Fighting on the eighth floor of the Goldmine was completely different to the other times Ajax had been in the dungeon. The closest he could get to it was when he first started going into the dungeon back in Lessis, but even then The Collectors had a bigger level and skill lead compared to the creatures that showed up, now however most of the party was on the low level range for entering this floor and they were pushing their skills to make up the difference.
The biggest thing Ajax noticed was that the passive mana he could use [Syphon Mana] on counted for 75% of the cost when he was running at maximum absorption. This was also the only reason why he had any mana left after the fifth fight they encountered. Thankfully there was nothing like curse mana on this floor that would negatively affect him or else he would be screwed.
The elite team on the other hand dealt with the delve a lot different than he would normally see things done. First of all the mages almost never took part in a fight. Mainly to maintain mana and they only jumped in when something looked like it would go wrong. Second they picked their fights carefully so that they always outnumbered the monsters they were facing, at least two to one though three to one was preferable.
So far the team had found giant scorpions, and worms. A weird mix between a hippo and a rhino that liked to bathe in magma, the mages had needed to take care of that one with a bit of ranger support as nobody wanted to let those things get close to them. An immovable treent type that seemed to root in lava and try to eat them. Lastly they also ran into more than a few golems.
“Good thing they’re golems and not rock elementals.” Trevor let out a sigh after the team decided to on a spot to set up camp after clearing a group of golems.
Golems were made of stronger rock than earth elementals of the same level but they paid for that in a few ways. Firstly their core was locked in place either in the center of their chest or the head. Secondly while the rock they were made from was stronger it also took a lot of time to replace should it be damaged, unlike an earth elemental that had a stronger healing factor than Wolverine and Deadpool combined while in contact with the ground.
The companions the team had brought with them were of next to no use in direct combat. With them being at least ten levels behind they could little more than buy time. Their use for logistics and scouting however really endeared them to Ajax. The two bisons were given a rushed haircut once the floor theme was revealed, same with the bear, leaving just enough of their fur and hair for a little protection and Ajax could swear he could see the sweat forming and dripping from them.
Nobody actually bothered to set up a tent during the night. Unlike previous desert themed floors the night time here wasn’t actually freezing but the same persistent heat that the floor had to start with. The team simply put down their bedrolls and decided to sleep with just a bit of cover and a few people on watch.
“GOLEMS INCOMING!” The shout woke Ajax up from a deep sleep. “At least fifteen of them!”
That wasn’t good, there were far too many of them and the team had kept almost all engagements to seven opponents at most. Ajax was quick to jump up and take out his hammer and shield. He knew that slashing damage meant little to the hard rocky bodies and that a hammer was the way to go, more than that the shield was a requirement as the golems were surprisingly quick for the huge power they packed. Most of that coming from the fact they had practically no joints limiting their limbs movement.
The first thing Ajax saw was Trevor's bear getting punted across the camp by one of the golems. Thankfully that wasn’t enough to kill the bond but it was clear its front paw was broken as it couldn’t put any weight on it.
With no option left Ajax went right to his [Void Aspect Mana]. For all their strengths a golems core was actually quite fragile, this made void attacks that bypassed their impressive amor devastating to them yet Ajax had hoped he wouldn’t be forced to show it.
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With his [Mana Syphon] running at maximum capacity Ajax pushed himself to move quickly and try to even to drop a few golems with a surprise void offensive. The plant worked well and the first golem took a hammer to the head that barely chipped the rock there only for it to suddenly drop dead a second later as the core shattered inside its body.
Ajax pure offense took out another two golems before he caught a bad deflection with his shield sending him flying much like Trevor’s bear. Ajax could feel that while his arm wasn’t broken the blow had dislocated his shoulder and the arm hung limply by his side.
He didn’t let that stop him as he charged again. While his speed hadn’t dropped the rest of the team had gotten into formation and with the three kills Ajax got they had been given enough of a reprieve to start making good progress themselves.
With the initial surprise over and the mages not sitting on the sidelines the battle quickly turned into the teams favor as golem after golem was turned to rubble. Ajax got another two kills before the rest of the physical fighters brought four down and the mages depleted their mana pools to finish off the last six.
Most of the team let out a sigh of relief as the last golem dropped but that didn’t mean they were fine. Nobody was dead yet but one of the rangers had gotten surrounded and took a glancing blow to his little armored head. He was now in a pool of blood with the team's healer there trying to patch him back up.
“Help me out with my shoulder.” Ajax asked Trevor as he walked up to him. “It’s not broken, only dislocated and I need to get it back into the socket.”
“On three.” Trevor nodded to him as they both got into position. “One… Two…”
There was no three, and while Ajax knew that this was the correct choice to prevent any damage from him flexing on three the surprise that came with the sharp pain caused him to let out a mix between a growl and a yell.
“The table is set up.” came the announcement as a table filled to the brim with their rations was placed in the middle of camp.
Nobody really had any appetite to eat right after the fight had ended but all of the injured members, which was more than half the team at this point, started shoveling food. Even the ranger with the cracked skull was given a medieval form of IV. All of it was to help out with the mana cost of the healing, this way there would be more nutrients for the healing spells to pull from instead of consuming the mana to repair the wounds.
For the mages, eating wasn’t all they were doing. While they didn’t have skills, knowledge and spells needed for proper healing all of them knew one spell or another that could pause or slow a deadly wound while they waited for a healer to get to them.
Ajax had already taken care of his shoulder the best that he knew how. It wasn’t perfect as the shoulder still had a weak dull throb but it was good enough for now until the team’s healer could see him. Having shoveled three meals worth of rations down his throat Ajax stood up and headed towards the bear.
Out of the bonds it looked like the falcone was the only one to have gotten out unscathed. One of the mountain lions had lost an ear, one its tail and a third had a few chipped teeth that had been grinded as it tried to restrain the arm of a golem. All of those wounds were something Ajax couldn’t help with.
The two bison had each lost one of their horns and both had a few large bruises across their bodies. It would take a healer to regrow the horns but Ajax was optimistic about the bruises but first on his list was the bear's shattered paw.
“What are you doing?” Trevor II asked him as he saw him approach the bear.
“I have a non chanted spell version for healing as well.” Ajax answered. “Unlike my combat magic however I’m the only person I’ve ever tried it on and nobody is that badly injured that I need to experiment on them. I have healed a few bears before however.”
“Oh, your spells sure are something.” one of the mages said having heard the conversation. “ What the hell was that thing you used on your hammer? Your wound up blows barely chipped the rock, far less than a non-spell enhanced blow should yet they would drop dead right after.”
“That’s one of my ‘aces’.” Ajax answered.
All of the people looking questioningly at him right now simply nodded at that explanation. Professor Silvertongue had told him that even members of their house had skills or abilities they kept hidden from all but the decision makers of house Silvertongue. Those abilities were their ‘aces’ and once someone identified a skill or ability as such they wouldn’t push for more information on it. Ajax knew that his void aspect would definitely be reported back but the wouldn’t be pressing him for more information.
With that conversation handled Ajax took a look at his mana 250/2340. Those extra seven points in mind gave him a bit of extra mana to try to help the bear with but he knew it wouldn’t be enough.
“Here” Trevor said as he extended a mana potion to Ajax. “Do what you can for him please.”
Ajax took the potion and chugged it, it tasted like minty mouthwash but Ajax could already feel his mana regenerate quick. In a matter of seconds he now had 600 points of mana, enough to hopefully take care of the bear’s paw so he got to work on it.