Chapter 797. Growing Resistance
The native soldiers under his command immediately placed themselves in front of Jack who was still lying on the ground, shielding him from further attack. Jack was rather touched by their actions. But he immediately got up, he was not going to just cower behind. He cast Barrier.
The mage officer completed his spell. It was the Lightning Strike spell. The lightning struck from above, rendering the protection from the soldiers who put themselves in front of Jack useless. The thickness of this lightning pillar looked smaller than Garland's but thicker than Blackhole's one. Either way, Jack knew he won't escape unscathed.
But before the lightning pillar hit, the earth around Jack churned up. It formed a protective shell above Jack. The lightning strike hit this earth shell. The might of the lightning couldn't penetrate this shell.
While Jack was both confused and glad for the save, he heard loud stomping. He turned and saw a gigantic earth golem approaching. The golem looked like the giant version of the summoner's dirt golem. On this golem's shoulder was a slender woman holding a staff. She was Uvira, the level 60 rare elite tasked by Commander Armstrong to assist Jack in this mission.
Uvira gave Jack a brief glance before returning her attention to the enemy mage officer. Jack interpreted the glance as she saying that she would deal with this high-level enemy and for him to focus on the mission objective. Jack gave the command to the soldiers protecting him to return to their effort in destroying the siege machinery.
Jack also did the same, he flew back up and resumed his clawing, with one attention on the battle between the two rare elite officers.
The enemy mage officer cast his next spell and multiple lightning bolts shot out. Uvira was casting a spell herself. Jack observed that her spell formation wouldn't be completed before the lightning bolts hit. However, before they did, the earth golem's two hands flailed around, swatting the lightning bolts before they hit its master.
Uvira completed her spell and a gigantic earth hand materialized near the enemy officer. Jack found the spell to be similar to Master's spell but this earth hand floated in the sky while Master's one was fixed to the ground. This earth hand attempted to grab the officer, but a lightning shell formed around him. The earth hand crashed onto this lightning shell. Sparks were ignited as it attempted to crush the shell without success.Â
When Uvira was readying another spell, an arrow struck her elbow. Jack looked in the direction where the arrow had come from and saw an enemy archer with energy wings on her back. Jack recognized the wings as a flying tool, similar to the ones used by Arther and the orc warlord, Abasi Raretooth. Jack used Inspect and found the archer to be a level 58 special elite.
This archer shot repetitive arrows at Uvira, interfering with her effort in casting a spell. Jack couldn't just stay still. He used Shooting Dash on the ground for a head start before shooting up into the air. He didn't fly directly to the archer but at an angle away from her. The archer saw Jack but didn't truly give him much attention because she was assuming he was targeting someone else behind her. She focused her shots on Uvira.
Then Jack suddenly changed direction using his dragon form's natural Wind Jet ability. The ability allowed him to approach the special elite archer in a heartbeat. The archer was surprised but not flustered. She swiveled her aim and the tip of her arrow was now aiming right at Jack.
When she released the arrow, Jack vanished. In exchange, sixteen shadows resembling Jack appeared around the archer. Before she could react, these sixteen shadows all hit multiple parts of the archer's body.
Although Jack's Hundred Shadow Strikes caused massive damage, it was not enough to one-shot a level 58 special elite native. Jack followed up by Flame Strike which sent the archer crashing back onto the ground before flying away.
Jack's interruption had allowed Uvira to resume her casting. Unfortunately, during the time she was disrupted, the enemy mage officer had also managed to destroy her earth hand spell. The two returned throwing spells at one another.
The archer was enraged by Jack's interruption and was now targeting Jack instead. Rains of arrows chase after Jack as Jack frantically fly away in a zig-zagging fashion at high speed.
While Jack fled back to the safety of his battalion, a soft light landed on Jack, Uvira, and all nearby friendly soldiers. High Priest Laurent approached by floating. He had cast his Area Bless. He also cast golden plates protection for Uvira, allowing her to be able to cast her spells freely without fear of interruption. With that protection, even if the archer returned to targeting Uvira, the archer won't be able to disrupt her as long as the golden plates remained on Uvira's body.
The progress on destroying the third batch of the siege weapons took longer than before despite they already knowing most of the machinery's weak points. This was due to the disruption of more enemy soldiers. When this third batch was destroyed, Jack heard a commotion from the back. He turned and saw the players' middle section blockage start failing. Several groups of enemy soldiers started pouring through.
When that blockage crumbled completely, they would get overrun.
But they couldn't call it quits. If these siege weapons were delivered to Therribus, it would be a disaster. Jack urged everyone to continue charging to the rear end of the enemies where the remaining siege weapons were. He used his Runestone of Marching to increase everyone's movement speed.
They pierced through the enemies, fighting only to create space to allow them to pass through. The ranged players by the hill and the woods followed their charge as they continued to provide support fire. While most of the melee players now rushed to the middle section to help hold the blockage to have it last as long as possible.
The fighting at the back half was pretty much a mess now. There was no longer any formation. Each of Jack's soldiers was trying to reach the next siege weapons while the defending soldiers tried their best to crowd around the siege machines, protecting them.
Jack's beast form had run out. Uvira was still busy dealing with the mage officer somewhere. Laurent should be nearby her providing support. Jack was not sure where everyone else was. He just know that they had to get to the next siege weapon, and that's the command he kept on shouting, "Charge! Charge…! Destroy the siege weapons…!!"
 After what felt like a long time, Jack finally saw the outline of the siege weapon ahead. It looked like one of the two gigantic arrow towers. He already missed the flying ability of his dragon form. It was easier to see the situation from a higher elevation. Down here, all he saw was a mess.
He urged the soldiers to press forward, overpowering the enemy soldiers guarding the arrow tower. Red Death and the other more nimble soldiers jumped into the arrow tower once it was in range. They started hacking the tower from the inside.
When the HP bar appeared, Jack observed it in relation to the damages dealt. "Shit! This arrow tower had a much higher HP than the others," he muttered. The size of this tower was indeed much larger than the other siege weapons, so he guessed it was to be expected.
But due to its large size, the enemy defenders also had trouble blocking the attacking soldiers. Once there was a gap, someone could jump inside and deal damage from within. Soon, more and more followed Red Death and jumped inside. The guarding soldiers had a hard time deciding if they should rush in to fight the attackers inside the tower or continue blocking the perimeter.
As time passed, Jack also managed to force his way inside.
"Hit the connecting parts between the pillars and the beams. Those are the weak points!" Red Death uttered when he saw Jack arrive.
Jack nodded. He relayed the instruction to the others before going to work himself. While he was slashing, he suddenly sensed something in Red Death's direction. He turned around and saw that Red Death sensed it as well. She used Roll before throwing her dagger in the direction where she was standing before.
A clang was heard and a soldier wearing a cloak was revealed.
"He is not alone!" Jack used Shredding Fang and Arcane Turbulence. The two area-of-effect skills covered a wide area. With the limitation of space inside the arrow tower, there was not much space to dodge. Another five soldiers were revealed.
Jack used Inspect and saw that the lead with the cloak was a level 60 special elite while the other five were level 56 special elites.
All six were at much higher levels than them. The native soldiers under Jack immediately rushed at the six once they were no longer invisible, but the soldiers' levels were also lower than those six.
The mission was more important. Jack told those soldiers to hold the six while the rest continued to deal damage to the arrow tower, including him. But the cloaked enemy lead was very agile. He slipped through and headed towards Red Death again.
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