Loopshard

“Alright, listen up,” Adam told the squad of four archers and two swordsmen he’d gathered to him. Nearby, the other defenders were keeping the forlorn soldiers at bay while a rain of arrows from above slowed the dual-wielding swordsman by exclusively targeting his legs. “I need you six to pull the halberdier with you towards the northern part of the city. Don’t try to kill him, just keep antagonising him into following you. I will disable one of his legs, so he won’t be able to catch up.”

The elphin listened with rapt attention and he hoped they could accomplish what he wanted them to do. He’d actually gotten the idea from the zombie mode in a game he’d played several years back with some friends. One person would drag around a slow zombie while the rest of them worked on secondary objectives. Still, he wasn’t entirely sure this would work and he felt stupid for not asking Emelia how she planned on taking on the aristocrat while not losing the defence objective.

“Go!” he told them as he himself moved closer to the fray and sent his barrier out in a cone shape.

The halberdier had just speared the same red-glowing elphin warrior for the third time, before his last stand’s fervour finally expired and he exploded like a blood balloon. It was horrible to watch, but the dented crown made each of the defenders’ lives count for way more as their deaths were extended by ten seconds of pseudo-immortality. They were no longer just slaughtered with ease, though they still couldn’t really do much against the forlorn knights other than slowing them down by repeatedly absorbing lethal hits until their fervour ran out.

Adam’s barrier flew through the air with a loud whistle, and he weaved it between the fighters like a homing missile, before smashing it through the halberdier’s knee and sending him to the ground.

Now that he was using the spell offensively, it gained the 25% increased attack speed boost from the captain’s cape, which almost felt like a 50% buff thanks to the multiplicative effects of the four separate speed buffs on it. After all, it got two different boosts from the cape, the spell speed upgrade from the wand, and of course from the spell-tome’s manipulation speed.

The end result of all those stacking buffs was that his barrier moved insanely fast and gained a lot more piercing potential and impact damage. And that was before triggering fervour, which might make it reach uncontrollable speeds.

The squad he’d assigned to stalling duty began harassing the disabled knight with annoying hit-and-run attacks. Much to Adam’s excitement, they successfully managed to drag him away from the fight, just as the last soul essence he needed entered his lantern.

Synchronised shrieks cut through the air as two identical wraiths emerged from the relic on his belt and flew across the battlefield, tearing into the forlorn soldiers. He pivoted his attention towards the dual-wielding knight currently fighting off a pair of red-glowing swordsmen whose bodies were covered in wounds.