Chapter 32

When the attack on our Sphere finally started, Hakan was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t like his absence one little bit, but at least War was there, shouting orders over the heads of his wicked looking army. He stood around two hundred feet tall, larger than the next tallest warrior under his command by a good fifty feet, and he looked sublimely confident.

I smiled at the sight. That confidence and pride would make it so much easier to find and chop his fucking head off later.

Their initial attack consisted of his full front line charging the Sphere, hurling a huge amount of power as they closed the distance. More than any normal warrior should have on Falritas, but not in the same league as the gods I had with me and had no effect on our defense.

I breathed a small sigh of relief as I saw that. So much had changed lately that the Sphere no longer offered the invulnerability I once thought it did.

Of course, our return attacks were equally ineffective against their shields. Far more complex than anything I’d seen on Falritas before, and they would take a real effort to dismiss. Exactly how much work, we were about to find out as I shouted across the Soul bonds of those with me.

“I’ll work on dropping their shields going from their center to the left first, then sweeping back to the right. Keep your fire up along the entire line until I give the command to switch focus on the center. We don’t want to give these bastards any advantages.

There was a chorus of agreement apart from Devotion’s group. She spoke in my mind with a wave of hope and fear mixed together . “We can help with the Shields. Even if we’re poor with the skill, it’s a better use of our time than firing out to no effect.”

I couldn’t see any harm in the suggestion and they needed to develop their skills  with shields, so I quickly agreed. “That’s fine. It’ll be good practice.”

With everyone in the loop, I turned my gaze on the center of the monstrous wall. Taking in the weaves of their defenses in greater detail I got to work. Of course, they shifted under my touch, but I was both prepared and powerful now to lock them in position before unpicking them.

As I wrestled the construct, Devotion and the others made themselves known. They were clumsy attempts and ended up causing me more problems than assistance, but wasn’t that always the way.”

I spoke into their minds as one. “Put all your focus on the Water elements in the shield and nothing else. See if you can syphon it away.”

“Are you sure?” Devotion asked with a slight tremor to her voice.

“Completely. Having spoken with the Guardians and seeing how much they value their personalities and how those tie in with their strongest affinities I think they were probably onto something. We all need to play to our strengths.”

Thankfully, they took the instruction well, which meant I could now ignore the Water neuma completely and the weaves I was playing with were no longer being interfered with by the blind fumbling’s of well-meaning friends.

Having them involved also meant that our enemies attempts at pushing us back from their shields was spread across all five of us rather than focused on me.

“CENTER!” I screamed when the shield finally fell. Despite shouting too loud and staggering my own friends, they recovered fast and swiftly altered their targets to unleash concentrated hell in the centre of the enemy column.

To see a sudden visual of just how far they’d all come with their new powers was humbling. While there wasn’t much nuance to any of their attacks, the raw power was staggering. Hundreds must have died or damn close to it as rock, soil, and body parts rained down in all directions. It was good to see that while Hakan had clearly empowered these monstrosities, he wasn’t able to make them completely impervious.

The big question was, did they have Ethereal Souls? Would they just be reborn? Could he speed up that process? Sure, that was three questions, and I had a shit ton more that needed answering, but for now, I took the victory and moved on.

We continued the process down the line, but they were on to our tactics now, and it was taking longer and longer with each shield we dropped

All the while, the gaps we left were filled with fresh troops from the horde kept out of range. It was long and grueling work, but ultimately it didn’t matter as we were steadily whittling down their forces while taking no losses ourselves.

The sun set on the first day of battle yet all of us worked tirelessly through the night. Danivra had returned to lend her considerable fire power and by the time the sun began to rise on the second, we were approaching the end of the left wing of their army. A small milestone, as the gaps we created were filled, but a milestone all the same. It was also a milestone for another reason as Devotion appeared at my side looking rattled. “They’ve removed Water Clive.”

I looked back from my next target. “Say what?”

“The enemy, they've stopped putting Water Neuma in the shields. We’re useless.”

I took another look at the shield we were preparing to work on and saw what she meant. I smiled. “Why you so worried? That's awesome news when you think about it.”

“How so?" she replied, the concern still etched on her face.

“Simple. You guys have been ripping the Water out of the shield so quickly and effectively and they while they’ve been able to slow me, they just have no answer to your work, so, they're taking it off the board altogether. It’s one less Neuma to deal with.”

“Doesn't that mean more hard work for you?”

"I don't know. What's your next strongest affinity?" I already knew the answer, but it didn't hurt to ask.

“Air. It's air!” she said, her eyes lighting up as the same thought sprouted in her mind as it had mine.

I winked at her. “Perfect. Then it looks like you’re about to get a self-taught, crash course in Air manipulation. Which leaves me with far fewer numbers to work with.”

“I don’t think we'll be anywhere near as effective with Air as we were with Water but we'll certainly give it a go.”

“Christ, Devotion, you don't need to be anywhere near as effective. Even with a tenth of the speed you were attacking the Water with will do. At the end of the day, the bottleneck in dropping the shields is me.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “We’re quite strong in Light as well. Should we work on that too?"

“Nah,” I said with a firm head shake. “The Light is one of the main aspects in most of the shields we’ve faced. If Mal was here, I’d probably set him on the Decay in the shields, but no. Focus on Air first. Hell, who knows? They may pull Air from the equation and then I’ll set you on Light.”

She beamed, eager to get back to work. “We'll get right on it. And I promise, before long, we'll be pulling that Air out faster than you can say Hakan is a menace!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that tame insult. It was no less than I'd expect from the placid God of Devotion, but it still tickled me.

“That he is, D. I’d love to know where the bastard is and what he’s up to.”

She nodded solemnly. “I’m trying not to think about it too much, but I worry about that too. Do you have a plan?”

“Nothing to deal with Hakan, and whatever he’s up to right now. We just need to push these bastards back, claim Holse and Vemerak and ultimately get that Sphere around Falritas as quickly as possible. If he’s here, hopefully we can trap him in the Sphere.”

“A sound plan. I would feel better if we were killing War’s army a little faster. It does feel like they are here to distract us.”

I nodded grimly. “Absolutely. I’m starting to think he’s not even on Falritas, though.”

“That does seem likely,” she agreed. “Perhaps he is on Talitus?”

What could I do but shrug. I couldn’t be everywhere at once. “From what I can feel through Destruction and Mal’s bond they’re alive and healthy. I can’t tell much else, but I’d assume if they were in trouble, I wouldn’t be getting that feeling. I’ll give them a little longer, and then go check myself. Time permitting,” I added with a nod to the army in front of us.

Unsurprisingly, the next shield took a lot longer to break down, but we still managed it, much to the obvious dismay of War, who roared audibly across the battlefield. It was a foolish thing to do, as it gave our defenders confidence and onward we trudged, slowly increasing in speed as their numbers steadily dwindled.

Around midafternoon, I finally received one of the messages I’d been waiting for as Sania’s voice entered my mind. “Clive, we've found him!”

"That’s damn good news. Is he bonded to Hakan yet?”

“He says not, though he was not happy to see me.”

“Ha! I bet he wasn’t. Well done Sania.”

I felt her pride swell as she replied. “When you send Wultr to hunt, you get results.”

“I never had any doubt. I’m on my way. Give me a minute to let the others know.”

Again I went through their bonds, not wanting anything I had to say to be overheard by keen ears beyond the barrier. “Hey guys, I need to head off and see a man about a Holse. I shouldn’t be long, but if you don’t mind keeping these wankers busy by yourselves for a bit, I’d be very grateful.”

As expected, the reply was of overwhelming positivity, which left me free to go see Sania.