'I guess they don't have much of a choice in this though' Ed thought casually as he started to manipulate the mana in his surroundings. His robe of stars in its roughed up state ignited into action as well.
Ed was casting a space element spell. The robe's activation indicated so. The only problem was that what he wanted to cast now, he had never cast before.
'I need more mana!' Ed thought as he saw the dazzling lights that were the spells continue to dart towards the falling chunk of giant rock he called a meteor.
His robe of stars had suffered damage resulting in some of its performance decreasing. Ed hadn't dabbled in enchanting weapons or equipment so he wasn't sure of the exact science, what he was sure of was that it put him in a tough spot!
'Damn! Maybe I should have taken that arrow!' Ed started to regret wasting his mana on two measly teleports but there was nothing he could do. If the robe had maintained its pristine state things would have simply be left on empty but now...
The spells finally reached the giant rock and Ed's window of opportunity continued to close. Not only that, his potential profits were doing so too!
Ed gritted his teeth. If he couldn't get more mana… he would just need to compress the mana further!
The space anomalies were formed by the compression of mana. That usually meant that compressing high quantities of mana was the way to go but if he compressed a lesser amount of mana it should create the same or at least a similar result, no?
The mana in Ed's core started to be quickly emptied.
[Mana Manipulation has leveled up]
The emptying core started to quiver before beginning to show small cracks.
[You've been dealt damage. -5hp]
[You've been dealt damage. -7hp]
As the cracks spread around the core and the mana he compressed continued to increase, so did Ed's damage.
[You've been dealt direct damage. -50hp]
All of a sudden, the turbulent space mana which Ed intended to send out towards the meteor lashed out and Ed took a chunk of damage.
'M- My arm!' One of Ed's arms which was covered by the tattered robe had cracked with a spider web pattern before turning into small bits that fell simply on the ground. Ed gnashed his teeth after seeing a giant wave head towards his direction. He knew that one of the A-class knights had taken action.
Ed shot a glance at the sky. The giant meteor started to be split apart under the bombardment and the knights now worked on slicing apart any rocks that fell towards their direction.
'I'll be damned if I did all this for nothing!' If he wanted to kill himself he would have done it in a situation where he could get his drop item!
[<???> Perk activated]
[Mana Manipulation has leveled up]
[You've been dealt damage. -25hp]
Ed's forearm was then destroyed and the wave of water landed on his unprotected weakened body.
'No!' This was Ed's last thought as he took a final glance at the meteor and his body was nearly washed away into the portal next to him.
[You've been dealt damage. -13hp]
What remained of Ed's other arm then completely crumbled after being dislodged by the large wave of water. He dug his legs into the earth in an attempt to hold his ground and finish his casting.
[You've been dealt explosive damage. -32 hp]
[Explosion Resistance has leveled up]
Ed's robe then exploded on him but luckily, this was also when his spell was finally completed. The wave which had assaulted him also ceased at that moment and Ed's beaten body fell onto the wet floor.
The meteor, which had at this point lost half of its size as well as much of its downward momentum, suddenly caught a breather.
The giant meteor of the earth that Ed had created was unbelievably large and dense. As to not waste all of their efforts, the mage captains decided to settle for delaying the descent and buying themselves time for a third volley which would destroy it to the core for sure.
Chants from the ones that had fired the first volley started to sound out just as the ones in charge of the second volley started to release their own spells.
Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, all sorts of elements manifested themselves in front of the mages who were ready to let them loose at a moment's notice.
"Second volley, fire!" There came the signal.
Unexpectedly, the space in front of it started to warp before forming itself into a pitch-black dot. This surreal darkness made some feel as if they were peeking into the abyss. One of these persons was an experienced mage.
"Don't fire the second volley!" Though not the captain, the mage shouted out an order.
"F****CK!!!" But it was too late as all of the mages had finished their chants and the volley started to dart towards the dark dot.
Balin, who had previously sent a large wave of water to disrupt the special mob, was taken aback by the loud curse. This stopped him from launching some white seeds towards the meteor
"What!?!" But it was no surprise for someone to curse, a second black dot appeared right next to the first one. Balin had a bad premonition.
Out of the second volley, the lightning was the first to reach the black dot. It was sucked into the void of nothingness and not a second later was shot out by the portal next to it.
Like a true bolt of lightning, it rained from the sky onto an unsuspecting victim.
"Aaaargh!" One of the knights fighting the regular skeletons was struck by this bolt paralyzing him on the spot. The small weakling skeletons then began to jump on him.
"Get the hell off me!" He yelled as he pried off the weakling from himself with only a little bit of trouble.
"Barriers!!!" Balin screamed with immense trepidation. All of the various spells began to enter the portal. The unstable small black gate began to shoot out all of these spells in all sorts of random directions.
The mages that had just cast their spells were forced right back into the action.
"AAAargh!" But some couldn't cast a barrier faster than the spells were fired towards them.
The distant Ed could faintly hear these screams of pain. Looking past the tree wall, one could see how balls of fires and chunks of ice rained down on the knights and mages. On another side, water gushed and wind darted towards the ground leaving mean gashes.
One gash was particularly mean as it cut a mage into two before drawing itself onto the ground. It became a small pool for the blood of the young mage.
"Harry!" The knight who was supposed to protect him yelled exasperated before finding himself pinned down on the ground by a large chunk of stone. The armor which protected his body dented and his spine was crushed by the weight. He died.
'Hahaha… I did it!' Ed activated his sixth sense and watched as souls continued to make their way towards his direction. They flew towards him like moths towards flame and Ed welcomed these moths with open arms.
This happiness was shortlived, Ed then narrowed his vision. He saw a figure atop a tree start to rise upwards. It reminded Ed of a certain fairytale.
Balin, the figure atop this growing beanstalk gripped tightly onto his sword. He sliced through the air and blocked as many spells as he could.
"Come on!" Balin couldn't stop everything, however.
A sharp icicle lodged itself in between his armor joints making him grunt in pain. Balin swung again.
He was pelted by a wayward stone.
For every swing Balin did to block one spell, another would hit him. Balin was tanking spells for his party.
As the portals spurted out the final spells of the volley, Balin's swinging finally stopped. Some of his body felt sore and his armor was full of burn and pelt marks. Nevertheless, it did its job.
Balin's stalk started to lower itself. Balin was glad that the short emergency was over.
Ed on the other hand was left truly devastated in both mind and body.
'I didn't reach the requirement' Mostly body but he was pained by failing to level up his consciousness. Nevertheless, with the current state of his body, it seemed he would have to resign himself to fate.
His arms were broken and his legs were not in a much better state. Many cracks were formed around them.
'This is tougher than I thought it would be' Ed's preparations had been insufficient. For one, he was unable to rig the eternity of the boss room. There was only one main reason for this… the room was too large!
Ed was never given much time between the dungeon notifying him and the adventurers arriving at his location. He had focused on reassembling his small army as well as creating armor for Lofty.
Ed had also rigged his temple and created many traps outside of the boss gate area many of which were even left unused while being necessary.
There was no time to blow up the entire boss room. Blowing up only a portion required that he predict where the knights would be or to direct them towards that location. If Ed had rigged it, the ideal location would have been the entrance.
'I could have kept them at the entrance by summoning the fireless meteor rain' He could then blow the whole thing after they huddled together to defend against the skeletons. Overall, not a horrible plan. But it was too late!
Ed glanced around himself, he didn't know how many more knights he had to kill to level up but he didn't think it would be that many.
'I just 10, no- five people' Ed wanted to think optimistically.
After noticing a final soul start to head towards him, Ed struggled to get himself up without any arms. Using whatever slimmer he recovered, he lifted himself with mana manipulation, and then he chanted.
"dinû awhenyd tshuþl" It was requiem. Ed didn't know who this soul belonged to, nor did he know if he was even remotely close to the body for the skill to activate. All he knew was that he needed it to be the soul of a strong warrior. One capable of making up for his own loss.
These thoughts spurred his voice to grow louder. His gibberish resounded and echoed in the mostly empty boss room allowing all to hear. All included his white skeletons.
After a short moment of repose, the white skeletons grew newfound vigor and went into a frenzy. Nevertheless, the difference in level between them and their opponent couldn't be so easily closed.
It was at this time that the hand of a robed corpse began to twitch.