Chapter 884 T.D.O.N.B: One Man's War

It was Aaraam'soturi. Well, the barrier around Aaraam'soturi to be exact. My attack was easily able to carve a part of that place, but it got blocked, and the energy split, covering part of the invisible surface.

Since it was pretending to be something else. The night sky, to be precise.

On the bright side, I managed to hit several ghosts, just cutting through like a hot knife through butter. They turned to smoke, and the crystals left by them fell to the ground. I didn't have enough time to grab them, because I was still surrounded by at least a hundred enemies.

Then I realized I still didn't use the 'Void domain', which I immediately did, while shadow walking away. The essence started spilling into that world, ruffled by the invisible winds, just as the raging walls of thick darkness blocked the horizon around the area.

The apocalypse restarted. Massive hands, multiple ones, reached for me from the ground as somebody, or multiple creatures, used some earth magic.

I blasted them with a powerful punch, which created a shockwave that popped my own eardrums. It decimated the rock, crushing it to dust,  and pushing the soil under me away to create a crater below.

The pressure pushed some of the ghosts away, but I barely noticed that, too boys dodging all the steel that was sent after me. Swords, axes, hammers, and stuff I couldn't even recognize. Rods, balls with spikes. They had it all and really wanted to use it to kill me.

I wished I had enough magic to do one more of those rays, but I just didn't. The first attack had a too-big energy price tag.

Then the ground below me erupted, splashing lava everywhere, followed by a pillar of flames, which almost consumed me. The lightning bolts started falling from the sky, and I had my hands too busy to do anything.

For a moment I kept getting away, consciously directing the ghosts further away from Arc, since thanks to spotting Aaraam'soturi, I was able to figure out the directions properly.

I stopped very soon, though, because it just had no sense. I would eventually get hit anyway, so it was better to just take a few hits while decimating the number of ghosts. In this way, I thought that I could actually win.

I pushed them all away with a powerful psionic wave, mostly to disrupt whatever they were doing. I needed a bit of room to actually switch from the defense to the offense. Then I made a path for myself as I rushed to the closest enemy, creating firebirds as I was running. The fraction of a second only allowed me to create a couple before I reached my target and swung my weapon.

I picked an angle to hit more than just that one and pushed some 'Void strike' behind that attack.

My weapon went right through him, and the aftermath of complete blackness hit several more beyond that. Then I shadow walked the hell away, not waiting for any kind of response from the rest that still could hit me. It was a correct decision.

I couldn't really hear anything, but I felt the air vibrating, and the sudden changes in temperature and the density of the atmospheric pressure.

I immediately launched myself yet again, this time changing directions a few times, because I had to keep dodging the incoming attacks. I'll from the start point out, that I didn't dodge them all. Few hit me but failed to penetrate my barrier.

I reached a cluster of a few ghosts, then just started swinging. Few died immediately, but the remaining managed to defend themselves. For both me and them it was a terrible outcome because a shit ton of elemental magic hit us all. Few lightning, a storm of freezing shards of ice, sharp as knives, and then a cloud of raging fire.

My barrier endured it, and I emerged somehow, chasing the next target on the list, which was whoever I was able to see, the ghosts, though, didn't make it. I noticed that, and my mind was already trying to figure out a way how to use it to my advantage.

Sadly, I just couldn't allow myself to keep getting hit directly. The magic was just too powerful, so my barrier would eventually break. It was not a sustainable approach. I was close to the city, but I wasn't still there, which meant there could be something coming out of there at any moment. I could never be sure since I couldn't check, so any risky ideas were out of the question.

Dodging, moving around, just to fish for another opportunity to attack while thinking about that made an idea pop into my mind. I had 'Gravity manipulation' skill which I almost never used, but this particular situation seemed like a perfect case to change that.

I was very much surrounded, but the ghosts were spaced around enough so they could actually use all those powerful attacks without risking hitting one another, unless I approached a particular cluster. I could change that.

I used the skill, focusing it on myself, as I also started approaching the closest group, then I also added 'Telekinesis' to the mix, literally grabbing the ghosts with this power, to drag them towards me. They obviously fought, but not only was I winning with most of them, but I also managed to stop their attacks.

They maybe didn't care about hitting one another, but they definitely cared about hitting themselves.

I couldn't shadow walk doing that, but some plates in the air made out of the vis essence and my incredible strength, allowed me to still keep dodging most of the attacks while accumulating the numbers of enemies around me.

Some decided to switch to direct attacks, so I had to keep swinging my weapon, parrying everything I possibly could, but a few hits passed through, hitting my protective barrier.

Moments later, though I achieved my goal of gathering most of the enemies quite close to me. Then for the first time, I dipped into the 'Indomitable' skill.