The sand storms around the proximity of the undead army and hills remained, swirling and causing sand to move around the clear skies. They were creating a terrible atmosphere, but a unique setting with all of these undead beings clustered together.
It also created a plethora of messed up problems that would bother the living, but the undead no longer needed to care about their eyes or even lungs. They had their senses, and soul flames that acted as their cores.
So, with that said, Murai found the current position acceptable, albeit he felt the incredible gust of mana and threat from hundreds of undead before him. It was like looking at the gate to hell if it would exist. He was particularly affected by this since his Mana Detection was quite sensitive to his Will and highly efficient to his senses caused by his Robust Spirit.
It meant he was sensitive to the mana, but that didn't mean trouble. His Will was unshakable while many weaker mages would become overwhelmed by this undead army. In this messed up place, he had already fought 2 waves of enemies without using much more than a couple of moves.
The fight against Class E ~ Undead Knight wasn't the toughest, but quite stressful when he looked back at his own situation. He moved with a large amount of mana and caused enough damage in a few moves to make a vital hit. That was a rule that he took from his last life, and it worked wonderfully here too.
A simple Beak's Peak to the temple solved it all, while the knight's cleave formed enough momentum, but it wasn't enough against his wide and thick Mana Blade. Murai didn't look to go toe to toe with the Undead Knight. A simple stoppage and destabilization of its momentum was fine while jumping to attack his head happened next.
It was a nice kill, yet it was behind him already. Murai looked at the next opponent, who moved forward. It was yet another undead skeleton. Wearing a tattered cloth made of many strains of fabric, it seemed exotic enough, while not a whole lot of bones were visible. Glowing eyes made of soul flame glanced undereating the hooded appearance. It was an Undead Mage, holding an old-looking staff in a bony hand.
Now that it walked forward, the wind swayed its fabric strips, revealing tattered and old-looking residues of a robe and quite a lot of various talismans. They ranged from metallic plates, paper strips with symbols, or simple wooden tablets. Those seemed fine enough, radiating mana fluctuations, and noticeable flickering runes on their surface. They were flat pieces of material, but there were also some scripts mixed in them.
Mana was also noticeable surrounding the visible bones, similar to other undead that Murai noticed. It seemed their bones went through some strengthening, making them tough and effective in defense and strength. That Undead Knight was definitely no weaker than the Izik, or so Murai thought.
It was probably because of the unique aura of this place, or the mana, or the basic principle that these undead beings weren't so simple.
Undead don't need to be created from anything, but they needed something as well. The dead part was normal to assume while calling the dead to remain walking was the basic principle of the term - Undead. It was basic necromancy. A Path of the literal wildest part of Chaos. Murai was aware of this sort of Path, thinking that the present situation was quite interesting from this topic alone.
This place had a lot of powerful undead. So much so that he had trouble figuring them out, the further he looked and pulled his senses forth.
Making undead needed unique circumstances, specific or forced ones too. The soul flame depicted their forced souls attached to their undead living. It can be natural because of the setting filled with dead, curses, or elements that halted the power of the Afterlife herself, or someone was touchy to halt the Rulers that pertained to the universe itself.
It was usually the former since the Path of Necromancy wasn't rare or hard to see. It was bewitching and evil, creating many possibilities in the path of power but it had a nasty reputation. When one turned their soul and mind toward the lands of the dead, one will proclaim their soul to the Chaos itself. It was that kind of Path, where individuality, evilness, and insanity prevailed above all else.
Murai guessed this place could have both of these things, however. Someone must be controlling these undead, while this Temple and setting were other things to question. Death Valley had this aura of dead because of them, or it had this aura since a long time ago.
Hm? So an undead mage? Have I finally met my equal? Murai wondered, standing firm and clear to feel and see the foe. It had powerful fluctuations of magic around the talisman and its head, and mana was surrounding the wand as well. There was a gem within the swirling motion of the wood that went below to make a shaft. It had a simple design, with a simple purpose. That was to attach spells, increase the might of a spell, or enchant the mana itself.
How strange... Hm? Its mana is strong... I wonder which level this body was when alive, or could it also improve as an undead? Does it have some help from this world? It sure feels strange when one has no desire to die because one is already dead. I guess it could make sense. Murai wondered and saw as the Undead Mage stabbed the staff to the ground, so it could pull two talismans under the tattered cloak forwards.
“Oh? Is this that kind of mage?” Murai went alert, preparing another rise of mana under his Conjuration without specific Shaping. It was easiest to be prepared than be sorry.
The talismans were a one-use type of equipment. The ones Undead Mage held were dull-looking metal plates filled with engraved runes. Upon activation that involved the mana of the user, the runes would become a raging river. It involved runes made of mana, storing a structural magic or specific spell.
These two talismans looked the same, projecting a large number of mana waves seeping out of them. It was like a large fountain or explosion that enveloped the Undead Mage. That went on for a few seconds until the mana calmed and focussed on the structure of the specific spell. Those were ice spears that were as large in mass as the caster.
The way they unfolded was simple. At first, the tip of the ice spear appeared from the talisman, but in a second, the whole ice spear emerged. It was also hovering above the undead mage, whose hands were up, still holding the talisman while a large amount of undulating mana still went from the talisman. This was an ongoing spell talisman, with a finite number of Ice Spears it could create.
“This isn't all that to my liking...” Murai commented, frowning. “In fact, what sort of crap is this mage? I get it is an undead one, so it is as dumb as a brick, so it may not use mana properly, but it still hurts to see this.” He complained, founding the whole situation with the Talismans quite tough to swallow because it was the sort of magic that was cheap.
“Those are simple combat talismans, Murai Hisagi. Never seen them before? I doubted that.” Lisa asked, floating quite some meters above this whole charade that was like a large play before her eyes. She quite enjoyed her lofty view, overlooking many memories of this place as well as her past troubles. She knew this place wasn't easy to see or visit. In fact, it was quite some task to get inside the temple itself, since she knew the parts of some secrets underground.
The Temple wasn't a simple one like a sub-dungeon would be. But the main Somalis dungeon? Sure, it was close enough to that sort of thing.
“These talismans?” Murai glanced up, seeing Lisa's unbothered floating self, hovering in midair. “Those things are toys from the real deal. Runes, that is. So much can be done with the structural magic of lackluster material and this... usability to make it cheap. It seems like a kid's toy. Such ways to do, craft, and use them aren't good in combat. It is a waste, let me tell you because they are useless apart from some war aspect. What kind of mage would need a tool such as this? Mana goes through these talismans for a longer time than the actual mage's spell. It's such a waste of time and effort.”
Alas, as his own words were that of an old, generally stern mage, the case of the Talismans with a premade spell was nothing bad in the Battleworld. It was created so it would become used. It was that sort of thing, but he viewed it in a pragmatic way.
After all, it was literary a borrowed power, while the spells themselves may, or may not be fancy or efficiently pulled to the full effectiveness. It depended not on the carrier of the talisman, but on the talisman itself. They can store unfamiliar spells, with the only requirement being the mana itself, and activation when needed.
They would allow any mage to come up with more strategies and increase their survivability. It had a clear disadvantage that Murai witnessed. The time required to cast them was much longer, and depending on the talisman or the mage, one could be unable to move freely.
Magic and power of their own mana wouldn't increase, as the equipment was variable in terms of power levels. Of course, Murai didn't view it from the premise of this world, or how the history of the Talisman was in this place at all.
He didn't need to care.
He held plenty of contexts from the way of his own living, while it was pretty much the same thing. At least from the first glance of these flaring ice waves that the Undead Mage held. They were old Talismans, but the runes could last man years without any use. Even low-grade ones, which the Undead Mage had.
I am damn right... I know that. Murai scowled inside, feeling the might of the mana of these Ice Spears. It was quite a large amount of mana, but it seemed the shaping principles of these structural talismans weren't the finest. Probably because of the oldness of this pair of old Grade D Ice Shower spells stored in them, or they weren't crafted properly. Such a spell can allow the mage to fight against larger, tougher, and stronger opponents.
It wasn't a terrible spell, allowing the mages to have less worry about Shaping the spell against others. That was why Murai found it so cheap. In this way, it would then be possible to view magic as an easy way to weaponize it and follow the battles even against the proper knights and trained professionals. Such as assassins, for example.
Such enemies would be a disaster for any slow or inexperienced mage but with the Talismans, some things can change, even though spells have more seconds to start in lower-grade ones. But at higher Grades, it was another story.
After all, unless the mage was well experienced in the art of Wards, Barriers, or Teleports, it would be easy for an experienced assassin to kill a mage. That was one example. Murai knew at least a hundred ways to overcome such measly efforts, but now? It wasn't a matter of knowing them, but acknowledging his current situation.
It was the basic common sense of advantages against disadvantages. Like Water against Flame, it was that simple, and even moderately large level differences wouldn't change that. But the large one?
At some point, the power curve of the magic wouldn't cater to the talismans unless they would be high-grade enough. Murai was yet to know how the Battleworold held this topic. The worlds that he lived through, had extremely different circumstances in their structure. That much, Murai can guess but he lacked the context of this large world that seemed bigger than he imagined.
The past was past. He remembered it because he went through it, but he didn't go through this world at all. He preferred to keep his guesses to himself, but what he could discover was another thing. Context from the past will affect his reality.
“Well... Undead Mage is already dead, so it's one way or another, not a big deal to kill the dead. Heheheh.” Murai joked to himself, Shaping the mass of the mana around him, bathing his body in waves of glistering particles. He created another pair of Mana Blades, letting them hover like arrows around his head. He aimed like the Undead mage was aiming with his Ice Shower - which had simple ice spears kind of attacks.
The standstill didn't last for longer than additional 4 seconds. The first batch was made of rough ice spear-like attacks. They were quite sharp at the tip, resembling thick throwing knives, but were as large as a person. Their body wasn't as clear but rough and bulky. Their vision wasn't that of mana, but literal ice.
The Talisman let the mana stored inside turn to ice because of water affinity runes. The Ice Shower was also filled with undead aura, poison, and some curse as a bonus. It was a well versatile attack, with fast movement, and fast cadence in their shooting. First two shot forth, and less than a second from the first moves, another one shaped up next to the Talisman, flying right after the first even hit Murai
He was waiting in patience, almost itching to counterattack even though he had at least 2 seconds of free time to deal at least a heavy blow to the Undead Mage that was preoccupied with the Shaping of these Talismans.
The difference between the regular Ice Shower and this one would be quite simple, but it depended on the comfort that the mage would have with this spell. Talisman would remain fixed, while the mage can improve in their shaping and usage.
At some point, the mage would take a couple of seconds starting the Ice Shower, while improvement in cadence, and shaping the ice spears would provide upgrades that no Talisman ever could do unless the mage would be a great rune mage or had a lot of money to spare. Taking care of the Shaping was also another major advantage when one would wield their spells. One could manage individual ice spears, and move freely.
The first attack flew for about a dozen meters from the Undead Mage, closing on Murai who was some distance from the enemy. He wouldn't be able to hit with his body, but not like he needed to do so to get rid of this poor Undead Mage.
He already dealt with a few of these clumsy things, yet this Undead Mage may not be the easiest as he hoped. For once, Murai felt some pressure from the ice, the moment the attacks started. The mana still seeped around the skeleton parts, giving it a nasty feeling and aura of death. It was affecting the Talistmans too, and the ice.
So, Murai wondered if the Battleworld had some nasty differences when it came to the undead, or if it was this place that made them this way. It was a momentary wonder before the first strike arrived.
Murai intersected the two blades until they resembled scissors.
He put them vertically 3 meters before him. He also pushed his back straight, clutching his body like a boxer who was ready to take a hit. The attack arrived and went right through the intersected blades, which sliced the ice into two halves. They continued their momentum without pushing the mana blades further along with their momentum. They missed Murai, who stood like a madman before an Ice spear that was larger them him by dozens of times.
He watched in silence, yet almost grinned like a maniac because more attacks were coming. He was as confident, as curious how many ice spears these scissors will take.
“Defense may be a good offense, but why not it can't be exchanged?” Murai wondered, leaving the blade firm on the spot, acting in the same way as before. They sliced the large chunks of ice spears quite well, letting each half miss him by a handful of distance. “Let's try it. A continuous push of Shaping against these blades and what can they do against an Undead Mage” he decided and did as he told.
Many ice spears shot toward him, yet none hit him thanks to his careful placement of the vertically crossed blades, which cleaved them apart. Murai only watched the two halves disappear beside him, causing the destruction of sand in their continued momentum behind.
He continued to Shape the blades before him, while the power of his Sharpness worked with the rest. It was basic stuff, in this mind. All he needed was a propel angle, and his Sharpness was passable against these ice spears' momentum. Though, they weren't moving at exact angles all the time, so he used his eyes and the Mana Detection to angle his blades, detecting the flow of the ice spears that flew in his direction each second. It was a nasty barrage, but Murai couldn't tell how many spears will fly forth.
Undead Mage was only focusing and empowering the use of his Ice Shower Talismans to obliterate the enemy, yet it never became the reality.
The ie spears flew and became halved like a cleaved head of a chicken under the experienced butcher. They didn't even pose a threat, but Murai wasn't thinking of the ice as dangerous. He feared his own weakness. By the 25th attack, his blades began to shake apart, and the cuts became duller. His shaping caused the blades to remain before him, but every attack after the 18th let the blades a bit forward. This was causing quite some strain on his mind, as the Shaping was not done by anything but the mage's mind, in conjunction with the core. ]
He couldn't touch or hold them by his hand, so his mind was all he had.
It worked well for Mana Cores, while the Handlers would slowly get restrained with their control over the worldly mana. In his case, it was an obvious lack of control. He felt the pressure rising in his core, causing the mana of his two blades to become unstable when he was closing on the 30th ice spear.
Fortunately, by the 33rd one, the talismans cracked apart, causing a small ice explosion to shock the mana around the Undead Mage. The runes that made these Ice Shower talismans were no longer operating, leaving the Undead Mage staggering on his steps. They reached the limit, as Murai hoped for.
It was another disadvantage of the Talismans. They were finite. If they wouldn't it wouldn't make sense.
Without much of waiting for the further opening that wouldn't come by itself, Murai turned his mana up a notch. He gritted his teeth and changed the trajectory of one of his blades. It turned straight according to his line of vision. It was slightly curved, ready to pierce the target. The one was enough because the target was quite far away, causing his eyes to become small dots in focus.
He focused a lot of attention on this strike, which he never used for such a long distance. Not even when he practiced this sort of Shaping move in his training before.
The mana blade shook and became firmer, turning to a streak of lightning-fast attack resembling a shot of an arrow. Murai only willed it forward, creating a resemblance to an arrow in the vision of his own Shaping. That was usually how it went without some touchy Shaping, but it had no way physical resemblance to the actual use of bow and arrow.
It was basically shoving the mana of a specific mass forward and hoping for the best.
Mana in this case will leave one's control, dispersing afterward unless one would connect to it again. That was usually quite hard, so this sort of attack was a one-way attack anyway. Murai's sword was fast like an actual flying arrow from a heavy bow. It flew straight toward the Undead Mage head, who frantically tried to get another pair of Talismans but barely 3 seconds passed before he got back his lacking stability.
It was too late. Before he managed to get the mana flowing and activate the other spell, a Blade shot through his sockets, traveling through the soul flame, and creating a large hole at the end of the skull. It obliterated the further hood, while the ending motion eradicated the skull in half. Soul flames ceased to exist the moment the remains of the undead mage hit the ground, ceasing to the sand.
“Oh? I hit the bullseye.” Murai quacked, surprised but aware that he did it.
Huh... Amauter. Not even a Ward was around its body? Is this the limit of the intelligence of this sort of Undead Mage, or it was so long dead, it become as boring as the Death itself? Murai wondered, figuring this was a similar difficulty to the last enemy. Before, the Undead Knight created some trouble for him with the massive blade, while the Undead Mage created a rather harsh endurance rush.
Ice Shower was known as quite a wild and heavily focused spell. It was among the finest choices in the earliest Path of Ice to affect large areas, attacking more foes at once, while its might wasn't the smallest. It was dense in its structure, attacking fast with quite some power. The advantage of that was that, but the disadvantage was also there, apart from the basic of the Talismans which was the case here. Normally, the Ice Shower would still leave the mage immobile and focused on the spell.
Murai knew how it was affecting the mages, even if he didn't like the Path of Ice.
With the finished 3rd wave, he felt the pressure of the surrounding undead turned up a notch. Through his Soul Read and Mana Detection, he felt tides of wild power surround the proximity around the front rows of this undead army. 100 meters before him were hundreds of powerful soul flames lingering in many empty eye sockets/
Soul Read let out many shimmering thoughts, and pressure enveloped his mind, informing him of dangers, while anything else became unimportant in this version of the Soul Read. But it was enough to make him a bit nervous, considering the kind of enemy there were beyond the front row. Perhaps things will get nasty next, as he already guessed that this place had some rules in it.
Those wild auras of powerful force won't attack him. Only the weaker undead will, which was already happening for the 3rd time now. The 1st group of skeletons was just a small nudge at him, giving him a polite pat on the head from the Temple. 2nd was more serious and 3rd was to view his magic. That was at least what he assumed.
Mana Detection showed him incredible auras and powerful mana of various affinities that some of these Undead possessed. There was one particular one, further in the back, but Murai was unable to see or sense it. It was long behind his line of Mana Detection, but that pressuring feeling was coming towards him too, allowing him to feel it.
He was unable to determine who that was, or what it could have been, but it was seeping the power of partial divinity. It was strange, considering the divinity wasn't mana, yet Murai was feeling it all the same.
It was a feeling of someone beyond the realms of common practices. It was something that Gods viewed so highly, they would even kill other gods to seize their power. Though, that was easier said than done.
The one he felt was visible to Lisa above, who eyed the whole undead army because she could, while Murai couldn't. Her position allowed her to feel the mana too, noticing a dark robbed skeleton, whose only visible vision was red dots, within the empty sockets. There was no glowing soul flame, but it was bright in some light. It was hard to tell what it was, as this skeleton was hiding completely behind a haggard-looking cloak, with a thick and long hood.
Out of any undead, this peculiar skeleton was riding some sort of horse beast. It was also an undead one and large like a low giant. A skeleton of the powerful looking powerful beast was its mount, giving the large skeleton the power of higher ground.
It was a big mount, at least 4 meters tall from her observation, and the skeleton wasn't any smaller.
It would be like a towering giant before a measly duck, which won't be much taller in the future. It was a common rule that certain species had. Overruling them wasn't something anyone or anything could do, as certain things became impossible.
Murai was sure that the Welcoming Party was yet to be over. He managed to obliterate a few opponents, but it wasn't as challenging as that time with Acaman Golem or with messiahs. In the past week, he did achieve a plethora of improvements, but he didn't consider he would fare much better against that golem.
Now, seeing the situation, it was as Lisa said. Something was gouging his strength to make the 4th opponent a true challenge or final boss.
The majority of the further undead would kill him for sure, yet the ones who always stepped forwards had some major defects or some other issue he could use to his advantage. The first skeletons were weak in themselves. The Undead Knight... was average, at best, but with nice equipment and power equal to level 32.
As for the mage? Murai was extremely familiar with getting rid of any kind of mage since experiencing many lives in the flow of the River of Manaflow made sure of it.
With the 3rd Wave, the rest of the undead army around Murai's proximity cluttered their jaws, causing the clutter of teeth to echo, as if laughing. Though, they weren't sounding like laughing for sure.
It was an eerie sound, followed by another Wave of an undead that walked forth.
It was a stranger one than the previous ones. An inhuman undead, in fact.
An undead monster walked forward. It had 4 bony limbs, thick Soul Flames in its sockets in quite a ferocious skull. Tough, and sharp teeth were pristine as if they never disappeared or became dull in time of death. It was a beast resembling a tough wolf or lion, but it was hard to guess since the skeleton held not many features. Tattered pieces of meat, skin, or fur were visible in a few parts, but they were hard enough to get some answers.
“Is this a freaking Alpha Coyote? That... is wrong. It is too large. It's hard to guess that when the flesh and fur are almost no longer around.” Murai looked at the approaching enemy with some interest.
He wasn't right this time around, but he wasn't far from the truth either. This one was Wildling Jaguar. A Class D Magical Beast of level 35.
Murai saw one special feature of this undead beast. Apart from the glistering soul flames, this one had a swirling mana core within its chest. It was tiny, considering the mass of its 3-meter tall stature, and more than 4-meter long body.
Wildling Jaguar was a beast stronger than some Alpa Coyotes, because of their status as a magical beast, and their bloodline. Though, it was only rightful to call it extraordinary when alive. When it was undead, the bloodline ceased to become an important factor. There was no flesh, no blood vessels, and no blood. Just bones, which may not be normal but were hard as steel.
It was still fitting to view it as a powerful beast. It had a great magic aptitude, thanks to the roots of magical creatures of the carnivorous species. It can eat the foe's flesh, gaining some power from the foe. It was from the bloodline of species called Devourers ~ carnivorous magic beasts of the Path of Fengblood.
But now that it was no longer alive, what magic and powers it had?
Murai looked at the 3-meter-tall Jaguar as it carefully started to intercept him like a hunter. That was, to make circles around Murai, while the rest of the undead waited.
“Lisa, How many rounds of this shit do I have to endure? This is getting annoying already.” Murai asked floating Lisa high above the ground.
“Don't Know. Don't care,” she said back, floating as if nothing bothered her in her place. She kept her watch to the distance, uncaring about the issues below her.
Murai sighted, unable to exploit much of this conflict at all. He was seeing and feeling enough. This beast was stronger than messiahs and the last 3 Waves combined together.
He could only attempt to obliterate this bony beast with what he could. As for how? He had to figure that out.
Murai was starting to be a bit hesitant with his mana spending. He was reaching his limits and it was noticeable. The firm use of singular or few Mana Blade forms before was a cheap price to pay for a good solution. It worked wonderfully for the course of those battles, enabling him to achieve fantastic results against the Undead Mage and the Knight.
As for this ferocious undead beast that seemed like a prime hunter, Murai figured his chances were lower, albeit not impossibly so.
“Peak. Let's see a proper battle freakiness of this Anatidae. Or... how should it be like, so let's do what I can do.” he thought to himself and simply waited on the spot. He didn't Shape or Conjured anything. The first blades long become the mana of the world, the moment the Undead Mage died for the second time. The second Mana Blade stayed before him, waiting after deflecting and shattering the rest of the spear that came to him before the mage died.
Seeing the prey hesitate, or ignore its proclamation of a hunt, Jaguar cluttered its teeth in frustration. Then, it roared, as the soul flame itself turned violet in rage.
It was being underestimated, and this jaguar didn't like it one bit. It was a strong beast when it was alive and proud, yet it was true that it was weaker when it became an undead beast.
From within its roaring jaw, another jaw emerged. It was phantom one, filled with dead elements and long-range mana fluctuations that spread forward like a toss of a spearhead.