Ed could only smile wryly at the great response of the orcs who were awaiting their savior. That was because he was well aware that things weren't looking good for the settlement. He even felt a bit apologetic.
'I came too late' He had tried, he really had, but… clearly with great power came great restrictions and liabilities.
All things considered, Ed was surprised the dungeon even let him go. The reason was that he quite simply didn't get to negotiate any terms. The dungeon only silently assented to deserting the pursuit of Eon as it stopped spamming messages through the system.
Ed could not possibly know why, he could only infer that Eon was no longer a threat. Was he dead then? He couldn't know that either, but if Eon was, Ed would not be able to stop himself from feeling sour after going through all that suffering.
[You've been grazed by an explosion. -13 hp]
Ed was then assaulted by sudden pain, a burning sensation. It was brief but it existed, and it wouldn't be the last either. A barrage of attacks was darting its way towards Ed, all basically ignoring his summoned skeletons.
That was a smart decision, Ed had to admit that. But their intelligence could not help them when Lofty's giant body intercepted the attacks with its bare bones.
Lofty's mighty back started to crack and giant ribs started to fall and break off. Lofty did not have any sort of metal in him, he was just regular human bones. While bones themselves could not be considered weak in comparison to the flesh they were nowhere near enough to survive a bombardment of spells.
The prompt assistance from the giant skeleton allowed Ed to divert his focus from battle if even for just a second. He needed to do this because his goal was not to fight, but to rescue the orcs.
[Champion is advised to eliminate all intruders]
Though the system itself was not keen, Ed knew his limits. The barrage of attacks that destroyed the body of Lofty was not something he could face so easily. Similarly, the large quantities of B-class mages in front of him were too much to handle.
A simple glance revealed at least 20 mages within the B class range each being sporadically protected by Spearman. This actually sounded feasible but…
Ed's skeletons had made two walls to separate the orcs. Naturally, the humans weren't happy to see this. The other wall protecting the flanks of the retreating orc crumbled under the attacks of two B-class warriors allowing the humans a plain visage of Ed's troops and Ed himself.
'If they keep on getting reinforcements it's a separate matter...' He couldn't know how many would come from behind these walls. He had to act.
"C- Captain!" One of the knights said hysterically seeing the troops of skeletons behind the green orc.
"I know…" Varick the shield squad captain said glaring at the distant troupe of devil skulls. He also spared a glance to his comrade Bronze and the orc that stood next to a large pile of charred bones.
Ed had to act so he did, he stomped on the ground and dashed towards the hole the human he launched oh so kindly made.
His ridiculous strength attribute made it so even dash seemed like an understatement as he was face to face with the person he launched in a matter of seconds. As for why he would target this person again… the reason was quite obvious!
Bronze barely had time to lift their spear, now two pieces, to block Ed's cleaving axe strike but that wouldn't have mattered as he seemed to realize in the last few seconds of the slash cutting through the air in front of him.
The axe having landed squarely on the ground sent vibrations down everyone's feet, but vibrations weren't the only thing Ed managed to do with this move. The axe strike made two walls of earth form and rise up to create a tunnel, it connected the new hole made by the humans to the one with only Ed.
'You all blast two exits and lead the groups out' Ed commanded to his anti-skeletons. The grand majority of them had been given new bodies, but that didn't mean they were unaccustomed to them or that they were significantly weakened. The positive part of mass-producing these skeletons was that all of their bodies were equals.
The anti-skeletons heed the order. A scavenger who was usually not much in terms of strength performed a spectacular display of control in order to fulfill it in fact.
With nothing but a short sword coated in a faint green light, he cut a perfect square exit for the orcs trapped inside the defensive walls set up by Trench and the others.
The knights which had been too busy defending themselves could not stop this. Though that didn't mean they didn't try, a spear of fire darted towards the occupied Scavenger. It was promptly noticed and shot down by a similarly accurate shot from Prairie. This skeleton didn't stand out too much, but that didn't mean that their position as a progenitor of Ed's skeleton soldiers was wasted.
Prairie had formed a water spear of their own and in an elegant display of launched the water spear accurately at the tip of the flaming spear both attacks extinguishing into white mist.
While these short interchanges continued to between the skeletons and the mages, Ed himself was very busy. The things currently in his arsenal were nowhere near enough to cope with the numbers of humans.
"What is that?" A knight asked with skepticism stopping his charge after noticing three new armored figures appearing in front of him. These figures were strange, almost inhuman.
That sounded ridiculous considering the literal skeletons behind the orc, but one could argue they had been human and were therefore not inhuman in this case, things were different.
The things wearing the armor had rigid movements, it was as if these movements were wired into them. They ran towards the armored knights without a shred of hesitation and showed no extra behavior. No superfluous action, no wasted movement. No sign of life.
Varick didn't care anymore. If he wanted to find out what it was, he needed to first block an attack.
"Shields! Assemble!" Varick shouted from the top of his lungs hoping his orders not to be drowned out in the chaotic battlefield.
One by one the shield-bearing warriors took to the front and the three figures came to attack with their bare fists at that very moment.
A loud clang rang out and the hands Varick used to hold his shield were vibrating faintly and even grew numb.
"Wh-" This power felt like a mountain had come crashing down on his shield, the strength of the creature was unfathomable. It wasn't human! It wasn't orc! It had to be something else!
These thoughts didn't stop Varick from executing a retaliation, however. His towering shield could be considered a mountain of its own. Varick's feet became deeply rooted into the ground and he pushed back with all he could muster successfully forcing the creature to fall in an ungraceful manner.
'This is hard' Ed thought as he quickly jumped over the earthen puppet and swung back his fist to deliver a powerful blow. The devastating strike landed on Varick's shield and Varick who could not see the scary orc behind his shield was left stunned after his body skidded backward.
"The formation-!" Varick could not fail his one job, but he did, and the knights behind who wanted to help were helplessly let down by the fact that they lacked the physical strength.
"Aaaargh!!!" One shouted after finding their face bashed in by one of the armored puppets. He wasn't entirely useless, the knight did manage to get a good strike in but…
Even though his sword avoided the armor and went past the joints of the humanoid armored beings he was surprised to find not empty air from the armor being controlled by a skeleton, but a rock hard surface.
He didn't have to dwell on it much longer after that however as his head was calmly lopped off by one of Ed's horizontal strikes.
Ed was then surprised to find a muddy spear aiming straight at his face.
Ed's initial attack against Bronze was dodged quite well, well enough for him to flee anyway. With Ed sending instructions as well Bronze was effectively able to retreat back into the group of knights. All for this moment!
[You've been dealt a direct hit! -37]
'Ah!' Ed yelled inwardly suddenly finding his vision had gone black. It was also at this time that a bunch of weapons started to sink into his skin from many directions.
That was because the earthen puppets were living, yet dead. They could not see and with Ed being the puppeteer if he could not see, neither could they.
[You've been dealt a critical hit! -67]
Ed's throat which was about to roar angrily was then suddenly cut at leaving him literally speechless. Fortunately, his boundless vitality and crazy constitution negated the lethality of the strike.
Drowning in his own blood, Ed knew he had to do something.
[You've been dealt damage. -32]
The slew of painful messages continue to torment Ed's mind, but he then suddenly mustered all the mana in his body. He couldn't see but that didn't mean he could just claw at his face, not while he was surrounded at least.
Ed manipulated this mana to reach every corner of his body before it was all promptly released as a powerful repulsive force.
The knights who were in the midst of an attack were sent flying and those firmly footed were pushed back slightly. But Ed wasn't done just yet, who said he could only release wind!?
