Ter'tu's thoughts were spinning as powerful auras erupted before his base, every attacking D grade going all out and activating their boosting skills in the very first second of the battle. What surprised Ter'tu the most was that Thalion's aura was still clearly visible and continued to increase in lethality despite him only being E grade. Just how was that possible?
Normally, their walls and defensive structures were only so incredibly durable because of the shield protecting them. They were actually quite vulnerable once that protection disappeared, especially against D-grade opponents. All the specialized ballistae mounted atop the walls and the countless magical formations instantly became easy targets.
Multiple attacks rained down upon the battlements, tearing them apart with alarming ease. The fortress was old, but almost all of its resources had been invested into the mana shield's power source rather than the walls themselves. The fact that their standard defensive tactics failed so completely cost Ter'tu's army many lives. The attackers were relentless and had clearly come with the intention of exterminating every single member of the North Tower.
"Quick, send one of the recordings, just in case!" Ter'tu shouted to one of the E-grade warriors.
They had been prepared for an attack, but not for such an overwhelming all-out assault. Most of the E grades inside the fortress would only gradually be able to join the battle. Right now, they needed to regain the momentum and show those newcomers what it truly meant to reach D grade in Integrated Space.
Multiple mages were already airborne, rapidly weaving their spells. Lightning and crystal magic rained down upon the attackers, but without the protection of the mana barrier, defending the fortress was far more difficult than Ter'tu had anticipated. The enemy possessed an incredible variety of classes. There were D grades wielding almost every element imaginable, and they moved with such speed that striking them from afar became increasingly difficult.
Thalion had already disappeared to the flank and was relentlessly pursuing one of the D-grade mages. Ter'tu had to admit that the man fought extraordinarily well. Instead of contesting the mage's spells head-on, he effortlessly dodged around them, rapidly closing the distance to finish the mage with a single strike. Fortunately, his D-grade mages weren't weaklings and always teleported away before Thalion could land the killing blow.
The real issue was the enemy D-grades, who had immediately spread throughout the battlefield and launched coordinated attacks from every direction. Before Ter'tu could regain control of the situation, a massive tidal wave came crashing toward him with two women riding within it.
"WER'TI, TO ME!" Ter'tu roared as he formed a towering crystal wall before him to delay the attack.
A crystal disc appeared beneath his feet, lifting him high into the sky. The air itself howled as auras clashed between the countless fighters. Before him, the ocean rose into a colossal maelstrom, and the sheer power behind the skill was unlike anything Ter'tu had witnessed in a long time.
He launched multiple crystal spears toward the woman who appeared to control the water while the younger one surfed effortlessly upon the massive wave. Unfortunately, the spears missed their target and instead blasted enormous craters into the ground below.
Then the gigantic sphere of water before him began to rise even higher.
Ter'tu's eyebrows lifted in disbelief. He couldn't comprehend how a single D grade could command such overwhelming power. But that was far from the end. The mana within the water surged once again, and the only thing he saw was the woman calmly bringing her hands together.
The next moment, the entire ocean condensed into eight enormous spheres that bathed the battlefield in brilliant blue light before erupting into massive jet streams of water that carved through the fortress. One of those devastating torrents came straight for Ter'tu, forcing him to activate a movement skill that instantly swapped his position with one of his floating crystal constructs.
The skill consumed vastly more mana than simply creating another crystal platform and flying on it, but that was a small price compared to dying.
"JUST WHAT ARE YOU DOING? FIGHT BACK!" Ter'tu roared from above as he activated a spell that hurled a massive lightning bolt toward the woman who had just killed hundreds with a single attack.
All of a sudden, he felt something tugging at his body, and his lips visibly began to dry.
Ter'tu understood nothing. How was it still looking this bad? His seasoned warriors couldn't kill those newly advanced D grades quickly, and a few of them, like the woman below, were simply far too powerful, slaughtering his people with little effort. In the distance, he even saw a giant turtle blasting through every crystal and lightning bolt thrown at it. And what was that? Was that a wyvern... at E grade?
The wyvern was surrounded by a vast white storm, and with quick flybys it bombarded the city with devastating lightning beams. Even from this distance, Ter'tu could feel the vibrations every time the wyvern charged another attack. The sensation of his skin stinging pulled him back to the present as he realized the water was leaving his body.
Why? What? Ter'tu was utterly confused. He hadn't been struck by any skill—that much he was certain of. Then he noticed the droplets clinging to his skin. It was the water from the woman's earlier attack. Every single drop was pulling the moisture out of his body, something he would never have thought possible. Just how did someone even accomplish that?
He needed to get back into the city and regroup. Even now, they still held the numerical advantage. Lightning crackled around him, instantly vaporizing the remaining droplets of water. At the same time, he fired multiple crystal discs at the woman below and launched another toward his own city.
Yet the woman below was an absolute monster. She effortlessly dodged the incoming attacks so that they missed her by no more than a hair's breadth, while at the very same moment water condensed around her into a thin protective layer resembling a suit. Ter'tu had never seen anyone manipulate moisture from the air so effortlessly in the middle of combat.
Even though his distraction hadn't worked with the woman closing the distance fast, he had still bought himself enough time to activate his movement skill, swapping places with the crystal disc inside the city. The instant he teleported, he detonated the crystal, blasting razor-sharp shards in every direction. Because of the teleportation, he missed what happened to the woman. He hoped she had suffered a fatal injury so he could finish her from afar with one of his specialized lightning bolts.
To his disappointment, the woman was completely unharmed and was charging straight toward him like a rocket. In fact, she was riding within a glowing stream of blue water she had gathered on her ascent, and she would reach him within mere seconds. Here inside the fortress, most of the towers were still equipped with heavy weapons, even though that damned wyvern had already destroyed more than a dozen of them.
"Open fire!" Ter'tu hissed, pointing at the woman racing toward him. Where had the other one gone? he wondered as his eyes quickly swept across the battlefield but failed to find her.
Lightning crackled violently around Ter'tu as he continued overcharging his next spell, while the ballistae unleashed a barrage that forced the woman to interrupt her charge. To him, she fought more like a demon than a person, even though her expression showed nothing but complete concentration and indifference.
She dismissed the stream of water carrying her through the sky and instead shaped it into a rapidly spinning ring around her body, tearing the incoming projectiles out of the air before they could reach her. Hovering motionless in the sky was a fatal mistake, especially now that Ter'tu had finished charging his spell.
He released the lightning lance.
The skill excelled in speed and penetration, capable of piercing almost any defense. A direct hit at this distance meant certain death.
The woman must have sensed the surge in his aura, because she instantly raised a wall of ice in front of herself. It blocked his vision, but it was already far too late for that.
Ter'tu unleashed the spell.
The force behind the attack was so overwhelming that it pushed him several meters backward while the ice wall shattered instantly into thousands of glittering fragments. Ice splinters flew in every direction, but the woman behind it was gone.
Suddenly, something grabbed him from below.
Water wrapped tightly around his body, and he immediately felt himself drying out even faster. Then the woman appeared directly in front of him, calmly pulling more and more moisture from the surrounding air.
Ter'tu tried to unleash another lightning bolt, but it only electrocuted himself, nearly knocking him unconscious. His lightning also possessed the property of draining mana from whatever it struck, and now it had struck him instead. More than half of his remaining mana vanished in an instant.
He didn't know why the enemy wasn't simply killing him, but that was definitely a mistake.
He immediately activated his Crystal Armor, encasing himself within a solid shell of crystal. He would no longer be able to move, but at least he would definitely be safe from—
Ouch.
His thoughts were interrupted as two silver-glowing fish made entirely of mana bit deeply into his left leg and tore off his right hand. The pain disrupted most of his crystal magic, and only a few crystal spikes erupted around his chest and back. Not that it mattered anymore, as the fish immediately turned around and tore another chunk of flesh from his body.
Ter'tu screamed, allowing the water surrounding him to rush into his mouth. It immediately began drying him out from the inside.
Even while completely surrounded by water, his body continued to dehydrate. With his one remaining good eye—the other had already lost all vision after drying out—he desperately tried to focus. Pain ravaged every inch of his body, but Ter'tu hadn't become the leader of the North Tower by giving up.
He could do this.
Just a little more concentration, and he could swap places with one of the crystal shards scattered across the battlefield.
Then the woman appeared directly in front of him.
The sphere of water surrounding him continued to expand, and judging by the expression on her face, Ter'tu didn't like what was about to happen at all.