Elevation of Mana Chapter 202 Battle Begins

It was our spellcasters who began things. Waves of cold and ice flew forward first, not just towards the enemy but also the ground, a path, a way for the more physically inclined to potentially reach the enemy. As they began so did we from above, loading the last of the proper cannonballs and firing as fast as we could. There was no reason to hold back, this was the end.

“Chien, spend yourself down as low as you can safely, I'll shield, hit them hard!” I shouted at my copilot, who with a nod leaned outside.

He began to gather power around himself as I loaded the cannon again, moving as quickly as I could while still keeping an eye out for any incoming attacks. I'd seldom seen him cast aggressively, normally he let me handle it, but for now I wanted to switch between the two of us, and I knew I was still a bit stronger.

The coupling dinos had stopped, either finished or well aware that they didn't have time to, and turned into the rain of projectiles. The female was projecting an aura outwards which disturbed them, a technique I'd seen before myself, but not on so wide an area. Added to that she sent small things out to trike at the rain of cold and death.

Her counterpart the white one though had a different plan. He was charging up some kind of attack, slowly working it together like Chien was doing beside me, letting the female protect him as he formed the magic slowly around his mouth.

The magically empowered warriors, not wanting to be outdone by their ranged counterparts charged as one up the forming path, barreling like a wave of screaming death at the two beasts. They couldn't take them head on alone, that was sure, but if the creatures were weakened by the time they arrived, or distracted they could still do some real damage.

Or they would have, had the male not released his attack then. A ball of fire rolled down the mountainside, it wasn't fast, but it didn't have to be. Around it the rock cracked, going from glowing red to flowing and molten as it rolled over it. The brave warriors who'd charged tried to dodge, but it was for naught. Heat cooked them as it passed, not needing to even get that close. From above it looked like they just fell as it neared, some of them mid run and crashing into the rock before being reduced to ash.

Neera's shield met it head on, causing the projectile to stop and shatter, but burning away in the process. I could see her pale hair from up above, stumbling and nearly falling as her spell drained her and stopped the attack in the process. Others had taken up her cause though, and though many of their shields popped like bubbles of spun glass they held the line, preserving the main force. Uro was near the Ancient, keeping her alive as well as he could with his own protections.

I'd have loved to keep attacking myself, but began to prepare my own defenses, wrapping us in a thick envelope, layered as that would be best to deal with heat, focused mostly from below. If we were hit head on there would be no chance, but luckily so far we'd not been targeted.

Things happened fast, and before they'd even recovered Rolan and Jina made their presences known. It looked like they'd been coordinating, and it was a one-two punch. Jina's spell cleared the way, a black bolt that absorbed the female's defenses as it flew over the long distance up the volcano. Behind it came a similar one from Rolan.

The Ancient healer's spell landed true on the female dino's body, and a blackness crept over her torso. I'd expected death, but he'd either worried he couldn't do it in one shot, or instead failed to manifest fully. The female monster screamed, pain, agony, and rage. Stumbling she clawed at her belly, the magic focusing there.

They'd targeted the eggs, her eggs. If his spell had worked, and I didn't doubt he had put his all into it, we'd won even if we lost. These monsters took themselves down to one mating pair, their strongest, and now their next generation was gone. Win or not though, we now needed to get away from this, preferably after taking down these two. I didn't want either of these creatures coming to my home looking for revenge.

Her screaming intensified, as if this creature knew what had been done, reaching a keening pitch that made my ears ring even from so far away. It was almost pitiful, had these things been worthy of any pity at all. That wasn't all though, her eyes went wild and she turned, charging down the volcano's slope.

She'd been controlled, defensive, restrained, but that was gone now. Now all there was was a furious beast, indent on killing everything before it, aiming for the ones who'd caused it pain. The male was not far behind, roaring in rage as it chased its made across the burning and molten trail it had made. Both went right for the casters, who'd let their physical supporters charge forward, not that they'd be of any help at this point, except maybe to carry them as fast as they could away.

I looked up, realizing no attacks had come from us for a moment or two now, distracted as I'd been.

“Chien, what in the world are you...” I looked over to where he was and had my answer. “Oh shit.”

A spear of force was blossoming from his hand, so charged that it glowed in the air, and it was still growing. If I'd tried to do such a thing it would have taken almost all of my mana, but he was managing it anyway. Taking himself down to a safe amount of mana probably wasn't what I was seeing, burning everything he had almost certainly was.

Preparing to yell at him to release it I saw him reach into one of the pockets on his jacket and pull forth several glimmering crystals. Mana crystals, he'd made some, I didn't even know he could on his own, but he'd managed it, and they popped like sparks from a forge now, streams of power flowing into his attack.

“CHIEN LOOSE IT!” I screamed, feeling the power there.

He obliged, and I had to grab him and hold tight as the back-blast sent us tumbling. I yelled in alarm, he laughed like a madman, and below us I could see the spear land.

The leading female had caught it, and the only thing I could think that might have compared was a kinetic orbital strike. They'd been theorized of back on Earth, called “Rods from God” though I hated that name. A telephone pole sized piece of tungsten dropped from orbit and landing with the energy of a small nuke.

Our female dino hadn't been pierced, or cut, or crushed, she'd been rendered into mist. Where she'd been was now a crater, red cracks from whatever molten rock left over radiating out from where she had been a moment ago. It happened so fast I didn't even see the actual impact. No, the spear was just in his hand one moment, and she was gone the next. Even her male companion was thrown back, his white hide bouncing away from where she'd been. Shame he couldn't get both of them.

“Did I do good boss?” I heard from my arm, my assistant looking like he could barely move.

“Yeah, let me take over for a bit okay?” I'd chew him out later for going completely ham, but he looked like he was ready to pass out, and we might not get a later.

He laughed once, and I saw his eyes roll back in his head, out cold.