"Looks like they could use some help below. Who can still fight?" Chronos asked as he and Lyla downed water-breathing potions.
Three of the orca guards stood up and all four of the still conscious singers stepped forward along with the priest that had supported them.
The three injured guards and two of those that had come from below took positions to protect the purification ritual to the best of their ability as the others dove into the river.
....
Going back in time a little.
When Gregory saw the serpent emerge from its cocoon on Lucan's back, he realized that they wouldn't be able to gang up on Lucan as they had planned.
Knowing that the plan had to change he sent out his threads as he heard Chronos say.
"We've got the serpent you handle the fool, fish."
With his threads wrapped around Lucan's leg he yanked on it with all of his strength, dragging him under to face a massive orca made of water that charged straight at him.
Bam!
Lucan struck it with his [Rotbite Claws] but was forced back.
Sariah drank a water-breathing potion and joined Gregory below water as she continued to cast curse after curse at Lucan. Unfortunately, devils possessed a strong resistance to curses and Lucan was one rank above her; it would be difficult for most curses to affect him directly.
When Lucan was forced back, he used the opportunity to summon two more serpents that were only 2-3 meters long. Much smaller and weaker than the one above water but no less threatening.
The serpents ignored the orca and swam for a strange ball of water in the distance.
Varkesh had created and was controlling the summoned orca but that left him defenseless as it took his full concentration to control. The orca guards had used their [Tidewall Gyre] formation to protect him against all threats by forming a ball of moving current around his body.
This formation was a purely defensive formation used to protect a target, or if you had enough orca guards, they could protect a fortress by using the orca guards to create an artificial current and enhance it using aura that would deflect or stop nearly all forms of attack.
However, this formation put the guards at extreme risk as every attack on the formation would cause some slight injury to those that were in it. If enough of them were knocked out of the formation or injured badly enough that they couldn't keep pace with the others the formation would collapse.
It was a desperate measure but an effective one when you had to protect an individual from a stronger opponent.
The only flaw to this formation was that they only had 24 guards instead of the required 30 so they could only form two layers of formation instead of the three layers that made a complete formation.
While the orca construct attacked Lucan, Gregory moved to restrain the serpents that had gone after the formation.
He used his threads to tie one up while throwing knives at the other one, but the knives passed right through the serpent's body while his threads slipped a little before tightening around it.
With one stopped the singers inside the formation would only have to deal with one threat.
Drawing a short sword in his right hand he manipulated the threads with his left hand. He hadn't yet reached the master level of mastery which would allow him to control the threads with both hands free.
He slashed at the serpent only to have his blade pass through it while dealing little to no damage. This wasn't going to be an easy fight, but his threads could touch it so maybe he could use those to deal with it?
The serpent turned on him, biting at his hand forcing him to release it; he leapt back while stringing a thread along the edge of his short sword.
He could hear the singers in the distance attack the serpent that had escaped him, but he didn't have time to worry about how they were doing.
The serpent charged at him intent on biting him in half.
[Flicker Mark]. Sariah's curse caused a small illusion to appear around the serpent making it miss its mark.
Gregory took advantage of its lapse to slash through its neck, finally feeling his slash connect he ripped out as much of its throat as he could, but then its tail lashed at him. He covered his arm in thread and used it to cushion the impact as much as he could.
"Ugh, okay the threads are terrible at blocking, mainly use them for traps or maybe movement from now on." He grunted as he recovered his balance.
Engaging the serpent again he slashed at it several more times but as he cut it, he realized that it was healing at a very fast pace.
"Sariah, I need a curse to stop healing." He called
[Dry Viens]. "That will slow down its healing by 30% but it's breaking my curses pretty fast. Finish the fight before it can break this one, the orca construct could use some help."
Glancing around he saw that the construct had several black patches on it and one of its flippers was torn in half.
Deciding to rush things he retracted his threads and pulled out all four returning throwing knives. Using the [Implanting Art] he implanted an [Impact] into each one of them before charging at the serpent.
Seeing him coming it prepared to receive him.
When he was close enough it flipped around using its tail like a whip it tried to strike his leg or arm only to hit the water.
Before it could realize that [Flicker Mark] was still active and had made it attack an illusion Gregory was crouching on its face digging two knives into its eyes. Then he flipped over its head, sticking the last two knives into its neck a short distance from its head.
Jumping off he flicked the threads he had attached to the knives, all four of them exploded at once. Even if that didn't kill it the serpent wouldn't be fighting again until it rebuilt its head.
Rushing at Lucan he attached his short sword to a thread and swung it at him. The blade caught him by surprise just as he was casting [Rot Spine] and severed some fingers as it struck him.
"Agh, you humans again!? Your dog won't be able to protect you down here!"
Lucan cast [Miasmic Arrows] at him forcing him to dodge again while Sariah rapidly cast three prepared curses.
[Hex of Open Lines], [Dragging Shadow], [Lingering Ache].
The first curse increased the damage taken by 10% per caster rank, the second curse caused minor damage to the targets spirit for every rapid movement they made, and the third curse caused the targets fatigue to increase with every injury taken.
Linking them in this manner would have a cumulative effect but as the target was a devil the curses wouldn't last very long.
"Break the formation." Varkesh yelled as the curses settled in.
The orca guards rushed at Lucan with Gregory, everyone attacked as fast as they could to build up damage before he could react.
Lucan's wings appeared on his back once more as he fended off the worst attacks, but small injuries built up. Especially with Gregory swinging weapons around on his threads, striking Lucan at odd angles and locations.
The singers restrained both serpents and successfully managed to destroy one of them with their songs.
Unfortunately, this rushed assault wasn't without cost.
Lucan had managed to injure nearly half of the orca guards and at least five of them had serious injuries that prevented them from returning to the formation as the curses ended.
With so many injured the reformed formation was unstable but still usable.
The construct rushed at Lucan as he cast another [Rot Spine] at it leaving a miasma pool behind that slowly seeped into the orca further destabilizing its form.
After taking so many miasma attacks the construct was showing significant signs of instability as the corruption built up in its body, but they couldn't stop to purify it now or Varkesh would lose control of it.
Gregory used his threads to keep some distance from Lucan as two singers created weapons from ice for him to use.
"This new combat style of using weapons connected to my threads is proving to be very effective. I'll need to practice it more later." Gregory thought as he managed to injure Lucan again.
Everything seemed to be going well and if they could keep up this pace, they might defeat him, but then Lucan sacrificed the last serpent to cast a massive volley of [Miasmic Arrows] right at the formation.
Shink. Shink. Shink.
Several of the orca guards were hit directly. Taking serious injuries, they were no longer able to maintain the formation, and it collapsed.
Varkesh used the last of the orca constructs' power to swallow the injured guards and sent them to the surface for treatment, hoping that they were having a better time than he was.