Chapter 878 Chapter 877: Terracotta Grottos (31)
"[Hagh Un Bori]"
Another invocation spilled out from the Goblin King's leathery lips, filling the air with the monster's power as it once more made its presence known, forcing all of us to blink in surprise as the earth began to tremble once more, giving the silver monster a single moment to capitalize on, which it did.
Sensing all of us around it, the silver humanoid flapped its wings of blood once and flew backwards, away from us and out of reach of our weapons, all while its wooden sword languidly rested on its shoulder, its eyeless face clearly observing us as it hovered a dozen feet away.
Turning to guard ourselves from both the Goblin King and the silver humanoid, we raised our weapons and tried to ignore the shaking earth, only for our attention to be stolen again as the earth cracked in multiple places, making us curse as we realized that the fight was no longer going to have the numerical advantage belong to us.
Stony, rough hands shot out of the earth and grabbed at the grassy ground, pulling the rest of the body out and rising from the earth like zombies, but instead of decaying flesh and comical slowness mixed with incoordination, the things that rose were instead well equipped, formidable looking opponents who moved rather smoothly.
Just like the silver monster, they were humanoid in appearance as well, their bodies made from stone and carved to be realistic as well as armored, something that made me frown as I looked closer at the stone monsters that pulled themselves out of the earth, even as the others began to sling spells and rush forwards, engaging them in combat.
Instead of heading forwards, I stepped back and remained beside Janus, looking over the battlefield and scanning the happenings for a few moments, wondering what was bugging me about their appearances... only for it to click.
Armored, humanoid, uniform and rather well managed?
A silver variant that hovered above, acting as the in between of the Goblin King and the rest of these stony troops?
What does that sound like in regards to this location..?
The namesake of the Dungeon, perhaps?
The engraved armor, the unity between their appearances and their actions, the location we were in... were these not the Terracotta Golems that the old human Kingdoms used to utilize for their wars?
That realization brought about dozens of other questions, but as the winged silver humanoid flapped its wings again and began to dive towards Leone, I tossed all of that from my mind and instead focused on the silver blur that was making its way towards me, the barks from Janus and the screaming of my instincts to raise my Khopesh and slice diagonally upwards causing me to move before I could even think.
My icy blade collided with the wooden great sword of the silver 'angel', and I redirected the gnarled wood to the side and stopped it from skewering me, all while my off hand reached for my belt and unsheathed one of my daggers, which I stabbed swiftly towards the angels neck.
The green in its veins pulsed angrily, and wood formed over its neck, stopping the dagger from puncturing its silver flesh and protecting it from harm, even as I ran my mana through the metal and pulsed it, trying to overpower the armor and blast it away.
Spinning, the angel swung its heavy blade down towards my head again, only for it to stumble backwards as two fireballs slammed into the wooden blade, blasting it back and creating an opening for me.
I lunged forwards with the Khopesh and coated the edge with ice, bringing my off hand down after throwing the dagger forwards and two handing my Khopesh, heightening my control and power with my blade as I slashed down at its chest, hoping to deal some damage.
Batting my dagger away, the angel flapped its wings and rose into the air, avoiding my swing and the gouts of flames that were spewed over my shoulders, allowing it to grasp its blade once more and stab it into the air, casting a spell of its own.
The earth rumbled beneath me again, and I leapt back just in time to avoid the tightly knit spiral of roots that would have eviscerated me, before leaping back again as the woven spike was unwound, each individual root flying at me from different angles and trying to turn me into a pincushion.
As I was dodging them all, I briefly caught sight of the others fighting the legion of Terracotta Golems that had risen from the earth, numbering in the dozens and surrounding the Demons, preventing them from coming to my aid...
What made it worse was the gravely, yet amused "[Ro Guban]" that came from the Goblin King, who's voice rippled over the battlefield and made the earth start shaking yet again, creating a theme of the fight that I was not a particular fan of, least of all now that I had to dodge roughly nine speedy roots that were hoping to find nutrients from my blood.
I liked spilling other people's blood and not my own, so I would like to dodge these roots, and yet now I had to worry about the earth softening beneath my feet as the Goblin King's invocation did... something.
I couldn't really look down to confirm if ALL of the ground was turning into a soft mush, but what I could do was drag my Khopesh through it and funnel some mana into the blade, before cutting upwards and creating a large wall of icicles, buying myself a moment to trace out some runes with my other hand as I sought a way to thicken those spikes and create a barrier in as little time as possible.
The runes came to me swiftly, and they appeared in the air before flashing, the mana inside working its way into the real world and altering it as I spread the icicles thinner and created a wall, which was then bolstered as I arced it around myself and extended it to cover Janus, even though the Orthus was already billowing flames into the air and shaping a shield around itself and Leone, who was still changing...
Something I would DEMAND she work on whenever she had time now damnit!
The nine roots stabbed into my ice and cracked the outer layers, trying to burrow in and reach me so that they could kill me, something the angel made even more apparent as it stabbed its gnarled wooden sword into my barrier as well, widening the cracks and making me grit my teeth as I stared up into its expressionless, blank silver face...
Though those green eyes smoldered as they stared down at me.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺