They all looked at the creatures that appeared ahead of them and came through the giant crack on the wall that they'd just went through earlier.
Everyone were left staring in space.
The room was began to be filled with giant stone monsters slightly larger and tough-looking than the ones that Jurgen just previously fought when they rescued Ryner. As usual, they all looked like a molten humanoid armored like a knight and all of them are ganging up behind the formation of the strike squad.
It took a while for Jurgen to realize the position they're in, and quickly ran behind the formation. "Crap! The support unit is exposed—front guards shift the position quickly!" He yelled his order and jumped above the squad and towards the molten creatures.
He drew his sword and in just a swift swing, two of the monsters harming the back line was beheaded in an instant.
Following Jurgen's order, Johan didn't even think and quickly ran to aid the support unit. Using his agile feet, he reached the back line in just mere seconds before he jumped and downwardly swung his sword at the monsters, cutting them in half by a sharp explosion that came from the tip of his sword.
Jagger also followed and coated his entire right arm with hard rocks before punching the molten monsters, blowing them several feet away from them.
After making sure that everyone is well guarded, Jurgen signalled the troops to completely shift the position using his hand. "All main damage dealers, go behind us, and front guards, don't let the flanks collapse. Don't you dare underestimate this monsters." He yelled while focusing at dodging every swing of the molten knight in front of him and then followed by a quick swing that severed one of the monster's limb.
"You heard him." Johan laughed interestingly and swung his sword onto the ground, making it explode with a high and towering flames that instantly engulfed the monsters. "This shits are weak. But I'm looking forward to it." He laughed hysterically before dashing a few steps ahead of him and violently swinging his sword 360 degrees to the right, hitting every monster around him, causing explosions.
His actions only made Jurgen angrier and said, "Hey, don't over extend your attacks and don't just jump towards the enemy, leaving your position behind."
"Yessir!" Johan replied before hopping back to his front guard position.
The monsters have decreased in number when Johan returned to the formation. The main damage dealers already used a tons of spells to quickly wipe them out without giving the front guard much pressure on protecting them. After a few minutes of fighting, the monsters were decreased in number considerably.
But even so, Jurgen was feeling a bit bothered for unknown reasons and having a feeling of itch that he couldn't scratch. He could feel his chest tightening and his mind spacing for a second before snapping back to reality. 'What the heck was that? I'm having that feeling that I missed something. I wonder...' When he averted his gaze at the monster's corpse that he just killed, he saw an orange spherical object in its chest.
'This is...'
And before the old man could even proceed with his thoughts, heavy footsteps echoed throughout the massive room of crystals. Hundreds of enemies are marching from the giant crack and some came somewhere on the other side of the massive crystal-covered room.
'This monsters are different from last time we fought it.' Jurgen whispered to himself, suddenly remembering his fight against the molten nights during their the time when they rescued Ryner. But he quickly set those thoughts aside and focused on the new enemies that just arrived.
These monsters were just like earlier, molten knights with red eyes that were seemingly enraged and was staring at them, ready to rush at them. Some of them were carrying spears and some were holding a sword, they're all standing at the height of a giant tree and everyone inside that room are seemingly ants when they came to face these monstrous creatures.
On Jurgen's order, the main damage dealer quickly fired a combined fire spell to try wiping out these folks. But even with its large scale burning heat, the spell didn't even managed to penetrate through their armors.
"As I thought, these monsters are different from the one that we fought weeks ago and from the ones earlier." Jurgen whispered, intentionally letting Johan hear him.
"What'd you say?!" Johan exclaimed, looking at Jurgen with a confused expression.
"The first time I fought against this creatures, they seemed to not possess any beast core since the boss monster is strangely summoning them. But now... They possess a core all of a sudden. How strange is that?" Jurgen replied before eagerly getting in the front line and holding his sword firmly.
"Very strange, you should have told me earlier!" Johan annoyingly clicked his tongue before pushing the balls of his feet onto the ground, dashing towards the enemy lines.
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"Support unit, prepare your healing and strengthening spells." Jurgen ordered and swung his sword horizontally and parallel to the ground as thin and sharp wind came flying from the tip of its blade, mowing down the enemies. The attack didn't cut through the line of enemies but he managed to blow them several feet away to give Johan more time to calculate the enemy's strength before jumping in.
"BOOM!"
Explosions blew up the monsters, turning them into pieces of rubbles by Johan's explosion magic. Although he only managed to took care of a few of them, because of his attack, the party felt relieved that they have some reliable people on their side.
Even Jurgen joined the fight and took down several numbers of those molten monsters with his wind magic and water magic. "Keep the pace going!" he yelled.
Hearing the old man's order, the main damage dealers quickly raised their hands and casted a large scale fire spell that rose into a pillar of yellow flames that engulfed the molten monsters.
Surprisingly, Johan jumped out of the way and moved back to the team with an angry expression. It was a harsh experience for him to see his team trying to burn him along with the enemies. "What the heck is wrong with you people?" He annoyingly grumbled, directing his gaze at Jurgen.
"I already told you to not overextend from your position!" Jurgen argued with also an annoyed expression, veins bulged on his wrinkled forehead. "Anyways, just keep on doing what you're doing." Jurgen eagerly looked at the monster walking out of the flames that engulfed them earlier.
It seemed like the hardness of their skin was enough to survive the fire spell that the main damage dealer had casted. They all walked casually, holding their swords high and ready to fight. Some flames were still visible and burning on their bodies as they ran towards them like a hungry beast.
"Things just became even more bothersome." Jurgen gritted his teeth and pointed a finger at the monsters. "Mana art 05: Piercing beam!" A thick beam of highly concentrated mana was fired from his fingertip and directly went to penetrate shallowly into one of the monsters' skin. It halted the monsters for a second and stared at him, unimpressed. The old man was surprised by the result as he was not expecting his attack to be that weak against this wrathful monsters. He clicked his tongue and resentfully glared at the molten knights.
"Tch, that one has no effect either? Guess I have no choice." Jurgen thrusted his sword into the ground below him and evenly distributed mana on the surface. "I was planning on minimizing the usage of my spirit mark, but I guess there's no other choice." Even with the extreme heat inside, the ground below them froze instantly, creating a path of ice that leads to the monsters and eventually turned their limbs frozen.
"Frozen graveyard!"
"Look at this old geezer, holding back his power all along." Johan carelessly whispered with an interested grin, trying not to be amazed by the old man's fascinating spell.
After Jurgen hindered the enemies' movements, Mira stepped out of the back line and jumped above everyone. "Now that made things easier to slice." She yelled with a laugh before desperately inhaling and swinging her arms horizontally towards each other. "Cut and slice, Wind magic: Wind scythe!" Two sharp arcs of wind flew towards the enemies, aimed at their frozen limbs. Upon coming in contact with the molten creatures, they were instantly severed and cut in half by the attack. After landing onto the ground, Mira fired two more of those arc-shaped wind projectiles and killed a few more of those monsters.
"That woman... I almost forgot about her. She's also a great mage during the first time we came here." Jurgen whispered in awe before slashing his sword vertically. "Freeze and cut, Ice magic: Frozen blade!" Ignoring the hot temperature, his blade bitten the monsters' fleshes as he jumped through each one of them giving them one slash each while Mira was supporting him with her wind magic.
"There's nothing more easy to shatter than things that have turned to ice." Johan shouted, laughing hysterically before mowing through the line of frozen enemies with explosions.
After 20 minutes have passed, the monsters have seemingly increased even greater in number and not even stopping to attack. They kept engaging the party members and aimlessly swinging their swords with screams.
"These guys aren't even decreasing even a little at all. What's up with this?" Johan screamed as his red spirit mark is seemingly glowing with interest in its surroundings.
"Main damage dealers, fire your spell at a more focused manner. Aim it at one spot." Jurgen ordered, heavily panting while dodging and slashing the monsters that he kept on freezing everytime his was ice melted by the extremely heat inside the crowded massive room.
"Yessir!" The mages behind him replied. Although, their already exhausted from consecutively firing spell at the seemingly endless swarm of monsters, they desperate fire more combination of fire and wind magic spell to try decreasing the molten creatures' numbers.
The monsters kept on coming and they fought back. After a few minutes of exchanging attacks, everyone was already tired and could barely even cast a spell. Although having a hard time fighting, no one got injured or died, thanks to the support unit lead by Bernard.
A few more of Jurgen's freezing magic and Johan's explosive attacks, the monsters started to noticeably decrease and started falling back to retreat. When Johan was about to rejoice and scream in happiness, suddenly, the ground shook so violently that all of them fall off balance.
"What— an earthquake?' Jurgen thought as he could hardly stand with his sword thrusted onto the ground as a support.
A few more shaking before a sound echoed throughout the massive room. It was as if something heavy was rolling below them and sounded like thunders. The sound was followed by strong tremors before Jurgen realized what was about to happen.
"What—"
"BOOOOOM!"
Before they could even react, all of sudden, the ground several feet away from them exploded with thick red-orange boiling liquid, blasting away the rocky ceiling above, creating a massive hole and probably penetrated the entire top of the mountain. Some lava flew towards them followed by rocks falling from the broken ceiling.
Seeing everything coming at them, Jurgen went and screamed, "Incoming!"
*****
Meanwhile, outside the tunnel, at the small town of Hotstone village and near the guild barracks, Grey and Ryner felt the tremors and the slight shaking of the ground. 'An earthquake?', is the first thing that came to their mind, before suddenly... a loud explosion occured somewhere behind them. When they turned their heads to take a glance at it, they saw black smoke coming on top of the mountain followed by thick lava running down the mountain, carrying large flaming boulders.
The shock left them speechless for a mere second and kept them staring at the rolling stones of flames. 'What...exactly is happening?'