Chapter 86: Breach
Coop wasn’t sure if his maneuver had been ill-advised, but it was too late to take back. He mistjumped to the ramparts after warning the defenders of what was coming.
Gromokan had been bringing devastation to the fort’s walls and needed to be stopped as quickly as possible or the settlement would have been quickly left defenseless. The defenders had already been pushed back by 25 hours of Devourers pressing forward and the delayed arrival of the boss had put them in an impossible position.
Luckily, Coop had found a way to expediently end the Field Boss’s assault, but in doing so, he had led the remaining Crazed Serpents to the wave’s frontline. Now, the monsters were joining the Devourers in the raid on the southern wall in one massive surge that threatened to overwhelm the fort. The stubborn defenders only had a brief window to prepare while Coop danced across Gromokan’s back with the Serpents in pursuit.
The residents turned the breach in the fort’s wall into a strategic chokepoint while Coop had been on the dunes. Spells swirled in the gap, turning the gap into a blender of potent magic with Charlie's twisting winds as a base. The skill combinations that casters had been experimenting with during the previous waves were being brought to the forefront. The array of spells elevated all of their potency, where an individual caster didn’t have the firepower to defeat the Devourers one on one, together they were significantly stronger. The armored monsters were pummeled by elemental combinations that transcended solitary attacks, breaking down their defenses, and defeating them.
The support phantoms had quickly established makeshift platforms inside the courtyard for the casters to have elevated positions while they rained abilities into the breach. Others had taken positions on either side of the remaining ramparts, above the gap, like medieval defenders prepared to pour burning oil on their enemies. The melee fighters were positioned in a concave formation in front of the hastily prepared platforms. The curved shape caused the damaged monsters to also be outnumbered in the situation where they made it through the gap.
Despite the magical blender, many of the Devourers plodded their way through the breach in the wall. Their protective shells were proving their worth, but they still had to face the melee fighters. So far, the melee fighters were able to overwhelm the weakened monsters that faced them, but the balance would only be maintained while there was only a single point of entry.
In the center of the defensive formation were all three of the Cleary brothers. Their Warbuster classes were especially potent against armored targets and the Devourers were the most heavily armored of the invaders as far as anyone had seen. Their metallic fists ended any of the Devourers that made it through with resonating damage that tore through their internals. The armored shells just gave an easy target for the brothers to focus their attacks.
Behind the brothers on the center of the elevated platforms was Captain Kayla. She was channeling her own spell while transparent black and purple octopus tentacles flailed with a bilateral symmetry behind her. Coop thought the manifestation of her mana was a bit like Madison’s except instead of being angelic it was clearly associated with the abyssal depths of the ocean.
Both of her hands were held forward and raised like she was unveiling a massive piece of art and both of her eyes blazed with dark energy that stained her skin like ink. A whirlpool of dark water expanded in the breach. Even though the solid ground was still visible, right at the surface of the swirling water, the whirlpool still appeared to have an endless depth. Staring at the ground in the breach was like looking into an infinity mirror. Purple octopus tentacles shot out from the abyss, snagging Devourers, and dragging them below the depths where they disappeared. Kayla’s skill brought the powers of the deep sea to dry land.
Derek sat below her, on the edge of the platform, kicking his legs to a rhythm while strumming away at his guitar like he was busking at a park. The song he played was intensifying even if it didn’t seem like he was paying any particular attention to his surroundings. He was clearly building to a crescendo and timing it with Shane’s shouted instructions.
The mass of Crazed Serpents crossed the moat’s dirt and sand bridge like a tidal wave. The Serpents leapt over each other and formed a wriggling mass that roiled and churned as it rushed forward. The monsters had finally lost interest in Coop, finding a different target in the grouped up defenders through the breach.
Massive domes of energy erupted over the defenders, intersecting and overlapping each other, as Shane and other support classes unleashed their most potent buffs. Glowing runes flashed among the defenders, searing their forms in Coop’s vision, and beams of mana created spotlights where targeted buffs were applied. Glyphs burned on skin and weapons while signets expanded in the air until they cracked. Shouts that temporarily empowered groups were projected over Derek’s song, challenging the incoming monsters and vesting power in the immediate areas.