Blade Over Magic

Swift Response

’Aubrey, how long till those cannons are back online?’ Xander asked as the first tide of soldier ants were reflected in his eyes both in the sky and on land.

’3 minutes tops. Can you guys handle that?’ Aubrey responded briskly, and as soon as she did, the night sky was lit up as a large scale net made of starlight materialized above the frontline like a wall. The moment a soldier ant tried to pass through, its body was sliced into pieces, the chunks raining down, and anyone that tried to pass after endured the same fate.

Starlight Magic: Stellar Net.

As for the ants on the ground, well, Curtis hadn’t just frozen the corpses of the previous ants haphazardly, instead, he’d done it in such a way that ice interlocked between each corpse, effectively creating a barrier of frozen corpses.

And that’s not all...

Among the gains he received from forming the ice diamond in his mana pool, Curtis’s mana and ice constructs gained the same traits as the diamond. As such, each construct wasn’t made up of countless tiny molecules, but rather instead a single unified structure. So technically, the ice wall wasn’t made up of different parts, but a single defensive structure, which made it far more durable than it had any right to be.

Another thing was the inherent effect of this.

Xander watched as the moment the soldier ants made contact with the wall, their bodies immediately began to be frozen, and it wasn’t just superficial freezing. Rather, the ice actively sucked the thermal energy out of their bodies. The result?

The first ants that made contact with the wall were similarly turned into lifeless ice sculptures. And this process required no extra mana on Curtis’s part, his magic just did that now.

’Yup, should be doable.’ Xander finally answered Aubrey’s question as he stepped forward Aubrey’s question, then he took a breath and thought to himself.

’It’s incomplete, but it should work if I set it up like this. And hey, maybe I could perfect it under pressure.’ He thought to himself as he pulled the string. The string was actually the Eternal String he’d bought from the auction back in Avoma. It had only been a few months, but that felt like a lifetime ago.

Letting go of the string, it vibrated. This vibration went to both ends and the line Xander had created by planting swords in the ground, and the resonance extended into the ground and outward.

Taking a breath, Xander perceived the vibrations intensely, then he matched his body to their frequency and moved.

Only, it didn’t look like he moved. It was almost like he teleported.

He appeared near the wall of frozen corpses in an instant, his sword already in the process of swinging. Just as the temperatures nearing absolute zero affected him, Curtis took control of the cold in that area and allowed Xander to exist freely nearly it.

This allowed him to attack without worry.

’Tempest Stream.’ He swung the Zweihander in a wide arc, and a wide range crescent of wind swept over a large portion of the wall, slicing the ants that were attempting to climb over apart.

Now that things had come to this, he had no luxury to hold back so much.

’Xander, the leftmost side...’

’I know.’ Using the remaining vibrations, Xander moved at impossible speeds again.

This was a technique he’d begun to develop after his fight with Sparrow and experiencing her speed. By sensing the vibrations in his surroundings, he could tune his body to them and move with them, like a boat moving with waves, allowing him to achieve stupid speeds.

However, he hadn’t yet figured out how to do it without creating certain conditions first, which were him artificially manufacturing vibrations over a large area like he was doing now.

Xander arrived at the leftmost side, and before the soldier ants could successfully scale the bodies of their frozen brethren, Xander used another Tempest Stream to slice them apart.

Then, with the remaining vibrations, he returned to his line of sword, plucked the string, and dove back in again.

At that moment, seeing that their advance was being halted, the soldier ants on the floor immediately began to unfurl their wings and take to the air, flying high enough to allow them to go over the wall, but low enough to prevent them from flying into Falael’s net.

The moment the tried, though, several magic circles of frost and starlight materialized before immediately peppering them with beams of starlight and shards of zero ice, effectively shredding those that took off apart.

Just then.

’Curtis, Ice barrier on Falael now!’ Aubrey’s command came through clearly, and Curtis obeyed without hesitation.

A curved barrier of ice immediately appeared in front of the mage tower Falael was inside, and Xander watched and dark projectiles shot through the gaps of Falael’s Stellar Net right at the mage tower, each one no smaller than a ballista bolt.

The projectiles smashed into the barrier and got deflected into the distance.

Eyes narrowing, Xander looked up and saw that, among the ants that were attempting to bypass the net, there were some that looked strange.

The resembled the soldier ants, but the back halves were longer and curved, almost like a wasp or hornet, their wings were bigger to bear this extra weight, and at the end of this elongated half was an opening where dark stingers were being developed to be shot out.

These new ’ants’ were were spread across the mass of flying ants, and in that moment, all of them fired their projectiles at once, the singers moving through the gaps in the net.

Some went towards Falael’s position, others went towards Xander and Curtis, but, shockingly, most went towards the different outposts!

Having been warned ahead of time, Curtis concentrated hard and pushed his range to the limit, creating dozens of large barriers in the path of the stingers. His range was nowhere near as good as Aubrey’s perception range, so he couldn’t accurately position these barriers, hence, he relied solely on Aubrey’s directions to pull it off, successfully deflecting the projectiles.

Just as the ants were preparing another salvo, explosions suddenly rang out among the ants, and rapidly expanding spheres of immolating heat appeared, reducing swathes of them to ash.

At the same time, Xander watched as a funnel of rotating, high pressure wind blades, erupted along the wall Curtis created, shredding the ants apart.

Xander looked and saw the Captain on the far side, his gauntlets swirling with wind.

Then, in the outposts, several vines emerged around the soldiers who’d been infected with the plague, and they got encased in cocoons of green. When this happened, their agonized expressions started to ease as vitality filled their bodies, purging the plague from them.

In addition to this, several healers arrived to aid the process.

Xander then watched a red ’meteor’ crash down among a bunch of ants, blasting them apart and throwing dust everywhere. When it cleared, he witnessed Ragna swinging his axes with wild abandon, ripping and shredding anything that came near him as a red aura engulfed his body.

On another side, electricity cracked as Bodhi, wielding his sword, swept through ants like a hurricane, his movements distinctly similar to the way Xander had taught him as he swung his blade in a constant rotating motion, his blade clearing ants apart. Moreover, his electricity chained between them, frying any ant that had the misfortune of getting too close.

In another area, ants suddenly had small cuts appear on their bodies, and shortly after, they vomited their own blood and organs before falling to the floor, and not far from where the happened, Zeke was already moving to his next target.

”Tell your friends to dial it back a bit, there’s no need for them to exert themselves too much now.” Just then, Sparrow appeared next to Xander, her the blue markings blazing on her skin.

Xander didn’t bother saying anything cringey and just nodded. A moment later, the net of starlight began to vanish, while the various ice barriers also got removed. Aubrey said it was fine to do so as the reinforcements had immediately take the pressure off them.

”Let’s settle this quickly.” Sparrow said simply as he body zipped forward in a flash of blue light, and shortly after, ants started getting cut apart like paper.

Sighing, Xander plucked the string before moving where he could.

With the aid of Landor’s high tiers, the surprise attack was soon quelled, and eventually, the ants stopped their advance.

When this happened, fire mages who had been on standby stepped forward and immediately unleashed spells on the corpses, however, funnily enough, due to Curtis’s ice still affecting the area, the flames couldn’t quite catch.

As such, he had to temporarily undo them to allow the flames to do their job and burn the corpses along with any plague that could have bred again.

Xander slowly exhaled, flicked his sword to remove the blood, and sheathed it. However, he wasn’t happy, not at all.

’This is just the night of the first day. We have to expect another attack early in the morning.’ He sighed and looked towards the catacombs.

Suddenly, the prospect of stalling seemed far more daunting.