With the energy dome gone and replaced with a cage with thin but sharp and burning bars, swarms of creatures of all shapes, sizes and colors flooded out from the dark orb now located at the center of the cage. Many of the creatures were sliced up or injured when they made it out, and small traces of energy released from the corpses and wounds were, just like Jianmen expected, slowly being absorbed by the dim light around the dark orb.
"More incoming. Be careful." Jianmen warned everyone as he held a batch of folded paper sigils in his left hand. Currently the outpouring creatures, just like he told everyone, were all low level Defilers, the cannon fodder of the Defiler horde that was trying to flood through the tear of reality.
The folded sigils floated away from Jianmen's hand and started flying around him. Then, one of the paper sigils descended at the position of the dark orb, turned into an orange and golden arrow of light and shot at one of the Defilers that just came out of the dark orb.
This Defiler, shaped like a centipede with a forked upper body and thus had three heads, was apparently more powerful than a lot of the rest around it, and the arrow of light struck it right at the section on its body where it forked.
"Crack!" The arrow of light dug halfway into the centipede Defiler's body before it shattered, and the lower part of its body was incinerated by a burst of energy. The three heads, however, sprung towards three different directions and tried to get away from further attacks.
Two bolts of completely dark lightning shot from Tze Cha's two eyes, and two of the three heads got blasted into dust by this strike. The third head tried to rush at a small group of mages and witches in silk white robes, the members of the Church of Lox, who, according to Josephine Wong, were a secretive and exclusive religious group who put their faith in a barely intelligible principle "Lox" - which was actually a True Word embodying the meaning of "To know and to understand why to know".
The leader of the group, Lady Ryleen, simply stepped forward and uttered a word, the centipede head was flattened, turned into many smaller pieces and pulps of sticky flash like it was hit by a swinging heavy hammer or bat, then splattered backwards at the other Defilers.
More and more Defilers gushed out of the dark orb, many of whom even piled on each other as they charged against the individuals standing around the crater. And within just less than a minute, the forefront of the wave of Defilers clashed against the lines of defense set up by the humans.
The forces of humans were all elites of the elites, and though the low level Defilers were many, they were able to hold the lines for now. And it was also at this moment, many of the magical and enchanted weapons brought by them started firing at the positions just outside of the cage hovering over the dark orb, creating explosions, shocks and energy bursts that delivered heavy damage to the horde.
"Mid tiers incoming! Mid tiers incoming!" More folded paper sigils turned into arrows of light shooting down at different targets inside the streams of Defilers, as Jianmen conjured his rattan broom and swung it at the ground below.
A wall of wind was created and crashed down at the ground, many low level flying Defilers were turned into smoke and dust before they could escape into the air. Three winged creatures covered in red and blue scales survived it but they continued their charge at Jianmen even though they showed signs of severe burns and cracks from the attack and there were arrows of light targeting them. Tze Cha rushed forward with his mouth open, two of the creatures were crushed by his teeth and swallowed without a chance, and the final one was captured by his left front claw. The arrows of light circled Tze Cha and flew downwards at the ground in search of other targets.
"Don't take it lightly, Defilers are not like other creatures of malice and dark energy." Jianmen threw a few more folded paper sigils in the air. These paper sigils flew towards several fronts of major clash between the Defilers and the human defense forces, and started radiating a gentle aura that helped the humans recover from injuries and fatigue faster.
A giant four-armed ogre like Defiler charged at a group of warriors and knights with a large spiked hammer and a giant curved sword in its hand. Several arrows of light already pierced through its back, its shoulders and its neck, yet it possessed some kind of energy flow slowdown and resistant ability, and it was able to create a small breach in the defenses by bashing two warriors and one knight away. Two magical archers standing behind them landed two strikes on this Defiler's eyes and blinded it, but it was still able to slice these two archers from their chests and waists using the giant curved sword.
This was the first casualties endured by the defense forces, the warriors and knights around charged forward and broke this ogre Defiler's both legs and the arm swinging the sword with their maces and scepters, then the magic and energy arrows embedded in its body exploded at the same time, tearing it to shreds.
Nameless' body became coated with golden energy as he charged at a mid tier Defiler taking the shape of a giant hairy crab with two front claws of different sizes. The crab Defiler clenched its bigger front claw and shot a stream of dark energy at him, which was easily evaded. The next moment, the metal stave of Nameless swung down at this front claw and shattered it into thousands of pieces. Then another monk rushed to this way and delivered a heavy kick at its belly from below, sending it into the air just in time to be impaled by two arrows of light released by Jianmen.
Taking a quick moment to sense the results of this battle, Nameless felt the difference between this very fight and the last encounter he had with the Defiler buried under Clearwater Municipal Hospital - this time, his attacks and moves carried a kind of suppressive power against the Defilers, allowing his hits to connect more with the "actual body" of the Defiler, instead of the empty feeling of delivering blows into the air and not striking anything substantial, which meant much more actual damage done.
Another Defiler with the lower body of a horse and the upper body of a lobster charged at him again, and he immediately turned around to face it.