Hundred-Yard Slash

After 'the system' registered that everyone had read the introduction for the raid, a ten-second timer appeared on at the bottom of the window and we were all freed up from being frozen as if finally being allowed to prepare. I was honestly a little ticked about being stuck in frame just to read the introduction but I did not waste a moment, preparing several bottles and weapons about the otherwise empty loops and pockets of my belt.

As soon as the timer ended the screen vanished and dozens of deep and booming roars or howls filled the air in the distance. Then, once their war cries were over, dozens of bodies began spilling out from the first outpost. They were all at least seven feet tall and immensely broad between their ivory spiked shoulders, showing they were top-shelf trolls.

Three minutes were ticking down at the top of my field of view, as if trying to set the pace for me.

Emptying the charges of a Flash Step ring I had replaced one of my luck rings with, I soon find myself standing among the back lines of the charging trolls after traversing ninety yards in two instants. Realizing that the trolls were much slower than I had anticipated, I immediately grip Hauntings with both hands while channeling copious amounts of mana into the sword in the form of St. Elmo's Fire.

Broken forks of electricity began flickering constantly up the blade of my sword, channeling to the point where over a dozen long and jagged arcs of electrical discharge began flashing out in all directions. The closest clustering of trolls were merely enraged with the first arcs but the second and third started numbing their struck limbs while the rest of their muscles randomly spasm and restrict their movements.

"360 Arc Geist," I say softly, grateful that nobody was around to hear me cast my combined skills before my body automatically whirls into glaring stream of electrical light and Geist blades that flow out in a full circle from my position. Tha handful of trolls I found myself standing among were not the only ones to suffer, both the Geist blades and the initial three-sixty-degree Arc Cutter swept out for more than ten yards to nail over two dozen trolls with paralyzing knockback and laceration.

Then I used my own Quick Step to rush forward among the front lines of the one hundred scattered trolls who had already stopped their wild charging. "360 Ice Geist," I cast next, spinning into another storm of Geist blades that fly out from every body my Hauntings struck as well and emitting a literal radiation of frozen cutting energy.

While ice was the element these trolls were most inclined and resistant to, the Ice Cutter was a physical medium to transfer the cutting kinetic energy of my attack. Even if the ice shattered against the first troll's body, it still contained the heavy knockback of 360 Edge and was as sharp as a blade in its own right.

Even while being thrown back by a few meters the cutting energy released from the ice would rend deeply into the nearest bodies while making room around me.

Lunging back toward the back of the trolls as the fastest familiars and riders among Tragedy's Travelers finally approaches the shocked and disheveled frontal troll forces, I continuously cast 360 Edge in order to clear a pass down the middle of the troll forces. Unlike the trolls who were struck by my combined skills and lost as much as half of their health, these trolls merely lost around twenty percent and were thrown to the ground only a few feet away.

Once I reached the trolls in the back who were only just gathering together while recovering from my electrical attacks, though, I finished an entire fifteen trolls in one move. "360 Blaze Geist." Only about a second after those whispered words met the air while I jumped into the middle of the group a massive ring of fire and flaming Geist blades expanded outward from my position.

The white icon-like image of a troll's skull appeared under the three-minute timer, now, bearing alongside it the number fifteen. Since my notifications were off in combat, I did not receive any useful information but I could imagine it was something like a kill or contribution count.

Ignoring the change to my 'display', I simply use my refreshed Quick Step to return to the front line with my friends.

"Geist Slash," I call out loudly and proudly from the front line, unleashing a flurry of Geist blades fanning outward and an enhanced Spirit Slash flying straight down the middle of the trolls. Since their number were still somewhat scattered, only a handful of trolls were cut down or just damaged by the main slash.

The phantom blades flying forward in all directions like horizontal crescents, though, cleared away much of the front line from in front of us. Now the others on slower mounts burdened with numerous familiars were finally catching up, Stonewall among them. Once he was within reach of our front line, he dismounted and whipped his shield around in midair to land while charging forward.

The first few trolls he struck were impaled on his new enlarged spikes but the next batch to find themselves in his way triggered an explosion of thermal-kinetic energy that cleared the still living bodies from his weapon. Behind him swiftly followed Go and Papi while wielding their heavy polearm weapons, keeping the enemies to either side at bay while claiming a few lives for themselves.

While they widened out the space behind the racing mobile fortress, Skooma and Conansson took up V formation positions further out from and behind them so that the others could fill in the space between with their mounts like a wedge behind Stonewall. Riding on numerous large ice lizards were the humanoid familiars and our healers maintaining the rear while peppering the more distant trolls who were struggling to reorganize around our positions.

Once Stonewall's broken thirty-meter charge skill burned itself out for the next three minutes, I used a combination of Air Cannon and Corruption to lighten my body and send myself flying forward passed the part. Landing awkwardly while solidifying after barreling right into a troll's surprisingly sturdy chest, I quickly rush forward after the troll and I bounce one another back.

Thrusting Hauntings ruthlessly forward, I channel a combination of fire and electricity into the sword to stun and burn the already smoldering troll before twisting the sword between my hands to enlarge the wound and trigger massive bleeding damage before kicking the troll away.

Casting out a quick Spirit Wave with a mana fueled wave of my hand, I cast aside the trolls surrounding the point of the wedge formation before unleashing the energy channeling into my sword as a Blazing Arc Cutter that trails along behind the spirit wave. Until the Spirit Wave dissipated, there were no bodies left for the Cutter to strike.

As soon as the Spirit Wave was out of the way, though, the cutter found and killed half a dozen trolls before finally ending at its max range. By now the trolls had been completely divided to either side and everybody had been splashed y numerous skills and magic as well as virulent souls that spread inwards from the arrow covered pine cushions at the outer sides.

The first outpost was cleared in under a minute and the next outpost released its war cries as soon as we stepped out from behind the first emptied outpost. There were now ten more trolls than last time running at us but it honestly did not make much of a visible difference. As well, my Flash Step accessory was still on cooldown so I would not be able to effectively disorganize the energy before our two sides met.

Instead, I could only run along with the others making up the current front line and meet the enemy trolls in the middle of their open field. These trolls initiated the confrontation with a series of ice attacks, either unleashing a volley of ice spears or sending up dozens of ice spikes from the ground in front of us.

However, Lil and Oleander and Cweeper easily cleared the air with a barrage of magic skills while everyone on the front line outright smashed through the icy bulwark forming as it attacked us. A simple 360 Edge was all it took for me to breach the fence of outward facing ice spikes while the surrounding bulwark began fracturing before the entire fence between Stonewall and I simply shattered when he bashed through with his wall shield.

Pretty much as soon as the bulwark was gone my party was clashing with the front line of the almost properly formed ranks of trolls. With so many large bodies gathered together in actual support of one another, most knockback skills would be minimally effective unless that could pass through enemies like my Geist blades. Luckily, using electricity to supplement my attacks, I was able to unleash a swift barrage of several ranged electrified cutting skills from the basic Arc Cutter and an Arc Geist.

From my side of the front line all the way over to the opposite side flew dozens of spasming and seizing troll bodies who were unlucky enough to be within the reach of four different skills. The closest trolls were directly cut apart after coming into contact with a third or fourth skill. My kill count just kept rising and rising.

With the general mass of trolls shoved off to the side, most of my party and their mounted familiars were able to route up the side in the open spaces while unleashing a torrent of poisoned arrows and skills into the disorganized trolls. Poisoned and slowed, the trolls were finished off before I even made my way around the mounted ranged fighters who had cut me off.

More than two minutes had already passed and we were still behind the second outpost despite having killed it defenders. The third outpost would unload one hundred and twenty trolls on our heads and in the middle of fighting them the fort would release at least one hundred and ten trolls to reinforce them. Our enemies would literally double in the middle of the fight.

"Cweeper, Hermes, clear the way!" I call out while running forward at my full speed, soon being overtaken by both of my much faster familiars who were also much stronger than I was. The two of them were behind the second outpost and triggering the third wave of enemies in seconds while the rest of us were only just nearing the second outpost.

By the time I passed through the outpost and came within view of my familiars, they were already fighting the third outpost's trolls only about twenty yards out from their outpost. Storms of elemental magics and even physical entities made up of the elements were running amok among the trolls. I honestly felt bad for them.

Since it was my familiars graciously clearing away the enemy trolls while we reached the third outpost with twenty seconds to spare before reinforcements, my kill count skyrocketed. However, as we passed beyond the third outpost as a group the reinforcements were soon released. One hundred and twenty trolls came roaring forth from the fourth outpost while the echoes of more roaring trolls drifted along through the air from the distance.

I had honestly thought that the reinforcements would simply spawn right in our faces as soon as they were released but I was now grateful that we still had some time. So, I decided to cheat. "Hermes, half-tank Mana Slash!"

Less than a second later, a massive horizontal beam of paper thin blinding light stretched out from Hermes' scythe and swept across the entire stretch of land between the third and fourth outposts. 'Half-tank' in this instant meant that I wanted him to use half of his current mana pool in that single attack.

An estimated one thousand mana was enough to slash across a hundred yards and instantly bisect one hundred and thirty trolls in a single move. The trolls themselves had around one thousand health on average, so it not not surprising considering the combined true damage value of their broken Mana Slash skills. I could not help but wonder what DIVINE Slash would have done.

The reinforcement trolls were running at full tilt from the fort and were gaining ground at an unnatural speed. It almost looked like the game itself was pushing them closer to us as we both entered the fifth outpost territory at the same time.

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