The change that came over the infected instantly seized everyone's attention, and the momentary lapse of the three Mages promoted mid-battle gave the Om family's Magefoe a sliver of a chance at survival.
The Magefoe spared no thought for the other family members; in that crisis they could not even shout a warning, and each of them used his last resort to break out.
Unfortunately for them, the direction they chose to break out in was straight toward the infected, still churning in chaos.
The devil, holding command of every infected on the Gravel Plains, gave its order with feverish zeal: "Targets locked. Attack!"
The elemental aura seeping from any single infected was nothing impressive, but multiplied by that vast number it was still enough to chill the blood. The infected carried out the devil's orders with absolute obedience; in an instant earth, water, wind, and fire raced together through the sky and along the ground, condensing before everyone's eyes into an enormous composite elemental mass, which then — under the dumbstruck gaze of the whole battlefield — drifted lightly into the Magefoe charging at them.
BOOM!!!
With a roar that split the ears, the elemental mass exploded. Shockwave followed shockwave, each stronger than the last, and the trial apprentices had to give up their pursuit of the enemy for the moment and raise their own defenses, lest they die to the magical aftermath.
