CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-Three

Joe backflipped to disperse his momentum as he approached the ground, coming up to his feet and Omnivaulting forward on the first roll, doing what he could to maintain his speed without sending out a shockwave that would cause his allies to stumble. At nearly the same time, the Cyclops reached the entrance to the Village, maintaining its heading and slamming directly into the illusion that Joe had created of open space.

A wide smile appeared on his face as he saw the Cyclops stumble back, only for the smirk to be wiped out a moment later as a closed fist impacted the wall hidden behind the illusion, failing to destroy it, but causing what appeared to be hundreds of thousands of pounds of force to echo through the magical rock face Joe had raised. Cracks appeared along the entire section, the force traveling along it perfectly before blowing out the last half-foot of stone from the entire ten-foot thick section.

Joe spared it a glance, seeing that the six inch gap he’d left was now a full foot, but still too small for other monsters to squeeze through. “Yes! Not leaving it as a single, connected structure was the right idea!”

Before he could be too pleased about his forethought, the illusion that he’d generated at the entrance to the Village sputtered and failed as the magic was forcibly disrupted and dispersed. There was a comparatively small explosion as the ritual warped too far and detonated, failing to do more than send a blast of icy cold air across those near it. Frankly, Joe was surprised it had lasted even this long. It had been inscribed on a Ritual Tile, and left in a small alcove along the wall.

It seemed that the grumpy Cyclops’s punch had collapsed that area, but Joe knew that if they made it through this, he could correct that issue later with minimal effort. As he flung himself in the air once more, he held his breath as the Cyclops turned and looked into the Village for the first time, surveying the forces arrayed against it. The air was thick with dread and anticipation as the colossal Boss turned its single blazing eye toward the Legion sprawled out before it.

As it perused the defenders valiantly standing before it, the enormous being let out a chuckle as every fighter was frozen in place from the intensity of his stare. Wide smile in place, it lifted its foot and stepped into the open area around the Village…

…only to jerk to a halt in consternation as its shoulders and the club held at a strange angle forced it to get stuck in the opening like a cork in a wine bottle. It looked back to see what had happened, releasing the thousands of combatants from their hypnotized state at the same moment. With a scream of valor tinged with fear, nearly every human in the area unleashed spells, arrows, or threw themselves forward to begin slamming their weapons into the outstretched leg of the Cyclops.

The defenders were using the corpses of fallen creatures as improvised barricades, having carefully ensured that they died in clumps or in mounds that now stretched dozens of meters into the air. As the beasts were so large, they provided excellent protection and good footing for Dwarf and human alike, while impeding the movement of larger creatures greatly. Joe could hear the battle cries echoing out to him, and had to chuckle at his favorite.

“That's right! Strike, then hide behind the mound of dead Penguins! Rinse and repeat until this big boy goes down!”

Only the very closest of the Dwarven Legion joined in the attack, the others continuously falling back toward where Joe was sprinting, a stream of bubbles arcing up into the sky rapidly carrying them away.

As far as the Ritualist could tell, the attacks landing on the Cyclops were doing next to nothing in terms of damage. Fireballs would strike exposed skin and erupt into a massive gout of flame, only to leave a slightly scorched hair follicle in the spot it had landed. Lightning crackled along its skin, eventually dispersing as though it had been grounded out with a lightning rod. Weapons struck flesh, practically bouncing off the iron-hard icy surface of the Cyclops. Even warhammers and other blunt instruments failed to create cracks or obvious points of failure in its body, as it likely had a layer of dense blubber beneath the surface, similar to the Penguins.

Still, they must have been doing something, because the Cyclops snarled in fury and began to struggle harder, using the hand not holding its club to reach over and slap at the stone perimeter in a motion Joe could only describe as someone slapping at a mosquito that was landing on their chest and annoying them. The attacks became more frantic as the wall failed to be destroyed, merely groaning and rumbling with each heavy blow that it took. Soon the open hand shifted into a closed fist. As spells and weapons were exhausted against its leg, the wrecking ball of a hand continued to pound into the Journeyman-rank fortification Joe had put in place.

“Tier five, sucker! It takes more than a couple hits for even you to take it down!” The Ritualist crowed excitedly as the wall held from another attack coming down on it. The Cyclops bellowed in rage as if it had somehow heard Joe’s taunt, the air shaking hard enough that any windows in the area shattered under the intense reverberations it created. It began to thrash madly, slamming its closed fist down on the stone continuously, sending enormous plumes of dust and debris flying with each blow.

Every strike brought it closer to freeing itself and gaining access to the softer targets laying siege to it, and its effort quickly began to bear fruit. An enormous divot in the wall began to form, and each repeated strike caused multiple feet of stone to collapse. With a grunt of triumph, it brought its fist down one last time and sheared off a massive slab of stone, managing to pull more than half of its body through the opening. This gave it all the leverage it needed to increase its frantic strikes. Finally, the not-yet-enchanted blockade was strained beyond its limits, and could no longer stand firm against the creature's brute strength. That section of wall finally gave way fully, sending a cloud of dust out into the suddenly silent defenders.

A nearly tangible sense of desperation exploded outward from the ranks of soldiers and humans, and as the Cyclops shifted to face them, they broke.

The Dwarves turned and charged toward the rear as a unit, while the humans scattered to the wind as the Cyclops howled in triumph. A single point of light grew brighter in its enormous eye for a few seconds before coalescing into a beam of energy that shot out and caused a path of ice to form wherever it touched. Any living creature hit by that Stellar Ice Beam wasn't merely trapped within ice: Joe estimated with near certainty that they were frozen to their core.

“Faster!” Joe threw himself forward one more time, reaching the edge of the ritual that he’d set up. He skid to a halt, looking around desperately for Grandmaster Snow, but only finding Master Stu guiding the members of the Legion into the entrance point of the ritual. “Stu! Where’s Snow? I have a plan, but I need to stop this ritual for it to work!”

“Are you insane?” Stu bellowed in reply, not bothering to look at Joe as he continued directing the efforts to evacuate. “Are you finally admitting to working against us, and came here to kill us all? I know for a fact that you've been consorting with the enemy!”

“No, you-!” Joe cut himself off and blinked rapidly in surprise at the strange accusation. “Stu, what are you even talking about?”

“We saw you!” The Dwarf finally turned and shoved an accusatory finger at the Ritualist. “You were working with a human that was revealed to be in the employ of the Elves! When you found out the truth, you didn't cut all ties, we saw as you struck a deal to be released! Now, with your messages coming through the Town Hall, we have proof that you’ve been maintaining contact with her! Plotting against us! Exposing our secrets! Planning to bring her here and let a known agent of the Elves have access to everything that we build!”

“What?” Joe physically reeled back from the snarling Dwarf, his mind whirling but only managing to settle on a single thought. “Hold on a second… you've been intercepting and reading my mail?”

“This is war, human.” Stu pulled something out of his pocket, and nestled it in his right hand, looping a small section of twine around one of his fingers as he did so. “War is something that we’re very experienced with, and know well. It's funny how you betrayers never seem to understand that we’re onto you, even when all the signs are there. The cold and distant leadership, the stifling of resources… we gave you every chance to come clean, and now, when we are at our weakest with the monsters at our throats, you try to cut off our escape? I knew you’d try something like this. That's why, when everyone else left, I stayed here and waited.”

“I'm not trying to betray you, Stu! I'm trying to help all of us!” Joe sputtered as he thought over his conversations with Daniella and tried to find the pattern that Stu was pointing at. While it had certainly seemed like he’d been on the outs with the council, he’d assumed that was a repercussion of losing his title, not that they were intercepting his private messages and making wild assumptions based off of them.

The Dwarf pointed at the Cyclops in the distance that was swinging its hand back and forth, sending Dwarves and humans alike scattering into the air, broken and destroyed. “Go play with the monsters that you called here to destroy us, and don't look back. Otherwise, since I know you’d just come back to life, I'll do more than slay you right here. I’ll make you suffer! Then, I’ll make sure that your sins are never forgotten among my people! Incite rage!”

Unlike the bravado-filled shouting, the last two words were practically whispered. With all the other commotion going on, Joe was certain that no one else heard them spoken. All of the confusion Joe was feeling coalesced into a single bar of white hot anger as Stu activated his mastered Bardic skill to force him to send out the first noticeable attack.

Master rank ‘Incite Rage’ has overpowered your Mental Manipulation Resistance (Apprentice II)

“Oh no, the human is attacking me! Traitor!” The Dwarf shouted as he easily dodged the clumsily thrown ritual orb, a smug, dark smile on his weasley features. “With that… the Cyclops will destroy this place, and as they’ve no reason to back you or work with you ever again, not a single Dwarf will stand against my version of these events. I'll be able to ensure that my city is only ever filled with my people, and yours… yours will finally learn their place. Thanks for the assist, Joe.”

The Dwarf made his move, his weapon flicking out toward the Ritualist, who had to push himself to activate Omnivault in order to dodge the erratically moving weapon. Stu’s hand followed him, and only then did Joe realize that the string was connecting the flying weapon to the Dwarves hand. With a *crack*, it swung around and slammed into the side of Joe's knee, sending him tumbling heavily to the ground even though his Exquisite Shell took the entirety of the damage that would have been done to his body.

But then he realized with horror what the Master of Sarcasm had meant about making Joe suffer.

Damage taken: 0.

A Master-rank bardic debuff has been applied: The Emperors New Clothes!

Your Leggings of the Silkpants Mage have taken all the damage that would have been applied to you as durability damage!

Your Leggings of the Silkpants Mage have been destroyed!

Pushing himself up into a plank position and kicking forward to get back to his feet, Joe's eyes tracked the weapon as it shot back to the Dwarf's hand and his assailant readied another attack. “Are you seriously attacking me with a yo-yo? You’re destroying my gear?”

Stu snorted derivatively as he whipped his hand forward once more. “What would you expect a Master of Sarcasm to wield? Razor sharp wit? A sword made of iron-y?”

Joe felt a debuff slam into him, dulling his reactions and causing the yo-yo to crack off his Exquisite Shell just in front of his nose. He stumbled back, managing to maintain his footing as he glared at the Dwarf. “Actually… yes, that’d make sense to me.”

Your Half-mask of the Silkpants Mage has been destroyed!

“Fool.” Stu muttered as he lashed out once more, pulling on the string just before the yo-yo would have hit Joe in the face, causing the weapon to drop to his chest and a circular saw to pop out of the edges and shred his torso coverings right through his Exquisite Shell.

As the Ritualist put maximum effort into evading the next attacks, the ground beneath them began to once more rumble as the Cyclops came ever closer to destroying the Town Hall, and with it, Joe's only hope for redeeming himself with the Dwarves.