Return to Jorgaldur Volume V: Reunion (2)

Bait (II)

"Those damned living! Are they mocking me? Do they think I'm going to let them advance without further ado? Attack!" Kroljo ordered, irritated.

It was annoyed by those projectiles that purified the miasma, and it hated the living beings. When right after the projectiles, they had begun to advance in a strange formation, it had felt insulted.

The shadow ordered the losts to go towards them, as it filled the purified area with miasma. At the same time, he was observing the living, and an idea was forming in his mind.

"They're so stupid. They're coming like that, in a straight line. It's perfect for my attack," an evil smile appeared on its face.

Anyway, it wanted to finish filling the area with miasma. It didn't want its subordinates to awake and cause problems

After finishing, Kroljo moved cautiously, looking around. All the shadows were a little paranoid because of Goldmi, who had finished off many of them.

Finally, it arrived in front of the column, and began to condense the miasma in its small hands. Some from the surroundings were pulled, but most of it was the product of years of accumulation.

With an excited grimace, it expelled the miasma in a dense black ray that threatened to engulf everything in its path. It watched expectantly as the ray reached the head of the column. Kroljo was expecting it to go through the column from end to end, thus annihilating all the living beings. Along the way, some losts were engulfed, but that didn't matter.

However, to its surprise, the Ray of Corruption stopped when it reached the front of the column, unable to overcome it. Its power continued to impact and attack, but a strong defense was managing to stop it.

"How!?" the shadow was astonished.

It didn't understand how that was possible. In its mind, its attack would have to break through all opposition.

Its same surprise was shared by other shadows, shortly before or shortly after, such as Jreneg. None of them had been able to resist the appetizing bait, and all of them were encountering the same kind of opposition.

If they failed to break through said defenses, it would mean the waste of years of accumulation, and a deep wound to their pride. Nonetheless, there was something much worse for them. The launch of the attack had revealed their position.

Crushy and Smashy's muscles expanded, while taking on a metallic shimmer. Several tattoos on their bodies shone and intertwined, thus activating their totems. Their weapons had been put away, and their arms were in front of them, in a cross.

Totemic Muscles was their most powerful defense, comparable to Eldi's Impregnable or Gjaki's Intangible. The defense wasn't absolute, but it could block 99% of the damage. Their own body and its regenerative abilities had to deal with the rest.

The great advantage of the skill was that they could move and attack while it was active, although that was of no use in this situation. It also lasted twice as long as Eldi's. The great disadvantage was that they could only use it once a day.

They blocked the central part of the Ray of Corruption, thus protecting the other barbarians. Some remnants of the power could affect their fellow barbarians, but they were able to deal with it themselves.

The same couldn't be said of the losts that were attacking them. The outside of the attack simply annihilated them, all the way to the line of defense of the living.

There, the dwarfs were prepared for the remnants of the weakened Ray of Corruption. Some of its power had been consumed against the corrupted beings, and it wasn't a problem for the Dwarven Fortress anymore. The formation distributed the attack between all of them, thus making it manageable.

"... absolute protection," Merlin finished the chant.

A dense dome of mana arose above them, and blocked any movement of mana. The great disadvantage of the spell was that it didn't block physical attacks. The great advantage was the variable duration and the amplitude of its reach.

Since the miasma was a corrupted form of mana, the Ray of Corruption couldn't pass through the Mana Fissure. It remained blocked in front of the spell. The astonished gaze of the general showed that it couldn't believe it.

The Ray of Corruption passed through the first barrier in less than an instant. In fact, it passed through three in a second, which caused the general to sneer.

"No defense can stop it! Fools!" it sneered.

The fourth took half a second, while the fifth took three-quarters. It took just over a second to pass through the sixth. By the time it reached the powerful mana shields, a third of the power had already dissipated.

However, there was barely one more defense left, so the shadow watched expectantly for the attack to pass through and engulf them. What it didn't expect was that, after the same amount of time it had taken to pass through the other defenses, those shields had only lost a little of their shine.

They hadn't seemed all that powerful, so it didn't understand how they were holding up. From where it was, and with the interference from its own spell, the shadow couldn't sense the flow of mana between the elves and the shields. They were continuously reinforcing them, and wearing down their enemy's offensive.

The most curious thing was that, as soon as it was over, the elves began to retreat.

"At least, I scared them," it wanted to console itself, despite being deeply disappointed.

It had hoped to finish them off, but they were still there, alive.

On the front of Lidia and Liodon, an Impenetrable Wall was created. Just like in the case of the elves, the spell could be continuously reinforced, thus allowing them to resist until the end.

On another front, occupied entirely by ice giants, they launched their own attack to oppose it. Eternal Ice was a skill not especially powerful by itself, but with a very special peculiarity. Apart from being able to add a continuous flow of mana, its power was added to other similar ones.

In this way, both attacks cancelled each other out, until the Ray of Corruption exhausted all its power. Surprisingly, Eternal Ice changed direction at that instant, and returned what remained of the power to its owners. In this way, they regained some of the size they had lost during the exchange.

On each front, they dealt with the spell with the means at their disposal. It would have been lethal if they had been taken by surprise, but they were all more than prepared. The army had planned that bait and their defense. Now, only the final part of the plan remained.