Lofty's introduction caused some of the weaker members of the company like C-class mages etc to falter involuntarily. For A-class knights like Balin, and even some of his squad captains, however, Lofty only seemed like a nuisance.
"Mages shields!" Balin yelled from the front. Instantly all sorts of barriers appeared. Be they of fire, water, earth, air, or even of pure element-less mana. There were layers upon layers of protection.
Following the roar, Lofty remembered Ed's commands and instructions on how to wield and attack with its mace. Under normal circumstances, what was essentially 30 skeletons in a trench coat wouldn't be able to remember and process all of these things but Ed's command skill meant that the orders needed to be heeded.
Ed created a very specific series of instructions allowing for a limited move set to be made for Lofty as well as his regular skeletons. That was also how Ed accomplished creating archer skeletons.
Lofty started with the first move of the set, a sweeping motion. Lofty pulled back its mace and took a step back. It then took a large step forward and lashed out. The spiky ball attached together to a hilt through the recycling of some chain weapons shot off the ground and coursed forward.
With a bang, the spiky ball collided with the element-less barriers in front of it. The next barriers were then made of fire.
With ease, the ball parted the flames and continued to fly forward with a tilt. That was also when its arcing motion allowed it to collide with the walls of water.
Water splattered in every direction. It was like a giant water balloon had been burst. The mace's quick movement was severely impaired and Lofty was forced to immediately drawback its chain.
Balin continued to look forward with a solemn expression. They all survived.
The earthen and windshields even turned out to be useless. Under normal circumstances, the heated and cooled object that passed through both shields would be forced to crack and break upon colliding with the other shields or even the ground.
Needless to say, this formation of magic shields wasn't perfect. For one, it had a very small window of opportunity, and the chances of it working were also low. The heat of the flame barriers had to be scorching hot for these chances to be increased or the water freezing cold.
Still, they didn't need any of these gimmicks. The skeleton was too weak to face a company of 200. It was one and they were many. They would survive and it would perish.
"This is too easy…" But that didn't mean Balin would not take the opportunity to kill the skeleton. Even if it was a trap killing it wasn't the wrong answer, right?
This was also when lofty followed what its second movement was supposed to be. To charge forward with nearly reckless abandon. Ed's logic for this move was quite simply that he trusted the earthen armor as well as being well aware that Lofty's mace wouldn't be able to destroy everything in its path.
As it charged forward, Lofty rose swung the mace overhead, and attempted to have it rain down on the squads of people. Unfortunately for Lofty, these knights weren't easy targets.
"Spells! Destroy that ball of dirt!" Balin's order echoed in the minds of his subordinates. They heeded his words and a barrage of spells charged into the air. Explosion after explosion, flashing lights of all sorts of colors, the mace was quickly shot into oblivion.
The chain which used to be attached to something clanked loudly as it rose a thick line of dust on the ground which it felt. Those in its direct line of attack however were forced to deflect it with their swords.
"Urgh" "Argh" "We got this!" Those knights reinforced their entire body with mana to take the brunt of the brutish attack. With a clink, the chain would fall beside them only to be seen crawling towards Lofty like a cunning snake.
But that wasn't what they should have been focusing their attention on, in fact…
"Where did-!?" There were suddenly six mage skeletons in the midst of their company. They were crystal skeletons inhabited by the consciousnesses of anti-skeletons.
Ed wasn't leaving them to die, it was simply impossible for any other to take on this suicidal task. The reason was that any new consciousness he placed into these bodies would need to be taught how to perform magic.
Searing hot flames started to rise from within the group. Not only that, a sea of pain was delivered by the raging waters of the water crystal skeletons. The violently trembling earth from the earthen skeletons worked well to disarm the knights when coupled with the waves that washed at their feet.
"ROOOOAR!!!" Another roar sounded as the third movement was put into place. Ed had no way to know if the anti-skeletons inside of the crystal skeletons would have been exposed from this point but if they hadn't they certainly would now.
Lofty grabbed the chain with both hands and tossed it around wildly at the army. The chain wasn't particularly thick as it used recycled chains from adventurers' weapons but that only meant it was quite fast even when under the hands of the slow Lofty.
"It's not so easy to disrupt my company!" Balin yelled before instantly tossing out a bunch of seeds into the air.
The seeds expanded and contracted before all turning into thorn bushes. These thorn bushes grew like vines and roped towards the skeletons inside of his army as well as towards the chain that threatened to crush someone's head.
The thorny vines latched onto the legs of the crystal skeletons and gripped them tightly enough to cause cracks to appear all over their body. The fire crystal skeleton was even on the verge of exploding as its mana seeped through the cracks and exploded atop its surface.
The chains themselves were not left unrestrained. The bush held on firmly and weighed heavily on the chains. Lofty nevertheless continued to struggle to move the chains. The reason was that the time for this particular move had not been spent on its totality.
The nature of the command sub-skill meant that it was impossible to create proper conditions. There were no if and else statements, it was a direct block of code that had to be followed in that order.
Lofty was left stuck in this singular motion. This allowed a large portion of the spells from the mages to land on its earthly armor cracking and peeling it like there was nothing there in the first place.
It didn't take long for Lofty's white bones to be exposed and his body to suffer proper harm.
"Raaaargh!" A distorted cry of anguish and rage then followed. The lofty giant was irritated by the attacks. It was to the point where the commands that used to once ring true in its head were now nothing more of a faint memory.
Lofty dropped its weapon, now a chain, and resorted to its natural instincts. The lust for the living it felt was infinite, that was how desirable the death of those humans was. Lofty jumped straight at the adventurers without any sort of rationality.
This was also when Balin signaled one of his squad captains to take charge.
"Ray, show it some manners" Ray was a master with the bow. The way he integrated magic into his archery was a sight to behold.
Ray drew back the string and narrowed his eyes. The tip of the arrow glowed with bright white radiance and before one knew it the light illuminated the surroundings. It was overwhelmingly blinding.
The string of the bow was released, and so was the arrow. It streaked straight forward and like a white beam of justice remained solid and firm on its straight path.
The dashing figure of Lofty appeared to pause momentarily in mid-air but this was all due to the great force of the arrow as it passed right through Lofty's skull leaving a gaping hole on its forehead.
The hole was even melted around the edges as a result of the life element contained within that beam of light. There was no surviving this.
The giant with broken earthen armor crashed and crumbled like a mound of dirt in the rain. Not long before that, the crystal skeletons were also slain. From the moment they were constricted by Balin's vines, doomed was spelled all over the skeletons' bodies. A rain of swords and spells devastated their body.
"How many casualties?" Balin asked as the thorn bush began to whither and die. All of the squad captains quickly came together and counted the numbered of injured and dead.
"There are 57 injuries, most of them are minor injuries, however. There have been 0 casualties" The report was short and concise but it painted a rosy picture. The small interlude took less than five minutes and yet there had been no serious injuries, nevermind a single casualty.
"Good, treat them with some herbs or potions and we will quickly continue forward," Balin then paused and looked at the corridor from which the giant skeleton originated.
"We should be at the main base of these things soon too" The main base was supposedly a temple. The liches would protect and guard this temple which contained an even more sinister threat.
It sounded like a floor boss but based on the reports it was likely a normal mob. The real issue would be dealing with that mob.
"Hey this giant thing is still here…" Fox commented casually as he approached the giant skeleton. He peered into its armor from the cracks and his eyes suddenly widened.
There were runes shining and spinning as if activating. Fox's heart skipped a beat.
"F*ck! Take cover!" The curious scout suddenly yelled.
