"Eldrian?" Elizabeth asked, never stating her actual question.
"I can't. Cage isn't mana efficient for large areas. And Tempest won't kill them quick enough." Incinerate might stand a good chance, but again, Eldrian didn't want to rely on lifeforce-related spells right off the bat.
One, they were overkill. And two, they were dangerous. Even with how much his control had improved. In fact, it was because his control had improved so much that he understood just how dangerous they were.
"Right. Guess we need to pull our own weight then." Judith said, a massive grin on her face as she took a few casual swings with Slay.
"Just be careful of the devils. They may appear like skeletons or anything else. But their strength will match yours." Eldrian warned the group.
Naturally, this warning was something that needn't be said. Everyone was aware of this facade of the dungeon.
According to their investigations, the devils always targeted their assigned players first. Only attacking others once they have succeeded in assassinating the player who had spawned them.
The difficulty came in the fact that they could be hiding as weak enemies or even allies. After all, it was hard to keep track of everything during a melee.
Which was why the players' plan was to stick close together in a tight formation.
This was simply the best method to fight while heavily outnumbered—outside of funneling the enemy somehow. But they were in a forest, in fact, it was rather sparse in the area. Making it closer to a field.
Still, their formation would prevent one person from being swarmed. Though they as a whole would still be surrounded.
The players quickly got into their formation.
Warriors and tanks on the outside, polearm wielders in the second line, ranged fighters in the third and fourth, mages in the next few lines, and healers in the middle.
They formed a nice circle—which quickly became surrounded.
The first wave was just a bunch of lower undead. Weak and relatively easy to kill. The air quickly filled and turned rancid. Skeletons were fine, but zombies brought with them a terrible stink.
Some mages worked to burn their corpses and guide the terrible smell that was produced away from everyone. Others worked on thinning the dense clustered of undead, and some erected barriers to stop the arrows the undead were sending at them.
As such, the battle continued for a while. The undead's goal was to exhaust the players. And this they did, or would have, had it not been for consumables boosting the player's mana, health, and stamina.
Time passed slowly, and when around half the horde had been culled, the devils and higher-ranked undead made their move.
"Ugh!"
"That was too close"
"Dammit!"
"One got past me!"
With the sudden influx of stronger opponents, their formation started to show signs of falling apart. However, these weren't inexperienced players by any means.
Each player covered for those by their side. And those behind quickly moved to help those in front when the need arose.
While the undead had managed to claim the lives of a few players. They were quickly pulled deeper into the formation to the center where the healers started resurrecting them.
"Oh my, that was a strong attack," Eldrian commented, taking the blow with ease.
Smiling as the devil, disguised as a simple zombie, moved back. The smell coming of it could equal that of five rotting corpses. "Impressive." It commented, moving to attack again.
'I was curious what stats it was going to have...' Eldrian thought, easily blocking its attack with Willo (still in its mace form). Summoning Crystoi in his left hand, Eldrian thrust his old friend through the zombie's heart. And it coughed up blood.
To end its misery, Eldrian smashed its skull. 'Quite disappointing. It only copied my Tier. It didn't have any stat boosts from items or my mana.'
In preparation for Tier 7, Eldrian had been upgrading his mana system almost every week. Using what he had learned to make small adjustments to further boost his strength.
This was similar to aura Channeling but more passive. However, due to reasons, it did not yet give him an actual stat boost. But it still made him faster and stronger when he activated those mana pathways.
It was basically like he had been engraving skills throughout his body. And he still had the Tier 6 mana system boost.
All the bonuses Eldrian had amounted to almost half his total stats. Which meant the devil had only had 700-ish strength and 850-ish agility.
With that massive of a gap, the devil hadn't even been a challenge. Which was quite a letdown, honestly.
Looking around, Eldrian noted contently that the battle was progressing smoothly. Even though it was a battle of five thousand versus fifty.
These truly were the most elite players in the guild.
Orders were flying everywhere, yet, somehow, it wasn't chaotic. This was thanks to the chat function. While it was difficult to read while fighting, it allowed the party leaders to keep communication clear despite the battle raging on.
Casually slaying the undead that came at him, Eldrian enjoyed watching the battle. It made him just a little excited for the tournament.
No player could match him in stats. But strategy. That was a different story. Honestly, Eldrian felt he sucked at coming up with proper plans. After all, his plan for the dungeon was just to rush the stronghold.
It couldn't even be called a battle plan.
—
"We won!"
"We did it!"
"Suck on that!"
The players cheered. Quite a number of the front liners had died in the process, been resurrected, and died a few more times. However, after nearly half an hour of intense fighting, they had prevailed.
However, this had only been the sortie out of the stronghold. Knowing this, the players didn't get too ahead of themselves.
They felt proud, deservedly so. Winning a battle outnumbered a hundred to one was something to boast about. At the same time, they understood the dungeon had more in store for them.
"Everyone, take your potions!" Nikki shouted, sending the command also through the main guild chat.
With her command, everyone downed their potions, cast rejuvenation spells on each other, and generally tried to recover as much mana, health, and stamina as possible.
"Our next target is the stronghold! Cannons!" Nikki continued to command. And on her command, ten players moved to the front.
Almost in perfect sync, ten cannons appeared next to them. Two other players rushed forward, loaded the cannonballs, and slammed the mana crystals into the inject slots.
"Fire!"
Cannonfire echoed in the air, smoke billowed from the cannons, and explosions tore into the stronghold walls.
These were not the first or second revisions of cannons, but rather some of the newest models. And the first volley had been filled with annihilation-level cannonballs.
It was an expensive volley, but the carnage on the stronghold was worth it.
Each shot had torn through the walls with ease. Creating craters and killing all the undead within a hundred meters of the explosion.
A second volley, with slightly less expensive ammo, followed right after. Aimed at the battlements that had survived the first. It sent the guarding undead flying. Destroying their cover and thinning their numbers further.
A third volley came next. Aimed at the gate and at the gathering undead where the walls had been ripped apart.
"Charge!" The party leaders all shouted as this volley flew. And Eldrian took the lead. Making sure not to outrun the cannonballs as he did.
'Yikes, am I really that fast?' He asked himself, stopping near the gate so he wouldn't enter the explosion range.
'Actually, why don't I just fly over?' Eldrian thought and did just that.
Diving into the waiting undead behind the gate, just as the explosion sent them flying. Eldrian used the distraction, and chaos it caused, to quickly kill a bunch of the stronger enemies.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺