“Six Commanders, so far,” I huffed, chin-pointing to several areas the Horde was actually parting around, where Commander-class Bats and Vultures were eating the remains of equally large Ants and Spiders. My Dartrays strobed out, Chaining from one Warrior to the next, and swooping flocks of the fliers grabbed the dead before they could be swallowed by the press behind.

I had to admit the Bats and Vultures had the six-second timing down pretty good. Although the Rays could bounce all around looking for targets, that just made it a fun game for them!

My Darts were plowing through the Servants, chewing through dozens of Ants, and somewhat fewer Spiders. I made sure the burning bodies in the moat stayed constant, and the vivic fires were extending for hundreds of yards left and right, helping break down the mounds of dead Bugs piling up there as well, to the surprise and delight of the defending soldiers.

“Are they expecting you to kill some Rulers for them?” the Mick had to ask in disbelief, as Hopper spit out his own new whirling bolas of Lightning and sent Bugs flying and convulsing, the sparking Bird stamping his claws and flapping his short wings excitedly at the display.

“It’s possible. The main Spider thrust is further west, while the Ants are holding down this side. But the Rulers are all at least a mile back there, you probably can’t see them right now.”

I was anchoring the eastern end of the line now, having moved down there and simply eradicated all the numbers being spread out in this direction. Anything Servant-class I could chew through with incredible speed, and I’d proved it repeatedly, containing the spread of the Ants eastward without too much difficulty. Only when the Warriors became more numerous did I have to shift from Darts to Rays, cutting my kills down to a third.

I could make up a lot of ground nigh-instantly by spending even a point of Mana, turning every Dart and its Chain into a reaving line of Firefrost that killed everything that touched it or the explosions that accompanied it. My Stars weren’t completed, but I still had hundreds of Mana points left I could spend.

All the KIA guys had been Tier-3 in their primary Element, and had their off-ones mostly treated, too, save the two who’d been stuck at Novice in them. That meant they were way ahead on Mana investiture compared to me, and they’d completed all their Tier-4’s, giving them stronger spells and more staying power.

It was fine. They didn’t have Valences providing conduits that the Mana here glommed onto very happily, and my Tier-7 Starting Stars were all I needed to turn my Darts into killer rockets.

I hadn’t tried burning seven Mana for an Adept spell and seeing what happened to my Darts, or a volley of Shards yet. I figured I could save that for the bigger creatures. I was pretty sure it would change each Shard into a full-blown Firefrostball or something by default, which meant I’d have to be careful with how I used the spell.

“Well, I suppose we can take solace in that our generous sacrifice means they aren’t picking on the Humans here,” the Mick muttered piously, rolling his eyes.

“That is true.” More strobing Chained Rays went out into the lines of Warriors, and dozens of Bats and Buzzards grabbed them and beat their way off into the skies, while Bursts exploded all over the smaller Ants and Spiders. “We’re starting to thin out here,” I noted conversationally. “It’s only sending more Servants over to keep us busy.”

“Can’t imagine why.” He watched a hundred-plus Ants go up in multi-colored Flamefrost, and a double handful of Warriors soon follow, the latter picked off promptly by swooping fliers. “Smart tactics on their part, just keeping us occupied. I don’t think anyone’s matching your kill rate down the line, including the Archmages.”

It was astute, but largely meaningless. “Yeah, but they’re all tied up with the lesser Rulers or Great Commanders making problems. None of the Rulers are going to bother coming my way, and I’ve no reason to hunt them while my hands are full with their underlings. If the fliers want me to help take out bigger things, they should be helping clear off the chaff.”

I was watching the sky as I said that, and quickly noticed a shift in their formations. The next wave of fliers that came down was literally five times as big. Calls of alarm went up when the nervous soldiers saw that.

The Bats were Sound users, and they could hear everything. They were definitely listening to me!

“Calm down and watch,” I Said, soothing the soldiers’ rattled nerves. “Oh, and get ready to take advantage of what they are going to do.”

Startled, the soldiers continued with their Casting, watching as the Yellow-Striped Bats and Sandstone Vultures came swooping in, and the lead ones made off with their prizes.

The ones behind, however, absolutely pummeled the chaff across a broad area. Cutting winds and pulverizing screams strafed across the Horde, sending Spiders and Ants flying in disarray by the hundreds and thousands.

The soldiers let out enthusiastic shouts, and promptly bombarded the wounded chaff with spells, finishing them off quickly and earning themselves a moment of respite with the gap in the Horde that had opened up.

“That got the attention of the Bugs. The Rulers are moving,” I noted, squinting into the dark. The local area was totally lit up by all the spells going off and Bugs burning, of course, but the ones in charge were hundreds of yards behind their minions, watching all this.

“Red! What do the biggest Ants use against the Birds?” the Mick called out.

“Acid sprays and leaping attacks! They can jump over a hundred feet in the air!” Red shouted back promptly, not stopping his rains of exploding Fireballs, each one totally capable of taking out a Servant-class, or severely wounding a Warrior who ignored multiple hits. “They have earthquake attacks from the ground, too! If they get within two hundred yards of the walls, they can take them out completely!”

“Only if they take out everything in between, too,” I noted. “Okay, I’ll be ready for that.” They kind of looked at me, wondering what I could do against that kind of power, but I serenely ignored them, noble soul that I was. “Just keep taking advantage of the fliers when they come down. It’ll pull the Rulers and Commanders up, which is what the fliers want.”

They’d seen me slam the Commanders pretty hard with full Shardrays, totally capable of messing them up. “Can you... hurt a Ruler?” the Mick had to ask, almost disbelieving the question.

Noble glittered in reply as I swept out another dual volley of food and ashes-to-be. “Yes. It won’t kill them, they are far too tough without using at least several salvos, but it will definitely hurt them. All I have to do is hit them reliably.”

“Scampering about like they can?” The Archmages were keeping wary eyes on the Rulers, simply because of their speed. A mile of distance gave us maybe thirty seconds to react if one of them charged the lines, and gave anyone on the walls in that area no time at all.

“You have noticed them paying great attention to the hungry fliers overhead, right?”

“Oh, right.”

Mealtime wasn’t a problem I’d had to put up with in the Beast Realm. The Beasts had been very, very happy for vivic fire to burn the Undead and Shades completely away, leaving the Soul Crystals behind as the Land was rejuvenated.

Here, not so much. The bodies of higher-class Beasts were the best nourishment for other kinds of Beasts. They didn’t want them to Burn down, they wanted to eat them!

Rotters that they were. On the other hand, their aerial bombardment strafing allowed the men on the walls to pound down thousands of swarming Bugs with the follow-up volleys, so that was definitely useful. More to the point, the vivic fire swamping everything out there with mist was burning all those bodies up, too, just like it was advancing inexorably down the moat, clearing everything up that was dead there, too.

So many Soul Crystals to collect!...

I hopped up my Detect Soul Crystals and narrow-banded it for range, while also Raising Telekinesis with Mana and handing that off to Zeben as well. My Ring stepped up and began to work even more furiously on grabbing all the Soul Crystals it could from everywhere within range, including the new bounty further down the moat!

Which reminded me that the first moat had also been blazing vivus for miles, and probably still was at the far end as it traveled on in that direction, consuming dead Bugs before the Ants could...

Inside my Pocket, vivic fires were burning nonstop, fusing small Crystals into full Cores, Cores into Eggs, and Eggs into Gems. I was, however, dumping new Soul Crystals in far faster than I could meld them, but it was a good problem to have. It certainly was going to keep me busy for months, melding them all...

“Incoming Ruler!” I snapped, as I saw the Ant burst into motion, and every soldier on the wall in range of my voice froze. “Don’t panic, I have this!” I said grimly, and my confidence buoyed them all despite themselves.

An incoming flight of Bats and Buzzards hastily diverted course, not about to overfly a Ruler Ant, even if it was only a Baron and their own Rulers present up there were Dukes.

I blew a triple path of explosions directly towards it, the light of the Bursts reflecting off its huge dark eyes as it pounded my way at over a hundred mph. I watched it gathering the Earth Mana to itself, and it reached a hundred yards out, the soldiers just starting to panic when it raised its two hooked front legs and drove them into the ground

The wall of Earth rose up and rolled towards us instantly, moving at incredible speed. It would flow right through the moat and back up it, rip this Wall to shreds, and send the soldiers flying wildly, pummeled by rocks and stone. It would likely bury them alive when they fell back to the ground, because that was pretty much what was happening to all the Ants and Spiders who didn’t get out of the way in time.

Rune Seals blazed silver in the air behind me, I spent Adept Magic (seven Mana), funneled it into the Spellflare, and sent it right at that rolling Wave of quaking Earth coming toward us.

It was reaching up, almost to the moat, when the writhing, coruscant blast of Argent Magic drove into it. Instantly the whole thing lit up with silver cracks, which not incidentally stopped it right where it was, looming a hundred feet above us.

And then it exploded.

Devasight let me look right through the eruption as all that Earth Magic ignited. The explosion went flowing right back along whence it had come from. The falling Ants and Spiders were incidentally cooked in passing as the incandescent raw magic headed back to where it had started, and the watching Ant could only stare as the riven spell followed its lines of control and smashed right back into its maker.

I guess my Contested Dispel Check at +58 or something worked against Ruling Beasts, nyar nyar.

The Baron Ant was blasted backwards by the force of its own ignited magic, blazing with blue-white arcane fire, something like +80d6+90% of Adept Magic on top of it, and a bunch of Kickers there to help it feel bad.

As there wasn’t anything living in front of me to shoot, I brought up Shards, fed them with Adept Mana, and sent them punching out at the creature, keeping them focused as tight as I could. No wasting energy on AoE’s!

Twinned Admixed Split Rays, followed up with Quickened Twinned Split Rays. Nominally, that was twelve sets of 13d6+90% Topped Shardrays at +6 per die, +28 in Boosts, so 238 x12 damage, with +19 Spell Penetration burning through its Resistance to apply the big hits.

I think the Adept boost was +80d6, Topped to 480, and then +90% by my Frostfire Luan Seeds for each spell, so another 2400 damage or so on top with the Admixture. Admixture, it turned out, could double the Adept Boost because it was Elemental Damage. Which was plenty crazy, but I wasn’t going to argue after blowing a V Valence on the effect.

The Ant Baron was still in the midst of rising to its feet, still all ablaze, when Admixtured 1 blew off its barbed right front leg, Admixtured 2 blew off its right middle leg, and Quickened 1 blew off its right rear leg, leaving the smoking holes frozen around with deadly ice on their slick black carapaces.

Its chittering squeal of pain was something to hear, making everyone clutch their ears and duck for cover behind the wall against the rock-splitting fury of it. It scrabbled and dragged itself on the ground, bright yellowish blood leaking out of the stumps of its legs. Combined with the fact that parts of it were still on fire, it gave the impression it was pretty pissed.

That was when the massive Windblades came churning down out of the sky and ripped into its other side, and its other legs were chopped off. It was a bit ragged, but they did the job!