Chapter 189: Chapter 189: The Sky Battle
Chapter 189: The Sky Battle
The sky above Thaldrasil was completely gone.
The thick gray clouds were entirely replaced by thousands of leathery wings. A massive aerial horde blotted out the morning sun. Giant shadow-bats and flying centipedes circled the Verdant Canopy. They screeched with unified, demonic hunger.
They did not care about the heavily armored Dwarven infantry holding the Stone Gates. They aimed entirely for the soft, vulnerable targets. They dove straight toward the unprotected Elven healers and support mages in the rear formation.
Natalie Tokks stood on the edge of the ruined estate balcony. Her arms were burning. She drew her Gale-Bow back for the hundredth time.
TWANG!
A glowing wind arrow pierced the skull of a diving shadow-bat. The monster dissolved into dark mist. But three more instantly took its place.
Lyra Voltaire threw a handful of explosive tags into the air.
BOOM!
A cluster of flying centipedes was blown to pieces. Lyra wiped sweat from her forehead. She looked at her rapidly dwindling pouch of runic paper.
"I am running out of basic tags!" Lyra yelled over the roaring wind. "There are simply too many of them!"
Down in the plaza, the Elven archers were buckling under the pressure. The aerial swarm was diving too fast.
The healers were forced to drop their support spells to physically dodge the razor-sharp talons. The ground defense was going to fail if the skies were not cleared.
Estella Everdawn stepped forward to the edge of the marble railing.
She looked at the thousands of monsters swarming the sky. She reached up and pulled the golden pin from her hair.
Her long blonde locks fell freely down her back. The disguise of the fragile High Oracle was completely discarded.
She twisted the silver bracelet on her wrist. The metal mechanically unfolded. It rapidly expanded into her signature wooden [Stardust Staff].
"Cover your eyes," Estella commanded. Her voice carried a heavy, terrifying celestial weight.
Lyra and Natalie immediately ducked behind a broken stone pillar and shielded their faces.
Estella raised her staff high into the air. She tapped directly into the deepest, purest core of her cosmic magic. The tip of her staff ignited with a blinding, incandescent white light. It was not fire. It was the raw, compressed energy of a dying star.
[Supernova Pulse]
FLASH!
A silent, utterly blinding dome of cosmic energy exploded outward from the balcony. The light expanded rapidly across the entire sky above the diplomatic sector.
It washed over the aerial swarm like a tidal wave of pure starlight.
The weaker monsters did not even have time to scream.
The shadow-bats and flying centipedes were instantly eradicated. The holy starlight disintegrated their dark matter bodies on a subatomic level.
In the span of a single second, thousands of flying nightmares simply vanished into thin air.
The sky was suddenly empty. The morning sun shined through the clouds once again.
Down in the plaza, the Elven archers cheered wildly.
Estella lowered her staff, panting softly. She looked up. Her relief lasted for exactly two seconds.
A massive shadow blotted out the sun once more.
"We have a very big problem," Estella whispered.
Drifting silently out of the higher gray clouds was a colossal nightmare. It was a King Level Beast elite.
It resembled a giant, floating jellyfish. It was easily the size of a human galleon. Its massive, translucent bell was constructed entirely of thick, acidic dark matter.
Dozens of long, shadowy tentacles drifted beneath it. The tentacles rained thick drops of highly corrosive black acid onto the battlefield.
HISS!
A drop of acid hit the marble balcony. It instantly melted a hole straight through the thick stone.
The giant jellyfish turned its attention directly toward the three girls. A massive, singular red eye opened in the very center of its dark bell.
It recognized the source of the starlight that had wiped out the swarm.
"Shoot it down!" Lyra screamed, scrambling away from another drop of acid.
Natalie drew her Gale-Bow. She fired three rapid wind arrows directly at the massive red eye.
The arrows struck the thick, jelly-like dark matter protecting the eye. They simply bounced off. The dense shadow armor absorbed the kinetic impact entirely.
"My arrows cannot pierce that outer layer!" Natalie yelled in frustration. "The armor is too thick and rubbery!"
The jellyfish drifted closer. The acid rain was getting heavier. They had less than a minute before the balcony completely melted beneath their boots.
Lyra pulled a massive, heavy scroll covered in dark red runes from her satchel.
"I have my strongest payload," Lyra said frantically.
"It is a highly concentrated thermobaric tag. But the paper is too heavy. I cannot throw it high enough to reach the bell!"
Natalie looked at the heavy explosive tag. She looked at her bow.
"Tie it to my arrow," Natalie ordered instantly.
"I can deliver the payload. But we have the same problem. The explosion will just bounce off the thick shadow armor. It needs to detonate inside the main eye."
Estella gripped her wooden staff tightly. The gears in her mind raced.
"We build a bunker-buster," Estella declared quickly.
"Lyra, tie your bomb to the shaft. Natalie, let me touch the arrowhead. I will supercharge the metal with pure stardust. The celestial magic will burn right through the outer jelly layer."
"The monster is tracking my movements," Natalie warned, holding her bow steady.
"The moment I draw the string, it will close its eye to protect itself."
"It will not see you," Estella promised.
The three teenagers moved with flawless, desperate synchronization. They were forging a custom weapon of mass destruction on the spot.
Lyra wrapped the heavy red rune-tag tightly around the shaft of Natalie’s strongest steel-tipped arrow. She secured it with a quick alchemical binding adhesive.
"Payload is secure!" Lyra shouted, diving backward.
Natalie knocked the heavy arrow. She drew the glowing string of her Gale-Bow back to her cheek.
The sheer weight of the bomb made her arms tremble. She ignored the strain and held her aim perfectly steady.
Estella pressed two fingers directly against the steel arrowhead.
She poured a dense, concentrated stream of cosmic mana into the metal. The steel instantly glowed with a blinding, bright silver aura. The arrow hummed with highly volatile celestial energy.
"The tip is hot!" Estella warned.
The giant shadow jellyfish drifted directly over the balcony. It prepared to drop a massive wave of black acid to melt them into nothing. Its giant red eye stared down at them.
Estella turned around. She aimed her staff directly at the monster’s face.
"Look at the light, you ugly sack of rot."
She unleashed a concentrated, blinding flash of starlight directly into the creature’s retina.
SKREEE!
The jellyfish shrieked in agonizing pain. The sudden, intense light completely blinded its massive eye.
The monster flailed its shadowy tentacles blindly. It was completely unable to focus or close its protective eyelid in time.
"Take the shot!" Estella screamed.
Natalie released the bowstring.
TWANG!
The heavy, customized projectile shot upward into the sky. It left a brilliant trail of green wind and silver starlight in its wake.
The arrow hit the center of the giant red eye.
The starlight supercharged on the arrowhead worked perfectly. The pure celestial magic burned directly through the thick, rubbery dark matter shielding the eye.
The arrow punched a deep, clean hole into the monster’s core.
The heavy red rune-tag followed the arrow right inside the beast.
"Detonate!" Lyra roared, snapping her fingers.
KABOOM!
The thermobaric bomb exploded from deep inside the jellyfish. The massive concussive force had nowhere to go but outward. The sheer internal pressure violently ruptured the monster.
The colossal floating jellyfish was completely blown apart.
Thick chunks of dark matter rained down from the sky. Without the monster’s core magic to sustain them, the chunks rapidly dissolved into harmless gray ash before they even hit the ground.
A soft, snowy layer of ash covered the diplomatic sector.
The sky was totally clear.
Natalie slowly lowered her Gale-Bow. Her arms were shaking violently from the physical strain. She looked up at the empty blue sky and let out a long, heavy exhale.
Lyra fell backward onto the broken marble floor. She threw her hands into the air and laughed breathlessly.
"That is how you make things go boom!" Lyra cheered loudly.
Estella leaned against her staff. She smiled at her two friends. They had successfully held the high ground. The Elven healers below were completely safe.
’The Captain would be proud,’ Estella thought warmly.
But down below, the roaring sounds of the ground war still raged on. They had cleared the sky, but the siege of Thaldrasil was far from over.
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