Even though the battle was happening far away, Randidly looked up from his careful examination of his Paths as he felt the Lancers gaining momentum. Not only were they intimately connected to him through the base Skill, but now they seemed capable of just barely replicating his own Skills, albeit on a much smaller scale.

If he was the radio station, they were radios with noise thick with static. But just barely, the message was getting through.

Feeling their feeble fingers drawing power from him, Randidly smiled wickedly. The current him was all too used to the way power could flow through the world. His eyes began to glow as he fed pinches of energy and image through the connection. If what was before was a trickle, Randidly rewarded them with the furious natural force of a broken damn.

Congratulations! Your Skill The March of Ruin and Valor (L) has grown to Level 184!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Lancers of the Baleful Crusade (L) has grown to Level 318!

Congratulations! Your Skill The March of Ruin and Valor (L) has grown to Level 201!

Incredible, Randidly reflected as he brushed his perception up against their tenuous connection. He didn’t apply enough pressure to affect the flow of energy, but just enough to feel its resilience. The realism of the sensation was immaculate. The amount of power I can siphon off… the ways that I can control it… ha, truly, this Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae…

Hum… I should send out a few messages to figure out what the term Moirae refers to…

Clicking his tongue, Randidly sent his messages and then turned back to his Path menu. His Lancers should now have more than enough power to threaten a Nether Herald. They now had the benefit of three Paths; time for them to show their worth.

*****

Charlotte twisted around toward the rising sound while keeping a portion of her attention on the dangerous form of the Nether Herald. A dangerous vortex of energy had formed around the gargoyle’s body and was growing every second. But witnessing the source of the noise set her eyes bulging and caused her to forget about the lurking threat for a few seconds.

A huge column of dust wafted up from the charging formation of the Ghosthound’s Lancers. The force and violence of their moment made them almost seem otherworldly. The feet of the various mounts pounded the ground as they spotted the sea of Nether forces and accelerated. As one, they raised their weapons in brief salute before lowering the points at their Nether foes.

During their initial attack, the Vulpis Squad and the forces of Commander Shilling were able to force apart the Nether Beasts and reach the Nether Gatekeepers, but the momentum that now surged toward the battlefield was an entirely different kind of threat.

But at the same time, while the Lancers were approaching, the vortex around the Nether Herald grew stronger and stronger.

A wide and wholistic image covered the thousand strong charge, causing their lances to emit crackling negative energy while a strange golden radiance spun lightly around their bodies. Clearly, this new batch of reinforcements would relieve a lot of the pressure the group was currently under.

Even Commander Shilling paused in its movements, with black lightning running up and down across his slug body. Charlotte couldn’t resist coughing lightly. “Ahem. As I said… it was simply a morale-building exercise…”

The Commander looked at her sourly before turning his attention to the vortex of Nether above them.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!

In the face of this charging threat, the Nether Herald once more reminded them that none present could rival its individual power. The Nether around it surged, the vortex sinking into the whole of the Nether Pinion beneath it. Very quickly, the Pinion began to grind and divide itself into several horizontal layers, which each began to spin. From those layers, a wave of wild Nether Beasts with frothing mouths erupted. Now with its energy freed, the Nether Herald began to rapidly throw out Nether blades.

In addition, a beam of Nether shot upward from the activated Nether Pinion, affecting the battle in the sky. Charlotte released a small sigh of relief as Commander Shilling launched itself forward to attack the Nether Herald. Looks like all that power isn’t for us, but to help the Nether King...

Jieu and Vizzeret both avoided slashes of dense Nether from the Nether Herald and hopped back to land next to Charlotte. Jieu’s flaming features didn’t reveal any hint of the current situation, but his voice was heavy. “We could not witness the Nether Herald’s power previously, for the Ghosthound neutralized it quickly, as well as destroying the Nether Pinion. But I fear that this fight… will not be as simple as that one was.”

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“Reinforcements,” Vizzeret growled simply as he inclined his head toward the oncoming wave of Lancers. The thunder of their mounts’ hooves was becoming louder and louder as they approached, swiftly muffling the conflict and the sky and then steadily suppressing the noises of battle between the Commander’s forces and the Nether Beasts.

Above them, the Nether Herald ripped its arms back and forth blindingly fast, inflicting two deep wounds on Commander Shilling. A ripple ran through Jieu’s face. “Numbers will not help us against a foe like this. Quantity is not enough… at least this amount of quantity. If we continue this fight-”

“If you always pick only the fights you can win, you will never learn anything new about yourself,” Vizzeret growled, this time with more heat in his voice. At that, Jieu fell silent. The massive grey dog shook his body and exploded with a powerful wave of his Obsidian Wolf image.

“...I suppose that is correct,” Jieu said quietly. Then he looked up with sharp eyes. “Then the moment that the Lancers arrive… we make our move.”

All three nodded. Commander Shilling crashed to the ground, but quickly reformed its body and leapt back to the sky with an even stronger electromagnetic field.

The Nether Herald didn’t remain idle in the face of these new threats. It raised its grey-green stone claws and threw out a dozen blades of dense Nether that targeted the approaching force. But from the core of the Lancers formation came a resounding screech that cut through even the thunder of their hooves.

A massive eagle bearing a Lancer streaked out with that same dual aura around his weapons and body. Around his neck hung twenty-eight gleaming fangs. With another screech, the eagle accelerated to meet the ominously silent blades of Nether.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOM! BOOOM! BOOM!

The Eagle Lancer emerged from the repeated clashes against the Nether Blades looking extremely bedraggled and slightly singed, but it had defeated the Nether Herald’s attack. The gargoyle narrowed its glowing eyes and roared again as it slapped Commander Shilling away. But its roar couldn’t rival the thunderous hooves of the approaching Lancers.

In the next moment, the formation of Lancers hit the rapidly expanding army of Nether Beasts. Waves of bodies were sent tumbling through the air as the Lancers moved their weapons in perfect synchronicity. They were like rowers on top of a smooth lake, dipping their implements into the water and thrusting themselves forward.

Their charge was like a force of nature.

Even Charlotte couldn’t believe how smoothly the Lancers ripped through the Nether Beasts. She had seen their powerful teamwork just a few hours prior, but that couldn’t hold a candle to this carnage. In the past, they had efficiently cut down their foes. Now, it didn’t even seem like the Lancers were slowing down as they mowed through the Nether Beasts.

The Nether Herald grew incensed to see its minions being slaughtered, but it was the Nether Gatekeepers that moved first. While half of them had already been killed already, the other half were only being pinned down by other members of the Vulpis Squad. However, the challenge of the Lancers started a chain reaction.

The Nether Gatekeepers broke out of the harassment by releasing dense waves of Nether. Then they pounced forward and moved to stall out the Lancers’ charge.

In a flash, a Lancer riding an enormous spider hopped out in front of its peers. Instead of the single lance that the others possessed, this one wielded two. It met the first Nether Gatekeeper and skittered gracefully to the side, lashing out quickly and leaving a trail of wounds across its torso. The Nether Gatekeepers quickly gathered to suppress the Lancer, but its fleeting movements only accelerated. And by the time they finally managed to pin that Spider Lancer down, its fellows arrived.

The Lancers weren’t powerful enough to face the Nether Gatekeepers directly, at least not yet. But in that initial charge, they were able to inflict several deep wounds with the force of their momentum. And in the frantic minutes that followed, they simply used numbers to drown the remained of the Nether Gatekeepers.

Immediately, Charlotte’s expression brightened. Without the Nether Gatekeepers, all of the Vulpis Squad was freed up. Those additional numbers-

ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!

Finally, it seemed that they had pushed the Nether Herald too far. In a very familiar fashion, Commander Shilling was sent tumbling to the side after being repelled by the Nether Herald. Its eyes now radiated a red mist as it beat its wings and flew up into the air. Blades of Nether seemed to naturally form around its body and cut sharply downward. The golden light around the Lancers seemed powerful, but a single Nether blade shattered it and left the Lancers with deep gashes across their torso.

“It’s time,” Vizzeret growled.

Charlotte cast an annoyed glance over toward him, wondering when he had decided that he was in charge of the mission. But looking at the ragged figure of Commander Shilling, Charlotte couldn’t help but agree. She, Jieu, and Vizzeret each focused on their inherited images from the Ghosthound. Each image was a variant, but they still contained a hint of their Head Drill Sergeant’s capabilities.

And part of that was allowing the three images to coexist in the same space without weakening each other.

As Commander Shilling recovered his energy, the three leapt forward with blazing eyes. There was a shriek from the sky as the Eagle Lancer streaked downward to spear the Nether Herald from above. Out of the corner of her eye, Charlotte could see the Spider Lancer skittering back and forth, rapidly approaching the Nether Herald from below.

But the closer they approached, the more Charlotte had to grit her teeth. Even though they had been exposed to Nether during their training, it was nothing like this. This aura was raw and hostile, seeking constantly to smother the Aether in the surroundings. The Nether Herald roared again, releasing a wave of Nether blades in every direction.

Its army had been thoroughly slaughtered, but the dignity of the Herald was still inviolable. Above them, the beam of Nether pulsed into the sky, assisting in the battle against Commandant Wick. Until they managed to shut off that beam, they were losing.

And Charlotte Wick desperately wanted a win.