The Ghasts were pressed up against the pane of force, inches away from Mark’s head, but he didn’t flinch, even as the things brought their barbs down repeatedly like that of a scorpion.
The glow around them was still the only light in the area and swarms had been washing over them for close to an hour.
By now every available hand had joined in, they had fired off countless shots, spells, and even grenades, but the swarm barely looked like it had taken a hit to its numbers.
The silver lining was that their building had reminded the center of attention, but it was difficult to tell through the swarms how the other buildings were doing. The streets were cleared as best they could in the situation, Mark just hoped their fighters were handling things all right.
Sam had broken the [Joint casting] when Mark had enough Mana so that she could help deal with the swarms. That left Mark to manage the main shield, luckily he wasn’t alone as dozens of defensive skills overlapped his own on every floor of the hotel. Their spells and skills gave Mark the time to get a handle on his newest spell and focus on being as economical as possible.
The attacks from one end of the shield used the energy to reinforce the other. Managing the spell like a battery of force became Mark's primary goal to avoid bleeding his resources.
He maintained a low level of consciousness on [Meditation] to keep a small income of power. Of course, even with all of this, it was nowhere near enough to keep this up indefinitely. The sheer area he had to cover was pushing him to his limits, but a lesser version of the spell would have fallen in minutes.
The glass had been broken out of every window to accommodate their fighters where windows would not open, causing the brisk night air to sweep into the building.
Below was a hive of activity and Mark could feel everything.
He could see the taunt strands of Ethel's bowstring as it released arrow after arrow, along with Boe, who barked his fury into the night. Or Karter as he shouted orders over the sounds of semi-automatic rifles. The soldiers piled into window frames, scarcely having to aim to score a hit.
One of the unintended results of adding the secondary modifier, meant that Mark was capable of redirecting a portion of the incoming fear effect.
The refraction, scattered even the Leviathan's strongest glares with ease. The remaining effect that did manage to get through was not strong enough to sway their people as they could already bear it on their own.
Near the top, Terry played a devastatingly sorrow-filled piece of music. The effects were not what Mark had expected, instead, he found a cold mantle of calm settling over his shoulders. The song was the pain-filled peace of someone who could flip at any moment.
All it would take was a push in the wrong direction and the sorrow would turn to bottomless rage.
Mark refused to lose himself in the music, as it mirrored his own emotions right now, if things did go wrong, Terry could send him over the edge, in turn, he blocked out the calm and mental clarifying effect it brought.
Gibby, Isabel, and Sofia worked together and formed a satellite network of sorts. While Isabel and Sofia created several small platforms surrounded by barriers. Gibby and any Aura user strong enough would jump from rock to rock as they orbited the top of the hotel. Going beyond the main shield was a risk, but it was also where their aura users could do the most damage.
At first, Jonathan had joined them but then Sam called him over and they had been working on something for the last ten minutes.
At that moment another tremor shook the area, this one was the closest yet and for the first time in a while, Mark cracked an eyelid to see beyond his shield.
However, he kind of wished he hadn’t because what came into view was not encouraging. The number of Ghast was still countless, but if he had to guess they were still sitting with more than half their number remaining.
Mark was also treated to the sight of the creature that had been causing all of this. If he had to guess it was similar to some kind of massive slug. It looked more like a collection of oil, pond scum, and writhing flesh collected into one heaping mass. Propelled by the rhythmic waves of muscle near its base, the slow graceful slide meant nothing in the face of the destruction it left behind.
Buildings crumbled and the road was scoured in its wake, leaving a slimy trail of ichor through the city.
The creature itself was easily four stories tall, and incredibly wide. If that were all, Mark would have classed it as another abomination, but there was one thing that caused him to pause.
On the back of the creature sat the beginnings of some unholy structure. At first, Mark thought it was a shell, and in a way perhaps it was, but it was nothing the natural world would ever create.
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The structure had intelligent design behind it, with the beginnings of walls and spires, that stretched up into the sky as though melting in reverse. Though their speed was gradual and purposeful, the wet sheen of ichor changed into a matte black finish, which absorbed the nearby light.
Beyond the wall, strips of calcified ichor enclosed the center of the structure like the bones of a giant’s ribcage. All culminating into a single delicate point that rose above the center of its crown.
All in all, it resembled both an alien castle and the corpse of a long-lost creature, and that creature was gradually crawling its way toward their home.
At its current speed, it would be here in less than half an hour and there were still far too many threats in the sky to form a cohesive defensive line.
Then a thought struck Mark, the fact that this creature seemed to move with a destination in mind, meant it desired something beyond just eating everything in its path. This led Mark to believe that it had to be the Corrupted humans again, for they were to only ones that had any goal beyond their base instincts. What that was he still wasn't sure.
The words Roland had uttered replayed in his head. Who was this ‘Mother’?
‘If this were the changed humans, would they have Donny?’ Mark thought.
Jonathan said Tristan had abducted him. Perhaps to change him into one of them, maybe there was some requirement to change a human into one of their kind. That didn’t feel right, but something wasn’t adding up here.
Mark frowned and searched the surface of the creature once more. The briefest shiver ran down his spine when a thought rose unbidden, but Mark shook it from his head.
Mark was about to go back to [Meditation] when he felt Sam’s Mana raising alongside Jonathan’s Aura.
The two of them had been still for too long, they were up to something.
Mark was proven right when Sam placed her hand on Jonathan's back and poured Mana into him.
He felt the Aura washing off the both of them in turbulent waves. Whereupon it condensed in a ring around them. Building up to frightening concentrations as Aura continued to leak out of Jonathan.
Then as though Mana were being collected by the Aura it began to take shape. Condensing from a vapor into a solid outline of a crimson blade. It was similar to Jonathan’s normal Aura Manifestation, only now it felt so real and concrete, that the blade collecting in the air may as well have been real. Sam’s Mana was doing what it did best, giving shape to thought.
Reinforcing Jonathan’s Aura into something more sustained and in this case, it was the potent swords that hung around Jonathan, appearing one by one.
One dozen, then two, then more. The number just kept climbing until they covered the whole area.
This many objects would normally be a huge undertaking if Sam were to create an equivalent spell. Not to mention what it would take to manipulate this many swords to be effective, but that didn’t seem a problem for them.
When over fifty swords had taken shape, – surrounding them all like a porcupine– Jonathan extended his hands outward and the tips of the blades drew up from the floor.
Coming to face outward in all directions, and as though he were grabbing an imaginary handle, they were sent hurtling outwards like a cloud of blades.
It only took a second for Mark to recognize that every sword had a mind of its own. Each one shot out and began spearing through the brains of the surrounding Ghasts and Leviathans. Homing in on their weaknesses and correcting their course as soon as the previous one was dead, moving in zig-zag patterns to realine to the next. Jonathan's law was made physical, and as such he needed no control as Mana would have. This was what he and his law wanted, so Aura made it happen.
The Corrupted falling out of the sky took a huge leap in losses, as the space became a tempest of ethereal steel and splashing black. Even now, more blades were still coming into being around the duo. Mark just hoped Jonathan didn’t overdo it, but none of them were in a situation where they could stop.
The shield was holding but time was running out. Mark watched as the creature crept forward like a slow encroaching death.
Everyone killed as fast as they could but all too soon the thing had pushed its way into their territory and was nearing the first line of defense.
Mark couldn’t move a muscle even as the thing finally got into firing range. By now the Ghasts were less than a fourth of what they were and the ground had a modicum of safety, but it was still not yet time to retract their protections.
It was like this that Mark heard Karter giving orders for their first line to engage. Mark wanted to protest, or at least head there with them, but there was no room for that. If any of them moved now, the whole tower be overwhelmed.
Fresh waves of attacks were launched from the darkness down below. Aiming for the colossal creature and to a lesser extent the hoard it had around its base. Their teams avoided using anything that created too much light, though the sounds of battle still drew off some of the more curious Corrupted.
From up here Mark could see the spells and gunfire hit the creature to little effect. They were doing damage, but the thing was as tough as layered rubber. And while slow, it was not defenseless. Compressed barbs fired out at anything too near or not bolted down, sometimes even its own Corrupted. Now that it was closer, Mark could make out a litany of eyes and mouths across the surface of the creature. The barbs would fire out around the creature and when it had lodged into something it would pull the unfortunate thing towards it. The organs were no bigger than the average human mouth or eye, but they made short work of anything pulled in toward them, savagely ripping them to pieces and absorbing them into the creature's form.
When the thing got near enough, their line had to take cover behind buildings or barricades as the countless barbs shot out in search of food. Screams of human terror filled the night as their people were speared and yanked towards their deaths.
Mark could feel his rage building at each loss of life, and then the thing did the unthinkable. It began to slow down and spread out rather than advance. The damn thing began to expand itself across their defensive line like a hunter in search of food.
Mark could see everyone up here desperately wanted to be able to help but they couldn’t and then something happened closer to home. Near the base of the hotel, Mark could feel new Auras joining the fight, and of them, one stood out above the rest. It burned with a white-hot intensity of fanaticism. Desiring only to grow and eliminate all in its path. NAS had arrived.