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1057 Words
Matt stood with the rest and as they saw a larger horde of beetles charging at them, he immediately used [Air Manipulation]. One thing they had learned during their months of training was that the beetles didn’t react to what hurt them. They reacted to the elemental mana around them. It was why Vinnie’s [Earth Spear] was still effective despite losing a portion of its damage. It was still a chuck of stone propelled with a point.
Using [Air Manipulation] was still difficult for Matt, but he didn’t need fine control. He needed to whip up a ton of mana to cause the beetles to change their defenses. That was well within his abilities.
Matt cast then channeled all his mana into the skill and pushed with everything he had.
Across the dunes, sand started to be picked up, and pulled into the cyclone that Matt was circulating. It was too diffuse to turn into a tornado, but it caused the beetles to turn a pale white.
That was the signal for everyone else to start launching skills. A barrage of skills raced out to intercept the incoming horde. Each of the attacks tore swaths out of the monsters.
When the beetles tried to adjust to defend against the incoming attacks, Matt’s movement of wind mana caused the monsters to quickly revert to their white forms, keeping them vulnerable to the attacks that his friends threw out.
As the beetles approached, Matt shrunk the area of wind that he was manipulating and started to fuel his other skills.
When the melee started, a series of five arrows exploded outward and took off the heads of the closest beetles.
A poisonous fog crept out from behind the front line consisting of Matt, Kyle, and Mathew. Out of the corner of his eyes, Matt saw Aster freeze one beetle while savaging a second one with her teeth.
It was a testament to their training that she was able to fight in melee while also controlling her various skills. Half of her shots were carefully threaded in between everyone’s legs, or in the gaps between their melee fights.
Matt dedicated 10 MPS to [Air Manipulation] while fueling [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mage’s Retreat]. A kick sent a beetle flying into a cluster, and Matt brought his mana infused blade around in a s***h that lashed out in a blue crescent. It tore a channel through the packed masses of beetles.
Mathew activated his newest ability, [Taunting Roar], and all the beetles began fixating on him. Even Matt could feel it. It was like a magnetic pull to the man, one that the monsters were unable to resist.
With them clumped up, everyone forced their attacks around Mathew. For a few seconds, they had a bit of respite.
Matt used his Concept to refill up some of the mana everyone expended during the first engagement and waited for the second wave to reach them.
Sam’s poison seeped out and forward into the next wave in a display that reminded Matt of the shore and water meeting. The poison washed over the bugs in a wave, not unlike the monsters charging at them. He pulled his [Air Manipulation] up higher, so he wouldn’t impede her progress. This time, the monsters were severely weakened and easy to kill when they reached them.
Melinda called out, “Liz, larger beetle!”
Just as she gave the order, Matt saw the much larger beetle approaching them. They had experienced these before; they were Tier 8 variants of the summons. Only Liz and Tara could reliably take them out with their superior damage.
Liz darted out with her spear held behind her. She injured the beetles that tried to snap at her legs and back as she approached the larger beetle.
A trail of blood followed her, and it had the telltale dark look that meant she was concentrating her Blood Iron in it. Right as she thrust at the beetle, the blood became more reflective, and Matt could feel her Concept infusing the blood.
Her blood encased spear punched right through the monster, and as Liz retracted her weapon, she set herself and twisted. A [Blood Whip] arced out and sliced the surrounding beetles into chunks. As Liz darted back into their formation, she carved out another large gap in the approaching horses’ advance.
Aster cast [Hail] behind Liz and cut off more of the monsters from approaching.
Seeing they had a free moment, Matt called out, “Send another volley out.”
As he said that, he threw everything into [Air Manipulation], and moved the skills control out far enough that his team could get several attacks off.
For a while, the fight settled into a lull, with them beating wave after wave back. But as time progressed, the Tier 6 beetles started to be replaced by Tier 7 variants, and their first injuries started to appear.
They fought on as the sun reached its zenith, then started to dip. But they continued on, with Melinda keeping them going as the Tier 7 monsters started to be replaced by Tier 8 monsters.
Kyle took an unlucky blow and lost his leg, which spelled the start of their doom. He continued to fight, but even Melinda was unable to get to him before he was overrun. To his credit, he kept swinging his greatsword until he was teleported out by Luna.
Down a man, and with only two dedicated front liners, they were slowly picked off. Even Vinnie’s walls and makeshift defensive fortifications were crushed under the weight of the approaching beetle horde.
Matt finally called for Aster to use her Winter’s Embrace, and the sand flash froze in a wave. Sadly, even with his [Air Manipulation], the beetles quickly adapted to the skill and ran through the portion of winter in the desert.
Once they lost Mathew to a Tier 9 beetle, the end of their attempt came swiftly.
Tara was able to take it out with a lucky shot into its mouth as it tried to eat Sam, but the damage was already done.
Matt, with Aster at his heels, managed to stall a second Tier 9 beetle, but they were overwhelmed before too long.
When they were teleported out, Matt found that everyone else was already hovering next to Luna except Liz.
- Writer
