The threat of the fairy knights to Arata himself, rather than the ones that ignored him. Out of the corner of his eyes, Arata spots Morgan's group, who were being swarmed by a sea of alraune. Hundreds of rotting corpses aiming to break through the line of men.
Among the crowd was a fairy knight, hidden among the common beasts. Its long, tendril-like arm drilled into the ground, tunneling vines aimed to flank the formation of soldiers. Arata took aim with Bloody Mary, the most begins to coalesce around Arata's arm as the knife stabs through it's skull into the ground. With that, the creature slams into the floor below, getting stuck.
"Now Morgan!"
Morgan jumps out into the front of the forces, activating her magic, she cuts her pinky.
A flying slash cleaves through a chunk of alraune, the street now picked clean. Arata jumps down, sword in hand summons forth Cauterizer using his new sword. It was a more blunt shortsword than what he was used to, however, the initial structure didn't matter as much when turning it into Cauterizer.
Now his sword belonged to Morgan, despite the damage, it's conductivity for mana allowed her to better use her unlocking magic. Although it did nothing to solve the problem of having only ten keys on her. Undeniably, this battle would be one of resources, who would run out first, the Erkling who had absorbed every elf and fairy who opposed him or humanity.
Arata now meeting Morgan again on the ground now faces yet another problem. He was given an opening, not a safe landing. Arata turns to his side, noticing that his position is already compromised.
Alraune swarm, the flood charging at him through the streets. Yet all he needs is another second. The soldiers advance further down the street to support him, a line of spears to support his position. Alraune jump onto the ranks, chewing up the men and spitting them out before quickly being pierced in return.
Not yet, wait… 3, 2… hold on. Yet flames begin dancing across the very mist meant to inhibit them, demiurge foundry needed the mana in them after all.
"NOW!"
With Morgan's voice echoing, the soldiers step back as a powerful burst of heat is sent down the street, the layer of flames was undoubtedly neutered in potency. Yet, a weak flame is still fire, it still spreads among the animated corpses with ease.
Among the alraune, further knights were hidden, dispersed, likely to hide them for Arata, using their immortal strength to wear down their resources, yet that saved Arata's resources. Seeing only three, one aimed past him, lobbing some magic mud at his allies behind him. To which Arata jumped, aiming to reshape the spell. A javelin found itself staring him down, which Albert's sword deflects. Morgan meets the other fairy knight in a 1-on-1. Arata's sword absorbs the mud, coating the blade, dry pieces of dirt crumble off the flaming whip.
10 before… 3 here, almost a third done already. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell how the other forces are holding up. Arata looks before him, ready to throw Bloody Mary again.
The one fighting Morgan is distracted, another wasted their weapon, throwing it… the one in the back will be hard to hit but might throw another spell. Arata's flying blade hits the unarmed fairy knight, welding the helmet to its neck. Now too sluggish, it is unable to stop Arata from running right past it. Cauterizer tears through the knight in the back and the other two are soon to follow, quickly disposed of by similar means.
Meanwhile, the trickle of alraune flows in now from both the alleyways and the main street. Huh? If I recall, we trained so many drills for a situation to fall back from an enemy attempting to surround us and close in on us without losing space. Yet there's no resistance met in terms of pushing them back? That feels wrong.
"Ravenna! Scout out where the other squads are at. They've adapted!"
I came up with the pH trick to handle large groups of knights… large groups I assume would work together to overwhelm, a singular knight on their own isn't too big of a threat… Yet they've refocused, the knights were supposed to be about independent action? So why are they taking such an unintuitive approach forward?
Ravenna shouts up from the air, "Shit Arata! Celine's group!"
"Mages, launch me back up onto the rooftops… Celine's group needs backup."
As Arata finds himself launched upwards, he runs towards the scene with one of the archers, "What's the situation with Chive… I didn't realize but she didn't follow me down."
The man sighs, "It's a messy plan but… you can't worry right now. Let's go."
In the distance, a pillar of light erupts, Clemence's magic making them visible from a block away.