Fire was the only wall…
And those fiery barricades were no longer operating at peak efficiency.
The core problem was elemental countering. The corrupted beasts were actively utilizing their innate affinities (which were low-tier but undeniably present within the hive mind's physical network) to bypass the defenses. Launching a concentrated burst of water mana against the wall of fire and sprinting through the resulting gap served as a highly effective strategy.
They did not need to extinguish the entire inferno; they only needed to carve a momentary path and rely on their natural regeneration to heal whatever burns they sustained during the crossing.
The blazing wall had essentially been reduced to a simple energy toll. It was a cheap tariff the mutants willingly paid with a splash of water and a brief burst of healing.
And the mutant numbers continued to swell.
