Hera jumped on top of Nimbus as the griffon dashed through the field. The alarm she had set up to match the 20 minutes they had before the fight started had just rung, and she was right in front of the barrier, placing a few of her seeds on the ground. Not that she was too worried after all, she made sure to give her a minute to spare and return to the Yellow area in the field where the rest of the team was located. The Xandari warriors were all ready for combat. A few of them even were standing in different war formations. It seemed like Bonnie taught the concept of a Phalanx to a few while Mylo and Adriel made smaller battalions with 20 or so members using different weapons that complemented each other. Shane also had a good idea. She gathered all the archers and told them to split into two groups who would alternate while firing. That way, a constant stream of arrows would rain down on the Black team.
Even with most of the preparation out of the way, Hera still had one thing left to do, but she needed some seeds for that. Since the entire party had gathered before the fight started, she took the chance to ask everyone, "Guys, do you have any seeds left? Any seed, but the vines and the hedge would be better."
"I have some, but I thought about using them during the battle. Do you have a better plan?" Shane asked.
"I don't know if it's better, but it's different. But it's going to take too long to explain. Keep whatever you want, but I need as many seeds as possible," Hera said. Aside from Bonnie and Shane, everyone gave her all the remaining seeds. It was enough to fill a pouch, but she was still unsure if it would be enough for her plan. Either way, she knew what she would need to do if there were some missing.
"Nimbus, Lurize, come here," Hera called, and the two titled blades took their bipedal forms, already kneeling in front of her since they were aware of her plans, "Nimbus, take the seed and place them in the locations we talked about. Armory will be going with you to help you plant them in the right spots, and I'll give you 100k mana since you are not getting too far away from me."
'Hera… are you sure about that? Who is going to watch over you while you fight?' Armory asked.
'Scythe will take care of that. And as soon as you two are done, you will come back, but if this works, we are going to have a big advantage in the fight,' the Empress replied.
'We got her back. Don't worry about it,' Scythe added.
Nimbus kissed Hera's hand to get the mana from the Royal Quest skill and grabbed the bag of seeds as Armory floated to his head before the sentinel dashed to the left at full speed. Seeing that, the Empress turned to Lurize, "For you, another 100k mana. During this fight, feel free to move around as you see fit, and if anyone is in trouble, go help them. Core, you will go with him. Both of you are free to fight and go all out. Just keep an eye out for Ooze's call. That's the signal that shit hit the fan. Are the two of you ok pairing up? Or do you want to change the pair?"
"What do you think, ready for an outing, Core?" Lurize turned to the rapier.
'Let's kill some beasts!' Core said excitedly. Lurize nodded and placed Hera's hand where his mouth would be, receiving the mana. He got up and moved around with Core for a bit so both could get used to the feeling of being away from the Empress.
The barrier started to disappear from the top slowly, and Hera noticed that the Xandari seemed to be ready to dash, but that would mean they would also be hit by the traps they had set up.
"Hey, guys. Are they going to just rush in?" Hera asked.
The group looked around, and they had to agree that it seemed like they were all gearing up to run. Bonnie looked at the group she taught and saw how they also seemed to be ready to move, "I never said that they should wait here, but it sounded like an obvious thing."
"Crap," Hera used her stone wall to make a platform under her and hoped the [Chain of Command] skill would trigger for them to, "Xandari warriors do not rush at them! We are playing defense. Let the monsters come to us and only fight them when they pass the traps we set up."
Hearing that, all of the Xandari warriors changed their stance. They took a defensive position, some raising their shields while others putting their spears in front of them, ready to impale any incoming monsters.
"Honestly. If the wasps treat this like a strategy game, the least they could do was set this up properly," Hera sighed as she dropped from the stone pillar. At the same time she hit the ground, the barrier dividing the middle of the plains. The sound of paws and hooves quickly followed a cacophony of roars and legs stomping the grassy hills, making them rumble as the stampede of monsters emerged from the top of the hill. It was hard to tell what each of them was. Not only did they have unique appearances, but there were elemental effects and mutations going from elemental buffs to an extra head, tail, and arm.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Just as the monsters crossed the middle point of the field, the traps they placed started to work. First, everyone agreed there should be a layer of thorns to start thinning the horde. Some of the smaller critters, like horned rabbits, jumping geckos, and all sorts of mutated or elemental rodents could pass through that area without receiving damage. However, when they reached a certain size, the vines became a deadly trap, opening large gashes all around their bodies that were compelled to keep moving despite their injuries. As the bigger creatures appeared, they were less damaged by the thorns, but it was still enough to be annoying. A large bull with stone horns stopped before the first layer of vines and lowered his head, pulling some of the earth from the ground before he charged forward with the barrier of dirt in front of him. This attack managed to rip some of the vines from the ground and create a path for the other beasts, but it was just a small line of ground that funneled some of the monsters to the next set of traps.
Blue had put some hedges that grew in a straight line with the berry-shooting bushes on top. Somehow, that worked despite the lack of dirt on the top of the freshly created living fence. After seeing that, Alex did something similar, but instead, she made a half circle with the hedges and put a bellflower in the middle to lure even more monsters there.
Everyone else had a similar version of that same setup. Some of them added vines inside the kill box to help get rid of the monsters even faster. The archers of the tribe were also firing nonstop, adding to the damage that was being dealt to the beasts. However, they were still coming, and the more time passed, the bigger the monsters that appeared became. What was first a bunch of rats, squirrels, rabbits, and raccoons, already became cheetahs, wolfs, and bulls. Hera and her friends wanted to start attacking, but they knew that most of their spells would interfere with the traps and that it would be better if they waited for them to be closer. The Empress tried sending a few poison needles, but since the targets were too far away, the attacks missed. Only now that she considered coating the vines in poison, but it wasn't like she could do anything about that now.
"Oh, no..." Bonnie gasped when a spider, much larger than any of the other creatures, emerged from the back. It was actually much closer than anyone could imagine, being almost halfway through the traps, but it was invisible, and only now it came into view. It wasn't alone, either. More spiders appeared on the sides. They seemed to be all variations of the same one, but each had a different mutation. They had larger legs or bodies, more fangs, and even some hair growing from their belly. On a good note, the creatures were covered in arrows, and they already seemed to be bleeding quite a lot. But that wasn't the problem. Since the spiders were so big and they were towering over all of the creatures, they were also working as a barrier to protect the beasts from the attacks. To top it all off, one was also covering the path the earth bull had opened, allowing some monsters to pass by without being damaged by any of the traps. That creature stopped at the bellflower for a while, but the berry-shooting bushes were unable to kill it and eventually, the bull pressed forward, increasing the size of the safe path it left behind.
"Shit, archers, focus on that bull! The rest of you get ready for contact, " Hera yelled, getting into her stance and triggering her boots so she could glide around the area.
The spiders moved slowly towards the group, one after another. Even though the distance between them was decreasing fast, it didn't mean they couldn't deal some damage. Each party member started attacking, focusing on the legs without even having to talk about it first. If they could make those creatures drop, most monsters under them would be heavily damaged.
Lurize grabbed Core, and the two ran toward the closest leg. The rapier used his sediment skill to spread molten magma across the appendage, hoping to destroy it. The spider's carapace started to sizzle and break down, but it could still balance itself. Mylo made several petals spread around the area and sent them to one of the legs. The petals started spinning like buzzsaws that slowly began cutting through the monster's exoskeleton. Unfortunately, the damage was minimal since the petals were actually illusions and would require the monster to see the attacks for them to work.
Shane had a different approach. She grabbed a couple of projectiles and used her launcher to blast the legs away with massive explosions, especially now that she could increase the potency of a blast by placing a lot of compressed air in the middle of the grenade. Alex and Adriel also joined in the attacks, using the lasers from the drones and some wind blades that came from the assassin's wooden scabbard that was, to this day, able to let her deal some strong long-range blows.
Blue suddenly threw a pair of clouds in the sky. They quickly started growing and growing until they became a pair of large cloud hands that slammed down on the two spiders that were farthest away from the group. With a loud impact followed by the sound of thunder, the two spiders buckled and got very close to smashing against the ground but managed to steady themselves before any of the other monsters were squashed. Unfortunately, that was the limit of what the clouds could do. Now they were in a stalemate. The spiders could no longer move but were also high enough to allow the monsters to pass under them. Still, Blue didn't let up. If they wanted a battle of endurance, the controller was more than happy to oblige.
"Some monsters are going for a pincer maneuver," Blue said while keeping the two spiders in check.
"How can you tell?" Adriel asked.
"I'm a controller. We got a camera skill."
"I got them," Hera said before dashing to the left, "Lurize, go right and take care of the pincer attack!" the Empress moved to the edge of the hill where there was a tree line and noticed a small stream of beasts going around the traps to hit them from the sides, "Wipe them out!" she told her court just as a wave of shadow covered every inch of the battlefield going halfway up the giant tree in the back, leaving both teams in pitch black darkness.