I thought about retreating until I could come back prepared for battle, but then I saw each of the five large Mana Spores split off smaller ones that joined their fellows immediately. It was not difficult to figure out what I had witnessed, and from Lichopedia, I knew how dangerous a large Mana Spore Swarm led by a mid tier one could be. Watching each of the mid tier Mana Spores skillfully controlling their small swarms, it was obvious that not dealing with them now was the same as leaving behind a disaster waiting to happen. Moreover, it was time for the two idiots to earn their keep.

While recalling my ghosts, I tagged the large Mana Spores as targets one to five, starting with the one that had taken its swarm to the far left. Not bothering to look behind me again, I forcefully projected my annoyance and anger through the mind link. “Bas, take number one. Slith take two. Either kill them or keep them pinned! If you dimwits can't even do that, then there's no point in keeping you around! Got it?”

“Dieee!”

“Eaat!”

I began mentally reciting the spell for [Float] as I reinforced my body with mana, before jumping off from the platform near the corridor's exit. Even as I was falling, I sensed Bas follow my lead, jumping down in the direction of target 1 and Slith take off floating towards target 2 with his shadowy tentacles extending out for battle. I felt a spike in sudden bloodthirstiness from them, which I had made them keep suppressed until now. The emotions, personality, and maybe even morals I had tried to instill in them had always balanced out their undead nature, but with the leash taken off, they regressed back to their true selves.

Even as I slammed into the floor, creating a flurry of mana crystals, the Mana Spores reacted. It was like seeing a laser show in a dark auditorium but with the lights being deadly as hell. All the large ones fired spells, sending twenty five mana bolts each at where I had landed. Casting and on myself, I got away barely a few seconds before the wave of attacks blasted into where I had been standing. Baaaammm!

I ignored the the rolling reverberations from behind me as I dashed through a path between some crystalline walls. It was like running through a maze, but the thought of getting hit by more than 100 mana bolts was enough of a motivator to keep moving. I knew that I could probably take a couple dozen hits at once with my current body and survive, but a 100 was a completely different story. Thankfully, after the first attack, my enemies were left trying to track all of us as my ghosts finally arrived and began their harassment.

Reaching what had probably been a large cage at one time, I kicked off one of its crystalline walls and finally finished casting [Float], sending me floating above the messy warrens bellow. Even as I went airborne, I began returning fire at the closest target and its swarm. “x 6!” Evading, even as my attacks sped off, I caught sight of my subordinates reaching their respective goals.

Bas was literally using the mounds of crystal below as stepping stones, as he bounded across them, dodging incoming attacks. My last sight of him was him kicking off one of the main walls of the area, as he tried to grapple with target 1 mid air. Through my link to him, I knew he was firing off as much as he could while keeping and active on himself. Both were spells that I used my to 'install' in him, when the war with the Mana Spores first began.

Slith on the other hand, had begun a mid range air battle with target 2. The wraith slime was zigging and zagging, while literally using his tentacles to fend off the smaller mana spores as they tried to kamikaze him and while also engaging in an artillery duel with target 2 using . I knew I had also given him , , and , but from the thoughts I could make out from him, I realized he was waiting for the right moment to strike hard.

My own battle against the remaining three was turning into a mess. Even as I volleyed another wave of Dark Lances at target 3, I saw it dodge quickly again, leaving dozens of the smaller mana spores to soak up the hits from my spells. Boooom! The following explosion caused stalactites of crystallized mana to start falling nearby, creating an even more chaotic air battle. However, as I dodged attacks and debris, I was already reciting my next, mid tier 'Book' spell, [Lock Target]. I had realized a while back, with how quickly my enemies were dodging and using their underlings to soak up damage, that I had to find a way to counter their evasive capabilities.

Before I could finish, the bastards struck first with another volley of , but I wasn't as lucky this time. All five of them bracketed me with their attacks, essentially ensuring that any direction I moved, I would take hits. Gritting my mental teeth, I plunged downwards, even as a few dozen attacks ripped into me all at once. What got through my Nether Armor, struck against my body, sending ripples of mana coursing into it. Most of the effect was offset by the mana reinforcement, but I was still blasted backwards, crashing into a crystalline mound below while sending up a cloud of mana fragments. If I had been alive, there was a good chance I would have taken major trauma to my body. Unfortunately for the bastards floating above, I felt no pain.

Rolling away from the impact spot as quickly as possible, I poured more mana into my float spell, as I dodged through the crystalline warren, avoiding more attacks and counterattacking smaller mana spores that were trying to kamikaze me. Through my mind link, I could feel the exultation from Slith, who had his tentacles digging into target 2 while using to rip into the bastard. However, from Bas, I felt increasing desperation as target 1 had learned to keep its distance from the undead basilisk. It seemed as they were doing their job properly, and I, myself, was finally ready to stop running. Propelling myself up again, I made sure that I was in a place where I could see all the large mana spores. “[Lock Target]!”

Almost immediately, I felt an invisible, mental string connecting me to my targets. However, just as I felt the links establish, I knew they had felt it as well. There was resistance, like someone was yanking at the 'strings,' trying to rip them out of my hands. The bastards may have succeeded with time, but I wasn't planning on giving them that opportunity. So, turning back into a mobile turret, I began attacking, “x 5!”

This time my attacks flew true, following them as they tried to evade or hide. Booom! With almost perfect hits, I saw target 3 reel out of the air, a third of its spherical body blasted off or no longer glowing. Grinning madly inside, I propelled myself backwards in the air as I continued my attacks, focusing on target 3 first. Soon after, a massive explosion lit up the cavernous area from where target 3 had been.

Another large explosion soon followed, as I felt Slith's joy followed by momentary horror as the wraith slime was blasted backwards after finally killing target 2. I felt like swearing as he would have emerged relatively intact if he hadn't stupidly wasted time glorying in his kill instead of retreating. Both of my subordinates were now in relatively bad shape, as Bas was also barely able to keep dodging the enemies attacking him. Fortunately for them, I had become enemy number one.

The following few minutes fell into a battle of maneuvering as the large mana spores sacrificed their underlings as body shields while trying to launch focused attacks on me. However, with Bas and Slith still alive, the mana spores could never devote all their attention to me. So, one by one, I killed off the large bastards. By the time I was left with only one alive, I had literally drained close to half of the total mana of my main soul in the throne room. While I was recovering mana at a relatively fast pace, it still made me realize how dangerous a quick paced spell battle against multiple strong enemies was. However, it also belied the importance of cannon fodder and meat shields for a spell caster.

Floating near the last large Mana Spore, I continued to cast at it once in a while, keeping it almost stunned in place. Near me, Bas and Slith were busy recovering from their battles. Slith looked like he had lost nearly a fourth of his volume, but I could feel him funneling mana to rebuild his body. Bas on the other hand looked like he had a hammer taken to his bones. Fractures and burns covered much of his skeletal frame, and his hangdog posture was very much indicative of his mood. He had essentially ended up as a moving target, since he had no way of easily reaching his assigned mana spore. However, he too was funneling mana into his bones, repairing them.

While my subordinates hadn't exactly proven to be overwhelming powerhouses, they had still accomplished their tasks and had more importantly shown that they could be 'meat' shields if needed. Still, I knew they weren't enough. I needed to be able to pull out large numbers of summons whenever I needed to, but to do that, I needed a ready supply of souls. Initially, I had planned on using the metal eaters as outer guards and an emergency source of souls, but looking back at the large Mana Spore, I knew I had found a better source. However, getting it to cooperate was going to be the tricky part. Hitting it with another , I wondered if I could traumatize the poor bastard in front of me enough to use [Mind Speak] on it.

“Well... We're going to take our time finding out, aren't we now?”