Chapter 73

When the Blades Fall (X)

The group stood ready at the exit of yet another cylindrical tunnel, staring into a wide, red-carpeted hallway with wounding pillars of stone holding up the ceiling. At both ends of the now-washed-up carpet were golden statues, each the exact replica of the others, hoisting spears in one and shields in the other hand, fifty per side, totaling in a hundred.

Emma and Jamal stood at the front, with Senna ready to act the role of a flanker. Cain and Diya remained at the back, as per usual, the former charged with cover fire as well as protecting her.

“Remember -- don’t try to rush it,” Cain warned. “Conserve your Stamina and Mana as much as physically possible.”

The group nodded collectively and abruptly moved out. Emma charged out first and began slamming the warhammer onto the floor, with Jamal charging Mana already behind her.

Right around then, the statues seemed to awaken as they collectively shuddered -- a hundred of them took a step forward, quaking the hall, turning their heads toward the party. Creaking sounds echoed out in unison, the hollow eyes lighting up in the faint, cyan glint.

Swords, axes, and spears began to immediately rain down upon the army of statues as Senna unleashed her barrage, with Jamal swiping his sword horizontally in an attempt to cleanly cleave through a few statues at the forefront. However, the golden inanimates reacted swiftly and lowered their shields, bouncing his strike back and causing him to stumble.

Cain preemptively charged Earth into his foot and slammed it, pushing Jamal back with a tiny protrusion beneath the latter’s feet and causing him to avoid two spear thrusts aimed for his throat and heart. Jamal glanced back and nodded at Cain before promptly coating himself in starlight and avoiding further strikes, counterattacking whenever possible.

Emma drew the attention of most of the statues and, as per their plan, began kiting them by reaching the edge of the hall and beginning to circle it. She managed to draw roughly eighty statues toward her, using her shield, warhammer, and often her body to deal with the increasing pressure. Most of Diya’s attention, thus, was drawn to her, helping her remained topped-off.

“Don’t rush, she’s fine!” Cain warned Jamal and Senna who increased their pace slightly. “Maintain it -- five statues per minute is enough!”

He didn’t rest either, as this wasn’t the time to let them fight and train. As statues were made of genuine gold, they were quite resilient to most magic so he didn’t waste Mana attacking them directly. Instead, he would mostly charge Earth, Creation, and occasionally Nature to disorient them, set up Jamal, cause the statues to stumble, or pull Jamal out of a tough spot ever so often.

Senna didn’t remain stationary either, as it was almost engraved in them by now to continuously move during the battle even if it wasn’t necessary. She circled the hall similar to Emma, though keep a fair distance between the two, while continuously ordering her weapons to either support Jamal or outright kill the statues that were out of place.

Her control of the weapons had increased considerably -- really, everyone's mastery of the base skills of their classes had increased considerably. Jamal, especially, showed great skill at narrowly dodging the spear thrusts of the statues and then counterattacking with a string of sword strikes before ducking away.

“Good job! I’ll pull the next twenty!” Cain said as the last of the statues that remained with them fell. He quickly charged Creation, Earth, and Aether into his hand, locating Emma on the other side of the hall, and slammed the arm down into the ground.

A moment later, hand-shaped gravel of dirt rose up from beneath the backline of the row of statues chasing after Emma, scooping roughly twenty-five of them like a spoon and tossing them gingerly over to Jamal and Senna who weren't about to let the good opportunity to thin out numbers pass them by.

Both unleashed an aerial barrage at the statues, Senna commanding her weapons to repeatedly strike at the same point, while Jamal used needle-thin arrays of starlight, shooting them off into the air like bullets, piercing statues cleanly through.

By the time the statues landed, half of them had already been destroyed, and those that did manage to land were piled on top of each other, making it impossible for them to get up quickly. With Cain’s assistance, Jamal and Senna quickly cleaned up the remnants, whereupon Cain once again scooped roughly twenty-five of them and tossed them over to Jamal and Senna.

The two, once again, did a clean-up job while the statues were airborne, this time around managing to kill 2/3rds of them due to the previous experience, mopping up the remnants shortly after they landed tumbling onto the ground.

They repeated the same process twice more before all the statues were gone and the party reunited at the center. Emma was gasping for breath, her attire bloodied already, and Diya had burned through half her Mana to keep her in top shape. Cain frowned at the sight, but it was the best they could achieve going in. The second bout would start in a minute, whether they wanted it or not, so Cain’ didn’t press them forward, allowing them a short breather.

“Want me to take your role, Em’?” Cain asked, causing Emma to promptly shake her head.

“No, I’m fine,” she replied. “I got the hang of it by the end, so I should be better off the next round. I’m more worried about Diya -- she must have spent a lot of Mana trying to keep my sorry-ass alive.”

“I-I’m fine,” Diya said quickly. “My Mana restores quickly.”

“...” Haah, statues aren’t the problem... the boss is... it’s fine, though. Luckily, the boss wasn’t really about tanking -- it was more so about dodging and counterattacking as its pattern of attacks was wide and fairly erratic. The statues themselves could be seen as a red herring in a sense as they required a completely different tactic from the boss just after them.

The minute passed quickly and the world rumbled as Emma charged to the front once again, a hundred statues streaming out of the cylindrical tunnel. She immediately began swinging her warhammer wildly, more so for the sound rather than damage, dragging the attention of every single statue toward her. Once again, she began sprinting perpendicular to the wall while Cain scooped twenty or so statues from the rear and tossed them to Jamal and Senna.

The two increased their pace ever so slightly, but Cain didn’t stop them. More evenly-spread Stamina reserves were better than one person being more exhausted than the rest, after all. Even he joined in attacking and despite the fact that the statues barely felt his attacks, he still managed to fell a couple, speeding the process along.

The first batch was dealt with within three minutes, and Cain quickly scooped another, noticing that Diya's Mana was nearing the halfway point again. Sighing inwardly, he decided to expend more Mana and virtually kiss the efficiency goodbye, shooting bolts of Fire and manufactured Lightning at the statues, increasing their pace even more.

With the second batch done, the third came about, and then the fourth. By the time they were done with every single statue, Diya was just above1/3rd of her Mana reserves, and Emma looked absolutely gassed. Even Jamal and Senna showed signs of short-term tiredness, though nowhere to the level of the other two. I can help Emma and Diya rest while Jamal and Senna dodge to begin the fight... it should be enough to get us in good standing...

Emma quickly downed a bottle of water and ate a pearie, with others doing the same right after. The lack of restorative supplies really was evident -- health potions, Mana potions, Stamina potions... there were potions, foods, drinks, snacks, everything and anything for everything and anything. Though only a few types could be used during the battle, they were indispensable for moments like these where the rest periods were virtually non-existent.

The group slowly moved through the cylindrical tunnel and into the exact same room as the one before, sprinting over to the other end and entering the last cylindrical tunnel -- which was also the longest. Cain charged Wind and coated everyone in the party, making it a bit easier on them, as they reached the edge of the tunnel and looked down.

A massive pit-like dip in the earth spread before their eyes, incalculable without exact measurements, with them entering one of at least a hundred tunnels that surrounded it. The depth looked to be at least a mile and a half, with the jagged rocks protruding from the side walls like spikes.

At the very bottom, and laid out perfectly in the center of the pit, was the final boss of this place. Cain's eyes immediately veered over as he sighed inwardly; it was the same thing -- a massive construct, easily as large and as wide as a skyscraper. It wasn't one singular entity, but rather seemingly separate parts held together by Mana.

Its ‘head’ was a crescent-shaped plate of gold, a pair of dark-red rubies appear as though they were eyes, with a golden sphere levitating and spinning above it.

The rest of its body was similar in the make; it had eight limbs in total that it could interchangeably use either as ‘legs’ or ‘arms’, and each was good two hundred feet long. Though each appeared normal, with hands and fingers, it could change the shapes into any weapon at the fly.

Its torso was another sphere that was a good indicator of its ‘phases’, so to say. The faster it spun, the more energy it would pour into each attack. It could also be used as a ‘leg’ to roll about frantically while using eight other ‘limbs’ exclusively as weapons. And then there’s a fact that its ‘class’ is just an upgraded version of a Weapon Saint... aah, I suppose this ought to be good for Senna to see what her Class is truly capable of...