The moment when Lakhmu flew up, facing Kidlat, starting to push back the Grand Elder, not giving him respite since the first move, the Misfits realized how many Undead were truly flooding towards them. They would have been swarmed very quickly if they did not start to retreat in time.
"Kiely! Pick up speed; start withdrawing already!" Lia shouted, cutting down two pale bodies, burning them away with her fire before they could fall to the ground.
"I am doing that, Boss!" He answered, jumping two meters into the air, flinging out two fireballs, resulting in an explosion, throwing a handful of Undead backward. "There are just too many of them!"
"That is why we need to go! Now!" Shishi cried from further away, holding her injured left arm.
That was when a loud warhorn blew through the air, and five Marduk warships cut through the sky. It was precisely what the Misfits needed, who were already feeling exhausted. From high above, loud explosions rang out, and the jungle was torn up and apart, blowing earth, trees, and rocks high into the air, along with dismembered bodies of the Undead.
"Don't get mesmerized by it! Move, move!" Lia ordered, seeing some of her men stop and watch the destruction with awe.
The horde was still coming, and none of them could see any end to it. They had to get back to their fortress where they could resist it until more reinforcement arrived. Out here, in the open, they would die.
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"Mhm…" Húng groaned, feeling the impact of losing hundreds of bodies at once under the bombardment of the arriving warships. They were causing backlashes to his soul, which was sitting in the dark sub-realm. "They arrived too soon…" He whispered to himself, feeling unlucky to be seated in a place that was far away from most cities. There, he could at least recoup his losses and consume souls to keep his injuries at a minimum.
"Disciples!" He spoke up, his voice echoing in his students' minds, the souls he had been nurturing for a long time. "Go out in person! The Grand Elder has trouble dealing with a strong Fleshbody; he can't provide us the air superiority we need… take down those pesky ships!"
They simply nodded, acknowledging his order, leaving the sub-realm in droves, occupying their white-haired bodies, flying up, heading straight towards the warships circling above the retreating Misfits.
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"Something is coming!" Lia flinched, feeling new, much stronger tugs on her soul, meaning that more powerful Undead warriors were coming. They were halfway from home; getting bogged down would still be too dangerous. She purposefully played the role of being the last, keeping an eye on her group, refusing to let anyone lag behind or get swarmed. "I may need to use it…"
Thinking about switching to her blue flames, she was getting ready to do it when she noticed the new arrivals flying towards one of the Marduk warships in the air. Realizing what they were after, her grip on the handle of her sword loosened. She turned away, focusing on their retreat, deciding to not resort to it yet. A few moments later, a blaring horn echoed from the attacked ship as the four others cleared away, sounding their horns as if signaling their acknowledgment and goodbyes.
"It's going down…" Aurora thought, recognizing the patterns and pitch in the horns.
The first was the alert for heavy losses and preparing ramming speed. In contrast, the four others blared their rallying horns, watching their brethren commandeer the ship straight into the ground, resulting in an otherworldly explosion. Many of the misfits, including Sion and Ceiline, tumbled, falling over when the shockwave passed through their ranks. Looking back, they could see a mushroom cloud rising to the skies while the four remaining ships continued circling above the battlefield, bombarding the Undead, raining down fire, and setting the jungle ablaze.
"Move, move! If you have time to gawk, find time to run!" Lia shouted at them, pulling two misfits up from the ground, "We are close; back in the fortress, we can ward off the tide of these bastards!"
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For the luck of the Misfits, the explosion caused the Undead horde to slow down a little, losing their concentration for a brief period of time. In the Fortress, Rinzen, who stayed behind, was already ready, welcoming back the bulk of the misfits. Surprisingly, or maybe not, the first to arrive back was Melody, who asked no questions, rushing down to the dungeons and locking herself up in a cell, crying, trembling, telling the others to not go out and be a good prisoner if they want to survive.
"Prepare the defenses! Drink potions to regain your mana!" Lia barked her orders, ignoring the fairy while the Earth Division started reinforcing the walls, the Metal and Wind Divisions rushing up to their positions to get ready with long-range spells. The first to fire at the Undead were Ceiline's peashooters, decorating most battle installments, firing in rapid successions as the tide of Undead caught up and threw themselves at the stone walls.
"What the hell happened?" Opparu asked with a shout, throwing explosive artifacts from the walls, letting sticky, slime-like goo cover the attackers that caught fire the moment a Misfit fired a spell into their midst.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"What does it look like?" Koa answered, turning the walls slippery so that Undead, who tried to climb up, slipped off it. "That thing was their nest, and it exploded! Worse, something so strong came out it can go toe-to-toe with Lakhmu!"
"Shit…" Lorin cursed, hearing the bad news, giving out potions to those who were in great need.
"We lost a warship already!" Sion added to the list of bad news, looking to the north, seeing the four remaining ones continue to bombard the horde, just so one of them experienced an explosion and started spiraling downwards. With another mournful cry of its warhorn, it exploded before crashlanding, refusing to give the satisfaction to the Undead of getting the kill.
"Intelligent Variants!" Rinzen said, standing at one of the highest points, seeing five flying Undead who were aiming at the ships, trying to bring the remaining three down.
"Leave it to me!" Simbad jumped up next to her, starting to concentrate. Now that he could stay still and focus on his spells, he could draw out the same energy rifle that was a move frequently used by Reyra.
"Did my Mom teach it to you?" Lia asked, a bit surprised at the sight.
"No." Simbad answered with a proud smile creeping onto his face, "It was my grandfather who taught it to your mother…"
He said no more as he took aim, and when he pulled the trigger, his energy concentrated in the spell-body, locking down the spatial coordinates of one of the Undead and accelerating Simbad's spell to its maximum. For a brief moment, the resulting flash traveled faster than light itself, hitting the green-eyed abomination in the chest. The exploding energy tore its body apart, and even if it could fix itself, not when it fell into a raging fire below them.
"Hah! My element is not that optimal for it~!" Lia grinned, slapping the back of Simbad, "Provide support for the ships; we can't lose our air supremacy!"
"Yes, Ma'am!" Simbad nodded, gulping down a bottle of mana potion and recharging his spell for a second shot.
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"Were they always this strong?" Húng asked himself, feeling troubled. Even though he had superior bodies, controlling that many at once still took its toll on his soul. He couldn't remember if the previous 'Harvest' was this difficult... they were going from town to town, city to city, growing in size by the millions quickly. Now... they were being exterminated, and his soul was constantly getting chipped away and damaged.
The more he focused on coordinating them, the more he felt the backlash of dozens of them being destroyed by the flying ships' cannons. Even with his strongest disciples sent out to deal with them, they needed time, and he could feel that at least six of them were already dead.
"This battle is going to be lost… we failed to hold ground or deal considerable damage. Time is on their side now…" He thought to himself, coming to a quick decision, even if that would anger his masters later… he wasn't keen on dying a useless death, killed by an unfortunate backlash. "Take over!" He shouted, ordering all the weaker, lesser disciples who were there to hide the sub-realm from detection. "I'm going out!"
Nobody had the authority or strength to argue with Elder Húng so they simply obeyed. If anything goes wrong, it wouldn't be their fault, but his; some even thought it would be an excellent opportunity to elevate themselves from the rank of a disciple to that of an elder.
"Meriath…" He took a deep breath when arriving in the jungle, seeing the burning trees and the spreading fire, hearing the distant rumble of battle. The noise and the sound of warhorns traveled for kilometers, raising Húng's desire to do battle. "I am better at killing personally, anyway." He smirked before bursting out with energy, surrounding himself with green miasma, traveling hundreds of meters with one step, heading straight toward the Misfits' fortress.
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"It has started, just as you predicted!" Yuya said laughingly, walking into the meditation chamber of her brother, another Supreme Elder, Killieth. "The bitch couldn't sit still and defied orders to regain her face and reputation!"
"Told you…" She smiled, opening her eyes only a little, "The woman was always predictable, that is why I told you to seduce his people."
"Well, even if he fucked up in the end, he did his part! I am just sad that part of my soul was destroyed… tsk! I had to eat some of my disciples to regain the lost powers!"
"If I didn't know you, I would start feeling sorry!" Killieth chuckled, standing up, stretching relaxedly. "I also have some good news!"
"I'm listening!" She grabbed his hand, snuggling up to him like a proud little kitten.
"Che returned with heavy injuries! He went and sealed himself away to recuperate!"
"I guess he couldn't kill him…"
"I bet not because he looked irritated!" He nodded, scratching his chin, "Even if Loonah survives this, it will be the last fiasco for her! I bet the Sect Master will punish her personally for defying his orders!"
"The only thing that she managed to do is to show us they are well prepared for our arrival!"
"Mhm. But… we already guessed that. She should have continued following Sect Master's orders; now we will have to adjust our plans again!"
"And Sect Master hates insubordination the most!" Yuya stuck her tongue out playfully. "Haaah… I wish we could also be down there! I am itching to get into the action!"
"Relax, Yuya!" Killieth warned her, knocking on her forehead, "With Che failing, getting injured, and Loonah screwing up, we will be there to adapt, show new options, and give suggestions to the Sect Master! Soon enough, I will be standing at the 12 o'clock spot, and you on my right!"
"Fufufu~ That is why you are the best, big brother!" She clung to him like glue, not wanting to let go at all.
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"Something changed…" Sion exclaimed thoughtfully, firing at the Undead below the walls.
"Yeah!" Raufon agreed, holding a boulder above his head, throwing it down, and squashing two into nothingness. "They became… dumber?"
"Slower too!" Aurora arrived next to them, signaling with one hand, drinking a potion with the other, covered in sweat. "Their reaction is nowhere near to what it was at the start! And if you check, many lost the defensive armor around their bodies!"
"That doesn't bode well." Lia also came over, watching them still come out of the woods with much weaker and more unstable steps, but there seemed no end to them. "That means the one who was controlling them is either retreated…"
"Or coming here." Rinzen agreed, taking a deep breath. "I can feel it closing in."
"Guessed so…" Lia sighed, looking around, watching the exhausted but still fighting misfits, pushing off the Undead from the wall that was using the others' bodies to scale it. "I am wondering what is happening at Lakhmu's end!"
"He should be fine." Rinzen said with confidence oozing from her words, "He is very strong."
"My mom said the same thing!" Lia smiled, which quickly disappeared from her face, feeling the approaching aura. "Get ready!" She brandished her swords, "He is here!"