I'm currently watching and following Kirana as she approaches the first of the newly positioned Sentries, an ethereal scalpel on hand. All she needed was one look to learn Conjure Dagger and Animus Incision, "what a cheat!" I yelled when she cast the spell right after my demonstration.
Once in position, she stabs at the creature as I usually do. My SoulSense range is now far enough to cover her and the enemy from where I am, it was therefore possible for me to sense how the tiny soul inside barely deflates by a third. The sentry in question remains conscious and retaliates with a quick spin and swipe of its spear, catching the unprepared Kirana with a repelling blow right on her stomach that manages to push her away and elicited a pained squeal.
I rush, albeit after a little delay, at the Sentry to intercept its next blow. A blow that never came. Instead it faces inwards and makes an inaudible screech, which is mimicked by the rest, one by one, in a cheering wave kinda movement. "That can't be good..." I spoke to Kirana through our reestablished line.
"Uh, what's not good?" She asks back with a confused tone, "damn that smack hurts!"
"Well, these things made a screaming gesture towards the deeper end, but I'm hearing nothing." I decided we might as well finish this one before anything else, so I cast Animus Incision and did the attacking this time… killing the first Sentry unopposed while it's busy inaudible screaming with a knife throw.
Kirana finally stands up as she asks, "what now? Why didn't it go unconscious like when you do it?"
"Well, when creatures are doing that," I point at the other sentries still actively silent-howling at the air. 'They're mostly calling for backup, which means we need to once again retreat and regroup. As for why it didn't fall unconscious… probably due to a lack of damage, I can see Souls, its soul was less affected by your attack."
"Here," I offered a hand and pulled her back up on her feet. "You good? Let's get back to the others."
"Yeah, thanks." She began walking with a little hunch, and at a slightly slower pace. When all of a sudden the wind picked up, a strong gust pushed at us from behind, sending her tumbling… and then a slight tremor traveled through the ground, making me look back.
A bigger creature similar to the Sentries stands before me brandishing its halberd. This creature's humanoid half is slightly larger, maybe at a little over two meters and bulkier. Though what really makes a difference is the size of its lower ant half, which is twice the size of the Sentries, at approximately three meters long and at least fifty percent thicker with layered durable looking exoskeletons. 'Inspect!'
** DING **
Druidant Sentinel lv 18 miniboss
Well shit! And with No Essence Duel to save me this ti– it suddenly reared itself and swiped at me in a wide diagonal downwards swing. I thicken the armor on my arms and, following the hint provided by my Heavy Armor Proficiency, raise them up to cushion the blow but still allow the blow to continue and strike my armored shoulders before once again straining against the blow. That way, the damage is spreaded out to three points of impact.
The momentum carried by that one strike sent me tumbling back in an ugly roll and did a solid 114 damage to my 164 Health, once more and I'm gone. Geez, might need to start investing more in my physicals.
The armor on both my arms and my left shoulders has a line of cut or shattered swarm pieces left behind by the creature's attack that is slowly being re-covered by the rest of the swarm, while the broken pieces are discarded. Underneath all that is a pretty deep wound, if my agony is to go by, enough pain to render me useless if not for Pain Resistance. Which doesn't mute the pain, instead, I can merely better ignore their effects up to an undetermined threshold.
My Mana Sense registers Kirana fast-limping away further into the corridor without me needing to take my eyes off the enemy, which is -- as expected, smart of her. The Sentinel recovers its balance from the wide swing and proceeds to charge at me with its weapon pointing right at my chest, switching into a low flying maneuver at halfway.
Evasion stopped me from doing an evasive nosedive, telling me to delay and wait a wh-- NOW!
I nosedived into a messy roll before standing up as fast as I could and turning around to once again face my enemy. Again, I found it in the midst of regaining its balance from the all out lunge, I used the chance to cast Animus Incisi---but had to stop and do another nosedive after yet another ping from Evasion. The Sentinel once again passed by me in a flying lunge, though this time, I found myself in better control of the roll, allowing me to roll then stand up with a slight flow in my motion. That's two all out attacks in a row, I forgo doing another cast to see what the creature is going to do, ready to react when it once again does an all out lunge.
Oh~ how fortunate! I'll bet this creature also has an undeveloped soul and its simple mind cannot comprehend strategies or plans, opting instead to go all out to accomplish its goal, which is probably something like eliminating all intruders. And that leads to it using its most powerful skills that has longer cooldowns, so to say. Now that I'm paying attention, it even has a similar soul size to the Sentries.
Knowing what to expect, I managed to dive away from a few more of its lunges, and even managed to cast a lucky Lesser Heal when I managed to set it up for an extra bad landing by making it trip on a Sentry’s corpse, healing me for 95 points of health, my wounds definitely feels better. The one time I tried to approach, it switched to the rearing-slash from earlier which forced me to do an awkward rotating-diving maneuver. I notice both attacks would always cause it to lose balance for a few moments. So I kept my distance as the lunges are easier to roll away from, evading a few more before timing a cast of Animus Incision in between its attacks, barely managing to summon the scalpel on my right hand before needing to do another desperate roll, the lunge still nicked me, damaging me for five points of health, even if it failed to pierce my armor.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
But now, it's my turn! I let it do another lunge, aiming my dodge roll diagonally backwards to end up a little closer to it, managing to position myself a mere five or so meters from it. Close enough to guarantee a bullseye knife throw, so I did! The scalpel struck true and disappeared into its Mindscape, the creature flinched and stopped moving. My body relaxed in response, now to finish it off. I proceed to cast Animus Insc– a strong impact breaks my focus and I find myself flying… no, propelled backwards through the air... The soul damage didn't render it unconscious!
The tip of a halberd piercing my armor and into my abdomen, I feel my health tick down another 80 points with this hit. Unfortunately, the Sentinel is still holding on to its weapon and definitely still pushing forward following its lunge… so, after what feels like hours of being airborne, I hard-crash onto a wall, which as expected, results in the sentinel's halberd piercing deeper into my stomach. The resulting damage left me with approximately 10% of my health and a broken armor, not to mention being stuck between a wall and an angry ant.
The pole! A disk flies up from its sheath and begins push-sawing into the wooden pole right by where it meets the halberd's head. I utilized the little bit of Latent Mana it has to increase its spinning and changed its blades from their smooth finish into a saw-edge. The Sentinel pulled at its weapon, prompting me to grab at the broad side of its ax-head and put every single point of strength I have to keep it there.
Unfortunately, it definitely has more strength than me. Unfortunately for it, I'm strong enough to lift myself up. So here I am, dangling from the tip of a halberd. Where the heck are the othe– 8 disks sporting various effects smashed onto various locations on its body, making it pause and giving me the chance to finish sawing off its weapon.
I fall a few centimeters to the ground on to my feet, barely managing to keep standing, one arm still holding on to the halberd head. "Watch out! It's gonna charge at you guys!" I shout at the others, the opening movement for its attacks now quite familiar to me. Though without the head part, it would probably fail to cause any significant damage to the armored members, if, it's aiming for the armored members.
My fears were uncalled for as it set its course for the closest target, our trusty tank, Roy and charged. Its lunge is unceremoniously blocked, one last throw of Animus Incision and the battle ends. Allowing us to retreat back into the safe zone, me still holding on to the weapon piercing my abdomen. Still no loot.
---
"What happened?" Henry asks me just as I settle on a protruding wall, rather, we've all sat our asses down on something. I cast two Lesser Heals on myself to top off my Health and pulled the halberd head off, before opening my mouth to answer. The me-a-week-ago would be on my way to the hospital in an ambulance with injuries like this, not sitting down, calmly healing my own wounds.
"Well~, the sentries saw us and started screaming towards the deeper end of the dungeon, though no sound was heard." I regaled our meeting with the Sentinel to him. "So we decided to retreat into this safe zone, Kirana was injured and went first, but before I could follow. The creature you saw came flying in, it's called a Druidant Sentinel by the way, level 18." I told him of Kirana losing balance during the Sentinels gusty arrival on account of her wounds, then how I decided to stay and stall it.
"Alright, then why didn't you retreat after she got away?" He asks in a cold tone.
"Well, you saw how fast its lunges are. Besides, I figured help would come soon." I made excuses while putting on my innocent face, though honestly, the thought of retreating didn't even cross my mind. Their weak souls are so exploitable with enough time to prepare, and now that I know, another Sentinel would be manageable.
"Oh, I know that face." Henry promptly replied. "You need to remember, this is not a game man."
"Geez man, you sound like a father already." I tell him, blunt as pebbles. Not waiting for his reply, I stand up and walk to Kirana, also healing her with Lesser Heal. "Damage is healed, but how about we rest for a while?" I ask the group and five replies of affirmation softly echoes through the safe zone.
I look at the Agus and Dianti in the dungeon armor-naked and decided I don't want them to be, what if it was them rather than Kirana and I. An update to Conjure Trilattic Swarm's Basic Mastery might be in order, I'm gonna tweak the Latent Framework and include a mana imprint like Magico Disk. That will allow a bundle of swarms to be controlled by another person that willingly accepts the imprint.
With the update and my 30% mana discount in mind, I spent 70 mana to conjure 1 cubic meters worth of Trilattic swarm then separated them into three different groups, twenty percent to replenish my current armor, the rest divided equally into two cubes. "Umm, Agus, Dianti. Can you two come here for a bit?"
"Coming~!"
"Yes..?"
They approach me, one eager, the other with a questioning look. "So, I'm thinking of trying to imprint one of these," I point at the two cubes of Trilattic Swarm. "To each of you, hopefully I can make it that they'll work for you as if you casted the spell yourself."
Dianti still sports her skeptical look, while Agus is totally brimming with enthusiasm... Well, we all know who gets to go first!
I had him place his hand on one of the cubes before I too approached and lay one of mine. "Alright, so I'm gonna try and imprint your mana into the Latent Framework…" I tried for a few seconds and achieved nothing besides simply moving around some Latent Mana before realizing, "Agus, can you push your mana into the armor instead?"
"Yes I can, Mr. Zane!" Instantly I feel the Latent Framework respond to his mana, nudging at my Mana Manipulation in a kid asking question kinda way. This time, my command for it to imprint clicks in place.
"Ah, that seems to have done it. Can you try t--" the cube unravels and travels up his arm, forming into an armor quite a bit like mine. "To… Nevermind, you got it! It works!!" I grin at the success.
** DING **
Yeah, later. I proceed to do the same with Dianti's cube, a skeptical expression no longer marring her face. "Thank you," she said after the swarm envelops her in its protection.
"Yes, yes! Thank you Mr. Zane!!" Agus added, still brimming with enthusiasm.
"No worries, I prefer we all stay alive coming out of this. That should be enough to create at least two layers of armor, and maybe a gear or two." I explain, as well as briefly teach them how they should be able to create gears, with a little added demonstration.
I then hurried over through the corridor, ignoring the others' questioning yells.