Chapter 352: They See_Millennial Mage

Chapter 352: They See

 T barked augh as Terry flickered into being beside the closest beast, ripping off its stubby legs with a series of flickering strikes before retreating back to her shoulder.

 The eye-beast that had been delimbed plopped to the ground with an odd, squelching sound, even as all eight eye-stalks oriented on T and Terry, even behind the walls crions. She was watching their enemy through her mirrored perspectives, which were out to the sides for better vantage.

 Do our defenses not count as permanent? Can they see straight through them?

 Whether that was the case or not, it seemed like at least this enemy was able to see her and Terry.

 Maybe they can see anyone who has hurt them?

 -Its a possibility. Ill notify others of the potential.-

 Eight tight lines of magic connected the eyes to their stone in an instant, most did absolutely nothing against Master Girts heavily reinforced battlements. Even so, one degraded the rock an inch deep in less than half a second.

 The magics had punched through her aura faster than she could oppose them, leaving her utterly unable to deny them from working against her rock. She had never seen magic move quite that quickly.

 A blinkter, seven attacks cut off, and T dove to the side, carrying Terry with her. Even as she dove, however, Terry flickered away.

 Behind her the entire wall-top defensive position, within which she had stood, vanished.

 Only then did she recognize the magic.

 Ending magic?

 Sheughed, rolling to her feet, lifting her hand and flexing her will.

 Her metal rolled back from her hand just as the eye-beam swept sideways to intersect her flesh.

 Her aura resonated with her authority as she threw it forward.

 She had built up an incredibly potent resonance within herself, and now, with only one opening in her ironyer, the power that had been building within her shell was shunted out in that direction, most of it being the direct counter to ending magics.

 Her aura kept the power focused even when it wanted to st outward in all directions, and together the magic and her aura held back the eye-st for the moment that she needed.

 Beyond the mental flex to pull back the metal, she had altered the target of her amplified gravity on one scale, sending it cracking through the air to drive straight through the main central eye.

 The impact was such that the beast entirely burst, coating the surrounding buildings and street in purple blood that immediately began to evaporate, sizzling away the stone as it faded.

 A second after shed sprung to her feet, her metal rolled back over her hand, and she was encased once more.

 Master Girtwho was closely monitoring the walls with ts coordinationreformed Ts missing defense. While she was grateful for the stone protections quick return, she and the entire unit took the previous destruction for the stark reminder that it was; these were powerful creatures.

 Based on what theyd learned, with such an obvious counter demonstrated in Ts defensive magics, no more beasts would be created, or grow new eye stalks, with that dissolution magic.

 That was frustrating as it meant that T wouldnt so easily defeat an attack again.

 It was good, however, because she was the only one on her team that would be likely to survive such an insane magical st of that type.

 T reached out through t to her team. Being the first to take a direct hit, she had information to pass on, It wasnt a question of magical weight at all. I havent seen anything like it since the arcane elite. The eye-beamsnce in so quickly that we should expect to be subjected to direct magical effects. Dont assume that the attacks will be of the affect, direct, and forget types like a fireball, windde, or hurtled rock.

 A chorus of understoods came back through t.

 t was really doing an amazing amount of work.

 Each of their unit-mates had given t explicit ess to their Archive connections, and through that, t had been able to reach through their soulbonds to those connections to speak into their minds and hear thoughts specifically directed at her.

 No part of the system was really intended to work as they were using it, but none of it vited the purposes, or went against the intention, of the magics too much.

 -Speak for yourself. Im holding this together with spit and spider silk to be clear I mean mundane spider silk, not any of the overwhelming number of magical varieties.-

 Yeah, I understood that.

 T panned her focus across the creatures outside the wall and realized that she couldnt use a scale for every iing enemy. She simply didnt have enough of them.

 Her quick count showed more than a hundred of the beasts within easy view.

 This has always been my weakness, t. Hordes of enemies.

 -Ahh, but your weakness was hordes of weak enemies. These are strong.-

 How is that better?

 -Better? No, no. This is worse. Im d we arent here alone.-

 As if to emphasize the point, seeming clouds of ss rolled across the near sections that she could see. Abrasive particles were thrown to drift across the eye-covered beasts, and immediately had a noticeable effect.

 Those that the clouds affected began thrashing and throwing magic around themselves randomly, clearly in pain and unable toprehend where that pain wasing from.

 Master Limmestare would then use the distraction to disguise finishing attacks in many cases, mainlynces or des of ss that pieced deeply through the main-eyes just as her scale had.

 Oh, rust. Im going to have a rather difficult time if I try to go get that scale. I dont want to leave any of the white metal, though

 -Yeah, use siege orbs going forward.-

 Agreed.

 A bit away from the clouds of ss-dust-thistles, Terry was demonstrating his prowess as he did a rather convincing impression of a living hurricane made out of des.

 The beasts werent particrly resilient, so their higher advancement wasnt an issue for the terror birds talons and beak.

 He had been thoroughly warned not to cut off the tempting, tasty eye-stalksTerry had worked very hard to convey that that is how he viewed themand T trusted her friend. So, there wasnt a concern that hed render their enemy more dangerous with his frenzy of cuts and strikes.

 He also somehow had time to find and toss her one white steel scale back up to her.

 You are a wonder, Terry.

 T couldnt see what the others were doing, but she knew that t was helping them coordinate their efforts.

 Instead, Ts focus was entirely on the opponents before her, as she began picking her shots. Whenever the monsters were even slightly clustered together, she used pairs of orbs, retargeted to each take out the whole bunch.

 The initial hit always took out one creature, and then the detonation would obliterate at least one more.

 T was using up her stock with surprising rapidity, though she had made a lot of siege orbs and had them ready-to-hand, so it shouldnt be an issue.

 Shed even started making arger variant no, that wasnt urate. The end result was the same size, but she had started with arger volume of air.

 No, this isnt the ce to test a new tool. Well use the Pir-Topplerster.

 -I still hate that name.-

 As Ive said many times before: Noted.

 The faster-than-thought attacks couldnt effectively be opposed by aura supremacy, so the unit didnt waste the effort on establishing such.

 Blessedly, that didnt extend to being able to work deeply within a target Refined. Instead, the magics worked on the surface or just away from their targets, so it wasnt a contest of magical weight either.

 Together, it made the eye-magics an odd form of attack, unlike any that T had ever been subjected to.

 She and Master Limmestare were the easiest targets, and while Master Limmestare mainly used deflection and absorbing tes of ss-fibers, T took the hits almost head on.

 Her iron covering was incredibly effective when she allowed it to work, causing her to pull her white steel covering back entirely, using the material to send supporting anchors through the wall below and behind her instead.

 Even so, the iron wasnt a perfect defense, even whenyered and utilized in a type of active protection system and as purposely copsable tes like shed practiced with Master Limmestare. Part of that was the fact that the magics tended to enact just away from her, or on the stone beside her, but the greater part was just how much force was in any given strike.

 The magics involved were specifically selected to best affect her given her particr defenses, after all.

 A concussive st of some form of shredding magic struck her with the force of a cyclops club, immediately ying her, shoulders to navel, after punching through her elk leathers.

 She was pressed back against her supporting rods of magical white steel. She was kept in ce by the counter bracing, but the distributed force cracked the wall all over again, and if not for Master Girt, that entire section of the structure would have fallen into a pile of rubble.

 Her ironthat had been wrapped around her torsowas syed out behind her, stressed, stretched, and strained near to breaking as it barely hung on across her back and extending outward to either side.

 It made her look like she had horribly maimed, metal wings.

 Her flesh and iron were already reknitting, but her scale mail was ruined.

 The scales had survived virtually unscathed, but the underlying material hadnt held up for even an instant as the hostile magics had flowed through every little gap.

 Staying coated in the white steel would have been better for that attack.

 -And worse for the five before that. We cant know and effectively switch. Not at our level of proficiency, efficiency, and speed.-

 With blood in her teethand blood-filled eyesT oriented on the one who had attacked her so effectively. She could not let it hit her again.

 It was already falling, bisected cleanly by a wagon-sized Terry, who took an instant to make eye contact with her before flickering away once more.

 The message in his actions and gaze was clear, No one messes with my flock.

 T took a precious moment to drop Kit to the ground where she expanded enough to let all the scales from Ts mail fall inside, before returning to Ts waist in the form of a pouch.

 The conflict continued at a fric pace as the Refined strove to kill as quickly as possible and the beasts drew closer and closer simply by virtue of numbers.

 The end result was, after just less than half an hour, T had killed hundreds of the beasts by ts count, and T had been torn, burned, frozen, shed, ated, stabbed, shocked, corroded, smashed, and severed uncounted times.

 Master Girt had rebuilt her section of the defense from little more than dust and gravel so many times that her blood was now thoroughly intermixed with the other materials.

 If shed been anyone else, that would have made the rock red, but of course, that wasnt how her blood worked anymore.

 In thest few minutes, every one of her siege orbs had ended at least four opponents a piece.

 The effectiveness and efficiency didnt change the fact that the tide had finally reached the walls.

 T had already extended her aura over the kill-box, making sure to allow her unit-mates magic to act within her authority for when that mattered.

 She drew in a deep breath even as she took thest seconds before the first four-legged monster reached them to drive a row of a dozen iron spikes into the lower portion of the walls on either side of the twenty-foot corridor.

 She needed as much control and aura finesse as she could get for what was toe.

 Then, she exhaled, grabbing her breath-carried magics with her aura and dragging them down into the base of the kill-box.

 Her job beyond the walls wasplete for now, and even as she continued to breathe out as much of her dissolution breath as possible with every exhale, she moved down to the inside edge of the kill-box.

 There, she reestablished her white steel anchors into the stone around and behind her. Then, she was ready.

 The first creatures were dyed by a great scything te of ss, aimed low to keep from severing any eye-stalks.

 Master Limmestare was taking out massive sectors of the enemy with his eye-filling, deviously shaped, ss shards, and so he didnt have much finesse left to spend. The result was an attack worthy of giants.

 Unfortunately, the attackers seemed wise to the iing attack, and they moved themselves in twisting, odd ways, jumping up or ttening themselves lower than seemed possible, so that only the eye-stalks were cut.

 Oh, rust.

 Less than a secondter, they all rose up, twice as many eyes orienting on and firing toward Master Limmestare even as they poured toward and into the gap in the wall, into the kill-box.

 That might have been the mans end, but as the first row of monsters stepped down, their legs didnt catch them.

 Instead, Ts carefully held dissolution magics obliterated their flesh, causing them to fall forward into the saturated space to puff entirely to dust.

 Master Limmestare took the slight lessening of iing magic as an opportunity to reposition and focus outward. He wouldnt be as useful as theyd hoped in the kill-box, but his magics were responsible for nearly eighty percent of thebat ineffective opponents outside their defenses, at least ording to t.

 That was where he was needed.

 As for the monsters: Each sessive rank of creatures fell to the same fate, barely progressing a few inches further down the path. The dissolution magic was expended even as T continued to exhale at the far end, her breath and aura taking the new magic where she wanted it to go.

 By the time the first two hundred had died, she was straining.

 By five hundred, she was sweating profusely as she fought to keep the magics from breaking apart the very air as they waited to act on the monsters.

 When so many had been turned to dust thatpaying dozens for each inch gainedthey had almost reached her, T knew it was time.

 Now, Master Girt! t carried her message to the Refined at the speed of thought.

 Master Girt had known the tactic T was going to be using, so hed reinforced the sides of this passage specifically against the iing result. That would keep the wall well intact.

 When she sent him the notification, Master Girt jerked a b of stone up in front of T, carefully crafted to be concave on the enemys side, while still being incredibly robust.

 Without hesitating, T rxed her hold on her dissolution magics.

 The corridorfilled with dust so fine that it filled the space like a mist, hovering almost weightlesslyignited in a concussive st that would have staggered T even through Master Girts stone if she werent once again anchored in ce.

 The explosion incinerated or threw every one of the tightly packed beasts from the kill-box with extreme effectiveness.

 T might have been concerned about ripping off eye-stalks with the attack, but fire would cauterize the wounds, if anything, and the force of the explosion should kill all the creatures affected, regardless.

 A momentter, the shaped b of stone retracted, revealing an empty, smoking canyon of death.

 Lets do this again. She took a deep breath, filling the air in her lungs with magic before exhaling in a controlled manner.

 Control the terrain, control my breath. She readied siege orbs, a smile pulling at her lips despite her burgeoning fatigue. Fire and Ice.

 Mistress Deigh and Master Doitean would be proud.

 T began the cycle again, killing the first groups that came into view with her siege orbs, positioning the ice sts to help create slowing terrain and give her unit more time to whittle down the never ending tide of nightmare manifestations.

 She saw more and more creatures with at least some eyes taken out by Master Limmestares ss. Quite a few also had deep cuts in their torso or missing legs that slowed them down, showing Master Clevnis contributions for all to see.

 From the side that Mistress Cerna was manning, the beasts came variously bent and broken, scorched or fried. It seemed that the Refined was still working out exactly what magics were most effective.

 Master Girt was working beneath the surface, quite literally.

 He made pitfalls full of stone spikes, broke up footing, and otherwise slowed the horde.

 Terrys contributions werent as evident due to the mere fact that all those that he engaged were dead by the end of their brief engagement.

 After the fifth cycle of T fighting back the waves, filling the kill-box with dissolution magic, then igniting the resulting powdered beastie to clear the near-field, Terry flickered to her shoulder, clearly panting with exhaustion.

 More than exhaustion, Terry was injured.

 He was cradling one leg up against his chest, and there was blood already dripping down onto her shoulder. His feathers were mussed, quite a few were out of ce, and there were several wounds elsewhere on his body.

 T was so startled that she stared open-mouthed at him for a long second before t snapped her back into focus.

 -Ive notified Mistress Vanga. Hopefully, Terry will let her heal him. His exhaustion makes sense, too. Hes removed more from the battle than any save Master Limmestare. Its hard topare, however, given that Master Limmestare isnt killing them.- t didnt mean that derisively at all, and T knew it.

 It had quickly be clear that without the ss Mages clouds of micro ss-thistles theyd likely have been overwhelmed right near the start.

 The point was that Terry had been incredibly effective in thinning their iing opponents.

 Now, he was worn out.

 Honestly, they all were struggling.

 t let everyone know that Terry was at least temporarily out ofmission.

 After the alternate interface had rified that Terry wasnt mortally wounded, more exhausted, there was a series of acknowledgments and well-wishes.

 Mistress Vanga offered toe and heal the avian as soon as she could, and when T conveyed the sentiment, Terry reluctantly epted.

 That dealt with, T scratched Terrys seemingly sleeping head and reoriented on the next cycle, the first eye-beastsing into view of her position once again.

 Two cyclester, the cycles ended.

 The eye-beasts werent that smart, but theyd finally put together that the wall shouldnt be there, and it was an impediment to them.

 An unholy stillness came over the battlefield as every one of the monsters stopped, orienting on the wall.

 Their magicsnced out as one, stressing the wall but not threatening to break it just yet. Then as every creature selected its most effective magics, there was a zeme-shaking thrum.

 The magic throughout the entire cell trembled in resonance to the synchronized attack and the wall was utterly obliterated.

 Some sections were vaporized, some shattered, some turned to dust the results were as nuanced and numerous as the attackers. The final state of the wall, however, was not nuanced.

 The wall was gone, and they had an entirely different battle scenario to deal with.

 There was the briefest hesitation as it seemed like every part of their surroundings took in a collective breath.

 In the momentary pause, T saw the disposition of her entire unit.

 Master Girt copsed beside Mistress Vanga, clearly having overextended himself trying to resist the attacks.

 Hed failed to keep the wall intact, but his interference exined why none of the magics had broken through to create havoc beyond. That alone was incredibly impressive.

 Master Limmestare was held aloft by swirly torrents of ss, creating an iprehensible maelstrom around the Refined.

 Master Clevnis was standing up from the crouch hednded in, magical des poised around him like a ready army, awaiting its generalsmand.

 Finally, Mistress Cerna was encased in what at first appeared to be a cage of precious metal, but on closer inspection was in fact many ovepping and intertwined spellforms, some powered, others awaiting the proper time.

 They were as ready as they could be.

 Mistress Suiles voice snapped out into the silence, Ten minutes. Thats all I need.

 T felt herself smile. This would be far from easy, but they could do this.

 Their units only response was from Master Clevnis, his voice equally strong in the fraction of a second before the roar of battle resumed. Understood.

MillionNovel

Chapter 352: They See