As soon as the monsters got into range, the Gifted among the Wanderers that could attack at range immediately moved to do so. With them numbering in the dozens, there were surely a good number of them that had decent Gifts that could hit hard at range.
Streams of fire and ice were the most common sights as the Wanderers began to attack. It seemed as if it was not hard to stumble upon these types of Gifts, and Psyker soon confirmed that for Dorian.
[These are all the useful Gifts. There are many who got stuck with useless abilities. An example is the Increased Appetite Gift. It is virtually useless, unless you are in an eating competition.] Psyker said to Dorian.
'Oh. So, I guess I was lucky that the first Gift I got was Lightning Manipulation?'
[Not luck. Your father, my creator, made it so. He did not want you to be completely out of your depth with something too strong, but he also did not want to give you something weak. As such, he made sure your first Gift was Lightning Manipulation.] Psyker clarified.
'I see. Well, I'm grateful for that.' Dorian nodded his head as he propped himself up to begin assisting in the barrage.
He held up his arms and began to gather the mystical energy that remained ever present in his abdomen. When he gathered it together, he felt a buzz run along his spine before the tips of his fingers began to release bright yellow arcs of light.
Bzzt!
A bolt of lightning flashed across the space between the defenders and the approaching mob. It was something that most people could not track, but to those that saw this, they were momentarily stunned. Their gaze went down to the spot where the lightning had struck and found a small, hog like creature that was turned on its side, shaking and having spasms. Smoke rose from its burnt out fur and its flesh had been burnt from the bolt of lightning.
One shot, one kill!
Dorian's eyes glowed with excitement when he saw how effective his earlier strike had been! He had not been expecting to be able to one shot anything, but he had! Eager for more results, he quickly charged up another bolt before firing it out at another monster. This time, it was a Stone Snake, like the ones that Bolt had clashed with when they had met for the first time.
However, the result was not as expected. Smoke rose from the Stone Snake's scales as it twisted and writhed on the ground, but after a couple of seconds, the injured creature calmed down and began to slither forward with more fervor than before, surely eager to get revenge for the injury that had been inflicted on it.
"Oh...?" Dorian's eyes went a bit wide. No wonder Bolt had struggled so much against them. So, it seemed that their resistance to Lightning was quite high. They would incur injuries, but nothing too serious.
As the Stone Snake slithered forward, it called upon its brethren that were also in the monster horde. Then something that Dorian was not expecting occurred.
Led by the Stone Snake that had been injured by Dorian, over a dozen Stone Snakes suddenly burrowed into the ground, diving beneath and blocking everyone's view of them.
"Stone Snakes burrowing under the ground! Earth Gifted, get ready!" Someone called and a team of people stepped forward. They were clad in dark green uniforms and made a line with some space between them at the front lines.
"Reinforcing the earth! They won't be able to get through as long as we are here!" One of the men said and the Gifted that were skilled in Earth Manipulation sat on the ground before covering themselves in small domes of earth. This also protected them from any outward dangers that might come while they were focusing on keeping the Stone Snakes away.
'These guys are skilled in dealing with monster hordes!' Dorian thought to himself, but he soon found that it made perfect sense. These were Wanderers who wandered through the apocalypse on their own for long stretches of time. Surely, over time, they must have come up with effective means to counter different kinds of monsters.
Dorian turned his attention back to the horde and decided to pick off the various monsters that might be weak to lightning. He began to target monsters like the hog that he had one shotted earlier.
Hogs and other monsters began to fall one by one. The lightning bolts were too fast for them to simply dodge. They could not react in time, and as a result, they began to die en masse.
'Psyker, how do I get new Gifts? I believe I can be much more effective if I can use multiple Gifts at once.' Dorian asked.
[If you can get your hands on the corpse of a Stone Snake, then I can extract its natural affinity for Earth and piece together the Gift for you. But I would most likely need multiple corpses for that to work.] Psyker told him after a moment.
'Hmm, I can do that, I think.' Dorian mumbled in response. He looked around and spotted a few Stone Snakes at the periphery of the monster horde that was closer than ever. He would only need to dash out and return after killing a few, but he would not be going in alone.
"Bolt." Dorian called and Bolt growled as he stood up beside him. "Let's go hunt us some snakes."
"Ruff!" Bolt barked with glee and his fur buzzed with small sparks of static electricity.
"D-Dorian? What are you doing?" Dylan, who was waiting for the horde to come closer before he could attack them, reacted with shock when he saw Dorian climbing onto Bolt's back.
"What does it look like? I'm going out!" Dorian grinned with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
"Wait! You're not supposed to do that!" Dylan sprung up on his feet and tried to stop Dorian, only managing to grasp the back of Dorian's shirt before Bolt jumped over the barricade that had been created and began to bound forward.
"Argh! Wait!" Dylan's voice rang out as he pulled himself onto Bolt's back, trying hard to balance himself and avoid falling down.