The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

Drake nodded. "That is good - but do get some rest at some point. This siege isn't going to last a few hours or even a few days, but weeks if not months - it's important that we all pace ourselves so we don't all collapse out of exhaustion." I thought his tone had a strange condescending undercurrent to it, but I could've just been imagining that. It was hard to tell with lizardmen voices and even worse so with how the translation magic altered tones to some extent. "Secondly, some of the soldiers say that they saw you giving away some of your meals earlier?"

"Yeah," I said. I didn't have to buy my own food and was fed quite generously for being one of the defenders - I was fine cutting down what I was getting by about a third to give to someone else. I figured that I had other ways of getting enough food to fed myself.

Drake sighed. "Master Liberomancer - I can tell that you have a good heart. And it is far better for a person to have a good heart than the other way around - but that is not a good idea. We might not have as much food in the future, and we might end up having to cut rations even for Rank Three Liberomancers. It is important that you eat and are full, else how will you fight?"

"Your charity to those less fortunate would be commendable in any other circumstance, but do not do so by weakening yourself. Though it may sound cruel, it is better for some of the others to go hungry than you do - you do no one a service if one day you fall and the dryads breach our barriers," Drake said. "It is better that they go hungry than have their throats slit by the dryad hoards."

There was so much waste of food when they were giving it out, but I nodded anyway. He did have a point, and I didn't feel like arguing with him on this. I had enough of my plate.

"Good," Drake said. He seemed to be relaxing somewhat after saying that but then his head snapped as he saw something move in his peripheral vision. "They are moving towards us!"

I turned to see a group in the distance detach themselves from the main body of the horde - much larger than the small groups that had done so up till then. Another group did the same in the distance on the opposite side, but we could do little on this side of the wall for that as we would soon have our hands full - there must have been at least fifteen thousand of them heading this way.

I was well aware that this location would be highly likely to be attacked - aside from the main gate, this was another flaw in the city's defenses. The dryads hadn't headed out towards the ocean yet, but I wasn't sure how much the seawater would damage them, or if they simply didn't like being in it. No one seemed to have the answer to that question as the dryads had never come in this direction before in such numbers in all of recorded history. If the latter were the case, it would not serve as a deterrent whatsoever and they would rush towards the open sea.

Drake licked one of his teeth before ordering us all to focus on the main center of their formation. "Once they are in your range, start firing!" Range was affected not only by the tier of the spell, but your stats and skills as well, so it could vary widely between Liberomancers. Two people cast spells before they were within my own targeting distance.

"[Grand Fireball]!" I cast while aiming for the center of the formation - but this was my first time using the spell, and I had not aimed it properly. A flash of light burst out from my hands, traveling towards a location twenty feet off from where I should've been aiming before it suddenly blossomed into a huge sphere of red-hot flames. Funnily enough, I expected some sort of recoil given the resultant explosion was larger than that you'd get from a Rocket-Propelled Grenade, but nothing of the sort happened. Of course it didn't, I told myself, this was magic, not an actual weapon.

About seventy of them erupted into ashes, but that was far fewer than I should've been able to destroy with a single spell.

"Next time," Drake instructed. "Go for center mass instead." I had reflexively aimed my spell at the front of the enemy line which is why its effect was blunted; though I saw people around me going for the denser center of the enemy lines instead.

So what if a few stragglers escaped? They could be shot down.

I didn't need to call out what spell I was using in order to cast it - just the thought was enough, but it was common in group fights like this to do so just so that other people knew what you were doing. Also, we had to coordinate where we were firing to make sure that two spells didn't hit the same area, something that Drake was in charge of.

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"Over there, Master Liberomancer."

I paused before striking again. Did I feel a pang of sympathy for the lives I'd just ended? Maybe I would've if I'd had had more time to think, but in the heat of the moment such thoughts could wait for later. I aimed better with my second casting, but it was still less than optimal, with about ninety of them succumbing to the inferno this time.

Drake frowned and clicked his teeth seeing how he saw how my first two spells landed off target. He cast his own, killing nearly two hundred of them. Not only was he a better shot, but also had skills that boosted the spell's range and power. He had just been waiting for the right moment to join in.

He gave me what I thought was a smug look, or one that attempted to say: 'See? Making grimoires isn't everything.' Though I could've just been imagining that part.

The barrage of spells from our side had cowed the dryads somewhat, with them stepping gingerly out of what they perceived as the range that [Grand Fireball] could reach. If they wanted, they could stay out of reach while heading towards the water and then circle around to get to us. I didn't think that would work very well, as the water, even if it wasn't toxic to them, would greatly impede their movement, but I didn't want to give them any chances.

"I have an idea, if you don't mind me trying it out by modifying [Grand Fireball]," I said to Drake. It was an idea I'd had since I'd gotten the grimoire for [Grand Fireball] and seen the combo it could make with [Summon Tyrant Arachnea], but how would it play out in practice?

Drake shrugged. "I would love to see your suggestion." I think there was a hint of what I believed to be sarcasm in his voice, but I took it as a go-ahead signal regardless.

"[Summon Tyrant Arachnea]!" I said, as a spider the size of a semi-truck materialized below us.

The 'Arachnea' referred to a species of giant spider that lived in Libraria. A normal individual would only grow to be about as big as a car (I said 'only' but even that would no doubt be nightmarish to encounter). The Tyrant Arachnea was the species' equivalent of a prince or lord among magical beasts - and so was far bigger. There probably was a [Summon Arachnea] skill as well, though I didn't have it and that was likely Rank Two.

I had gotten this skill from Charlotte's Web fittingly enough. A Rank Three summon could stay in the world for up to nine hours or until it had been destroyed, and could be summoned again twenty-four hours after the skill had first been used.

"A summon?" Drake said, not looking too happy. "Yes, that can reach them, but a summon won't be able to stop a horde of that size-"

Before he could finish reprimanding me, I cast [Grand Fireball] on the Tyrant Arachnea.

"He cast a spell on his own summon!"

"Has he lost his mind?"

"Master Liberomancer, why would you-"

Cries like that rose out behind me when they saw what I had done. Drake was probably seething with fury.

Before I describe what happened next, I want you to imagine something - say that you're a well-trained Liberomancer and you happen to have the misfortune to encounter a Tyrant Arachnea on your travels. What would your first instinct be to do, other than run? Assuming you knew one, to cast a fire spell at it, right? It was simple and intuitive gaming logic - it was a bug, so it should be weak to fire, you'd naturally assume.

I probably would have done the same in such a situation, had I not known about the Tyrant Arachnea's abilities.

Not only was it completely immune to fire as one of its abilities, but it was coated in a substance that should it catch on fire, enveloped it in flames. Not that it would hurt it, as a matter of fact, the flames strengthened it. The stronger the fire spell, the stronger the flames that coated it would be. It could not shoot the flames out like projectiles, but the fire formed a defensive layer on it and even healed its wounds over time. If you were to use something like [Grand Fireball] on it, the reaction would be intense, coating it in a fiery shell.

The 'fire' made by [Fireball] and similar spells was not like normal fire for whatever reason in how it interacted with things - there was the initial impact of the spell when it hit something, yes, but the 'flames' created by it did not spread like a fire would normally and died out very quickly. This was despite [Create Flame] being quite suitable to create fire for domestic purposes - but not when used for combat purposes. It was one of those things that no one in this world seemed to be able to explain, and was chalked up to 'that's just how magic works' from everyone I'd asked about it. That was why despite being highly flammable, our attacks did not spread that easily to the neighboring dryads after we had cast them, limiting their effectiveness.

The flames that coated the Tyrant Arachnea though, while they could not shoot out like a flamethrower (as cool as that would be), they could spread just like a normal fire would.

At least, that was what I was expecting it to do. Although I knew that this was a combo that was possible, I still wasn't sure how effective it was against the dryads. The only way to be sure was to test it out in actual combat, and I prayed that it would be every bit as destructive as I was imagining it in my head.

I sent a command to the Tyrant Arachnea via our mental link to advance.

And so it was that this behemoth of a spider, completely coated in flames, an absolute nightmare fuel of a monstrosity, made its way towards the dryads. If I was an ordinary soldier and I saw something that size lit ablaze charging towards me , I would've dropped my weapon then and there and ran as far as I could from it.

I almost felt sorry for the dryads.

Almost.

Until I remembered the sight of all of their victims, that is.

'Give them hell from us,' I instructed my summon.