The Systemic Lands
Chapter 261: Day 537 – War Of Attrition

I was standing at the outer wall near the rubble of the East gate. There had been talk about sending out teams to engage in hit and run, but with the Ritualist’s command and control ability, it was viewed as a death sentence if people didn’t have the Body or a skill to run away. That just left me.

Naran, I could really use your help here, I thought as the City Shield disappeared. Color rushed back into my vision. The horde of monsters and the super worm stirred. I began to stretch as I watched the approaching horde. I had an Air Burst already saved up and was topped off on energy. I noted the number of flying hybrids had greatly decreased. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Looking at the super worm, I considered how I would kill the monster. I saw rough brown scales where the previous ones had been destroyed. A possible weak spot, but one not easily targeted without getting in close. The last time the Ritualist was distracted from the Astrologer’s attack. Now I would be the Ritualist’s focus of attention.

Acid Shot. The super worm was in front, but I aimed high and above it as it approached the pile of rubble. A beam of energy lanced out and sniped my attack. That was impressive. More energy beams shot upwards forcing me back from the edge of the wall.

The super worm cleared the pile of rubble that used to be the East gate and began moving forward. The horde of hybrids crested as well. Radiant Beams began to lance down the road. While their range was quite long, they were impossible to aim after a quarter to half a mile. But a clearly defined street with hybrids on a mound of rubble at the end. Well that was a shooting range.

After two Radiant Beams the super worm rose up and intercepted the next attack. They then shut off. I still hadn’t spotted the Ritualist’s box. He was hiding somewhere annoying most likely. I went over to the middle part of the wall with the rubble and hybrids below me.

Acid Shot x10. I got about 15 hybrids if I had to guess and wounded another 7 to 10 more. I quickly retreated as the hybrids with beam attacks were forced to spread out to target me, but it wasn’t simple or easy. Acid Shot x3.

Nice try with the flying monsters, but they were useless. I could fight at the level of a low level 4 if I had to guess. That meant the Ritualist only had three options to get me. The first was overwhelming numbers, which would not be possible with my mobility and being on top of the wall. Even if he circled around, I could easily retreat into the city with Air Burst and his monsters wouldn’t be able to keep up.

His second option was his super worm. But it was land bound and the city’s unique terrain offered a lot of elevation for me to maneuver around with. The last option was the Ritualist himself, but that would be a huge risk on his part, even he was using level 4 crystals. It would be his last resort.

All this meant, was that I needed to maximize by energy usage and wear away at his horde of monsters slowly but surely. The ground shook as the super worm slammed back into the ground. The moment that happened, two Radiant Beams flew over it and hit more monsters pouring into the city.

I noted the monsters quickly spreading out into the city to avoid being targeted by concentrated attacks. The Ritualist was really upping his actions per minute, or APM, with whatever abilities those level 4 crystals had given him.

There was nothing left outside the city. The Ritualist was moving all his forces into Purgatory. This was it, the final battle of our war. That was the big problem with my build, it was too generalist, and I couldn’t break out of a melee that easily.

I could win one on one, but there was too great a risk of getting dogpiled. Naran could have easily cleaved through a crowd of monsters and then escaped. He might lose his sword, but that was easily replaced, and he could keep going. I was constrained by my energy stats, Spirit and Regeneration.

The Ritualist had spread out his monsters to keep at least 40 firing beam attacks at me on a rotating basis. It was insane the amount of fire power he was able to output. I wouldn’t call it unfair, but I wasn’t about to call any of this fair. One man able to match the power of an entire city, insanity.

I leapt off the wall. Acid Shot x2. I moved quickly as I darted to another couple of hybrid monsters. Acid Shot x3. I dodged the beam attacks easily enough since the buildings provided cover. While the Ritualist could track, even with all his multi-tasking prowess, he was struggling. Finally, some limitations!

I moved in on the next group of hybrids shooting energy beams, Acid Shot x3, and then they were no more. I pulled my sword out of the sheathe at my side and easily cut down another hybrid trying to sneak up on me. Acid Shot, that isn’t real rubble, that is a monster pretending to be rubble. My Perception stat was high enough to spot the differences and I was ready for these little tricks.

I was not about to call them pointless, since I had to keep focusing and avoid being predictable. Sometimes I would go after the nearest group, sometimes I would run away while I still had energy. Other times, I would run past hybrids.

I would always keep an Air Burst on reserve just in case and would occasionally use it to escape a tricky situation and recoup my energy for a while in the city. Even while regenerating energy I always kept on the move. Staying still was tantamount to death, asking to be surrounded or allowing the Ritualist to build up a much larger sneak attack.

Often these long breaks I would circle around to the other side of his East horde by way of the outer wall. Forcing him to leave troops behind to deal with me or pull them forward and not harass me. I still had no idea where his real body was, but I was guessing he stuck himself inside his super worm.

It was clearly the nexus of his command. That was one thing he struggled with. He viewed himself as the center of everything, so his monsters subconsciously reoriented themselves towards the super worm. This became more evident as he paid less attention to the various monsters he was commanding.

Not that I could strike at it. I would have to do a deep dive which meant at least one Air Burst to close the distance and two to escape. That would only leave me 350 to 400 energy to commit to an attack. Better to pick off all the smaller hybrids I could finish off in one attack.

The super worm was dangerous and a pain, but it had no long range attacks that I had seen. It was a mobile fortress and battering ram, but it would struggle to kill everyone. The mentalist hybrids and the beam hybrids were much more dangerous to regular people than one super worm.

It was late in the evening when I snuck back to the plaza and leapt over the inner wall with two Air Bursts. I landed and a soldier quickly directed me to the new command center at the City Map building. The Airship Port had been turned into melted slag from all the attacks.

“Still holding?” I asked Clarissa who looked tired as I entered the building.

“Yes,” she said and looked at the holographic map of the city. I scanned the display. It was annoying the Ritualist’s monsters weren’t highlighted red to make them easy to count. “Nice job at taking out the long-range attackers, but he has dense pockets of melee combatants at eight points around the inner wall and his command center on his super worm.”

“Those dense pockets, aren’t so easy. The hybrids have equipment and work well together. Beam attacks, mental attacks, and aerial coverage. Better to pick off the smaller groups. They are all gone, so I came back,” I said.

“Yes, he consolidated his smaller groups into larger groups based on your actions and is probing our defenses. Our attrition is high and we can no longer restore people. We suspect there might be a night attack,” Clarissa said.

“Where is our dear General?” I asked.

“On the front lines at the moment ensuring all sections of the wall are rotated and covered. This is important since this has become a siege. Looking at things, the Ritualist has about 700 hybrids left,” Clarissa explained. I had been hoping that number was lower. The fact it remained that high was concerning.

“And our side?” I asked. If I hadn’t had to use Air Burst and could take the fights one at a time, then I would have whittled the Ritualist’s forces down much more.

“Half the soldiers, and a third of the militia are combat capable. Half of those numbers are wounded and unable to fight or fight in a reduced capacity, not enough to be worth putting on the walls,” Clarissa answered heavily, her mask broken. I nodded at that. It was rough, but we had to endure.

“No movement form the super worm?” I asked.

“You can see for yourself. It is a fair distance from the East inner wall. But it is clearly waiting for something. Probably night, when our vision is hampered, and the Ritualist can rush monsters forward in the chaos. Maybe dawn right before the City Shield timer hits a day,” Clarissa said, and I frowned. She was getting nervous and wanted to pull the trigger on her trump cards.

“If you need to, then act, but until then we need to hold for as long as possible. Think I should wait on the East portion of the inner wall?” I asked. I was exhausted after an entire day of relentless fighting and ambushing.

“Up to you. But we expect a large push tonight. Once the bells ring, that will be the alarm for a major attack. The worst part is the Ritualist might attempt a feint attack to exhaust us,” Clarissa said while staring intently at the holographic map.

“I am thinking tomorrow morning, we deploy all your trump cards on the super worm,” I replied.

“That could work, but it is a big risk. We only get one chance, and the Ritualist is going to act before that for sure. I don’t understand why he is just engaging at standoff range,” Clarissa replied.

“I am too tired to think. I am going to the East inner wall to rest for the night,” I told Clarissa. This way if for some reason she needed to get a hold of me, she had a shot of succeeding. But all our plans were supposed to be paced off of me acting independently. To harry the Ritualist. Trying to coordinate too much would slow me down from where I would do the most good. That was problem with being the top combatant, I had to earn my paycheck.

“Got it. I will be here or at the City Shield once the Ritualist makes his move. Trying to figure out exactly what he will do,” Clarissa explained while rotating the map around and zooming in on certain portions. I would leave her to it. I needed to rest and get ready for the upcoming battle after a long day of killing hybrids.

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