CHAPTER 155

Together, they headed for the small lookout tower that had been created on the west wall. As he walked, Tom channelled his spell and as he went up the ramp, Harnessed Meteorite, crackled into existence around him.

The five rocks orbited him, and while everyone had seen him use the spell, and knew its properties. It did not help. They still warily moved away, unwilling to risk being struck by one of the fast moving stones. There was something about the rapidly spinning rocks that deterred people from getting too close, even though they had never actually slammed into a human. Upon sighting them, it was easy to picture one of those hitting you. That was all except Everlyn. She stayed close, unperturbed. Tom smiled at that. They had explored caves together with the spell active and they both knew the orbits could alter significantly and even slow down if required. Everyone else intellectually understood this, but all of them had failed to internalise it. When you saw them, you thought it a force of nature that would not notice you if you were foolish enough to get in its way. Then hundreds of kilograms of rock travelling at hundreds of kilometres per hour would go through you in a cloud of pink mist.

Everlyn, unfortunately, gave him a kiss when he reached his starting spot and then went over to her own platform on the other side of the fortifications. She was assigned to the opposite wall. It was a tactical decision that acknowledged that the two of them were the best ranged damage users. If it was another assault from all directions, this was the optimal configuration. If the attack came from a single point, then it would be easy enough to reposition to the right location.

Tom recharged his mana and his crystal, standing in the ritual that had already been placed down. Harry, of course, had departed minutes ago to place rituals around the golem. Every bit of their positioning had been workshopped based on the previous two waves. They knew that once the enemy was revealed their plans would fall apart, but they also understood that the preparations they were doing would be vital to counter some of the monster configuration they might end up facing.

Harry’s time was critical. The rituals he was placing down would be at peak strength when the dome came down. Golly Number Two was positioned outside the entranceway with draining rituals on all sides just in case the enemy was a quick ground swarming type. Opponents around twice as fast as Golly were problematic for it. The slow spell didn’t have sufficient impact and would leave them too quick for the golem to tag easily. For that band of creatures, slow would be ineffective and that was where the rituals would come into play. It could take the attacks and try to keep them engaged. The rituals would do the damage by stripping away the energy of everything attacking it. Golly number two would win the fight just by surviving and literally tanking incoming attacks.

Above him, the dome remained firm hard blue. For now, it seemed impenetrable, but they all knew when the event was ready, it would pop out of existence.

While he waited and recharged his mana, Tom pondered the killers. He knew it was ridiculous for his thoughts to go there so close to a pitch fight. As his mana recovered, he swept through the new information and the old. He sorted it, continually searching for a clue. The answer was there in his memory he was certain. He just had to be intelligent enough to find it.

His interface dinged, telling him it was less than two minutes before the battle started. Then more internal alarms went off as the time counted down. Right on cue, the dome came down.

Tom immediately searched for the monster type they would be facing.

Nothing was visible to him.

Only the normal rocky flat surface and the thin vegetation that he was used to. It was possible there was something invisible or a monster that can move underground stalking them. If was the latter, they would get the alert when the creature passed the hundred metre mark and their beneath the ground alarm spells triggered. There was no reason to worry about a threat like that, so Tom turned his attention to the sky. He searched the air above him to confirm no monster was coming from that direction. Nothing was visible, which meant a hidden or ground-based enemy was most likely.

“North has no visible enemies,” Thor thundered from next to him. A similar cry came from the south and east.

“Single enemy to the west.” Rahmat called out in a firm voice from the western wall. “Wyvern, the body is larger than a bus about to take off.”

“Highly agile.” Everlyn yelled having obviously sprinted to get to a position she could observe it. She was calling out from the west section of the south defences. “No specific weaknesses or strengths. No vulnerabilities or immunity to spell types. Breath attack is a life-based corrosive toxin. Rank twenty one as expected for a single opponent so there should be just the one.”

“Everyone needs to spread to reduce the impact of the breath attack.” Legen ordered. “Hold your original positions.”

Tom hadn’t moved having stayed within the mana circle as he calculated how the fight needed to go.

Best case was that he could land a meteorite and in doing so cripple the monster. Given that Everlyn had described it as highly agile, he doubted he would get that opportunity. Nevertheless, he would try with the first two meteorites and then keep the remainder for when it got grounded.

If it got grounded. He thought a little bitterly. The most likely case was that the fight would remain an aerial battle until it was effectively over and the monster crippled would be forced to land.

This was not the worst case for them. But neither was it one of their preferred outcomes. A flying monstrosity was not a great fit for the group’s skill sets. They were best against monsters that the tanks could tie up while everyone else attacked.

The monster rose with a couple of lazy flaps and then caught one of the many air currents that ran through the area. In defiance of gravity, it hovered and even floated higher in the air.

Just like they were all examining it. It felt like the monster was scrutinizing them. Safely positioned on the air current and far enough away that their magic could not reach it the creature felt sufficiently empowered to plan its next steps.

Unhurried, it rose further. It slipped from wind current to current the air lifting it until it surfed all the way up till it was lazily circling the fortress. The effortless way it flew was humbling.

Tom watched, wondering what its first move in the fight was going to be.

Magic crackled around it and its diaphragm expanded and then silently because of the distance it blew out and activated its breath weapon. Thick green flame, gas, liquid poured from its mouth, but instead of the magical breath attack immediately falling down upon them, the creature used its magic to gather it into a head sized ball, then beach ball… then a washing machine sized one.

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Tom swallowed.

It continued forcing out its magic. More and more of it being gathered… dishwasher went to car sized.

“Abandon the fortifications!” Everlyn suddenly yelled.

“What?”

“Why on earth would we do that?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Tom was already jumping down the wooden stakes that lined the outside of the wall to reach the ground and others were following. They probably should have done this immediately when they saw the size of the monster. When the creature’s tail could smash the wall, you were standing in pieces. It was likely best to meet it in an open area. At least that would give you a chance to dodge.

“Spread out. Don’t stop, run!” Legen was yelling, adding his voices to the rest of the leadership team giving the instructions.

Tom, glance back at both the fortifications and the monster.

Everyone was listening. It was like a tide of rats swarming out of a flooded burrow. Humans scampering down the walls and then his eyes went to the wyvern still high above. Still blowing that dangerous substance out of its mouth and condensing it.

With a thought, one of his meteorites shot up through the air. The target was over two hundred metres away, which was almost the optimal distance for his meteorites… against a stationary target.

He knew from previous experience that it would take a remarkably long amount of time to traverse that span, and watched it expand as it whistled away.

One second… two seconds.

It had crossed half the distance and was now full-sized having expanded to two metres across and moving with sufficient pace to put holes in solid ground.

Another half a second and it was only fifty metres from the creature. The wyvern swept its wings out and bobbed to the side. The manoeuvre only shifted it ten metres, but that took the attack from a direct hit to a complete miss.

Arrogantly, it kept pumping its breath weapon, unfazed by his attempt to strike it.

Tom kept running away from the fortifications. Collectively, everyone was spreading out. There was no one within five metres of him. It all made sense this meant the wyvern couldn’t target a large group with the deadly attack it was creating.

The meteorite continued onwards and upwards once it had passed the wyvern and Tom guessed it’d reach about a kilometre in height before it slowed and then began the fall back to earth. Given the angle he had launched it at, none of them would be in danger, but it was a reminder never to shoot the spell straight upwards.

That would be an awkward cause of death to put on his gravestone and definitely a solid entry for the first Darwin award in Existentia.

In his mind, he replayed the casual way the wyvern had evaded the meteorite. While it was in the air, he would not hurt it with his meteorites.

He glanced casually up and realised it was about to release its spell. He triggered Lightning Feet. The electricity flared with every step and increased the pace as he flew across the ground. His instincts screamed a warning as something triggered behind him. He could physically feel the release of the spell by the creature.

He glanced back and stopped running.

There was no point. He was not being targeted. A ball of dark green plunged straight down toward the middle of the fortifications.

“Run.” Sven yelled at him.

Tom ignored him. He was almost fifty metres away from the walls. If the spell could hurt him here, then they had never stood a chance.

The green ball of energy struck the centre of the courtyard. Nothing happened. There was no boom, crash, or explosion. Everyone had already left the walls, so it was not like the spell had killed anything. The monster high above circled the fortification in a big, wide arc. It was out of the range of their spells or in his specific case possessed much manoeuvrability for him to target it.

It started a second circle and Tom saw a change in the fortifications. Green fog rolled over the top of the wall.

One look and Tom knew even brushing a hand through that mist would be lethal, but it was slow moving, which meant everyone should have gotten away easily. Yet the wyvern had also won. It had successfully driven them out from the fortifications and forced them to spread out to avoid the breath attack. It left them to meet the enemy in small groups instead of collectively, and made the coming battle so much harder than it otherwise would have been. Nevertheless, a sluggish, corrosive breath attack was probably a better result than a speedier version like flame or lightning.

He studied the mist bubbling over the top of the walls. It was thick and viscous and the wind didn’t even budge it. That was going to linger, probably for hours. They would not be using the fortifications for this battle, and it was possible that he would never see the safe room they had spent the last eight days in again.

The wyvern screamed in triumph and then launched itself toward the ground. The grace with which it split the air in its dive was impressive. With a sinking feeling, Tom realised it was targeting him. His spell earlier, while it had turned out to be ridiculously easy for the monster to evade had gotten its attention.

With a thought, a fist size tier two stone appeared in his hands.

He waited.

It was moving so fast. The window he had available … was… tiny.

The time was now. Tom threw with all the force he had, the days of practice making his arm whip forward.

The instant the stone left him, his spear materialised into existence. It felt like a tiny twig against the thing charging toward him, but he would take what he had.

The rock blasted straight at the creature perfectly on target for its centre of mass. The wyvern saw it coming and only acknowledged it sufficiently to lift its head out of the way and absorb the blow on its large chest scales.

Two-tier rock against a large wyvern scale.

The rock shattered.

The monster was barely even slowed by the collision. Tom still waited. He had Lightning Dodge as a lifesaver and, given the agility of the wyvern, reacting too soon was not in his interest.

At the last moment, its wings spread out, and it thrust its thick back legs forward to claw him.

Lightening Feet flared and Tom rolled to the side, shifting that half a metre to get outside the attack.

There were a series of dull sounding thuds as he spun desperately away before rising with his weapon at the ready, though after watching it tank the rock he had thrown he was not sure the crappy pointed stick he held could hurt the monster threatening him.

After switching Healing Tranquillity on he was surprised that his only wounds were self-inflicted ones from his roll.

How hadn’t he been gored in the exchange was a mystery.

With the creature’s speed, Tom had put his chances of escaping unscathed at less than ten percent.

The wyvern roared in a way that sounded like pain. It flapped its wings and the gusts of air generated almost knocked Tom off his feet. The monster rose into the air and he saw the front claws on one of his back feet were broken.

What?

Surely those injuries had not been self-inflicted by the dive. The wyvern wouldn’t have miscalculated that much, plus the manoeuvre had seemed to be a well-practiced one and not the type it was likely to stuff up.

Then Tom noticed the rocks spinning around him, and he almost groaned in realisation. His mind touched the Harnessed Meteorite spell to assess the outcome, and he was not surprised to find that twenty percent of its energy had been spent defending him.

What he had failed to observe when diving away became apparent. His rock defensive field had hit the claws that had lashed for his tumbling body. A massive collision that had been enough to break parts of its paw and more importantly it had knocked the deadly appendage far enough off course that it had missed him.

That was an important aspect of Harnessed Meteorite to keep in his mind for future fights and one he should probably explore more fully. Even though this collision had only resulted in a broken nail on the wyvern, that level of defence would kill more delicate creatures.

The wyvern regarded him, roared at him and then with strong sweeps of its wings rose in the air as it went to find easier prey.

It might be rank twenty-one a terrifying number for a team of fighters who averaged well below rank ten. But having survived the first attack and having hurt it Tom was confident that collectively they could bring it down.

He just hoped it didn’t go after the crafters.