As the approaching wall of legionaries draws closer, I perform a final check to make sure everything is ready for the battle to come. Do I have a giant ape? Check. Crazy shadow blob of unending horror? Check. Weird eyeball dude? Check. Omni-elemental construct fired up and ready to go? Check. Even my spiffy diamond carapace is back to full shininess. I couldn't possibly be more ready to deal out the pain.
[Tiny, you remember what you need to do?] I ask.
The big bat-faced gorilla turns to look down at me and nods slowly, a broad grin splitting his face.
[Tiny smash,] he declares confidently, one car tire sized paw patting himself on the chest.
With his patchwork armour and helmet strapped on, he makes quite the intimidating sight. Smithant outdid herself when slapping this stuff together, her work has kept the big fella's injuries down to an almost unheard of level. He's going to need every bit of that protection for this one, as there is simply no retreat. We fight until the fight is won.
[How about you Crinis? Are you going to be alright?]
[I would rather stay by your side, Master,] she complains yet again.
[You'll be able to inflict far more punishment on the enemy from where you are rather than hanging on the back of my carapace. There's no avoiding the danger this time, we just need to dive in and hope for the best.]
[I understand, I simply worry about you. I will do my best to bring a swift end to this conflict.]
[Make sure you stay safe in there. When your supply of shadow flesh runs out, you need to retreat. That's the agreement, remember?]
[I know!]
I've been hassling her a bit over the plan for this battle, so I understand why she might be a bit frustrated. I've been doing all I can to try and make sure that my pets will survive the fight, but in Crinis' case, all she cares about is if I survive. Fortunately, I get to make the final call.
[How about you Invidia? You ready to cut loose?]
The eyeball is hovering further back towards the gate amongst the other mages of the Colony, further back than the front-liners like myself and Tiny. Going to need to rely on his firepower pretty heavily if we want to make it through this. The Legion is going to put a big target on him for sure and I expect a ton of magic and arrow fire to go his way once the fighting gets thick.
[I am alwaysssss ready. They wantsss to take what we have? I envy their optimisssssm.]
Invida is throwing shade at the Legion now? Colour me surprised. Just goes to show that if you try hard enough, you can even tick off a greed demon. I have to give our enemies their due, they have been working hard. The massed ranks of the Legion begin to step forward with their slow, measured tread and immediately the long range acid artillery kicks into gear. Huge, dense arcing jets of sizzling acid fly overhead, the force of the shots so powerful that even the spray and drizzle lands in front of me. The artillery squad have really been amping up their Skill levels during these battles and the effects are clearly visible here. As I watch the burning liquid splash against the golden layers of the enemy shields, I nervously check my omni-elemental construct once more.
I've decided to make the decision to lean on this new-fangled piece of technology for this battle. Normally, I'd be winding up a massive gravity bomb and chucking it at the Legion, but I don't think I should in this fight. Although the bomb does a great job of causing chaos and inflicting the occasional casualty, as well as serving the intended purpose of wearing down the barriers the Legion puts up, taxing their mages and soldiers alike. It's a great plan and I loved it, but this fight isn't like the others. This is going to be a grind. This is going to be a no holds barred head-butting contest until one side blinks. The bomb is a great piece of work, but it tires out my brains to the point that even with the Vestibule refilling my tank it takes a while to get back to full strength and frankly, I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to knock myself out so hard at the beginning.
Practice with the new construct has continued whenever I have the chance and now I'm finally confident that each of my brains is prepped and knows what they are doing well enough that I can manage to use the thing effectively. My current setup is to have the main sub-brain focus on maintaining the construct whilst the two sub-brains operate the thing. The only problem with this is that none of the brains are quite up to the tasks they've been assigned on their own. Maintaining the construct and helping to create the desired mana types is too much for the larger sub-mind, which means my main mind needs to chip in and help. Similarly, the two smaller sub-minds aren't quite up to the task of producing and weaving the mana that comes out on their own, which means the main mind needs to pitch in and help.
Does it make much sense that I made the main mind the strongest and then only relied on it for biting and dodging whilst the smaller, weaker sub-minds have to do the heavy lifting magic wise? It doesn't does it? Ah well. It's not easy, but if I can maintain the delicate balance of ducking in with my main brain to help out when needed then it all comes together to a reasonable degree. It's not perfect, but it's usable. If fact, the time to put it to the test has finally arrived. I absentmindedly raise my abdomen to start aiming my own acid barrage toward the oncoming Legionaries whilst my focus turns inward. My main sub-mind is already straining under the pressure so I jump in to aid it as the two sub-minds begin to operate the construct. Raw mana flows from my core which is quickly replenished by the flow pouring up through my legs, before splitting into halves and entering the many layered sphere at two separate points. Now the magic really begins. As each segment of the construct rotates in its own direction, the sub-minds hold onto the flow of mana that they control and direct it carefully through a labyrinthine route that only they can see. As the energy traverses the construct, it begins to change, taking on the properties of the desired elements and then rising through the layers once more to exit, ready to be shaped.
My main mind leaps to work controlling the flow of mana as the two sub-minds grasp hold of the new mana and begin to shape it into spells.
Nothing too complicated to start with, this is already hard enough without getting too crazy. The two types of mana I've produced are lava (the combination of fire and earth) and air. With the lava, I'm forming a simple lava bolt, the most basic of all spells. The lava mana is tricky to work with. It's turbulent and broiling. Too hot to handle, in a way. With the air mana, I create something akin to the spear shape. Air acts very differently to the other types of mana, which makes sense as it isn't as solid as they are. The spear isn't exactly something that I'll throw at the enemy, creating a pointy tornado and flinging it about isn't really something I can do (yet). Instead, it will act more like a wind tunnel, drawing air in one side, accelerating it and then flinging it out the other side.
Think of it as a booster tunnel that I want to shoot lava through. Because… that's exactly what it is.
Let 'em fly!
The lava bolts are about the size of my eye, the molten oozing liquid burns with a fierce energy and I feel a little relief from the sub-brains as the spells are finally pulled from their grasp. Once the orbs of lava enter the wind tunnels, they shoot forward faster than I can track with my eyes, only to crack into the Legion barriers over a hundred metres away where they steam and sizzle before I realise it.
That's tasty!