Risen World

Chapter 390: Unique Job Holders are a Pain in the Ass

Joshua watched as the battlefield slowly started to change from the interference of this presence that was going around and causing problems all over the place on their side of things. Ivan was constantly missing his attacks and being forced to block at the last minute. This allowed the guild leader of the enemy to occasionally strike out at others outside of Ivan which was disrupting the front line to the point where things were starting to become problematic. Victor was forced to fight more defensively since his injuries were piling up to much with the mistakes he was making. If he got taken down then the people he was keeping occupied could turn their attention to Ivan and overwhelm him. Lastly since Natsumi was missing her stealth attacks whenever she came out of someone's shadow she wasn't being nearly as disruptive as they needed her to be.

The fact that those three were being affected in such a way was also causing problems for the back line. Without Natsumi injuring key positions on the other side and taking out the tanks, Robin's lightning strikes were getting blocked by Tanks that lifted their shields into the air after getting in proper position. With all of these little shifts the rate of people getting taken out of the territory war on each side was starting to even out a little bit, but that meant that their side would be the loser in the end with their opponents still having the larger amount of members. The only thing that was keeping it from being a huge shift were the turrets that occasionally destroyed a shield wall or took out a few members of the opposing side.

Joshua wasn't worried about losing the territory war with all of the back up plans they had at the ready to use at any moment, but he still didn't like seeing how their tactics were being overwhelmed by such a small shift. With a sigh Joshua took out his scale blade and any gear that he didn't already have on and prepared to get involved.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Aito asked while still trying to see if he could find what was causing the sudden changes in the battle.

"No I think I'll be handling this one myself. No need to go over the top and get us all involved it'll make it look like we can't handle other mid-sized guilds and we'll end up getting challenged every month from here on out." Joshua said while jumping on top of the edge of the wall.

"True, that'll be a hassle to deal with and would just end up setting us back." Henry replied. "All you need to worry about is five enemies and from what I can see they only seem to be going after one target at a time."

"What makes you say that?" Julia asked surprised at the new information none of them were able to notice.

"Two reasons really. Whenever Ivan starts having issues, Victor and Natsumi seem to be just fine. They are shifting from target to target, but at a rather quick pace to keep them all out of sync. The other reason is the simple fact that they haven't been going after any of the mages or healers on our side of the battle. That tells me they're not confident in being able to effect a large group in a short period of time. Otherwise dealing with the healers and the mages would be a top priority."

"Alright I'll get close and start causing some havoc myself then. I'm sure that the amount of damage I'll deal will grab the attention of whoever's doing this right away." Joshua said before jumping off of the wall and rushing forward. He quickly let his aura shroud surround him to protect himself against any stray arrows, bullets, or spells that could come his way in the large scale fight happening up ahead. As he got within the range of the rain he could feel the soothing and healing effect of it which would work extremely well with his high regeneration while being covered in his aura shroud.

The rain wasn't the only effect he gained when he got close to the battle field. He also got the power up from Evelyn's music as he could hear it over all the mayhem going on. The boost and energy seemed to not only work with his physical body, but also seemed to energize his aura as it flowed faster and seemed easier to use. Joshua smiled at this before charging past his guild's back line and rushing towards the front line where all the chaos was happening. From what he could tell it seemed like his side had already lost around seventy people in all of the fighting while their opponents had lost nearly two hundred at this point, but they were about double their size from the get go so the disparity was still there.

Joshua put those thoughts to the back of his mind as he casually avoided an arrow that shot by and cut down an enemy swordsman that had made his way on to their side of the battlefield. He was of higher level so Joshua was certain he was one of the stronger members of the Scavenger's Guild that was getting ahead of himself when he saw the tide turning in their favor. His swift swing took the man by surprise as he was surrounded in a flash of light before disappearing from the battlefield. Joshua didn't even stop as he kept rushing past.

With all of the chaos going on around him Joshua had a target in mind to grab the most attention possible and to do what he was thinking he was going to have to break through some of the shield walls placed up on the other side that was blocking him from getting close to the fight going on between Ivan and Dale. Joshua didn't want to take Ivan's target away from him, but causing chaos nearby that area would be the fastest way to gain the attention of whoever was making things difficult for Joshua's guild members.

Leaping towards the nearest enemy tank that was blocking his way forward the guy seemed to look at Joshua with eyes full of surprise as he tried to shift his shield into position to block his blow, but his movements weren't going to matter in the end with what Joshua planned to do. Joshua charged his scale blade full of aura and concentrated on using an aura blast through it as well. He made sure to focus his will on it to do as much damage as possible. The moment his scale blade swung down and met the shield wall of the enemy tank it shattered from the power without stopping the momentum of Joshua's attack at all.

His blade continued to fall downward directly over the man bisecting him as he disappeared in a flash of light. When his blade struck the ground it created a massive explosion that sent dirt towering into the sky while knocking all the nearby tanks on the enemy side off their feet. Some were to close and were taken out in the resulting explosion from being exposed to the massive surge of aura that shot outward. Even some further away were knocked away creating a huge hole in the enemy's front line. Joshua was used to withstanding such close range explosions at this point with his aura shroud deflecting half of the initial force of the explosion and his rock steady ability keeping him from being blown back.

The moment the dirt cloud cleared several spells came flying through the gap from Robin, Brook and the rest of the mages that were using this as an opportunity to do as much damage as possible. Even Katsumi was able to get off a few elemental arrows through the gap causing damage to the back lines of the enemy forces. The sudden barrage had to have taken out at least twenty people or more even with the tanks near the back trying to block as many of the spells as possible.

Joshua quickly rushed through the gap soon after and headed for where the fight between Ivan and Dale was located. He didn't jump right into the combat, but made sure to cut anyone down that he could as he made his way over gathering the attention of everyone in the area. At first people tried to stop him from charging straight through their ranks, but the way he was easily able to avoid their attacks or just out right ignore some of them as his aura blocked some arrows or bullets that tried to slow him down was just too much for their attempts to stop his momentum. When Joshua started cutting down anyone that got in his way as well as letting his aura pressure everyone nearby, less and less people were willing to get in his way.

By the time Joshua had reached where Ivan and Dale were fighting he had already taken out over a dozen people. He didn't plan on interrupting their fight by jumping in, but instead he was planning on using the fact that they were both surrounded with so many members of the Scavenger's Guild around them to be able to do as much damage as possible while gaining as much attention as he could at the same time. Joshua jumped over the last line of explorers that were standing in his way before landing as loudly as possible drawing everyone's attention.

The guild leader of the Scavenger's Guild looked at him in surprise for a moment before he was forced to block one of Ivan's attacks and continue their battle. Joshua didn't waste any time and quickly charged up and energy slash and lashed out directly into the crowd of people in the surroundings. This attack took out some members while knocking the rest back. He then sent and echo strike to take out more members that were knocked off balance from the first attack. With that simple move Joshua had taken out several enemies and injured several others.

Before Joshua could rush over and cause anymore chaos he noticed an armored explorer holding a spear charging forward towards him from out of the crowd. What was odd about this explorer was the fact that he seemed far too fast moving in comparison to those around him as he rushed forward. Joshua prepared to block his strike, but at the last moment he could feel something wrong and shifted his scale blade to the side. At first it looked as if his enemy was coming from in front of him, but he could feel the danger coming from the side forcing him to change what he was blocking.

The explorer suddenly appeared right next to him at the side as he blocked the attack. The image that was in front of him disappeared at the same time. Joshua prepared to counter attack, but another similar explorer came charging over and did a similar form of attack. Joshua could feel the strike wasn't coming from the direction that he would normally expect from what he was seeing with his eyes. He blocked that attack as well and started jumping back while leading the attackers out of the center of the battle.

Whenever it started to seem as if they were going to go back to attacking Ivan or Victor, Joshua would attack the surrounding enemy explorer with more powerful attacks that took out several at a time. This forced his assailants to keep chasing him. By the time he got out of the battlefield and off to the side there were four of these odd explorers following him as they all stood still waiting for something.

All Joshua could think as he looked at his attackers was how annoying it was to deal with unique job holders. Now he had a good idea how others felt when facing him.