Chapter 1173: Chapter 1172: Final Battle (5)
Chapter 1173: Chapter 1172: Final Battle (5)
This wasn't the only Fiend that reared its ugly head to engage us in combat earlier than anticipated; there were more booms traveling down the line as a half dozen of them joined the fray, with four of them leaping straight towards the Sultana.
Their hope to overwhelm her with numbers and turn the tides of battle into their favor by taking down our strongest was certainly a hopeful one, but it wasn't an impossible one since one of those Fiends was a Tza Fiend with six arms, which allowed it to cast multiple spells all at once.
A four versus one was enough to cause us all concern, especially since it was a variety of Fiends leaping out to try and kill the leader of this land, and yet we weren't able to pull ourselves away to go to her aid without risking everything else.
The speed with which the Fiend before us rushed to engage was fast enough that we were suddenly forced to step back as it brought an immense amount of pressure to bear incredibly quickly, its two blades moving with a red gold blur as it slashed at Jahi's shield.
It wasn't just a single target attack either since each time the Fiend struck Jahi's shield waves of compressed and flaming mana burst from the impacts, washing over the shield and spilling out towards us as it did the best it could to keep us here.
With the armored cultists and monsters rushing forwards right behind it, we were slowly trapped on our own little 'island' of the battlefield as the Fiend relented the moment its backup arrived, allowing it to leap backwards and plant its feet before lunging forwards again.
This time though it struck not at Jahi nor at us but instead at a cluster of normal soldiers, its twin blades slicing through their lower quality shields and severing limbs and heads as it attacked wantonly, leaving us with the handful of armored cultists and hounds to deal with.Nôv(el)B\\jnn
By the time we had managed to cut them down and free ourselves from any pressure the Fiend returned, slamming into Jahi's shield once more and pushing the Demoness back as they brandished their blades and relied on their quickness to handle the six of us.
A dozen or so soldiers had fallen in those mere seconds, and the pressure that began to settle onto us as the decrease in our numbers became apparent was rather substantial, even for us; the Fiend was just a perfect blend of explosive power and swiftness for this occasion, and the magic it wielded was simple yet effective for what it wanted.
With it being so close to Jahi all the time, Leone and I were maintaining the same spells as before as we dealt with the various monsters, though the overlapping interactions we had earlier that benefitted us were no more as we began to deal with larger swathes of the battlefield on our own.
Whenever we were able to have those area of effect spells wash over the back of the Fiend it did little to deter the red skinned humanoid, their hard scales protecting them from our spells and allowing them to just ignore the attacks as they instead pressured Jahi, constantly beating down on her shield before swaying out of the way from any attack that Saif was able to comfortably make on it.
Heading on this same path though would lead us to failure, so a change had to be made as we continued to deal with the various monsters and tolerate the presence of the Fiend, a change that I decided to make on my own.
Reaching for my belt, I grabbed ahold of one of the prototype discs that Anput had made for me and charged it up with mana before flicking it towards the Fiend, the projectile slicing through the air almost silently thanks to the cacophony of war around us.
And since the small disc was being thrown from behind Jahi, the Fiend didn't really see it until it was right about to cut into its face, and by that point even as the Fiend ducked beneath the disc, it was more than enough for me.
The enchantment on the projectile activated, sending a compressed blast of Ice Mana upwards and downwards as the disc shattered beneath the power that erupted from its surface, and instantly the Fiend was knocked downwards as the Ice Mana washed over its scales and coated them in frost.
An opening was all Jahi and Saif needed to swing their heavy blades downwards, both of their swords crumpling the scales and chewing into the soft flesh beneath as they cleaved the Fiend into pieces, giving themselves a moment to breath and allowing them to be prepared for whatever came next.
With no System notification popping into my mind for an assist, I used the Soul Bond between Jahi and I to warn the Demoness, which prompted her to unleash her Light Mana as she covered her sword and shield in it before stabbing down into the 'corpse' of the Fiend, hoping to finish it off there.
Even with her blade buried deep into its skull - which was now shattered and imbued with her mana - there was still no notification, so I looked around warily before my head snapped back to its corpse as the blood began to float into the air, coalescing into the same figure but in liquid shape.
Its blades shot back into the air and sank into the Fiend's 'body', disappearing from sight before reappearing as metal flowed through its blood and sharpened the liquid along its arms, while the fluid shape of it allowed the Fiend to attack in new ways.
Right as Jahi tried to stab it again with her Light imbued great sword, the Fiend flowed back a step and parted its torso, allowing the blade to slip right through empty space before it crashed down on the Demoness like a wave, its metallic arms stabbing towards her chest.