Chapter 329: A Downward Spiral
Mason Syan, the White Death and King of Syan pushed himself hard when the fighting started. He knew that he would be able to hold his own against those two sovereigns arrayed against him, yet he also knew that his allies did not have that luxury.
From the snippets of their battles that he saw it was going poorly for everyone on Syans side. Well almost everyone he noted with some pride in his eyes as he watched his son, Masin clash ferociously against his foe, even managing to push them back.
Saddly he could not afford to watch his son battle, no, instead he focused on his own battle.
He unleashed nearly everything that he had, only holding back his last resort trump cards as he overwhelmed the two tier 5 fighters before him.
The stone one was fairly weak, even with a respectable level, the water one however was quite the tricky foe. Elusive and impossible to pin down the king knew it would be tricky to defeat him. So instead he was satisfied with simply keeping him on the defensive whilst he focused his attacks on the stoic stone warrior.
Thankfully it did not take him all too long before he was able to end that particular battle with a well timed use of cone of cold. One of his more powerful skills and one that he had refined and evolved multiple times over the years.
Yet as soon as the man dropped to the ground and shattered, instead of feeling relieved, he instead felt a spike of alarm.
He turned his head towards the temporary fortification the kingdom had set up and watched in dawning dread as a monster emerged.
’Damn humans, did they have to send that psychopath here.’ He muttered to himself as he watched the Bloody Sword Saint emerge from the fortification in a bloody display of cruelty as he slaughtered dozens of his own men.
The kings lips curled in distaste at the morbid display of cruelty. Then regicides himself as he noticed that the mad man was charging directly towards him.
He knew that he no longer had any chance of getting away from this unscathed. For whilst he had never directly fought against this particular foe, he knew all too well of the man’s reputation and his strength.
Ice armour coated his body, encasing him entirely in crystal clear ice strong enough to shrug off one of those enchanted ballista bolts with nary a scratch.
He then forged a dozen swords and shields that floated around him, each one a direct manifestation from his domain, thus bolstering their durability, hopefully enough to be able to withstand an attack or two from the approaching swordsman.
Mason had almost hoped that the mad swordsman would stop for a moment to speak, maybe brag and trade insults, saddly his chance of regaining any amount of mana was lost as the man launched straight into combat without a moments delay.
The ribbons of blood lashed out in terrifying patterns, each one sharp enough to cut through the city wall with ease. His protective dome of swords and shields reacted rapidly, moving into place to deflect and parry the various ribbons.
At the same time he unleashed a barrage of magical attacks at the man, hoping to stall his headlong advance.
The man simply unsheathed his sword and with an almost casual wave of the blade, eviserated every attack flying his way.
Then the man moved closer, he swung his sword and a bloody arc shot forth. A wall of ice rose to block the attack whilst several swords lashed out to counter. The wall of ice was cut through near instantly, only providing enough delay to allow the king to reposition himself.
The swords he sent forth however never even got close. Several of the bloody ribbons lashed out and easily slashed them away from their intended target. In fact that cut right through them, but that alone would not destroy the kings ice constructs, he simply reconnected them once they had passed by.
Stil it did knock them off point and allowed the swordsman to evade his attack.
That display alone caused the kings concern to grow into worry. ’This man is stronger than me.’
That was the assessment that the king made after that first exchange, although to even call it an exchange would gone giving it too much credit.
If anything it was merely a short exchange of basic attacks, nothing truly special had happened just yet.
That however swiftly began to change.
The Sword Saint began to put on the pressure. His ribbons lashing out in all directions, mostly aimed at the king, but they also seemed happy to cleave through any unfortunate soul to get to close to their battle, be that friend of foe.
The king unleashed everything he had, entrapping skills mixed with a storm of lances and bullets of ice.
Yet nothing seemed to be able to hold back the bloody swordsman. He never stopped advancing.
Each step resulted in the destruction of one more of the kings defending weapons, each step bringing him closer to bloodying the king.
King Mason was doing everything in his power to hold back the swordsman, yet nothing he used seemed able to hold the man back for long.
That however was not the worst of it, no, the worst at least from the kings perspective was that he was no longer able to hold back the water using general.
No, now that he was no longer battling that foe he had instead moved to do battle against the other sovereigns of Syan.
The fire battle the head general moved to was none other than the battle against the flame general of Syan who was battling against the wind user.
It made sense to assist the sovereign that was already close to winning, that way they could then both separate off to clean up the rest of the battles much swifter.
With the arrival of the lead general, the flame general of Syan knew that his time was up.
He no longer held anything back. His mana surged to unsustainable amounts, flames erupting all around him and allowing him for the first time to actually be able to burn the wind user.
Saddly that small burn was all the success that he managed to achieve, because shortly thereafter General Martin Renolds truly joined the battle.
Together he and the wind user dominated the flame sovereign.
In only a few minutes the man drew his last breath before falling in battle.
That marked the turning point of the tier 5 battles. From there the two split up to go and assist the other generals, now outnumbered and outmatched, the Syan generals began to loose ground.
A situation that was being copied in all other areas of the battle. Down on the ground the advancing army of Eldor had begun to push past the broken gates of the city.
The ceaseless stream of soldiers had worn down the stubborn defense of the beastkin city.
They had paid a heavy price in blood, but that was apparently a price they were willing to trade.
Up in the walls the same scene was happening with the siege towers.
The few towers that had attained a foothold on the walls began to expand their advantage. Pushing out and along the wall itself to assist the other siege towers that were struggling or had been entirely overrun with the Syan forces.
Then again, up in the air the battle was fairing poorly for Rhyana and Vithrax.
Whilst individually they outclassed the dragons they were fighting against, each one easily able to take them down. They were simply too outnumbered to truly win.
Between the two dragons and their companions they had managed to take out over half of the dragons and their riders. However, by now not a single one of their flying beadtkin allies was still in the air.
It was just the 4 of them against 24 dragons and their riders.
Both dragons were battered and tiered. Blood ran in small rivers from Vithrax’s enlarged body, soon he was forced to reduce his size back to his true 20 meter size to avoid taking any worse wounds.
Rhyana was no longer able to sustain her lightning enhanced movements, now only relying on her lightning to bolster her evasion when needed.
Susan was no better, her mana was begining to run dangerously low, she had been near constantly healing Rhyana and even Vithrax when they got close enough. Yet she alone was not able to maintain such an output of magic forever.
It was begining to truly look grim.
Everywhere they looked the kingdom soldiers were overwhelming the defenders of Syan.
They tried, they fought, they put their everything into winning.
Yet nothing they were able to do seemed capable of staving off the inevitable defeat.
It was then that Rhyana noticed something.
It was a rumble. A deep reverberating noise that seemed to originate from nearly everywhere at once.
From her vantage high in the air she saw a sight that nearly caused her to loose a wing it was so surprising.
In the near distance she watched in utter confusion as a tree seemed to fall down. Then another fell, and another.
All in a straight line heading directly towards Syan.
Then she heard it clearly. A south all too familiar to Rhyana, a sound that promised aid and filled her with hope for the first time since the battle truly began.
ROOAAARRRRR!
It was the roar of a dragon.