“Line ‘em up for some Fire!” I told the Beasts, who quickly got into position, knowing what was coming. All of them had gashes and slices in their thick hides from the pincers and occasional Water Lasers getting lucky, and it was time to be Healed.

Phoenix Flame blew through them in a Healing Torrent, Firefrost that completely pierced through all resistances and plunged into them, lighting each one of the massive Beasts up with frosting breath and flames on their fur, steam and mist spitting out equally from their cuts and bruises before the stream Chained forward to the next of them.

Gashes and cuts in armored hides sealed up with smooth scars of gold and silver, joining many others there on most of them, badges of dire battle Healed up by Healer Fae, proud scars all of them wore with honor, and showed off a lot.

Red was taking care of the rest of the Human casualties with the SAR team, as Humans didn’t need quite so fantastic an amount of Healing as the Big Guys and other Beasts.

We were still moving, if a little slowly, Flensing effects sweeping across the remnants of the battlefield quickly and covering it many piles of stacked shells and split pincers, and shoulder-high fogs of vivus from a lot of excess organs and unwanted carapace parts. As more Beasts were Healed, the pace picked up, and within half an hour, the battlefield was left behind completely as everyone was back to fighting trim. A floating platform in the center of the formation also held a Mana Gathering Seven Elements Formation, bringing in a constant flow of Mana to those who’d expended some, helping top everyone off.

Tests of endurance demanded a lot of discipline. The Beasts had prodigious amounts of Mana, but even some of the Fliers swooped in to join the Formation there and top off, just in case.

Reynard had reached the last redoubt, in addition to Blinking all over the landscape and laying out the command network for the invading Aquatics on this side. Sama had followed in his footsteps and reduced that Psychic network to a shambles with vim and vigor.

It was called Leap Castle, or the Castle of the Leap, one of the most centralized fortresses in Ireland, with a long and bloody history of standing against invaders.

Dublin and all the other major port cities had fallen. The various castles and fortresses scattered across the countryside had toppled one by one under the weight of Aquatic invaders, been reduced to tumbled stones and ruins with the remnants of the towns, cities, villages, and farms about them.

However, their Earth Pistils and the foundational formations of the Wards of those places had been removed and carried off, even if most of the defenders had died. They had been brought here, to Leap Castle, and now layers upon layers of Wards thrummed with the Earthpower of the whole island, rising up to defy the Aquatics.

They couldn’t get in at the hundreds of thousands of Humans taking shelter behind those Wards and the towering Walls raised by feverish Earth mages, the least of them over a hundred feet high and reinforced with thrumming magic to defy the much-weakened Water Magic being hurled continuously at them.

I could feel it in the ley lines. There was literally no other structure on the island using the power. The Castle of the Leap and its many rings of fortifications could and was using all the juice.

There had to be a score of Earth Pistils at work there, enough power to defy even an Aquatic Emperor... which it was doing. Their main problem at this point had to be supply, as not even the Rulers in the area were going to be able to get in past those Wards, at least not without cracking the island apart and sinking it into the ocean.

Which was not out of line for what they might do, of course, but part of that was why we were here.

There were millions of Aquatics in the area, Beasts and Humanoids alike, the least of them capable of ripping a Human apart, and by the bloody auras of psychic residue around them, many had done quite a bit of that. The Psychics had probably eaten quite a few Human mages, digesting their memories and deepening their understandings of our species, making us easier to anticipate, understand, and control.

Weren’t no understanding of Nulls in those purloined minds and brains, and Sama was already active there, visible unrest in the southeast quadrant opposite us indicating a bunch of powerful brain-eaters were now vivifying with their stolen memories. The whole force there was either wondering what to do or trying to turn the place upside-down looking for a Null who didn’t register on any of their senses.

Too bad, so sad. Darkstalker working against ALL types of expanded Senses was a surpassingly lethal Feat, especially against a Stealth modifier as outrageous as hers. If Tremble ‘ported, that was the only time they might sense where she was and where she was going... but there was no way she’d be there when they arrived, so it was moot.

“What’s the move?” I asked Briggs, who was watching the same thing as we came in towards the outer reaches of the Castle of the Leap. We could see its walls in the distance, but the sheer numbers of Aquatics in the way was rather numbing. Only the lack of coordination because dead commanders was keeping a significant chunk of them from coming this way.

“They can’t afford to believe any messages of relief,” he said calmly. “I don’t doubt the Krakenoids have been trying to play mind-games with the officers, use Sound Magic to falsify commands and messages, and even try to create illusions or send in enslaved Human puppets to cause havoc. We can’t plan on coordinating with the defenders unless we can clear out most of the attackers.”

I flicked an eye at Reynard’s report of powerful minds inside the Wards. “Three Sages still alive, at least, with a handful of half-Sages and a dozen more Archmages. Probably half the top mages of the island?”

“That’s about right. They’ve no chance of relief from England, and they know it, despite whatever the Kraks are trying to get them to believe. The Irish Channel has more Aquatics in it than that army ahead of us, London has lost half its population, and the English countryside is in a pitched battle for survival. They’ve got nothing they can spare the Irish, and the forces would never make it here, regardless. France and the Dutch remnants are under low-key assault, more being harried than anything, but tying up all their militaries.” Much of Holland was now under the sea again, and would likely never be pumped out again, drowned with devastating speed with a monumental Tidal Surge boosted by The Great Flood. It had basically destroyed the Netherlands as a European power.

“Since I don’t fancy taking on a few million Aquatics with a few thousand, how ‘bout I go over there and teach them a lesson about Earth Magic?” I drawled to him.

His smile was grim. “I don’t think anyone is going to argue with that. Go get ‘em.”

I snapped my fingers, the sound echoing through the company. “Salt volunteers, with me!” I ordered.

Seven Beasts and seven Avians ambled my way, all of them strong in Earth and Air Magic, respectively. Seven Archmages in Earth joined them: the Mick, Swampy, Big John, and Driver Sam, along with Cameron Dow and his associates Elders Punjah and Chuvalt from the India Branches.

“Line it up, we’re going to be doing the Salt thing.” My eyes glittered, and theirs gleamed at the thought. “Everyone circle it up.”

The seven Beasts, Lord Quake, Mighty Turk, and Hopper among the Earth Beasts, circled around us, the Avians with Air Magic hovering above them.

I picked the point over there, and spent Sage-level Void Magic. The Teleportation Circle swept us past us all with a major Crackling Lightning Jump, and we were off.

---

We materialized half a mile over Castle Leap, right in the center of it and the Wards around it, Argent Magic swirling around me to force them back enough for our Beasts not to be affected by them.

All of the Beasts were on Disks for the moment, and quickly spun to take up positions above and below us, Earth and Air Magic flowing to us, even as the Archmages with me also drew on their Earth Magic with full power, forming a seventh of a Sage spell below me each that mirrored exactly the one I was forming.

There were immediate alarms below us at our appearance and intrusion, and the unfamiliar Auras shocked the Hell out of those below. Within seconds, powerful Mages were shooting up to interfere with us.

I was riding Reynard, who simply looked down and projected, -Healer Fae is here to rescue you. Wait for it.-

There was a lot of Fire below that abruptly spluttered out in confusion, especially when they saw the, ah, eclectic array of Birds and Beasts arranged above them.

I looked down at the millions of Aquatics swarming in all directions, anything and everything possible eaten off the landscape, clawing at the Wards and the walls, spells going off intermittently in all directions as squads of soldiers vented here and there.

The Fomorian Emperor, Balor was to the north-east. He had doubtless noticed us, but he had only seconds to react now as the doubled Sage Spell, fed by tons of Beast Earth Magic and backed by a blowing cyclone of Wind Magic, erupted outward in a massive Rune Seal a good mile across, covering right to the limits of the Ward.

Dirt exploded into the sky just outside those Walls, blowing high into the sky, towering over the walls, over the gaping people, over us, and over the Beasts outside, nobody knowing what was happening.

But it wasn’t earth or dirt that was exploding into the sky. The magic washed across it, and it turned a glittery white.

Winds blew, and millions of tons of Earth began to fall away from the Wards in a blowing, streaming flower of sparkling white whorls, streams, tendrils, and then rolling, blowing walls of not sand... but salt.

Salt from a Salt Seed, with the special power of Desiccation, taken all the way up and amplified magnificently.

Massive plumes and walls of Water erupted out of nowhere, trying to rise up to contest and block the white sands that tumbled down upon the encircling armies and began to sweep out, covering them and their startled cries in choking grit.

Wind and salt slammed into the barriers of Water, and the Water basically evaporated in front of the saltstorm that was coming for them, providing basically no resistance at all. Powerful Fishmen, Finmen, Aquatic anthros, and great Beasts howled and screamed in shock and alarm as the whiteness blew across them.

The Sandfall Saltflower, from up where we were, seemed to be expanding in slow motion, blown by a tornado-level vortex down and out around us. From the ground, it was racing out there with the speed of a hurricane wind, sweeping out over Aquatics who could not run fast enough to escape it, and whose Water Magic did nothing to stop it.

The ravening beam of death came in from ten miles away. It could have killed any and all of us if it hit.

A crystalline pane of Argent Magic intercepted it fifty yards away, and bounced it back the way it had come, moving with the Beam as it lashed up through our Formation, meant to kill us all. The angled Beam flickered across the titanic figures far in the distance out there instead before it faded away abruptly.

I watched with narrowed eyes as six of the eight gigantic Fomorians toppled to the ground, slain instantly by the deadly Gaze Reflected Beam of the burning Eye of Balor, their mighty King.

The fact I shouldn’t even have been able to see those Fomorians to aim at them was probably missed in the stunned pause following their crushing fall.

The bellow of the Aquatic Titan was monstrous, slamming into the Wind we were pushing the Saltsand out with real force.

I wove the Gust of Wind raised to the power of a Sage spell, Reynard linked with the Wind-using Beasts, and the advance of the Sandfall Saltflower in that direction didn’t stop for a second.

A mile beyond the walls was now covered in drifting saltsand, which was being chased out into the distance. It was thinning as it did so, but the ground behind was clearing, and everyone could see what was out there.

It was very, very white.