Chapter 41: Back to reality
"Huh! Was I just dreaming?" he gasped.
Before he could even gather his thoughts and comprehend the situation he had experienced moments ago, a familiar voice echoed once again in his ears...
"Master, we are surrounded by monsters..." he said, directing in two directions. One was toward the gate, which had been closed, and another was toward the sea, where probably the third gate is located.
Dhruv decided to check the sea first as that was where the monster was going to attack. Turning his gaze toward the sea, he activated the mana sensitivity skill. He spotted a line of small white orbs advancing in his direction. Each of these orbs—monster cores—symbolized a Tier I monster. The number wasn’t that great, which means it didn’t really require his supervision, as the trio was capable enough to handle them with ease. It wouldn’t exactly be a walk in the park, but it also wasn’t daunting enough to strike fear into Alaric, who is very calm and collected.
Observing Dhruv’s gaze, which was fixed on the sea, Alaric shook his head in disagreement. Turning his attention to his master, and directed his finger toward the prison gate and spoke:
"Not there, master... the problem is here."
"What... is there? Didn’t we secure the gate? Why are you more concerned about the monsters that are confined beh..." Before finishing the sentence, he decided to activate the skill once again to check. He knew that Alaric was not one to panic easily, as had been proven time and again...
The moment he activated the skill, his heartbeat rose to the absolute top...
’What the heck...?!’ he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes.
He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing... And how could he believe it when what he was seeing seemed so unbelievable? One reason behind his disbelief is that he couldn’t even see anything. All he saw was a river of white orbs radiating with, or maybe even more intensity than, the sun. And every one of these orbs represents a monster from Tier I.
He couldn’t directly see them, yet he could deduce that there were at least a thousand monsters, all converging upon the gates and walls. It was almost certain that the walls would crumble, and it would happen sooner rather than later.
Feeling the urgency, he quickly leaped out of bed and questioned Alaric, "How long was I asleep?"
Alaric pondered for a moment, then gazed at the sun before replying, "Judging by the sun’s position, approximately four hours, master."
He was quite surprised that Alaric could tell the hour by the position of the sun, but now was not the time for astonishment; it was time for battle. Swiftly, he turned all his gears on and began the preparation for the battle. Retrieving the staff and spear that were placed beside his bed, he motioned for everyone to gather, which, to his surprise, they had already done.
Looking at the members of the cohort, he quickly began to formulate a plan. And before long, a strategy was laid out. Following his new plan, his attention first shifted to the ten undead beings. Turning around, he fixed his gaze on Azarex and began speaking.
"So, you’re unable to battle with all ten of them simultaneously... am I correct?" he inquired.
"I apologize for my incompetence, master, but yes, I’m incapable of fighting alongside all ten of the undead," Azarex responded, with an expression of shame.
"No, no! Don’t underestimate yourself like that. And for your information, five is more than sufficient..." he stated, glancing towards the approaching threat of creatures made of ice. "...More than enough."
"But send the remaining five toward the gate. If, by any chance, the gate, or, in a worse case, the whole prison wall, is breached before all the Crystallce are killed, Then they’ll act as our initial line of defense. If you detect that the gate has been breached, sever your connection with the undead that would be fighting with us at the front and direct those five at the gate to engage. So, they can buy us some precious time... Can you manage that?" he inquired.
"Yes, of course, master," Azarex replied promptly.
Satisfied with the plan, he was on the verge of sprinting toward the monsters. However, before taking off, he cast his gaze towards Vexar, who was slashing at the air, seemingly too eager for combat to contain himself.
’This is going to be tough...’ he thought, his hand reaching up to massage his face in the apprehension of the impending struggle that was about to come. He turned his attention to Vexar and said...
"Listen, Vexar, we’re about to fight a long... very long battle. So, please, don’t let your excitement lead you to recklessness. We need to conserve our energy as much as possible. Aim for a strategic approach in combat. Your safety matters; if I see otherwise..." He knew the long lecture wouldn’t work on him, so he said the last thing Vexar would want to hear "...I might have to exclude you from future battles. Do you understand?"
Vexar nodded rapidly, his response tinged with a sense of dread from Dhruv’s stern words. Despite the speed of his nodding, Dhruv knew that the real reason behind it was probably the weight of that last sentence. He looked toward Alaric to say something, but closed his mouth, knowing that he didn’t have to say anything to this responsible big brother.
With nothing further to add, the squad began running toward the sea, except for five undead who were running toward the gate.
A moment of running got them close enough for the Crystallce to start launching their ice spikes. Looking at the incoming spike, Dhruv cast his metal shield... He waited for the spike to strike his shield so he could counterattack.
However, even after a moment, he heard no sound of the spike colliding with his shield. Perplexed, he raised his head from behind the shield to investigate. To his astonishment, he found another shield made of ice in front of his own.
’Nice, these must be the shields cast by the undead Crystallce,’
His assumption was correct; these shields were the work of his allies. Now relieved from having to maintain a shield, he swiftly conjured the elemental Bolt spell blueprint. However, instead of channeling metal mana into it, he started infusing the spell with the new type of mana he had acquired.
"Let’s see what you’re capable of."
In the next moment, the spell blueprint was infused with scorching yellow mana, poised to be unleashed upon any unfortunate target in its trajectory. It didn’t have to wait long before Dhruv raised his hand before him and...
[Fire Bolt]
And just like that, he unleashed the spell. It shot forth with breathtaking splendor and made contact with a Crystallce. That icy monster, who was unfortunate enough to get hit by it, got a tenish ball wide hole in its face.
[You have killed the monster: Lessar Crystallce.]
[...]
[...]
"Woahhh! Now we talking..."
