(18.2) Polaris Plaza

Aki bursts through a closed alley into Polaris Plaza, closely followed by the Silver Sword party.

Buildings are boarded up, alleys and streets blockaded by wood, stone, and magic defences. The remnants of street stalls litter the open area. To the South, the New Pinacca soldiers are locked in battle with a massive horde of Dead trying to break through their defences.

Behind them all is a hulking four-legged bone monster aggressively attacking the defenders and squashing its fellow Dead with no apparent difference. Its size is impressive and the amount of power it generates from its attacks is even more so.

"It's a Bone Behemoth." Caor informs everyone. "It's already super resistant to magic damage and this one has been buffed."

"We've fought harder bosses," Mirra punches her fists together, electricity crackling from the contact.

"In a game…" Phoebe grips her wand tightly and squeezes it against her forearm for lack of a hand.

The five of them rush forward, pulling back injured fighters and batting away Dead that managed to breach the plaza's defences with the Bone Behemoth or on their own from another direction.

Fire spells wash over the Bone Behemoth, bouncing harmlessly off its body while physical attacks have poor luck striking with any real power. The Bone Behemoth's destructive thrashing makes it difficult to get a good hit in.

Still, something about its movements are too erratic, even for a creature of necromantic origin.

"It's not fully controlled." Aki points out. "Someone must've hurt it badly."

"Then, can your magic deal any damage?" Caor smashes in the head of a legless skeleton. "Your chains can debuff it, right?"

Aki leaps over a tackling zombie and slings a witchbolt at a bone soldier that was about to kill a family on the other end of the plaza and knocks it off balance, allowing some of the city guard to reach them in time.

"Sort of!" She responds. "Even with pact magic, if it's already resistant, my spells won't do much!"

"That's enough." Caor grunts, locking swords with a draugr and getting pushed back.

Phoebe sinks the earth beneath the draugr before it has a chance to knock Caor off balance, allowing Mirra the opportunity to throw a bloated zombie -- that looked more like a mound of flesh with limbs than a person -- at the draugr.

Caor raises a hand in appreciation and turns his focus on the Bone Behemoth.

"Aki, use your chain spell when I give the signal." He instructs her then points his sword forward. "Guys, let's do raid formation 7!"

"Roger!" The rest of the Silver Sword party say in unison.

All four run at the target at equal distances around and behind Caor as he sprints to the right side of the Bone Behemoth where many of the city's defenders are locked in battle.

"ACCEL!" He raises his sword skyward.

Mana pulses outward in the shape of a golden ring centred on Caor. As soon as it touches her, Aki feels her body lighten and her muscles lose some of the soreness she'd had. Not only does she feel mildly refreshed but stronger and faster too.

By the looks of it, everyone else touched by the spell feels it too because their bodies move with a refreshed air.

However, this wave of magical light also directs the injured Bone Behemoth's attention to fall squarely on Caor, who still stands there with his shining sword aloft. The green flames in its eyes flare as it charges at this illuminated foe.

"Get away everyone!" Caor commands.

No one questions the order because the alternative would be getting crushed by a giant bone beast. Yet, Caor still hasn't moved, still holding the pose and drawing in the monster.

"Look out!" Aki is about to try and save him only to be stopped by Mirra appearing behind her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Arena Trap." Phoebe slams her staff down, appearing next to the busted plaza fountain.

She cuts it close by opening a hole in the ground less than half a metre in front of Caor. Luckily the distance is enough for the Bone Behemoth to crash face first and drag many other Dead down with it.

"Now, Aki!" Caor lowers his sword, extinguishing the light but notably not the buff.

She dashes forward and swings her amulet in several wide arcs, manifesting multiple chains above the hole that slam down around the Dead, forcefully pinning down the Bone Behemoth and destroying the weaker Dead within, restoring a bit of her HP and MP in the process.

Caor immediately follows up with a quick vertical slash, a bright light bursts from his sword blade and explodes against the monster's bloodsoaked bones.

It staggers and falls again, the force of the magical blow enough to break its balance. Not only its balance, the onlookers realise, as glassy green light enveloping the Bone Behemoth blinks into view, green flames spurting from the many fractures in the magical shell.

Mirra gives it no chance to recover and follows up with a stunning flurry of blows.

She takes a running leap into the pit, electricity crackling from her good arm and dancing around her whole body. With her electrified moment, she punches the Bone Behemoth's face hard enough to create a shockwave that sends her flying back and destroys the green flame shell.

Flaming mana and crackling electricity scatter everywhere, knocking over and destroying many of the remaining Dead and making many unprepared defenders pass out from the force.

Still, this isn't enough to defeat the Bone Behemoth because it rises to its feet again. However, the damage it has sustained thus far leaves it visibly vulnerable, dazed, and completely defenceless.

Overlooking the battle from atop a broken roof, Dent now has the opening needed and leaps down from his perch. His body bends and spins, gathering momentum to mercilessly swing at the Bone Behemoth's head.

The monster's skull takes the full impact of Dent's blade and is cleaved into many pieces.

"Wha-?" Dent's eyes widened, feeling an intense wave of miasma push out from the skull. "A failsafe! Hit the ground!"

His warning allows his allies to avoid the sudden flood of miasma though he himself isn't as lucky. The miasma explosion propels him skyward, knocking the air from his lungs and nearly causing him to lose his grip on his sword.

Dent's lungs burn as the miasma floods his system. However, he doesn't take it lying down and envelops his blade with wind magic.

With a mighty swing, he creates a vacuum that sucks up the miasma and sends it skyward.

"Got it…" Dent says to himself before losing consciousness.

Unable to control his descent, the unconscious swordsman is falling uncontrollable into a flaming multistory building below.

Aki and Mirra rush to catch him, with Aki in the lead and spinning her amulet as if she's preparing to throw it and Mirra close behind.

"I'll throw a shield spell," Aki says quickly. "It'll break his fall but you'll feel the full weight, can you handle that?"

"No problem!" Mirra pulls past Aki with her arms outstretched before her.

Aki slides to a stop and makes a throwing motion with her amulet, causing a greenish blue bubble to fly out, striking Dent's sword.

Luckily Dent has a firm grip on his weapon allowing the bubble to expand and encase his body with a thin layer of green mana just in time for Mirra to leap across an adjacent roof and snatch him out of the air.

The force of her propulsion is more than enough to make the building she was on completely collapse and take its burning neighbour with it.

Mirra rolls with Dent held tightly in her arms to come to a safe landing and stands up with no problem. Aside from being a little out of breath.

"Got him." Mirra smiles.