Chapter 1307 Defiant Calamari
With the added illusionary armies inside Opal's [Illusionary Domain] effect, the frog population around the Guild House was quickly being decimated. In fact, it was so effective that they were working to secure some of the portals, so that nothing else could come through. Now that they had a grasp of the situation, they could send in mages to try to collapse the interdimensional portals, effectively ending the attack.
Above the main battle, Karl was learning that it was not easy to fight an octopus. This one didn't appear to have any blind spots, and those tentacles could attack or defend at any angle.
It didn't matter that there were three of them attacking, as the creature had eight limbs, and it could fly fast enough that it wasn't helpless against Hawk's attacks.
It certainly wasn't happy about being set on fire, but with the damage reduction of the Immortal Blessing, its natural healing was slowly regenerating flesh and putting out the flames.
Unholy Corrosion made the flames immune to Holy Element healing, but regeneration was not Holy Element. In fact, Karl didn't see a single healer anywhere in this invasion.
[Your weak faction cannot defend against my Master.] The octopus informed Karl, its voice broadcast telepathically.
{My faction might be weaker than yours, but we can still defend. Look below you, we are closing the portals. Soon, your assault will be over, and the city will be feasting on frog legs.} Karl retorted, unsure if the creature spoke dragon.
The Octopus shifted colours to a mottled red that Karl took as annoyed, but there was nothing that it could do to stop the tide of the battle from turning against the invaders.
[Rampage] had increased Karl's damage enough that the Immortal Octopus' damage reduction was completely negated now, and Rae was living up to every letter of the word 'rampage'. Her battle looked more like a blender as she tore through the Redwood Sprawl, rescuing the weaker district of the city from the invaders. The Governor was with her, as the district was the furthest from where the adventurers had arrived, so very few had made it across the river yet, and the numbers of frog monsters were growing.
Karl snapped his jaws and bit the end of an errant tentacle off, causing the octopus to release a [Psychic Shriek] that had people below covering their ears, and Cara raging.
As soon as she found this thing's eyes, she was going to claw them out.
Then, a flame covered [Rend] attack completely severed one of the creature's tentacles, and the octopus bolted for the portal.
[Don't you dare! You are my Calamari.] Cara raged. The octopus flickered between a terrified beige and bright red, and Karl realized that it could understand her thoughts. At least Karl knew that it had a good reason to be irate with Cara and Hawk. They had been planning ways to cook it since before the first attack landed.
Once it was clear of the imminent attacks, the Octopus simply teleported, and vanished through the portal it had taken here. The portal closed behind it, and Hawk shrieked as he doused the area in fire.
He had plans for that thing.
However, if he couldn't have Calamari, he could at least try something new with all these frog legs.
That was brilliant. He had a nice spice rub that would go well with frog.
But first, he needed more.
Karl transformed back to his usual form so that he could fight in the streets, but went all the way to the far side of the city to assist Rae.
A few more groups had come this way, having realized that it was a treasure trove of Mythic frogs. But there were still far too many, and two thirds of the buildings had been destroyed, with civilians running for anything that seemed like it might be safe.
The death toll within Drodh was going to be horrific when the battle ended, and impossible to count, as the giant frogs could swallow most of the smaller Demons whole.
Now that he was back in his usual fighting form, Karl switched the target of the [Amulet of Destruction] to be the [Disintegration] spell cast on the Blade of Champions as a barrier. At Immortal Rank, it was unlikely to be dispelled or broken while attacking the frogs, and it would cut much more smoothly, saving him time while he worked to save who he could.
"Don't gather near the river. There are portals in the water." Karl warned as a group of demons ran past him, fleeing from a group of the Mythic frogs.
"Mister Karl! Is there a safe zone?" One of them shouted back.
"We're expanding out from the Guild House, but I came ahead to try to salvage something in the sprawl." Karl explained.
The man gave a sad shake of his head. "There isn't much left to save. Just wipe them out, and we will do our best to survive."
The most effective way to remove the frogs would be area spells, but he would level the entire city if he tried doing things that way. The damage was already excessive, and the buildings of the Redwood Sprawl weren't in great shape to begin with.
An arc of [Disintegration] cut a pair of frogs in half, giving the small group room to flee for safety as everything else turned its attention to Karl.
The frogs weren't intelligent creatures, and in the Immortal Realm, they would hardly be considered a major threat. But here in such high numbers they had essentially depopulated a city in under an hour.
To prevent others from claiming the bounty on the frogs, Karl tossed the kills into Hawk's space, so he could roast them later, and kept moving.
He didn't miss the fact that he was slowly gathering a following of wounded locals, people who had survived the first round of attacks which had levelled their homes. They had all decided that it was safer to be within sight of someone who could actually kill the frogs, even if it meant being out in the open.
Then, they came around a corner and found themselves face to face with the Governor, who also had a large following of people.
"Here, take this healing totem and guard the survivors. I will keep clearing the city." Karl instructed.
"Thank you, Guild Leader. Your friend Rae is somewhere near the wall with her army of undead." Governor Shin replied slowly, exhausted by his efforts.
"My forces are closer to the Guild House, but we've called for over a hundred Mythic Warriors from Zilaz to come and help. They're working their way here, so if you can just hold on for another half hour, they should reach you."