[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 211 – The Gang Puts Out a Fire

Lenal stared in horror as the fires climbed the thick palisade walls. Not all the fire was her doing, but some of it was, and she would have felt absolutely horrible if not for the hordes of monsters surrounding her and Raiko’s unconscious body.

She would protect her queen to the last, no matter what happened.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to for very long.

Leaping through the air like he was launched from a trebuchet–the superior projectile launcher–Sam crashed into the cluster of meteorites. He demolished them with a single blow that shattered the ground for hundreds of feet in all directions, save the walls directly in front of him.

The man was a Maelstrom unto himself. Lenal could only stare and gape with awe as he lay about him with that humongous sword of his, slicing and burning creatures wherever he swung it.

His mana control was impressive. She had never seen him use it so well. Instead of reapplying [Heavy Blade], he retracted the mana, then extended it again to cleave a dozen monsters in one swing, only to pull it back again to avoid damaging the burning palisade wall.

With an extended hand, he let loose a burst of Void mana and the fires were snuffed out, leaving behind scorched wood. Before Lenal could get breath back into her lungs, it was over.

Sam didn’t stay put, however. He leaped away again, the ground breaking below his feet from the force of his jump. It reminded her of a flea, jumping so fast that he almost seemed to teleport from one area to the next.

Kai, Matt, and some of the mandragoras came out from their respective battles. Lenal waved them after Sam. “It was a ruse,” she told them. “They tried to divide and conquer, but they might still be attacking other areas.”

Matt and Kai took off, but the dullahan and his retinue of mandragoras stood guard over the soot-streaked Lenal and the unconscious Raiko.

“She’ll be okay,” Lenal told the worrying mandys, rolling Raiko over and sitting her up against the blackened wall. For all the fire, there wasn’t much lasting damage.

The ground rumbled beneath their feet. Lenal tensed, mentally preparing herself for whatever threat was next.

A drilling, worm-like monster’s head emerged from the surface, spraying rock and dirt out of the opening of a newly formed tunnel.

Metallic protrusions littered its spherical head and down its ruddy brown body.

It was an ideal burrowing monster, suitable for getting beneath their sturdy walls, as if it was intentionally sent to Sil’mara from a sinister intelligence.

As the monster began to squirm and dig an even bigger opening, Lenal used [Analyze] on this monster too.

[Maelstrom Sandworm (Level 32 - Copper)]

Physical Resistance V | Earth Mana Resistance V

Ice Mana Weakness II

More monsters howled from within the tunnel, and the ground continued to rumble, which only meant that there were more of those sandworms digging.

Likely beneath the walls.

“I’m up, I’m up!” Raiko groaned, lurching to her feet. The mandragoras scurried into a defensive formation, raising their shields to guard against any direct attacks.

Swaying, half-asleep, the Ninja unsheathed her blade already roiling with dark and ice mana. The temperature suddenly dropped as if the Skyshard was in the depths of winter.

With the mandragoras being so low to the ground, Raiko was able to engage the monsters unimpeded. She swiped her blade in one long curving slash, forming a spiraling blue-and-black rift of frigid darkness that exploded down the tunnel.

For a brief moment, Lenal could see the spell, [Rift Corridor], brutally gouge through the sandworm’s tough, scaly hide before it was consumed by the encasing dual elements of darkness and ice.

Experience rolled through Lenal, resulting in an exhilarating rush of level ups as Raiko’s [Rift Corridor] slayed multiple monsters in that tunnel alone.

All from a single devastating spell.

The energy dissipated, leaving behind a tunnel completely rimed with black glittering ice. The temperature began to warm slowly.

Raiko knelt in front of the entrance, peering inside. Her eyes glowed a soft violet, signifying she could see within better than Lenal.

The Sage’s powers were always mired in mystery to most elves like Lenal. Though this curious power, owing likely to Raiko’s heritage, was perhaps slightly less so.

It didn’t stop the shiver that ran down Lenal’s spine. Few were left behind of Raiko’s kind after the fall of her distant homeland. Those that survived harbored mystical abilities over life and death.

Even back in old Islegard, it had been difficult to determine if there was any truth to the many rumors. Some outlandishly claimed that they were secretly fallen angels who suffered the wrath of the heavens. Another suggested they were vampyrs who defied the natural order of things by drinking the blood of gods and were destroyed by an entire pantheon for their hubris.

Lenal remained highly skeptical, even if she couldn’t quite let go of that kernel of fear. No matter what Raiko’s origins were, she was a hero of Islegard.

Both the Incarnates were.

“There’s more, aren’t there?” Raiko asked, startling Lenal out of her thoughts. “Can you use [Analyze] through the ground to see where they’re at?”

“Ah, yes!” Lenal straightened her back and sharpened her focus. “In fact, I can do a little better than that.” She turned, preparing a different spell.

[Detect] allowed her Second Order Job, Academic, to scan for living beings in a moderately wide radius. The range was shorter through obstructions like vegetation and earth, but it was still effective.

Once [Detect] illuminated their presence to Lenal, the living beings were then eligible to be targeted by [Analyze]. This wasn’t immediately necessary, considering it was likely more sandworms leading the way.

Neither was it foolproof. If the level difference was too great, they were in an antagonistic environment, or the living being had obfuscating abilities, [Detect] wasn’t very useful.

On her home turf? It was very effective.

Mounds of dirt bulged to the surface, indicating more tunnels cropping up. Lenal pointed to them moments before they were visible.

Raiko went to work, slicing and dicing, unleashing more magic in the form of ice and darkness elemental [Rift Corridors] into the creatures that dared to tunnel beneath their home.

And she wasn’t the only one fighting.

Urged on by their dullahan captain, the mandragoras used their unique drilling ability to counter the creatures before they ever broke through to the surface.

With Lenal pointing out the monsters, the threat outside the walls was quickly stifled. Only then did she realize that they were missing somebody.

The only person, as far as Lenal knew, that was a poorer fighter than she was.

“Oh no, Bal’daz!” Lenal cried. If there was anyone more defenseless than her, it was certainly the builder mage.

She rushed through the gates into the fledgling town. Not even a town really. It had barely a handful of buildings, the most impressive being Bal’daz’s tower and the workshop he made for Sam and Raiko.

There was the strange earthen dome Raiko made, but if Lenal was honest with herself, it hardly fit anymore and yet she couldn’t find the heart to suggest they destroy it, or even repurpose it somehow.

Thoughts for another time, Lenal sprinted forward, but she wasn’t nearly as high level as the others. Even the mandragoras, after understanding her cry of distress, outpaced her easily with their stubby legs and leafy arms.

The dullahan thundered by and scooped her up like a babe, cradling her easily in one arm. She pouted, but didn’t fight back.

Well, the dullahan was faster, and if she wanted to help Bal’daz, she needed to be there quickly.

The center of their little town was a bloody battleground. One already long-since dealt with.

“Oh,” she said, looking around as the dullahan gently set her down. “No wonder all the monsters were running away from here.”

Sam stood at the center of the slaughter, steamy wisps of mana rolling off his form. His armor was coated in blood and gore as he looked around with the eyes of a predator selecting its next victim.

His bright blue eyes locked onto her with barely a flicker of recognition and continued searching. Lenal stifled a little scream that built up in her throat.

She had never been afraid of Sam. Well, except for that first meeting, but never again.

This…was different. He was like an uncaged beast, ready to rip out the nearest throat. She had never seen him so angry, so ready to kill at a moment’s notice.

That look of recognition was less about telling friend and foe and more about sensing how weak she was and disregarding her as a threat.

It lasted for all of a moment before Sam straightened and sheathed his sword, but not before he activated the odd lava powers to burn off all the remnants of monster gore on its surface.

Raiko’s reaction to Sam’s threatening, imposing nature was noticeably different. She watched him with a wolfish grin, not foolish enough to approach until he relaxed.

The two of them certainly seem made for each other, Lenal thought.

Several dullahans were kneeling around him in a circle, one large, armored fist pressed to the earth. Even Lenal’s carrier was in the same pose.

“Sorry about that!” Sam called over to them. The running pairs of feet that Lenal’s sensitive elven ears picked up told her that the others were gathering too. “I kind of got away from myself for a moment,” Sam said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

“Machi nuked ‘em!” his cat said proudly from somewhere in his suit of armor. By the sound of her strained voice, she was squeezed in pretty tight.

Little wonder she didn’t want to come out, considering Sam was drenched in blood.

“You did well,” Raiko said with that same grin. “Both of you.” She looked around at the gathering group. “Well, everyone. Me? Less so. Falling asleep on the job isn’t exactly a stellar performance.”

Lenal started as one of the creatures rose, but Sam didn’t seem to notice. I’ll get it, she thought to herself as she sent a bolt of fire from an extended wand aiming right over Sam’s left shoulder.

Without even looking at it, Sam tilted his free hand and let out a burst of Void mana. Her spell unraveled into motes of mana.

Her questioning gaze turned into horrified realization when she saw the slick body slide off the rising form of an absolutely filthy Bal’daz.

The demon looked around in complete stunned silence and tried, in vain, to shake out his robes.

I nearly attacked the one person I was coming to save! Lenal scolded herself. I was so interested in showing off, maybe even making myself useful with my awareness that I… She sighed and hung her head.

At least nobody seemed bothered except Lenal. And Bal’daz was too preoccupied with being covered in what was, put rather simply, “monster slurry”.

Matt was the first to break out into laughter.

“Whut’s goin’ on?” Komachi asked from inside Sam’s armor.

“No worries, no worries,” Bal’daz said soothingly when it was clear he wasn’t going to get clean by slinging his hands around. “I have a spell for just such an occasion!”

Muttering a few words that Lenal couldn’t catch, he waved his hands in a complicated pattern and a shimmering wave of light rippled across his body and out ten or so feet.

In just a few heartbeats, Bal’daz’s robes were pristine. Good as new. And so was Sam’s armor, since he stood within the spell’s radius.

“Ohh, that’s a good spell,” Raiko said with clear interest.

“I try not to use it too much,” Bal’daz said, stepping gingerly around the mutilated monsters.

“Could you…perhaps teach it to others?” Kai asked hopefully.

“It is a demonic spell, I’m afraid.” He shook his head. “Odd, yes, isn’t it? A Demon mana spell that specifically does something few demons ever bother to do? The irony is not lost on me.”

Raiko grumbled with displeasure, whereas Kai frowned and rubbed his chin, puzzled.

Sam chuckled, reaching up and touching his breastplate. “Now I know why your tower is only the normal amount of messy instead of a total pigsty.”

“I do like to keep a stately home,” Bal’daz said primly. “Besides, if I show it off too much, people invariably wish for me to become a cleaning service. Of which I am most definitely not! However…if you want me to build something more–” Bal’daz visibly shivered at the words, savoring them. “–then I am sure we can come to an arrangement.”

“Gross dude,” Matt said.

“Sam,” Komachi whined, sticking her furry face out of his armor. “He’s gettin’ sweaty again.”

“Oh, let him have his fun,” Sam said. He turned to Bal’daz. “It’s a good thing you scream so loudly. I might not have heard you otherwise.”

“Sounded like a little girl gettin’ her pigtails pulled,” Komachi muttered.

Bal’daz elected not to notice, and truthfully, the lack of response by anybody else suggested to Lenal that only her elven ears had picked up Komachi’s words.

Sam probably did, but he seemed to have highly selective hearing when it came to Komachi.

“How about we do one final sweep?” Sam suggested.

There were groans aplenty, but nobody wanted even the barest possibility that more of those monster spawning meteors were out there somewhere amassing forces.