Chapter 202: Coming to a Head (2/2)
She touched the strange necklace he'd given her before running off into battle, and considered using it. Something about the situation felt wrong, and she would be a lot more comfortable if he was around to deal with it. Just when she'd decided to make use of the item, the tower shuddered noticeably.
Harnik groaned, as if under a sudden strain. ”They're trying to bring down the tower's defense system! The fools! The tower will collapse if they do.”
Another shudder, this time stronger, gave urgency to his words. Twisting lines of blueish white arcane energy suddenly appeared on the walls. As they watched, the lines flickered, becoming noticeably fainter in the process.
Kiera responded first. ”How do we stop it?”
”The defense system was designed to be controlled from this room, but there are nodes on each floor that can be accessed. We have no way of knowing exactly where they are…” Harnik groaned again as another vibration shook the tower. ”Mana support! Quickly!” He commanded the other student mages before resuming his explanation with a strained voice. ”You'll need to check every floor.”
The commander glowered at the window one last time, before turning to the other occupants in the room. ”Well, you heard the man. We'll be retaking this tower, one floor at a time. I know most of you aren't skilled in combat, but we don't have much of a choice.”
Sera activated the necklace, believing that now would be an excellent time to call on their resident walking disaster. However, it flashed briefly before disintegrating. ”Um, Tal? Is it supposed to do that?”
The elf looked at her, then down at her own necklace, and finally at the walls. ”Tower defenses. Interference, maybe.”
It took a second for the Oracle to understand the meaning behind the elf's words. She was suggesting that the field of arcane energy built into the towers walls were somehow preventing the necklace from activating as it was supposed to. While this might be due to the current state of high activity, it also meant that they couldn't carelessly make use of Tal's item until they were sure it would work.
”Alright, I'll take the lead. I want those of you with the most combat experience to be right behind me. Harnik, try to buy us as much time as you can.” Kiera commented as she strode to the head of the stairs, drawing a simple, battered sword in the process. Once in place, she swept the assembled mix of students, instructors, and volunteers with a steely gaze.
”Well, let's get on with it.” She commented dryly, before bursting into action and leaping down the stairs. For a full second silence reigned in the room, until one of the messengers, carrying nothing more than a dagger, gave a battle cry and charged after her. Soon the rest of them followed suit.
Sera and Tal were swept up in the tide.
Gripping her bow tightly as she ran down the stairs, Sera felt her anxiety disappear. Whatever happened, it was now largely outside of their hands. That said, she couldn't help but feel a small amount of anger towards Mike, since he'd indirectly gotten them into this mess, unfair though it was to blame him for it.
[If I die in the next few minutes, I'm definitely coming back to haunt him.]
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Just as he was about to launch his spell, Mike was momentarily distracted by a high pitched sound from somewhere behind him. It was so short in duration, he thought he must have imagined it. Nevertheless, it left him with a strange feeling of unease that he couldn't banish easily.
The distraction nearly proved fatal, as the brief hesitation gave Nurenal a chance to evade and counter with his own spell resulting in the pair of them being hit with simultaneous explosions of magical energy. Mike was able to protect himself from the worst of it with another mana shield, and endure the rest.
[No time to worry about it now. I've got to deal with the guy in front of me.]
Deciding that he should prioritize eliminating the current threat, Mike summoned a humming blade of fire, and pushed himself into the cloud of smoke surrounding his enemy, swinging horizontally at the last place he'd seen the elf. Somehow sensing his attack, Nurenal blocked the blow with a curved sword of his own, coated in brilliant arcane energy.
The resulting clash pushed the smoke away, revealing an unfazed battlemage ready to fight. He glanced down at the angry line of white-hot fire that was attempting to eat through his sword with something resembling fascination. ”An inelegant application, but one with some interesting possibilities.”
Mike resisted the urge to respond angrily, and instead pushed back on his opponent's sword, forcing the elf to take a step back. His follow-up attack was interrupted by the need to dodge to the left as Nurenal punched out with a fist clad in arcane energy. Mike wasn't sure what that attack might do, but the way the it seemed to sizzle as it slid past his head, made him not want to find out.
He took his distance and fell into the Roaring Flame Stance. He felt compelled to bring this fight to a close swiftly. Channeling mana into his limbs, he bathed himself in a fiery aura and launched himself at the battlemage.