CHAPTER 79: ACROSS THE VOID (3)

Violet led the intrepid group of various beasts across the void, jumping from island to island and engaging in battles with the varied inhabitants.

The beasts slowly improved in coordination as time went on with each battle acting as a chance for further refinement in their teamwork.

Whilst a larger group may seem like a boon at first it also seemed to attract large hoards of beasts to assult them. What started as lone ambushes from singular group of beasts slowly morphed into a prolonged series of skirmishes that continued for multiple islands at a time.

So whilst the teamwork of the group only increased it was matched by a steadily increasing difficulty to match.

By the time they reached the halfway point of this particular domain the group was truly beginning to feel the strain of the near continuous battles.

To attempt to alleviate this issue Violet chose to push the group to traverse the islands at an ever increasing rate. From a original slow and steady pace across the various islands the enlarged group now discarded any sense of stealth and instead charged across in search of the next point to jump from.

At the mid point they arrived on a particularly large island. It was easily over a kilometre from end to end and upon arriving on the island they had a moment of reprieve from the continual fighting. The island they now stood in was barren with no distinguishing landmarks. The atmosphere held no particular mana type other than just neutral mana.

This was the first such island they had come across as every other island they had crossed so far always had at least one prevalent mana type.

The other distinguishing feature of this island was the sheer number of mana strings that connected this island with its neighbors. Dozens upon dozens of islands were connected to this one as it acted as a meeting hub for the center of the void.

The group happily took this moment of rest to catch their breath and keep a careful eye out on the various spots that does could arrive from.

After a few minutes of rest Violet stood once more and together with Luna began to slowly advance forward towards the centre of the landmass. Seeing their leader move the various beast all slowly gathered themselves and also began to advance. The alpha wolf, trunked beast and the cat acting as the sub leaders and corralling the other beast to keep up.

At the center of the island Violet stopped once more and tried to plot out the optimal path forwards. Above and below more islands floated all proudly displaying their elemental attunment. Movement could be seen in several of these islands and Violet was eager to avoid passing through any heavily populated ones to limit combat.

However, it was at this time that a pulse radiated from the stone beneath all their feet. It passed through the ground till it reached the nearest man’s strings connecting them. Upon reaching them the mana strings in turn pulsed and changed from a push to a pull. The pulse continued on after completing this switch and proceeded to hit every other mana string and changed their connection to a universal pull. Enabling any resident of a connected island to be free to travel to them.

Seeing this violets eyes opened wide as a flare of panic hit in, with this happening they were now effectively trapped here with no way out until they naturally changed back. However this general took around half an hour from what she had seen.

All the other beasts in the group similarly froze upon sensing this shift. In fact the whole region around them paused in anticipation.

Then came the first howl.

This was swiftly followed by a bellow to a different side and a cry from yet another.

The entire region suddenly came alive in uncountable cry’s of beasts. Then they saw them.

First one shape leapt into the void from a distant island heading towards them, this was swiftly followed by a small group behind it. Then more movement from a separate island, and more, and more, and more.

Seeing this violet let loose her loudest roar imbued with a strong burst of her aura to perk up her allies as she simultaneously began to summon as many bolts as she could. Other beast also summoned what magics and other ranged attacks that they had at their disposal and together they all attacked.

Bolts of void, ice, fire and lightning flew forward, accompanied by blades of wind and razor sharp leafs. They flew forward and struck the beasts still hovering over the void and blasted them away sending them falling into the void below. The cry’s of their comrades echoed out as they in turn returned fire, thankfully as they were all mid air their aim was quite terrible but even still. When attacked from almost every conceivable direction it was inevitable that some of the attacks would land.

Like this a furious ranged battle took place with violets group trying their hardest to keep the hoards of beasts away from them and if possible off their island all together. At first it seemed like it would be possible, until the first of the locals crested the sloped sides of the island and charged towards them.

The few beasts with no ranged options moved to the front of their circle and prepared to clash whilst the ranged combatants carried on with their barrage, determined to limit the foes that will be able to make it to them.

Luna opted to stop her ranged bombardment as she was much more comfortable fighting in mele and moved to the front just as the first of the beasts made it to them. A peculiar monkey made of vines leapt towards her only to be swiftly cut down with a single swipe. Sadly that was only the start and more of its brethren charged the person responsible for their comrades death.

A maelstrom of violence ensued from there with Luna pulling out every trick in her arsenal to keep the tide of beasts back. To her side one of the lightning wolfs fought alongside her, they worked well together and covered each others sides. Bolts of electricity would jump between the attacking foes causing them to freeze up momentarily, this provided Luna with the perfect chance to put them down with mimimwl effort.

Similarly the ground beneath the enemy’s feet would turn to ice causing them to fall over and allowing the wolf to leap forwards to tear out their throats one after the other.

However despite the range combatants best efforts they were unable to truly stimey the flood of foes, more and more of them had to abandon using ranged magics and instead had to move to engage in close combat with the assulting forces.

Violet was beginning to panic at this point as her small group of 20 was now surrounded on all sides by at this point hundreds of foes. Whilst individually weaker than all of the beasts working with Violet, the shear number of foes was a quality all on its own.

It was here when she was at her wits end that something appeared that only made things worse. A loud thud was heard, swiftly followed by another and then more. Violet turned her head in the direction it came from and felt a surge of despair as she laid eyes on the behemoth that was just now cresting the far side of the island.

Standing easily over 30 meters tall, on 6 tree truck sized legs and easily 50 meters long. The true giant of a beast locked eyes with Violet from across the sea of beasts. It was covered in a thick rocky hide of its vicious tusks gutting out from its mouth. A bulbous protrusion jutted out from its forehead and its thick muscles rippled as it moved.

After a moment of making eye contact that stretched far past what it should, the giant bellowed its challenge to the group of invading beasts and took a step forward.

The king of this domain had made its presence know, and it was not happy to see them.