Zalia watched as the growing crowd of people walked down the slopes towards the bottom of the park. They came from multiple sides, all looking like people yet she knew through the feeling in the air, the push against her aura despite their own being held back that these were not all people.
Aylie was inside the house, further inside the vault that she had open in there. Zalia had told her to stay there and if things turned out to be more dire, Boreal would come and get her out and away from the city if necessary.
She waited until only the trailing ends of the groups were still outside the perimeter of the large living ritual she set up before beginning to cast it.
Masses of the herbs she required for the ritual began appearing from nowhere, flowing into the sky above and forming a huge glowing circle over the entire park. Her mana was ripped from her at a speed even Nature’s Wrath didn’t manage to achieve, most of it vanishing in moments.
The ritual above glowed brighter as she activated it and with a final flash, a ripple went out through the air, forming a dome that vanished as soon as it appeared. As that ripple flowed through the crowds of people, however, many of them stopped, standing rigid.
A large number of them dropped to their knees and clawed at their chests in pain as the disguises they had taken were torn away. Zalia only saw this for an instant however, as she too dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Ember managed to catch her before she fell over completely, holding her half on her knees.
There was but a drop of mana left in her pool, enough that she would not lose consciousness thankfully. Her main contribution to this fight was this ritual, it would probably take her longer to regain enough mana to do anything more.
She managed to get her feet under herself, standing up and leaning against the house.
“Go.”
Ember nodded and ran off.
Zalia noticed that Tristan was ordering the farmers into the house. A good idea, to keep them safe as well. Ignoring that and trusting him to do his job now that her plan had really been revealed, Zalia summoned her bow and turned her attention to the shapeshifting demons closest to her.
Most had still not recovered, still trying to stand up from the ground where they knelt or lay, struggling. A few stood however, struggling yet not nearly as much as the others. Those must have been the Bronze rank ones. They definitely moved with a litheness that the others did not and had a certain… dangerous look to them.
She drew and shot, hitting one that wore a guard's uniform straight through the head. This caused quite a few of the lower ranked ones around it to panic, a few even running away.
Most however, looked at their fallen comrade and managed to build enough strength to charge.
Boreal was in and out of combat, pouncing from shadows and tearing through enemies. Others yet were dragged screaming into patches of wildlife before being silenced by her ferocious furry friend within. She was so quick that many of the shapeshifters didn’t have time to respond and the ones that did, didn’t manage to get through her armour.
Zalia shot off more arrows, not able to enhance them with any effects nor able to place Hunter’s Mark on any of the enemies. Still, with the powers of her bow and weapon proficiency, the arrows punched through Tin and Iron rank shapeshifters as if they were made of paper.
Ember was taking on her own group, some six enemies, by herself. With the halo of fire surrounding her, they were unable to get close without being blinded and burned, probably the only reason she was able to hold her ground so effectively. She deflected a blow with her heater shield and used the moment to stab her double bladed sword through the enemy's chest. Another three of the group tried to take advantage of that moment but she sped up and with a blur, two of those found themselves with throats slashed as Ember pushed her advantage against the remaining three.
Zalia took care of two of them, Ember switching to the defensive as Zalia’s arrows dropped her enemies. The final one fell over backwards as it tried to scramble away but that only sealed its fate as Ember stomped her foot and a burst of fire exploded from the ground underneath it.
Zalia quickly used her strength and air jumps to get onto the roof of the house. From there she could see Tristan and his guards fighting a much larger group with practiced proficiency. They worked extremely well together as a team, the guards forming a kind of backup point for Tristan as he moved in and out of combat. The shapeshifter' failing in fighting them was not taking advantage of their numbers. They shoved and fought with each other, trying to be the ones to get into the fight next. Some even pushed their comrades in battle, causing their deaths at Tristan's hands.
Zalia could see that the shapeshifters were struggling to move properly within the confines of her ritual and more than a few had run off already. Despite their initial momentum in the fight, the higher ranked shapeshifters were taking back the initiative. The group Boreal was picking off started to wise up to her tactics and moved together as a ball, giving her a harder time of taking them one by one. After quickly disposing of that first group, Ember was quickly losing ground to a larger group of eight. She managed to pick one off but received a wound in return and though it quickly healed, she had to drop back quite a distance because of it.
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Tristan and his guards were also struggling to hold ground. While they had moved up the hill quite a distance to begin with to meet the enemies, they now were at the little bridge near the house. Zalia fired off arrows wherever they were needed, taking out shapeshifters to give Ember some breathing room, disturbing the grouped up enemies for Boreal so that she could pick a few off.
Then, the sun went out.
The battle almost paused as everyone looked up at the twinkling stars that were growing ever brighter in the sky. Zalia looked down off the side of the house to see Aylie, tears flowing down her face and words whispered into the wind.
“Not my family, not again.”
The stars came down, one for each of the shapeshifters in the park. Blazing lines were burnt into the air as they struck, many of the lower ranked shapeshifters dying from the impact. Waves of light burst out from where the stars had landed, washing the field ablaze with a starry fire.
The sun returned.
Tristan, his guards and the shapeshifters remaining alive were stood still in confusion and awe, yet Ember, Boreal and Zalia did not hesitate to take advantage.
“Back inside now,” Zalia sent to Aylie.
She was both thankful and worried for Aylie.
She didn’t look to see if Aylie had listened, quickly taking out one of the Bronze shapeshifters and moving on to the next.
They were significantly harder to kill, some managing to dodge her arrows or at least twist such that they hit less vital parts. Ember managed to take down the two Bronze ranked demons that remained of the once eight enemies she had faced, moving quickly across the battlefield to where Boreal fought.
The group that Boreal had been fighting had fared the worst however. They had been grouped tightly together when the stars had struck and nothing much remained of them other than a squished patch of ground.
Zalia marvelled at the power of a single Tin rank ability. It was much more powerful than anything she had been able to do at that rank. Granted it was a two day cooldown but it was still absurd. The power of a god blessed class was not something to dismiss, even a Tin rank one.
Tristan and his squad similarly smashed down the remainders of his enemies, pulling themselves together before the shapeshifters did.
With that, the battle was over.
Zalia walked across the battlefield, doing the gruesome work of finishing off the shapeshifters that were still alive as she looked through her notifications.
Congratulations! Druid’s Grove has reached Bronze 3.
The cry of a demon before she stabbed it through the throat resounded across the park.
Congratulations! Herbal Magic has gained two levels reaching Bronze 6.
She heard the whimpering of a lower ranked one and pulled aside the mangled body of a larger demon to find it alive yet missing its lower half. She put it out of its misery.
Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 7.
Magic flared to life as she used a Flame-root ritual to burn away the pile of bodies, returning them to ash. A quick manipulation of the earth later and there remained only a patch of bare ground, Healing Presence quickly growing grass back over it.
Congratulations! Bow - Weapon proficiency has reached Bronze 4.
She could see Ember walking across her side of the battlefield performing a similar grizzly task. Using the bond between them, Zalia sent what was essentially an emotion hug. She received one back as they both continued on.
Tristan was sitting on the bench with head in hands, his axe laying across his knees with the blade dripping blood. She knew what he had been through before and didn’t disturb him, he would just need a little time.
Boreal came over and started helping Zalia, finishing off the still alive demons as she burnt their remains and buried them. She didn’t want Aylie to see what remained of them after her ability. She no doubt had received a disturbing amount of levels from what she had done and Zalia would need to talk to her later about it. These may have been demons but they probably had their own society, perhaps their own bonds between each other. She didn’t know much about them on a level of society. Sure, she knew where they came from kind of, what they were capable of and the fact they were here to invade, yet she didn't know how exactly they acted as a people. She had seen fear in their eyes this day, as the stars came crashing down. Did they love too?
It was easy to see your enemy as a faceless abomination in war. A monster that had come to take your land, life and people. Perhaps that was true of the demons as a whole. It was definitely true of the thousand eyed creatures that haunted her dreams still. What about these shapeshifters though? What about the lower ranked of the demons, ones that showed so much fear? Were they here out of a bloodlust or out of fear for their own lives?
All questions that she would need to answer in due time.
“You’l- You’ll all suffer for this.”
A voice by her feet, one that Boreal had missed. Zalia kneeled down.
“What do you mean? You lost this fight.”
The demon coughed, blood bubbling out of its mouth.
“With- with this lo- loss, the right of pref-preference has also been lost. Struggle against your f-fate all you want interloper but now- now you die.”
It coughed up more blood, then its whole body jerked.
Zalia grabbed it by the shoulders
“What is the right of preference?”
It jerked once more, then lay still. She let go of its shoulders and it dropped to the ground limp. Fire soon swallowed it and the other nearby demons, her power then returning them to the dirt below. Their bodies would feed the plants that the farmers grew and the misery they caused to the people of Ostoss would be repaid, if only a little. This was the cycle of life and no matter how much they might try, Zalia would not allow them to break it.