The enemy's illusion bubble popped like a balloon when the two men pierced its boundaries. It revealed around eighty fire wisps around the teleportation circle, and Shen could see forty others in the zone.
The wisp he had seen in the tutorial was like a black hole the size of a baby fist in the middle of an event horizon, except white. He could also describe it as a tiny white ball of light that created a transparent white bubble around it.
Fire wisps were similar, except a mix of red and orange, and the light in the middle of their bodies looked like a miniature sun.
They didn't wear conventional armor. Instead, ten to thirty pieces of dark metal, each two feet wide, floated around them. Shen guessed they could use it both defensively and offensively. He had seen a gnoll do it in the rift war.
As expected, as soon as the illusory boundary disappeared, the metal plates piled on top of each wisp, creating a protective barrier above them.
Shen had received training from the Maiden on how different races could see, and those without eyes either took direct feedback from light into their minds, used magic, or didn't see at all. These fire wisps clearly needed a direct line of sight like humans because they left telling, tiny gaps in the barriers they created.
The quick defense was only the first sign that the wisps weren't pushovers like the earthworms. The second was how they immediately shot dozens of spells of all elements at Shieldy and Swordy.
As much as Shen wanted to test his troops' limits, getting them killed while at it sounded counter-productive.
"Swordy, permission to deploy one-element defensive control zone," he said.
This battle was still a test of whether the generalist fighter would have enough power to protect himself and Shieldy. Even if the man failed, Shen was willing to take the risk. If his squad couldn't take that much, they would be useless in conquering the following circles. He would just outright give up on the mission.
While the thousands of swords materialized, Shen himself started falling with Soundy and Icy.
Icy created a few ice shields around the three, focusing on defense. Soundy sent dozens of attacks at the incoming spells. Shen cut the air with his spear.
"Swordy, watch out for my attack," he said.
The cultivator still lacked long-range energy-fueled techniques, but he used Sharpness to cut the air fast and precisely. He didn't use all the power he could, only around a third. The impossibly tiny, invisible blade traveled forward, leaving a light trail created by the atoms it split.
The earthworms had had their value in letting Shen learn some things about his squad, but the fire wisps gave him a trove of information on the very first exchange.
If energy met energy, Guardians engaged in a willpower battle. It forced those connected to those energies to simply stop in place and deal with the mental fight first—or to let go of their spells. It gave defenders an edge, especially if they also had the numbers.
As the attackers, the drow had to not let themselves get stopped. Therefore, their spells required a lot of finesse. They had to indirectly affect the surroundings to weaken or deflect enemy spells without entering a willpower battle. When impossible, they needed at least to cut off their connection to the spell right before it connected, but in a way that it wouldn't just wink out of existence, as was usual. And when willpower battles were required, they had to engage in individual mental fights instead of letting themselves get battered by their foes' collective will.
Soundy and Swordy were good at that.
The former showed that her high attack score wasn't just about brute force. Her balls of vibration went around or even surrounded many spells in a way that took them off track. Spells were connected to a mage's will, who could easily ignore many laws of physics just by spending some willpower. However, the more physics tried to stop them, the harder it was, and mages also had to watch out for tiring their minds in useless struggles. They had to pick their magic battles with care.
Soundy warped the laws of physics around the enemy spells in a way that forced them to let go of their attacks or spend a lot more willpower. She avoided any willpower confrontation, yet still managed to tire the enemy, even if just a little.
Yet, Swordy was the true star here. Despite the short notice, he timely opened a path for Shen's ongoing blade to go through unhindered. He also sent many of his control zone's swords at the enemy spells as obstacles. It was incredibly effective.
Shen knew that magically created matter was easily disposed of with a True Path and the right mentality, but that required physical touch at D-rank. At their power level, simply creating stuff out of thin air was still a viable, if subpar, tactic. The only issue with that was that the enemy tended to do the same; indeed, pieces of rock and metal materialized on the fire wisps' command to get in the swords' way. It could become an impasse if neither side had a True Path Walker willing to go through the artificial materials. That, too, benefitted the defenders.
The cultivator still approved of Swordy's actions. He wasn't even a dedicated defender but avoided entering willpower battles and, together with Soundy, guaranteed that not a single spell struck him or Shieldy. Icy didn't even have to do anything!
Shieldy didn't slow down at all when the conjured matter stood in his way, proof of how good his training had been. Just like Shen could use his spear as an extension of himself, Shieldy could do the same with his halberd and shield. Like Swordy, he was currently stepping on his shield. It went through the veritable wall of useless debris—stone, earth, ice, metal—like a phoenix feather on an iceberg. The wall also hindered the enemy's vision, and when Shieldy was through, only one-fourth of the way remained until he reached the ground.
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Swordy's shield couldn't do the same, but his sword could. He, too, was a True Path Walker like Shen and Shieldy. He rotated his weapon quickly, like a drill, opening a hole for him to go through. He was slightly slowed down, though. As for his control zone, he never let its mana touch the debris wall because an enemy mage might still have some of their mana in there.
Shen's invisible blade, which had gone through Swordy's control zone, also went through the three spells he had aimed it at. It cut through some elements but didn't shut off any spells; with how much power he was using, his blade only affected physical matter, nothing else. It went past so fast that the mages didn't even need to use any extra willpower to adapt their spells to exist in that space. On the plus side, the same speed made the Guardians incapable of adapting their magic in time to try to stop it.
The edge was wide and, after the spells, also aimed at five fire wisps.
Only one dodged in time.
The invisible blade wasn't powerful compared to his other abilities, but it had no trouble cutting through three of the wisps' floating plates and killing two—or so the scouts reported; the debris was hindering Shen's vision.
"Can any of you get rid of the artificial elements?" Shen asked, and the drow said they couldn't.
So, he thrust his spear straight down, vibrating it at a precise frequency and producing the proper magnetism. He swiftly followed it with a few dozen swings toward some wisps—he couldn't see them, but his scouts could locate them.
The attack was relatively slow but still dozens of times faster than the sound. It created an enormous shockwave that disrupted the mana in summoned materials, thus disintegrating matter. It didn't affect any spells—meaning anything still connected to a Guardian's willpower through their mana.
As the shockwave kept going, Shen wasn't surprised to see it disintegrate over two-thirds of the fire wisps' floating plates. The sneaky wisps had mixed legit metal with summoned one to make it seem like they had a better defense. According to the Maiden, it was a common tactic in the Alliance.
The now-clear air revealed that Shieldy had landed and was swinging his halberd against multiple fire wisps that surrounded him. He dodged or defended against incoming spells or metal plates. His halberd was constantly intercepted; it could cut through many plates, but the wisps had created multiple layers of directional defense that instantly auto-repaired. Even without the fake plates, Shieldy would eventually get killed if nothing changed.
Swordy, who had been slowed down by the debris wall, had been captured. For all the ability he had shown on the air, something went wrong as he went through the barrier. He had been captured by invisible magic, frozen mid-air, and would soon get struck by multiple spells.
He would be a goner if not for Shen's swings.
The cultivator had swung his spear exactly thirty-three times after he shot the anti-fake-matter shockwave down. The blades were wide and were meant to strike at least four fire wisps each. There was a lot of redundancy. The enemy didn't expect over half their defensive plates to suddenly disappear, and his invisible blades found multiple easy targets.
Over forty wisps died just like that, and ten were injured.
It gave Swordy a breather until Soundy's attacks also reached the enemies. It was the first time Shen saw her attacks hit anything, and it was impressive how underwhelming it looked. Her Concept, related to the Laws of Vibration, invisibly struck at the enemy and made five of the twenty fire wisps she hit dissipate, dead. The others lost focus, and their spells disappeared. Swordy was still struck by seven magic attacks, but his armor only bent; it resisted.
Shieldy benefited the most from Shen's and Soundy's attacks. His enemies had been focused on him, and almost none dodged or defended against the aerial bombardment in time. He found himself mostly free and quickly ran to protect Swordy.
From there, the battle became another pathetic slaughter.
When Shen touched the ground, every fire wisp within 900 yards was dead. Now, they just needed to defend for a Standard minute and leave.
"Good job," he said. "Soundy, deploy your control zone. Swordy, did you set yourself as bait on purpose, or was it a mistake?"
"It was a mistake," he replied at once.
"Learn from it," Shen ordered.
There wasn't much more to say. The man had been instructed to get to the ground and had done his best to accomplish it regardless of what the enemy threw his way. He knew better than Shen what his mistake was and how to prevent it.
"Once again, we wait."
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The fire wisps used the most obvious tactic to delay Shen's squad—getting within 300 yards of the circle, then leaving.
Or, well, Shen thought they meant to leave. They died right after getting in range the first time and didn't even get that far the second time. They didn't try again after that.
Still, they accomplished their goal once, making Shen lose almost a full Standart minute. It was an okay accomplishment in a war where people could move at Mach 50 with relative ease.
Just like against the earthworms, no powerful reinforcements came. The remaining dozen survivors just stayed away and waited. As soon as Shen got the notification that the zone was his, he ordered his squad to leave, once again, by air.
"We didn't train our aerial combat much," he pointed out as they moved toward the mountains. The fire wisps didn't try to stop them; they were probably glad they were leaving. "We're about to."
Almost a thousand of the creatures, harpies with a small typhoon for legs, created a living wall between the mountains and the plains. They looked straight at Shen's group despite the invisibility bubble around them and kept at it even when he randomly changed their path. It was evident there would be no sneaking around the enemy this time.
"Icy, drop the invisibility spell," Shen commanded as they kept going toward the mountains. "Soundy, Swordy, deploy your control zones. Shieldy, can you also deploy a zone without interfering with the others?"
"Yes," the man confirmed.
"Do it. What about you, Icy? Can you deploy a fourth control zone on top of the other three?"
"No," she replied. She didn't explain why, and Shen didn't ask. That was very effective communication.
"Then Swordy and Shieldy will focus on long and medium-range defense with their control zones. Icy will use her spells for short-range defense. We'll be surrounded, so I want Soundy attacking the closest windriders. I'll randomly send spear blades everywhere; don't let your control zones get in the way. Questions?"
"You said you wanted us to also get used to the mountains' obstacles," Soundy said, "but fighting mid-air won't help with that."
"I already assessed our ability to 'see' through obstacles using the echo plate's mind interface. The mountain wouldn't let me learn anything new. Also, how they gathered to wait for us forces me to adapt. An aerial battle against the windriders might not improve our cohesiveness as must as fighting our way around some rocks on an uphill battle, but we have a mission to accomplish. The enemy could pin us down forever if we approached by ground. I don't think going underground would be good for us, either. Anything else?"
"Drow don't learn actual aerial combat until C-rank," Lighty pointed out. "But you said that you expect the enemy to surround us. Can't they can pin us down anyway?"
Shen smiled at that, though they couldn't see. "Ah, yes, we'll be surrounded. And mid-air, we'll be able to attack them in all directions instead of just upwards. It'll be a target-richer environment. It'll save us time.
"It'll also let me understand the squad's defensive capabilities once and for all, especially because we'll fight with a terrain disadvantage. Now is the best time for that; I don't believe we'll be able to avoid strong enemies much longer. The fire wisps were willing to die to delay our mission for a reason. Anything else?"
There were no questions, and they soon reached their destination.