A circus of unique abilities went off immediately. Explosions, flying constructs made of light; straight up tsunamis of water surged from nowhere and the earth exploded surged up into spikes that impaled multiple enemies.
Faust had expected this when he explained to Diego how they should arrange people. They had to let the Schema users be able to let loose and not worry about killing their allies.
And since there were so few people with Schemas, it was easy to place them in autonomous groups.
The downside was that you'd face the monsters without the barricade. But each person had their team.
Greg slammed his shield into a charging jackal and it flew into the air like a ragdoll. Spider blocked a slash from a passing rider at her tank, and an arrow from Zen finished it off.
Thalia created blue zones that completely halted the movement of anything, which she had prepared ahead of time.
Appraise.
[Create Trap Zone]
[Grade: Iron]
[Details: Create a zone and imbue it with a variety of traps. They last for an hour.]
He was slashing down riders with accurate strokes of his naginata, but still wanted to try that.
Instance Replication!
Faust tried to recreate one of her already used traps and succeeded. A Jackal and its rider froze in front of him as a blue circle formed beneath their feet.
Faust killed both as he passed and spammed Instance Replication everywhere Thalia had already been. He could only do it ten times before he could no longer replicate the trap.
He passed by the zones of the trapped enemies reaping kills left and right. Thalia glanced at the circle in confusion then at Faust.
He stopped beside her and she said. "That Schema of yours is unfair. You don't have any conditions for using your power?"
Faust shrugged and lied. "Nope."
Deception was part of the game after all. His enemies would know he was strong, but never his limitations. Unless they were watchful and smart. But that only made them more interesting.
All the riders had been decimated, but the ground forces had closed in. By now almost three thousand goblins had crossed the rainbow gate. Spells came down on the rolling wave of monsters, either intercepted by mages or eradicating droves of goblins at a time.
The Scorched Earth Schema Faust copied left large areas of land unpassable, allowing him to further slow down the enemies so he could farm with fireballs.
But soon they were face to face with the Player army.
The first wave died on the spears of the Tanks behind the barricade. But they were ruthless and fearless little creatures. While their allies were being killed, they climbed the bodies to get over the defensive lines.
The front lines descended into chaos as the goblins swarmed them, but the fighting didn't reach Faust.
"I see what you meant before," Nirvana said, appearing beside him. "When you said I should think the goblins are crazy."
Faust just nodded. The action wouldn't reach them back here. There were simply too many players. Almost seven thousand people against three thousand goblins.
"This is boring," Faust said aloud.
Thalia raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't this your plan? I rather like the efficiency."
"It's working too well. I'm going forward."
Zen waved him off. "Good luck with that," then he noticed how Nirvana was glaring at him. "What? I am not getting into a fight for no reason. We aren't paid to risk our lives."
"Actually we are," Faust said with raised eyebrows. "The more we contribute to this the more rewards we get."
Zen slumped tiredly. "But we've already done so much today…"
"Shut up, Sloth," Spider said calmly, flicking Zen's forehead. "Let's go."
◇◇◇
Faust cut down the last goblin near him with a twirl of his naginata. A tired sigh escaped his body this time. They had been fighting for nearly an hour now. Normal humans would have gone down, many players had to be replaced with people in the backline.
But with his high Constitution, Faust had outlasted most people. Nirvana was cleaning her sword against the body of a goblin not far from him. Most of her combat power seemed to be invested in Constitution or Spirit.
Even then, She and her friends had retreated twice during the long battle to rest and recover mana, while Faust just kept going.
Thalia was seated on the burnt ground, pale and sweaty, glaring at the sky. "How can you guys still walk? I feel so cold."
Mana exhaustion was something Faust could sympathize with. Back in the Mind's Forest, he felt like a piece of paper in a blizzard from his lack of mana. It was like losing a layer of yourself and being vulnerable to the biting winds of the world.
Spider dropped down beside them. She had sprouted wings, claws and bug eyes during the battle using her Chimera Schema. Based on what he had seen today, She had the most potential out of the group.
But her Schema ability was too unreliable. Sometimes the animal parts she got made her bones weaker or made her unable to see normally. And they changed constantly.
I could probably replicate one of her mutations, but do I really want to?
Each change was painful and slow or fast and still painful. She had to be protected while shifting and it took a while for her to adapt to her changes.
Meanwhile Zen was more refined and controlled. His Schema wasn't showing it's full potential yet, because he had no water spells, but he would be the obvious strongest most times.
If he wasn't so lazy….
All over the battlefield, the last hundred goblins were being put down as the gate closed. Faust turned around and began to leave the battlefield.
No one noticed his disappearance since he didn't want them too. He had seen a lot today and needed to think a little before the next wave started.
This is practically over already so I'll just use this time to rest.