Before she touched down, the two lances struck against her shield. Both exploded with bright light and burning heat, but the bonus to her resilience granted by Meteoric Descent was enough to keep her safe, even as her skin peeled from the fury of the cursory attacks. She careened towards her enemy, who raised a more substantial spear to interrupt Astrid's descent.
Astrid smashed into the spear, angling her shield to turn away its deadly point. As high-quality as it was, a Steel tier shield could only do so much against the attack of somebody two tiers higher. It had held against her thrown attacks, but Misha's spear scraped for the barest instant against the face of the shield. Then it punched through, striking Astrid's pauldron. The Mithril-tier armor held, and, even with her helmet obscuring her expression, Astrid could see the enemy General's eyes widen in surprise. Then, Astrid's attack made contact.
Though she wore armor, Misha carried no shield. She fought near the front lines, but not directly on them, apparently preferring to remain a way back and throwing her spears. Astrid's hammer smashed into the other woman's chest. The shining armor flashed with a defensive enchantment, slowing Astrid's attack just before it made contact. Even still, the hammerhead struck the enemy's chest. Interestingly, the first hit was weak after that glowing burst, but the second, so far as Astrid could tell, was as strong as the echo stone's echo would have been if the attack had landed as normal. The armor dented ever so slightly, but, overall, Astrid's opening attack didn't do as much damage as she had hoped.
The rest of Meteoric Descent still worked as it was supposed to. With Astrid having jumped so high and her attributes all having spiked, a third, echoing boom exploded from the point of impact. The ground under Misha's feet crumbled, and the steep path the invading army fought on broke. A landslide began at Astrid's point of impact, and literal tons of rocks started tumbling downhill. People screamed as their footing disappeared, but Astrid only half heard that. Instead, she was forced to remember that the General didn't stand alone.
Oathbound Warrior slain. 12,000 experience gained, split among party.
Oathbound Warrior slain. 12,280 experience gained, split among party.
Contract-Driven Ranger slain. 16,320 experience gained, split among party.
Contract-Compelled Healer slain. 10,560 experience gained, split among party.
Contract-Compelled Healer slain. 12,560 experience gained, split among party.
Bound Assassin slain. 18,000 experience gained, split among party.
At least a dozen kill notifications of mid to high Steel tier people flashed in Astrid's vision, and she gritted her teeth as she was reminded that she just escalated the fight exactly where people who couldn't face her stood. So many people dead, all around. Their bodies had been pulverized, and the scene of violence that Astrid was so used to seeing inflicted on monsters was now dealt to people by her own hand.
"Who are you?" Misha demanded, her eyes flicking in every direction as she took in the scene of destruction.
Instead of entertaining the conversation, Astrid hurried forward, closing the distance. Her hammer screamed through the air, seeking to deal crippling or deadly blows to one of the four people who served as the Marchioness's linchpins on this attack. Her assault was largely ineffectual, though. With Meteoric Descent no longer boosting her Alacrity like Body Surge had, Astrid couldn't hope to catch the much higher-level enemy. Fortunately, Meteoric Descent's secondary aura constantly pulled Astrid's enemies towards her, and Misha didn't seem to have a Skill particularly well suited to disengaging.
Misha couldn't escape. Astrid wanted to use Smite, to try to get a solid hit in again, but she decided against it as her enemy seemed to decide to commit to attacking. Even over the sound of the landslide tumbling down the mountainside combined with screams of fear and pain, Astrid heard the mountain groan under the force of the enemy general's attacks.
The spear jabbed towards Astrid a dozen times in quick succession, and she was forced onto the back foot as she reflexively used her shield to protect herself. Every one of the spear thrusts was accompanied by that same burning light, and in just a handful of hits, Astrid's shield had been nearly torn in half. Seeing just how useless it was for her now, she dismissed it to make sure she wasn't going to instinctually rely on its ability to protect her.
Two more attacks hit Astrid, one again glancing off her shoulder as she adjusted her stance. Before she could celebrate that, the final attack hit. The tip of the spear seemed to bend as it went around her attempted parry and buried itself in her gut. Blinding pain consumed her vision before the mana in the spearhead exploded.
Astrid was sent flying back and slammed into the wall of the newly created crater. Dust puffed out all around her, and she groaned in pain. A pair of glowing spears flew towards her, and Astrid rolled over out of their way. The dent she'd put on the wall of the crater became a hole as both spears exploded and shrapnel bounced off her back, and the enemy General threw herself towards the Meteor.
A massive figure flew towards her from the side, and the General whipped her head towards it as she was pulled from her fight with Astrid.
Finally, ten seconds had passed, and Felix appeared.
Every one of his Skills was active as he smashed his shield into Misha. He stood nearly three meters tall as he whipped his axe at the faster Adamantium tier. She seemed to want to pursue the attack on Astrid most of all, but Felix's literal presence, as well as his Skills, forced her to split her attention. Astrid took that second to struggle to her feet, her stomach not quite cooperating when she tried to stand up. She'd largely blotted out the agony of having a spear explode inside of her, but trying to stand up reminded her that her abdominals had been shredded. It was impossible to see what was happening under the armor, but the fact that her blood had splashed almost up to her breasts was enough of a reminder.
Selecting Felix and Muti as additional beneficiaries, Astrid spent a charge of Regeneration and shot straight up. She then, back on her feet, threw herself into the fight once more. Evidently, Misha had started the fight off against Astrid probing, seeing if she could perhaps defeat the Meteor without killing her. Now that she saw that Astrid had backup, though, all the gloves were off.
Misha's whole body was glowing with that same bright mana, and every one of her attacks, as well as those that landed on her, resulted in explosions of light. Felix's shield was scorched and cracking, though the living nature of the wood seemed to better resist whatever explosive element her attacks carried than Astrid's shield. She congratulated herself for remembering to heal Felix as well, because she could see trails of blood on both of his thighs where he'd been stabbed. He hadn't stumbled, so they might not have been too bad.
The battle reached somewhat of a standstill as Astrid and Felix hammered on the enemy General from both sides. The skies darkened with heavy clouds, and the wind started whipping around. Astrid would like to think that she was giving as good as she got, but that wasn't the case and she, Felix, and Misha all knew it. Evidently, the enemy had stronger defenses than Astrid expected, and, whenever she and Felix managed to strike, the General never flagged or stumbled. Twice, Misha was sent flying and Astrid thought she'd made progress. Instead, the more experienced woman used that as an opportunity to roll back to her feet and get out of a situation that could have started to go against her.
Less than a minute had passed, and Astrid and Felix had yet to do anything substantial. She hadn't used Smite yet, they had a plan for that, but it was frustrating, to say the least.
"Two wolf pups, thinking they can go on the hunt. Turns out, I'll make them into dogs," Misha taunted as she dodged a blow from Felix and used the opportunity to stab into his side. The strike exploded like all of them did, and he groaned, but stood strong. He had, true to his role, taken the bulk of the attacks, and used a charge of Recovery Surge. He continued to hold strong, and the General's posture perked up at that. "You both are so impressive. The Marchioness will want you."
Astrid didn't respond, stepping forward and feinting an overhand blow before instead swinging from the right. Misha half bit on the feint, and was forced to lower her stance to make sure the blow didn't take out her hip entirely.
Which was when Muti finally made her appearance.
From Astrid's left, the opposite side of the attack that had struck, Muti appeared from shadows that grew deeper as the clouds overhead turned dark, nearly black. Both of her blades glowed with black, shadowy mana, and she stabbed into the very slightly exposed right hip of the enemy. One blade scraped off the metal fauld while the other stabbed into the juncture between metal plates. The attack sunk nearly a full hand's length into the woman, and she gasped as Muti dismissed the sword that hadn't struck true, placed both hands on the hilt of the one that remained, then viciously twisted and yanked the blade out.
Blood sprayed from the wound as Muti disappeared once again, and Misha was, for the first time, truly wounded.
Astrid tried to seize that same opening, but even as her blood coated the ground, Misha screamed, raised her spear, and slammed the head into the ground. Astrid had the barest moment to see burning cracks spread through the ground underfoot before a glowing spear erupted from underfoot. She tried to dodge and only barely managed to keep from being impaled from crotch to crown, instead taking a heavy wound.
The spear pierced entirely through her right thigh, the blade crunching through her femur and sending her tumbling to the ground in a quivering ball of agony. She nearly lost the leg, but it remained, held on only through a few of her remaining muscles. Felix, with his greater resilience, managed to survive the attack, though the spear that had struck him did significantly more damage than to her. The armor he wore was covered with his own blood, and he lay on the ground, barely moving. Muti had escaped with the least crippling of the team's injuries. In this case, that meant her left arm hung uselessly as she limped away.
"Assassins," Misha shook her head as she let out a long, low wheeze of pain. "You always need a Skill to deal with them. If it can deal with everybody else, even better."
She jumped towards Muti, who dissolved into shadows just before contact could be made. Astrid chose Felix and Muti both for her second charge of Regeneration, though it was only enough to get Muti back into fighting condition. She decisively spent her third charge to make sure that she and Felix especially were able to get back into the fight as fast as possible.
Soothing winds contradictory to the darkening storm overhead carried Astrid back to her feet as she closed back in on the General that was pursuing Muti's shadow with a dogged persistence. Misha threw a dismissive spear towards Astrid as she closed in, and the Meteor was forced to slow her approach as the weapon hit in her stomach where she had been wounded before. She turned to keep the tip from piercing deeply into her, so instead the contained explosion was limited just to her left side and her flesh mostly held together.
Even so, Astrid closed in with the General and tried to occupy her as Felix threw himself with a roar at the enemy. His new Skill, Stalwart Defender, the evolution of Raging Guardian, let him basically teleport in front of Misha and strike away her spear that tried to cripple Muti. His Fortitude shot up and the attacks she landed on him were unable to cripple him as before.
Misha screamed as she ducked under the next attack from Felix and opened herself up to let Astrid's hammer smash into her in exchange. The general twisted her body and wrenched Felix's weapon from his hand before stabbing her spear into his side, the point angled up towards his heart. His strong stance broke at that, and he fell to the ground with a low groan.
Astrid gritted her teeth as she activated Meteoric Smite for the first time. The best lead she had on an elemental type that would counter Misha's was shadow, so with Astrid's whole body driving the attack, she slammed her hammer into the outside of Misha's knee. The leg buckled and the woman went down as Astrid's hammer chunked through the armor, and then halfway through the leg underneath. The "cratering" effect of the Skill blew apart Misha's armor and exposed her leg. With the bonus damage from Astrid healing so much with Regeneration, the leg necrotized, and Astrid saw the skin go black and unfeeling. The General started to crumble to the ground but hopped away.
"Now!"
Misha's shouted command was an unwelcome surprise. Finally, the party had started to make some headway. Then, Misha's command became obvious as Muti went down, an arrow shaft sprouting from her throat. Astrid tried to defend herself against the hail of arrows that came towards her, but with her shield basically destroyed and no good visual on the Sniper, two more arrows slammed into her chest. She let out a wheezing breath as she was forced to the ground.
"How the hell are you all still alive?" Misha demanded as she reached into a spatial pouch and pulled out a glowing potion. Just as she unstopped it, though, the storm that had been building overhead broke in a single massive column of black lightning.
Astrid closed her eyes against the blinding flash of somehow dark lightning. When she opened her eyes, her head was somehow turned towards the distance. That was, evidently, where the Sniper was, and now, Astrid saw a writhing mass of thorns there. It was a forest at least a kilometer wide in every direction, and no more arrows fell towards her battlefield.
That was all her quick glance got her, and then she saw Misha, who lay on the ground. Skandr had timed the party's second ambush perfectly, and the target had fully let her guard down. The storm gathering overhead was sure to be a tell that something else was happening, but as his party continued to lose the fight, it could be that Misha let her guard down just a little bit as she tried to take her potion. The shattered remains of the item that would surely have brought her back to peak condition surrounded her, and the potion itself was lost in the red mud that filled the crater from everyone's blood.
There was no time like the present, and Astrid included Felix and Muti both with the final charge of Regeneration. Muti stirred, starting to get up, but Felix simply coughed weakly. The fact that he'd survived having an entire spear stabbed into his chest was testament enough to his toughness, and Astrid didn't hesitate as she broke the arrow shafts still protruding from her chest. Her recovery pushed the rest of the ammunitions' remains from her body, but she simply hurried towards Misha's recovering body as the boost from Meteoric Descent faded.
It had only been one minute?
Astrid didn't think any further about it as Misha started to rise. Her right leg was still unresponsive, but with three limbs, she was more than dangerous enough, especially if she got plenty of time.
Astrid activated Meteoric Smite. Into it, she pumped as much mana and stamina as she could spare. With a scream, she raised her hammer and smashed it down at the base of Misha's neck.
That damned radiant armor flashed, dispelling the first half of the attack, but the meteor could not be stopped.
The second impact of the attack, like with Meteoric Descent, wasn't weakened by the enchantment. It carried enough strength to shatter stone and brutalize defenses.
And it wasn't enough.
Misha's gorget shattered, but her head remained mostly whole. She was forced down, but Astrid had spent everything she had. She broke through the woman's defenses, crippled her, opened her up to attacks, and still couldn't kill.
Muti could.
With a ululating battle cry, Muti held her thick chopping sword in both hands, shadow billowing from it as she smashed the weapon through Misha's neck. The woman's head tumbled to the ground, and the body collapsed as a kill notification flashed in Astrid's eyes.
Radiant General slain. 112,000 experience gained, split among party.
Astrid grunted as she hunched down and tried to break the eyeline with the Sniper, though there was little chance of that happening. She tossed two berries and a pepper into her mouth, chewing quickly as she felt her mana and stamina renewing. She clambered over to Felix, who still wasn't moving, and forced the same salad of plants from Vera into his mouth. His jaw started working as the juices trickled down his throat, but before Astrid could begin to relax, the greenery on the wall nearby started shaking like mad in a warning from Greely.
The three exposed Wanderers barely had time to react before an ominous aura loomed and the sound of furious footfalls approached.