Chapter 226 - Reversal (2)

We had avoided the worst.

Some veterans whose names everyone knew had stayed behind, but there wasn't an entire army waiting for us. We only had three enemies to face. Perhaps out of confidence, they hadn't even focused their attacks on us while we came through the portal and formed ranks.

But...

「Aveth Necrapethor has cast [Puppet].」

That didn't mean things were looking good. Even if we were somehow holding our own for now, the longer this battle dragged on, the worse things would get for us.

That was what fighting a necromancer meant.

["Grrraaaaaah!"]

A large-scale battle with people dying every moment. The bodies of our companions, their skin torn apart and throats slit by the corpse legion, rose to attack us.

CRUNCH!

I was still busily smashing their skulls even now, but at this rate, we would eventually be the ones outnumbered.

'Ha, what a lineup.'

I couldn't help groaning, no matter how hard I tried not to. There were only three of them, but their lineup was far too well-balanced.

The Corpse Collector's numbers. Blue Mane's prowess in individual combat. And the Scholar of Destruction, a top-tier mage with area attacks and an overwhelming ability to throw unexpected complications into a fight.

Our chances would have been much better if they were just three veterans who were good at fighting.

'No, this lineup is why everyone else went upstairs and left just these three.'

I shook off that fleeting regret. Just as nobody in the world was without flaws, not everything was stacked against us. In fact, having the Corpse Collector as my opponent gave me certain advantages.

「The character has used [Outlaw of the Barren Lands].」

I hadn't expected to use what I'd obtained in Doppelgänger Forest like this again.

"Vehel—laaaaaaaa!!!"

At the very front of the battle line, I once again did what I'd repeated countless times today.

I cleared a path.

CRUNCH! BOOOM!

Every swing of my mace swept aside the fully equipped corpses like autumn leaves.

The reason was simple. Outlaw of the Barren Lands was one of the hardest counters to necros.

「Melee physical damage temporarily increases in proportion to the number of humanoid monsters.」

A melee physical damage boost that scaled with numbers. I couldn't say for certain, but the bonus had clearly already hit its cap.

Hmm, and that cap was...

「Current increase: 1,000%.」

Tenfold, right?

CRUNCH!

Was this how Lu Bu felt in Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

Even casual swings of my mace made them burst apart, so I didn't even need [Swing]. Well, it would help if I used it... but saving my limited MP for [Gigantification] was the right call.

"Ha, how is that a rank-five explorer...?"

"He's a great warrior!!"

"Follow him!"

Explorers followed my mindless charge, naturally forming a breakthrough formation.

Okay, that meant I wouldn't get stabbed in the back.

"An exploder!"

They were also gradually learning to deal with [Corpse Explosion], which had caused countless casualties early on. These were veteran explorers who tackled challenges for a living, after all. They'd figured out how to counter it without me telling them.

"Mage!"

"Der Tu Teiran!"

The rank-eight support spell, Gust.

BOOM!

The moment an exploder's body began to swell, they knocked it far away with a knockback spell or skill.

Of course, some still exploded inside our formation and caused casualties. And I was the one taking the brunt of it.

HISSSSS!

The exploders' venom clung thickly all over my body. Still, it didn't sting that badly. I hadn't raised my Poison Tolerance much... but wasn't Dungeon and Stone a team game?

「Allua Raven has cast the rank-seven support spell [Neutralization].」

A buff that halved poison damage.

「Rebecca Aizel has cast [Sharing].」

An active skill that transferred one third of the target's damage to the caster.

「Khan Algon has cast [Herd Immunity].」

An aura skill that shared half the user's tolerance stats with everyone within fifteen meters, friend and foe alike.

「Polton Kassel has cast [Fountain of Blood].」

「Regeneration orbs are generated when the character takes damage.」

Whenever I took damage, healing tokens even burst from my body, restoring the HP of companions who picked them up.

With hundreds of explorers averaging rank five gathered together, there was literally a skill for everything—

WHOOOSH!

Just then, the dozens of luminous orbs filling the sky above Goblin Forest vanished at once, plunging our surroundings into darkness.

I knew instinctively.

["Be careful. He's about to make his move."]

The Scholar of Destruction.

Right. He wasn't going to watch forever.

FWOOSH!

The sky had gone as dark as an eclipse. A crimson orb appeared overhead, rapidly swelling in size.

["It's Orb of Destruction."]

Orb of Destruction. An offensive spell I'd never seen or heard of in the game. That was only natural. This summoning spell was the Scholar of Destruction's signature magic, something he'd created entirely from scratch, right down to its formula.

'He said it was rank two.'

My heart clenched.

I knew how absurdly powerful top-tier offensive magic could be. Not that it mattered much. Even without that knowledge, I could have guessed just how dangerous that spell was.

"You crazy old bastard!! Are you trying to kill me too?!"

The wolf shuddered at the sight of the thing in the sky and tried to flee. The Clown in the distance was no different. He was shouting something in alarm.

I couldn't hear him, but it wasn't hard to guess what he was saying. The corpses on the outer edges of his legion were retreating.

'Fucking hell.'

The Scholar of Destruction's own companions had judged that when that spell fell, everything, friend and foe alike, would vanish without a trace.

But what was I supposed to do about it?

["I'll stop it! Keep advancing!"]

I pushed past my anxiety and focused on clearing a path for now.

"What are you doing?! Don't freeze up! Keep moving!"

"B-but if that thing falls...!"

"Where would you run to? Fight!"

Now, even without me taking the initiative, the explorers were encouraging one another and steeling their resolve.

"It's coming...!"

At someone's murmur, I looked up. The ominous orb had grown large enough to fill the sky, and now it plunged straight toward the ground.

And...

「Kyle Pevrosk has cast the rank-three offensive spell [Piercing Steel].」

At that moment, Kyle, who'd promised to handle the Scholar of Destruction, completed his spell.

WHOOOOSH!

An intense gray light rose from the rear. Had he drawn a magic circle in advance for this moment?

The light flashed, and by the time that brief flare faded, a giant arrow had pierced the giant meteor.

KABOOOOOM!

An ear-splitting impact.

WHOOOOSH!

A fierce wind swept across the ground. Then—

"D-dodge!!"

Hundreds of fragments, large and small, rained down engulfed in crimson flames.

The explorers scattered in panic, but few of the fragments actually reached the ground. Once again, that was Kyle's doing.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The hundreds of falling fragments struck translucent barriers, exploding and vanishing in midair. Even a rank-three mage couldn't possibly erect a shield across such a wide area...

'... Did he control every single one?'

He'd read each fragment's trajectory and blocked them individually, using the bare minimum of mana. That was the reasonable explanation.

Indeed, Raven was watching the spectacle with her jaw hanging open.

"That's... possible...?"

As a mage, she understood all the more keenly just how advanced that display of finesse had been.

Unfortunately, the enemy mage was no ordinary human either. In fact, the Scholar of Destruction was an archmage of Orculus considered even stronger than Kyle.

["That damned old bastard."]

The falling meteors swerved like curveballs, avoiding the barriers and slamming into the ground.

BOOOM!

They made no distinction between friend and foe. They landed in the middle of the Clown's corpse legion, behind me, or beside me, crushing my companions.

Then they rose in the shape of golems.

'The rank-five summoning spell, Fire Giant.'

Raven cried out in disbelief.

"Master Pevrosk! What's going on? There wasn't a summoning formula...!"

["He used the residual mana to construct new formulas and imbue the remaining fragments with them."]

"In that brief instant, rank-five spells... and dozens of them...?"

Raven murmured in mingled shock and admiration. But Kyle apparently had no time to indulge her with an answer.

["Jandel! I have to prepare for the next attack! I'll leave the cleanup to you!"]

The connection cut off abruptly.

Whew. He'd said he'd handle the Scholar of Destruction, but the cleanup was mine after all.

'Well, even he couldn't deal with a monster like that alone.'

Besides, Kyle was short on mana after casting Mass Teleport on the first floor. Once again, I felt just how much of a disadvantage we were still at.

Melter Fend, handling Blue Mane. Kyle, who'd taken on the Scholar of Destruction. And me, leading hundreds of explorers to fuck up the Corpse Collector.

The moment any one of us lost, it was game over. Our precarious balance would collapse, and everyone would be swept away in an instant.

But put another way, the same applied to the enemy.

Which was why...

I charged at the Fire Giant that had smoothly risen to its full height and was now looking down at me, my enlarged mace gripped tightly in my hand.

Pushing off the ground, I used [Leap] to soar high.

'Swing.'

I spent MP to bring my mace crashing down.

One blow was all it took to smash the core of the rank-five summon.

KABOOOOM!

The Fire Giant scattered into drifting mana particles. I stared straight ahead through them.

Far away, I could see the Clown.

'Still fucking smiling.'

If I could just kill him, we'd have the advantage.

* * *

One slow step at a time, I advanced. Smashing, trampling, sometimes shoving corpses aside with my shield and flinging them away.

CRUNCH!

I was opening a path to survival.

WHOOOOSH!

The Scholar of Destruction's fiery rain kept pouring from the sky.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Kyle fought back fiercely with defensive magic, but he couldn't stop it all.

"Aaaaaagh!"

Screams erupted everywhere. The bodies of people who'd desperately clung to life to make it this far fell onto the damp ground, burned black.

And...

「Aveth Necrapethor has cast [Puppet].」

They rose in that state and swung their weapons at us.

Watching them, I couldn't help wondering: if there was a hell on earth, wasn't this it?

BOOM!

A heap of corpses flew in from the distance like a cannonball, breaking our formation. This had started a few minutes ago. The Corpse Collector had begun pulling more summons from his subspace.

Damn it. I'd thought we were almost there.

'Just how much has he stockpiled?'

A curse escaped my lips.

Still, my feet didn't stop. We were already far from the main force and surrounded by the corpse legion, but I kept charging forward.

I didn't know how many of us were left. Many must have died.

And yet—

"Vehel—laaaaaa!"

As Aynar shouted while cutting down a corpse, answering cries rose from behind and beside us.

"Yeah, Vehelaaaaa!!!"

Those weren't barbarians. They were humans, dwarves, or Therianthropes.

Yeah, it was pretty addictive.

THUD!

A heap of corpses flew in and rose in front of me. It was a fusion of five bodies. I barely had time to frown at its grotesque appearance before I spotted a familiar face among them.

'Hansen Kelders.'

I'd met him while wandering the passages on the first day, before we'd even understood what was happening, before we'd met the Clown.

He'd suggested joining forces, but I'd turned him down. I couldn't trust him.

["The cautious ones live the longest. I hope we'll meet again."]

He'd left with a smile despite my refusal.

And...

["Grrraaaah..."]

This was how we met again.

'... You really were on our side.'

His appearance was so horrific that Lee Hansoo would have vomited at the mere sight of him. As I swung my mace at him, I wondered.

If I'd trusted him back then, if we'd agreed to travel together... would he be fighting on our side instead of against us?

CRUNCH!

Well, maybe he would.

Only one thing was certain.

I'd been wrong back then. It hadn't even been the best choice. I hadn't tried because he was a stranger. If I'd made more of an effort, I might have found evidence that he could be trusted.

"I'm sorry."

I dashed forward over the heap of corpses, briefly wondering as I went.

What sort of person had he been? What might he have accomplished if he'd lived?

"..."

Now I'd never know. Perhaps he'd possessed tremendous potential and might have been a great help to me.

Dwalki hadn't made much of a first impression either. At first, I'd thought he was just some weirdo.

But what had he really been like?

He'd been the kindest of us all, and a greater mage than anyone I'd ever seen.

["Jandel, are you still far away?"]

Kyle's voice cleared away my wandering thoughts.

"Not much farther."

We really were close now. A little farther, and I could reach the Clown.

He was an Agi poison necro, so he wouldn't be a pushover in close combat either. But a necro's weakness was obvious all the same. Besides, summoning an army this large must have cost even him a staggering amount of MP.

As long as Kyle kept the Scholar of Destruction in check and Melter Fend held that wolf down, there shouldn't be any other complications—

["Hurry a little more."]

Huh?

["I have a bad feeling about this."]

A bad feeling? Was this another kind of mage's intuition?

I was swinging my mace again with that thought in mind when—

["Grrraaaaaah...!"]

Groups of unfamiliar explorers appeared among the foul-breathed corpses.

One team, two teams, three...

There were so many that counting them individually was pointless.

"We came to see what all the noise was, and what do we have here...?"

"We'll help too!"