Chapter 804 - Bundle of chaos

All at the same time?!

That can only mean one thing.

Sonia understood at the same time, “We’re surrounded!”

Sofia grabbed the book at her waist, tearing off several pages at once without even looking. Her mana dropped as a horde of skeletons appeared around the group.

She had summoned Dragon Crowie, the dwarf, the chimera, the three templars, and two hundred guarding Kidjikkiks. The previously spacious room was instantly crowded. To top it all off, as Pareth’s [Sanctified grounds] surged, illuminating the dark ruins, Sofia summoned five Sirhellion skulls with the choir, ready to rain down lightning on the incoming enemies. The Kidjikkiks formed concentric circles around the group, and Sonia pre-cast temporary enchantments on the arrows in her quivers one by one, their lights making her look like a shining rainbow in the center of the skeleton formation.

Pareth grew as tall as he could and stood like a pillar next to Sofia and Sonia, fully embracing his role as the group’s shield, and Bookie grabbed his book form from Sofia, fusing himself with the high priest and aura mages skeletons to act as a supporter.

In just a few seconds the small exploration group had become a small army ready to defend their position. The wide upside-down hall had eight entrances, two on each side near the ceiling, and before long, the sound of hurried footsteps and excited growls could be heard from all of them.

More greyskins… At least twenty.

A single one had been enough to take down the fortune dwarf whose battle prowess wasn’t far below Pestle’s, even if that had been the strongest of the group, it would still be a dangerous battle ahead, and it probably was not.

They’re smart enough to coordinate an attack like that… Not good.

Sofia silently pre-cast a saintomancer’s star, watching the entrances.

It all happened in a flash. Sonia reacted the fastest, unleashing an exploding arrow down one of the eight corridors, and moments later, a swarm of the gray-skinned monsters rained down from all directions. 

It was complete and utter chaos. Kidjikkiks needed to gang up ten on one to hold down a grayskin, and whenever they pinned one down with their shields and spears, a mithril arrow would fly and destroy the monster’s lower abdomen. Bookie cast group heals without stopping, Crowie was getting swarmed, biting down grayskins one after the other only for more to pile up on him while the the templars stood on the Dragon’s back, striking those down.

Pareth protected Sofia and Sonia with his shield and mace, sending a grayskin flying with every blow that the skull choir would strike down with lightning. And Sofia summoned one saintomancer’s star after the other in the air above the group, creating a constellation of cursed lights that made the buried hall brighter than a sunny day outside.

Despite the group’s flawless teamwork, the enemies were strong, often standing back up even after taking a beating as long as their Physikstone was intact. The dwarf rode on the chimera’s back, the three-headed skeleton protecting the dwarf whilst jumping around the hall. Gold coins broke the sound barrier multiple times a second, finishing off all the injured monsters, but even like this, they were just too numerous.

The Kidjikkik front line started to falter, even with the saintomancer’s stars capturing many of the grayskins’ attention, Crowie was starting to get overwhelmed, and Pestle was still alive but nowhere to be seen.

Sofia summoned more Kidjikkiks to replace the fallen guardians, her mana and Bookie’s fog running thin.

I’m going in, keep protecting Sonia and Bookie!

Sofia jumped into the fray, her scepter batting away one creature after the other, she ran from one fallen grayskin to the next. As soon as they entered her aura, the dead creatures stood up as her Thralls, [Bone Arsenal] providing them weapons for each of their four arms.

It was not long before grayskins surrounded her. She took one out with a scepter stab and another was sent flying by her tail, but the remaining three all slashed at her with their long claws. Sofia’s left arm and body were reduced to flesh strips on a damaged skeleton while her helmet and armguard completely stopped the other blows. With about twenty percent of her health left she kept fighting. Missing health was just extra damage for her [Suffering] demon form skill. She had rarely been able to use it much until now, but now that each kill gave her more mana back through [Heat death] than the mana she spent, the skill was more than free.

[Suffering] : Your next attack will deal additional damage proportional to your missing health. Costs 10000 mana per cast. Right arm blood vessels must be undamaged for the skill to correctly resolve.

Monsters blew up in a rain of blue blood and grey flesh with each strike, and as she forced their corpse to remain near with her aura, they turned against their former kin one by one.

That’s it!

THAT’S A REAL NECROMANCER!

The monsters just couldn’t kill her, their hands were too full dealing with the thralls that kept multiplying, they could never reach into her helmet and destroy her mana heart. Before she knew it, her mana was full again.

Sofia jumped up just as the Saintomancer’s stars were starting to run out and explode one by one, and emptying all her mana in one go, she unleashed a torrential rain of piercing bolts on the remaining grayskins. Tens died, and even then, there were still many that survived, the luckiest ones, the toughest ones, the smartest ones hiding behind the Kidjikkiks that Sofia wouldn’t target.

One of them howled in a new, unheard way. The monsters retreated. Or they tried to. Some escaped, but many perished, caught into Crowie’s well-timed dragon breath as they turned their backs to the group, easy targets for Sonia’s arrows.

Already over…

It had ended as unceremoniously as it had started. The thralls finished off the remaining injured grayskins that were lying on the ground, ripping off their physikstones and bringing them to Sofia.

“Injuries?” Sofia asked, looking at her teammates. Crowie was in a bad shape, the templars, dwarf and chimera had all been killed near the end of the fight, and there were barely any Kidjikkiks remaining, but overall there was no major issue. Pareth had taken a few bad hits from the biggest of the grayskins but a few seconds near Sofia would bring him back to full anyway.

“I lost a leg at some point,” Sonia answered, “But we have a good healer so it’s already back, as you can see,” she said, giving Bookie a nod.

“Alright. Let’s clean up fast, Pestle is still missing, I don’t know where she’s gone but we should reunite with her as soon as possible. Bookie, updates?” Sofia asked, all the while she walked around thralling up all the dead Grayskins she could find, collecting Physikstones that she tossed to Pareth. The ‘backpack’ securely tied inside of his ribcage was filling up nicely with this fresh collection of rocks. Sonia gathered her spent arrows, and Bookie counted the thralls.

“Ninenty eight… Ninety nine… Hundred! Sofia! Sofia! Can I eat them?! It’s a full page!”

“Go ahead but spit back Sonia’s arrow, alright?”

“Yes!”

There were still a handful of thralls left standing even after Bookie had his fill, and plenty of corpses with skeletons shattered beyond repair lying coldly on the ground.

“So many…” Sofia mumbled.

“Yeah, and we can count ourselves lucky that they couldn’t enter the hall all at once. If the corridors had been just a bit larger we might’ve gotten overwhelmed.”

With an approving nod, Sofia quickly checked Bookie’s new page while she asked him to lead the way toward Pestle.

One hundred million mana for a hundred Grayskins. And they give Bookie 100% strength. Not bad. A bit on the expensive side but if they’re even half as strong as they were alive, that’s well worth that much.

“Any clue what the fairy is doing?” Sonia asked, following after the others running through the corridors.

“Pestle is moving a lot but in the same place!” Bookie explained as he ran, “she left without a word when the monsters arrived!”

“She probably traced back where the monsters were coming from,” Sofia guessed.

“Then the ones who escaped will surround her, we need to hurry!” Sonia added.

“She’ll unsummon if it gets too bad, don’t endanger yourself to save her,” Sofia warned, even if she appreciated Sonia’s concern for her skeletons.

The group took a final turn a few seconds later, and discovered a strange scene. They found a hall much wider than the one they had just fought in, clearly created by the monsters who had demolished multiple walls creating one large den. In it, a small swarm of enraged, howling grayskins, followed a huge one, who frantically jumped all over the room, chasing an erratically flying, screaming fairy, who held a miniature grayskin hostage in her arms.

“HEEEEEEELP! PESLE TIRED!!!! IS GOING DIE!!!!!!!” she pleaded while she flew near the entrance the group was coming from, her invisibility flickering on and off as she narrowly avoided the large grayskin’s four hands like an annoying fly.