The adventurers visibly grimaced at the sight of their companion and the way the earth protruded out of his skin. Blood seeping slowly out of the holes Ed had carved. It was jarring.
The sight was particularly harrowing for Felix who almost went through a similar experience. One could say his slight trauma was kicking in at the moment as his thoughts wandered.
"Felix, can you try to hold the target back?" The B-class paladin, Buster, who took over the party in the last second told the dazed Felix.
"Ah, yes!" Felix snapped out of it and replied.
He couldn't show such a pathetic sight when the moment of truth finally approached.
A clang was then heard as the morning star smashed against Buster's heavy shield. Brutus was one of the first to come into contact with the enemy due to his aggressive nature.
Felix didn't provide any immediate help however as he put something new into practice. He learned it from observing Drake. While at the time his main purpose for using Drake was to get into the expedition, there were also benefits to it. For example, many would kill to have the chance to follow an expert merely to gain inspiration.
Felix's legs were coiled by red-orange flames, he had practiced this move a couple of times. This was obviously a copy of Drake's own flame manifestation ability. It was clearly lacking in technique when compared to Drake but it was enough for a substantial boost in speed.
Felix bolted forward.
But was instantly sliced at by one of the anti-skeletons. The rusty sword hit his armor causing little to no harm. At most, it had received a scratch. The count knew better than to send him ill-prepared into such a dangerous place.
During that brief moment, however, the earth seemed to want to swallow Felix alive as his body suddenly sunk.
"F*ck!" Felix tripped up sliding forward towards Ed, his position less than optimal.
Some sparks flew as his armor was grazed by the cracked dungeon tiles as he slid forward. The ground then tried to stab right through him but the count had spent quite an extravagant amount for this instance. The armor was only warped slightly, Felix was not harmed.
He rolled forward awkwardly to regain his footing but more spikes tried to skewer him. Felix was forced to take some steps back but the anti-skeletons who were now behind him were waiting ready to impale him. Although their swords couldn't penetrate his armor, the joints were still somewhat exposed to allow for some mobility.
With as many as twelve skeletons trying to do him in, it wouldn't be surprising to get stabbed in a couple of places. Those rusty swords could also do some poison damage.
"Hyah!" Scarlet who had tried to follow after Felix intercepted one of the slashes with a blade of her own.
Similar strained cries occurred as other adventurers hurriedly blocked the other skeletons. It was a good thing that Felix knew to step back as otherwise, the adventurers wouldn't have been able to provide backup.
"Thank-" Felix was not getting a single breather however as shots of earth pummeled his armor creating some small craters.
Ed found it somewhat amusing that the magic swordsman from last time could find time to flirt. He was a little disappointed when he thought of how he was so easily defeated by that man in the past. Sure, two shots and he would have died but the man wasn't very bright.
Charging in towards a magician is theoretically a good idea but… It is worth considering how mana works in this world. It is either through fine control or overwhelming numbers that spells can be cast at long distances. The amount of control or amount of mana required is lessened at closer distances.
That is to say, although a magician would be helpless at close quarter combat, getting close enough to perform it is a problem. The environment was also very favorable for Ed since the earth was everywhere in the dungeon. It could come from the walls, it could come from the ceiling, and easily through the ground.
That was why Felix was so easily shot down. His explosive charge also lacked maneuverability meaning it had a predictable path. Straight. Ed only needed to create a small cavity to trip Felix up.
"Felix!" Scarlet yelled with some worry.
Felix was however fine, if they had to worry about someone it would be the C-class adventurers...
"Urgh-!" One felt his hands go numb as the anti-skeleton connected its blade to his own sword.
The anti-skeletons' bodies were tougher and stronger bringing their strength to the C-level. They were therefore equally matched to the average C-class and could slightly overpower the weaker ones. Of course, this only troubled the C-class.
"They are not much!" The paladin Buster yelled as he faced Brutus. He was a B-class adventurer so it was only natural he thought this way. He had expected death knights to be at his rank but apparently he had made an erroneous judgment.
Buster covered his body with his shield and bashed forward colliding with Brutus. As he had reinforced himself with mana, Brutus was inevitably pushed back and made open for a strike.
Buster's weapon was a voulge, this polearm had a single heavy blade used for hacking. It was perfect for taking advantage of the current situation. With a sharp horizontal swing, the head sunk into Brutus' armor from its left side leaving a visible gash.
But that was all it could do as puncturing through the armor took a decent amount of effort. Once it collided with Brutus' body it only left a small scratch. Were he a regular skeleton, the raw force alone would have made him collapse. Unfortunately for Buster, he wasn't.
Buster's expression broke down but he didn't take back his previous shout.
"These things are only good as target dummies, it's a battle of attrition!" Buster clearly pointed out their shortcoming. Their lack of finesse left them as nothing but target dummies. At least from his perspective that is so…
"Aah!" A C-class woman yelled after Prairie managed to leave a cut on her arm past her leather armor.
C-class adventurers didn't only lack skill, they lacked equipment. Buster could easily take on the inexperienced attacks from the skeletons but others could not afford to lose focus.
"Watch out!" Felix yelled as he dived towards Scarlet to shield her. He was once more pummeled by stakes of earth creating new cavities in his armor.
At the sight, Ed couldn't help but feel happy. The man had really come to deliver him his soul! There was obviously no opportunity to protect somebody else on this battlefield.
Ed ran forward. The adventurers weren't a threat to his armored body due to his constitution. If he insisted on casting spells from long distances he would only be wasting mana. Plus, it was also a good idea to end the fight as quickly as possible.
He didn't let Felix who was atop of Scarlet off during this time though.
The ground sunk. Ed decided to arrange them a coffin.
"No!" Felix hurriedly tried to insert his fire mana into the soil to disrupt the sinking ground and its closing.
He grabbed Scarlet who seemed mostly unharmed with the other hand to hurriedly get out the hole.
Ed as he approached was a bit surprised by this. He hadn't thought to use different element mana to disrupt spells.
'It is true that they fight amongst each other…' while the elements may not counter one another, they still couldn't exist peacefully in one space. The only risk he could think of was that during the collisions there was a chance to summon magma or other pseudo-elements.
"Damn!" Felix's leg was then wrapped around by the earth. He used his incomplete move to blast himself out of it in a fit of panic. The small burst did help but his leg ended up suffering the brunt of it.
Felix nearly collapsed when his foot touched the ground. He broke it!
"Felix focus!" Scarlet who he had dragged with him yelled in exasperation. She was having second thoughts about his reliability.
Ed's eyes would surely be radiating with glee if he had any as he neared the two individuals.
'Earth Dome!' Since they didn't want to sink in, Ed would raise the ground.
The dome of earth wouldn't complete itself in a second though. Felix gritted his teeth as he coated his blade with fire.
"Aaaaaargh!" Since it was a reinforced dome of earth that threatened to consume them, he needed to rapidly move the mana through his arm and onto his sword. The strain wasn't small.
His blade shone yellow as he slashed forward to cut the dome apart. He intended to leave through the opening but…
'Peekaboo' Ed's hollow sockets were what greeted Felix after the dome was sliced open. He was holding a sword and lunging forward towards Felix's throat.
Felix felt his life flash right before his eyes as Ed's sword grew ever closer. Each second felt like endless torture. He wasn't optimistic at all!
Ed's strength would surely allow him to puncture past the armor.. Not only that but the sword Ed was using was from one of the dead adventurers. He had the strength and equipment to get the job done!