The situation for the army only seemed to get worse, they were starting the get better at quickly condoning off new areas that were safe from the fish swarms, but every time they were forced to move by Snappy there would be casualties.
Drake was grimly observing when he noticed the air started to clear up, the red hue that was in the dungeon started to lessen and he could see a little further than before.
Moments later he could feel something start to pull him, at first it was faint, then more violent and soon he could feel his body trying to rip itself apart. Screams filled his ears but he didn't have time to figure out the cause and only focused on keeping himself together.
Under his command mana coursed around his body wherever the pain was the worst and any vital areas, sweat quickly soaked anything that was still dry from the swamp water and veins were bulging all over his body.
Pop pop pop, Drake wasn't sure what was making those strange noises, but after them, the noise of screaming lessened significantly which made concentrating easier.
Just as quickly as it came the pull disappeared and he was able to relax, he opened his eyes and finally noticed why there was so much noise earlier.
Nearly half of his remaining men floated where they previously stood, their veins bulging like his own, but his had remained intact, several soldiers seemed to have even worse reactions to the attack and exploded into peaces, nearby one soldier's torso floated next to a wall while his legs hung several feet away on a wall, one of the legs hung over the dangerous side of the wall and was completely missing below the water's surface.
He couldn't see any soldiers hiding in trees anymore, they seemed to have fallen when the pain struck and suffered the same fate as that leg.
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Some groups were luckier than others, most of the soldiers building their new wall survived, others lost too many and the Turtle rammed a wall down before they could finish their barrier, Drake watched large groups which were previously able to work fast enough to start killing fish outside their barrier be ripped apart.
Those groups fell and torches hit water, one the group went into the dark Drake assumed them dead, however, half a minute after a group went dark he saw a soldier light a torch in a tree, he was sure that no one had been in that tree earlier and noone could have made it there before the lights went out.
An idea struck him and he immediately tested his theory, after lighting a torch and tossing into the distance a couple times he managed to get one caught in a tree, a portion of fish that were circling the shield walls broke off to chase the light source.
Once Drake confirmed his theory he roared "THEY ARE ATTRACTED BY LIGHT, PUT OUT YOUR TORCHES AND IF YOU ARE SEPARATED MEET AT THE NEXT FLOOR.
Soon after torches started to be extinguished and people raced through the gaps created by throwing lit torches away from themselves, Drake was satisfied that most of his men figured out how to move quickly once they knew the trick, but he could also see people who were too afraid to fully extinguish their torches, they smothered them so they burned very dimly, perhaps they were shaken by the demon attacks earlier, although he was slightly unsatisfied they would provide a good distraction for the remaining men who followed orders.
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Sometime later...
Drake would swear that he could hear a little girl giggling nearby, he was certain that the main group was nearly at the next floor where he could light torches again, so he ignored the possible demon and continued wading through the waist-high water.
Suddenly everything became brighter and he could see everything in detail again, he glanced up and saw a blinding orb of light hovering over his head, his first reaction was to throw a dagger at it and doge to the side, however, the dagger simply passed through the orb and it closely followed his movement, he moved around several more times and the orb stayed overhead, the only reward for his little dance was his soldiers frantically moving away from him and more giggles in the distance.