…..
Manifested troops, both bipedal and otherwise, of very high power levels appeared at the mouth of the pass and on the mountain ridges. Before the soldiers of the TyroS empire could be awed by their appearance, they crashed into the frontline, annihilating scores of pet beasts and aspect beasts in seconds and almost breaching it were it not for the timely arrival of ranged support from the second line of defense. However, by then, the damage to the frontline formation had already been done, as the aspect and pet beasts on the front lines were already on the Blackfoot against their opponents and were slowly being pushed to their deaths, the inevitable end being dragged out by the ranged support they received from the second line, the members of which were readying themselves for close-quarters combat as the ranged attackers put in a considerable distance between themselves and the melee troops in their ranks to give them more space for better maneuverability and also so they would not be caught up in melee range or be a hindrance to their allies.
…but, more often than not, there was little one could do to turn the tides against overwhelming odds stacked against them when given little time to prepare.
Just as the last fifty bipedal ex-aspects and pet beasts were firmly holding the line, the battle took another drastic turn for the worse….
Aerial attacks came.
Four-winged false dragons,
Surrounded by thick miasma, it manifested from thin air and released a dense dragon breath downwards to annihilate the people who were below.
It would have if not for the fact that they had someone watching out for such threats. Helen, who prior to that time had been lazily levitating in the sky, watching out for aerial attacks while also contemplating the decision to offer assistance to ground troops, flew upwards, summoning four thick multicolored beams of pure elemental energy, which met the breath of the four false dragons head-on. By summoning five fully fledged dragons of her own made from fire, water, air, earth, and lightning, respectively, which barreled into the assailants, she forced them to discontinue their attempt to spam dragon breath attacks on her people as they flew around each other, sizing themselves up….
'Those are really high-level summons! For that lady to be able to summon such sentient constructs out of pure elemental energies…she is really a formidable one. Alas, when dealing with beings like us, being formidable may not really be the right requirement. Smarts would have served her better than formidability here.'
Mike thought to himself as viewing the summons on both sides with the aid of the mirror of many reflections, which showed that all the manifested false dragons were exactly at level 100, while the summons of the lady varied between level sixty-seven and level sixty-nine. Oddly though, they were evenly matched from what he could see.
…but the Manifestation of Fear was not done with them….
The miasma that surrounded the four Manifested False dragons moved off them and condensed into a mercurial sphere. Then, from it, avian creatures of all sorts took shape, flying away from the two groups of dragons sizing each other up in the direction of the second line of defense below. Helen tried to prevent their descent by creating a curtain of immolating flames between them and their target….
…alas….
Harpies, condors, gigantic ravens, griffins, bone vultures, and more crashed into the second line from above, or rather, the melee specialists among them, as the glyphs that had been carved in front of the second line of defense flared into existence, creating a protective dome of protection over the ranged attackers in the second line of defense and the people in the third line of defense. Those who were able to fight at melee range were left out to hold the fort.
Even if the curtain of flames had prevented more from coming, the aim had been achieved. The ranged attackers were kept busy continuously killing these aerial foes trapped with them in the protective dome, which kept coming back to life after being killed by disintegrating back into the black miasma from which they were formed before reforming again.
The first line of defense, having been robbed of ranged support from the second line, rapidly fell to the onslaught of the endless armies of the Manifestation of Fear.
Those fighting at melee range were not finding it funny. Many among their numbers, despite being able to comfortably fight against at least six of the aerial enemies, were finding themselves on the brink of being overwhelmed even as the first of the Manifested Troops made their way across the Aldom River.
But the armies of Tyros were not without their own preparations….
Just as the first of the Manifested Troops stepped on the second line of glyphs laid on the floor, a glyph that had been sticking on the Manifested Troops that had crossed the first line of glyphs, which was placed in front of the now defunct first line of defense, which, as of then, Mike had seen no use for given his relative lack of knowledge on such things, suddenly shone with an intense and almost blinding light, causing the unfortunate Manifested Troop to dissolve into a shower of white sparks, allowing the melee specialists of the second line to focus on handling the aerial attackers.
Despite this, Mike could see that the Armies of Tyros were gradually falling into a disadvantage, as they were fighting a war that should have been relatively easier to achieve victory in using the right methods with the wrong formula.
From the very beginning, Helen had made the mistake of making the conflict, from her armies' end, that is, into a defensive one.
Her armies had a limited number of troops, limited resources, both natural and supernatural, limited energy, and a limited natural tolerance range.
What they were fighting against could churn out an infinite number of troops if the right conditions were met, did not tire out, and could boast of enough resources to easily squash them if the right conditions were met.
…while the right conditions had not been fully met, Helen and her armies were getting to that point. Especially as they continued to employ all their resources and strength into physically confronting the Manifestation of Fear.
So unless Helen of Tyros just wanted to lead her troops to their deaths fighting the Manifestation of Fear at its peak with all the necessary conditions met, in a final show of bravery and defiance, which Mike saw as grim stupidity, the current method of facing the Manifestation of Fear directly, instead of dealing with it from its root by robbing it of the conditions that empowered it, before finishing it off with the same necessary conditions, as contrary as it looked, was a foolish one.
As if to prove him right, one of the elemental summons of Helen, the dragon made out of fire, suddenly dissipated into flaming sparks, likely having returned to the energies from which it was born and thus breaking the aerial defense line. Before Helen could fix that, the manifested dragon, a level 100 beast, which had been battling the fire elemental dragon until then, having been freed from its opponent, descended towards the second line of defense with a dragon breath charging in its maw. A lazy swipe of its claws easily tore through the curtain of flames that Helen had previously summoned to defend her people, telling her through that action, and to her horror, that it, as a dragon variant, had tricked her into believing that her fire elemental dragon summon had been a match to its might.
Seconds away from the descending manifested dragon releasing a charged breath attack, the lady whom Mike had assumed was the second in command to Helen, having somehow found her way to the front of the third line of defense, upon seeing this recent development, raised her hand slightly over the glyphs in front of the third line of defense, which, though prior to that time was inert, had grown white hot, having been filled with potent energy, which with the right direction could fully end their dilemma.
Six glowing orbs formed around her as she began to chant a long verse.
If there was anyone Mike would say made the most impression on him in this defense effort, it would be this second in command whose fragment he had come to understand, with the aid of the Mirror of Many Reflections, to be the Median of Pure Wishes, with how her three layers of glyphs worked; the first being the trap, the second being the lever that sprung the trap as well as a barrier that defended her people, fueling itself off the enemy, and the last layer functioning to effectively produce a counter against what the first and second layers had combined to kill, the deaths from the 'trap' sprung on the manifested troops on contact with the second line of glyphs fueling the third.
The six orbs she summoned began to dismantle the power of the Manifestation of Fear, cleansing anywhere they flew through of its power and presence. In fact, Mike could safely say that it could have taken care of their problem given enough time.
But time was not a resource on the side of the Tyros Army.
The Manifestation of Fear, having learned, did not send its troops to their deaths again. Instead, ranged attackers started to appear among the ranks of the Manifested Troops.
The first arrow was a mere two millimeters away from the neck of a worn-out melee warrior when the dragon breath that was being charged by the descending dragon was released, slamming down on the barrier summoned into existence by the glyphs, surprisingly taking it down with relative difficulty.
In the instant when it was supposed to annihilate those protected by the shattered barriers—the weak and dependents on the third line as well as the warriors on the second—the Wielder of the Proliferating Forest detached the armies of Tyros from time in his domain, sparing them from such a horrible fate.
After all, Mike would never let the lives of Elts, whose fates he could greatly influence, if not outrightly decide in the current situation, to end so tragically.
Most of them were dragged away from their lives into this world like him, against their wishes, if his guess was right.
Now, however, was the time to show them the folly of their method.
He had learned a lot from them. It was only fitting that he returned the favor.