At Rhodes's command, the mages assigned to long-range support launched their spells in unison.
"Purple Flame Bullet Rain!"
"Smoke Assault!"
"Plant Knuckles!"
Macao's purple flames fractured into a hail of blazing projectiles. Wakaba bit down on his pipe and exhaled, a massive plume of smoke twisted and condensed into a dozen oversized fists that hammered into the ground one after another.
Troy hurled a fistful of seeds that hit the soil and detonated into growth, thick, thorned vines ripping upward and snaring soldiers mid-stride, yanking them off their feet and slamming them into each other.
Max thrust both palms forward. "Sand Rebellion!" A grinding wave of sand spiraled out, scouring armor plating raw and blinding anyone caught in its path. Laki slammed her hands together, "Wood Make: Violent Approach!" and a thicket of jagged wooden lances erupted from the earth beneath the enemy's feet, punching through shields and scattering formations.
And then there was Lisanna.
She hung back behind the main line, her body half-transformed, patches of iridescent blue-silver scales crawling unevenly across her arms and neck, one eye still human while the other had shifted to a slitted, luminous aquamarine.
She gritted her teeth and raised both scaled arms. 'Just enough. Don't lose it.'
"Dragon Soul- Aqua Edge!"
A volley of crescent water blades erupted from her claws and screamed toward the Tartaros line, but they flew slightly wild, the arc wider than she'd intended. Two carved clean through a row of raised shields. A third missed entirely and gouged a trench in the dirt twenty feet to the left. The fourth clipped a tree and sent it toppling onto a squad of soldiers who'd been using it for cover.
The noise was hellish. Explosions layered on top of each other. Steel screeched as armor buckled and split. Soldiers screamed, some in pain, some barking orders that nobody could hear over the barrage. A thick haze of dust, smoke, and magical residue blanketed the killing ground.
These troops truly lived up to their reputation as Tartaros's elite. That entire opening barrage, enough concentrated firepower to level a small town, only managed to keep a few dozen of them down permanently. The rest were already picking themselves up, raising curse barriers, sealing wounds with dark energy.
But Rhodes hadn't planned on finishing them with one volley.
"Second wave- NOW!"
Jet, Nab, Bisca, Mickey, and the close-range fighters who'd been holding position hefted the Exploding Magic Crystals Rhodes had prepared for exactly this moment.
Jet blurred forward with his speed magic, closing half the distance in a heartbeat before whipping three crystals in rapid succession, left, center, right, each one placed to cut off a different escape route.
Bisca didn't need to get closer. She Requipped a long-barreled rifle, dropped to one knee, sighted through the scope, and fired a crystal dead center into the largest cluster of recovering soldiers.
Nab just wound up and threw his with both hands. Honestly, brute force worked fine too.
The instant the last crystal left their hands, they flipped open the magic tomes Rhodes had distributed before the battle. Pages shimmered with pre-loaded spell energy, weeks of Rhodes's preparation compressed into portable format. Streaks of multicolored destruction ripped from the open books and screamed toward the Tartaros ranks like a second artillery bombardment.
"HIT THE DIRT!"
"No, SHIELDS! Barriers up!"
"I can't, my arm's..."
"MOVE."
Too late.
The Exploding Magic Crystals detonated right in the guts of the enemy formation. The blasts overlapped, creating a chain reaction that ripped the ground apart and launched bodies in every direction. Before the smoke even cleared, the follow-up volley from the magic tomes slammed home.
Wind magic carved trenches through their ranks. Fire magic set the clearing ablaze. Lightning forked down and turned one soldier's armor into a conductor, he dropped twitching and didn't get back up.
A torrent of water magic flash-flooded a ditch full of soldiers who'd taken cover, flushing them out into the open where Max's sand was waiting to bury them.
The brilliant light of the combined barrage was so intense it nearly whited out Plutogrim's massive silhouette looming behind the carnage.
Tartaros was bleeding.
"Counterattack! Return fire, magic bullets... just shoot back! Front units, push forward!"
What was left of the forward force, maybe forty soldiers, bloodied and furious, locked shields and charged toward the tree line.
They made it about twenty yards.
The first thing they hit wasn't human mages.
It was insects.
A vast, skittering swarm of blue-purple creatures exploded from the underbrush. They poured out of every gap between roots, hopping, lunging, scrambling over each other in their frenzy to reach warm bodies.
Voidmites. Dozens at first. Then hundreds.
The front line hacked at them on instinct. Blades split carapaces. Boots stomped on smaller ones. A curse-powered fist caved in a Voidmite's body and sent purple ichor spraying across the man behind him.
"Hold formation! They're just bugs, keep pushing!"
Easy to say.
The swarm didn't respect formations. They hit the shield wall from every angle, front, flanks, from below. They crawled between legs. They squeezed through gaps in armor joints. Mandibles found flesh wherever plate didn't cover.
"WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?!"
Soldiers stumbled backward, slashing wildly, and the Voidmites poured through the gaps.
"Useless. Absolutely useless."
Minerva stepped over a pile of shattered Voidmite shells without breaking stride. Her demon transformation was complete — dark markings sprawled across her skin like living calligraphy, her eyes burned with otherworldly amber, and the air around her hands shimmered with spatial distortion.
She didn't look at the Voidmites that lunged at her from the left. She just flicked her wrist.
The space around it folded. The creature crumpled inward;y.
She flexed her clawed fingers. Watched the spatial energy crackle between them. The smile on her face wasn't entirely sane.
"This is what strength is supposed to feel like."
"Lady Minerva!"
Their spirits surged. She was new to Tartaros, a former guild mage who'd traded her humanity for demon blood. But she answered directly to Kyoka, her authority exceeded every soldier on this field.
"Follow me."
"YES MA'AM!"
Bang! Bang! Minerva's hands freely unleashed a power completely different from before, sweeping away Void Worms in droves.
Even though the soldiers behind her were gradually losing pace with her, she still managed to force her way through the swarm by herself.