The Gargoyles might not have been able to stop Nina, but they were still having fun toying with the others. Even though more than half of their population had vanished like relics of lost time, those who remained, forgot about Nicole as she entered the tower and focused their attempts on taking down the rest of the warriors. Which was proving to be oddly successful.

The warriors were under a lot of problems. For starters none of them had AOE skills that could deal damage to aerial units. The best the warriors could do was to use elemental magic against the gargoyles. But even that had a problem, three of them actually. First, the mages needed to perform a long chant in order to use elemental magic and they could be easily interrupted during this time which would lead to them losing precious time without any benefit.

Second, the spells were slow to reach them, thus the gargoyles could easily dodge them and attack the warriors while they prepared for another attack. Which once again would lead to their defeat. And finally, third, in case the gargoyles dodge the attack, the aimless elemental spells could end up harming their comrades on descend. Now with these problems in front of them, they couldn't do much against such a huge swarm of beasts.

But even if they didn't do it, the gargoyles would keep attacking them from a distance and they would still end up losing. No matter what they did, only the S rank warriors apart from Johnny, were being able to kill a few of them. However, as the battle progressed, the tanks and brawlers kept trying their best to tank the damage and take the aggro away from the mages, But there were too many gargoyles to aggravate and soon the tanks were at their limits.

The only thing keeping them away from collapsing right then and there was the continuous buffs the support units were providing them. But even that wouldn't last forever as they were running out of mana quickly.

"We can't hold them off indefinitely!" One of the tanks roared at the mages he was protecting, "Get your crap together you dimwits! We ain't Mount Rushmore to hold back these squeaking basta*ds indefinitely."

"The fck you think we are doing here!?" The mage yelled back, "Chanting takes time, just hold them off for a little bit more!"

"That's easier said than done..."

It was a pitiful situation to say the least. The swarm of gargoyles was not only messing up with the warriors physically but they were also tormenting them mentally. Nicole might have rushed towards the tower, but it didn't seem like she would be able to do something about the one controlling the gargoyles soon enough. Moreover, if the warriors didn't repair the fracture in their attitudes, they would be crushed from under the swarm of gargoyles.

Johnny realised this and was continuously trying to boost the morale of the warriors. But it didn't seem to be doing much. Everyone was suffering from exhaustion after the adrenaline in their body faded. This propelled Johnny to do something reckless. He abandoned his post as an offence, grabbed a shield and joined to back up the tanks.

Even after that, within moments the main line of tanks collapsed and the gargoyles freely charged towards the support line first. The brawlers tried to take down as many of them as they could, even the mages tried their best to deal as much damage to the Gargoyles as they could with their dried up mana. Johnny released all of his energy and killed a hundred of the gargoyles, but it wasn't enough. Their support line had been compromised. The creatures of the night were ready to rain terror once again. 

The night was filled with the screams of the warriors and the gargoyles began gnawing them. Just when the warriors thought it was the end, a deafening roar came from behind them and with it came an endless row of reinforcements in the shape of Automatons, Undead, Golems and Hounds. Following the army of mixed creatures, Arnold's elite summons appeared on the battlefield, clad in armours even gods would get jealous of.

Just by looking at them, everyone on the battlefield knew that playtime was over. The greatest army on earth was there to take care of things. They could finally take a breather and not stress about the gargoyles. However, none of the ones who came out of the travel portal were responsible for making the deafening noise. It belonged to someone who was already flying in the air... it was the beast everyone had nicknamed the Dragon of Hope, Scylla and on top of her was the masked king, deathless, Arnold Ling.

The warriors had never been happier to see someone in their life. Neither Arnold nor his summons wasted any time. All of a sudden, the ground started quaking as numerous tree roots emerged out of the cracks to squat down the gargoyles like flies.

The Orc shaman, Shyok had used his ability of terraform to force the root up to the surface of earth. Arnold took the charge of the roots using his Nature affinity and recked havoc on the noisy creatures. The remaining summons immediately went to action and didn't let those two outperform them.

Dread grew to his biggest possible size and started slicing the gargoyles into pieces. Asterios wasn't that far behind and used Dread's gargantuan body as a ramp to jump and swing his hammer. Talos has transformed himself into the Demon Orc and was shooting his spikes all around him. Miro and Duke were providing them with backup while the hounds atrted rescueing the injured and brought them to Alice and Natasha who healed everyone up.

What was taking the warriors hours to do, was done in matter of mere moments. The Gargoyles have been destroyed and Arnold received a confirmation about that.

___

You have cleared the conditions to enter the Tower of Trials.

Please use this site to prepare yourself for the [War of the Worlds] event.

The event will take place in: 345 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 58 seconds.

___

"Arnold! Nicole went inside the tower!" Johnny yelled at the top of his lungs to make sure Arnold heard him.

"That sister of mine... always desperate to outclass me. Onwards, Scylla. Let's see what challenges this tower has in store for us."

But Arnold and Nicole weren't the only ones who got that same notification. All nine of the vassals and paladins were on their way to the tower.