The ape called the bone architect rushed him with an ivory spear. Devon dodged backwards frantically, still trying to wrap his mind around the unexpected turn of events.
Two of them went to go focus on Eve! And this shield around the cavern, it's like they've developed some kind of intelligence!
Devon didn't have any idea what was going on, but he knew if he didn't focus these apes would kill him. He blocked another attack from the bone architect, but when he tried to counter with an attack of his own the ape leaped back.
In its place a huge silvery tendril of light pierced through the air, and Devon barely managed to dodge to the side before it ripped through the space he'd only just occupied. He was forced to twist his body uncomfortably as the bone architect once again went on the offensive, stabbing at the place it expected Devon to land.
Devon barely avoided the thrust, and once again the ape moved back before Devon's counterattack could land. He was ready for the silver light this time though, and he leaped backwards to give himself some space to properly assess the situation.
So they're splitting roles between melee and ranged, with the mage sitting in the back. What an annoying strategy.
That they were able to strategize and designate roles was as much of a surprise as the fact that one of them could cast magic at all. Devon wondered if any beast had the potential of being able to use magic if they were enlightened. But this wasn't the time for such thoughts.
Well, you lot aren't the only ones who can use magic.
He'd spent his two days off deciding what he wanted to use his spell enhancement token and charge of Refine on. After a lot of deliberation, Devon had decided to use the token he'd gotten from the spirit dungeon to boost his lightning imbuement spell. None of the other spells in the shop had seemed quite as useful, and Devon already knew the effectiveness of the base spell.
Let's see how conductive bone is to electricity. Activate magic; Lightning Imbuement II.
Nothing happened.
Fuck!
He dodged another stream of silver and prepared himself to defend against the bone architect, who had taken the second Devon had stood, waiting for something to happen, to advance closer to him again.
It was just like when he'd first tried to use Refine. He was missing something among the activation conditions, but because the system wouldn't tell him what he was doing wrong he couldn't properly adjust and fix the problem.
The spell is called Lightning Imbuement II, which means it's a direct upgrade to the previous version. So there shouldn't be any drastic change in the effect, it should still buff my weapon same as before. So why won't it activate? Maybe there's some activation condition the system didn't bother telling me about?
Unlike when he'd played around with Refine, he didn't have the luxury of throwing an endless spew of commands at the system to see if they worked. The situation didn't afford him that much room to think.
He quickly went over the rest of his options. Adrenaline was immediately crossed off the list of viable options, as the tunnel vision that came with its activation would almost certainly get him killed while he had to deal with two separate opponents. Boost also didn't seem like a good idea because if this became a battle of attrition the aftereffects would cancel out any temporary advantage the spell provided.
That left Fireball and all of his generalist weapon skills.
Let's hope my other upgrade didn't come with some strange change. Activate skill; Lightning Thrust.
When the bone architect once again tried to stab him Devon weaved around the pole of the ivory spear and struck out with the golden blur of a counterattack the ape was too slow to avoid. He'd aimed to pierce straight through the chest of the ape, but the bone armor that encased it was sturdier than expected, and it canceled out the force of the thrust.
Even so, he heard the ape grunt in pain and saw the armor crack before the ape leaped backward, forcing Devon to do the same lest he get blasted by another silvery ray of light.
Devon couldn't help but find a small bit of humor that only one of his skills with lightning in the name happened to work, but that was only natural. Lightning Thrust was only named so because of the speed of the attack, not because it had any vestige of the arcane energy his spell had.
Those bones are pretty tough, much more so than ordinary bones.
It was interesting to note that the ape had still grunted in pain from Devon's attack, even though the force of his spear had been entirely blocked by the ape's bone armor.
It's like getting shot while wearing a bulletproof vest. It's a physical barrier, but it doesn't change the fact that getting hit hard enough is still going to hurt. Now, which do I target first?
Devon took cover behind a large piece of rubble while he examined his opponents. The shining silver stood upon what seemed to be the final remnants of the once beautiful fountain in the center of the plaza, orbs of silver light in both hands. Beyond it, Devon could see Eve engaged in a fight of her own with the other two apes. The bone architect was patting down its ivory cuirass, seemingly checking it for damage.
He stepped out from behind the piece of rubble he was behind before running towards the shining silver. He didn't want the bone architect to force him into a drawn-out battle. He'd been able to dodge all of the mage's attacks so far, but if they started adapting to his movements then he'd be screwed.
The mystical-looking ape pointed one of its arms out toward Devon, and he had to dodge to the side as one of the silver rays of light zipped past him. He ran alongside it towards its source in the few moments before the lingering tendril of light disappeared.
Activate skill; Lightning Thrust.
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But before he had a chance to actually activate his skill, something emerged from the lingering tendril of light next to him. A bone far heavier than it looked smashed into his side, sending him sprawling.
He scurried away, fearing another magical attack while he was weakened, but one didn't come. Devon looked towards the shining silver, slightly confused, and saw the ape regenerating the orb it had previously expended to shoot at him.
Does it need time to recharge shots? Still, why didn't it attack with the other it holds? Maybe it's holding onto it as a last resort defensive move?
Devon couldn't understand the rationale of monkeys, enlightened though they were.
As the last vestiges of the ray of light dissipated the bone architect was once again pressing the assault, though Devon immediately noticed something different. It no longer held a spear in its hands. Instead, it held an extremely long blade in one hand and a shorter curved blade in another, both made of the same ivory material.
For a moment he wondered where the ape had pulled those from, but then noticed something else. The chestpiece that he'd cracked was now fully repaired and unscathed.
Of course, it's called the bone architect for a reason. I'd initially assumed it was a purely physical fighter because of how it's been engaging me, but it's more likely a mage/fighter hybrid. That explains why it doesn't seem overwhelmingly strong, just versatile.
But when it came to being versatile Devon was still a step above.
The ape had switched up its weapons, so Devon felt it was about time for him to do the same. He reached into his tile and brought out the hammerhead, quickly attaching it to the rear end of his spear.
The ape noticed his change in weaponry, Devon could see it in the body language of the beast even if the face was completely obscured by that ivory mask. It shifted its stance, holding the massive blade out in front of it while clutching the shorter curved sword towards its chest. It also stopped rushing him, instead seeming more content to let Devon come to it.
Crafty bugger, eh?
Now that it knew Devon wasn't an opponent to underestimate it was being far more cautious, though that in itself was bad for Devon. It was doing what he was afraid of, trying to draw out the fight. If Devon pressed the offense it would fight defensively, and if he tried to target the mage or distance himself the ape would attack his exposed flank.
I'll just have to crush it with everything I've got.
Still, he couldn't just throw caution to the wind. The ape's change of weapons set off warning signs in his mind, and he needed to figure out why it felt the need to change its fighting style.
He stalked around the ape in a circle until he was where he wanted to be. In a fight against multiple opponents positioning was paramount, because losing track of the second enemy would result in being blindsided. He positioned himself so that the bone architect was front and center, with the shining silver slightly off to the side in his peripherals. He made sure his view of the mage wasn't blocked by the bone architect, as he knew the mage could exploit any kind of blind spot.
The mage in question had its second silvery orb ready once again, but Devon pressed on anyway.
He made the first attack this time, swinging from the side with his hammer. The bone covered ape held out its long blade, and the two weapons clashed against each other. At first the blade contesting his hammer seemed like it would hold fast, but an instant later Devon detected a tremor in it, a sign that Devon was overpowering his opponent.
But the ape wasn't satisfied just blocking his attack. While Devon's weapon was locked up it stepped forward and thrust the shorter blade forward.
Devon yanked his hammer back from the clash and backstepped, but the shorter bone blade extended its length even as he retreated. The length more than doubled before the ape stabbed a few inches of it into Devon's chest. Then, right before Devon exited the ape's range, it whipped the blade to the side, cutting a slash across his chest and flinging his blood across the stones.
Kh!
Devon dodged to the right and then took a few measured steps before steadying himself back into position. The ape swiped the extending blade to the side, flinging the remaining blood off it, and in that short motion the blade returned to the short length it had been before.
He'd figured the ape would try a tactic like that with the dual blade setup, but he hadn't expected the secondary blade to extend. And he certainly hadn't expected it to be so damn sharp.
He felt the wet cut in his padded chest armor. The blade had pierced clean through both the leather hide and the metal inserts beneath. If he'd taken a wound like this back on earth he would have been hospitalized, but it didn't pose that much of an issue as he was.
It's not that strong on its own, but the weapons it makes are extremely lethal, far more so than anything I've seen available to the rest of us in the tutorial. The fact it can manipulate them like that also puts me at a disadvantage.
The ape's fighting style was so tailored to a warrior's that Devon had momentarily forgotten that the ape was a mage hybrid. He didn't know what other tricks the ape had up their bony sleeves, but he didn't care to find out.
Now that he knew the ape's strategy it was time to turn the tables.
Activate skill; Shatter.
For his plan to work he needed the extra oomph of a skill, but didn't want to expend the mana on a refined skill or use up his charge of the amplification gem. And he was thankful he'd taken the precaution of storing a weapon on his person instead of inside the inventory.
Devon once again pressed the offensive, this time bringing the hammer down directly towards the bone architect's head. Once again the ape blocked it, but the force of the impact was completely different with Shatter in effect.
Cracks ran down the long blade of bone, but disappeared as soon as they appeared as the ape repaired its creation before it could break. Even so, the force of the hammer was too much for the ape to deal with, and its strength gave way before its weapon.
Even as the strength in its arm gave out, the ape managed to deflect the blow enough that it impacted on the shoulder pauldron instead of the head like Devon had been aiming for. The ape grunted in pain, but that wasn't enough to stop it from thrusting the curved sword forward once again.
However, Devon was ready for it. He released his left hand from the spear's length and stepped left, into the blind spot the ape had created by raising its arm to block his hammer blow. In a rapid motion, he drew the curved sword from within the folds of his garb and stabbed with it.
He felt the still unused Lightning Thrust activate as the sword pierced into the gap in the ape's armor at the waist. He angled the stab upwards, aiming to puncture as many of the ape's organs as possible.
Every armor has weak points. The more mobile you need to be, the more weak points you'll have.
Even as the blade went in, Devon knew he'd overextended himself to secure the attack. He didn't try to draw the blade out, instead opting to fully roll into his lurching motion to the left. It proved to be the correct choice, as he felt the curved blade slash the air where he'd just been. Instead of his torso being hit again his arm was slashed as he pulled the hammer to himself.
Even as he rolled past the bone architect he pushed the curved sword lodged within the ape's body to the side before releasing it as he moved by, forcing it to slice sideways inside the ape. He knew a simple stab to the abdomen probably wouldn't be enough on its own to take the monster out, but if he could wreak havoc on its innards the chances were much higher.
[Level up. Sword Proficiency Level 6 obtained.]
He winced at the pain of his arm being slashed, but rolled to his feet before glancing towards the mage's last location. However, the moment Devon looked that way a blinding light seared his retinas.
Completely blinded, he tried to instinctually anticipate how to move to avoid the attack he knew would be coming, but he failed. He felt the full force of the mage's attack slam into him, and felt searing pain course through his entire being.