Screams came from within the smoke, but they were different from the screams of a wounded person. These were more… concerned? Not pained, at least. It was the sound of someone waking from a nightmare only to find that the dream was, in fact, reality. When the smoke vanished, the people that had been caught in it were nowhere to be seen. The wall that had been holding them back was also gone, a massive breach revealing that the first layer of defense had been broken.
All of the stone composing the wall around the breach was slowly vanishing, so slowly that no one but Joe really thought much of it. He was seeing everything from as far away as it was possible to see, but his architectural senses were tingling. That thing that Havoc had used, it was a weapon. He knew it was; he just wasn’t sure what it did. One thing he did know was that whatever he was seeing wasn’t the end of the effect, and that using that hole as a point of entry wasn’t an option. He took a step forward and was slapped with a buff.
You have entered a raid area! All experience gain has been paused, and will only be calculated at the end of the raid, or when leaving the raid area.
The Lord of Slaughter stands with you! -30% sensation of pain. 25% damage dealt with melee weapons. 10% reduced damage taken from all sources.
“At least I know that Havoc is still alive in there.” Joe grumpily charged forward, joining the flowing silver-clad troops as his adopted group of soldiers entered the fray. Almost a kilometer of space had been cleared from the outer wall to the fort, and people and things were fighting for every inch of that space. Charging through wasn’t an option, and Joe didn’t think that trying to be fancy and jumping over people would end well. Certainly not with the sheer number of projectiles in the air.
The stone of the ground was scorched, and the interior of the volcano was actually increasing in temperature from all the plasma that was coming into being. He hurried forward, planning to join at the flanks, but Captain Cleave was suddenly in front of him, shoving him back and pulling her axe into her hands. A twist and a pull, and the stone elementals in front of them fell to rubble. She glanced back at Joe. “Stay behind me.”
“Don’t get hit by my spells,” Joe shot back, starting to get annoyed by his sudden babysitter. He was trying to remember why he accepted a partner; he had forgotten that it was so restricting. One of his orbs popped into his hand, and he tossed it forward. Just before it hit, Cone of Cold came into effect. The orb struck the elemental and left cracks at the point of impact, then the spell washed over the line of elementals; evidently it was extra effective against the stony foes in this high-temperature arena.
The subsequent hits from the Dwarves caused extra damage to the brittle defenders, and their line was broken in the next moment. The elementals that had been caught and surrounded were demolished, and the troops moved forward more than a dozen feet as a whole in under a minute. Captain Cleave nodded approvingly at Joe. “More of that would be exceedingly welcome.”
“Cooldowns.” Joe tried to stay salty, but he was as susceptible to praise as the next person. Checking that no Dwarves would be caught in the area of effect, he let out an Acid Spray to start weakening the hulking defenders.
Just after the liquid settled, Joe was knocked to the side as a dozen automatons pounded through the area and into the rocky defenders. It was a strange dichotomy of the natural world fighting the artificial, but it quickly devolved into a stalemate. The automatons were more directly powerful, and were designed specifically to fight this foe, but the elementals didn’t need an outside power source to keep fighting. The automatons could only last so long before needing a fresh core, but in that time they inflicted massive casualties.
Then they couldn’t move.
Elementals surged forward, slamming into the powering-down metal and reducing it to scrap with heavy blows. Incensed, the elementals turned their stony gazes on the Dwarves and rumbled forward like a landslide. They met a wall of blunt weapons; even the Dwarves that used edged weapons knew better than to attempt cutting these foes. Swords were replaced with rebar-looking weapons—perhaps weighted training blades?
Dwarf after Dwarf was crushed beneath huge arms, feet, or even a defeated elemental falling on top of them. For a few minutes, Joe was worried that they were going to be pushed back by the behemoths, but for every Dwarf that fell, two would enter the fray. He didn’t need to turn around to see that a new tunnel had connected; now they were being reinforced fifty percent faster.
Joe had truly underestimated the resolve the Dwarves had, the fury that they were holding in their hearts for having their ancient memorial site intruded upon. Not a single tear was shed for the fallen. There was only grim resolve and deadly intent. The elementals would move, or be moved. A light strobed within the cavern, and a swath of the Legion stopped attacking; worse, they stopped defending.
Illusion ignored: Fae Beckoning. Eye of Argus grants immunity to illusions!
“Snap out of it, soldiers!” Joe bellowed in the face of an auburn mustached Officer, who was standing there with a dreamy smile showing through the gaps of her helm. There was no reply, so he whacked her with a Ritual Orb. The damage registered, and she backhanded the empty air; making him extra happy that he had hit her at range. That gave him an idea, “Pain does the trick?”
He cast Dark Lightning Strike
