Chapter 567 Aerial Combat
As Galtion ran circles on the inner wall of the coliseum, slowly thinking about how to transfer his speed into propulsion upwards, Astaroth was having an aerial ballet with Lich.
At first, his manoeuvring wasn't as smooth as he wished, but he quickly got the hang of his flying capabilities and became an actual threat to the undead.
The Lich, as a result, had to make increasingly hard movements to dip out of Astaroth's attack fly-bys, and it could not focus on reaching out to the bodies of the undead outside its small domain.
Knowing it needed to treat these living flesh puppets more seriously, it stopped trying to spread thinner. Instead, the Lich snapped its hands together, blasting dark mana in every direction.
"Fine! You want to fight me that bad? Then I will respond to your challenge, you insects!"
The energy that blasted out of him suddenly congealed into hundreds of small black orbs. Astaroth recognized these orbs and turned to shout at the party.
"Stay away from the orbs! They'll stab at you!"
He was a bit late in his warning, as Jaxx, who was still defending Luna's surroundings, stepped into range of an orb. Immediately as he did, the Orb stretched out into a thin spike, stabbing him in the shoulder.
It would have hit his neck, had Astaroth not warned them, just in time for Jaxx to react.
But this was only the beginning.
The Lich started twisting its hands in a circular motion, to which the orbs responded by mimicking the movement. The battlefield instantly became a building-sized blender.
The spikes of dark magic attacked anything close to them, regardless of their provenance, and some undead got stabbed. But the Lich seemed uncaring that it was damaging its own troops.
Because it still achieved its target.
The party had to find a spot where there were fewer floating orbs and ended up clustering together. Which, in turn, made it easier for the undead to reach them.
Galtion, who was still running on the wall, was moving too fast for the orbs to stab at him, as their spikes planted in the wall behind him after he had passed. But he currently felt useless.
'How do I get up? If I don't do something soon, they are going to die for nothing…'
Astaroth redoubled his efforts to harass the Lich, attempting to make it lose concentration on its spell. But his attempt came short.
The Lich dodged the attacks it could, while maintaining its spell, and took the others that it couldn't dodge. Astaroth had hoped for the damage to make it falter, but the Lich only cackled at his strikes.
"I am death, insect! I do not feel pain! Your attacks, even coated with divine energy, do nothing more to me than damage this physical vessel."
Of course, its words were only half true, as the divine energy from the attacks was hurting its very essence. But it was hardly enough to make it worry.
Astaroth needed something that hit a lot harder if he hoped to make this enemy drop.
He could have damned all his allies on the ground and committed to a high-impact spell. But he refused to throw them under the bus.
That was why he had wanted Galtion to use his speed to deliver a heavy blow to the Lich. But Astaroth could do nothing more to help him get into the sky.
'I need to get the Lich down or get Galtion up. But neither are easy feats…'
To make matters worse, the Lich had now restarted expanding its sphere of influence outside the coliseum, and more undead were responding to its call. The domain enclosing the arena grounds stretched outside of it, reaching the few streets around the immediate vicinity of the building.
The Lich began floating higher as the dome over the coliseum expanded outward.
'Someone get Galtion on the Lich!' Astaroth typed into the party chat.
The party members were all busy trying to stay out of harm, which made them unreceptive to Astaroth's demands. But Peaceful Grove had an idea.
'Sir. We can't do much in our situation. But would a ramp be enough?'
Astaroth looked at her response and was about to reply when Galtion beat him to it.
'Can you angle it toward the Lich? Like a bike ramp?'
Astaroth frowned.
How would a ramp help if the Lich was too high to hit with a simple jump?
But Peaceful Grove replied, 'Yes.'
'Do it!' Galtion said.
Peaceful Grove had to focus on her spell, which meant she started taking some attacks from passing orbs of darkness. But she gritted her teeth through the pain.
In the seating area of the coliseum, the stonework started shifting. Over the next few seconds, it rose and shaped itself, taking the appearance of a crescent ramp, as you would see in a bike or skate park.
Galtion had to reach the area, which meant he would have to crest over the wall he was running on and spin into the seating area, which was infested with undead. But he grinned like a maniac.
'Thanks, Grove!' he said in the party chat before his blurry form rose on the twenty-foot wall.
He crested the edge of the wall slowly, changing his running angle back to normal, before activating a skill he hadn't used in a while.
"Reckless charge!"
He seldom used this, as it had so many downsides, for its one only use. A yellow glowing spiral formed before his now outstretched spear, and his body sped up again.
He vaporized the undead that barred his way in contact with the mix of impact strength and holy essence as he kept dashing forward.
During Reckless Charge, Galtion couldn't stop, or be halted, for five straight seconds, and any enemy that wasn't killed on impact would get thrown aside. The skill ended in his legs losing strength, and him tumbling uncontrollably, but it wouldn't matter.
As his skill reached three seconds, Galtion reached the ramp. On the four second mark, he was already launching skyward, his speed maintained in a straight upward line.
On the fifth second mark, right before the spiral of yellow phased away, Galtion struck the unsuspecting Lich right in the torso.
The impact caused a blast of black and white that blinded everyone present.
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