The Systemic Lands - Chapter 262: Day 538 – War Of Attrition Continued

Chapter 262: Day 538 – War Of Attrition Continued

It had been a long and uneasy night, but the Ritualist hadn’t acted. It was surprising, since he had to think he was on a timer based on the day it would take to use the City Shield again after the cool down period.

Waiting was odd, unless he thought he had a counter to the City Shield. I frowned at the idea, but if it was possible, the Ritualist would find a way. More beams shot at the emplacement I was hiding behind and it was slowly destroyed.

A runner handed me a flask of water. I quickly drank a large mouthful and passed it back with a nod of thanks. The runner took off to the next person. Something General Smith had set up. I noted more cut blocks from city buildings being lifted up on top of the wall.

I began to stretch in preparation for more activity right now. I had slept off the wall, right beneath it, but it hadn’t been a good sleep. I had wanted my bed, but I couldn’t afford to take off my armor right now at the height of the battle and get comfortable. I needed to be ready to move within a second once the Ritualist made his move.

“Champion Michael,” General Smith came over and greeted me as more energy beams lanced through the air. Brave of him, but I wouldn’t have my general cowering in the back. Clarissa was fine doing that, but a leader needed to lead from the front, especially a war leader. Another reason I was out here where people could see me.

“General Smith, how are things looking?” I asked.

“Tense. I wanted to speak to you. I have been saving up Radiant Beams and was thinking of using them on the super worm, thoughts?” I shook my head and sighed at that.

“I am guessing you have seen its scales repel energy attacks?” I asked and the General nodded.

“It isn’t worth it. Even if all the attacks were somehow focused on a single spot, it wouldn’t be enough. After all those bombs and the Ritualist’s supply train went up it only suffered minimal damage. Our best bet is for people to avoid it,” I explained.

“You can’t do anything?” the General asked me.

“If it was the only monster, I would seek to wear it down, but it isn’t simple with everything else. I also suspect the Ritualist is inside the thing, since I haven’t spotted the box used to contain his main body,” I replied.

“Our energy sensors have had a hard time sensing his tethers, but they speculate he is inside as well. Acid Shot, no good?”

“In bulk maybe. But I need energy to maneuver and again, the rest of his army. I suggest concentrating Radiant Beams at a large group to shatter them,” I replied.

“They are counter sniping for now. But I wanted to get your opinion if it was worthwhile to amass them,” the General explained, showing he had a much better head for tactics than me. Counter sniping was indeed a better use of them and would limit the barrages we were constantly suffering.

“Well, the worm is going to be too hard to kill until last. Which is annoying since the Ritualist might use it as an escape method. If it retreats, then the Ritualist is retreating,” I explained.

“I will keep that in mind. Take care, Champion Michael,” General Smith said.

“Thank you General Smith,” I replied and he hurried out from behind the makeshift wall during a break in the attacks. The Ritualist was really dragging things out and it was hard to understand why. Perhaps he wanted to see if we used the City Shield once the timer was expired with all his forces inside the city.

That wouldn’t happen. The Ritualist would have to act first before we made moves on our side. I was tempted to go out and harass his forces, but I needed to conserve energy. It wasn’t worth the risk of having low energy when he attacked in force.

A beam of light flashed from one of the bunkers towards some ranged attackers. The Ritualist was quick to fire back, but I had no doubt the Radiant Beam user had already retreated from where he had used the skill. From what I could tell, they were paired up with another person who had a blanket to hide the activation light. They would yank the blanket away just as the skill was unleashed, giving very little to no time for the Ritualist to know it was coming.

Watching every single person moving about had to be exhausting and the General had done an amazing job rotating people in and out from various positions, so they could rest and make it hard to figure out weak points or key personnel.

It was the little things like this that were crucial in terms of tipping the battle in our favor. The Ritualist was making a move. The bells rang out and I took a quick peak and saw the hordes advancing as more attacks were unleashed at the inner wall and the bunkers on top and the bunkers on the buildings behind the wall.

Any buildings that were three stories had been savaged. My heart cried for my home, but there was nothing to be done at the moment. I just had to win then everything could be fixed. I saw a runner, running along the wall. A beam hit him, and he burst into flaming chunks. Well almost everything, but new people arriving would replace the old.

I shook my head slightly at the loss of life. That runner was just one of countless people who were now dead. Two monsters tumbled from the sky, and one turned to dust, the other splattering on a building, leaving a mess behind. The good news was that I wouldn’t have to figure out the clean up after this.

I ducked my head behind the barricade as I sensed imminent danger. More beams cut through where I had just been. The gray stone melting and crumbling from the attacks. I had chosen this barricade since it house two to three people behind it, but was turned length wise, so there was a lot more material to chew through.

A Radiant Beam cut through the air and struck somewhere in the city beyond the inner wall. There was more return fire in that direction, but I had no doubt the skill user was already being safely repositioned for their next attack.

“Movement!” A cry went up across the wall. I took a peek and monsters were shifting about in between buildings. They would rush out of the side streets and attempt to overwhelm the wall at multiple points. How annoying.

Once they were on the wall, they would be able to take control of all the roof tops, trapping everyone inside. Losing the wall would mean would be forced to make a desperate last stand. That was something we needed to hold off for as long as possible, but it looked the Ritualist wanted a decisive battle.

When he advanced, I would leap down and draw in attackers while racing along the inner wall, killing any monsters attempting to scale it. There was a very large gap at least two building widths wide from the inner wall to the rest of the city, the outer loop, people were calling it from what I had overheard, which wasn’t much and from gray shirts.

I would have saved that name for the street next to the outer wall that surrounded the entire city, but that was just the wall, and this was the inner wall. I had no doubt in time the issue would be cleared up. More energy beams cut through the air. I heard a scream in the distance. I had mostly tuned them out at this point, but this one was particularly high pitched.

How much energy did monsters have or was he cycling his beam attackers in and out? It was hard to tell and get close enough. If I was close, I would just kill them.

I was looking back at the city when ten large bulbs shot up into the air and gripped onto the remains of the Airship Port with their vines. My heart almost skipped at the sight of the monsters. This had to be the General’s doing. Using his summoners and the monster that gave the Radiant Beam skill to launch a massive strike at the Ritualist. Beams hit the bulbs, but they didn’t do enough damage like they would have done to a human.

The bulbs had motes of light gather and fire Radiant Beams back. Over and over in a constant barrage, never letting up. One massive turret of death as the beams of heat, light, and fire cut through the air above me.

Buildings burned, gray stone melted, and people screamed. More Radiant Beams came from inside our defensive lines from the soldiers with the skill, hammering the Ritualist’s position and the forces amassed to the East even more. I noted a large force of hybrids rise up into the sky in the distance.

They spread out and flew in. I noted several metal spheres and cubes among their number blocking the massed attacks. Even doing that, the damage was horrendous on the Ritualist’s aerial forces. The metal floating monsters were soon the only ones left and advanced on the bulbs. Once they were close enough the bulbs broke apart into dust.

Some kind of area of effect attack. If I had to guess it was some kind of energy suppression. Like a mini-city shield being deployed around them. They were fairly slow and not immediately lethal. The Ritualist had probably been saving them for his final push but was forced to use this trump card to counter one our trump cards.

Looking at the melted ruins around the super worm showed the attacks had not been in vain. I would have to guess around 100 hybrids had been burned away in the attack. The Ritualist had kept a sizable group near the super worm, and it had been an easy target.

Unfortunately, the super worm itself was unharmed. That was going to be a pain to finish off. Still, I had to give General Smith for managing such an attack and saving it until now. The summoners had probably focused on their Regeneration stat and not their Spirit stat. Then they had to slowly charge the crystals to perform the summoning.

Since they had been killing the bulb monster, it would make sense they had saved up the crystals for an emergency summoning as a last-ditch effort to hit the Ritualist’s forces where it hurt. I had seen Radiant Beams head in other directions from some of the bulbs. While the East side was the one that was hammered the most, the other positions the Ritualist was using were also hit.

Well, it was a good plan to say the least. Unfortunately, it only did so much. Still, the surprise of the attack and the sheer destructive nature of it, helped out quite a bit. It would also force the Ritualist to act.

The super worm began to advance. Bells began to ring in the distance. I looked up at the sky. Naran, you shameless showboat, you took the perfect time to come back. You just earned major Michael points, the most valuable points of all.