Offensive

After about twenty minutes of talking with the Dwarf he had found out to be named Grandy, Lake had had enough of the constant questions and made up a reason he had to step outside for a second. "I need to go look around the Mana Siphon to see if the formation we sent to destroy it has made any progress. I'll be back in a few minutes and I want you to look after everyone while I'm gone."

Grandy started to nod and said. "I can do that." Lake could tell Grandy had more to say so he got up before the dwarf had the chance and headed for the door. Once he was outside Lake started towards the place the dwarves had set the sealing formation to see if there had been any progress.

Jumping onto the roof of the building they had been inside when they made the formation, Lake saw something he hadn't expected. It looked like the flesh wasn't as passive as it seemed because the formation they had made was gone and replacing it was a giant scab. He wasn't sure if the flesh had shed some of itself or just grown around the formation but it was clear it had defended itself.

This was bad news but since he didn't really think they needed to worry about trying to destroy the formation until they had reclaimed control over the city because he knew there was a good chance the Demon Worshipers had something going on on almost every tier not just the places that they had set the two sides of this formation.

This would stretch out this fight to multiple days but he didn't really need to worry about anything going on on the other floors because of the imprisonment formation that would keep them separate from all the others or at least that was what he thought. He still wasn't exactly sure if the imprisonment formation would stop people from coming in.

Being done looking at the place the formation they set should have been, Lake started to head back to the others. He didn't really want to go back just yet because it would give the dwarf more time to bother him but leaving them alone wasn't a good idea since he was hoping he would get more money by leading them to victory compared to if he did everything by himself since no one would be around to see how good he did and he couldn't trust them to survive on their own.

Stepping back inside Lake saw even more of the people had fallen asleep to the point where only five or so were awake. Seeing that almost all of the people that were awake were dwarves, Lake wondered if maybe dwarves naturally had more stamina. It would make sense to him and maybe help explain why they tended to work so hard.

The three dwarves that had been with him from the beginning were also awake but Lake didn't count them since they hadn't been in the massive fight the rest of the people here were part of. Lake chose a place away from the dwarves by making it look like he didn't want to disturb the people that were asleep.

He was hoping this would make the dwarf think twice about trying to start another dialog with him but just a few seconds after he sat down Grandy came tiptoeing towards him. It was nice to see the dwarf had taken the hint even if it wasn't the one wanted him to take. "So what was the progress on the formation you four set?"

Lake held his finger to his mouth before saying in a whisper. "It's been destroyed." Grandy seemed to think all Lake wanted was for him to be more quiet and continued the conversation by whispering. "What happened to it?" Lake was tired of this and said. "Listen, these people need to sleep and you're being too loud. We can talk later."

The dwarf seemed to have a problem with Lake talking to him like this and said. "I whispered." Lake had a response to this ready though and said. "That's not good enough around fighters that sleep with one eye open. Every time we talk we risk another being unready to go when the time comes."

Lake could tell Grandy didn't have anything to say that would make what he said not make perfect sense and knew he had won. Watching Grandy walk away, Lake decided he would need to do something later to get rid of the tension he had just caused but it shouldn't be too hard for him to do that since Grandy liked to talk so much.

…

Looking around Donny couldn't help but to be in awe of the talisman his father had given him; everything was flat but he and the two people that had been able to stick close enough to him were fine. Doing his best to get a read on the situation outside of his ward Donny decided he could move from the place he had been standing for almost an hour.

The attack had been over for a while now but the energy it had unleashed had just now cleared to the point where he felt it was safe. Deactivating his ward Donny felt the small amount of Unholy mana that was still in the air start to sting his skin and tried to build up some Metal mana to keep this from happening.

After a few seconds of trying Donny realized there was none to gather. Something had caused all of the Metal mana in the city to disappear and he didn't have to look hard to find what had caused this. Looking to the top of the crater Donny saw the web of flesh that was above them like a net and knew that this was the formation that had caused the attack they had been hit by from its shape.

Since this wasn't the part of the formation that drained the Metal mana that meant this was just a small part of the formation but to find out more he needed to climb his way out of the hole he was in. He had been protected the whole time but the same didn't go for the ground under him so as the Unholy mana had eaten its way through the stone he and the two conscious people that had been holding onto him had slowly fallen downwards.

Looking back at the two that would be following him out Donny said. "Get me up there and then I'll pull you two up." If the hole hadn't been so deep he could have just ran and jumped his way out but the sides were close to a 90 degree angle so he and the other two would have to climb up like goats.

Once he was on the first ledge that was wide enough for him to place a foot on Donny used his hand to knock a hole in the wall that would let them climb to the next ledge. Once that was done he reached one of his arms down and helped the first of the two up to where he was. Once the man was up Donny said. "Get up to the next one."

There wasn't enough room for all three of them on this foot hold so the man needed to keep it moving. Getting the next guy up to him Donny moved upwards to make them a way to the next ledge. Like this they eventually were able to climb all the way to the rim of the crater. "Do your best not to touch any of the flesh."

It was hard not to be tempted to use the strands of flesh like ropes but he knew it would be a bad idea. Dodging all of the almost root-like flesh Donny was able to make his way onto the streets that had been outside of the spells range. Donny had originally been planning to help the others out of the tangled flesh but he forgot about them as soon as he saw what was happening on the streets in front of him.

It seemed that some of the guards and members from the now gone guild district had made it out before their buildings had been destroyed but they were just a small percentage of the forces in the all battle that was taking place. Surprisingly most of the people fighting seemed to be just normal people but Donny had seen what the Demon Worshipers had managed to pass as people earlier so he doubted the crazed residents were what they seemed.

Then there were the Demon Worshipers themselves, Like every other time he had seen any of their kind they were blasting Unholy spells at anything that moved not even worrying about friendly fire since their spells had an empowering effect on the undead they used as infantry. Grabbing his spear for the first time since surviving the giant spell Donny found that its tip was missing.

It must have been too long and stuck outside of the ward. Looking around he found a downed guard and went for their sword. He didn't particularly like swords but since his magic was also useless he needed something to defend himself.