Shaun appeared like a blur behind the people who were working at bringing the bridge up and with one clean swipe of his word he released a fire strike that instantly incinerated them. His eagles were doing there job in their own tower, already that head cleared out a majority of the people within and were now just working on killing of the remainders that had chosen to hide rather than fight.
Although things had gone quickly on his side the rest of his group was still working on entering and clearing the towers. He had nothing left to do on his side so he made his way across the bridge and methodically took out those who were using ranged attacks on his people, effectively clearing the way for them to enter the towers without having to worry about getting attack from range.
He usually would have let them fight this battle alone but considering the time constraints he joined in the fight and worked his way through another tower. Once his eagles had finished their own he had them fly around and pick off anyone that was stupid enough to go out into the open.
This was the first time he was fighting side by side with his group and although he could acknowledge that they were all strong in their own ways they did not compare to his own battle efficiency. As he worked his way top down in the tower he encountered several people that pleaded to be spared, but killing them here was not a true death so he ignored their pleas and focused on finishing the fight as soon as possible.
When he got to a point in the tower where his team had everything under control and were dispatching the remaining people he left the tower and did a quick check of the last one before concluding that everything was under control and it would be only minutes before they would be moving out.
He surveyed the bridge to see how it could be lifted and noticed that there was a mechanism on only the one side of the bridge, the one closest to the compound.
“Everyone that is done fighting move across the bridge immediately.” He yelled out across the bridge, using the air to magnify his voice so all could hear him.
Like ants swarming everyone that was done with the fight moved across quickly, not wanting to be the one to hold up the rest of the group. He kept a watch with his echo and when the final person from the enemy side was dead he shouted again for everyone to get a move on and report to their leader so we could get numbers of who had fallen in the fight.
When the last person was across the bridge he used the handle and brought it up, cutting off anyone who tried to cross here from the fortresses. When he was done he waited all of a minute before he got final numbers.
“We lost 58 altogether, an even split between elf and human. A few a hurt and would need to drink potions to continue on at a decent speed. I have instructed them all to do what they can as quickly as they can so we can move out.” Yarila skipped right to what he needed to know and he appreciated it.
“Anyone who can’t keep up stays behind and can claim the bridge. We can’t have them slowing us down while we move. 5 minutes and then we leave as quickly as we can.” He was being generous about giving them 5 minutes but after seeing the state of his team he gave them the time to get organised and recentre themselves.
The upside of this battle was that they finally got the chance to actually fight in this event and it was clear that now that they had gotten to taste the joy of battle they were more then excited to get moving. After the 5 minutes were up they were already ready to move, only another 6 decided to stay behind and claim the bridge due to injuries that would slow them down.
“We move as quickly as we can, there is no point hiding anymore. If anyone approaches us as we run forward we kill them quickly and efficiently. The main target is the compound and we have to get there as soon as possible.”
As they moved towards the compound they got an update from Viv. The Pantheon had upped their game and the Charlo, as well as all their elites, were now powering forward. They had broken from the main armies and were now making a straight shot towards their compound at top speed.
He had expected this and the race was now on. There would be no way to slow down their approach, that applied to both sides now. The only silver lining was that Shaun was closer, much closer. They had also invested everything they had into the protection of their compound so the Charlo should be able to break through immediately.
Regardless it was decided to go on the full retreat back to the compound and do what they could to delay the inevitable. There was nothing he could do on his side anymore and he trusted that Viv would do what she could to help buy them more time. The only thing the update did was make him push everyone quicker.
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Three times they came across smaller armies that were sent out to meet them in battle. The first time it happened he summoned all 13 eagles and had them meet the army ahead of anyone else. He had used a lot of his mana to make them all strong enough that they could easily wipe out most of the army before they even met them. By the time his group managed to catch up there was only minimal amount of delay before they continued on.
The same thing occurred with the next two armies, they were relatively small, no more than 100k people, but they still cost him time that he didn’t have. Outside of his summoning his eagles after the first army he refused to use any more mana, wanting to ensure that when they arrived at the compound he would have every drop of mana available to him to claim it as quickly as he could.
What surprised him was that every time they saw an army appear his team sped up and raced each other so that they could join the fight and kill as many as they could. They lost minimal numbers during these attacks and knowing that they were closing in on the compound just made them hungrier for the fight.
The final stretch between them and the compound passed quickly, when the compound came into view they didn’t stop approaching. It wasn’t until they could see that just outside of the compound a much larger army had gathered in preparation for their approach that they slowed down.
“How do they still have so many people here? I though that they had everyone out with the main army not sitting here! There has to be over a million people in that army Shaun!” Eric’s stress came clear in his tone, he was losing hope, as would everyone else in the group.
They didn’t even know the worst of it though, through his Mana Sight skill he saw a forcefield like barrier around the compound. This barrier would stop any of them from entering until it was brought down. That in itself was going to take a hell of a lot of power or a long time to get through.
The issue was that he probably had enough mana to either clear the army or partially destroy the barrier but not both. The barrier would probably require a full army to take down unless it was infused with something like his advanced affinity. But no one here had an advanced affinity but him which meant that even altogether they wouldn’t be able to break the barrier anytime soon. He took stock of his mana potions but they wouldn’t be enough to bring him back up to the amount that he needed which meant he would need to spend time meditating and restoring his mana over and over again.
“We fight to the death, we will lose, but at least we go out trying.” The moment Yarila spoke those words he refused to just throw himself at this issue and die.
“No, if we are going to die we do it with at least some hope of winning.” He thought over every stupid idea, every future plan he had planned on looking at until he formed the riskiest and probably stupidest plan he had ever come up with.
He looked at Eric, Yarila, Gabe and everyone standing behind them waiting for him to decide on a course of action.
“Do you guys trust me enough to do something that will probably get us all killed before we even enter into the fight? It will only work if every person here trusts me enough to go along with it.”
“I hate it when you talk like that. The last time you did you end up having a kill order put on your head by every faction in the multiverse.” Eric was losing it and looked like he just wanted to run away from him and his ideas. With a sigh he looked at him and then at the group behind them. “I will do whatever you want, I trust you, but I am going to need more to go on here before I ask everyone to do something unknown and potentially so catastrophic that everyone in the multiverse will want them dead.”
Shaun looked at Eric and then at Yarila who just nodded at him and waited for him to respond. “I want to form a link between me and everyone else here so I can drain them of mana and use it all to unleash a lightning attack on the compound.”
“Is that even possible? Have you ever done something like that before?” Yarila was the first to respond while Eric just looked at him like he had grown a second head.
“I have seen it done before by Harpies in the D grade dungeon. I haven’t really tried it but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work as long as everyone lets me form the link and pushes their mana at me. But we could all end up dying instead. Its risky but it might work.”
“Can you test it out first on maybe one person before you decide to kill everyone on some unknown and dangerous experiment?” Eric was more hesitant than Yarila, but he seemed to be coming around.
“No, it will take to long and we don’t really have the time. Worst case scenario is we all die, at least in the event. But really if we don’t do something we are going to lose the event anyway. SO may as well go out with a chance of winning, right?”
“You can kill that army though, it may take time but with you we can do it. Why risk it?”
“Its not just the army, there is a barrier around the compound which would take us weeks to get through without a full army to help. By the time we do reinforcement would have arrived and our own compound will be breached. I wont force you or anyone else to do this. The choice is up to you guys and the team.”
The moment he told them about the barrier they looked completely defeated. He let them think it over for as long as they needed. Yarila was the first to agree and without waiting for him or Eric went to talk to their people. Eric after seeing her walk away just stared at him.
“I hope you know what you are doing.” With that he also went to talk to his people. Gabe stayed behind grinning at him like a made man.
“Have I ever told you how much fun I have when you do these crazy things?” With that he also went to join Eric. It was now up to him to not die before he managed to do the impossible.