145 / 60 - The Big Guns

The elite Council-Guard and the four council members stood on the shore, practically right under the twisting aerial monstrosity. On one side of him was Earcellwen, who was standing on her tiptoes to see out of the horizontal slot Vexor had shaped. Tight against him on the other side was Kendell. He was suddenly very aware of her.

There was something different in this contact. For most of Joe's life, whenever he had been touched, it was to offer him comfort. This time, he found that she was drawing solace from him. Her home was under attack by a legendary creature, and she was instinctively seeking comfort from him. Not since caring for his sick younger brothers had Joe felt this same degree of protective instincts. He leaned against her and looked at the battle above the ocean.

Cauldrakon struck out at the city with two of its armored tentacles. Both of these attacks were blocked by gigantic magical sigils hovering in the sky. The teal shade of the soaring wards matched the color of the Arch Druid's cloak, giving Joe a guess as to who had created them. It made sense that a Storm Warden would be a good foil for the aerial monstrosity.

The tempestuous attacker roared again, furious that its attacks were being thwarted. This time, its bellow was accompanied by a fury of crackling bolts of electricity. The sky sigils rebounded this assault as well, but the lightning was clearly eating its way through the mystic barricade.

Suddenly, rods of steel lanced upward from the top of the storm-wall. These towering metal spears slotted between the circle of symbols in the sky, drawing Cauldrakon's electrified breath down into the stonework, dispersing the worst of the lightning strikes.

Joe did not have enough time to pick out who had conjured the lightning rods. The group in the bunker collectively gasped as two of the massive tentacles slammed down on the aqua-hued barrier simultaneously. The ward wavered significantly but managed to hold.

Another strike slipped around the sigil, directed at the tight ranks of the Council Guard. The guardians immediately swept their shields up over their heads, forming a turtling shield-wall. A metallic sheen, similar to the spears, flowed over the shields, melding them into a solid steel dome. The blow rang deafeningly, even where Joe was watching from the arcane bunker; he couldn't imagine how loud it must have sounded inside that steel shell. When the silver metal withdrew, it was easy to see the tall leader of the Guild lowering his arms.

"Septimus is a ferromancer," Kenda explained. Joe looked over at her and noticed, in the rosy light from Vexor's arcane walls, that her brown hair looked red. "He has a mythic-level spell that gives him almost complete control over most metals, especially iron and steel."

"What about the one with all the spirits?" he asked.

"That is Manitou Hogam Goldboar. He's a powerful spiritualist and the head of the Lore-Keepers," Kenda explained. "He can call on the spirits of Fort Coral's ancestors to empower the Council Guard. With his spirit-host charging up their formation magic, the guards might have taken no damage at all under Master Silver's dome."

The last counselor is Lady Yalaeth Blackgrove," Kerrig added. The armored defender's voice was overflowing with admiration. The councilwoman clearly had a fan. The knight was standing behind Earcellwen, but he could easily see past her since he was well over a foot taller than Joe, let alone the short elven archer. "She is a paladin of Blu, the god of Sea and Skys. She's also the representative for the churches on the city council."

"Looks like they are getting ready to counterattack," one of the guardsmen declared. They followed the soldier's gaze to see the formation of the Council Guard change. The front opened, and the four council members stepped forward.

"Is it possible to fight something like that?" Joe blurted. He could not take his eyes off the titanic monster, three times more powerful than even Saint Suku, hovering over the city. "How are they going to tackle something with a level in the three hundreds?"

"That number would be horrifying were we not where we are," Vexor replied, still making marks in the air and onto the walls he was maintaining. "The city's defenses will seriously hamper Cauldrakon. Woven into every plaza and fortification are wards. Strong ones. They are why high-level earth mages can't just knock down the city walls or why demonologists couldn't summon swarms of fiends into the middle of the city."

"Also," Kerrig added. "The rest of the Storm Wardens are hard at work. My [Tactical Awareness] is reading dozens of debuffs on the monster. That thing is seriously curse-loaded. It's still a major threat, but between the city-wards and wardens, I'd say its attacks and defenses will be at least halved."

That still represented a creature more powerful than Joe could comprehend. He watched with the others as the council members took their places. Septimus Silver and the Arch-Druid extended their hands toward the sky. More lightning rods shot off the tops of roofs while the sigil thickened and grew more pronounced.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The dwarf and the regal paladin stood together. Lady Blackgrove was shouting a prayer to the heavens. Joe tried to make out what she was saying, but the remaining squalls shredded her ceremonial cries. The only thing he really managed to grasp was that Blu might be the father of the gods.

From all directions, glowing willow-o-wisps of light gathered around the woman. At first, Joe thought her prayers had called the floating lights until he saw the dwarven manitou directing the spectral wisps to her. As the spirits flowed into the paladin, she grew taller. Soon, the raven-haired warrior stood as tall as the guildmaster, surpassing his height a second later. She continued to grow until she towered above all the others, nine feet tall. Her mighty voice broke through the winds and boomed clearly across the beachfront.

"COME CHAMPION OF THE SEAS AND DO BATTLE WITH THIS PRIMORDIAL TERROR! IN BLU'S NAME AND BY THE WILL OF OUR ANCESTORS, RISE!"

Even though the storm-wall had blocked the worst of the storm surges from flooding the city, there had still been several inches of water flowing through the streets. As they watched, that flood was sucked back to the sea. The ocean pulled back even further, revealing the sea floor near the shore. Joe had seen a bunch of disaster movies that depicted this event as the precursor to a tsunami, yet he could not imagine the paladin planned to hit her own city with a tidal wave.

Looking out over the ocean, a gargantuan form bulged up from the ocean's surface. At first, it seemed like it really was the beginning of a great wave until the sides dropped off it. The form was now a vast tower. Massive shoulders hunched outward, and the shape became man-like, an aquatic titan from waist up, with long rivers of hair splashing back into the ocean. The colossus bore a titanic sword. It was a thick-bladed weapon with a curved edge, a hand-and-a-half grip, and an ornate guard. It was such a distinctive blade that Joe could have sworn he had seen it before.

"Margen," Kerrig and Kendell both uttered in voices filled with awe.

Joe realized they were right. The bearded titan and his sword were clearly a depiction of the lost legendary founder. Everyone in the crimson fortification blanched in awe. As they craned their necks upward to take in the sight of the kaijuesqu summoning, Joe heard one trooper utter, "I'm never going swimming again."

Cauldrakon turned in the sky, noting the massive form advancing towards it. The legendary beast was larger from one tentacle end to another, but overall, the titanic avatar exceeded the monster. In an act of pure malice, the storm-fiend whirled back at the defenders on the wall and screamed once more. It flared its coils out to their furthest limit in order to reach around the soaring sky-sigil. From the tip of each tentacle, a torrent of electricity hammered into the ground along the shore.

Joe caught a brief glimpse of Rattler Squad being struck by several bolts before the bunker lit up under the assault. Vexor howled as his construct began to overload. Without thinking, Joe spun and clapped a hand to the cambion's arm to heal him, only to be shot across the fort by a powerful electrical discharge.

Your Stormbreaker ward has been depleted.

He thumped into the prime's rubbery side, which saved him from impacting with the sparking red force barricade. To his surprise, the beast was, for lack of a better word, purring. As the crackling energy jumped off the magical walls, flickering and snapping into the akhlut's hide, the big bruiser seemed to be enjoying it.

Fffinnurloogukkk has substituted [Eelproof] for [Shrill Shunt]. You no longer have {Sonic} resistance. You have moderate {Poison} resistance and enhanced {Lightning} resistance as long as you are within Short range of Fffinnurloogukkk.

Joe was also getting notices that a skill of Finn's, something called [Sparksurge], was leveling up. This could be why the akhlut was enjoying the electrical discharges that, even as diminished as they were by resistances, still stung Joe.

While he was safe against the prime, the others were not. The guards and Kerrig, both covered in metal armor, were suffering the most. Vex lay on the ground, holding his head. The two female guilders were also receiving countless shocks.

Joe shot his [Casting Claw] over to the smoking cambion sorcerer and cast [Healer's Touch] while activating [Wellness]. With sixteen points of spirit, he could get everyone there, even including Finn, who was smugly bobbing as the electricity flowed over him.

You have restored 262 points of Vexor's health.

Everyone else got thirteen, plus forty-two more from the pulse released by the [Halefire] a few seconds later. Jumping from person to person, Joe cast heals, each spell splashing [Wellness] on the others.

As he worked, he noted that the red bunker had been seared into more of a lattice rather than solid walls. There were holes and gaps everywhere. Looking out through the ruined force walls, he saw that Rattler Squad was down. Everyone except the muscular goatesque aresa was either motionless and smoldering or writhing in agony on the ground. Her skin was charred black. Joe sent his claw out to give him the range he needed. When it was close enough, he dual cast [Halefires], replacing the one at his feet and dropping the other in the middle of the formation of dying guardsfolk. His head began to spin as the mana-drain from those first two pulses ran across so many tortured bodies.

Summoning a mana potion from his belt, Joe was about to gulp it down, when a soft, sibilant voice echoed into his head.

"You are needed. If you can trust us, we can save them," Suku whispered into his mind.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.