CHAPTER 25 - ASSAULT ON THE RED CRYSTAL PALACE
Johnny was aching from the weeks of sword practice with Qin. He had managed to at least get a seasoned swordsman with Qin’s help. He used radiant blades that Qin would give him. All he could do was practice keeping himself defended. There were occasional rift eater hoards they were dispatched to dispose of. Other than that, things were slow. Even so the Loathing One’s presence on the world was causing total unrest. They had taken care of the void core, but now they had a new emergency assignment to get rid of the planet’s chosen. The influential meter was at 90% and climbing, they hoped by defeating the chosen things would settle down.
Orion had an emergency meeting called for Julia and her team. They met at the end of the week to discuss tactics. Orion was planning a major last assault to get rid of the chosen. They needed to figure out how they would handle the break in and finish off the chosen.
A plan was finally formed with Johnny and his group being instructed to attack the fortress wing of the red crystal palace where the chosen was holed up. The groups would be splitting off into three groups with four in each. The rest of the alliance would clear the way for Johnny and his group to take down the Loathing One’s chosen. Unfortunately, not all ears were friendly in the meeting…
One of the members attending the meeting was a spy for the Loathing One. They're-laid the information over a hidden communication of the radiant alliance’s plan to raid the red crystal palace.
A man looked through the receiver. As he was getting all the intel from the meeting. The man smiled with a toothy grin. “Looks like we finally get to really have some fun.” Laughed at the man. He had a scar across his left eye. His body was muscular and ripped. He sat in his chair with an amused grin when the connection was made. “We are going to have so much fun indeed.”
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The day of the assault finally came. All of the fighters had left the camp by the lake. They were now marching their way to the city. The attacking group consisted of around 200 members of the alliance. Some were brand new recruits who were very nervous. Others were old veterans who were cybernetically enhanced from years of fighting.
Halfway approaching the city Julia sensed something was wrong. She was leading the assault as her scouts came back to report the gates were closed to the city. “Something is very off.” She had a worried tone when she was given the report. They soon made it towards the city to find the gates shut. No one was around the city. There wasn’t even any noise coming from inside the city. It left an eerie silence all over the place. The guards on top of the gate were standing there. Everyone looked at the guards to see their eyes were just fixed on them where ever they moved.
Julia was the first to approach. She had a tense expression on her face as she approached the gates. She walked up to within twenty feet of the gate and spoke. “I am Julia Viridis. I am a warden of the Radiant Alliance. We demand entrance.”
Her proclamation made the guards fire at them with things only getting worse. The ground began to shake as the red crystal palace began to glow a deep purple, which was followed by a dark flash illuminating the city before dissolving into three different barriers at each gate.
That wasn’t the only thing to change. The guards above the gate started to morph into humanoid rift eaters. Soon the city alarm bell was ringing as panic began to spread throughout the city. Everywhere random citizens and guards alike morphed into humanoid rift eaters.
“This isn’t good. We are going to need some reinforcements.” Julia sighed in frustration. She quickly ordered scouts to run back to the camp to get help. She wasn’t sure if they would get there in time for backup. She fired off a flare spell for Orion knowing things were desperate, since she didn't have time to relay a message when the fighting began.
Meanwhile, back at the camp.
Orion was preparing the second force for stand bye. If things were to get too complicated, he was going to have to lead this next assault. He wasn’t very cherry about the whole ordeal. He was getting tired of failures and losing resources.
Orion stood waiting with a force of around 20 elite guards. I hope Julia can handle this without me. Orion thought to himself as he stood bye waiting. Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Is that an quake? Thought Orion before he saw Julia’s warning flare. He just sighed when he saw it. There must always be some sort of trouble every time. Orion began to mobilize the elites after him. Even before Orion took a step, screaming came from the camp as Orion looked over in the direction. A few guards had slain a man whose body was glowing dark purple. The guards were in a panic with what the man had achieved. Right beside the lake a portal started to form with which rift eaters to escape from.
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These infiltrations are getting worse and worse. Orion sighed as he knew he had to deal with the issue. He had fifteen of the elites go to the city while he stayed behind with the rest to deal with the fall out.
Back in the city.
Julia had given orders for the assault, only to run into problems. The first problem ran into getting them into the city. The main gate was protected by a magic enchantment no one could break except for Julia with a lot of radiant magic. It would take a while before it could be destroyed.
Meanwhile, she had Qin and Margaret, as well as other flying magic users, fly over into the city to stop the humanoid rift eaters from infecting the area. They were instantly repelled by a magic barrier as they tried to fly over.
Julia, seeing the fruitlessness of that, realized they needed to break the barrier too. She cursed under her breath. “We need to find the source for the barrier.” She groaned in frustration as they were getting shot at by dark energy. So far, the battle was a losing one. Members of the alliance were falling as they tried to shield themselves from arrows, magic, and rift eater attacks. The attack began to fall apart with Julia having everyone back away out of firing range, hoping to asess the situation further back.
The temporary withdrawal let them regroup tending to the wounded and rethinking their next move. The wounded were escorted away to healers on standby who were at their breaking point.
Johnny and the others stood by trying to think of another plan. When Lisa spoke up. “I think I see the source of the magic barrier. I had to enhance my sight but i see a strange aerther signature coming from it.” She said pointing to the top of the tower.
“Well at least we know where to go now. Qin and Margaret can you take it out with a few others? We'll cover your support for you.”
“We can,” Margaret and Qin Saif in unison, taking a few others with them. They were supported by Cleo and Lisa and a few others. The attack went poorly, with tge barrier up they couldn’t do much to take out threats from inside. A few of the winged fighters were knocked out of the sky. Qin had her summons rescue them before they became victims of rift eaters. It was only Qin and Margaret got close enough before they were repelled back by more hostility.
Julia was getting frustrated when they came back. Qin came over to Julia and suggested draining out her energy to use Judgement Day. Julia shook her head saying that would be too risky. Others were trying to think of ideas, when the other elite guards arrived to help.
“Thank goodness you’re here.” Julia said with relief. She then spoke again. “Where is Orion?” The others told her the camp had been attacked by rift eaters. So he had to stay behind and deal with them. She could only sigh thinking of her next plan with their help. She had the rest of the army ready to storm the city when she and the other elites blast the enchantment.
She approached the wall with the elites having enough magic protection to repel attack. Within moments they blasted apart the enchantment along with the gates causing the first barrier to fall.
They were met with heavy resistance in the slum section. Guards and civilians alike were being enthralled by some demonic spell attacking the alliance members. Rift eaters were chasing people through the streets while winged rift eaters took towards the skies.
Julia had to make a decision to help the innocents. She had ten of the elites stay behind and help with dispelling the effects while helping combat against rift eaters.
While she ordered her ranged users and flyers to take out the flying rift eaters. Archers with radiant bows shot them out of the sky, with mages blasting them with radiant spells.
Qin and Margaret stayed behind to help their winged alliance members who could still fight, take down any hard targets. Qin and Margaret said they would catch up as soon as they had dealt with the more major threats.
The remaining force ran into the same enchantment issue with the next two barriers taking longer with each to break, although not as powerful. The more developed sections of the city had less rift eaters running around making it quicker to get to the inner city. Julia had the remaining five elites set by Orion stay back and take care of the rest of them.
There wasn’t much resistance inside the third barrier, which Julia found very odd. It was now just Johnny, Cleo, Lisa, and her. The four of them did run into a few skirmishes along the way. By then Qin and Margaret were able to catch up after dealing with the flying rift eaters and major threats had been taken care of.
They gave Julia a report of the situation. “The elites are still busy trying to dispel the effect on the populace. Looks like we are doing this on our own.” Said Qin with frustration. They were supposed to have additional help, but with the way things are currently. They had to face the threat as a group. They finally made it into the palace. Not before another barrier fell behind them. They all tried to break free from it but after a few minutes Julia had everyone stop. She didn't want everyone to tire themselves out.
Julia just sighed. “This is obviously a trap. With no way out.” With no way back they all continued forward.