My Second Life Is A Heroic Power Fantasy - Chapter 169

It took the lot of them several more minutes of sustained fighting to make it within a reasonable range of the nearest arrow tower. Thankfully, for the moment at least, its attention was trained on the center of the battle, rather than on them.

Pulling one of his magic missile scrolls from his belt, Jack broke the seal and ripped it open. As he did so, three darts of pinkish-purple energy surged out of the parchment, leading it to char and crumble into dust. The three bolt of magical energy floated slowly and delicately around his hand like a school of magical fish. He pointed his hand at the top of the nearest tower and thrust it forward. As he did so, the bolts flared to life and flew from his hand, streaking to the top of the tower like a gunshot and slamming into the trio of gnolls firing their bows from the peak. The blasts knocked the three dogmen backwards, causing two of them to fall backwards and plummet from the tower top to the ground below. The third staggered but remained standing as it immediately set its sights on the area where he stood.

Seeing this, Jack flung his body to the side just in time to avoid the barbed arrow that passed through where he’d just been standing. Tucking into a roll and springing to his feet again, he threw his hand back up at the tower as he felt magic surge into his hand.

“RACHMANINOFF!”

A red, searing hot sphere of fire burst from his hand and rocketed towards the base of the tower top, where the pole legs of the tower connected to the archery platform. It impacted in a large explosion, causing the entire structure to shudder from the blow and knocking the remaining archer on his back. Within seconds, the entire top of the tower was ablaze in a roaring crackle of magical fire. The last archer, finding himself suddenly standing atop a flaming death trap, leapt from the top to fall the forty or so feet to the ground below. Jack had a hard time imagining a shattered spine from the fall was preferable to burning to death. Then again, he hadn’t yet had to face that decision, so who was he to judge?

The reaction from the camp towards the arrow tower being destroyed was both obvious, and immediate. A new contingent of gnolls, seeing him and his little group as the cause, broke from the center and rushed them. Meanwhile, the next nearest tower turned its attention fully towards them, and Jack and the others suddenly found themselves the targets of a sustained hail of arrow fire.

Jack turned towards the others as he ducked out of the way of an incoming arrow.

“I’ve gotta get close enough to take that other tower down. You three keep those oncomers off of me. I will handle the arrows.” He said.

Without waiting for a reply, he charged forwards towards the gnoll defenses, the sound of incoming fire whistling in the air all around him and sinking into the earth with meaty thuds. The oncomers closed the gap quickly, and soon he and the others found themselves not only under fire, but locked in melee with nearly a dozen more of the defenders. Finding a way to slip past the nearest gnoll fighter, Jack dashed the final distance he needed to, before reaching into another pouch and pulling out the small silver cube he’d won from the Terminal Lottery. He tossed it the the side a short distance from him as he drew to a halt. The cube flared to life, glowing gently with a pale yellow light before lifting into the air several feet off the ground. It hovered in place, spinning rapidly, and Jack watched as several more arrows aimed at him suddenly redirected in mid-air and slammed into the spinning cube with a small boom and a spray of sparks.

Not waiting to watch any longer, Jack summoned the magic energy into his hand sent another fireball soaring into the second tower. The sphere struck and exploded with a brilliant flash, setting the entire top third of the structure on fire in one fell swoop. He watched as the gnolls on the tower top began to panic, one of them attempting to climb down, only to catch ablaze and fall off the ladder with a horrible shriek. Seeing the fate of their companion, the other two decided to risk the jump, and dove from the top.