"HAH! Don't be intimidated! They do have gears and relics, but the potential that comes with it lies within the user! It's useless for low monsters like these ones!"
King Crow charged towards the horde of Cave Trolls without a second thought.
"That's right, we'll have to discuss why the hell they have those in the first place later. For now, defeat them!"
As David finishes his sentence, he and Erika support the charging King Crow, while Fiona stays back to take care of the trolls that would go through.
Anastasia and Athy begin to weave their spells on the back lines, however, it doesn't take long for Anastasia to finish hers which made Athy become more amazed by her.
"Whoa! Master, to finish weaving a mid tier spell in less than five seconds–!"
Anastasia raises her hand as a huge obsidian-like sphere takes form on top of her palm.
As soon as Ana puts her hand forward, the sphere breaks apart into multiple shards and strikes the Cave Trolls in the middle area, providing support for King Crow who's currently trading blows as the frontliner.
"Fuhahaha!! See, they can't even use those gears and artifacts properly! OOORAAAH!!"
As King Crow slammed his giant axe into the ground, a massive shockwave gets unleashed, pushing the Cave Trolls back which results in them getting caught with Ana's offensive spell.
"Wait- look!"
Meiren pointed at the defeated Trolls as something strange was happening. After dying, the Cave Trolls seem to turn into ashes as if they are just some reanimation, though the gears they possessed were left off.
"Whoa! Talk about more weirdness!" Erika commented as she fends off some of them. Despite being an assassin, she was in the middle of the herd, dancing around the trolls athletically whilst trying to dodge Ana's spell as well. 'Sheesh, talk about no teamwork, hehe.' As she thought of it, a cave troll managed to use a restricting artifact to stop her movement.
"Woops!" The troll then swings its club towards her, however–
Erika disappeared for a while, and reappeared behind the cave troll. She dealt a finishing blow through the back of its neck with her dagger.
"....."
Anastasia went quiet all of a sudden as if she had even the slightest bit of an idea regarding the situation.
"It's as if…." Everyone then looked at her.
"... we're dealing with a necromancer."
"A necromancer…? That makes sense, but-"
Fiona parries a swing from a Cave Troll's club with her sword and immediately does a counter attack by stabbing it multiple times in a flash.
"-it doesn't explain the gears, and some of them have artifacts."
The numbers of the trolls dwindle, even though they're geared, it was a one-sided massacre due to the fact that this party is quite overpowered. But then, as if fate dictates it, something spawned to balance things out. A minor earthquake startled the whole party, they all know that it's unnatural and no cave troll is capable of doing it.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"Damn, so what is it this time?"
Anastasia squints as if she felt something odd in the flow of energy within their surroundings. Athy then looks at her and inquires-
"Master? What's up? Do you feel that as well?" It seems like Athy is also perceptive enough to sense the abnormality in the energy flows, but then they were caught off guard–
"...Spatial…wait, everyone!"
As soon as Anastasia reached out her hand, a huge magic circle appeared below them, though, before it took effect, Anastasia managed to take Athy's hand and threw her out of the area of effect. As soon as the circle activates, Anastasia has disappeared.
"Ana!!"
Fiona shouted as all of them witnessed Anastasia disappear. But they have no time to arrange their thoughts as a new enemy approaches them. Three towering monsters, twice the size of King Crow.
"Lord King Crow, watch out!"
"Hrm!?"
As King Crow turns around as he also notices a towering shadow behind him, he immediately raises his axe in a defensive position to block whatever it throws.
"Golem!?"
The giant golem facing King Crow slammed him down with a powerful crushing punch that will end any hunters. But not King Crow–
"HOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"
He stands his ground as he meets what seems to be a deadly force. The golem's crusher clashed with King Crow's axe, forcing one of them to submit to the other.
"Let's assist him!"
As Fiona was about to respond to King Crow, two of the golems blocked their way.
"Tch, why the hell…why do they act like they could think now?"
"Probably because they're controlled." Athy gave a perfectly logical reason. She closed her eyes, and after a while, she opened it back which is now currently basking in mana, making her eyes emanate a bluish aura.
"What the…? No tracks of mana, impossible. They're not being controlled?"
"Here they come!" Fiona shouted as the two giant golems raised their crushers and proceeded to hurl it down. In response, David raises his falchion and uses his skill-
All of them jumped away from the center of impact, dodging both of the golem's crushing blows. The shockwaves it produced doesn't affect them as much due to David's skill.
"Nice, David!" ← Erika
"Lord King Crow!!" Despite her shaking voice, Meiren still manages to worry about their main frontliner.
"Leave this one to me!! No golem is stronger than the mighty King Crow! Fuhahahaha!!"
The clash resulted in a draw as the golem and King Crow both backed off.
Athy begins to weave a spell that she learned from Anastasia, however, her spell formation is not as fast as hers. Seeing this, Fiona and the rest of her guild members decided to buy her some time. After all, swords and daggers would not be able to damage one of them, but magic probably could. Meiren then takes a deep breath and takes out a small crystal ball from her pack.
"I'll support you guys!"
They acknowledged her with a nod, and with that, the three of them dashed towards their opponents.
As the fight is going on, the legendary {Fate Threader} is currently assisting an old lady.
"I keep telling that stupid cat of mine to *cough* stay still in the house! I don't want to cage her, but it seems like she's leaving me no choice once you get her back."
'Why did you already assume that I'm going to bring her back? First off, I'm not sure but, isn't this old lady the one Athy mentioned to us before? You've lost your cat again, what say you on your defense?' was what Zephyr wants to say, but he needs to be more polite to keep face.
"So, I guess she's just out there in the fields, yes? I'll check it out then–"
"Oh, no. She's a strange one…she'll surely be inside that dungeon again!"
"....."
"Please, she's my only family…I've already been abandoned, I don't want to lose her too."
Those words just touched Zephyr's heart. He somehow finds it relatable, as someone who's only family left was his childhood friends who is now the strongest in their own professions. And he, the talentless, is doing everything he can to not lose them.
"Alright grandma…I'll uhh, try to bring her back. No promises…as you can see, I'm just a normal human."
"Thank you…you don't understand how much I appreciate that kind gesture, even though you're not sure of the outcome. The effort already talks by itself."
"Haha, well, I'm talentless so, effort is the only thing going for me." (no it's not)
Zephyr then looks at the direction where the hut of the old lady is currently presiding. He then asked-
"Grandma, aren't your lodging too big for you and the cat only?"
The old lady didn't speak for a few seconds. She then leans her ear closer-
"Huh? I can't hear you well."
'You're hearing me just fine a few seconds ago old lady. Meh, it's fine. I just dodged an unnecessarily long conversation.'
"Please point me the way."
As the old lady leads Zephyr towards the location, a certain darkness looms around the house, seemingly observing him…