Chapter 12 Part 2 of 4 (Patreon)

The spells, selected to work the best against Willful Institute barriers, simply smashed into the ground like meteors, leaving only glowing tombstones in their path.

“Now!” Derrick yelled at the armored lady. He stepped forward, summoning his strength and stabbed his sword into the ground. As it descended ice rapidly covered the blade, hitting the ground and spreading in a wave down the wall and across the ground in front of the defenses like an icy fan.

It exploded outwards in ice spikes, piercing through beasts and riders on the walls, those in the air and up through those on the ground where the mana barrier placement had been interrupted by the rippled ground, creating a small pathway for the attack to get through.

People from behind the wall threw out casks of oil.

The oil smashed against the barriers and on the ground, seeping under the mana barriers through the ripples, guided and pushed by mages’ water magic.

Derrick rose from his crouch.

A beast and a rider already on the wall had evaded his attack.

The rider’s halberd swept out, covering the beast’s flanks as the beast used its claws and mouth. With a casual hit it could dent the Third Realm fighter’s armor and crush bones.

Derrick felt sudden heat closest to the wall as he heard people crying out.

The oil forced through the rippled ground was set ablaze. Beasts panicked in the heat, causing chaos on the Institute’s side.

Derrick used a movement technique, avoiding the halberd that cut past his face.

He stabbed out with his sword, seeing the whites of his opponent’s eyes as his blade slammed through the opening under their armpit and through their body. Derrick released the sword in his left hand, embedded in the rider’s body using it’s fixed nature to turn in the air. He landed, facing the rider and beast, metal and ice surged around his blade, creating a glittery vapor as he drew it downward. A sword three meters long, looking like a sharp ruler, cut into the beast’s neck and all the way through.

The beast slumped, falling towards Derrick. He pulled his sword free of the rider as an arrow passed him; hitting a rider that had just made it onto the wall, his beast’s fur smoking.

The beast was pushed to the side as his rider’s weight changed.

Derrick turned, planting his feet as he drew metal mana through his body. He stabbed out with his sword, body and mana system united. Metal attribute mana surged up his sword, like silver lightning. It created a shadow of Derrick’s own blade, covering it before it shot out, creating a shockwave of air.

The beast had no time to react, still fighting to stay on its feet.

Derrick’s attack pierced through his light armor. Lightning detonated within the beast, lighting it up from the inside, blasting out a hole on the other side as it collapsed.

Derricks’ minders reached him.

The riders had been thrown off balance with the artillery attacks and the flaming oil. Beasts had gone wild while the riders who inhaled the alchemist’s oil couldn’t stop coughing or clear their eyes as they kept watering.

Roving groups of two or three Adventurer Association members forced the riders back. The regular guild forces pinned down the beasts and riders until they could arrive.

Their momentum was lost, engaged in a fierce battle against the wall.

“Have mages switch to buffing and healing. Push any reinforcements to the flanks,” Derrick ordered. His aides passed on orders. A beast scrambled up the wall. Defenders attacked with their spears and weapons. The rider jumped off the beast, using them as a stepping stone.

Spells struck the rider in mid-air throwing him back below.

Without the run up, the beasts had to scramble up the last bits of wall.

Derrick felt confident when he saw all of the beasts and riders turn and jump off the wall back in the direction they had come.

They’re retreating? The world exploded around him.

He was thrown back and to the side, another destructive wave hit him, pelted with stone and dirt.

He hit the ground, side first. He covered his head taking the impacts of stone and dirt. He covered his eyes, opening them against the dirt filled air. Gaping holes had opened in his impromptu defenses, people and bodies lay strewn across the rear area. Towers had been blasted away by the breaching spells that were meant to attack Fourth Realm walls.

Derrick pulled out his map placing down markers ahead of the wall.

He opened his mouth only to start coughing.

“Regroup between the stables and the wall!” Derrick used his necklace to reach everyone.

Riders ran through the breaches organized into small groups.

They cut through guild members who tried to get up, or who had been out of the blast radius of the attack spells.

Derrick ripped another spell scroll on his leg. Healing light fell on the guild members still alive. He held another, targeting it and ripped it too.

A spell formation appeared in the sky, dropping a pillar of light on a breach. It left behind a crater of tombstones and a dust wave.

Derrick started towards the breaches, he used a healing spell on himself, he’d lost his right blade, sliding across the ground. He took out a spare blade from his storage ring as he saw people getting up from the ground.

“Move to the rally point between the stables and the breach! Gather your guild members as you go!” Derrick ordered.

A rider saw Derrick, with a yell he signalled to his group.

Derrick accelerated, faster than any normal human. The Fifth Realm fighters shot out spells, hitting the ground around him as he skidded from side to side.

He cast out an ice spell, dropping to the ground as spells flew over him. He slid forwards, hitting the ground he launched himself up.

The world crackled around him as he landed on his feet, stumbling slightly before he found his footing right before the riders. A spear aimed at his chest howled past as he created ice on his feet, sliding under it

He pushed up with his right foot, seeing a second spear aimed for his stomach. His massive strength stat wasn’t enough to let him clear the spear completely.

His foot was clipped by the fire energy on the end of the spear, melting the ice on his legs and breaking something.

Derrick hit the ground and rolled, careful to not stab or slice himself with his blades.

He got to his knee, breathing heavily as the group of seven tried to turn to face him again. Their beast’s feet skidded and clicked against the ice under foot.

Derrick put his hand to the blue ice line next to his foot. Silver lightning danced through the ice and surged through the beasts and riders.

Tombstones appeared as Derrick stopped channelling lightning into the smoking ice.

The group collapsed as Derrick stood up, he tilted feeling pain in his right foot.

“Shit,” He pushed his foot into place and blasted it with a healing spell. “That’ll work.”

He saw a group of guild members shoulder to shoulder fighting off the rider groups. The riders were hurling attacks at them as they rushed by. Derrick ambled forward, channeling more healing. A rider took notice and charged Derrick.