PONon-Bee 377.2 - Bee-reaking the Claw |
A Tower Guard captain burst out of the water, breathing fire and brimming with mana…only to take a mana-enhanced arrow to the neck. Vicious fish schooled around Tower Guards struggling to reach the surface, biting away at every surface. A giggling pixie opened a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea, unleashing a swarm of spell swimming bees that joined the chaos. Belissar had made some swimming bees of his own which dove into the water as well.
In previous battles, the captains would have rallied the Tower Guards, organized them into formation, and used their superior abilities to shore up the line. But…it had largely been Captain Auschias and those closest to him who had lead the rank and file. The captains that remained were the strongest and most loyal of the bunch…and thus the ones closest in mindset to Lord Starami. They saw themselves not as leaders of the weak, but as future members of Starami’s Claw, here to demonstrate their power and earn further blessings from their Tower Lord and their patron god.
And even had Captain Auschias been here, there would have been little he could have done. With Lord Starami and all of Starami’s Claw engaged elsewhere, there was no one left who could resist an undine in the water. The undine’s giggle echoed through the water as she created vortexes that pulled Tower Guards and land drakes back down into the depths. For the Tower Guards with Water-aligned blessings, she wrapped up their dragon cloaks with tendrils of water, leaving them sitting ducks for monster sharks and swordfish charging in from the deep. Others she caught in powerful currents that launched them up and out of the water, where flying fey archers and spell bees attacked anything that broke the surface. And any captain that tried to either break through or rally the army was ripped out of the formation, isolated, and set upon by monsters…or drowned outright.
The Tower Guard and Starami’s monsters lacked both the organization and the numbers to push through in such a difficult environment. They needed the power of one of Starami’s elites if they were to make any impact on this battle…
But there were no elites to spare. Once Renoros the Dragonwing took a sting from the monster bee assassin the First of the Second raised for the bee army, his fate was sealed. His dragon cloak faded as his body drew what mana it had left to resist the poison…and he was in far worse state to begin with than Lindkontas the Dragonblood had been. The bees gave him no chance to recover, immediately attacking en masse once his dragon coat was down. It wasn’t long before the Beeswarm Barrage perk kicked in and stingers were piercing even his Dragon-blessed skin….
Klinpidas the Dragonblade swung with all his might, using every trick he knew. Dragon wings to increase his speed, fire breath to distract his foe, strikes with dragon-claw coated hands and legs mixed in with his sword strikes. But nothing managed to affect the fey he now faced. Every strike was dodged, parried…or even stopped outright, strength for strength. The fey seemed to have a blessing of his own, wrapping his sword in mana that easily matched Klinpidas’ own dragon coat. Klinpidas had never faced a foe like this, one that could match or surpass him in both skill and power. By this point he had realized…he would not defeat this foe alone.
The fey glanced around and sighed.
“It seems our time is up. It’s a shame, you have promise, and more power than I’ve ever experienced from a human. I wish you had another thousand years or so to train, with some refinement you could have been a true master. But at the very least, I will remember you, my first real duel in over a thousand years. Will you tell me your name, before the end?”
Klinpidas responded with a growl, then launched himself at the fey with a roar, gathering up all his mana and swinging with everything he had left. The fey parried as he had countless times before…then he moved close and thrust his sword. His blade pierced through Klinpidas’ protections, magical and armor both.
“Hm, a bit crudely made, but that’s fine for a weapon made for brute strength. Fear not, dragon sword. Though your master has fallen, you will still have the opportunity to hunt.”
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Ansari the Sea Dragon growled and swung his dragon coat’s tail, trying to drive away all of his attackers. The beastkin with the fire wings leapt away from his strike, the squad of younger beastkin was pulled away by tendrils of water as the water spirit continued to vex him.
His tail then struck the golems and stopped, barely pushing them back into the mud. He had to quickly pull away before they struck with their big and heavily enchanted weapons, weapons that gave even Ansari pause.
And all the while, fey archers peppered his dragon coat with arrows. They were taking their time now, imbuing their arrows with enough mana that they could even pierce his spell scales. They barely sank into his coat, sapping only a bit of his mana…but that was adding up so long as Ansari could not reach them.
He had tried, of course, but the golems continued to bar his path. They were frustratingly resilient, Ansari struck with all his might over and over and had only managed to take a hand off one. He had attacked with his breath, a powerful stream of Dragon-mana imbued water…only to find the golems drinking up his mana as the attack barely chipped away at them. He was left purely with physical attacks…but they absorbed some of the mana from his dragon coat too. Their weapons were now glowing with an ominous light, Ansari’s only saving grace was that they were still very slow.
But as long as they hounded him, he could not unleash his wrath on the fey and beastkin harassing him.
Of course, if he could get into the water, he could swim circles around them all. Or if he could use water magic to exploit the sea all around them, he could wipe out the chaff with ease and then focus on the golems. But the water spirit kept up a cyclone that not only kept any water out of the battlefield, but that also imbued all the nearby water with her mana, preventing Ansari from making use of it. She also moved the cyclone along with Ansari, preventing him from diving back into the sea no matter how far he ran.
So, Ansari was left having to fight on the muddy ground and without his magic. But if the fey thought that made him harmless, they were mistaken. Ansari was not simply butting his head against the golem wall like a brute. No, he was biding his time. He was searching. He was hunting.
Constructs like golems were mindless. Left on their own, they could only react to events happening in front of them. But these golems were not merely reacting, they were anticipating Ansari’s moves and cutting him off from their allies. They were moving with an intelligence that implied someone nearby was controlling them.
And every time the golems absorbed his mana, Ansari briefly connected to their own. He had found a trail of mana and was now slowly and steadily moving the battle in that direction. It wouldn’t be long before the controller found themselves on the outskirts of the battle. With luck, Ansari could strike at them directly, but even just forcing them to relocate would disrupt their control of the golems. Even a small opening would be enough for Ansari to take out some of the fey and beastkin and start tipping the scales in his favor.
The smallest beastkin chose that moment to jab a spear tipped with both physical and magical poison into the back of his dragon coat. Ansari growled, the physical poison did nothing but the magical poison tried its best to eat away at his mana. He swung a back leg of the dragon coat at her…but a cloud of red mist surrounded her. He struck nothing but thin air.
He then noticed the water around him had turned blood red. He growled…he had heard some sort of blood elf had caused trouble early on, apparently they had arrived. Blood began forming into spears and flying towards him, the blood magic preventing him from taking control of the fluid. Ansari could only do his best to knock them out of the sky.
And then he heard draconic moaning. All around him, undead drakes and wyverns began to emerge from the water, joining the golems and beastkin surrounding them. Ansari scowled…so, the necromancer had reappeared as well and clearly his lord’s monsters were not doing well. Just at the moment he was about to flip this fight, he now had two more opponents to deal with and a great deal more chaff to tie him down.
What was the rest of the army doing? Where were the Tower Guards Lord Starami ordered to follow him? And where was Renoros? Klinpidas was assisting Lord Starami, but Renoros only had to face insects and rank-and-file fey! He should have finished with them by now, he wasn’t having to face an elemental spirit like Ansari! Ansari was now single-handedly dealing with that water spirit, a powerful blood elf, a necromancer, and a squad of heavily enchanted golems, all on his own! What was even left for Renoros to fight?!
He looked up and glared towards the sky.
“Renoros! Stop playing around and…get down…here…”
Ansari looked up and did not see Renoros. Instead, he saw a swarm of insect monsters, both of flesh and mana, diving down into the dry space and heading straight towards him. Even as he tried to comprehend what was happening, he launched a breath of water to try and cut them down…only for barriers of water and blood to leap out from the sea around them and block his attack. The beastkin, undead, and golems took the opportunity to approach him, Ansari now found himself surrounded on all sides.
As insects began stinging the top of his dragon coat, beastkin and fey began poking his side, undead dragonkin began nipping at his limbs, and the golems’ strikes grew ever more difficult to dodge, Ansari was left shouting…just where was everybody?!