Improved Warden’s Bolts next, crackling and hissing in clouds of too-lethal electricity that jumped from one voidspawn to the next, frying them such that they screamed and burst into steaming puddles of molten ooze.
With the voidspawn thoroughly distracted, the shielders lashed out with Shield Slam. What was left of the voidspawn front rank was stunned motionless for two seconds. They weren’t given the time to recover, though, as the shield wardens followed up with Improved Shield Charge and took off like charging bulls, plowing through their stunned and weakened enemies.
And then the power wardens joined the fray. Seemingly hundreds of them launched into the air as one, leaping from among the middle of the army and soaring into the enemy ranks. They hit the ground, each an earthquake all to him or herself. Bits of soil and voidspawn flew through the air as the power wardens began swinging their hammers.
What had once been a hissing horde was rendered to nothing more than a screeching, fleeing mass of mostly dead voidspawn.
The remains of the retreating foe were cut down by enhanced wardens who looked nothing more than blurs as they attacked at lightspeed.
“Now!” Kaiden shouted, urging his army forward as if his words could grant them all a speed buff. But they couldn’t, and even as he spoke, the warden army moved with a practiced precision only possible in a military force. They pulled back together and reformed. Their pristine ranks were only sullied by splotches of voidspawn ooze on armor and the heads of hammers.
No matter. The voidspawn had been enough of a distraction. Now came the main event.
The two armies were only a few hundred paces from meeting as Kaiden finished sending out his last order.
Odditor’s battlegroup – mainly consisting of the menagerie – was among the bulk of the army, but that was a waste of their potential. Grachnids and dilopoads and most of the other beasts Odditor had brought were bigger and faster than humans, and considerably more frightening. Kaiden ordered them to lead the charge and hit the warden lines first. Roars and screeches rose up from all around as the orders went through and then the beasts began to pull away from the army, sprinting at full speed and charging down the shielders at the front of the warden army.
“That’s it,” Kaiden said, looking around him one last time. “It’s all in place. Now we just have to... do it. Just have to make it work.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
“Here goes nothing, eh?” Titus replied from just ahead, shield held firmly in front of him. He and the free shield warden Eqokkhabone were leading their group. They’d moved to the middle of the army; the shaft of the spear, ready to plunge through the hole the front lines were supposed to blast through the warden ranks. While the attackers may have looked spread out, Kaiden had maneuvered the highest-level, most DPS-ready players to the tip of the spear. They didn’t need to defeat this force. All they needed was a gap.
Any moment now...
The Warden Corps shielders were locked together with Improved Shield Brother and standing ready for the collision that was moments away.
I’d have them using Improved Barrier, Kaiden couldn’t help but think. It’d absorb the most damage from this charge. Before he could think on it any further, the menagerie slammed into the warden force.
A handful of grachnids hit them first, plowing into the shield wardens in a crash of stabbing limbs and crushing bodies. Arcs of electricity lashed back at the attackers, Improved Volt Field doing its work. The massive insect-like aliens didn’t seem to notice. They trampled a section of shielders and broke straight through.
Or so Kaiden thought at first. As he looked again, though, he saw the shielders had just been driven back. They were still linked to those beside them. A section of the front line had been pushed back, but it’d held together. It appeared the shield wardens who were high enough level to have Intransigence were acting as anchor points throughout the front line.
The grachnids stabbed and stomped in the bulge they’d created. A few of the higher-level ones even sprayed acid, the hissing liquid coming down in a sizzling mist that ate away at the armor of those it touched. The combined damage from the attacks had to have been massive and Kaiden found himself wondering again why the shielders didn’t have their barriers up.
All across the front, more grachnids and dilopoads and even a baboulian manhunter slammed into the shield wardens. Some spots were driven back more than others, but everywhere, the line held. The charge ground to a stop. The warden line was still intact.
And then the wardens hit back.
The shielders lashed out first with a synced-up Shield of Rage attack. Their shields slammed into the ground almost in unison and concussions erupted all along their line, spreading outwards and dealing area-of-effect damage to the menagerie, which hissed and roared.
Then, all as one, the shield wardens turned off their shields and dropped to one knee. As they did, the blast wardens at the rear of the formation let loose a hail of fire. Improved Burst Arrows and Warden’s Bolts, even a Kinetic Grenade or two. The menagerie disappeared in a cloud of fire and electricity and lasers. More abilities were fired off than the blast wardens should have had charge for, and as he saw that, Kaiden realized why the shielders hadn’t used Improved Barrier.
A shield warden can’t build charge while using Improved Barrier, and the front lines were Shield Linked with the blast wardens behind them. They absorbed the hit from the menagerie and turned it into charge for the blast wardens to strike back with.
At the
