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When they met up with the mages, they moved to the edge of the fort’s line of sight as a group of five.
Matt was the combat leader, so he sent a message to Annie. “Annie, what’s your situation?”
“Sitting over the gate. There are five people here, and they’re debating what to do, since their links to the others all vanished. I can take them, but it will be noisy.”
Matt thought it over and had his AI run the simulations.
“Go for it. Take them out, and we’ll rush the gate at the same time. We can batter it down if we have to, but the defensive shielding will slow us down. If you can get the door open, we can back you up.”
After a long pause, they received a message. “I’ll move on your order. I’m ready whenever.”
“You’ll hear us.”
Matt looked to his teammates and explained his plan. “Conor and I in the front, blocking the archers. Stay close, and we rush them as fast as we can.”
Emily cursed quietly. “I hate these anti-flying device formations. It would be a lot easier if we could attack from above.”
“It would be but stay low and behind us.”
Matt returned his longsword to his ring, and after digging into his spatial bag, withdrew the shield that he had used during his time as a frontliner storming the golem fortress. Conor was already in position, and they started out onto the cleared field surrounding the main fort at a steady lope.
They were a quarter of the way across the mile of cleared area when the arrows started to rain down on them. At first, it was the occasional plink of metal on metal, but as they reached the halfway point, it was like a torrent as the defenders tried to force them back.
A blast of fire impacted his shield, but Matt pushed through it and kept in line with Conor. They were nearly at the fort when a glowing blue arrow punched straight through Matt’s shield. It was stopped by [Cracked Phantom Armor], but his AI calculated that whatever skill the archer used would punch through if he gave the archer a clear shot.
It wasn’t as strong as Tara’s Tier 3 Talent that pierced armor, but it was strong enough to be an issue.
All at once, the rain-like sound of arrows disappeared, and they were under the entrance of a tunnel that was covered in arrow slits. The large wooden door was slightly ajar, and as they reached it, they could hear fighting from the inside.
Matt dropped his shield and ripped the door open as Conor rushed through with his shield and shortsword raised.
Emily was the next through, with Liz right on her heels and with Aster in her backpack looking over the blood mage’s shoulders.
Matt resummoned his longsword and joined the others, only to see a floor covered in blood and Annie looking as if she had just fought Liz. His AI told him that she only had a single, light cut on her hip, which meant that it was her enemy’s blood that covered the entranceway. He didn’t know how many people she had fought, but he was thoroughly impressed with her results.
Liz took a moment to gather the blood and moved to the entrance that led into the clear area between the fortress walls and the fort itself.
“I’ll go out in golem form and move right.”
“Remember to watch out for the archer with an armor-piercing skill. They’ll punch right through your golem. Use your [Blood Shield].”
“Will that block her?”
Matt waited for his AI to run the calculations before replying, “No, but it’ll make it nonlethal.”
“Got it. I’ll go out spell heavy and try to take out the remaining defenders on the wall.”
Liz exploded out of the little cover they had to a peppering of arrows and a [Fireball].
Matt and Conor gave Emily cover as they left the tunnel through the wall. To his surprise, Matt found most of the queendom’s guards already retreating back into the fort itself. Liz had seen that as well and engaged the retreating archers. Aster was in the golem with her and was sending shards of ice to anyone trying to flank Liz’s blood golem. Matt noticed that the pair was attracting attention from two queendom archers on top of the fortress roof.
Matt cast [Hail] on them, and as the near-solid wall of ice fell, it forced the archers to retreat. The remaining defenders raced to join the mass of people trying to all fit through the small entrance at the base of the fortress. Annie had already reactivated her Talent in the chaos to see if she could sneak into the building.
There was shouting, and they turned to try and stop Matt and Conor’s charge as Emily cycled through sending [Water Bullet]s and [Bolt]s at the mass of people.
Every time the lance of lightning illuminated the inner courtyard, someone was teleported out. Matt wished they had more time for Emily to absorb the two skills she had, as it would take her from a two times damage multiplier to an eight times multiplier. If she was killing a person with each shot now, he marveled at what she could do when she got the extra effect. [Bolt] could chain if it had enough damage left after impact, or if there was a large amount of metal near the target. The mission had just come too soon; she had only received her [Cracked Mana Bolt] this morning.
They slammed into the mass of people who had the door shut on them, and Matt and Conor started hacking down at the queendom fighters with large, heavy blows. Blood flew, and flesh was rent with each attack.
The screams in front of Matt were overpowered by screams coming from his left where Liz had gone to rout the archers and other ranged defenders causing Matt to glance over quickly.
Otto looked on in horror as the red monster ran out of the gate’s guardhouse. He didn’t know what it was until Lesley loosed a glowing blue arrow at the monster, which caused him to do the same.
Her arrow sunk deep into its shoulder while his skittered off as if the monster was made from stone. He made a mental note to adjust his shots as if this was an armored target.
Otto prided himself on being the second best archer in their group but the lack of an archery skill was showing its flaws now.
“Aim for her head. It’s sticking out of the thing’s chest.”
As Lesley said that Otto noticed the discrepancy and loosed his own arrow at the pale face surrounded by living blood.
He had to force down his bile as the monster cut through the other archers. He knew them, spent time with them, cared for them. Otto watched them get cut to pieces.
As he withdrew and notched another arrow, he was mesmerized at Harvie’s leg flying through the air and spewing blood before it all vanished. Or the flesh did. The blood was pulled into the monster as it looked up at them overhead.
With the rain of ice keeping Lesley and him pinned to one side they had the perfect view of the monster as it ran at them.
Otto repressed the twinge of fear as the golem of blood reached the base of the fort where it met the outer wall’s walkway. It was the second floor out of five and while they were on the roof the monster was unable to reach them.
His elation halted as the monster seemed to stick to the wall as what seemed to be frozen blood latched on and it started to climb up. The first steps were halting, and it slid down twice but as he and Lesley launched arrow after arrow on the thick shoulders of the monster it grew nearer and nearer.
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