Helena was confused, rather than being out there and helping with the fighting she and her fellow Acolytes were stuck in the temple. The time that could have been better spent helping with their miracles or just their muscles, were spent praying while "surrounding" worried farm animals.
At the center of the temple 12 of each of the most common domesticated animals of the area had been placed, and Yorich led the Acolytes into forming a circle around them. They all had to pray to Old Yoss while Yorich worked on several complicated chants while calling on a miracle to grow wheat into a series of strange patterns throughout the temple.
She wasn't stupid, she understood that there was power building up in the temple. A power that was far greater than anything she had felt any of her colleagues or her master channel before this night. But she worried if whatever grand ritual they were working on would be useful in time to make a real difference.
But her job as an Acolyte was to have faith, so she turned her attention back and focused on believing. Dawn would come yet.
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"This is too easy"
Heraclius concluded as he stumbled behind fortifications on the grounds. The defense had been driven down from the wall by the attackers, but they were likely going to be able to retake it if they held their ground on the street level. Each unit within the militia had been led by one of his men to retreat down into the streets and ambush the pursuing puppets there. Using the buildings as cover and restrictions on the enemy made their numbers work against them.
It should give them a chance if only they could hold on. The puppets were far weaker than the strange insects, and Heraclius had focused on eliminating them once he realized that. While killing the final one of those he had been struck in the side by its metal-tipped leg and that forced him to retreat and recuperate.
A healing potion was crushed against his side where it had pierced through his armor, and he leaned against the overturned wagon that his group used as a makeshift barricade. He heard rather than saw his people holding off a group of wild deer, while he turned to look towards the town gate. Something was pushing against it and flames seemed to be licking through them.
That would be what could shatter all of his plans, but he couldn't move over there until his wounds healed. He looked down at his blood-smeared clothes and he prayed as he counted the heartbeats until the potion would make it safe for him to rush over and stop the gate from being shattered.
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Elarma was the wind. She was the power and destruction of a gale unleashed, the comfort and cooling of a gentle breeze, and the uncaring end of the endless storm. As an Elementalist she knew the risks of channeling more magic than one could handle, all magic was alive in its own way, but the elements were more...destructive than most. If you channeled too much of them to the point that the magic would overwhelm you, you could easily become a primal avatar of a force of nature.
Academically some part of her knew that she was close to becoming that, a living amalgam of cold, wind, and flesh. But she couldn't care at that moment. All she was was the wind that whirled around her, growing stronger and stronger with each moment as she sucked up the local mana through her amplification circle and passed it through her body.
She hadn't even noticed how she had slowly started to levitate as her flesh grew lighter and the wind passed through her with more ease with each passing moment. Cold rime had started to form along her arms and spread across the outermost layer of her skin, if she had cared to open her eyes the world would see the otherworldly glow that would emanate from her eye sockets.
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Magic was eating away at her and she was giving freely in return. The reasons for why didn't matter anymore, all that mattered was moving the wind and tasting the raw power it had to offer. So far the wind had been content to play along and move in the dome shape that she had required of it, along with a few curious bursts through the streets and alleys of Hor. But now she began to wonder what more she could do if she unleashed her power.
Soon...Soon.
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Henry sped up the wall and landed on the roof of the inn. Up at this height, the wind ripped through his loosely woven garments, that Ysandra had created with magic, and left most of his new form exposed for the world to see. It didn't matter, not truly because in this moment all that mattered was the mission.
The Mage had to be killed or captured, but they were not allowed to continue their work. Or rather they could not do their work in phase 2 of the plan. What "phase 2" was going to be exactly, that wasn't something Henry could rightly say he knew. But orders were orders and he could feel the expectations of the Sovereign Swarm press down on him like a collapsed mine shaft.
When he landed his first priority had been to spot the Mage, but that didn't turn out to be difficult. She was lightly hovering in the air, vibrating as she formed the centerpiece of the magical wind dome and the wind seemed to grow in intensity with each moment. Attacking levitating half-elves was not exactly his forte, but he tried his best as he ran at her and jumped with an arcing blow down towards her left shoulder.
A blast of wind promptly rebuffed him and sent him smashing down to the street. Only the miraculous alterations to his body saved him as he made a little crater in the hard trampled earth of the street below her. The meditating woman finally opened her eyes and the eerie white glow made the ex-Adventurer feel true fear as an alien grin formed on her face, and she slowly lifted her arms to make a resounding clap that somehow was heard all over town.
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Mar felt that the attack went the way that the collectives had predicted. The troops that had been sent were enough to push the town to the brink but not utterly annihilate them, which was the intended goal after all. Unlike most settlements she wanted this one to surrender rather than simply be gobbled up and spit out.
She had learned one uncomfortable truth from watching the battle and that was that her zombies were intrinsically flawed. Even if their bodies were stronger than their uninfected counterparts, they still lacked the proper instincts for using their bodies, and while they could be utilized in complex ways, their ability to do more than walk, feed themselves, and attack...was severely limited. Pulling the downed trees to have them be used as a ramp was beyond their usual standards and it had taken a lot of direct oversight to have worked.
In time she would have to find ways to improve these Fungal Zombies, rather than over-relying on flawed units. The soldiers that he could make were far more effective than the infected, but hopefully, in time there would be a better solution to this issue. For now all Mar had to do was watch and ensure that the plan worked out just as intended.
The only thing that worried the Sovereign Swarm was the awakening of the strange powers within Hor. They radiated out even if they were unstable or contained, and how to counter these unknown variables was beyond her. But hopefully, they would not present too much of a deviation from the original script that Mar had laid out.
If they did then Mar would only have to improvise, and that was something that Sovereign Swarm was growing more adept at.