Cal leaped to the side as one of the lead Gryalth returned fire. He pulled a rock wall in front of him and felt several more blasts chip away at it. He poked his head out quickly from the side and spotted them moving closer. He dropped a ball of lightning in their path, pouring more mana than he had ever before tried into it.

There was a loud cracking sound somewhere in the sky. He heard screams.

Gryalth killed 17/50

He decided to risk another look. Four of them were entirely gone. The fifth was now speeding directly at him with a look of fury on its face.

Cal responded to the look with another two lightning shits. Both hit the same shield. The shield was visible when hit this time. Several cracks ran through it. He guessed his explosive ball had destroyed the other four’s defenses and continued through to obliterate them as well.

“Hey, big guy, bet you can’t hit me, asshole!” Cal called into the sky.

He pulled up another rock shield as he spoke. It exploded in front of him as a ball of molten rock ricocheted off it.

“You will pay for the deaths of my pupils, human!” Its voice rocked the air in front of Cal.

He felt the air pound into his chest and realized he was channeling force through the words themselves. Now, that was something he wanted to learn. He tried something new and electrified and the air around him. He pushed mana into until he had a nearly tangible wall of charged particles between him and the last Gryalth.

It worked as he hoped. The Gryalth shot another molten ball at him, only for it to be repelled by the energy wall directly back at him. It hit the shield, and Cal got to witness it explode this time. It shimmered like a rainbow and then cracked apart and dropped from the sky. He wished he could do that.

It shot blasts of fire from each of its finger times around the energy barrier. Cal leaped into the air and dissipated the energy wall under him, propelling him fifty feet up. He was now eye to eye with the Gryalth. It looked startled.

Cal didn’t waste the moment and fired a lightning bolt point-blank into its face. The Gryalth crumbled, falling from the sky.

Gryalth killed 18/50

Cal came, falling after the creature. He charged the air below him, doing his best to slow his fall. It wasn’t working. The atmosphere felt slightly different than Bolt’s realm.

This was going to hurt.

A black ball enveloped him. His fall slowed, and he hit the ground gently. He saw Andy standing nearby, a giant smile on his face.

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“Pretty sure I told you not to die,” Andy said.

“Hey, you’re the tactical mind here, and I see you pulled off the save just in time.” Cal hugged his friend, glad to see him.

“We’ve got another thirty minutes, and so far, no more are inbound. We might just make this. We still have the mana bombs and Ralth in reserve. Oh, and apparently, we have another giant distraction to help us.” Andy informed Cal.

“What’s that?”

“Melissa is in Washington D.C. with a dozen mechs holding her own. Andrew is recording it for us to watch the next loop.”

“Good for her. We should probably try to find her again in the next loop.”

“Agreed.”

“Incoming everyone, Looks like we’ve attracted real attention now. I see four different squads of five casters a piece, all inbound, probably five to ten minutes.” The capybara’s voice had lost all sense of enthusiasm. He sounded somewhat scared.

“Let’s get under some cover in the building across the street. I don’t want them shooting at us from above. As soon as they are in range, I’ll try to pull them all down. Bill, I want you to redirect as much of their magic back at them as you can. Everyone else hit them with everything you have. Let’s try to overwhelm them before they realize what they’re facing.”

Cal thought the plan the plan seemed simple enough. All he had to do was unleash everything he had into the enemy. Good job, Andy. There wasn’t really a way for him to ruin this plan.

The squads converged overhead and began to jointly cast something. Cal had no idea what but was happy when Andy didn’t give them a chance to finish. A gravity ball appeared in the center of them, and they all started plummeting quickly toward the ground with it.

Several of them changed what they were casting. Air rose up below them, cushioning their fall. Cal saw Bill start moving his hands strangely in response.

The pocket of air grew far more intense, suddenly scattering them all. Several of them were forced to collide into the sides of the buildings. The end result of Bill’s tampering was the total loss of their formation, and over half of them were on the ground, isolated from the rest.

Frank was the first to act on this. He charged through the building doors like a bulldozer. The walls of the building rattled as the doors were reduced to rubble. Cal wasn’t about to let the monster of a tree beat him to the punch and rocketed himself after Frank.

Cal immediately threw several balls of lightning at the ones still in the air. He heard a few cracks but no screams. He dived behind a car and started blasting lightning out from the sides. He could hear the chaos Frank was causing and saw a body go flying over the vehicle. He was impressed. Ethel had taught this plant well.

The grass around the street started rapidly growing. Cal heard more yells of panic and spotted a couple of Gryalth tangled into the newly writhing plant life. He used this new distraction to take a look at what was still in the air. Five of them were floating above the streets, working together to channel energy into a ball.

Cal didn’t like the looks of that and pushed as much mana as he could into a new ball of lightning directly on top of their energy ball. He ignited it, and the sky turned white. The resulting pressure wave knocked him to the ground as what was left of the Gryalth rained down onto the streets.

Gryalth killed 25/50

“That’s disgusting, Cal,” Ethel screamed at him from across the road. His ears were raining from the explosion.

“Sorry, didn’t realize it would be that big.” He needed to learn to judge mana fields, something else to add to his ever-growing list of things to procrastinate on.

“Guys, something big is incoming. It’s spotted me, gotta.” The capybara’s voice was cut off, and they all heard the explosion in the distance.

“Shit, get ready. I think we have a full-fledged battle mage incoming,” Andy called to the group just as fire began to rain from the sky directly above their heads.