"I guess I'll have to make do with just their weapons." He said out loud to himself.
His words drifted into their minds like the whispers of a ghost. It is like that because none of them can pinpoint where the voice came from. They heard his words but he has disappeared from their vision. The army panicked and began looking about for him but no one can see him. That didn't make them relax though. They brought out their weapons and the special consumables that they found. They prepared for an altercation despite the absence of an enemy.
"Look there." Someone said and pointed in the direction of what they saw. "What's that?"
It didn't take long for them to spot an oddity. Something appeared a short distance beside their flanks. More of it continued to appear. It is especially glaring when it happened after a confrontation with the child of the plane. It is too late to stop though. Clumped as they are, they made easy targets for the phantom spears that suddenly appeared around them and started to shoot at them.
Soverick is running around the army while forming thousands of mind weapons. Numerous golden spears surrounded the army and impaled them like the bolts of a ballista. More spears were formed to replace the expended ones in a circle of unending attacks. They are being attacked from every side with nowhere to go. He has successfully cornered an army of ten thousand and is whittling down their numbers.
The leader of the army shouted to everyone. "Quick, defend yourselves. Prepare ranged attacks and shoot something."
They can't just sit back and accept their fate. Orders were sent throughout the army and it roused them to withstand the incoming threat. Those bearing shields were sent to the perimeter of the army to defend against the spears while ranged attackers were ordered to shoot at something. The army just needs an opening in the constant all-encompassing attack for them to be free.
A lieutenant asked their leader, "What should we shoot at?"
Their leader had no answer. They still can't see their oppressor. Soverick is too fast to be sighted much less targeted. They might as well be targeting the wind and hope that they are lucky enough to hit a fly with their arrows. In fact, they will be better off hitting an imaginary fly in the wind because a fly can't catch an arrow and fling it back at them as Soverick can.
Ranged attacks aren't the only failed response. The shield defenders are failing too. Their shield might be strong but their strength is not enough to stop the spears. The spears push them forcefully into the army or knock them off their feet. Then the spears resumed the carnage on the undefended army. Everything is falling apart around them.
A desperate lieutenant asked the leader, "Should we use the explosive consumables?"
The leader yelled a reply, "You're still asking me that? When are we going to use it then? This is the child of the plane. Do you hear me? It is the child of the plane. Use everything we've got. Use it all damn it."
There is no use holding back. The spears are whittling them down from the edges inward. They should have run before Soverick finished setting up his attack. There's no escaping it now. They have to use everything they have including dangerous consumables that they found in loot boxes.
Explosions began to rock the grassland as the consumables were used. Small primed devices were thrown randomly around them. The small devices exploded after being triggered, throwing up dirt and destroying the spears. There are also explosive projectiles used to target the spears. The explosive projectiles would fly forward and explode when the explosive payload at the top of their arrow-like head is triggered through a collision.
These explosions occurred en mass and they succeeded in disrupting the onslaught of spear attacks. The phantom spears were destroyed by the explosion faster than they could be replenished which created escape routes for the army.
"Run for it. Run for it." The leader shouted himself hoarse ordering them to escape. "Run for your lives."
He didn't need to have bothered. They can all see that they have to take advantage of the short reprieve they have gotten. So everyone ran for it without his encouragement. They scattered in different directions. The army became an unruly mob of people trying to escape for their lives.
The leader himself chose a direction and ran all the while shouting to everyone else to run for it. The leader moved beyond the range of the explosions. It was a little difficult to transverse the ruined grassland without sight. The explosion created smoke and dust that reduced visibility while the uneven ground required careful threading but he did.
"I can't believe it. We escaped. I escaped." He said in disbelief.
He can't believe that they escaped a violent encounter with the child of the plane. He doesn't know what Soverick is capable of but what he has heard of the child of the plane indicates that it will not be unusual for them to all die to Soverick. He felt elation and relief like never before that his expectations didn't come true.
The leader thought to himself, "Maybe the child of the plane is not as strong as feared. He is suppressed after all so it is understandable that won't be able to take on ten thousand of us."
He is not mocking Soverick for being alive. He understands that Soverick is suppressed. So it should not come as a surprise that at least one person escaped from an army of thousands being besieged by one man. It might be unfair for an army to fight a single person but it is only fair that at least one person should escape in a situation where the one man is victorious. So he will excuse Soverick's failure to kill all of them.
