357 Regroup
That left only two more Golden Lions, and a frightened horde of monsters, who were now giving them as much space as possible, as Karl rolled to Thor’s left flank and evaded another gout of fire breath, which burned even more of the unfortunate horde.
They were forced too close to the battle by the press of bodies, and they were suffering as badly from the Lions as they were from the humans.
The Great Golden Lions were forced to their hind legs as Ophelia joined Karl with a furious roar.
They were still larger than the raging Werebear, but not by enough that they could discount her raw strength.
Unfortunately for them, that opened their vulnerable bellies while they swatted away the Berserker’s axes, and another one fell, gutted by Tessa’s spear. That left only one, surrounded by Karl and Ophelia, fighting desperately for its life.
Karl got a solid hit on one shoulder as the Lion twisted out of the way, and its leg suffered a grievous wound from the axe, but then it was gone, leaping off into the crowd of monsters on three legs, and putting a half dozen bodies between it and the humans as it retreated.
The monsters were just letting it run, but they were closing on Karl and the others now that the threat of flame breath was gone.
“Back up to the line, fighting retreat.” Karl shouted to be heard over the din of the battle.
They had done their jobs, and the flame breathing Commanders were out of commission, leaving only targets that the line could reasonably be expected to deal with.
Thor and Karl both needed a breather, as they had expended a lot of energy to keep [Refreshing Lightning] active, but the Golems and Fire Elementals were happy to cover for them as they backed away.
Karl swept the surrounding area with [Rend], creating a wide path for their retreat. That got them back to the line in under ten seconds, and gave the line a moment to regroup after they had passed by.
“Good work.” Morgana congratulated them as they stopped between the warriors and the mages. Karl just nodded in reply as he focused on recovering energy, and Remi crawled up the Witch Doctor to get to her favourite viewpoint on Morgana’s staff and set up new totems.
“Will the other Lion be back?” Morgana asked, while holding the radio microphone in her hand, ready to inform battlefield command of the outcome.
“Not any time soon. It has a broken leg and a mangled shoulder. I don’t know how fast they heal, but it shouldn’t be back today at the very least.” Karl replied.
Morgana sent their report, and the group spread back to their positions, returning to their duties against the rapidly diminishing wave of monsters.
All that was left was the very worst of it. The wave of flying monsters that had followed the others to the battle.
Fortunately, they had a plan. First, the [Thunderstorm] to soak and electrocute the incoming birds.
Then [Blizzard] to freeze the water.
And finally, they would have Thor hurl Mick’s tiny Sand Golems at them with his tail.
That last bit was an impromptu addition by Thor himself.
The other portions of the line would have to fend for themselves, but as long as [Refreshing Lightning] was active, Remi was sure she could keep the area spells active long enough to make a difference.
The thunderstorm would be spread over the largest possible area, as it needed time to reach maximum effect, and then the blizzard would be a narrow final line.
There were a few other area spells in their section, including Colonel Wilkes’ [Flamestorm] spell, but its casting range wasn’t nearly as far as Remi’s.
Why he couldn’t cast it as far away as she could use her area spells was a mystery, but the Flamestorm spell naturally wanted to be centred on the caster, and just moving it out into the monsters was an effort, while Remi only had to be able to clearly see and visualize her target.
That was true for many of the mages’ area spells. They were primarily defensive, and while they could create a gap large enough for their unit, the area spells were usually centred on them, not hurled hundreds of metres away. With the obvious exception of explosions, which had been a constant counterpart to the day’s battle.
The flock was chasing the last of the beasts forward, herding them into the Academy lines, right until they hit the rain, and found that it was seeping into their skin and tearing their feathers out.
That was enough to make most of them turn around and give up on the battle, overcome by the pain and shaken free of the effects of the rage that they had been under.
But the beasts on the ground were closer to the bait packs all the way in, and the effect was much stronger. They weren’t turning back, they were intent on eliminating the humans, and even more now that they were wounded.
[That works better than I thought it would. The damage is alright, but the deterrent effect is totally worth it.] Remi noted as she watched the first of the rain soaked monsters reach the [Blizzard] and get flash frozen.
They were monsters, and they could break the magical ice easily enough, but it was sharp, and it cut into their flesh, making them bleed and slowing their movement. Then they were into the spells of the other mages, and being cut down so fast that the warrior lines were only doing cleanup on the last few who struggled through in a desperate attempt to get some form of vengeance.
But their incredibly effective defence only extended so far, and the sections of the line further down toward the artillery were still having issues, and even with the reinforcements from the regular army, they were in for a hard fight.
The problem was, that if they changed anything here, they would only move the problem back in their direction.