The tension held on long enough that the defenders were beginning to relax. Almost all of them had completed their attempt to activate a system interface, and another round of candidates was being brought in.
These ones were mostly youngsters from the Divine Beast and Newbon Empires, while the Golden Dragon Nation was holding off, for fears of overcrowding.
But for Karl, Librarian Gareth, and a few others with good intuition, or a lot of combat sense, the quiet was unnerving.
The kids who were waiting their turn had been moved to the former slums of the town, where no ruins survived, and Rae had built a maze of stone walls and pillars for them to play tag in. The clerics were all sitting on the walls, keeping guard, and watching for injuries, while the soldiers finished their turn.
“Bring them out ten at a time. That should be a smooth enough pace that they won’t have to wait now that the line is gone.” Gareth directed, using the advantage of his enormous size to simply swing his head over to the clerics.
“Alright, the next ten who are it and tag someone come to High Priestess Tessa at the entrance. She will lead you to the trial while everyone else plays. Then you can come back after.” One of the Beast Clerics instructed.
That brought an increased energy level to the game, as everyone either wanted to go to the trial or play as long as possible before they had to work.
The Children formed an orderly line to the orb, expertly shepherded by the clerics, and Karl turned his attention to the distant horizon, scanning for danger.
[There, I found it. Fifty metres from the edge of town, a giant sized portal is about to open.] Hawk announced.
“Incoming Portal.” Karl shouted, with a gesture toward the portal, which would be under a hundred metres from him.
Both Karl and Remi called their bodyguards in front of the portal location, and the attack began. But not how Karl had expected it.
A barrage of spells crashed into their barriers, and an armed unit of human soldiers in shining red plate armour flew through, attacking everything that they saw.
{Artillery!} Someone shouted from the Golden Dragon Nation lines.
That triggered a barrage of anti-aircraft guns and artillery rounds, which were aimed through the portal to delay the reinforcements.
Three of the Commanders broke off and targeted Dana, who was nearby, but behind the lines.
Then the others focused their attacks on the Spellblades and the soldiers from Newbon.
Thor put up a barrier around the Orb, protecting the children, while Tessa took her spot on his back.
The attackers could move through the air, but like Dana they had to run on air, and that meant it was more efficient for them to fight on the ground, surrounded by larger enemies where they couldn’t be focused on with multiple attacks.
For the first few seconds, they appeared to be ignoring Karl. Then a Monarch Rank mage came through the portal just as Karl fired a [Disintegration] coated arrow through the opening.
The mystical bolt hit his shield and shattered it in a single strike, drawing his attention and blood from his cheek.
[Oh, he took that one personally. If he didn’t want to be embarrassed, he should have put more effort into his defences.] Remi laughed.
“You damnable beast. I will put you in your place today.” The mage shouted.
Karl took out the Haint Claw and let it form on his left hand, while he wielded the Sword of Champions in his right.
“In my place? Don’t be ridiculous. Your mother’s bedroom is nowhere near here. But you can still call me Daddy if you like.”
Karl’s shouted reply made a good portion of the Golden Dragon Nation soldiers burst into laughter, while the Newbon soldiers began to make crude jokes about the inexhaustible stamina of a Rock Troll.
The mage dove at Karl, who sent a barrage of [Rend] attacks at him. Each was hardly Commander Rank, but Karl sent dozens of them, five at a time.
The Mage laughed as he decided that was all the ranged attack power that Karl had.
Trolls, as he assumed Karl was, were close combatants. And the mage had no intentions of getting close enough to be hit with that sword. He only needed to be close enough that his attacks couldn’t be parried.
The [Rampage] skill caused an increasing damage buff with every hit, but Karl kept reducing the power he was putting into his strikes, to keep the final effect the same and conserve energy.
He could feel the bonuses from [Pack Tactics] and [Bestial Champion] taking effect as his pack came under attack, and had to cut the damage back even more to lull the mage into complacency as he approached.
It had only been five seconds, but Karl had sent nearly a hundred [Rend] attacks at his barrier, all on the low side of Commander.
The Mage was beginning to sweat with exertion from maintaining the defence, and Karl could see that he was going to go for the kill as soon as he thought he was too close for Karl to avoid the attack.
Ten metres, that was the distance he chose.
Unfortunately for him, with Karl’s increased speed and strength, that was melee range.
The Mythril blue blade of the Sword of Champions glinted in the light as Karl launched himself forward with a thrust, extending [Disintegration] in front of his blade like a spear.
The Mage spun as the skill shattered his barrier, and Karl flicked his wrist, turning the thrust into a slash as Disintegration missed its target.
One armoured arm fell to the ground as the mage howled in pain, then the air shattered as Karl’s left fist came around, and the Haint Claw smashed into his opponent’s face.
Like a puppet with its strings cut, the mage crumpled to the ground, leaking ghostly green energy into the Haint Claw.
A long bovine bellow echoed through the city, followed by the deep voice of a Commander Rank Minotaur.
{First blood goes to Champion Karl!}
The voice must have echoed through the other side of the portal, as the incoming mages all turned in Karl’s direction. There was one Royal with ten Commanders, a standard deployment, but Karl had no idea what nation had sent them.
To Karl’s left, he could see that Remi had transformed back into Spirit Snake form to protect Cara’s neck, and catch a ride, while Rae was tearing her way through the incoming mages at a truly ridiculous rate.
The extra damage from the new class skills stacked with the damage increases she already had, and even the Royal Rank mages had a hard time taking more than one or two attacks.
However, it was Ophelia that was surprising everyone. She had learned some sort of ground slam ability that either increased gravity or negated flight magic, and when she used it, dozens of mages fell from the sky.
Once they were on the ground, or close to it, the seven-metre tall Dire Bear simply mauled them.
[Angry Bear is funny. Look how she chases after the terrified not Dana Mages.] Hawk laughed.
[Kind of busy right now. Make sure that nobody manages to hurt her.]
