The knights and mages were beginning to feel cornered. The black firey smog continued to slowly expand and with nowhere to retreat, a wall of earth was instead raised in front of them.
"Retreat for now! We can't contain this thing" Balin gave out his order. Immediately, all of the mages canceled their casting or shot the spells into a wall before running ahead of the knights towards the still opened boss door.
Usually when a boss appears the door would close and the portal to the next floor would do the same but it seemed that due to the peculiar nature of Gwydion's spawn neither of these things happened.
This also meant that Ed was left with no more choices.
'It's over' Ed did not succeed. The knights also lost a fair amount of personnel but could it be compared to Ed's own losses?
He lost over 300 hundred regular skeletons and the bodies of most of his anti-skeletons had basically been obliterated. Gold's armor had to be in a less than optimal condition at this point and the other survivors could not be faring better considering they didn't have any armor.
If he named them as he did for the anti-skeleton Sole that one time then there would be many soles.
As the smog-like flames began to fade away, Ed's vision returned. Thanks to this he was finally able to see his surroundings.
One thing worth looking at was where the knights and mages should have been, there now stood a tall wall of earth full of holes like swiss cheese. It seemed that the random nature of fire caused certain areas to be broken through while others simply received nasty burns.
Ed then swept his gaze through the rest of the boss room. His skeletons which could be faring much better where haggardly yet excitedly making their way towards them.
Ed's sight then finally fell on Gwydion. The lich's life was shortlived.
Gwydion's skeleton stood tall and proud. The skeleton exuded an odd sense of achievement. But it was dead.
The purple flame that inhabited its sockets was gone. There lay no trace of it anywhere. There was just a husk of a boss. Nevertheless, that was just as exciting for Ed.
'I can use this' The drop items were usually decided by the soul or consciousness based on his findings so there would be no drop items but storing Gwydion's body before the dungeon had a chance to absorb it was just as fine.
'Bring me closer to him' Ed sent out a command to the anti-skeletons in the best conditions. The earthen anti-skeleton mage who had stayed by his side and Kenny Jr. heeded this call.
Under normal circumstances, Ed would ask himself how exactly the cheery skeleton managed to make it through almost unscathed but Ed wasn't in the mood for jokes.
Both of them carefully brought Gwydion's body in front of Ed and without too much care, Ed used area store on it.
'You've all done me well. You can rest now' After that Ed also used area store on the others regardless of condition. They seemed reluctant when they first received this message but area store never left room for protest.
Ed felt bitter as he was left alone in the boss room. Of course, he knew this peace was only temporary. The knights had at most gone back to reassess their situation and take a short breather. A mage's mana was not limitless and neither was a knight's stamina.
Left with no way to retreat, Ed had to press forward. He started to walk unsteadily towards the portal as it turned out arms were important for balance.
'I didn't get the souls I wanted' That was fine. He had been too wishful. The moment he learned of the enemies' enhanced numerical advantage he should have planned to retreat.
'Now I didn't get the souls and lost many skeletons' His struggle felt pointless. He wasted both time and resources for a low return. The situation wasn't a complete loss since he did manage to learn some things and even acquire Gwydion's body but a loss was still a loss.
As Ed's body entered the surreal black dot of space, his thoughts began to wander and the feeling of his body became numb and distant. This was only temporary as once he crossed over he was simply thrown onto the ground without any issue.
He shook off his grogginess and then looked around a bit as if trying to find something.
'Here it is' Ed had hidden some crystals around the area for constructing a trap but the timing had never been perfect. Now that the knights had taken a breather the situation allowed for him to write an array without fear of persecution.
'If I hurry up I might still be able to get the souls I need' The orc plains were currently dark. The resplendent moonlight shined on the blades of grass painting a serene scene. The ruins with the dark portal somehow managed to also fit right into the picture.
Still, though it was dark currently, it wouldn't continue to be so in one or two hours. The moon seemed like it would soon be setting into the horizon and the sun would rise from the opposite side.
Ed found it weird how realistic the dungeon made its environment but he paid it no mind as he began to prepare his trap under this moonlight.
The trap was still a lava trap but unlike the one at the temple, this one would be arguably more sinister. As for how Ed was managing to draw this array…
'The handicapped need to get themselves earthen magic' Ed could use it to grip onto his brush and draw or he could create seams on the earth to have the blood ink dry in the required shape of the array he intended to form.
[<Formationist lvl. 1> Acquired]
Ed's skeleton body even managed to rather quickly acquire the formationist skill from these unorthodox methods. With the skill as an added bonus, Ed managed to finish the new array in record time.
For now, he dubbed it as a simple lava fall array. The device was located on an artificial ceiling above the ruins and it would do as described. There were now two main issues with this array.
'How many people can even go through this portal?' The space anomaly that teleported one between both floors was odd to its core but the size was not all that large. This meant that after the trap was triggered once, lava would be on the floor for the next teleported person to appear. Lava however formed a crust on its surface relatively quickly so its effectivity had to be called into question.
'Now that I think about it, eliminating the knights through this portal seems far more feasible' The portal limited the number of people that could emerge meaning they could be eliminated in either small groups or as individuals. While it didn't sound like it was too late Ed's current body was basically crippled.
'If they come too quickly I might end up overwhelmed' Ed would have to first see the portal and the array in action before being able to say for sure.
Ed watched the portal for a while. Surprisingly, even as the moon began to set on the horizon there was no sign of any humans emerging from it. Ed was thus left entirely puzzled.
'Why aren't they coming through?' Ed would have to go back to his orc body soon. He could just as well decide to give all of the orcs a scare by not returning but if possible it was best to avoid it.
He would just wait some more for now. He could only hope the humans hadn't suddenly decided to retreat.
***
Outside of the boss room, the royal third company led by Balin was facing an unexpected personage of high status. The way in which it was happening was however not its best.
"What are you doing with our king!?" Balin obviously knew of Eon as the previous assassination incident was in no way easy to forget nevermind the fact that it happened less than two weeks ago.
"I'm looking for a way to- cough- ahem, let him recover" Eon coughed up a bit of blood before cooly finishing his words. The knights were however not amused by the answer.
"By bringing the unconscious king into a dungeon!?!" Balin roared with a vein nearly popping out of his forehead. He wasn't wearing his helmet as they weren't in combat so this enranged expression was there for all to see.
That changed quickly however as Balin equipped his helm and pulled out his sword. The initial plan was to wait for all of the mages to recover to their maximum capacity but before that could happen Eon barged in carrying their king as if he were luggage.
"Cough Cough, I- Cough I'm only doing this for his own good" Eon had two goals when entering this dungeon. One was to discover how the legendary figures managed to revive and the second was to investigate how the space in the dungeon worked.
Eon hadn't traveled through the portal in the boss room himself but reading about Samuel's journey into it made him extremely curious. His worsening cough was starting to pressure him a little too after the first battle with the assassin.
That sounded fine and dandy but why would he bring the king as well?
Balin seemed to be just about to cut Eon into two parts as he got into his stance but before he could...
"Sigh… Move again and I'll kill him" Eon said with evident killing intent. This killing intent scared even Balin who almost instinctively backed down.
Eon brought the king to threaten the royal company. They were old partners but Eon was not a man of emotions. If he was he would have many grandchildren littering the world.
But he didn't have any. He was a man of focus and commitment. He was committed to his research and focused solely on it. No exception.
It just so happened that to carry out any sort of research inside of this dungeon he needed a trustworthy security detail. This might not have been the case had things proceeded smoothly but such a universe didn't exist.
"You-!" Balin was outraged by the words and after realizing he almost backed down he was all the more. Nevertheless, this rage was only temporary.
"Commander, I think we could use the extra hand" Ray said uneasily from behind Balin.
Balin nodded and put down his weapon. There was something needing fixing and Eon was just the man they could hope to encounter.
"We will entrust the portal in there to you then" Balin pointed at the boss room and said.
"Of course" Eon responded before making the king disappear from sight.. Helping the royal company was helping himself.