Lith raised his right forefinger at the monsters, like a silent accusation they failed to understand. At least until a pillar of light came out of the black claw, mowing down several lines of monsters at the same time as the Wyrmling moved his arm back and forth.
The tier three Light Mastery spell emitted such heat that even those near its area of effect would get burns and their clothes took fire. Lith kept advancing, cutting deeper into the enemy army with each step he took.
The monsters stopped staring at him and charged forward, attacking the Wyrmling from every side with weapons and spells. Thanks to their Forgemastery skills, all Ogres wielded blades capable of piercing metal as if it was wood and of unleashing low tiered spells at will.
Lith only needed but one thought to boost the Scalewalker armor to make it form an invisible dome around him that blocked all the incoming attacks and another to unleash a Raging Sun on himself.
The tier five spell generated a blast of purple flames that opened a crater in the ground and gave Lith enough space to cast a Necromancy spell. All the fallen monsters rose from the ground and used the very weapons that their shamans had bestowed upon them against their own tribe.
Fear and superstition spread like wildfire, making some creatures attempt to escape just to be struck in the back by a well-placed spell. Lith wasn’t as untouchable as Oula nor as powerful as Bodya, but he appeared to be inevitable.
While the other two Emperor Beasts wreaked havoc on the battlefield, not giving the monsters one second to think or strategize, Lith advanced slowly, aiming straight for the Puppeteer Abomination.
Yet the pause in-between his attacks only made him more terrifying. Lith let them come close only to wipe them out in droves and then have the corpses join his ever-growing army.
Some monsters threw away their weapons and groveled at his feet, just to be killed by the undead. Others tried to run away, but their companions killed them as punishment for their cowardice.
Then, it was their turn to face the walking death and to choose the way they wanted to die. If at his hand or at the hands of those who had yet to see Lith.
‘Origin Flames are pointless and so is War. Our enemies are strong only if they coordinate their attacks but are otherwise irrelevant.’ Body refining, mana core, equipment. Lith outmatched the monsters in every way.
His allies used only their bodies as weapons, yet they managed to pressure the army as much as he did. No matter the direction the monsters would run to, they would meet others as scared as they were who would run in the opposite direction.
Fear turned into panic and then into chaos. Members of neighboring battalions would murder each other, mistaking them for loyal soldiers trying to stop the deserters while the truth was that different units had chosen different escape routes.
‘What about my arrays, then?’ Solus asked. ‘Keeping them at the ready while also keeping an eye on the battlefield is no easy task.’
‘That’s why I imbued the Scalewalker armor with Full Guard. Amid this kind of chaos, you must only worry about powerful enemies while I deal with the small fries. We need the arrays in the case we met the shaman or the Abomination.
‘Once the real fight starts, there would be no time to prepare them.’ Lith replied.
In the middle of the three-pronged attack, Westhar the Puppeteer Abomination regretted not being the god that everyone assumed him to be.
‘The Roc keeps herself at such a distance that she can easily dodge even my fastest spell. The Nidhogg moves so fast while going below and above the ground that any attempt to hit him would only kill my slaves.
‘The third guy should be an easy mark, yet I can almost feel Chaos energy coming from him. No matter which one of them I choose to face first, the moment I focus on them, the other two will slaughter my army.’ He thought.
“Se’Haan! Stop wasting time and bless our soldiers. I’ll take on the Demon while you keep the other two at bay. It shouldn’t take me long.” He actually said.
“But my liege, without a proper crystal, I’m no match for them. The gods-”
“My siblings will help us from above.” Westhar pointed at the clear sky, where no one watched anything. “Receive the blessing of heaven!”
The Abomination clenched the purple crystal the size of a basketball that rested on his lap to extend the area of effect of his Scanner spell to all his most expendable minions.
Then, by using the power that his Orc body bestowed upon him and the knowledge acquired through the centuries, he used Body Sculpting to alter their life forces and reverted his minions to their state before the Fall.
On top of that, Westhar used the mana crystal to force the world energy accumulated inside of it to flood the mana cores of his minions, turning red cores into yellow, yellow into cyan, and so on.
The Orc ability known as Holy Blessing would further enhance their bodies and magic at the expense of their life span.
‘They will die in a matter of minutes due to the side effects of my Chisel spell anyway so I might as well give them a little boost. Even if they survive the battle, I can always blame the “curse of the demons” for their demise.’ He thought.
The monsters howled in joy seeing all their dreams to regain their former glory and power apparently come true. They rushed against the Emperor Beasts, certain that the heavens were on their side.
Westhar even gave the violet crystal to Se’Haan to give her more confidence.
He had chosen Lith because he was the smallest of the three and his Orc half only needed a small crystal to negate all kinds of magic from someone the size of a human.
The shaman rejoiced at the gift and used it to conjure tier three spells as powerful as tier five while also dispelling Olua’s attacks. Attacking from such a long distance allowed the Roc to dodge any riposte but, on the other hand, it also gave Se’Haan the time she needed to counter everything Olua threw at the monster army.
“Shit!” The Roc and the Nidhogg said in unison.
Now that the rhythm of the Emperor Beasts’ attack had been destroyed, the enemy regained their calm and started to push them back. Rocs weren’t meant for melee fighting. Aside from their talons, they had no natural offensive weapon.
Nidhoggs thrived on the battlefield, but their huge bodies were also a huge target. If the shaman canceled Mud Tide as well, Bodya would be easily surrounded. Olua didn’t want to pointlessly waste mana, but she knew that if she stopped her attack, the shaman would ignore her and focus solely on her companions.
She tried to Blink near Se’Haan and kill her, but the Orc noticed the exit point with Life Vision and hit the Roc with a blast of darkness element the moment she came out the dimensional door.
‘Where the heck did that crystal came from? I’m certain that the shaman didn’t have it when I scouted the area from the skies.’ Olua attempted to Blink back to safety, just to discover that air magic had been sealed.
