CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-One

The frigid wind that near-constantly blew across the flat landscape of Jotunheim started to pick up, howling over their heads and through the corridors as the newest residents of this world braced themselves for another relentless assault which would only end with the death of their enemies, or the destruction of everything they'd accomplished to this point.

Joe critically eyed the walls that they were relying on to keep them safe, having been assured that they had been reinforced with additional stone, especially the closer to the Village they were. He wasn't sure what they would have been able to accomplish in only a few hours, but… to be fair, working on his own, Joe was able to accomplish enormous feats in that same amount of time. With a cadre of hundreds, or even thousands, of powerful, centuries-old Dwarves, who could say for certain what would be accomplished?

As the sun ever-so-slowly continued to dip below the far distant, icy horizon, a deep bellowing howl shattered the frozen air. As the call ended, the only thing Joe could hear was the creaking of leather as Dwarves and humans alike gripped their weapons more tightly, faces filled with determination and readiness… and perhaps just a hint of trepidation as the fear of the unknown brushed against their minds. Still, Joe was feeling extremely confident—until the system notification appeared for everyone, accompanied by gasps a moment later as everyone digested the information it contained.

The Boss monster of the first ten waves has decided to join the vanguard! It will be accompanied by a group of elite monsters!

“What in the blue blazes?” Someone nearby shouted with deep concern. “This is only the second wave for the upgrade! Elites are supposed to come every five, and the boss every ten!”

Joe was sure everyone else was doing the same thing he was at this moment: digging through the old messages until he read over the actual text that had appeared when they began this challenge. He found it, murmuring it out loud as he realized that he'd been complacent, “You will be subject to a set of elite monsters every five waves, with one boss monster per ten. It… that doesn't say that they must come on the fifth wave, or the tenth. It implies that at any point in five waves, the elite can come, and the boss can come anytime within ten.”

Fifteen minutes passed slowly, then he was starting to gain notifications that Penguins were being defeated, followed by Hoardlings. Yet, the cold air had gained a sharper edge to it, pushing Joe to assume that there were certainly going to be Salamanders amongst the monsters as well. As for the elites, let alone the boss? He had no idea what to expect. Not yet.

The air began snapping, flash-frozen in an instant; once more creating walls of fog that billowed down the open killing zones. There was an additional sharp sound, so loud it could've been a sheet of metal being hit with a baseball bat, if not for the earthy undertone. Joe recognized that sound, and he winced as he realized that at least one wall had likely just cracked, if not outright broken. His only solace was the fact that the sharp sound hadn't been accompanied by an overbearing rumbling of stone, signifying that at least the barrier hadn’t fallen.

Yet.

“Those Salamanders are going to be a real issue unless we can figure out a way to harden the defenses against their magical effects.” Letting out his own annoyed *hiss* of air, Joe let go of his orb and let it hang in the air as he reached for a quill; quickly jotting down a note to find documentation about materials that were resistant or immune to cold. It would be pointless to spend a huge amount of effort raising an effective wall around the city only for it to break because it got a little chilly.

In that moment of inattention, a Penguin shot past the startled defenders with a *trill* of success, only for the sound to cut off as it sped directly through the reflection at breakneck speed and impaled itself on the spikes hidden behind. A geyser of blood fountained out through the illusion, splattering across the walls and ground. There was a collective inhale of surprise, as a few people stepped forward to see if they needed to finish the beast off. However, it didn't make a reappearance, and Joe had already been informed of its demise.

“That's a bad sign.” The Ritualist finally determined after considering what had just happened. “If the prey beasts of this world make it through my rituals, that means that there must be an extremely dense hoard approaching.”

The first ritual tower, which sent bubbles filled with acid, was supposed to be able to handle large groups. In fact, in general the denser they were packed, the better the result would be. The only way it would be less effective was if there were just so many that they were layered on top of each other, possibly even bouncing off each other or simply being protected from the acid bath by a multitude of bodies blocking it. Joe looked up, checking the mirrors that had been set up and watching as creatures tumbled into view one after another.

As the tiny trickle turned into a swarm of monsters practically crawling over each other and tumbling into view, Joe recalled with great annoyance the agreement he had made with the Legion. In order to be allowed to create his defenses without interference, Joe had offered not to set up any ritual towers that would be directly adjacent to the town, so long as they’d leave his towers alone. He resolved to absolutely ignore that tacit deal in the future; the entire Village was in danger of being overwhelmed because Joe had been trying not to step on too many toes.

Jaxon slithered up to the Ritualist in that moment, going from a prone position and up to his feet in one smooth motion. “This looks like it’ll be fun! I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of behemoth those things are running away from.”

“Running away?” Joe watched as the Penguins and Hoardlings drew closer, realizing that Jackson had a point. They weren’t moving in the rapid, controlled patterns that he'd witnessed thus far. No, they were actually fighting each other as they moved closer, only those at the lead of the pack ignoring those around them in favor of gaining additional speed. The Ritualist followed his mirrors, searching for the issue all the way until his eyes landed on the reflection that would show creatures at the maximum range from the entrance of the Village.

By this time, his kill count was approaching the mid-hundreds. Unlike every Beast Wave to this point, it seemed that the entire assault had moved as a single unit—explaining why their defenders were already in danger of being overwhelmed by the press of weighty monsters. Another heavy *crack* of stone resounded through the air, still with no indication of what was causing the ear-splitting sound. That didn’t stop Joe from shooting a contingent of Earth Mages a dirty glance.

Their attention was ripped back to the entrance of the area as a half-dozen Penguins overshot the turn, creating another extremely gory sight. That caused the creatures following them to squawk in concern and attempt to abate their momentum. Some bounced up and out of the press of bodies, but dozens were shoved into the opening behind the reflective surface, adding to the cacophony of shrieking. Joe knew that wouldn’t be enough to kill most of them, nor even damage them heavily thanks to their thick blubber and feathers. Still, it slowed them down enough for a large group to gather.

A red dot appeared in the center of the flock of flightless birds, only visible thanks to the darkening skies the extreme focus Joe had on that group. Its sudden appearance was followed by a cat leaping in a straight line, covering a hundred feet in a second; breaking the sound barrier just before it struck where the dot had been placed. The creature it landed on must’ve had every bone in its body broken from the force, but that was hidden behind a sudden, massive fireball that filled the area and continued slightly down the open tunnel.

Blinking away spots from the sudden intense light, Joe watched as the fire clung to every surface, severely burning the birds, filling the air with the scent of burned feathers and cooking chicken. The pained squawking cut off as the Legion stepped in and filled the beasts full of arrows, but Joe was just relishing the fact that the spell had created enough heat that he could feel how cold he actually was at the moment. The Ritualist leaned closer to it to warm up. “What was that? A cat-based fireball?”

“Nya-palm bomb.” Jaxon brightly suggested an alternative, surprising a bark of laughter out of Joe. His mirth died down even if the fire didn’t, since the Penguins continued to throw themselves into the flames; turning into blazing torches that then shot at his comrades-in-arms. Contrary to his expectations, being on fire didn't make the Penguins more dangerous, merely greatly distracted. They were mowed down by the merciless line of defense, creating a flaming wall of flesh that slowed the advance of the following monsters.

A dense cloud of fog erupted at the edge of the sudden heat wave, roiling higher and higher, until it suddenly started flowing forward into the flame. To the unobservant, it would appear that the dense mist was smothering the fire, but Joe could tell that the temperature was simply dropping so far, so fast, that the flames couldn't continue their combustion. The Salamanders were there, hidden behind the shifting curtain of condensation, and moments later the cold washed over Joe.

He’d never been quite as happy not to be wearing metal-based armor as he was at that moment. Frost began accumulating on most of the members of the Legion, inhibiting their movements and debuffing their motivation. Just as before, the eyes of the lizards were the first things that could be seen, then they charged into the blender of Dwarven melee combat.

As battles raged that he couldn’t be a part of due to his too-low Characteristics, his gaze was instead drawn to the exit the monsters were pouring from. A deep, rumbling sound was filling the area, punctuated by sharp *tinkling* noises that he couldn't quite place. Dust, snow, and even lighter humans began bouncing around violently as the ground began to shake. Joe's eyes shifted up and away, watching the mirrors, completely aghast as the cause of the vibrations became known.

The thick fog that had covered the corridors was being shoved away by the air pressure of a huge… something that was moving at high speeds. It was large enough, fast enough, that it created an air barrier in front of it as it ran, enticing the mists to swirl and blow up over the top of the walls before waterfalling down the other sides. At first he caught merely a glimpse of what must be the boss monster, but as it slowed at a corner and resumed its charge headlong down the next, he was able to fully examine it.

“Is that a Rhinoceros?” His low gasp of a descriptor drew the eyes of many people in the area, as all but those most active in combat quickly turned to see what was happening. If it wasn’t a rhino, he assumed it was certainly the Jotunheim analog to it. As it opened its mouth, he realized it wasn’t just a rhino, it also had a hairy body and sharp teeth. The beast had to be at least nine meters tall, and was covered in thick plates of ice. “A seal combination? A Rhinosealus?”

Its horn expanded out to triple its actual size thanks to an insanely dense icicle that had grown up and over it, and a maelstrom of what must be elite Salamanders clung to the sides of the creature, greatly enhancing its frozen defenses. The combination of the charging beasts created a swirling cyclone of frigid air that not only surrounded the boss monster, but preceded it as what Joe could only guess was a relatively short-ranged frost-based area of effect.

Before they could make any plan to handle this creature, it turned on the final approach to the Village, barreling down it and splattering any creature that got in its way below its feet—which appeared to be spiked like cleats in order to allow it to run on icy surfaces. Any of the lesser monsters that were slain in this way turned to ice behind its rampage, shattering into motes of ice that followed the Rhinosealus, catching up and somehow being added to the armor that it was coated in.

For the first time since making the small reflective ritual, Joe fully regretted setting it up. The Rhinosealus trumpeted its triumph just as it hit the wall like a stellar ice meteor, ramming it with such immense force that the walls were demolished by the impact and shockwave. Physics came into play, as the dozens of feet of earthworks had been frozen, rapidly heated to extreme heights, then dropped below Neptunian temperatures. For hundreds of feet in every direction, the walls crumbled into an avalanche of gravel.

For a long, drawn-out instant, the defenders could only watch in shock and awe as the cataclysmic events unfolded in front of them. They were only broken from their stupor by an agitated grunt, a blast of icy air erupting from the Rhinosealus’ nostrils as it turned toward them… pawing at the ground as it prepared its next charge.