Chapter 1170: Chapter 1169: Final Battle (2)


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    "At least we''ll start this off properly..."


    Jahi''s voice was barely able to be heard as a barrage of magic that whizzed overhead, the fireballs and spheres of wind filling the sky as the Sultana ordered the opening attack on the city.


    The heat was already unbearable enough, but now that the mes of our mages were scorching towards the walls of the city it was made even worse, though that wasn''t something that adrenaline couldn''t ovee as the beginning of this battle was kicked off.


    With a surplus of oxygen to fuel theirbustion, the magical fires crashed down amongst the monsters and exploded against the walls as the opening barrage traveled the distance in mere seconds, giving the cultists across from us little time at all to react.


    This long wait had ced them in an odd sort of limbo where they weren''t able to maintain a strong barrier for long without risking mana depletionter on, and while potions were certainly an option for them to utilize, there was no guarantee they had enough to defend against an army this size.


    The monsters weren''t helping them too much either since presumably that required mana to control as well, so that left them in a rather unfortunate spot that I wasn''t entirely sure they could reasonably defend themselves from; of course, that was something that also made me wonder if that was the Sultana''s n all along.


    If it was, I was also wondering if she calcted for a barrier to be up anyways despite that likely oue, since there were a plethora of Fiends waiting inside of the city alongside their mortal toys.


    Our initial attack exploded against an iridescent barrier of mana, dealing little to no damage at first contact, but we had numbers on our side with a wide pool of both mana and potions to draw from, so another barrage of explosive ordnance was sent forwards.


    Then another, and then a third, then a tenth... it just kept on going, and the barrier held strong each time... until it didn''t.


    No matter how many Fiends resided inside of that city, no matter how many of said Fiends were of the Tza Dominion and souped up on whatever rituals and enhancers that they might have had ess too, there was no way to defend such a wide open area with such a strong barrier for a heavy barrage over and over again.


    Each explosion tore away at that iridescent barrier slowly but surely, and soon the strategy the Sultana had our mages employ changed as well; the Wind Mages switched from immediate fueling to a more concentrated, stronger catalyst for the explosions, and those did a lot of damage incredibly quickly.


    Simplicity once more reigned as the most effective strategy, and the Sultana had her Wind Mages create giant funnels of wind that tore at the barrier from afar, sucking the oxygen around themselves into the funnel and pushing it straight at the barrier, where it was consumed by the mes and turned into a potent fuel.


    The desert was no longer alight with the sun''s golden rays; instead it was red and orange, the intensity of the mes bathing the millions of grains of sand in a heat that slowly connected them together into ss, amplifying the light even more.


    Booms sted across the desert, the sound physical enough to push against us as each spell erupted against that barrier, and with a plethora of Caninekin soldiers standing so close to such a loud sound... well, it was already unpleasant, but now we were shaken, hot, and listening to the ringing inside of our ears.


    Even then we still stared in awe at the me bathed barrier in front of us, watching the Fire Mana melt away the Fiendish Mana and slowly seep into the interwoven magics below to open up a pathway for us to enter.


    It was like cannon fire being unleashed upon a castle, only far more deadly and far more rapid; the intensity of the sts all beingpressed in certain areas while running on a near constant repetition was something I hadn''t seen before, and the second the order came to begin marching I just had to look towards the Sultana in surprise.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Standing tall in the center of the forces, the towering Jackalkin brandished an equallyrge scimitar and pointed it at the city before us, bringing out cheers and war cries from the troops as they raised their shields and marched forwards, adding another crescendo to this cacophony as the stomping of their boots and rattling of their gear matched the explosions.


    A heartbeatter the Sultana herself began to walk forwards, her twin des held loosely at her sides as she took long, even strides towards the city, looking more like a stroll in the park than a march to war, and yet...


    There was no doubt about her purpose here, something that we all needed to share as the mages continued their bombardment of the city; despite the blowback of superheated air washing over us, we were to march straight into those mes simply because the Sultana knew that the barrier would fall before we reached it.


    And the second that barrier fell... well, our ''cannon fire'' would begin to churn the monsters waiting for us into chunks, and the walls would fall seconds after the barrier did.


    "Properly indeed..."


    None of us could hear if the others were speaking, and honestly it was wasted breath for me to even mutter that as we marched forwards, but I just felt like it needed to be vocalized as the explosions continued to shine brighter than the sun while shaking the very earth we walked


    on.


    A battle of this scale was new to me, and yet as we got closer and closer the scale suddenly shifted; how could we worry about the left nk if all that we could see and feel was the right nk?


    What good would worrying about it do?


    That shifted it for me as I focused on what I could see and what I could reach, and even though the explosions continued to envelope the desert itself, I was able to settle into semifortable state as we approached the edge of the st radius.