Gregor flinched at the sudden onslaught of pressure. Warriors outside of the Dark Elf Paladin’s circle enhanced barrier fell over dead or unconscious. He’d initially doubted the Warlord’s new companion when he showed up claiming his deity decreed his presence necessary. He was only mid way through his advanced class, while the thing they currently fought was closing in on breaking through Master rank as it absorbed the mana flowing through the ley line beneath their feet.
Lord Shubin looked at the man once before detailing three of his mages, the unnerving to look at Faceless, to form a mage circle and funnel power to the Paladin as needed. Now, Gregor was thankful for the Daemon Lord’s foresight. As the pressure increased the Paladin’s shield flared with more and more borrowed power. Soon, another circle of mages added their energy to the singular defensive barrier that held out the Manifestations mental influence.
Only Shubin, Freya with a handful of her warriors, and the lady Reaper with her Taurai mercenaries stood outside the holy barrier protecting the lesser ranked combatants. Gregor was thankful for the Reaper and the Taurai, though he hadn’t expected the Council to send a representative so quickly. The Taurai being artificial constructs were completely immune to mental attacks like the kind the Manifestation threw against them. While the Reaper was granted significant mental resistances by virtue of her class. Freya and her warriors were diametrically opposed to all that were deemed unnatural or abominations, making them uniquely equipped to deal with the current threat. Shubin simply entered a battle trance unique to his class that allowed him to bypass all but the most devastating mental attacks to focus only on defeating his enemy. It wasn’t exactly a rage type ability, but it had similar effects.
When they came down into the cavern to face the abomination they split into two fifty-being raid groups. The raid groups were then divided further into ten groups of five. Groups were categorized by what their role would be, tank, direct damage, ranged damage, healer, and support. Each raid group had a designated combat controller that assigned targets based on skill set and priority, as well as assigning healers to tanks and directing supporters when to best apply buffs. The combat controller wouldn’t actually engage the abomination, though their role was arguably the most important.
Waiting in the tunnels were two more raid groups, ready to swap in should the fight go long enough to wear down their stamina and mana. Or worse, if the first two groups were wiped out completely or rendered non-combat effective. As the fight dragged on Gregor began to consider they may be needed, nearly a dozen of the raiders were currently ineffective. The Manifestations opening salvo knocked three of their frontline fighters off the small platform into the black depths below them. It took a whole minute before their status’ redlined.
Gregor refocused his attention on his own fight as a fang mouthed tentacle about as thick as a city bus whipped out to scoop up one of the mages in his own party. He slid into place in front of the offending member deflecting it’s path of travel with an ability reinforced shield. The mage finished conjuring her fireball, releasing it point blank. It exploded over his head, the heat singing the tips of his braided hair. The tentacle recoiled while a trio of eyes swiveled to glare balefully at him.
“Thanks!” The woman yelled before beginning work on another spell.
Just as he was about to respond, all of the Manifestations tentacles retracted into itself leaving it covered in creepy mouths. It’s hundreds of eyes extended to their full distance, looking outward all around. In less than a second they all began to hum and glow the signature blue of mana. A half second after that, all hell broke loose. A sound like nothing he’d ever heard blared across the cavern, reverberating off the distant walls increasing in volume as it did so.
BAAAAArrrrrRRRROOOOOOOOOOOooooonnnnGGG!
An unseen hand flattened everyone outside of the good paladin’s barrier in an instant. Shubin bent to a knee, a berserker's glare on his face. Freya and her attendants fell painfully out of the air, one of which wasn’t over the platform plummeting into the seemingly endless chasm. Everyone inside the barrier still felt the effects of the strange attack. All but Keeg fell to their hands and knees in pain, the Paladin himself drawing in even more power from the Faceless that fed him mana in an attempt to hold the barrier.
All of the mages in one of their circles collapsed after several long moments of strain, the other held. The pressure started to ease after that and healers rushed to their side. Then the ground around them began to shake violently. Energy rushed outward from the Manifestation shattering everything except the platform where they fought it. The narrow spike of granite that connected them to the tunnels crumbled behind them. Light from above suddenly streamed in, causing Gregor to grit his teeth and raise his head.
Above him the ceiling of the cavern has broken apart, but rather than all of that coming down on them the densest portions remained floating intact, drifting aimlessly in the air. Anything without the right density slowly broke apart, reduced to dust. He was further stunned to see that Karl was directly above the Manifestation balancing on one of the errant floating rocks. Several meters further was his opponent, which could only be the infamous King James.Karl looked down making eye contact with Gregor. He acknowledged him with a nod then began leaping from rock to rock, closing in on his target.
Gregor once again refocused on his own fight with a rallying shout, “FOR THE WARLORD! FOR WINSLOW!”
The remaining raid members picked themselves back up, dusted themselves off, and returned to the task at hand. Before the abomination could capitalize on the short lull in the battle, blade, projectile, and spell were already lashing at it’s thick hide.
Freya landed next to him, “Only my kind will be able to reinforce us. The path behind us has fallen.”
The Manifestations' many mouthed scream jerked their attention back to it. One of it’s eyes had burst from a well placed ice spike. It thrashed momentarily before a dozen mouthed tentacles shot forward in an attempt to remove the source of the offending attack. Keeg sucked in more mana, flaring the barrier between them while Shubin leapt through the air with his sinister looking battle ax held high. He activated an ability that expanded the cutting edge of the blade and managed to slice straight through the tentacle. It flailed in pain, spewing black blood across the frontline fighters.
The remaining tentacles slammed against Keegs barrier, causing the man to physically flinch. The distress in his face was clear as the last remaining circle of Faceless swayed from the sudden power draw. The shield shrank a few meters, exposing several of the ranged fighters that had taken shelter within.
“Can ye’ hold it man!?” Gregor shouted to the dark man.
Keeg held his power like the lifeline it was, teeth clenched so hard he could feel them cracking in his mouth. He shifted his eyes to look at the concerned dwarf. With a supreme effort of will he hastily released a breath with his quick response, “Icannot!”
“Old Gods be damned!” he cursed as he struck out at a tentacle that had wandered too close to his party.
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Freya nodded to their raid's combat controller, “Warn the raid parties, they will soon be responsible for their own defense! The barrier is about to fall!”
The young woman guiding the battle for their group nodded, then began giving directives to the individual party leaders.
A moment later the barrier the good Paladin had held for so long fractured, then shattered with the sound of glass. Golden motes of light drifted away, encouraged by the unnatural pressure the Manifestation created. Keeg slumped backwards, complete exhaustion taking him out of the fight. A healer rushed forward and pulled him as far back from the fighting as they could, already pulling several potions from her spatial inventory.
With their holy bastion removed from the battle for the moment, the parties began to disperse across the platform, engaging individual mouths, or eyes as the opportunity presented itself. Another eye was defeated, evidenced by another deafening wail of pain and rage from the Manifestation. Gregor wasn’t sure, but it seemed as though the mental pressure that was hindering them eased at the same time. Another eye burst under a nonstop hail of bullets. This time Gregor was certain that the pressure dropped by the slightest amount.
“We have to prioritize the eyes!” He shouted back to the combat controller.
“Affirmative! All raid parties, this is Controller One, all ranged fighters prioritize the eyes, Group one, two…” Gregor tuned the woman out as she did her work.
The information was quickly relayed and coordinated between the combat controllers and the two raid groups split up, his group shifting to the left of the abomination, while the other shifted right. The eyes ran in several rows across the things back, a hundred in total, seven already destroyed. It maintained twice as many mouths spread out around its roughly spherical shape. It floated in place by some unknown means, no other limbs visible across the monster's palid, wet flesh.
While fending off several more tentacle mouths he noticed the Lady Reaper had mounted the Manifestation and was busy carving her way through its many mouths, while her Taurai mercenaries laid down supporting fire ensuring she had a clear path to her chosen targets. With a short sword in each of her four hands she was a whirlwind of death, never slowing, always moving forward. She suddenly halted her advance, bouncing off an errant tentacle to land in front of the beast while looking up through the gap in the cavern where Karl fought the King.
Gregor looked up at the same time, curious what would cause the woman to pause in her slaughter. As he took in the battle above he realized just what that thing was. As a bloodied Karl fought from one floating platform to the next with the leader of Litchfield, who was also severely wounded, his Reaper had finally manifested. However, it wasn’t the manifestation of the Reaper that concerned them, it was what that thing was doing.
It’s oily black hands were stretching towards the Manifestation, it’s sinister yellow eyes glaring down at the Old God’s harbinger. When those wicked hands finally reached the Manifestation it shrieked in a tone that brought blood to the eyes and ears of every man and woman present. Even the mechanical Taurai swayed under the pressure of such an overbearing scream.
The Reaper’s hand grabbed hold of three of the eyes, which began to glow in response, then it pulled hard pointing them at the King. In the next instant energy released in an eye watering flash that tore apart the platform the injured man had come to rest upon. Gregor watched his silhouette attempt to leap away only for one of the beams to catch the man in the legs, vaporizing them below the knee and sending him tumbling to a lower platform.
Gregor felt the urge to continue watching the outcome of the fight, though whatever Karl’s Reaper had done managed to send the Manifestation into a frenzy. With a second ear splitting screech all of the things eyes glowed white before unleashing a flurry of energy beams into the bulk of the raid. He activated a last ditch ability when a trio of those angry beams narrowed in on his own group's position.
Heat washed over his body as he raised his shield to absorb the other-dimensional energy directed at him. His hair began to smoke and pain wracked his body, yet he held firm. Soon the pressure eased, replaced with the smell of burnt flesh. The Lady Reaper shook her head while resuming her assault, the creature seemed to have spent most of its stolen mana in that attack, with many of its eye stalks sagging low while it drifted listlessly as if in a daze.
Gregor glanced over his shoulder, the sight greeting him left him similarly stunned. Over sixty percent of the raid group had fallen. Only two from his own group remained standing, the other two simply ceased to exist. Freya swooped down to land next to him with a limp.
“We have to end this, now!” She hissed in pain.
“A-aye! The Lady Reaper has the right of it.” He nodded in her direction where only half of her mercenaries remained.
A weak looking Keeg stumbled towards them, a look of desperation on his face, “I need a circle of seven, my deity claims now is the time to end this abomination.”
“You can barely stand, what do you think you can do in your condition!?”
“As my Lord wills!” He stumbled forward then sank to his knees in prayer, “I can end this!”
“Shubin! We need more mages! Seven!” Freya called out, “Protect him, Gregor.”
Gregor looked at the man who was already chanting in prayer to his God, the faint wisps of holy energy becoming visible around him. He shook his head in disbelief, but if the man felt he could end this nightmare, well, he didn’t have a better plan at the moment.
“DWAAAAARVES! ON ME! Protect the Paladin, he’s going to show us a miracle!”
A trio of the remaining Dwarves surrounded the elf with their shields and waited for the circle to form. Five faceless and two of Freya’s Valkyr arrived moments later and linked with each other before directing their energy to support the Paladin. The glow around the Paladin increased in an instant. The tempo of his chant increased as more and more energy flowed into him.
When Gregor hazard a look between lashing tentacles he was stunned to see the man glowing so brightly that it left spots in his eyes, even the mages in the circle had turned their faces away as they fed him more power. He turned back to face a flurry of incoming attacks from the Manifestation, ever aware of the increasing holy power behind him.
Suddenly Keeg’s chanting stopped and he stood with his sword pointed at the sky, “[Heaven’s Descent]!”
The light around the Paladin winked out leaving the cavern unnervingly dark. He collapsed for the second time of the fight, the mages slumping to the ground after him. He found his breath clutched in his throat, waiting for something to happen. Though it had only been a brief second, he wondered if the man’s spell failed somehow.
Then the sky above them cracked open with supernatural light. The Manifestation turned its remaining eyes to the holy tear in reality. The frontline fighters immediately retreated, knowing that nothing good would come of being so close to the thing when the attack fell. And fall it did, a ray of golden light connected with the Manifestation followed by a bolt of holy lightning that seemed to fill the chasm with energy. The abomination shifted slightly to one side as the bolt fell in slow motion.
The crack of thunder followed immediately accompanied by a blastwave that flattened everyone still standing. For a moment no one moved to stand, all waiting to see the result of the divine attack.
Gregor blinked the spots from his eyes and looked upon the writhing, screaming Manifestation. He found it odd that all of the things mouths were clearly making noise though he couldn’t hear it, then it dawned on him the Paladin’s attack had deafened him. He couldn’t hear a single thing right now. More concerning was the fact the Manifestation still lived after such an attack.
The thing spun and twisted revealing the point where it had been struck by the divine bolt. Over a third of its body ceased to exist, what remained was best described as black, pulsing, madness. The monster's pale flesh was charred black around the edges of the wound, though what resided at the center was simply a swirling void of insanity that threatened to break a man’s mind if he looked upon it too long. His mind couldn’t grasp how the thing still lived after such an attack, yet there it was spewing pure madness into the world.
Above them, Karl’s Reaper glanced down, a look of disgust in its yellow eyes before turning to confront the King of Litchfield Park for the last time.
Sound rushed back in as Shubin let out a strangled war cry and charged the madness. “NOW WE END IT! WE MUST!”
The Lady Reaper along with her remaining mercenaries joined the charge, as did Gregor with Freya hot on his heels. He’s right. It has to end NOW!