The cloud spread across the battlefield. It rolled forward in waves that clung to everything it touched.

The gas settled into the lowest points of the terrain in a way that suggested it had been designed to do exactly that.

Reidar watched his army collapse into chaos. The Menageries turned on each other, ripping into flesh with mindless fury.

The undead swung their weapons at each other with confused aggression. Even the Archons were confused.

The Hive Colossi stood in their defensive circle. They were coordinated, patient, and utterly confident in their strategy. Which was weird for a monster.

They had reason to be that confident, though. The cloud was winning the battle without them having to move.

"We need to do something. Now."

"I know," Reidar said.

His mind went through the options they had available. The gas was the first problem. As long as it remained on the battlefield, his summons were worse than useless.

The chitinous armor was the second problem. Physical attacks bounced off those plates like they were striking solid stone. Even his Archon Rift-Lords had left few wounds on the remaining creatures by using magic, especially now that they had activated their defensive skills.

The defensive circle was the third problem. The Colossi refused to break formation. They stood side by side, protecting each other's flanks, making it impossible to isolate and kill any single target.

Every attempt to flank them had been met with brutal retaliation that drove his summons back—those that could still fight, at least.

Three problems. Three solutions were needed.

Reidar looked at Jake. The kid was battered but standing. His health was slowly climbing back toward good levels thanks to the passive regeneration from his equipment, skills, and Reidar's titans' skills.

He would be able to fight again soon, but not yet.

"Give me two minutes," Reidar said. "Then be ready to move."

Jake nodded.

Reidar turned his attention back to the battlefield and began to work.

The first problem required the right tool.

Reidar released a surge of mana, directing it through the crystal embedded in his Void-Caller's Baton.

The air pressure in the area dropped, sucking the breath out of everyone's lungs and making the leaves on the decimated trees shiver.

He summoned the Vorathid Sky-Hunters, a new batch, which appeared amidst horrifying screeches while keeping away from the noxious cloud.

Above the canopy, the sky darkened. Hundreds of winged nightmares dropped from the sky, and they were far faster than the lumbering tanks on the ground.

The Hive Colossi saw the new threat. Their antennae twitched, picking up the mana signature of the summons.

In response, they vented more of the yellow gas, which rolled over the ground to confuse the new arrivals just as it had confused the War Mastiffs and the other summons earlier.

"If the Sky-Hunters get confused, they'll attack us," Lena said.

"They won't be."

These weren't the Feral Packs or the lower-tier summons Reidar relied on at the beginning of his journey. The Sky-Hunters were Tier 31. They were insects, yes, but they were engineered for dominance.

And they could fly.

"Dive," Reidar said. The Sky-Hunters fell.

They swooped low, weaving between the massive tree trunks, and as they passed, their beating wings displaced the noxious cloud enough for Reidar to regain control of at least the Zephyr muses.

He focused on them and ordered them to control the wind to the best of their abilities to clear the area, which was what they did.

The air above the battlefield convulsed. Pressure built, drawing in from all directions, and then released in a massive updraft that tore across the ground like a hand sweeping the table clean.

The cloud lifted. It rose in a single motion and was pulled upward by the artificial wind and then dispersed into the upper atmosphere, where it could no longer affect anything on the ground.

The confused summons stopped their infighting. The undead turned back toward the Colossi. The Menagerie reformed their ranks. The Archons got distance from the monsters and resumed their attacks.

<First part done.>

To every summoned creature in the vicinity, the colossi now smelled like one thing once again: Prey.

But Reidar wasn't done. The Sky-Hunters followed Reidar's next order.

[Venom Spit]

The swarm pulled up, the monsters' wings beating hard to gain altitude. Then, they rained down a deluge of corrosive green fluid.

Reidar couldn't help but grin, because the skill was designed to break down organic matter, to dissolve the proteins that held chitin together, and it did its job with terrible efficiency.

The acid hit the hardened, gray exoskeleton of the Colossi. The Exoskeleton Fortification, which had deflected Jake's dagger and the spectral arrows earlier, began to hiss, and smoke rose from the Colossi's backs as the acid ate through the magical hardening.

It wasn't an instant dissolve, but the result was clear. The armor began to soften; the plates covering the monsters' bodies turned flexible and weak. The gray sheen faded, at least partially, revealing the chitin underneath.

The other Sky-Hunters did the same. Reidar also told them to target the joints, the seams, and the places where the Colossi's armor was thinnest. Reidar needed to incapacitate them.

The monsters screeched, thrashing as the burns dug into their hard tissue and reached the softer one. The armor was compromised.

The Colossi tried to retaliate. They swung their limbs at the Sky-Hunters, mandibles snapping at the insectoid predators that tore into their defenses. They caught two of the Sky-Hunters, crushing one and tearing the wings from another, but the damage was done.

"The armor is soft!" Lena said, her eyes tracking the damage. "Physical attacks will work now!"

"Not yet," Reidar said. "We need to take out their legs first."

The defensive circle began to crack. The Colossi shifted position, trying to cover their exposed injuries, but the coordination that had made them so effective was breaking down under the assault, because not all colossi could move as efficiently as before right now.

He looked at the remnants of his Undying Legion. The skeletons were in shambles, scattered, and largely useless as warriors against these titans.

Their swords couldn't scratch the Colossi even with the acid, and their bones shattered under a single stomp.

But they still had health bars. They still had bodies.

"Charge," he ordered. "Get under them."

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