Chapter 1861. The Battle Raged On
Chapter 1861. The Battle Raged On
At Chris' secret garden, Jack and the others watched the events that transpired from the projection inside the lake pavilion. The arrival of the divine factions injected a new fighting spirit into the defenders. They now fought the demons vigorously.
Grace heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness they came," she said.
"Do they have to cut it so close? Why didn't they just be on standby at the walls like everyone else?" Paytowin complained.
"The divine factions have their pride. They are not on anyone's beck-and-call list," Wilted explained. "I bet they only started moving after getting the wind that the battle had started."
"We should just be grateful they come at all," Jeanny said.
"You are welcome," Chris responded.
The others gave him side eyes with annoyed expressions. The dude acted like it was all his accomplishment. Even though it was indeed so, seeing him sit there and relax every day while everyone was putting in the effort made them feel like slapping him on the head.
"They are still greatly outnumbered, though," Four Winds said. He didn't sound as optimistic as the others.
His comment brought the others' excitement down a notch. They reassessed the scene from the projection.
The scene showed the situation at Hydrurond's Northern defense line. Though the Council of Virtus and the Cult of Phobos brought many capable combatants, they were still greatly outnumbered. There was no shortage of powerful demons in the main army Beelzebub brought, so they only balanced the scale by a little.
Beelzebub himself was terrifying. Even being ganged up on by so many eternal-grade combatants, he was still not at a disadvantage. He even started producing stronger and bigger bugs from his body but in fewer numbers. These bugs caused the others to be unable to focus on Beelzebub.
The defenders might seem like they were pushing back, but their fiery zeal couldn't last forever. Realization gradually set in, and they could see that they were still in the shitshow. They were pushed back again until the defensive walls. The difference now was that they could better defend with the aid of those divine factions.
"You are not wrong," Chris responded to Four Winds' remark. "The divine factions might be strong, but the underworld forces are no pushover. They also have more numbers."
Chris changed the image to show the scene at Hydrurond's Southern defense line. It was pretty much the same. The Council of Elpo boasted the strongest natives in the upperworld, but Satan and the force he brought boasted the strongest natives from the underworld. The situation at this front progressed similarly to the Northern front.
Under Linda's constraint, the defenders remained fighting on the defensive walls. They lost fewer people and killed more demons because of that, but they still found the demons outnumbering them.
The reason they lost fewer people could also be attributed to the rune tree from the mobile fortress. The rune tree was more than two months old now. Its healing AOE roughly covered the size of a town. This allowed its AOE to cover almost the entire battlefield, including Eoranth who had lost a considerable amount of HP.
Eoranth continued to battle Satan with the aid of Honuren and some of his eternal-grade warriors. They couldn't deal meaningful damage to Satan, but they kept Satan away from the walls. Otherwise, Satan could use his Soul and Chaos chain reaction to slay a huge portion of defenders on the walls. The rune tree wouldn't be able to do anything against that since most would die in one hit. Most likely only eternal-grade combatants or mythical grades with levels above 90 could survive.
Those who watched the projection were back to their grim expressions.
Badass suddenly appeared nearby. "Hey, everyone! This is surprising. I didn't expect you all to pass the test faster than me… Hm? Did someone die?"
Badass traced everyone's line of sight and saw the image in the projection. His face became serious, then.
"They should be able to hold on, right?" Jack asked.
"As long as they knew when to retreat, they should," John answered.
"I'm going back to train," Jack uttered. He turned and walked away.
"I will do the same," Jeanny said.
"Me too," Grace said.
Leavemealone and Red Death went with them without a word.
The others followed one by one. Only Badass remained there, clueless. "Where did everybody go?" He asked.
Chris gave Badass a pity look. He stood and told Badass, "Come. Follow me."
*
While The players at Chris' secret garden resumed their training to level up, the battle in Hydrurond continued to rage.
At the Southern defense line, Satan didn't feel threatened by the opponents he faced, but he was still annoyed they stopped him from advancing.
"You, irritating flies! You think I won't use my skill because there are only a few of you?" He roared. The skin on his body changed color. One half was silver, and the other half was dark purple.
"Shit! He is using it!" Tip exclaimed.
Linda hurriedly sent a message to Eoranth. She could do it using the war table, the same as Jack using his King Badge. Eoranth had been briefed earlier when he arrived. He knew of Satan's ultimate skill. During the fight, he had also sent a mind transmission to Honuren informing him about this. Honuren did the same to his comrades who fought with him.
Hence, they immediately took action once Satan exhibited the telltale sign.
All of them used their skills. Some used defensive skills. Some used movement skills to get away. Eoranth, Honuren, and a few other spellcasters cast spells.
"Dieee…!!" Satan yelled. He didn't even care that his demon army was nearby. The huge sphere of silver and dark purple filled the battlefield. The sphere almost reached the walls. Many of the demons were engulfed by it.
When the sphere was gone, the ground was filled with many demon corpses. Even the defenders were shocked that Satan killed so many of his allies without hesitation. Among the demons swallowed by the sphere, only a few of the strongest ones were still alive, but their HP was very low.
As for the ones who fought Satan, they were all powerful combatants and had prepared defensive measures. But even so, several still died. A few who used movement skills failed to flee the area and were killed. Honuren had cast an area defense spell. His spell successfully kept him and four of his allies safe. His allies lost almost half of their HP. Honuren lost a quarter. As for Eoranth, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Sataannn…! Eat this…!!!"
They heard a roaring voice from high above. They looked up and saw Eoranth up there. Rivers of light were flowing into his mouth. Rings filled with runic symbols appeared as his mouth unleashed a massive beam of light.
Eoranth used a newly learned spell to move up there. The spell was Extreme Teleportation. This variant gave a much farther range compared to normal Teleportation. It allowed him to escape the blast radius of the Soul and Chaos Chain Reaction. He then prepared his Annihilating Soul Beam when Satan was still unaware of his whereabouts.
The thick beam rushed down at an incredible speed. Satan stared at the incoming beam with scorn. He put his two arms above him. A ring of silver and dark purple appeared. This ring was decorated with scores of runic symbols.
Eoranth's beam slammed into the ring. The ring stopped the beam, but the force pushed Satan downward. His knees slightly buckled. The ground below him cracked and sank. The massive soul energy from the beam poured in all directions since it was unable to pierce through the runic ring.
This energy washed over the demons in the surroundings. Those demons had just survived Satan's ultimate skill. This outpouring of soul energy washed away whatever little HP they had left.
When Eoranth's ultimate skill ended, Satan was still standing. Cracks were seen in the runic ring protecting him, but it was still intact. None of the energy from the Annihilating Soul Beam hit Satan.
Eoranth was having trouble believing the scene. This was his strongest attack. It was still unable to pierce through Satan's defense.
Satan looked at the cracks on the runic ring above him. He no longer had a mocking expression.
"Hmph! Not bad, dragon," Satan said while thrusting his arm at Eoranth. A spell formation formed.
Eoranth felt an invisible force grab him. He was pulled violently toward Satan. While Eoranth learned Extreme Teleportation, Satan had Extreme Telekinesis. This allowed Satan's telekinesis to affect a target from a very long distance.
"Raarrgghhh…!!!" Eoranth used all his strength to resist the pull. His velocity slowed, but he was still heading toward Satan.
A gigantic flaming hand materialized near him. This flaming hand clenched into a fist before slamming into Eoranth's body. While Eoranth was incapacitated by telekinesis, this flaming fist punched him repeatedly.
A torrent of giant silver sabers came assailing Satan. This forced Satan's hold on his Telekinesis to weaken. Eoranth broke free and destroyed the flaming fist with a swing of his tail.
Satan turned his attention to the one who sent the silver sabers. It was Honuren. He and the others were casting spells.
"Harharhar. Come at me any way you like," Satan laughed.