The next hour was a grind of healing, attacking, working to keep people out of mental traps, and hardcore survival. Somehow, the pressure on them was waning, even though they were getting closer and closer to the actual fort. At the same time, the illusions were becoming more potent, more frequent, and harder for people to resist.
At one point, Joe noticed that Major Infraction was looking at him—yet another benefit of the Eye of Argus was that it let him know when people were looking at him—when Joe’s head snapped around so that they could lock eyes, she simply nodded at him with resignation in her gaze.
“Like your people always say, Major… success is it’s own reward,” he chuckled to himself. Joe was almost to the wall of the fort when a notification appeared, one that had happened earlier.
Message available! Send a message to friends list contact? Yes / No.
“What?” Joe selected ‘yes’, asking the empty air, “Who is this?”
The message sent, and a moment later a strangled cry of surprise reached his ear. It… it wasn’t human. Joe’s Eye of Argus locked on the position emitting the sound, and he watched as the tip of a reptile’s head vanished, leaving behind unmoving fingertips. The rest of the person was buried under a half-dozen boulders; this was clearly the end of an important battle. It took a moment, but he finally understood what was happening. Joe rushed to the boulders and touched the fingertips, allowing Lay on Hands to flow into the only portion he could touch.
The fingers spasmed with renewed feeling, their owner clearly in fresh pain. Joe turned to search for the nearest Dwarves, screaming for assistance. They ignored him at first, until Captain Cleavage stepped forward and slammed her axe into one of the boulders, shearing it off the pile. A Bro walked over. “Yo, guys, no one can fix that mess. I saw Pokey-Bro get squashed. He’s human; he’ll come back.”
“Get these off him.” Joe’s voice was furiously quiet, and he forced Mend and Lay on Hands into the fingers as fast as he could manage. The Dwarf shrugged and helped the Captain with the rocks. Joe tried to help as well, but even with his high stats, the magical rocks were simply too heavy for him to budge. His eyes flashed with an idea, and he slapped the rocks with a touch of mana.
Item: Elemental Stone (Dead). Aspect-
He ignored the rest, dumping mana into the Ritual of Reduction that was engraved in his very being. The first rock he had touched vanished, then he healed, and allowed his mana to come back. He reduced… and a mangled body was revealed. “Lay on Hands!”
After that heal, the face warped back into a recognizable one with a sickening popping of facial bones. “Jaxon! What the abyss happened?”
The man couldn’t speak; it appeared that he was still unconscious. Joe pumped more healing into him, making sure to do as much as possible so that his friend would awaken to a healthy body. It didn’t take long. As soon as his health passed an unknown threshold, Jaxon came up swinging. It was always concerning to see how the man stood, as if he were being dragged into the air by an outside force.
Then Jaxon calmed, too fast for it to be natural. He stared up at the ceiling, his standard smile becoming creepier over the next few seconds. Joe pulled out his Taglock, jabbing it into the back of his friend’s head. “There ya go, buddy. Now that illusion can’t get you.”
“Joe?” Jaxon slapped at his own head at the sudden pain, more arriving as he poked his new eye. “Ow! What? What illusion? I was just reveling in the feel of my bones being complete once more, and you poked me! Also! It’s very nice to see you again. So… what’s new? Been doing anything fun? Oh, thanks for the eye! I can see so many people smiling at me! Hello!”
“Who are you assigned to, Jaxon?” Joe tried to get the man to focus, which was hard, since it wasn’t Joe’s strong suit either.
Jaxon waved at the pile of rocks, “Oh, his day is off to a rocky start. I told him he needed to be boulder, and he took it literally! When I got over here, he was destroyed, and I had to charge those earth elementals with aggregated assault.”
“Wind spirits,” The Captain stated, getting a strange look from both of the humans.
“Oh. Right. The whole ‘call them by their weakness’ thing.” Jaxon stepped forward and tried to shake her hand. “Hi, I’m Jaxon. I was in Joe’s party on Midgard, and I’ll fight you if you took my spot on his team.”
“I’m his escort, not a party member. Though, I am thinking that I might want the chance to prove my skills and travel with him,” the Dwarf admitted cheerfully, limbering up with a swing of her axe.
“Joe!” Jaxon turned scandalized eyes on his party leader. “An escort? Now?”
“Not like that.” Joe shut him down as fast as possible. He turned and started toward the slowly disintegrating walls. “Both of you follow me. There’re Elves to boot out of the Shoe.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
With the flood of reinforcements continuing, the war was swinging heavily in favor of the Dwarves. The Elves had no chance to bring in more people, as the travel point became restricted right after they were invaded. After all, if the Dwarves had easy access to Elven territory, they could use it just as well as the Elves had.
As far as Joe could see behind him, silver-clad Legionnaires were pushing forward. They had spread out to fully encapsulate the fort and were rapidly defeating the remaining defenders. Victory was
