Chapter 46

The first enemy was waiting for them at the bend of the tunnel and, like an inactive sentry, it immediately locked onto them as soon as they got close enough to it. It was a creature made of ice and spikes, deep blue like the walls of the tunnel it inhabited. It charged at Michael with a roar, crossing the space between them with considerable speed.

The team reacted at once. Drullkrin dove to the side to circle back and attack the elemental from behind, while the stone golem moved to intercept its attack. The flying fox immediately charged up an attack, and a beam of magic hit the charging elemental in the shoulder before Michael could even blink, staggering the creature for a moment as the magic began to eat at the elemental energy making up the monster. Not wasting any moment, the chimera charged forward right as the stone golem blocked a fierce blow from the icy monster, sending cracks spreading through the ice that made up its arm.

Moving to the side with practiced ease, as if they had been working as a team for a long time, the golem allowed the chimera to continue its charge while the monster was recovering from its failed attack. It was onto it in moments, biting down with its powerful lion head, shattering the arm completely in its jaw. Before the elemental could recover, Drullkrin was behind it. He delivered a savage blow, sending the elemental sprawling to the ground.

“Now, my liege!”

Shaken out of his contemplative mood by the goblin’s words, Michael shot forward. He summoned the second version of [Candle Light], setting his hands ablaze, wrapping them around the elemental’s neck. The ice began to hiss and crack and melt, and in mere moments the elemental’s head was detached from its body, and the monster was no more. For a second or two the fire element released by the skill clashed with the water and ice of the elemental, fighting each other to a standstill, but while there was a steady source of fire coming from Michael’s hands, the same couldn’t be said for the ice. The ice element in the air was simply too thin, and the lingering spirit of the elemental quickly faded. I wonder where the fire element comes from. Is this skill making it out of mana, like [Healing Aura] creates Qi out of mana when I don’t have enough in my dantian anymore? Or do I have an internal storage of elements I can tap into?

Shaking his head, Michael knew he wasn’t getting these answers while in the ice tunnels.

“Good fight everyone,” he said. “Let’s keep our eyes open.”

They continued deeper inside the glacier. The tunnel was tortuous and winding, designed to make whoever traversed it lose their sense of direction. It split in many paths, side tunnels and dead ends, forcing the team to stop at every intersection. Luckily they could almost always divine the right path by following the thicker energy deeper in the glacier. As they went on, the tunnels were filled with enemies: more elementals of all shapes of ice, as well as yetis and wolves, balls of pure ice energy that froze anything they touched and gigantic constructs of flowing frozen water.

The monsters in the team fought like a well-oiled machine, making Michael think that perhaps Drullkrin had planned for this beforehand and had already drilled the team to work together. Michael himself took some time to adapt to their fighting style, and his role was nebulous at best. He mostly had melee capabilities thanks to his skills, and his presence was necessary to deal with the elementals—he was the only one who could harm them permanently.

But this also meant that he often got in the way of the others, and since he was the king none dared to voice their complaints. They simply tried to adapt, covering for his mistakes and weaknesses, which made him feel worse rather than better.

He tried to rationalize it by thinking that these were all monsters he was dealing with, and that apart from Drullkrin the others were basically inconsequential to him—they had never even spoken once. But he failed, feeling more and more frustrated by his lack of skill. He more than covered for it with his raw power, his [Distortion Sphere] more than strong enough to deal with anything that tried to hit him and his flames hot enough to turn the ice to steam, but he was well aware that his fights lacked finesse.

He was about to ask Drullkrin to teach him some moves when they heard a rumble come from one of the tunnels. They were still in the process of scouting two tunnels that both held a high concentration of elements inside them, making the choice quite hard.

“What is that?” asked Drullkrin, falling into formation.

Michael took his place in said formation, not even aware that despite his insecurities he had grown by leaps and bound in the last few hours by working with the team.

“I sense a lot of movement there,” he said, carefully observing the swirling mana and elemental energy in the air. “The mana is so thick it’s practically overflowing.”

“A stampede.” Drullkrin declared, then pointed at one of the tunnels. “Sir, they are coming from there. Do we need to go into that tunnel?”

“Yes but… We could retreat into the other,” Michael said, “let the stampede pass us by.”

“No,” the goblin shook his head, for a moment forgetting he was talking to his king. “I mean, my lord, I’m afraid we can’t wait them out, my liege. They will chase us down, making it impossible to retrace our steps without a fight. That tunnel is quite cramped, making it impossible for us to fight at peak efficiency. If you think we need to go into the tunnel where the monsters are coming from, then we need to fight here.”

“Alright,” Michael steeled himself, making a mental check of his skills, “call the positions.”

“With pleasure, my lord. Golem, get in front. Fox, fly high and control the crowd. I shall go into the thick of it together with the chimera. You, my lord, deal with anyone strong enough to make it to the golem. The golem will protect your back and keep the monsters occupied, allowing you to fight the strong monsters one-on-one.”

Michael nodded, and then the monsters were on them. From the tunnel spilled a deluge of creatures of all sizes and shapes, the only thing in common being their energy signature of either ice or water or a mix of the two, and their color being a mix of blue and white. Some were covered in fur, others were pure ice, and others were horrendous ghouls who had never seen the light of day in their lives.

The tiny fox, having flown high, was blasting the mass of monsters with rapid-fire beams of magic that crippled, poisoned, paralyzed and felled enemies as fast as she could shoot. Still, she wasn’t even making a dent in their number. Down on the ground, Drullkrin had disappeared in a blur of motion, his Fae enhancement network making him incredibly fast and strong.

He was like a streak of green moving in a zig-zag pattern among the many running monsters, kicking up a storm of snow and water that added to the thick cloud of mist that followed the stampede. Everywhere he appeared, an arm shattered, a bone snapped and a monster was quickly dispatched of. He never lingered to marvel at his own work, instead immediately transforming into a blur once again in search of another target to destroy. He mostly struck weak monsters, aiming to thin the numbers as much as possible to make it easier for Michael to deal with the elites.

The chimera too was thick into the melee, but its tactic was the opposite. It marched into the chaotic enemy line, using its bulk to keep advancing through the mass of bodies that pushed against it, swiping its powerful clawed paws at them. Sometimes its lion head reached out and chomped, powerful fangs snapping entire monsters in half. Where the lion head was powerful and deadly, fighting with force, the serpent head was fast as a lightning. It lengthened like a spring, delivering a vicious bite that injected powerful venom in those enemies that had flesh and blood to infect, leaving them frothing at the mouth, dying on the ground.

The chimera’s tail also lashed out everywhere. It was covered in thick spikes, which it used to impale enemies in a half-circle behind the monster as if it had a mind of its own. Every once in a while the tail wound up a powerful attack, and like a catapult shot all the spikes at the incoming mass of enemies, decimating the weaker elements of the mob. Then the spikes would grow back frighteningly quickly, and the carnage began anew. Had Michael been able to see what an engine of destruction the chimera was, he would have been even more glad he never had to fight it.

Michael was the last to engage in battle. True to the plan, only the stronger enemies managed to make it through the three engines of destruction that had been unleashed upon the stampeding mob. The stone golem moved with uncanny agility and speed to meet the incoming threats, making sure that Michael could not be ambushed from behind or ganged upon. While not terribly effective to destroy enemies, the golem was nigh-indestructible itself, and was more than fast enough to keep whoever it wanted at bay for however long it wanted.

Michael squared up against his enemy, a tall yeti with its body partially made of ice and spikes. He had a new weapon he wanted to try out ever since the skill had evolved, and thus he met the charging monster with a charge of his own. He did not even care to dodge the strike coming at him, instead letting his [Distortion Sphere] trigger automatically to rebuff the incoming limb. Then, before the sphere vanished, he summoned another, using [Mana Manipulation] in a clever way.

He did not force the skill to manifest another bubble directly. Instead, he used [Mana Manipulation]’s ability to make skills act out of their rigid scope to force [Marksman] to treat the bubbles as if they were being shot from a weapon. Instead of treating it like a projectile, however, he treated the skill itself like a ranged weapon, reducing its cooldown to zero at the cost of mana. Mana he had in abundance this deep in the glacier, rushing into him like a cyclone as he used [Mana Manipulation] to seize it and absorb it.

The second bubble appeared in his hand. Thanks to its evolution, it was no longer forced to be stationary and could now follow the movement of his body. He slapped the monster with the bubble, as if hitting someone with a balloon in his hand, using [Crude Body Enhancement] to add as much force as he could to the bubble to the point that it would have burst upon contact had he not reinforced it.

The bubble was no simple balloon, however. Its surface was made of repulsive force, shining violet with elemental energy in Michael’s improved magic sight.

The yeti exploded in a shower of gore and ice.

Michael grinned. I think I might enjoy this.

“Golem, send another.”

With fluid and surprisingly graceful motions, the golem—who had been engaging several enemies at once—sent one sprawling towards Michael with a kick. Then the fight began in earnest.