While Lanek was struggling to slow the wight’s assault, his companions were busy attempting to keep their foes from coordinating their attacks. Kazuma was using his speed and agility to keep the javelin thrower from throwing again while Sanguineus kept the spear and mace wielders from disengaging to go aid the rest of their party.
This left Lanek to face the undead swordsman alone. After a few moments of frenzied and panicked defense, he dove forward and under the wight’s slashes, running a few steps to get some distance before turning to face the creature once more. The wight only gave him mere seconds to recover before it was on the human once more, but this time allowed Lanek to brace himself and fight more confidently.
The wight was no novice with his blade, but Lanek’s true frustration in the battle came from the creature’s shield. No matter the angle, the damnable shield seemed to be in place to slap Lanek’s strikes away from the wight’s body. However, if Lanek had learned anything from this world it was that a stalemate would never go in his favor. The enemy would always have numbers or stamina on their side, especially the undead and gaunts, thus a protracted battle would see the advantage go to his foe.
As the battle progressed, he felt his speed increasing and sword skill growing, allowing him to put the pressure on the wight and push it back. Still, Lanek found himself unable to get around the shield. Lanek charged the wight suddenly, blade flashing as he hacked at the wight, all finesse forgotten. He simply tried the brute force approach.
However, Lanek was not strong enough to knock the wight around the battlefield, but he could lead it. The shinobi would cut off the wight’s movement options, forcing the creature to dodge in the direction Lanek wanted it to. Without warning, the area surrounding Lanek and the wight became enshrouded in mist, the only thing visible being the glowing green eyes of his opponent.
Lanek forced the wight to duck behind its shield with several overhand chops, both rooting it in place and obstructing its vision. In that moment, Lanek launched his whip just over the wight’s shoulder. Over its shoulder and right through the back of its javelin-wielding comrade. Instantly, Lanek recalled Kazuma to his blade, the mist surrounding the area instantly concentrating around Lanek’s blade and sword arm.
The armored wight barely had time to lower its shield before it was on the defensive once more. With the mist obscuring the true location of Lanek’s blade and preventing the creature from predicting his strikes by looking at his arm, the wight’s defense was not as effective. For every strike the wight blocked with its shield, two others would strike joints and other weak spots in its armor.
With the wight’s vision obscured, Lanek’s mobility increased. When the undead monster raised its shield to protect its eyes from a thrust, Lanek used the moment when the shield blinded the wight to spin toward and around the shield arm. With his shinobi class and sword skill guiding him, he ended the spin with an upward slash into the wight’s unarmored armpit before continuing forward and past the creature.
Turning back to face the wight, he wasn’t surprised to see the wight still standing. He hadn’t been able to reach the creature’s soul or destroy its head to end it, but he was pleased to see its left arm dangling and unable to raise its shield.
Not giving the wight time to unstrap the shield from its useless arm, Lanek focused his movements to keep him on the creature’s left side, making it difficult for the monster to effectively defend or counterattack. With a final flurry of strikes, Lanek deflected the wight’s arming sword to the side before pulling his sabre back and down toward his waist before thrusting at an upward angle directly through the bottom of the barbute. The wight stiffened, its green eyes losing their light before collapsing onto the ground.
With a thought, he released Kazuma to aid Sanguineus. Approaching the huge wolf’s foes from behind, drawing a throwing dagger and relying on his shinobi class to guide him. The dagger flew through the air and into the back of the spear-wielding wight’s knee, causing the monster to lose its balance and allowing Sanguineus to lunge past the spear and clamp his jaws around the wight’s neck. Meanwhile, Kazuma barreled into the mace-wielding wight that had attempted to strike Sanguineus from behind, immediately raking the creature with his claws from what looked like every angle. Within seconds, the party of wights were defeated.
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While he was not able to harvest any souls from this battle, he was satisfied with the progress he had made and the loot that had been dropped. In addition to the mace, javelins, spear, sword, and shield, the wights had also left behind some of their armor. It wasn’t of use to Lanek, but it would serve well as a trading resource. Pushing his foot through the ash, he found four wight cores had been dropped as well. Excellent, let’s see if I can use these to power the crystals at the monastery. Although, now I have to wonder why these creatures all dropped cores. Was I just very lucky?
A quick glance at his skills showed that his one-handed sword skill had gone from 3 to 5 thanks to that fight. Thanks to his boost in experience for fighting creatures at or above his level from the shinobi class, he was very close to leveling up as well. Good, the more levels I can get before going east, the better.
He looked at his companions before waving them toward the alleys and taking to the rooftops. From his new vantage point, he kept watch while Kazuma and Sanguineus searched for more foes. Within minutes, he received a pulse of alarm from the wolf. Lanek leapt from rooftop to rooftop, once again glorying in the feeling of mobility his skills gave him, before arriving at Sanguineus’ location. Walking through street below him was group of wights, marching with purpose toward a pack of shrieking, wailing gaunts.
Seeing the mass of monsters preparing to clash, Lanek had to restrain himself from unleashing an [Ethereal Salvo] at the creatures. He didn’t really want to make that kind of noise and attract more enemies and he was beginning to wonder if all monsters had cores and he had been destroying most of them with his tactics.
Well, let’s see what I can do at full strength… Lanek braced himself, before recalling Sanguineus and Kazuma, feeling his strength increase. He proceeded to sneak along the rooftops, waiting for the two groups to clash just below him and engage in a chaotic melee. Once they had engaged one another, Lanek took a deep breath, summoned Kazuma’s mist to enshroud him and his weapon, and dropped behind the wights.
He wanted all of these creatures. Yes, Lanek knew he was being greedy, but they all were level 30 or higher, and he couldn’t resist that kind of experience. Not after encountering creatures that could crush him like a bug.
As he moved toward the wights, he discovered that he could push the mist away from his body, much like Kazuma could when he was not in his Vessel. That’s new, could it be because Kazuma evolved? The vessels did say they would gain more power as those furballs evolved.
Lanek was in for another surprise when he struck at the back of an ash wight’s neck, aiming for the gap between its armor and helm with his sabre. The blade flicked out much faster than he expected, the extra speed causing the blade to sever the creature’s spine and remove its head. A moment later, Lanek turned to the side, narrowly dodging a spear thrust before flinging Sanguineus’ Vessel into another wight’s face and out the back of its skull.
What the hell is going on here? How am I reacting so quickly? I had barely noticed that attack before dodging and counterattacking. Is it because both furballs are recalled?
Having dealt with the rearmost wights, Lanek turned back to the mist shrouded battle. He could hear the clash of wight and gaunt within the mist, the battle chaotic with the visibility being so low. Lanek crept into the mist silently, his sabre eliminating wights with each unexpected strike, his [Assassinate] and [Shroud] skills working in concert with the mist to trigger brutal strikes on his opponents. Even as his sabre wreaked havoc on the wights, Lanek’s whip would lash out at the unarmored gaunts, piercing their chests and allowing Lanek to reap their souls.
The last of the wights fell even as the sole remaining gaunt attempted to flee. The creature only made it a few steps before being pierced from behind by Sanguineus’ Vessel rocketing from the mist. It shrieked one final time, this time in terror, as it felt its soul ripped free.
The mist faded then, Kazuma and Sanguineus emerging from their vessels to observe the carnage. Lanek could feel the approval of his companions. Also, if he was being honest with himself, he could feel himself taking great pleasure in his performance. He smiled broadly for a moment, before feeling it slip away as a realization hit. Should I really be proud of this? Sure, they were monsters, but I’m still consuming their souls…
He would need to keep an eye on his mood and behavior going forward. While he had no proof of any influences on his actions or mind, he also didn’t know enough to identify those influences if he saw them, much less protect himself from them.