The Synod’s Contracted Beasts were, however, coming out into a fight with the Aura of a half-Emperor Totem Beast looming over them. Even though they were all Rulers themselves, only the Drake was able to shrug off the domineering aura of Babe and leap to attack the Monkey Kings who were after their Contractors.

Around the Archangel, three Contracted Beasts appeared. They were immense in size, replete with power, and two of them even repressed Babe’s Aura.

The first was a great Owl, black and blue of coloring, morbid of demeanor, and nearly eighty feet high. It lifted massive black pinions and beat down in utter silence... and failed to rise from the ground, much to its astonishment.

The second was a massive Sun Scarab Beetle, its shell over a hundred feet long, like polished obsidian inlaid with complex patterns of gold. It interposed itself in front of Babe with confidence, taking a sweep of Babe’s horns and only suffering a long scratch across the front of its shell and being pushed over slightly, instead of tossed aside.

The last was the most domineering, for it was a great European Dragon, polished alabaster of scale and blue of eye, ice already dripping from its mouth and frilled crest as it reached out with its Domain, and the temperature plunged a hundred degrees in merely seconds.

A bolt of Lightning, impossibly large and powerful, blew across the sky from horizon to horizon. The sound of its Thunder was a shriek of outrage so primal and fearsome the black Owl cowered to the ground in horror, and even a half-Emperor Dragon snapped its head to the sky in fear at the wrath the sound promised.

The other Ruling Animals found themselves quivering in abject fear at the sound, and could only bestir themselves to get in the way of the Monkey Kings trying to get at their mages.

There was a deep, bellowing laugh from up on Babe’s back as the last creature up there straightened to his feet.

He was also a golden Monkey clutching a Stick, even shorter than the others who had leapt down first. With a chortle, he leapt off the Ox’s broad back, heading for the nearest cluster of Contracted Beasts who had thrown in with the Synod, while the other Monkey Kings cheered and howled madly.

By the time he hit the ground, he was a massive Golden Ape, sixty feet at the shoulder, a Primate like no other in the world, having a presence that completely outweighed the much-bigger Ox behind him.

Archangel Joel’s eyes bulged as the Contracted Animals around began to buckle at that Aura. “Sun Wukong!” he blurted out. The Emperor of all Apes was here?!

He had one chance to complete his mission now. Grimacing, he turned around and wove the spell for a massive Beast Tide, the creatures he’d readied being pulled across from the Beast Plane, already moving at full speed as they burst out of the massive Silvery Gate that opened in midair and raced across the farm fields for the walls of Coralost in the distance.

Black Plains Firehorns, scaled dinosaurs thirty to forty feet high at the shoulder each, hugely massive and raising flaming ash with every footstep and burning exhalation, ideal for razing the ground and burning it to cinders. They would crash through the walls, trample the place flat, and burn everything inside!

---

Dirk Charles had been in Lady Fae’s first Wizardry Class, had been the first to volunteer for fighting in Boston, and his rise as a wizard and then a Typeless mage had been positively meteoric compared to the stories he’d heard of how long and hard young mages had to labor to improve themselves. Those stories weren’t exaggerations at all; they were repeated over and over and over again in tales and reports and memoirs and histories and texts and studies, so he knew there was no way people were exaggerating them.

Working under Lady Fae, Master Briggs, and Sama had been like getting on a bullet train, and watching people outside Coralost pumping a handwagon as he whizzed by on the tracks.

Wizardry and Artificing were like a never-ending well of knowledge just waiting to be plumbed and explored, but it was a scholastic dream best fed by pitched combat and earning violent Karma to improve. Typeless Magery was a dream every child should aspire to, learning to use and master ALL the Elements, instead of just one or two... but it was best pursued by the crushing boredom of downtime Meditation, a downtime now greatly alleviated by the Refactory Towers and Seven Stars Elemental Formations which often exceeded hundreds of participants, and included Great Beasts, to boot!

Wizards, tellingly, weren’t restricted by cultivation. A Matrix was far more limited and yet much easier to expand and maintain than a Stardust, Starfield, Nebula, Galaxy, or the like. Likewise, learning the spells was based on pure intellectual ability, so if you weren’t smart enough, you didn’t advance, but if you did, all the magic you could imagine was just waiting there to be learned!

So much to learn, and so much faster, easier, and sooner than Magery allowed.

And that... included Beast Tides.

Dirk raised the Whisk in his hand, the long ruff of fur on the end of it shining gold. Artifice, sure, powered by Magery, his combined Theurgic Caster Level allowing him to bring forth a spell that should be beyond his ability, especially with what he was about to Summon.

There was a rumbling as a silvery door in space slid open, right in front of the onrushing Beast Tide of overwhelmingly powerful Beasts. He privately thought that even such a formidable line-up of powerful behemoths could be defeated by the ready defenses of the Compound, but such surprises were things to be concealed and sprung at a later time.

For now, just the power of the Whisk that had burned away in his hand as the Mana inside it was used up was enough.

The first Beast Summoned by the modified Beast Tide ambled out, visibly yawning laconically into the face of the death bearing down on it.

It was a stylized, elegant Fox, perhaps half as tall as the incoming Firehorns, but elegant, slender, noble, and he had eight proud Tails rising behind him.

Behind him, several other Silver Foxes, all of them with six or seven Tails, lazily stepped out of the Portal of the Beast Tide as well. They all tossed uncaring glances in the direction of the raging stampede aimed directly at them.

It was almost comical how fast the Firehorns slowed down at those sleepy glances from the dozen or so Silver Foxes. Earth churned, massive streams of blowing fire vented into the ground and seared it to glass, which was promptly shattered and churned up by huge flat feet desperately trying to slow down in time.

“Lord Elder Winkle!” Dirk called out to the father of Lady Fae’s splendid Golden Celestial Winged Fox. The tallest and seemingly laziest of the Silver Foxes turned a bright blue eye his way. Dirk just bowed and ignored the incoming Beast Tide that was coming to a desperate halt, noting the utterly confused and shocked expression of the Synod Sage responsible for the mess, even as Emperor Sun Wukong proceeded to engage the massive Sun Scarab and the ancient White Dragon called Hoarfrost all by himself!

Dirk offered no resistance to the Psychic scan of the Noble Fox, instantly summarizing the information behind the entire situation and letting the Fox decide what to do.

“What are you doing?!” screamed the Sage, while ducking and weaving and trying to stay ahead of the unrelenting, focused barrage of the Blue Ox who was pummeling him with incredibly powerful, continuous volleys of Earth, Air, and Void Magic in a deadly, constant stream. “Trample them!”

Summoning Magic swirled in the air. The very biggest of the Firehorns shook his three-horned head, his dark frill starting to ignite as he fought... something, whatever was forcing the Firehorns to a halt two hundred feet away from the unconcerned Foxes staring at them, daring them...

Elder Winkle made the tiniest dismissive gesture of his muzzle as the lead Firehorn managed a step forward.

Fwomp. It was like the ground the Firehorn was standing on rejected it, and the clouds above decided to reach down and do something about it. In just a second, the lead Firehorn was hundreds of feet in the air and being launched somewhere far away, trailing fire and glittering ash and completely helpless about what was going to be a very, very hard landing.

The rest of the Firehorns didn’t budge an inch, and Dirk had the distinct impression the Elder had basically just cracked his knuckles lightly for emphasis.

With flowing agility, the Foxes trotted forwards, and as if it was the most natural thing in the world, hopped right up on the backs of the Firehorns that were twice their size, laying down lazily there as if they’d found new palanquins to carry them around.

That Sage’s eyes bulged out in disbelief as his Beast Tide turned around in quiet unison and began to pick up speed... splitting up and heading right for the knots of combat among his lesser Inquisitors!

The Monkey Kings there hooted and jeered and leapt away, soaring dozens of feet into the air as they left the Ruler-Beasts of all sorts behind them. They’d been bit and batted around, but it hadn’t really hurt any of them, and now they all converged on their Emperor, aiming for the Sun Scarab that was trying to distract the Emperor of all Apes and Monkeys from a brutal physical clash with the White Dragon Hoarfrost.

The Psychic powers and Void mastery of the Silver Foxes wreaking havoc on the Contracted Beasts, while the Firehorns slammed into them and began to maul them without hesitation.

Dirk’s fellow Artificers and Wolverine Hunters were keeping the surviving Inquisitors themselves quite busy, although one did manage to open a Beast Tide of his own. Unfortunately for him, the Stonehide Rhinoceroses he managed to Summon out were half the mass or less of the Sage’s Firehorns, and were smashed unceremoniously out of the way of the Fox-dominated dinosaurs, with not a few of them being launched into the sky haplessly.

Dirk blithely piled a few extra Buffs on the Monkey Kings as they leapt upon the massive Beetle that kept getting beaten back by their Emperor. Massive Sticks crashed down on one of its legs, the impacts all out of scale for their seeming size, and that leg abruptly cracked and shattered, bending back under the mass of the Scarab. The Golden Whip-arm Spider Monkey King, Dirk’s own Contracted Beast Longarm, leapt up onto the slick, obsidian-like sheen of its huge back, jammed his Stick Pillar underneath one side of the seam on that great shell, and slowly and impossibly began to leverage it open!

The only King missing was Mighty Turk, because he was with Lady Fae. Even the Howler King Dorado was here to help out with this fight, because he had been visiting while Emperor Sun Wukong was here!

There was more crashing off to the side as the suborned Beast Tide smashed into the Contracted Beasts, who didn’t take the impacts too well. But their Summoner couldn’t even dismiss them, as somehow the Foxes had locked his Summoning Magic into place to fuel their stay, and were watching the show with the air of nobles studying children at play!

Dirk could only snicker at the Archangel, who was in a bad way as Babe kept pounding him. Between Earth and Sky was a combat technique worked out for all the Blue Ox Mages, combining the mass of Earth, Air pressure, and Void’s TK manipulation for terrific smashing and slowing effects. The higher the Archangel rose, the more powerful the draw back down to the earth became, and he simply couldn’t get out of Babe’s reach. Constant slamming attacks from above and about were driving him around the empty field, while the Fire and Ice assaults the Sage was throwing at Babe were basically being ignored by the irritated Blue Ox!

With a momentous crack, two Monkey Kings levered one of the Scarab’s wings fully open and past the breaking point, hurling it off to the side as the Beetle squealed in agony and tried to cook them with searing rays of Light from above. The Monkeys reflected the Light with their golden fur, two of the Scarab’s massive legs now bent and crippled, and bright points shone on their Sticks as Golden Crown Marmoset King Helm and his Contracted King Longarm made sure to cripple its wing before it could spread, shining blue-black Spear-points plunging in again and again to cripple, while the Golden-claw Gibbon King Grips proceeded to start ripping wildly at the pale flesh underneath that wing with abandon, aiming for the more vital things beneath. Golden Howler King Dorado and Golden Regal Owl Tamarin King Hoots continued with the last leg on the right side, bounding and bashing with heavy blows at a joint that was starting to give way again.

Sun Wukong had no problem handling the half-Emperor White Dragon, although it might not have looked like it. They were throwing one another around, Yeoui smacking the mouth trying to breathe on him, Fire burning on golden fur and staving off the Dragon’s frozen Domain, clawing and biting one another occasionally in tumbling rolls that somehow were taking the fight away from any houses or homes nearby. If the Dragon clawed at him, Sun Wukong beat it about the head. If it wanted to grapple, he was more than willing to comply. If it wanted to fly, he smacked its wings and bent and broke them from atop its body until it was land-bound, a perch he could only be thrown from if it rolled on the ground.

Anyone who knew the Monkey Emperor knew he was having fun, and also knew he was just buying time.