Chapter 258: No Respite

It's tail lashes out and slaps Shaco away, I grit my teeth watching my familiar tumble away like an oversized ragdoll. Shaco's had little chance keeping the miniboss at bay, after Eldwin and Jungle blew up the first Lindworm it started its advance.

Unleashing several blood shards at it proves ineffective as it slithers out of the way, launching itself over the attack and spitting a glob of lava out its mouth at the speeding shards. 

It lands unceremoniously but is up half a second later, slithering over, dodging and wrapping victims in its grip as it makes its way towards me. 

The field is clear, with much of my Spirit Warriors focused on ending the remaining Lindworm and the scattered Drakes still slashing at our backs and breathing fire. The real danger, as always, is left to me. 

Shaco comes up on the encroaching serpent and brings it to a halt, the two take a tumble and tangle, twisting and wrapping the other until they're mixed up like wires.

But the miniboss is having an easier time sorting it's long body out, spitting out lobs of lava at Shaco's face forcing him to keep dodging until-

"Animate Shadow!"

The moment it's set free from Shaco's disturbance it's set upon by it's own shadow. The irony brings a smile to my face as I set up the next spell in succession, "Pull of the Dead."

Arms burst out of the ground, grasping at the miniboss, pulling it down with them as it struggles to fight off the onslaught from its shadow. The malevolent shadow takes several hits of its own though, already I can feel its strength weakening against the miniboss' spit of lava and breaths of fire. 

'Heck this thing might not be a miniboss at all.' 

Biting my lip I change the strategy, and send off my last strokes of blood shards at the Drake remnants. The attack catches all off guard but relieves the Warriors that busied themselves fending them off. With my shards in twelve of them I have the blood become fluid again and mix with my victims blood, securing a large pool of blood to use before their bodies ashen and crumble.

With an excessive pool of blood at my beck and call, I start hardening and transforming volumes of it into thin, sharp and trusty shards of blood. At my command the field turns red.

The miniboss screeches pain, held in place by the grasping, desperate arms of the dead below and the scathing attacks from its shadow. There's no escape for it even if it could shake those two off, the span of the Blood Shower is too large for it to escape.

Slowly but surely the heavy and unceasing attacks break through its scales and hide and shred through flesh and bone until it too falls over as a pile of ash.

I let out a breath of relief and wipe off the building sweat from my brow. A pained roar echoes through, soon followed by a thunderous crash and then silence. The Lindworm is down at last.

Drained, I pull on the soul floating about me for mana and strength, it brings me up to half but sputters out of existence afterwards. This place is a mana death trap to have drained a soul.

[30 Souls Remaining]

I roll my eyes at the counter and let the new soul recharge my tanks, "What do you think about your chances now? I'm not so sure about mine frankly. It's hard fighting without my main weapon." I call out to Jungle.

He's seated on the floor like many others, catching his breath he shakes his head and waves me off but gives no reply.

"You're probably going to die here, I'm not sure why I put in so much work in recruiting you now." 

The purple lighting of the cavern lulls me to close my eyes and take a rest, my body's beginning to ache already. I've used a single [Mana Empowering Soul] to take down Gamma Warriors, in fact, I've only ever used one each time. The aching in my centre, my core tells me my pathways are stressed and strain from the nigh constant flood of power through.

Worst part is this may have to go on for a while because the Beast Mother still eludes us. If every two fights I've got to pull out another soul to recharge then I'm not sure I'll survive long either.

'I've underestimated the layers.'

This is more than just training, it's life and death now. Although it pisses me off that I'm this weakened without my main weapon, this had better be the last place I experience this handicap.

Pulling myself together I bear the growing discomfort and get moving with Elwin, Jungle and the others. This layer of the cavern is filled with luminous plants, though their luminosity isn't anything to write home about when compared to the crystals that brightened the previous layers.

The rocks are sharp and often a weapon employed by the Spirit Warriors in their fights; carry the enemy into the air and let them drop. It's effective really.

"What do you think is up there?"

Ahead and over our heads is a grand slope filled with all sorts of enemies, it's a fair distance away but I can tell they're waiting for us. The slope leads into what looks like a tunnel, the bottom extends outwards within this layer. 

"A tunnel."

"Yeah, obviously, but where do you think it leads?"

"I'm guessing the next layer or at least some kind of chamber that'll get us to the next layer." I mutter with a huff.

Jungle nods, "A chamber…a chamber of their vile Queen maybe. Have you heard any chittering? Any slithering or hissing since? The two groups they sent at us were meant as a distraction, they've gathered every monster on this level to fend off our advance on their Mother."

The excitement is clear in his voice, he cackles as he twirls his spear eagerly, "There is no fifth layer, this will be the last, this is the final stand for us, Mage, so you'd better put in all your strength."

"Oh I wish I could, this would be a breeze otherwise. In fact, I bet I coul-"

"Enough with your vanity, let's head on in silence from now on please."

"W-what? You're the one that started-"

"Shhhh. Silence, rest your senses and prepare, we're about to fight this entire layer in one stand."

When he puts it like that I'm struck with a bit of trepidation. "Right, the entire layer…How about we get a headstart on our attack?"

"What?"

Before he can utter anything else I disperse my mana into every fallen and embedded shard of blood around the cavern, beckoning it to return to the large floating pool I have above our heads. 

When that's done I section the pool into several parts, each a bit large and send them out to the slope.

"Shaco."

Without needing to say anymore my familiar launches out at speed to be my anchor on the slope.

"What are you doing? We should rest and advance now that we have the chance, now that they're gathered all in one place away from us!" Jungle demands.

"And miss taking advantage of the fact that these monsters are too stupid to realize they've given away their advantage? That they've sold out exactly what they're trying to protect by holding it too close? Do you even hear yourself?" I scoff, unperturbed by his cowardice.

"You'll disturb their camping, they'll swarm us on all sides!"

"Like they wouldn't swarm us when we reach them? Please, be less docile, you're the one who wants to press forward, don't you think you could do without fighting about a hundred of these monsters before the real thing? If anything I'm going out of my way to save your hide."

He makes to speak again but my red cloud of blood is overhead and Shaco is close enough to snipe whatever monsters survive with a constant reuse of the technique. The Blood Series is my favourite because of the reusability, blood tears into flesh and exposes more blood. It's endless.

With a snap the rain begins.

Thousands of sharpened blood shards descend into the clusters of monsters I've selected, the Lindworms and the white snakes being the toughtest foes I've faced here I concentrate my attack on them. A couple hundred Drakes get caught in the middle of it, especially as chaos erupts in their ranks.

Shaco plays his part marvelously, sniping the runaways with shards blood freshly cut from their comrades. The large variety of reptilian monsters falls, the weakest ones without me even having to focus on their disturbances. 

"Haha, such a success, I should do this kind of attacks more often."

"They're flooding this way." Jungle hisses, "You're bringing them to us!"

"Only after cutting down their numbers severely, you'd have had us charge them at their full strength."

"I have honour."

"These are monsters and last I checked, you're a Hunter. Now get ready for the remnants, I'll move up ahead and clear the stubborn Lindworms and White snakes, be thankful."