Ed's eyes seemed tranquil but hidden beneath the facade was evident murderous intent. The mages seemed to also sense this killing intent as they reacted by slowly standing up and backing away from him, fear plainly visible in their every gesture.
'This is good' Ed saw that some managed to maintain a cool head even under these circumstances but he still felt this was good. The mages were less likely to cooperate efficiently under this situation. That was the last thing he wanted.
'I'll spare those who surrender' Thus, Ed decided to use this fear to sow some discord. Less likely was not a guarantee, he had to get some leverage.
"Spare- Really?" A weak-looking B-class mage asked while trembling. Ed didn't have to smell fear to know this person was terrified, he had eyes after all.
Before a peaceful civilized conversation could ensue... One of his fellow mages kicked him on the side, he did so with an incensed expression. To him, it seemed disgraceful to consider this proposal silently in one's mind never mind actually utter the words!
'Guaranteed' Ed transmitted in reply with a confident tone not minding the small conflict. He basically ignored it as he guaranteed the human's right to live. To Ed's credit, there was really no reason for him to lie about this. He wanted to capture a human for a long time and the transmission contained some of this... sincerity...
The atmosphere among the mages seemed to turn weird after the words of Ed caused some hidden tension to appear between them. They, too, had heard the sincere words of the green devil. But to Ed's surprise, the cowardly mage he talked to suddenly made an unyielding expression.
"Damn you monsters!" He screamed out before sending mana into his wand. His sudden change of attitude made Ed confused but he didn't think much of it. He just had to kill him.
The fearful mage overcoming his fear however helped all the other mages come to a decision making every thing different. The other mages also powered up.
"Oh?" Ed certainly didn't see this outcome coming. Still, he didn't think this was actually a problem. He simply had to forcefully abduct one of them.
'Help me out' Ed commanded to the skeletons that seemed to be idling about. Ed didn't know if that was the truth or if they had grown significantly in the awareness department. What mattered to him was that they weren't fighting now when they should have been.
Trench, who was out of mana, stood still confused by the movements of his fellows. Ed only transferred this command to the skeletons he saw were in good condition for battle. He didn't want to spend more of his resources.
As the spells of the mages whirred, Ed was prepared to tank it. What was the point of collecting all of those attributes if he didn't put them to good use? But at the same time, he could only take so much damage. Ed came up with something else instead.
"Wh- What?!!" The mages suddenly exclaimed after a cube of earth was placed in between them and their target. Thanks to both the suddenness of the event and their own surprise, they were too late to stop themselves from firing their spells.
The spells were released and they all blasted onto the rocky cube of unknown origins. The multiple elements exploded or sliced and decimated the rocky surface within a matter of seconds.
"He couldn't have cast that…" One of the mages thought in mutter before widening their eyes in surprise. The cube wasn't empty.
Blood started to seep out in large quantities leaving the mages utterly stunned. Was the rock a living thing?! This small thought only lasted a second in their heads before it was promptly dismissed. What mattered now was surviving!
The blood which had flooded out felt like a torrent of waves slamming against their feeble mage bodies. Fortunately, the vigorous red blood of Blurak which spewed out from the cube only ended up tainting the ground red
[You've been dealt damage. -2 hp]
Ed who had been hiding behind this fractured cube was impacted by the debris that shot out from it following the explosion of combined spells. But the damage was negligible.
Similarly, some approaching anti-skeletons were also hit by small chunks of earth but they were made of metal so at most only a mild dent was left. Overall, Ed's idea to summon some protection from his storeroom was not unwise.
'Though it is a pity to waste all of this blood' it was especially so after the disappearance of Blurak. Ed could only assume he was dead and there was no way for him to know when a replacement might appear.
'Gold, approach with them from the left, the others take the right' Ed gave confusing commands to his anti-skeletons which thanks to the nature of transmission were well understood.
The cube was obviously rather large, large enough to be used as cover anyway. This also meant that it could block the mages' vision and this could be taken advantage of to close the distance.
"To the left!" One mage yelled brandishing their wand straight towards the left some other mages acting on his command hastily did the same.
Ed who was coming from this side only flashed a smile as he saw this.
'You are all quite lucky' The side that met him would only be captured by him but for the others...
Gold and the other anti-skeletons were ruthless as they approached. Gold's armor was one of the best available so as the mages chanted and cast out elementary spells in haste they were unable to make any real leeway.
Most would be easily tanked by the armor and anything else would be cut or pierce by Gold's spear.
"F*ck! We need to retreat!" One mage yelled as they tripped on their own feet while trying to dodge Gold's spear.
The spear sliced down following his falling trajectory. The mage hastily cast a shield of air but it dissipated just as soon as it formed.
"ARRGH!!!" He screamed in pain after the edge of Gold's spear lacerated his body. But that was nothing compared to what followed. The anti-skeletons non-existent gaze seemed to have lit up at the sight of blood.
Each of their subsequent swings were driven by the madness and hatred of the living they were known for. Needless to say, it was a sorry sight Ed thought as he tanked an elementary spell and bashed the head of the mage responsible.
[You've been dealt damage. -25 hp]
The small amounts of damage were inconsequential to Ed who continued to simply knock out the human mages one after the other. He would sometimes kill them by accident which he felt quite sorry for.
'Let's try something quickly' Ed hadn't forgotten about Balin and the rest who would charge out of the cavern any moment. If he spent too long a time there he wouldn't be at all able to collapse the cavern.
'Area store!' Ed used the area store upgrade and another mage who was casting a spell was left utterly surprised when the ground beneath him thinned slightly and his wand seemed to disappear without a trace of how or to where.
"Th- This…" He hurriedly looked down at himself and was left relieved after finding his clothing had somehow remained on his body.
"Bonk" Ed then simply knocked out the human. Before trying to suck in his soul directly.
[Insufficient Strength]
'Huh…' The strength was obviously not physical strength. It either referred to his consciousness strength or that of the system's and it was curious either way.
'This suggests that the strength of the soul or consciousness matters when taking them out from the body directly' The humans souls were either too strong or too complicated. Whatever the answer might be, it meant that he couldn't store these humans or take their souls unless dead.
That meant that all the humans he knocked out had been for nothing. Well, he could carry at least one along himself so he did.
'I guess I need to kill the rest' Ed sighed before commanding his anti-skeletons to stab every single one of them to death.
'Good job all' Was all Ed then continued to say before using area store on all the corpses and the anti-skeletons themselves.
'Scavenger should have finished escorting them out by now' Ed thought before sprinting off. Ed was quite worried as he did so. He hadn't forgotten that the orcs' situation had not been very optimistic the chances that someone close to him died… they weren't slim.
'I- I can't revive them' If they died before he got close enough they were dead for good. Ed smiled inwardly mocking his so-called mental fortitude. Sure he had upgraded that skill but he was bound to have learned that this could happen by now, no?
But, it was just as true that one never really got over the deaths of their loved ones. Nor was the second, third, fourth, time someone close died, etc any less painful.
It was a hard concept to understand but for some reason, Ed felt he knew it well enough. Was there a chance his previous life was tragic? He couldn't say, the bits he had managed to recover seemed rather… mundane...
Hiding the worries deeply etched into his mind deeper there, Ed's gait increased.