As the light pierced into the gigantic sphere of water, an almost round shape could be seen, a small point towards one side and a long tail at the other. Almost the entire shape was waving up and down, revealing the presence of a relatively small body above what must be wings.
Though it was still far away, water was visible leaving the flying bubble and flicking towards them only to be blocked by numerous barriers. Each time such an attack occurred, the shield it struck would shrink in size or acquire cracks, but new ones formed behind them almost as fast as they were damaged.
Once again, a massive boom echoed out from above them, followed by a shockwave and a spike of stone hurling into the distance. Now that it was light enough to see, they could spot the spike penetrating shallowly into the sphere of water before exploding. Just after the explosion, another wail rang out, followed by a spray of bloodied water carrying the fragments of rock smashing into the barrier, shattering another layer.
Unexpectedly, the spires fell silent after this latest attack, allowing the beast to approach unhindered. As it neared, relatively small balls of water began to rain from the sphere, being intercepted from below by smaller streaks of water from outside the city. As this occurred, most of the spires resumed their bombardment, though the central one remained ominously silent, still having done nothing but brighten the surroundings as though it were day.
As the creature neared the city, the barriers began to be impacted by the spheres of water, revealing long undulating shapes, large fish with round mouths forming a circle of razor-sharp teeth. While most slid off the shields, a handful managed to get through, dropping to the city below in splashes of water. Fortunately, most either rolled off the roofs they struck, or fell directly to the streets where there were quite a few guards roaming, many in the crimson armor of the Church of Conflict. Due to this, the unusual monsters were rapidly dispatched, for the most part.
With the gigantic ball of water so close to the city now, the beast within was now completely visible, revealing that the bottom contained a large, flattened mouth with two lines of gills. As if the prior attacks were not enough, it also revealed the presence of a spike partway down its tail as it slammed into the barriers, punching straight through three before losing momentum.
Fortunately, it appeared to have split its attention now, targeting multiple locations outside the city as well, reducing the pressure on the defenses within. However, the spike regularly punctured shield after shield, focusing solely upon them. Even when they were tightly compressed, they struggled to slow the strikes. The attacks using water, meanwhile, were occasionally deflected even before striking, slipping above or to the sides of the defenses, if not digging into the ground outside the walls.
In response to a lightning bolt launched by another spire, however, a large amount of water was split from the sphere and shoved at the city. Shields flickered and died under the mass of the projectile, eventually stopping it mid-air before failing completely. As new barriers flickered into existence above the city, the torrent of water slammed into the buildings below, smashing dozens directly, with the resulting flood taking down several more before it drained away into the sewers.
Apparently intelligent enough to spot the success, the beast repeated the attack, but with more strikes over a large area, causing the defenses to fail all over the city. This time, however, arcs of mana, visible to the eye, roiled around the central spire for a moment before a pulse was released, the shockwave somehow hitting the water harder than anything else, hurling most of it out from within the city boundaries before it could reach the ground below.
As a side effect of this blast, however, numerous of the falling monsters were thrown around, turning them into projectiles flying in all directions. While Morris was busy focusing on the tower, Niphru was the first to spot one of them flying towards them. As the others were still registering the threat, he pulled his focus from the spire into a thrust of force magic, slamming into the creature. With the combination of its speed toward them and the spell he used, the creature burst into a shower of blood and gore that fell to the ground far below.
More of the creatures impacted the side of the spire or flew past it, a scream ringing out below as one presumably hit another balcony or person. A handful of other relatively small attacks flickered out towards the incoming enemies, resulting in several detonations mid-air besides the one Niphru caused.
There was then a horrendous noise as a beam of pressurized water sliced deep into the spire closest to the beast, breaking through the other side in a few places. This was followed quickly by a roaring gale that blew the attack into a broad and harmless spray before even that was dissipated. As the group remained awestruck at the levels of power being thrown around, the cone of air, made visible by the mist, continued hurling from the central spire towards the sphere of water.
Less than a second later, there was a crash of titanic proportions, and huge amounts of liquid were hurled in all directions as the flying lake shuddered from the impact. As though the first strike was not enough, shockwaves raced through the bubble, blasting off more water each time they reached the edges.
The rain of smaller beasts slowly tapered off, torrents of water replacing them as the creature slammed its tail spike into the defenses again and again. With well over half of the liquid having been expended, the wings or fins of the monstrous creature were no longer covered by a protective sheath of water. As a result, the next lance of rock managed to avoid fracturing on impact, instead skewering through the flesh there first.
Fireballs were rapidly heating the remaining sphere, and lightning occasionally played across the body of the beast as well. Even so, it continued approaching, looming over the immense wall and casting its shadow across the city. As the immense figure writhed and wailed from the continual attacks, there was an explosion as a blinding bolt punctured the skin of the beast. In the aftermath of the detonation, chunks of flesh rained down upon the city, several smashing through the barriers with their mass as others splattered, leaving a gory curtain hanging in the sky.
The creature tilted to the damaged side as water rained down, control apparently becoming difficult. Faced with the spread out mass of liquid, the barriers proved much more resilient. Instead of failing under the weight of the water, it instead flowed along the defenses, cleansing the remains of the strike.
With even more of its body exposed, the massive beast fared far worse against the spires’ attacks. Lances of rock punched deep into it before fracturing, scorch marks showed where lightning or fire had encountered skin, and several smaller explosions occurred near the wounds. With every detonation, the creature sank lower and lower in the sky until one of the blasts lit a flame that reached into the central body.
As if to make a mockery of all the prior ones, the body detonated in an earth-shaking explosion, large chunks blowing apart before falling to the city below. Once more, the central spire let out an immense pulse that served to blow the remains back somewhat.
Niphru began to calm down for a moment before he realized the pieces of the beast were still over the city, feeling shock and fear over the link with Dawn as she noticed the same. Similar to the earlier portions of water that struck the barriers, they collapsed under the falling gore. While blood flew everywhere, the chunks of flesh slammed down at random, crushing many buildings near the edge of the city. Almost comically, the tail of the creature managed to twist around and nail itself to the wall, the length of it landing in two adjacent streets and somehow avoiding the nearby structures.
While it had only been a handful of minutes, the city looked incredibly different. Countless roofs were painted with blood, slimy corpses of monstrous fish littered the ground, and several blocks had been demolished from the large ball of water that had made it to the surface. And then, perhaps the worst damage had come from the remains. Gore dripped from buildings in a significant area, while many had holes punched in them. Over a hundred were outright obliterated, either by simply being struck too hard or by being completely flattened and buried beneath sheets of fallen flesh.
While they tried to get over their shock at the events and present sight before them, Morris sighed and shook his head. “They must have been confident from the beginning to have fought it off this way. I was expecting the mana ray to be used for something like this. At least most of its attacks were stopped; it could have been much worse,” he mumbled as he sadly looked out at the damage below.
Dakon· Feb 16, 2024
