Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Ray of Corruption

"Gragko! Open holes just in front of the defense line," Caranlín ordered.

The dwarf did it, and immediately the creatures attacking underground found an area with less resistance to exit. They appeared in the midst of the mob of losts which were their allies, something that those beings of little intelligence weren't able to distinguish. Their orders were to open a path in that area, and attack everything nearby.

He had weakened three passageways, and was continuing to open more as they retreated. This caused the influx of earthworms and other types of corrupt worms to increase, attacking their allies and wreaking havoc on the lines of losts.

That eased the pressure on the rear, but they were still far from fulfilling the most important objective, which was to break through. The enemy didn't enter the miasma-free zone, so they concentrated their forces on the separation between the besieged living and their reinforcements, trying the siege from breaking. Of course, the number of troops that can be at the same time at the same point is limited, so their superiority of forces wasn't absolute.

The giants advanced little by little, as the enemy formation was becoming denser. On their side, the reinforcements were approaching through the area without miasma, so they weren't attacked at the moment. The problem was that every time they eliminated a group of enemies, others took their place. Progress was extremely slow, and with no further reinforcements expected in the near term, they were unsure whether they could get it.

Suddenly, a strange feeling floated over the battlefield. The miasma that had been regaining ground stopped advancing, and the feeling of great danger invaded their hearts.

"R... Ray of corruption!" One of the mages suddenly shouted.

That terrified everyone. It was a spell that generals could use once every twenty years, a ray that brought death and destruction on its path.

"Magic shields!?" Caranlín asked discouraged, since she imagined the answer.

All the magicians who could summon them shook their heads, for they had no mana left to raise the defenses. They would need at least ten simultaneous ones to start dreaming of countering the attack, and, even then, they would have no guarantees.

Everybody felt the great power coming from the place where the general was, which for the first time revealed its position. Unfortunately, they had no means to attack it. It was a dark and fearsome power, accumulated through years of absorption of miasma.

Normally, they only used it in exceptional circumstances, but this time it couldn't even judge if it was. Anger dominated it. The fear of failure, the fear that its preys would escape after so many preparations and so many casualties, the frustration of not having succeeded yet... All that didn't allow it to think clearly, and clouded its judgment. All it wanted was to kill them all.

A black lightning beam shot out of the general's place in the direction of the enemy vanguard. As it advanced, it engulfed its own allies, saturating them with miasma until they bursted, and then creating a strong explosion that spanned up to ten meters around. It was as abominable as it was terrifying.

It soon arrived in front of the giants, who couldn't to face that terror. Not even their thick skin and powerful bodies could bear that dark power. However, it wasn't them who the beam reached.

Eldi had used Earthquake to intercept the attack, in turn pushing away the nearby losts. He had done it twice more until he was positioned far enough from his allies, switching to the axe immediately. The enemies hesitated to pounce on him, as their instincts warned them of the imminent danger, a danger that hit the high human fully.

The three layers of Magic against me? were surpassed in an instant, annihilating the defense. Block was useless in the face of that attack, so the Corruption Ray struck his body, where the protecting armor was just a grain of sand in the face of a tsunami.

The sacrifice of their ally stunned them all as they tried to escape the path of the impact. However, it didn't reach them. They couldn't believe that the attack had stopped, leaving a path of destruction between the general and Eldi, but not beyond. When the latter made a strange and rapid movement backwards, escaping from the enemies which were trying to attack him, they didn't even know what to believe. There was only stupefaction on their faces at the fact that he was still alive.

He had used Feline Response to escape from there, after having won a dangerous bet. While both Block and Magic Me? had been completely outmatched, Impregnable had saved him. The three seconds it lasted at affinity 6 had barely been long enough, he had survived by a whisker. And he had even gotten the additional reward of the skill rising to level 7, gaining half a second in duration.

Everyone looked at his ally with some apprehension, fearful that the miasma might have affected him, but he soon showed that it hadn't, since he was able to speak.

"I won't be able to do it again," he said, visibly exhausted.

His allies nodded, puzzled, not noticing at that moment that the armor he was wearing had changed. It was level 60, as he had had to put it on quickly, since the previous one had been destroyed. Not only would it have been imprudent to be unprotected, but he didn't want to appear half naked before his companions. He had also lost the axe, but luckily it wasn't a very popular weapon among elves, and he still had the level 60 weapon.

On the other hand, it is true that, as much as they were surprised, they couldn't afford to waste time. There were enemies attacking them, and they had to advance.

But if there was someone even more incredulous about the situation, that someone was the general. It had used its ace up its sleeve, its most powerful card, and had failed. The general didn't understand how or why it had been stopped, but the truth was that it hadn't reached its enemies. It was in shock, unable to react to the accumulation of unexpected setbacks.

Victory was close, but it was slipping through its fingers. It couldn't believe it, and that made it lose its concentration and not notice the changes that were taking place on the battlefield, where the last protection barrier had fallen, and the living were at the mercy of ranged attacks.