A pitch-black wormhole materialized in the middle of the air, some 5 kilometers away from the massive stone shrine. Four people fell out of it and landed on the snow-covered land.
Lucian had used this feature of her sword before and somewhat guessed how much mana she really needed. Using all her mana threads at full power—everything she could use at her limit—the wormhole could reach some 10 to 12 kilometers with a 7-second charge. But with four of them together, using all the mana threads they could handle to power it for around 15 seconds, it was enough to reach near the Pigmen city.
After landing, Lucian used her first wormhole runic spell etched above the second, simpler runic circle. The first one was the one they often used to get out of the way from big, area-wide attacks on the battlefield. All three of them could use this spell on their sword however they wanted, with the endpoint of the wormhole and shape completely left for their will to decide. It was quite a handy spell, and for close-range fighters like them, it was a very useful thing in emergencies. It sent them near the north side city gates.
Going inside, they quickly talked with Mindseer. She had already sent soldiers to pick them up, having already seen their arrival with her future sight. Lucian asked for the laser cannons, and they were swiftly provided to them as many as they wanted.
The narrow snow valley was not the best location to use them, so they didn’t have many up there. The black army had learned to target the rolling cannons first after years of fighting and were aware of the danger they represented.
Once again, Lucian and everyone climbed to a high place—this time the stone shrine itself, from the inside—to use the wormhole spell again. A clear path was a must for this spell. They didn’t climb fully, though; just halfway through was enough. They charged it, opened the wormhole, and jumped down with cannons stored in their spatial storages.
They fell from high, just a couple kilometers from the Pigmen army camp. Evrin had kept the air step spell ready, and they grabbed each other to not fall down—it wouldn’t damage their second-ranker bodies much, but it wouldn’t feel good either. Traveling the distance quickly, they reached the camp and met up with Sam, Maelor, and the two Transcendants.
“Did it work?” Sam asked Lucian. She just nodded.
“I don’t know if it will be enough or not, but I guess if it saves even a single warrior, I am willing to give it a try.. The cost be damned.” Rurik, the Pigmen Transcendent Lord, said. Lyska nodded while smoking some weird-smelling substance wrapped in tree leaves.
They still had an hour to get in position. Lucian and everyone got to work. Instead of 20,000 Pigmen holding steel shields to face the charge of the black monstrous army—this time there were over 30 rolling steel laser cannons lined straight in the narrow valley at a few meters’ distance, covering the whole path.
Lucian had no idea if it would be enough or not, so the Pigmen army was right behind all of them, just in case this failed to stop the charge.
Each of them with mana containers could use enough mana threads to continuously power three steel cannons. The two Transcendants didn’t have unlimited mana, but they too could use three cannons using their mana threads. All others were being handled with four second-rankers to each laser cannon, and another four were waiting behind to replace them after two laser shots—which was what four second-rankers could manage with these cannons using their own mana pool.
Everyone took their position and held their breaths. The cold wind blowing through the valley made sharp howling sounds. Thirty cannons were not enough to cover the whole valley, but there were Pigmen warriors—two on each side of the cannon—who would pull the cannons to the side using the leather straps and cover a wider area.
After some tense few minutes, the charge of the thousands of black ones resounded in the valley, breaking the tense silence. Most of them gritted their teeth and stood ready.
The second the black army crossed 800 meters, all 30 cannons were activated, and over 30 streams of powerful, large, pillar-sized horizontal beams were shot at full power—it took a lot of mana to keep it going for even a few seconds. No wonder it needed four second-rankers for even a single burst shot.
A smile flashed on Lucian’s face as she sensed hundreds and hundreds of mana signatures from black Pigmen—large and small—starting to disappear at an alarming rate. The laser reached over 1,500 meters before losing power and arching down. Lucian, along with all her friends, continued pouring as much mana as they could inside the cannons. The Pigmen warriors continued pulling the cannons from this side to that, making the powerful laser sweep in a wide angle.
The flying emperor-ranked ones were their responsibility to handle. It was simple, really—though it demanded high focus from them—they just had to use their three sacrium swords and open a wormhole near the flying monstrosities and let the lasers go through it to shoot them down to the ground.
They missed some, hit some, and re-hit some. At the end of it all, after some 10 minutes.. The whole valley smelled like smoked rotten meat. They had successfully obliterated 20,000 black Pigmen like it was nothing—all in less than 10 minutes. The spell was terrifying to say the least. The leftovers were handled by the Pigmen army standing ready behind them. Only a few had been left, either after hiding behind others, falling on the ground, or getting really close to the mountain walls on the sides.
Now this.. This had to force Bloodedge’s hand. And they could effectively proceed to the next stage of the plan when the counter-attack came.
