From the mist, various figures could be observed advancing, while from time to time another barrage of arrows emerged to harass them. The figures moved slowly, and the troops began to get nervous; after all, they were unilaterally attacked, and Alex's gaze was lost.
"Sir, the troops await your orders," Krogash shouted again, this time managing to snap Alex out of his reverie.
"Ah, yes," he responded clumsily.
The sight before Alex had bewildered him; he had been able to discern what he was fighting against, and it certainly left an impact on his mind. After all, what approached him were undead, skeletons with barely any flesh on their bones and a will-o'-the-wisp burning within their bodies.
"Torel, any advice on how to deal with these things?" Alex asked, still shaken.
"Yes, in general, it could be said that the fire in their bodies is what keeps them anchored to this world. If you dissipate it, they lose their 'vitality,' for lack of a better term," Torel responded.
Alex took another brief moment to better discern his surroundings and could detect, in the distance behind his enemies, a door. This made him think that the next challenge would be more direct; they had to fight their way to the exit.
"All right, troops, our mission is clear. We must advance and destroy everything in our path, extinguish their inner fire, and purify these aberrations," Alex shouted, pulling an arrow from his quiver and aiming at an archer on the other side.
As he released the string, his arrow flew towards the enemy field, entering the skull and destroying it with a single blow, extinguishing the archer's fire. Immediately, the corpse began to disintegrate into ashes, crumbling slowly until it was nothing more than a pile of black ash on the ground, and even these continued to reduce and be consumed by a blue flame until there was nothing left but a few grams of grayish ashes.
The process couldn't help but send shivers down Alex's spine. After all, they were facing humanoid creatures, likely creatures that had challenged the maze just like them, and into which they would transform if they didn't succeed.
"I won't become that," Alex shouted in his mind, shaking off the pessimism and anguish that the strange creatures caused him.
When the first skirmish ended, Alex could see that the number of enemies attacking them, despite being large in numbers, was quite weak. And although it might seem like they were in an open area because the surroundings looked like a forest, Alex felt they were more in a corridor, as no side could turn the trees around them to attack the enemy from their flanks.
"We'll form three lines, fight in turns, and keep advancing," Alex shouted to the troops.
The limited space led to uncomfortable fighting, coupled with the disorganization during battle, causing the troops to tire excessively trying to reach each enemy. Generally, these enemies were destroyed by the blows of three different people, and it was much better to let each of his soldiers face three enemies. Given the difference in strength between the two sides, it shouldn't be difficult even if each soldier dealt with up to five enemies, although this was inviting disaster.
The troops in the field had certain difficulties in carrying out the orders; there wasn't such an established command line to help carry out the orders, although there were certain prominent figures among the troops who began to take on these roles. The more veteran soldiers continually shouted at others to get them in line and reform the front.
The next wave of creatures arrived, this time they were different, larger creatures, albeit still humanoid in shape, carrying simple and poorly maintained weapons.
There was a certain nervousness among Alex's troops; it was evident that the maze was still playing with their minds, so to motivate them this time, he decided to join the front line.
"Sir Alex," the soldiers said, surprised to see their leader heading to the front.
"Our mission is to defeat the wave as quickly as possible and then march forward. The exit is behind these monsters, so to achieve a better effect at the end of our wave, we'll open up paths for the next line to rush forward and face the next enemy," Alex shouted his orders to the rest of the troops.
The soldiers echoed his words to their fellow comrades.
Seeing the large figures approaching, Alex took one last look at Torel; the elf hadn't moved to help the troops yet. However, Alex didn't feel rushed to request the elf's involvement; although he was much stronger than them, the elf's words of warning had allowed him a certain sobriety. It was better to save strength for future challenges in case a stronger enemy appeared.
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Standing in front of the troops, a sudden sound of irregular breathing suddenly interrupted Alex's thoughts.
"Kragash, don't use your energy yet. Wait until the enemies are closer. You need to manage your resources better," Alex told the young Gnoll.
The boy, though nervous, nodded to his master.
Alex knew he couldn't send the boy to the rear; the boy was determined to follow him wherever he went and learn from him. He idolized Alex so much that it was hard to get him to separate too much from Alex. On a positive note, the boy had proven to be extremely useful, besides being able to listen and execute orders.
"Prepare for impact. When they're about 5 seconds away from charging, activate your energy and lower your center of gravity to absorb the impact," Alex said.
Young Kragash looked Alex in the eyes and nodded, nervous about his first real melee clash.
"Get ready for impact!" Alex shouted to the rest of his troops.
"UUUUUU!" the soldiers roared in response.
Alex's presence on the front lines had somehow managed to dispel some of the persistent fears of the weaker-minded soldiers, while also bolstering the confidence of the rest.
Soon, the enemies running towards them were estimated to be about 3 seconds away from impact. Alex and Kragash, along with other initiates, activated their forest energy, greatly increasing their resistance to fatigue, slightly enhancing the rest of their physical attributes, and also helping to clear their minds, freeing them from the maze's influence.
The battle started slowly for Alex at first. A vertical strike could be easily dodged by taking a slight step to the side and quickly attacking the source of the will-o'-the-wisp.
A pile of ashes began to form in front of Alex, but he didn't have time to appreciate his good work since another zombie creature took its place.
The attack patterns weren't very complex, and the only ones causing trouble came from those with heavier weapons and wider swings. This type of attack caused coordination problems among the troops.
The clash lasted about 15 minutes, during which the troops slowly became accustomed to the combat rhythm of their attackers.
During the confrontation, Kragash was on the verge of death several times due to insignificant mistakes, but Alex was always there to keep the hot-blooded young man in his place, preventing him from making obvious mistakes like leaving formation or turning his back on the enemy to try to help another ally.
Finally, they defeated the wave.
"Make space in the middle, second group, advance at full speed, capture as much ground as possible," Alex shouted.
Both groups followed Alex's orders with some lost time.
It turned out that when less than 25% of troops were attacking, the maze would start a countdown to release the next wave, so unknowingly, Alex had adopted a perfect strategy to continue advancing. In each iteration, one of the three lines would fight at the beginning, saving energy, and when the number of enemies dropped below 10%, they would explode with all the stored force to sweep away whatever remained, giving the next line enough time to take a good amount of space.
Alex's plan had worked perfectly at the beginning, allowing his troops to rest enough to keep fighting. Although there was exhaustion, it was much less, and they had even managed to eat some marching rations.
The reason for this system was that Alex had noticed that to produce their enemies, the maze seemed to expend some of its energy. It also spent more energy to keep the door, which was seen in the distance, at the same distance. Therefore, over time, they could wear down the maze enough to pass the test.
That would have been the situation under normal circumstances.
However, Athena had shattered the plans of both parties.
Unfortunately for Alex, the Triznado Owl fed on a tremendous amount of power to the maze, much more than all the members of the expedition put together could exert. Nor was everything lost; although it was in an illusion, the maze couldn't allow itself to be at ease. It had to make the owl exert its power to be able to steal it. Therefore, Athena fought fiercely in her own corner, with the maze so worn out over time and from many previous expeditions into it, she was having many difficulties in managing the owl in a better way.
"Change of plans, we need to move faster. We'll start the counterattack when they reach 50%. Victory is close; it's time to press," Alex shouted.
The troops responded with a thunderous cry.
Alex had noticed the instability of the door, but he had also noticed how the strength of the enemies was growing at an increasingly rapid rate. If that trend continued, soon the undead could become as strong as their own troops, at which point there would be no way forward.
With the accelerated pace, however, the troops began to tire more quickly, and the first wounded began to appear.
Fighting in the front, Alex could parry and thrust back most of his enemies. The constant use of his forest energy and the cultivation technique of Forest's Sigh were beginning to empower him even more. Ironically, this was the best environment for Alex to progress in his cultivation; he needed to become closer to his energy and its use, and nothing like a battle to the death to allow you to continuously grow.
A sudden skeleton flew towards Alex from the enemies' rear.
The appearance of an enemy being thrown in his direction baffled Alex; he had no choice but to prepare to receive the impact, knowing it would throw him back. Luckily, another larger and more muscular Gnoll nearby stood in front of Alex and protected him with his shield, keeping him safe.
"What the hell was that?" Alex asked.
"Sir, something seems to be fighting in the rear lines," exclaimed the great Gnoll, who continued to resist one after another of enemies flying in his direction.
Alex, along with Kragash, quickly eliminated the soldiers lying at the feet of the shielded soldier since, although the impact was enough to break the spine of a normal being, these undead would only die if their will-o'-the-wisp was extinguished.
"Thorel, what do you see?" Alex shouted as he continued to eliminate the skeletons.
"Although I can't see it well, it seems that Athena is fighting with something," the elf replied.
"And is she winning?" Alex asked.
"It doesn't seem so. Whatever it is, it's dominating the Owl," Thorel replied.
Whatever it is, that battle must be the source of the disturbances in the maze, Alex thought.
Looking at the door, it seemed severely unstable, and what's more, they were really close, and it seemed like it couldn't move farther away no matter how hard it tried.
With everything that had happened, Alex simply decided to make a risky decision.