Safeharbor. You’re in the way.”
“As you say, I will take my leave then and await your battle’s successful conclusion.” Karthen spoke quickly with a bow. He turned while taking a step in the direction of Safeharbor and vanished with barely the slightest magical or physical disturbance.
“Shamesh.” Isaac spoke as his retainer appeared out of his shadow. Isaac was already ramping his boosting skill up to nearly its highest sustainable level. “Flight on yourself and get off the ground.”
Shamesh didn’t waste any time and did as he was told. Once in the air he and Alexander looked down at the churned up ground and scattered craters. Soon the craters would also be filled with holes.
Isaac shadow-stepped out of the way of the first Tunnel Horror. Luckily it was a good distance ahead of the rest of them so the team had enough time to start meshing properly before the real chaos began. The massive, seven foot wide by thirty five foot long, disintegration worm flew out of the stone nearly fifteen feet before it even started to rotate over itself towards Isaac. The two wizards did not miss their opening. In perfect synchronization Alexander and Shamesh spoke three words: “Command: Be Undone.” Before anyone had enough time to react, Shamesh cast another one two feet to the right of his first impact.
All three Disintegrate branches of unreality impacted the side of the armored worm a foot or two apart. Each one caused the armored plate within a foot of the impact sight to crumble and the flesh underneath to liquify. The Tunnel Horror immediately forgot about Isaac and turned towards the flying wizards. Isaac took the opportunity to teleport and stomp the side of the Tunnel Horror’s head so its new wound would be close to the ground. Lenna was there just in time to make a sprinting jump towards the open wound. Her flaming adamantine sword scorched its way through the weakened armor and ruptured flesh. She landed in a roll that took her out of the splash zone from her attack and turned just in time to see Isaac teleport punch it in the opposite direction.
Shamesh reached out with his mind and magic and picked up a pair of stone slabs. He slammed them into opposing sides of the worm with enough force to shatter the boulders into a hundred pieces. The opposing impacts forced the wound open even more and Isaac took the opportunity to continue his beat down on it. With every hit from Isaac, the worm’s wound became a larger and larger tear in its side until its guts were gushing out all over the cavern floor. The worm had just started to fall when the next one blasted out of the ground towards Isaac.
Isaac teleported out of the way and punched the second one so it would slam mouth first into its weakened companion. The second horror plowed straight through the nearly dead first one and finished the job. The first one collapsed in almost two pieces as three Disintegrates tore up the second one’s side. A third one flew straight up into the sky towards Shamesh and the skeleton had to dodge out of the way lest he became its next meal. Shamesh baited the third one down towards Lenna while he fired a disintegrate at the fourth one that had shown up to go after Isaac.
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Lenna roared with effort as she attempted to bisect the third horror that Shamesh had brought next to her. The third one yanked itself away from Lenna but it was too late as Lenna had already sliced through its armor down two thirds of its length. Its acrid blood marred the stone ground as it tried to retreat away from the one that had just almost split it longways in half in one move.
Isaac hit the second one into the path of the fourth and they bounced off of each other without doing much damage. ‘Bait another around in front of Lenna again.’ Isaac sent towards Shamesh.
“Lenna! Dodge!” Isaac yelled as he noticed the fifth one change direction towards her.
The ground gave out under Lenna as she tried to dodge to the side but it was fine because she was hit by a rock the size of her torso in the side that tossed her out of the way of the charging Tunnel Horror. Shamesh had used a chunk of stone to ensure Lenna’s safety as he knew that she was more or less immune to physical damage while inside her uncle’s repurposed armor. Alexander was flying around and pelting every open wound he could see with small icicles in an attempt to distract the monsters with absolutely no luck. The monsters were distinctly aware of who had the most mana and it was Isaac and Shamesh. The only reason Lenna had even drawn one of them to her was because of the massive flare of mana she gave off while she tried to bisect one of their number.
Shamesh hit the fifth horror with three Disintegrates back to back. The horror chasing him had given up and gone for Isaac once it realized that Shamesh wasn’t constantly giving off an extreme amount of mana and was only doing it in bursts. The fifth horror barreled straight for Shamesh and the skeleton had to lead it around in an arch to make sure it would pass by Lenna correctly. “Mistress! Incoming!” Shamesh called when he was only ten feet away from her. The horror was only five feet behind him and Lenna was right next to another horror that she had just carved a fresh gash into. Lenna turned around and moved to bisect it like she had done to the other one Shamesh had given her. Right before the horror passed in front of her she saw Isaac appear with a sword of void black magic and a huge grin on his face.
Isaac had shifted half of his regeneration rate into Truth and decided to mirror what Lenna had done. The reality infused dark mana blade was resistant to the disintegration magic of the horror’s maw which was a point in Isaac’s favor but he was soon reminded of the fact that his sword was not being boosted by a double platinum level paladin’s aura and burning mana. Isaac was being pushed backwards along the ground even as his sword cut into the creature but that only happened for a fraction of a second.
Alexander slammed shoulder first into the side of Isaac’s crossguard with a reality shield to help keep it in place. The young wizard had read the battlefield like an open book and moved to help Isaac before the mage had even arrived himself. Alexander had expected Isaac to use his regular sword which was why he was throwing his entire momentum into it with all of the power of his flight spell. Isaac and Alexander actually managed to push further back into the worm as it flew past before it finally came to a halt.
Isaac, Lenna, and Alexander all scattered away from the newly bisected Tunnel Horror just in time to see one of the ones Isaac was fighting go after Shamesh. Shamesh expertly danced out of the way of the incoming attack and slammed both of his hands into the side of the monster’s head. A pair of thunder claps rang out as two simultaneous shockwaves were directly transferred into the side of the worm’s head. Its mouth end snapped away from the wound from one of Shamesh’s previous Disintegrates. Isaac impacted the other remaining wounded one hard enough to keep it away from Shamesh so his retainer, mate, and Alexander could finish the other one.
Lenna held her hand out palm up and focused in on the worm trying to devour Shamesh. Shamesh noticed her stance and took the worm way up into the air and then straight back down. Right before Shamesh was about to crash into the ground he dove out of the way. Lenna raised her hand into the air and spoke her incantation: “Hellflame Strike.”
A concentrated gush of black and orange flames burst out of the ground directly into the horror’s open maw. The spell only lasted for one second instead of two as the horror crashed through its starting point. The horror rolled and twisted until it was focused on Lenna but the stone it was burrowing through was giving it more and more resistance, until at the end, it was eating more stone than disintegrating it. The worm burst from the ground in an explosion of stone and Lenna rolled out of the way. Lenna immediately noticed the burning rot that had eaten away at the monster’s maw and smirked at how effective even half of her spell was. The only issue was that she had burned through most of her mana and was down to only one or two good hits with her sword. She had gone all out from the beginning just like everyone else and they were all running out of mana. Lenna didn’t even bother enhancing her next few strikes as she carved gashes into the side of the horror as it passed by her. It had barely left her reach when it tumbled onto its side and rolled across the ground.
Isaac had been teleporting around as if it didn’t cost him any mana and now he was paying for it. Luckily there was only one Tunnel Horror left and it had already taken a Disintegrate from Shamesh so it was easy enough to, along with Shamesh throwing small boulders at it, lead it around to Lenna so she and her adamantine sword could finish the job. Finally, after what felt like ten minutes of the most intense workout any of them had ever had, but was actually only around a minute and a half, it was over.