Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

"Python is confirmed to be under control for the time being," Gareth spoke through the wind as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, picking off stray demons he traveled. "For the most part, the giant snake seems to be more interested in guarding the barrier and stalling for time. The real problem is that a clock is ticking—upward of a thousand demons are trying to push past the remaining heroes from the other direction.

"We'll first have to push into their formation to join the defenders. Lawrence, please go ahead and pick off their scouts as I mark them. Daphne, adjust your fireballs so we can carve a straight path. Astley, use your summons to widen the gap. And Stephan? Just do your thing."

"My thing isn't supposed to be all-terrain transport," grumbled Stephan from beneath them.

"But it's so convenient," said Daphne as she juggled an increasingly large number of fireballs.

"If it's between a bear and a carriage, I'll choose a bear any day," agreed Astley.

"Less talking and more preparing," snapped Gareth. "Estimated time till contact: 43 seconds."

"I'll prioritize screening then," said Astley, opening her grimoire. "Mist Wights, assemble!"

Stephan charged into the surprised demonic army, whose scouts had failed to alert them. He and Daphne cut a path of fire and ice through the ranks of mismatched demons, while Astley's wights paralyzed enemies while obscuring their positions.

Notably absent were Sorin and his trusty mount, Lorimer, who was busy gnawing at a piece of stone. "It seems like Gareth was right. Some elites are mixed in amongst the crowd. Some have even reached the level of a sealed floor boss.

"Reee!" Lorimer stood up on his two back paws, nearly throwing Sorin off as he let out a battle cry. Sorin summoned Nemesis in spear form and held on tight as the rat charged through enemy ranks. A storm of poison-coated needles pierced through any lesser demons that dared approach, reducing them to puddles of melted flesh.

The demons were everywhere, and their blood ran thick on the catacomb's broken paving stones. "I have no idea where I'm going, Gareth," shouted Sorin as he hacked and slashed his way forward. "Directions would be appreciated!"

"Twenty degrees left, a hundred feet ahead," instructed Gareth. Lorimer darted in the indicated direction, bringing him and Sorin face to face with a centaur-like creature with sharp claws, jagged teeth, and a scorpion tail. Sorin deflected a biting attack from the tail with his spear and stabbed the centaur in the torso, injecting a hefty dose of Gorgon's Mourning to paralyze the creature as he analyzed its anatomy.

The target is most susceptible to neurotoxins and hemolytic transmission. Roughly thirty percent of surrounding demons are blood-compatible. Adjust the toxin mix.

Sharp claws tore at Sorin's armor and threatened to take off his head. Sorin dodged but took a hoof to the chest. He used Python Coil before he hit the ground to pull himself back to the target and savagely attack its twin hearts using razor-thin daggers.

Black veins immediately spread from the centaur's chest and covered its entire body. The devastating attack triggered its survival instincts. Scales rapidly grew over its skin and armor, causing Sorin's follow-up attack to clank off harmlessly.

Having already achieved his desired result, Sorin flipped backward and onto Lorimer. The rat bulldozed through lesser demons away from the centaur. The poisoned centaur did his best to follow, but in doing so, he unintentionally spread the poison to his companions in the army. A black miasma soon spread out, causing lesser demons to drop dead and greatly lessening the pressure the heroes on the front line were feeling.

"Where to next?" asked Sorin, hacking away a pair of reptilian demons that tried to intercept him.

"Cut an arc path according to my directions and see if you can help us push forward," said Gareth, transmitting an image. "Stephan's getting overwhelmed, and Daphne can't clear the way fast enough because she's busy bombarding an elite."

"You got that, Lorimer?" asked Sorin.

"Ree!" The rat executed a shadow hop, bringing him and Sorin to the rear of the target.

Sorin rapidly identified the creature as a Juvenile Land Dragon. It was a slow but powerful creature that was trudging towards Sorin's companions despite the fireballs bombarding it every half second.

Sorin summoned a flurry of golden needles and blasted the surrounding demons with a mix of simple necrotoxins and Symphony of Blood. The demons were quickly covered by sores that necrotized their limbs. Though this didn't outright kill the demons, it reduced the pressure on Sorin and allowed him to pick up speed.

"Leave the land dragon to me and Lorimer," said Sorin, guiding the rat towards the land dragon's side. The creature was a hundred and twenty feet long and kept its belly a full six feet off the ground. Its back was covered in a thick carapace that forced Lawrence, who was doing his best to keep it distracted, from landing any critical blows.

"Lawrence, follow five seconds behind me!" said Sorin. He leaped off Lorimer, leaving the rat to attack the creature's sensitive underside while Sorin stabbed through key points on the creature's carapace with Nemesis. The area immediately around the points of impact cracked and fell away as Eater of All worked its way into crevices and flaws, exposing tender, unguarded flesh that Lawrence took advantage of.

Five seconds later, Sorin threw a spear to the creature's right back, shattering what remained of the brittle shell. "Heart," he called out, then threw out two more spears. "Second heart. Critical Vertebrae."

"Hell yeah!" Lawrence said, appearing above the creature. He stabbed three consecutive times in each of these weak spots, unleashing all the battle potential he'd accumulated until now.

The land dragon stumbled from the critical injuries and roared as Lorimer, still attacking him from beneath, buried into its thick underbelly. There was a loud crack as Lorimer found the creature's core and bit a piece out of it.

Not wanting to waste time with dying creatures, Sorin called back Lorimer and jumped on his back. They ran up beside Stephan and helped him push out of the army and into the center of a human-led formation.

"What took you so long?" called out Faile Atlan, shooting an arrow at a demon that attempted to charge through the same opening. She then detonated a trap that blasted a large crater, directly eliminating twenty lesser demons and giving her teammates time to regroup. "Seal the perimeter! Lay down a supplementary layer of traps. I don't want a single demon to get through!"

"What's the situation?" asked Gareth as he and the rest jumped off Stephan.

"It's me, Owen, Joseph, and Onesca out there, directing whatever adventurers managed to make it here alive, " answered Faile. "Bast and Fenrig are helping out Michael and Charles, but they're having a hard time of it."

"Bast is here?" interrupted Sorin. "Isn't he Melinoë's employee?"

"He transferred his contract over to Michael," said Faile, shooting another demon with her crossbow and issuing a few curt hand signals. "The White Tower Group is big on contracts, so he's unlikely to renege. Now, what are your intentions? You're getting in the way."

Gareth looked around for a few seconds before pointing towards Python, who was currently defending the stairway to a massive temple complex. "You've got things well under control here. We'll join the rest of them and try to take down Python as quickly as possible."

"That thing is tougher than it looks," warned Faile. "Are you sure your arrows will manage to harm it?"

"There's no need to worry about that," said Sorin, tossing a vial of blood over to Gareth. "Even if he can't pierce its skin, delivering poisons will do more than a little damage."

"Then get lost and let us do our job," said Faile. The rogue shot off toward a spear-wielding hero who had just fallen backward. A demon was gnawing on its leg. She decapitated the creature and then pulled the hero back to apply bandages and a potion. The hero was wounded and unable to fight properly, but he gritted his teeth and held the line against the tide, pushing in from all directions.

Sorin's team broke away from the front lines and made their way towards Python. Michael was in the air, blasting the serpent with an unending stream of sun-empowered arrows from above, while Charles similarly blasted the creature with a storm of poison.

With these two potent damage dealers on the offensive, Bast and Fenrig alternated, clashing with the creature using brute force and shields of light. Python was clearly taking damage, but Fenrig and Bast weren't looking too good.

"Everyone, coat your weapons with the poison I prepared, and don't hold back," instructed Sorin. "Python has adaptive poison resistance, meaning that in less than five minutes, these poisons will be useless."

Sorin and Lorimer ran out towards Python, timing a jump with a vicious strike of Fenrig's axe. "You made it!" yelled the barbarian as he ducked to let in Stephan. The bear used a skill to attract Python's aggression and caught the creature's fangs with armored paws as they descended.