A lightning bolt darted from a soldier helping Captain Lain face the horrific Blirdoth. The woman was fighting a hard battle against the canine monstrosity, using all the techniques she learned during military training and being supported by many people.
On her left was a huge dog-like creature with brown and black fur and two big, threatening tusks that a nearby soldier had summoned. This rapidly became Lain's best ally since the soldier who summoned it was pretty strong.
The dog was fortified by Emma's shields, among which was a spell that stopped the beast's corrosive gas from killing the creature.
The dog-like summon rushed against the canine horror, biting it on its right paw. The Blirdoth tried to yank it away, but the power of its bite was strong enough to stop the vicious beast from doing anything.
While the Heniate's avatar was under assault, Lain took advantage of the situation and swung her sword at the beast. To damage it, Lain had to use a lot of mana to make the blade of her summoned weapon sharp enough to cut through the thaid's thick and resistant fur. She did not miss, but the creature was formidable, and that small wound was nothing to it.
However, the Heniate behind the Blirdoth surged with rage; this was the first time its avatar had been hurt this way. The parasite believed it was the big boss, the forest's apex predator, and this puny human dared to bite its creature. The beast shrieked, and everyone's attention shifted to the horror for a couple of moments, proving fatal for some soldiers.
The canine horror grabbed the dog summon and started hitting its head with its free arm until it released the grip on its paw. Then it grabbed the summoned beast by its head and threw it in Lain's direction.
"Damn!" she shouted.
The dog flew through the air and crashed on the wall's concrete floor, releasing a yelping sound and making the ground tremble.
Without keeping her eyes from the Blirdoth, Lain told the nearby soldiers to keep the creature at bay. They started channeling mana and launching attacks relentlessly, sending a flood of mana into the air and changing the environment. The Blirdoth was forced to put its arms up in defense of its head, but its fur was highly resistant, and not many brain crystal powers had enough mana to damage the creature.
"Emma, how long can you keep the shield on me and the summon last?" Lain asked with a tinge of fear on her face as the brain crystal powers' attacks kept raining on the thaid. Nothing seemed to work. The creature was almost immortal, its fur was like magic armor that couldn't be broken, and its poisonous gas was a powerful weapon.
"Not much!" Emma replied. She used a ton of mana to keep both the water shields up. Not only this, but she constantly had to regenerate it since the beast's corrosive gasses chipped away at its integrity.
<How the fuck can I kill this bitch?> Lain thought.
She understood that if she wanted to kill the creature, she needed more mana or a concussive force strong enough to knock it at least out. Lain then shouted to a mecha pilot nearby who was initially fending off some other monsters, "Quick, help me fight this bitch!"
Mechas were the best-suited ones to perform the task, as they were not alive, and the metal was pretty resistant to the corrosive gas, enough to protect the pilot for a reasonable amount of time. It was a bit of a waste to employ one to fight a thaid it couldn't kill. However, the mechas were humongous, so she calculated that they could be helpful to shields and help her distract the Blirdoth.
Clearly, their strength wasn't enough to kill the beast because its natural mana shield had a lot of the ethereal substance, which allowed it to stop most of the attacks. If things went well, maybe she would have the opportunity to kill the beast.
Lain channeled mana; she was going big this time. After she threw most of it inside her sword, she was ready. She quickly dashed behind the beast and aimed at its spine; the amount of mana was so high that the woman almost depleted it all. However, the sword became sufficiently powerful to be effective against the Heniate's avatar. She slashed, and a nasty cut appeared on the creature's back, but that was all.
The beast survived; it wasn't cleaved in half as the woman hoped, and it soon turned around to see what had attacked it. The woman realized she needed to develop a new strategy, but her mind was blank. She stepped back, trying to make sense of what just happened, and prepared for the Blirdoth's next move.
As she backed away, the Blirdoth lunged toward her, and she scrambled to avoid its sharp teeth. Her heart racing, she knew she couldn't let fear consume her. Glancing around, she saw the carnage the creature had left behind; there were so many bodies that made it hard for her even to walk around.
"This is not good," Lain muttered under her breath, "I have no idea how I'm supposed to beat this thing." Now, the only option available was to try with concussive force, but unfortunately, no one had enough strength to kill the creature.
At the same time, a soldier nearby channeled a ton of mana through his neural links. The ground around them shimmered, and fog started spreading in the surroundings. Soon, small flashes of lightning came out of the fog as the soldier's action seemed to have triggered a reaction from the environment. The air was now charged with electricity, and the team had to be careful not to get caught in a lightning strike.
"We're not done yet!" he yelled as the rest of the soldiers started to attack at once with all their might, hoping to overwhelm the enemy's defenses before they had a chance to respond and giving time to the soldier to complete his channelization. They were partially successful since they gave the man enough time to summon four lightning elementals that gushed out of thin air.
Their bodies were small storms; their wrists were adorned with golden bracelets, and small bolts of lightning surrounded them. The creatures had some ranged attacks, so they started bombarding the Blirdoth with everything they could; even the dog-like summon was attacking, supported by Emma's water attacks, and was biting at the creature's leg.
The pilots made their mechas advance toward the beast, and at the same time, while Lain's comrades were buying her time, she was preparing another big attack. She only needed to find the right opportunity.
After a couple of moments of waiting, Lain darted, traveling through the air with unparalleled speed. She swung her sword at the beast's paw again, hoping her mana would be enough to chop the beast's leg off. The attack landed on the canine-bear monstrosity's leg, but again, it wasn't enough. However, the beast staggered.
"Attack! Attack it now!" Lain shouted to the soldiers, who started unleashing as much power as possible over the beast.
"We need more power!" someone yelled out while unleashing mana with an impressive speed. The soldiers were all doing their best, but even if everyone was firing at once, there wasn't enough power to stop this thing. Then a booming sound echoed atop the walls, and a small cloud, big enough to shroud the creature, arose.
The battlefield was enveloped in silence. Everyone looked at the situation with bated breath. Maybe they had been successful; maybe they had killed the Blirdoth.
"Is it done?" Lain muttered.
A horrified look spread across Lain's face as soon as the dust dissipated. The creature was alive; the soldiers and the mechas did not hit the beast, which instead used the dog-summoned beast as a meat shield. There was no trace of the summoned creature anymore, but the Heniate's avatar stood proudly.
"Let's get the hell out of here, Emma!" Lain shouted to her comrade. The Blirdoth charged at the lightning elementals while Lain, Emma, and every other soldier fled from the creature. There was nothing they could do to stop the creature.
The beast did not chase them. It was too battered to do so. All those attacks actually took a toll on it. It only wanted to eat and recuperate; for this reason, it jumped from the wall, ran toward the breached eastern gate, and went inside the city.
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