The towering corpse let him go finally as it toppled backward. Jake landed on his feet. Or tried too. His legs collapsed under him. They wouldn't respond nor could he feel them. In an almost panic he looked up to see his health flashing and down to only about ten percent. "My legs won't work." Even his thoughts over the group chat sounded a bit too high pitched with panic.
"Don't worry. I got you, I saved em for emergencies like this!" The voice was right next to him but not over the group chat. Gadget came up and pulled something from a pocket of her overalls. She tossed it into the air and the little egg shape object changed becoming what looked like a metallic hummingbird. Just before it started taking flight he could even see brass colored gears winding up within its translucent body. It buzzed right over to him, flitted around his head for a moment then landed on his shoulder. It stuck its slender beak into Jake's neck causing no pain. Then it just melted away seeming to flow into Jake to vanish. His health bar jumped but only by ten percent.
Pain ignited in his back but his legs still wouldn't move.
"Holy crap dude. How much health do you have? One of those is worth half of any of our health bars. Here I only have two left, but we should get you patched up if we are going to deal with another monster like that." She actually seemed as worried as she was shocked. The amount of damage he had survived meant any one of them would have died several times over. If the shaman was of the same strength they really had bit off more than they could chew.
**********
Aero let the last Bladenado die down. His head was pounding and his mouth tasted like he had licked a battery. There was no mana cost or mana bars for casters. Most abilities had cooldowns which meant they couldn't be overused. But he had chosen lightning bolt because it had no cooldown and Bladenado could be channeled well past its relatively short cooldown. The downside of using magic was mental fatigue. The Spirit attribute was important as it measured the number of spells one could utilize before the mental exhaustion built up. Some referred to it as the mind attribute because of that.
If one's spirit was too low a few spells would leave them feeling fuzzy as if their head was full of cotton. More and a headache would start to form, heavy pounding without end until they rested. After that, as one pushed the limits there was that strange taste, like licking a battery. Coppery and electric at the same time. Aero hadn't felt like this since before his spirit attribute ranked up. But this battle had gone well beyond the planned difficulty. Nor had he ever used so many spells back to back. Plus all his offensive spells were real mana hogs, enough that despite their power most casters avoided them. That was how he had gotten such a powerful spell like Bladenado so cheap.
None of that mattered now though. Ella's not so boyfriend had managed to kill the four eye teleporting monster practically alone. He would need to check what his stats really were, there was no way a straight D rank with no skills had won that fight. Aero chided himself for falling for the ruse. Of course, there was no way for a D rank to be running around on this level.
Between Aero's last Baldenado and Gadget's final drone, they had picked off basically all the lesser Grims. Now the few remaining ones were actually retreating back into the tunnels. It should have been a good thing but it only made Aero more nervous. Lesser Grims were mindless murderous monsters, they would sacrifice any other members of their kind just for a chance to hurt an enemy. They never retreated nor showed any signs of tactics, not the lesser ones at least.
The Shaman still hadn't moved. Ella's archer class was highly mobile. Using the few buildings in the village and even at times other Grims she had managed to avoid all the Shaman's attacks. But mostly because since it didn't move she could control the angle of attacks. Now it had stopped attacking and was just standing there chanting. New crystals were growing at the top of its staff. Lots of them and they were growing longer than ever before.
"That doesn't look good." Aero stated bluntly.
"No it isn't but at least it isn't moving. The rest are retreating lets take this chance to finish it off in one shot." Ella poked out from behind one of the stone buildings, it was half destroyed by molten slag that had peppered it.
"You two take care of it. I'm patching up our secret weapon. I don't have time to swap my drones around for anything big anyways." Gadget let them know she wouldn't take part.
Aero and Ella had expected as much. Both started channeling their big damage attack. For Aero, he summoned a house size sphere of swirling and slashing air. It violently compressed down to the size of a basketball. The swirling wind blades sped up greatly as the power was compressed. Then it grew back to the same huge size while maintaining the current strength. Only to compress again. It was a cycle Aero could repeat as many times as he could stand the mental strain of doing. It would ramp up the destructive power exponentially.
"Better go all out." Aero was annoyed at how weak his voice sounded.
"I am." Ella grunted.
She had her bow drawn all the way back, the arrow notched was glowing brightly with a searing light. Her spirit attribute was low but the burden of her Piercing Arrow split the burden between the mind and the body. Holding the bow drawn all the way back for so long was incredibly hard. Especially since the power of the bow increased with each passing second making the strain grow as well. She activated her Elemental Arrow ability and consumed one of the few heart fragments she had. Her arrow was infused with fire damage, the light turned crimson as her arrow appeared to turn into one of flames.
Aero chanted and compressed his spell. Ella strained to give her attack time to charge up to her limit. All while the shaman smirked at them smugly while doing its own chanting. The metallic crystals growing out of the top of the staff numbered in the dozens. More wild was the fact that they were now nearly as long as the staff itself. They were starting to glow with a dull orange light as if they were heating up.
"We have to combo this just right." Ella spoke through gritted teeth somehow the group chat transferred that still.
"We better do it before it does, give the word." Aero's voice sounded faded.
"Now." It wasn't Ella who spoke. Boom Boom Boom accompanied the cry from Cass as she fired off the last of her ammunition. She had never actually taken damage since playing and the sheer shock of the realistic pain had left her dazed. Even running away when she did she was caught up in the blast. It had lifted her into the air and thrown her away. Her shield had broken between the shockwaves and the debris that hit her like shrapnel. A large rock had smashed into the side of her head damaging her headset. Realizing that from that distance she couldn't do anything against whatever shield that monster used she had started to make her way closer.
Her Hud flickered with static but was still partially working. Only when she had gotten closer did her chat start working again. It was filled with static and broke up but she understood enough of it. Dropping down she had aimed and fired her Brust Shot as she mentally shouted out hoping they would be able to hear her.
With the might of his god at hand, the shaman didn't fear the aggressive mortals. They had proven a good test for his power. The loss of their champion was a blow but he would simply have to select another from the spawning pools to shape. After he fed the bodies of these monsters to it he expected an even greater spawn than ever before. It wasn't kindness or compassion that had him order the remaining lesser Grims to retreat. Only practicality, it would be a few days before the most recent spawning pools matured. He would need slaves and possibly food stock until then.
He was going to wipe out all the enemies at once. His first attack had been but a taste test of his new power. Now he was going to test its limits. Soon everything around him would be brought to ruin as he rained down his full might on them. He could have released his spell sooner but the invaders were in their last desperate moments trying their best to survive. He wanted to both see their limits and crush their spirits before doing the same to their bodies.
The sudden attack from the one he was sure he killed previously startled him enough he almost fired off his spell. The attack was so intense it made his barrier visible. The air grew thick around him and tiny cracks like floating hair formed in front of him. But not even that could pierce his barrier, a few of the lesser Grims acting as focuses below ground did die. But it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. A sphere of wind magic so dense it appeared to be a white swirling ball rushed towards him. The ground beneath it was sucked into it leaving a trail of destruction behind it. It hit only a moment after the three rounds smashed into his barrier. It exploded around him growing in size. Countless wind blades dense enough to be plainly visible tried to shred him but his barrier held with only a few minor cracks.
Then a flaming arrow as big as a man pierced the raging wind sphere and smashed into his barrier with an explosion. More cracks but still not enough to worry the shaman appeared even as the ball of air turned into a mass of burning blades trying their best to get to their target.
It cackled wildly in glee while starting to angel the staff forward. It would rain down destruction unlike this world had ever seen! Suddenly, the sphere of flames parted some as the metal armed monster flew in.
All of Gadget's remaining drones were at Jake's back propelling him forward as he erupted through the sphere of flames to everyone but his and Gadget's horror. The combo attack from Aero and Ella knew no friends, only targets.
The sight of him emerging from the flames startled the shaman but only for a moment. It was a useless suicidal attack. Only when Jake's fist struck the weakened barrier, his strength combined with Gadget's drones pushing him forward proved to be the last bit they needed. The barrier shattered and the swirling inferno rushed in on the Shaman. It screamed in sudden shock at the unexpected pain. It tried to fire off the staff but Jake hadn't been aiming for the Shaman but the staff. His fist struck it with all his might. The bottom planted on the ground didn't move, the staff felt like it was fixed in space. The grey white stone splintered and then blew apart as the immense amount of power detonated. The firestorm was blown apart as Jake was launched high and away.
The shaman was sent back to disappear into the tunnel behind it.