NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: Last Stand
Lucy Evermore held her staff in both hands while she chanted. Her robes started to flick in the wind. Lucan saw a black shadow magic, being pulled from the surroundings, swirl around her. Lucy started to bend over. Her brown hair started turning white. Here skin grew taught and her face became sickly looking.
She leaned back and screamed at the sky. "AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
Lucan's eye revealed thick, potent shadow magic pulsing out in every direction 100 feet. After she screamed and expelled the shadow mana her beautiful features returned along with her brown hair. Every enemy within 100 feet turned around.
Heart rending, sheer panic had overtaken them. They wouldn't be stopped; they trampled the ones trying to push forward. More than 1 enemy died in the stampede of pink footsteps trying to flee the shadow priest. The enemy was merciless to their own, both sides cut down anyone in their way.
Lucan didn't waste the opportunity and stored mana in the eye while repairing the walls to full health.
With the vanguard suddenly falling back, those with bows and crossbows didn't waste the opportunity either.
In the distance, arrows touched the sky before turning down towards the party.
Madlad grinned towards Van. "I always wanted to fly." He said while running full sprint. The agile monk didn't miss a beat when he stepped on Van's open hand. With a loud grunt, the warrior pushed him up towards the arrows while the monk jumped off of him.
Madlad spun through the air while rising higher. His limbs moved as the arrows neared.
*Ping* *Ping* *Ping* *Ping* *Ping* *Ping* *Ping* *Ping* *Ping* *Ping*
With every twitch of his wrists and ankles, an arrow was deflected back into the horde. Madlad spun through the cloud of projectiles at a dizzying speed.
Lucan waved his wand, taking one of the walls from the back and raising it above them to block the 4 arrows that managed to get past Madlad. The monk landed softly on the ground with 2 arrows in his hands. He had been thrown far and was surround. He threw the arrows and started to block, stun, and dodge his way back to the group.
When Madlad thought he would meet his end, a blur of blue started to swarm around the heads and faces of the enemies surrounding him. A dozen enemies were trying to cover themselves as their ears, eyes, and face were being bitten when the razor-sharp wings weren't flapping.
Madlad laid into the bodies of the enemies who couldn't se him. He heard a rumble approaching him. Van came charging in and lowered his shoulder. The warrior in full heavy armor plowed through the enemies to get his best friend.
"Ha, ha, ha, are you ready to finish this? I don't think Lucan's barrier will last to much longer." Madlad said while pummeling a pink warrior into the dirt.
"I am always ready." Van said after decapitating a combatant with only half a face. "But Lucan managed to build a third phase. We can do better."
"Psh, why are we waiting here?" Madlad said while jumping over Van and using his stuns to open up a path back to the rest of the party.
The short respite for the walls brought them back from the brink but the enemy was charging again, the stronger warriors in the back had taken the place of the weaker fallen. The walls would last a minute at most, and that was generous.
Van returned to his position in the opening. The swarm of butterflies was too low level to do much damage to even level 101 creatures, now most of their opponents were high 130's or low 140's. Silent instructed the swarm to spilt up into groups of 20 and target the heads and faces of the enemies. Those targets would find it impossible to see and hear while they were trapped in the fluttering swarm.
*Shatter*
Madlad, Silent and Van target the distracted enemies but they could only fight what was in front of them. The surrounding Telekinetic Walls were cracking and shattering.
*Shatter*
Lucan began to move the walls around, making sure they were still covered.
*Shatter*
Lucy devoted all her mana to healing and restoring the stamina of the melee fighters.
*Shatter* *Shatter*
The mental mana stored in the formation hit empty. He could no longer repair the walls.
*Shatter* *Shatter*
"Everyone, prepare for the walls to come down."
*Shatter* *Shatter* *Shatter*
"I am staring Phase 3."
The walls vanished as shadows sprayed outwards in every direction. They spread 10 feet from each flag, covering the hilltop and the start of the descent. The shadows soaked into the ground, painted the sky and hug in the air. They were illusions of shadows, not even the real thing, but they couldn't be dispersed or affected in the slightest and night vison was meaningless. Visibility was reduced to 10 feet. A sinister magic was laced into the shadows.
The party was grouped tightly together, an unexplainable fear was gathering in their hearts. Before the pink opponents had a chance to close in on them Adrestia flew from Lucan's shoulder.
"Stay calm." Lucan said in a tone that demanded obedience.
When Adrestia jumped from his shoulder the others did their best not to tremble. A strong wind pushed down on them. A 20-foot-long shadow drake took to the skies, its 40-foot wings span shook the ground bellow it.
*ROAR!!!*
Adrestia let out a bestial roar as she started to swoop down. The visibility upwards was better than horizontally. The pink warriors could see the massive shadow drake descend towards them. Lucan had switched his eye to thermal vision. He found Adrestia's target and cast a Telekinetic slash when she flew past them. The warrior recoiled in fear as the shadow drake's talons, that were the same size as them, slashed out. 3 dove out of the way. The Telekinetic Slash became enhanced while they were trapped in the Delusion formation, it grew large enough to hit all three. Each of the wounded pink enemies lost a different amount of health, the damage they took is what they believed they would take.
Adrestia helped but the group was surrounded. The hanging shadows stopped the arrows from targeting them but enemies over level 140 were charging from all sides. Adrestia knocked down over a dozen groups before a brave pink warrior charge at the drake a swung her sword when the shadow drake swopped down towards her. Their delusions may have made her big and strong, but the reality was that Adrestia was a level 1 familiar with health in the single digits. After the first attack she collapsed into shadows and went on cooldown. The Delusion spell wore off but the formation maintained the shadows.
A lucky strike slipped past Madlad and landed a critical hit on Lucy. She turned gray and disappeared.
"Scatter! Make your last stand! Try to take out the ones with the highest levels."
Everyone moved in different directions. Lucan stayed where he was. He abandoned the formation eye. The shadows would last another minute then the eye would crumble, and the formation would collapse. Taking out a second wand Lucan stood in the center and unloaded his spells in all directions. He wouldn't be able to survive a single blow from any of these enemies.
There weapons were inches away when Lucan let out a sigh.
*BOOM*
An explosion of staggering proportions spread across the entire hilltop vaporizing everything, including Lucan's formation flags.
Lucan stood in the very center of the shallow crater while ash swirled around him. His true appearance was revealed after dying and resurrecting with the soul stone. Before he did anything, he paid off his debt to Raze. Both wands were still in his hands. Enemies started to appear over the edge of the crater. They were half burnt and charred, they were the ones who had been thrown backwards and managed to survive.
As they flooded in, Lucan tried to empty his mana as fast as he could. They were feet away when Lucan's pure mana ran dry. Both wands transformed into daggers. One black and wreathed in shadow, the other a double edge blade, one edge blue while the other was red. He stabbed the dual color dagger into his chest and then stretched out his hand to start the life drain.
80% of the people in the crater were below half damage and had been cut by his spells, their health began to escape from their bodies and heal Lucan. With the Life Drain started he took out a another wand and started to use his mana as fast as he was regaining it.
A sword came swinging towards Lucan, He tried to dodge but wasn't going to make it. The sword passed through a shadow before Lucan's body reformed. He stabbed, slashed and cast before dashing away. He wouldn't last long but his goal was to spread damage to maximize his next self-destruct.
Lucan took advantage of all his tricks to try and survive. He intimidated, he triggered multiple illusions to confuse the enemy. Having over 60 targets under the effects of Life Drain meant he could sustain his health into mana transfer for at least a minute. Lucan used every second he could to deal damage.
He pushed the limits of his wand letting out 10 Telekinetic Slashes in a second.
*PFF* *Fizzle*
After a couple seconds of high use, the wands core exploded, The wand crumble to bits. Lucan pulled out another until it to fizzled out, then he pulled another…
Eventually his health stopped rising and started to fall with his mana. Lucan pulled the dagger from his chest and threw it at an enemy that was swinging its club towards Lucan. He used the last of his shadow form to avoid the blow.
Lucan dipped and dodged, trying to make it back to the center of the crater but after a couple steps he was left with no choice.
*BOOM*