Although Ed felt his heart thump with nervosity. He could only trust the ones up there to not only survive but come out victorious. The enemy in front of him had to die.
Ed then inadvertently gazed towards the messy battlefield. Hundreds of orcs fell at the hands of the adventurers. The adventurers were still at least two-thirds of their original group though.
'I don't need to kill him.' Ed then realized.
It wasn't sympathy. Nor pity. Not half-assed morality. It was simply that his priorities had been in the wrong place all along.
'That's right' What was his goal? To be on the offensive! What was the adventurer's goal? No, it's better to rephrase that. What was Samuel's goal?
To protect the adventurers. That was his goal. Why else would he fight so bitterly hoping to terminate me? Revenge? Maybe, but Ed didn't get that impression.
Ed had wanted to cast the meteor rain spell for a while now. It was especially so when the orcs weren't on the battlefield. Doing so now could and would result in casualties for both sides. The large scale entangle spell was done with the hope of finding time to cast the spell before this but...
Unfortunately, the opportunity didn't come. But now that fiery fists guy wasn't applying any pressure to him with the help of Samuel, there wasn't anything stopping Ed from forcing him into a defensive position.
The only downside was that Samuel might end up giving the order to retreat. Realistically this was actually a benefit as Ed couldn't rid himself of the anxiousness in his heart. The losses on his side were too unbearable. But he could only let the adventurers go, let them go with a parting gift.
The explosion had similarly stunned Samuel temporarily, enough so that he wanted to go up there and check out the situation. Sadly, the orc wouldn't allow it, Ed pressed forward. Samuel readied himself to take out Ed for good only to find out he wasn't the target.
Ed's body was elevated by the earth. He jumped over Samuel and started to sprint off into the distant battle. Just like he had learned from his battle against Slug, he enveloped his legs with the elements for an explosive sprint as soon as he landed behind Samuel.
Samuel's mana expenditure thus far had not been small. Still, he had no choice but to push forward right after the scramming Ed. His entire body was enveloped by the wind.
"I won't let you" Samuel yelled full of anger. Being so blatantly disregarded didn't feel good but Samuel was mainly concerned with Ed's real targets, the adventurers!
Samuel was faster than Ed. It was inevitable, orcs weren't innately nimble. His agility stat was also quite regrettably low. Augmenting himself with the elements would only go so far.
Samuel's ordinary blade cut through the air right behind the speeding Ed. A streak of blood flew into the air but all Ed did was wince in pain over the superficial wound.
[You've been dealt damage. -7 hp]
Suddenly, Samuel was struck by a heavy kick. Obviously Ed wasn't going to only madly dash forward. That would achieve nothing! He had two options.
One, he could madly dash forward. The ultimate goal would be to hide in the crowd of orcs to cast the spell though. Or two, he made it seem like he was doing number one to get a clean hit on Samuel and then actually do one! Ingenious! Maybe that was a bit exaggerated...
Samuel's momentum didn't simply dissipate, the damage was only amplified by the fast speeds. Luckily he had reinforced his whole body already but the damage was not minute. Samuel sputtered out blood as he suddenly came to a stop. The kick on his torso had left him at a temporary loss.
Ed's resilience on the other hand was commendable. It was that and the fact that this was a premeditated move. His strong constitution, powerful strength, and high vitality meant that he would come out mostly unharmed when compared to Samuel. Certainly healthy enough to continue his dash.
With these things in mind, he had decided to go for it. His trip became a walk in the park thanks to it. He did his best to disappear into the crowd of orcs. Unlike the skeletons, the orcs came in all shapes and sizes. This made it much easier for Ed to hide among them without sticking out so sorely.
Samuel quickly recovered, even if blood threatened to spew out of his mouth a second time. He felt somewhat dazed as the injuries accumulated and blood rushed to his head. Regardless, he tirelessly searched for Ed within the crowd hoping to chase after him.
"ROOOOAR!" But the orcs didn't know defeat. No matter the strength of the opponent they were willing to fight to the bitter end. Chasing after Ed had suddenly become a chore.
Samuel was forced to swiftly, yet dolorously, slice off the head of an orc that approached him. He endured the pain as what felt like waves after waves of orcs started to dash towards him.
"F*ck" He involuntarily let out a curse.
Ed was by this point in the midst of the crowd. He kept two crystals. A brown crystal and a red-orange crystal, earth, and fire respectively. Without hands, it was hard to use them but possible nonetheless as they were on his body. Then came the next step, chant.
He kept a wary eye on the surroundings as he chanted each word. Ed's words carried with them a certain weight. As if each syllable held extra importance. Maybe that was his own nervousness at work as time felt to be passing by slowly.
The two crystals were brightened as Ed channeled the mana out of them to cast the powerful spell. Their brilliance was luckily clouded by the multiple orcs. Or at least it would have, hadn't Samuel jumped into the air for a better look.
He managed to see a twinkle, a glitter. But he instantly knew and with a swoosh, a sharp blade of wind flew towards Ed's direction.
Ed kept chanting. As much as he hated to, he used the other orcs as a shield. It was inevitable as the only way to prevent somebody from taking the hit for him was to incur the loss himself.
Then, the sky darkened. To be specific, the earth did. The earthen mana condensed into giant chunks of earth blocking the sunlight. This didn't last long though as the light quickly came. The fiery mana turned these rocks ablaze, their radiance comparable to a discount sun.
Samuel's expression turned ugly as he landed on the ground. Not willing to give up, he hurriedly gathered the last bits of his mana. He ran, he jumped, and he spun. The meteors rained down not waiting for his next move.
They had begun their bombardment and the area near the adventurers had become ground zero.
"Clarys!" Yelled Christian with lots of concern. The ground beneath his feet trembled fiercely, with unstable steps he charged forward. His own skills were lacking, he wasn't capable of slicing apart any of the falling rocks to much shame. Still, his chances were much better than the support type Clarys.
The relentless fiery rain of earth was indiscriminating.
"AAAAH!" All sorts of screams started to sound out as some adventurers found themselves lying on the ground with missing limbs. For others, those were their parting words.
Some of the orcs who were closer to the adventurers were unfortunately caught by the shock waves. Ed could only lament their pointless deaths with much sorrow.
"AAARGH!" An unwilling orc screamed out ferociously as a violent vortex of water and wind tore him apart.
'The water spout!' Ed looked at it alarmed.
The reason was that his last crystals had exhausted their mana already. If he intervened using his own mana then the wall was more likely to simply crumble. But at the same time, he couldn't let Samuel so easily interfere.
Ed roused his mana, even if the attempt seemed desperate and pitiful it would be better than doing nothing at all. A wall of earth tried to hastily appear in front of the water spout but was easily broken through. The last few meteors that were raining down were thus intercepted by the vortex.
The heigh from which the meteors were falling and their size was not small though. Meaning that all the water spout did was delay the inevitable or cushion their fall. Regardless, most of the damage had already been done.
Samuel panted loudly from a distance. An orc then came up to him hoping to take advantage of his tired and battered body.
With their unrefined techniques, however, the orcs didn't stand much of a chance. Their brute strength could only show its effect when going against similar level opponents or those weaker.
As he slew the orc Samuel couldn't help but wonder why.
Why? Why were they losing when their enemy was so weak! The answer was Ed but… Why did he exist! This was an anomaly among anomalies, this dungeon was easily one of the most unique and mysterious dungeons out there. So why the hell was it so unassuming!?!
It was frustrating! Why did his peaceful family life turn into this! Was he to blame, he felt so. But at the same time, the circumstances were simply too strange. He thought about his son. Would he need to live his life in fear? In isolation? The dungeon couldn't be allowed to break free of its constraints but… he was powerless to stop it.
He was now, weak and tired, in a nearly mana less state. Humans were simply too weak…
"I can't allow it…" Samuel at that moment vowed.. If there was really another realm, one that could allow him to transcend human limits… then he would reach it.
