The monsters began their charge and as soon as they were in range everyone let loose with everything they had. Bolts slammed home sending spiderwebs of black cracks that left motes of dark light flowing up into the air. Dad hurled his first boulder aiming for the smallest of the monsters first. If they could thin the proverbial herd they could eventually focus on the largest of the threats.
The front line of boroclops charged ahead, Cindy watched as her trap runes started to explode in giant plumes of elemental damage unleashing their fury on the monsters that stepped upon them. Taking a deep breath she called out her next spell. Boroclops had no inherent weakness but nothing that they were strong to either. “Fire beam channel!” Like a flamethrower she swept the stream down onto the monsters just as they rocketed forward.
The monsters slammed their heads into the wall with earth shattering force. The bones it was made of cracked but did not give way. Many of the warriors started to lob their single use bombs over the walls to rain down more damage as quickly as possible. Two of the boroclops shattered into motes of black light turning into swirling darkness that rushed into the sides of their nearest allies. Damage healed as the monsters fell.
“Focus Fire!” Cried out the commander, “They heal when one of them falls!”
Cindy watched as the first stone ape leapt high into the air crossing above the wall with a titanic crash into the inner courtyard. Dad didn’t give it any breathing room before he was on top of the monster hammering away at it. A half dozen other hunters swarmed its legs with massive hammers and swords opening up with a concentration of power never before seen by Cindy. She turned her face away from it and continued chugging potions as she unleashed her powers onto one monster at a time.
Orin dashed next to her as he avoided a squirt of venom arcing over the wall. Two other hunters were coated in the toxic sludge and the telltale signs of poison bubbles float from their heads. They ducked down out of the line of fire as the glow of potions coated their skin. Orin and Cindy took down the fourth boroclops leaving only one left as the turtles and serpents got to the wall.
Dad and the melee hunters had been able to jump and take down all four of the stone apes but the damage to the town was already done. Roofs and walls turned into golden motes of light dispersing into the air as the buildings were destroyed. All the non hunters had thankfully fled away from this part of town staying out of the way.
Dad was already lined with dozens of golden cracks along his skin. Still he fought on, potions keeping his hit points above half as he promised Cindy. Three hunters lay on the sidelines waiting for mages focused on healing to top them back up. Dad pulled out a large hunk of meat and downed it as quickly as the world would let him. Stamina rocking back up to three quarters.
The ground shook as the snakes began to burrow and make their way into town. Dad looked at Cindy’s back as she focused on her task. He hoped she wouldn’t notice the two hunters that didn’t make it. The horrifying truth that they turned into motes of light leaving nothing behind for those to grieve him filled Dad’s chest with an ache.
The melee group nodded to one another as the serpents came. They burst from the ground snatching and biting at several hunters to wrap around them in their death coil attacks. Healers pumped them full of magic to sustain them as the rest of the warriors went to work. Dad used a quake stomp disrupting one coil with its stunning effect to save another person’s life before Dad waded into a third serpent trying to keep it away from the back line of mages that were keeping the melee combatants alive.
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Cindy turned her attacks to the turtles that couldn’t take damage from the rain of bolts and arrows. The boroclops were all gone, these shadow beasts even when healed didn’t seem to have the same amount of hit points as normal versions of themselves.
“Ranged attackers, the wall will hold. Serpents in the court turn and help!” Orin turned around loading another bolt. “Mages on the turtles! Keep the wall from crumbling!”
Cindy’s potions ran dry and her mana dropped approaching towards a crash. She reached towards her skills seeking for anything that could help her. She sacrificed meditation skill in order for her to use new ones to protect herself. Panic filled her mind as she raced through her head seeking some way to keep helping.
“I’m stamina crashing!” Orin screamed as he fell to a knee. Cindy turned to him as he yelled and watched in horrifying slow motion as a sand serpent lunged at him. With no stamina to dodge Cindy watched as the beast snatched him.
Orin was defiant firing a single shot down the serpent's throat as it wrapped around him and pulled him from the wall. Cindy let out a shriek of terror, “ORIN!” Her eyes sought out her dad and saw him wrapped up in another serpent as he wailed down on the body of the serpent. “DAD!” His eyes glanced at her. “THIS ONE HAS ORIN! HELP!”
She saw Dad hesitate. Then in an instant his stamina bar maxed out. He burst from the coil with an ape leap and landed on the beast that had their one time companion. The blow sent a wet, coated Orin shooting from the monster’s mouth splattering him against the inside of the wall. He was coated in golden cracks centered around his chest as the ranged warrior lay stunned.
Cindy scrambled down to check and make sure he would recover. She saved the mana it would take to float down and sprinted instead. She stumbled on the hem of her robe before catching herself and standing next to the still form of Orin. She fell to her knees and touched him lightly. “You gotta heal Orin!”
“I’m locked out on potions! It hit me with some sort of debuff when it swallowed me.” Orin shook as the poison ticked his health down. The purple bubbles popping above his head.
“How much longer?” Cindy checked her mana. Ten points she could convert to healing. Her eyes flicked towards Dad and the cracked glass look of his skin shining with those golden lines of damage.
“Ten seconds, the poison will finish me unless I get a heal?” Orin’s eyes looked at her with hope.
Cindy took a deep breath as her mind and heart ran at a thousand miles an hour. Dad has lots of hit points! I made sure of it! “I’ll heal you!” Cindy placed her palms on Orin’s chest and she channeled her last points of mana to save his life, putting her in mana crash.
Dad fought above them both. Standing as a wall against the serpents. His potions ran dry, his meat gone from his inventory. Skills on cooldown. Only his fists and feet stood between the two small individuals now defenseless without him. Cindy hadn’t looked at his hit points. He was now below a hundred, just as fragile as she was in that moment.
Cindy couldn’t look up at her dad. Her mind swam like it was stuck in molasses. Orin glowed with potions and antidotes. She could barely watch as he downed some meat helping his stamina recover just a little bit.
Dad stood there one thought in his mind as the last of the monsters stood before them. A half dozen more hunters lay dispersing into golden motes of light, forever extinguished. She needs me. I must be invincible.
Dad let out a bellow from deep in his gut as his skills came off cooldown. His stamina maxed out. Flying through the air Dad came down with one foot aiming his quake stomp for the serpent's skull. The air shook as he plummeted down and crushed the serpent, spending as much stamina as the world would let him shatter the monster’s head into an explosion of light.
Dad fell to a knee as the last dozen hunters stood about. So many had been snatched off the wall when the melee combatants couldn’t keep up. Everyone was in stamina or mana crash. People were covered in cracks, half of them were poisoned and desperately waiting to drink their antidotes before it was too late.
Cindy stared at her father and noticed his hit points and how dangerously low they had become. The mana crash took her and she passed out.