Liam stared into the room with eyes wide and mouth agape. If he thought the entrance had a lot of monsters there when he arrived then he was sorely mistaken. He couldn’t tell how many were in the room, but he knew it was more than a hundred maybe two hundred, but with how they kept moving around it was pointless for him to try and count.
Liam did notice that something was preventing the monsters from rushing towards them. Not that they weren’t trying to. Some of the skeletal creatures were walking into some sort of invisible barrier that just bounced them back a bit. It looked like the barrier’s edge was at the bottom of the steps in front of them.
Liam took a moment to scan the room.
This room was massively spacious. Four massive stone pillars stood close to the edge of the room holding up the ceiling that was high up that you’d seriously had to use all your strength to throw something to hit it.
Off to the middle of the left and right walls were closed entrances with a dimmed crystal above each door.
In the middle of the room standing on the raised platform was a cloaked figure with its back towards them. It stood close to the edge as it looked down at something. Four small pillars were standing on the corners of the raised platform. On the tips of them were dimmed light green crystals.
Liam noticed some new undead monsters mixed in with some familiar ones in there. He decided to assess each to see what they were dealing with.
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“Askith Skeleton Warrior. 650/650 HP. 0/0 MP. Level 17.”
“Rotted Askith Zombie. 600/600 HP. 0/0 MP. Level 16.”
“Shredding Zombie. 775/775 Hp. 0/0 MP. Level 17.”
“Elite Askith Skeleton Soldier. 4,700/4,700 HP. 0/0 MP. Level 21.”
“Askith Mummy Guard. 7,000/7,000 HP. 500/500 MP. Level 21.”
“Rotted Askith Zombie Mage. 2,750/2,750 HP. 1,960/1,960 MP. Level 18.”
“Hyena Zombie. 1,000/1,000 HP. 0/0 MP. Level 15.”
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Liam’s mouth widened with each notification he read.
Well, this is going to be a bit harder than I thought. Liam thought to himself before assessing the cloaked figure. However, no matter how hard he tried to assess what looked like to be the boss, he wasn’t able to pull anything up.
“What the fuck?” Liam muttered under his breath while scrunching his brows. He turned to look at Inyis.
She too had the same look as him. Mica and Rez as well as he figured out they, too, weren’t able to get much information on the target.
“Looks like this fight is going to be one of attrition,” Inyis commented as she looked around. She then looked at Liam and asked, “How should be do this?”
Liam looked from her to the Undead crowd that were trying to get pass the invisible barrier to them. He thought some things over before starting, “This isn’t going to be as easy as just killing our way over to the boss. We’re going to need to fight smart and with precise judgement.”
Liam turned to Jude. “I know your way of fighting is probably just barreling through using brute force, but I don’t think that will work here. We will need to work together to wipe out as many as we can before facing the boss.”
Jude turned his gaze from the sea of monsters towards Liam.
Liam noticed the wicked grin that was placed upon his face.
“I may be a battle junkie, but even I know when I need to tone it down some,” Jude stated. “Tell me, what kind of strategy do you have in mind for this fight?”
Liam eyed him. He was surprised by Jude’s sudden change from wanting to rush in head first to using his head.
“We’re going to use a strategy I like to call, Crowd Control,” Liam said before turning to face the others. “Everyone with movement restriction type crowd control abilities up to the front.”
Ariyana and Blair walked up along with Inyis, Rez, and Mica.
Liam looked at them. He knew Inyis was a Plant mage and had the same type of crowd control abilities that Ariyana would have. He didn’t know what Rez or Mica had though.
“What are your movement restriction type abilities?” Liam questioned.
“I have gravity,” Mica answered. She then gave him a wink as she added, “Since you have it too, you should know what spells I have.”
Liam was surprised by this. He didn’t think she would have Gravity magic. His first impression of her was more of a seduce your opponents and take them out, but maybe there was more to her than he thought.
Probably guessing what he was thinking. Mica gave him a playful smile and said coquettishly, “A girl’s got to have options.”
Liam shook his head as he turned to Rez.
“I have Ice magic and I gained a crowd control ability called Icicle Encase,” Rez replied. “I have it leveled up enough that it will freeze a group of enemies up to their knees.”
Liam looked at Mercer and gave him a curious look since he knew Mercer had the same elemental magic.
Mercer shook his head and mouthed, “Not high enough yet.”
Liam nodded before turning back to everyone.
“Okay so here’s what we’re going to do,” Liam started. “Since the front area isn’t that wide in front of us. We’re going to use our abilities to trap those monsters in the front to prevent others from coming. While the front is blocked, we will try and attack long ranged to take out as many of the mummies and zombies as we can. Especially those thrashers. Anyone with fire spells focus the mummies.”
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“Melee and defenders will guard and wait for the crowd control abilities to wear out. Buffers will wait on buffing and will join in on the long range attacks if you’re able to. Does that work for everyone?”
Finding the plan acceptable, everyone nodded their heads.
“Okay. So, from left to right, the order of crowd control will be Ariyana, Mica, Rez, Myself, Inyis, and Blair,” Liam informed. “Try to leave a small gap between so the spells don’t overlap and create some issue.”
Liam then added as he looked at Mica, “Blair already knows this, but Mica, when you use Gravity Well layer a Gravitational Force Increase on top of it.”
Mica gave him a surprised look as she said, “I was wondering if that would work, but never tried it. I take it you have tested this out?”
Liam nodded.
“Sweet then I’ll do that,” Mica said with a wicked grin.
“Sounds good and all, but I have a question,” Aranis butted in.
“What’s up?” Liam asked.
“How are we going to get pass the barrier that’s holding back the monsters?” Aranis questioned.
“I have two theories on that,” Liam started to reply. “One, once when the last person walks in then it’ll drop. If that doesn’t happen then once when a spell has been casted and shot over the barrier it’ll drop.”
“What’s the likelihood any of those would be it?” Inyis asked.
Liam shrugged. “Five percent. I’m running with guesswork and video game knowledge, which probably isn’t the best, so nothing is certain.”
“Fair enough,” Inyis said with a slight giggle.
“Alright lets get into position,” Liam said. “Defenders and melee with no long range abilities to the front. Crowd Control users on the second step. Start chanting when I give the signal. Long range attackers will be behind everyone with the buffers.”
Liam then looked at Mercer and said, “Wait a moment before entering the room. Once when we are almost done chanting then step inside so we can see if my first theory was right.”
Mercer nodded as he waited and watched everyone get into place.
He watched as they started channeling mana around them before they started chanting. He was familiar with Liam’s and Ariyana’s spells and how long it took to chant. Once when he recognized their chants getting close to the end he took a step into the room.
Nothing happened.
Theory one debunked. Mercer thought as he faced forward and watched as the spells shot towards their designated locations.
Vines shot out from the ground in several places, wrapping around the creatures that stood above them as three black orbs hovered a bit behind some of the monsters and started pulling them in.
The one spell Mercer was interested in though was the one Rez was casting.
The ground below a group of monsters suddenly grew cold and white as it spread out. Once when it reached out far enough, the feet and legs of the undead creatures standing on it started to freeze, restricting their movements forward.
As soon as these spells took form though, the door behind the group of people slammed shut. Moans, groans, and indistinguishable noises suddenly filled the room.
Theory two was correct. Mercer thought as he pulled out his bow and aimed for the first thrasher in his sight. He took a breath in and released it as the arrow sank into the skull of the creature.
After Liam finished placing his Gravitational Force Increase over the area his Gravity Well was placed, he watched as the long range attackers released spells and arrows.
Zombies, Mummies, and Skeletal creatures were suddenly pummeled by the attacks.
A few zombies dropped from barrages, but the Mummies and the skeletal creatures tanked the hits. After a few more of the attacks landed against them they started dropping. However, the speed at which they were falling was a lot slower than he liked it to be.
He took note of where the stronger of the creatures were. More Mummy Guards were spread out a bit in the middle of the pack but were still located in two groups close to each other.
The Zombie Mages were huddled close to each other in two groups as well with a few Elite Skeleton Soldiers guarding them.
He judged how far they were and thought about how far his throwing arm could lob things. It was too far to throw his throwing daggers, but the range was acceptable for the items he had in mind using.
A smile grew on his face as he thought about the potential damage he was hoping to cause with these items.
He looked at the timer on his Gravity Well and decided to get ready as it passed the halfway mark. He pulled out four large vials. He grabbed the daggers off of his Shadow Hands and gave them each a vial full of purplish liquid with flashes of red coming in and out.
He then pulled his goggles down over his eyes and grabbed the two large vials full of purplish liquid with arcs of lightning bouncing around inside.
Inyis saw this and asked, “What are those?”
Liam turned to look at her and gave her a wicked smile as he replied, “These? They are party favors I’m about to give to our kind hosts.”
The defenders and melee attackers turned with curious looks as they heard this and stared at the vials.
Before anyone could ask what they really were, Liam called out, “Stop attacking and replenish your mana. Buffers get ready to start buffing. Defenders and melee get ready for the incoming wave. Control Towers don’t forget to communicate.”
Everyone did as they were told while they got ready.
“However, before any of that,” Liam started as he took aim for the spots he took note of. He then brought his right hand back along with the right Shadow Hand and then threw the two vials towards two different spots. He then brought his left hand back aimed and then threw as quickly as he could.
As the vials soared through the air, Liam finished saying, “Let’s enjoy the show.”
The two on the left weren’t as accurate as the ones thrown with his right hand, but they were close enough as the bottles smashed on the ground.
One of the vials with red flashes landed in the middle of the groups with the Mummy Guards as the other landed a bit more towards the edge of the left side of the other group.
One of the ones with lightning arcing around landed in the middle of the Zombie Mages while the other landed a bit more in front of them.
At first nothing happened.
This caused one of the Lion-folk males to turn and ask, “Were they duds?”
Liam just stood and smiled as four massive pitch black orbs rose into the air above the heads of the monsters they landed around.
Large chunks of monsters in the area were suddenly pulled in towards the orb, not allowing them to escape.
After a few seconds had passed the orbs above the groups that had the Mummy Guards along with some Elite Skeleton Soldiers and Zombie Thrashers suddenly dropped to the ground. As soon as the orbs slammed down hard a large ring of fire blasted outwards, engulfing everything that was clumped together in a massive wave of fire.
Liam noticed the monsters that were around the edges of the wave of fire light up with fire coating them. He also noticed their movements start to become more sluggish than normal.
At the same time this was going on, the two orbs that hovered around the Zombie Mages, Elite Skeleton Soldiers, a few Zombie Hyenas, and Rotted Zombies, suddenly flashed and sent a shockwave of lighting out washing over all the creatures within it.
After the shockwave dispersed, lighting suddenly bounced from creature to creature that were crumpled together until several arcs of lightning shot out from the group and connected with the undead creatures outside of the radius, causing them to convulse and fall to a knee.
Everyone stared at the fireworks that had happened behind enemy lines with shock and awe. They stared at the aftermath with amazement as almost all the monsters caught up in the destruction were wiped out.
Only a few individuals were still alive, if barely, inside the four craters that were made from the items.
The group of people turned to look at Liam, including his group, who was smiling at the results of the creations he had a part in making.
I am so going to specialize in Chemicalized Creations in Alchemy when I get the chance. Liam thought as he grinned widely and excitedly.
Ariyana leaned close to Mercer and whispered, “Now we know where those craters came from back in the entrance room.”
Mercer nodded slowly.
“That wasn’t a spell was it?” Aranis questioned as he looked at Jude.
“Nope, I don’t think that was. I think those were purely crafted items,” Jude replied before looking at Liam.
“Huh,” Aranis said. He then muttered as he turned to look at Liam, “Crafters can be scarier than regular fighters.”
Liam noticed Aranis and Jude staring at him. Aranis with a look of approval mixed with some concern as Jude had the same wide excited grin as Liam.
Liam stood proud and stated while still wearing a grin of his own, “One hell of an opening salvo right?”
“One hell of an opening salvo indeed,” Jude agreed.