256 Spectres Incoming (2/2)
”That sounds great, George, but right now, I think we should be building military armaments rather than industrial machinery.” Mindy grimaced. She fired off her eighth and gathered her tenth, then fired off her ninth and then suddenly started firing off bolts continuously from one hand and then the next. ”Have you forgotten that we're fighting the Spectres?”
Meanwhile, Remian called down a cold combo. ”Blizzard! Flash Freeze!”
But the Tier 7 barely slowed. Heck, Mindy's continuous Psionic bolts were having more effect slowing it down than Remina's Flash Freeze. The other corvettes were also blasting away at the Tier 7 with ballistae, crossbows, and ice magic. Someone was even trying wind magic on it. Despite all their efforts, though, the Tier 7 was still slowly getting closer.
Thankfully, the Wilds were having better success with the Tier 6's. One by one, the Tier 6's fell and faded into nothing, like fog dispersing in the sun.
But just as Remian was starting to think things weren't going too badly after all, another wave of Spectral Beasts appeared, half of them Tier 5's, a few Tier 6's and a second Tier 7.
”Oh, scrap!” George grimaced. ”All ships, slow withdrawal! Where are our reinforcements?!”
”Where's Darian and his twenty dragons?!” Remian asked suddenly.
Mindy glanced around but didn't see them. [Darian? Where are you?]
[Halfway back to Dragon Lake. We need to report to the Elder Dragons and such. They need to know what's coming!] Darian's thoughts flowed back. [The Wood Emperor and the Earth Emperor need to know!]
[Great! But meanwhile, we could really use twenty dragons out here!] Mindy sent back.
[What, all the Flame Emperor's forces can't hold back a handful of Spectres?]
[Another bunch of them came through. Something tells me there's more yet to come.]
[All the more reason we need to rouse the full might of the Five Emperors. Also, Doom says we need to send word to the Great Dragons.]
[Speaking of Doom, why isn't he here helping us?]
[He's busy trying to talk sense into Fel and Damnaith. Now that they're surrounded by dragons, they're a lot more willing to talk.]
[Oh? How's that going?]
[Not great. But they're at least willing to communicate.]
[They're willing to have a conversation?]
[Sort of. It's more like they're yelling at each other. Even the dragons are steering clear. But I think we can at least get them to agree to help fight off the Spectres.]
[They should! They're the ones who caused this!]
[Doom said the exactly same thing. That's when the shouting match began.]
Mindy hesitated. [Can you get word to Tim? We might need a whole lot more firepower in the days to come. We're going to need really ramp up production in the industrial zone.]
[I'm still a bit out of range. But I'll send word to Three Pines. I might be close enough by then.]
”Okay, that's it for me.” George slumped down on the deck. ”I'm dizzy.”
Remian glanced at the other corvettes. The spells and firepower flying from them were sporadic and sparse. ”Looks like the rest of the fleet can't go on much longer either. I think it's time we pull back. You all need a break, and this isn't going to be over any time soon.”
”Speak for yourself. You look even paler than he does.” Mindy pointed out, looking at Remian. ”You need to go get some rest too. I'll stay here and try to hold them off a bit more.”
Remian glanced down and realized that he was physically trembling. Only now did he suddenly feel the exhaustion. ”But…”
”Go. I'll be with Chirpy. We'll pull back when we need to.” Mindy assured him. ”Go get us as much reinforcements and firepower as you can.”
”Right.” Remian hesitated for one more moment, then said. ”I'll hold you to it, now. No heroics. Pull back when you have to.”
”I promise.”