Chapter 39: Chapter 39
Ducking under the massive sword, my constructs try their best to find gaps in the man's armor but are thwarted by a rippling barrier every time. Not for the first time, I think that this is definitely not your standard bandit group. Their armor is uniform in quality, being a mix of plate and reinforced leather. Their weapons are varied, but still good quality, and several have enchanted gear like the gunman taking potshots at Ouro while desperately dodging fangs and water. Every bullet glows a searing orange before taking a chunk out of my poor familiar, but he really doesn't care as he continues pursuing the shooter. The archers are already dead, mangled corpses squished beneath massive spears of frothing water.
Keira is dancing circles around the bandits, flickering in and out of view like a ghost, Fenrith flashing in arcs of burning darkness as it just… eats whatever it comes into contact with. Whenever a mage or other ranged bandit tries to target her, she simply vanishes into a sphere of darkness so complete that my own night vision can't see through it.
The claymore sparks against my shoulder, cleaving a chunk from the shadow armor I currently have active and forcing me back to my own battle. Focusing hard, my Tome appears in my hand with a flutter of pages, and I quickly begin burning runes into the air. Stone, Link, and Barrier all form in a complex formation, and most of my constructs burst apart harmlessly as I pour my willpower into the runes. After a long second in which the bandit cuts straight for my neck, something clicks into place and the runes shudder. A wave of mana bends the world to my will as a wall of magic stone slams into place around him, buying me enough time to puzzle something out.
I can't kill him with my constructs, they're just too weak. My cutlass, while good, isn't going to get through that barrier on its own. Wait a damn minute… Magebolt!
My spellbook vibrates in my grip, pages flipping as a familiar spell appears. A humming bolt of pure mana twists into being just as the stone wall breaks, slamming into his own barrier with a crackle of power. Several more follow, each one visibly weakening his shield just like I'd done with the lich so long ago in the dungeon. After the seventh spell, I feel my reserves dwindling, but after the ninth his armor flashes once before the enchantments burn out and the bubble vanishes. Instantly a blade appears in his throat, black wisps of darkness drifting from the wound as Keira appears behind him.
He stops mid-swing with a wet gurgle, dropping his weapon as he clutches at the terrifying little dagger protruding from his neck. A quick twist of her wrist, and Keira pops his head off like a cork, complete with a cinematic spray of blood that she phases to avoid. Reappearing next to me, we both watch Ouro happily trot back over with the gunman covered in drake drool and hanging from his mouth. They're almost completely unharmed, and Ouro's already mostly healed from the bullets. I can't help chuckling as I send my remaining sand wight to go collect the rifle, all the other summons having been destroyed while distracting the bandits. They really were incredibly weak, their little weapons not penetrating most armor, but they also were very distracting when they started tossing balls of sand at the bandits’ faces.
Ouro drops the bandit in front of us before flopping down, grinning like a golden retriever that just got called a good boy.
“Good boy, Ouro! Now, as for you…” I look down on the slobber-covered shooter that's slowly picking themselves off the ground. Crouching down, several curved blades appear in a ring around their neck as they freeze. Cocking my head, I finally get a good look at them beneath the wide-brimmed hat and cloak, and it's definitely not what I was expecting.
No skin, no flesh, just weathered bones and pinprick blue lights in empty sockets. Even still, I can tell it's panicking by the way its eyes flicker and dart around, jawbone clicking rapidly despite its inability to speak. Begin, I tap them on the forehead to get their attention.
“Calm down, I'm not going to kill you just for being a skeleton. What I am going to do is make you lead us back to your little camp or wherever you idiots came from, then I'm taking your rifle and letting you go. Sounds good?” The skeleton freezes for a moment before slowly nodding, eyes settling onto my face… then my tits… then snapping back to my face. If they could blush, they probably would. Chuckling, I help them to their feet. They move much smoother than one would expect from animated bones, barely even a rattle as they stand and adjust their cloak.
“Also, are you a man or woman? Kind of hard to tell with the whole ‘just bones’ thing. And do you have a name?” They- rather, she holds up two fingers and a thumbs up. Slowly, she retrieves a worn slip of paper from a pocket and hands it to me. A single word that I can only assume is her name is written in neat cursive: ‘Angelina’. Which… is kinda ironic, considering the meaning of the name and her current condition.
“Alright Angelina, lead the way~”
The undead leads us into the woods off the road, gliding through the underbrush like a wraith. I'm forced to unsummon Ouro, and brambles keep catching on my wings. Ever had a feather pulled out by thorns? It's not fun. Keira, of course, has zero issue dodging bushes and the same brambles that are making my life hell.
Fuck. Never thought that my wings would be a detriment here of all places…
Thankfully, it isn't long until we step into a clearing with a log palisade at the center, obviously where the bandits are holed up. We're spotted almost instantly, shouts ringing out from the guards and arrows arcing over the walls towards us. Ouro appears in a flash of blue, most of the arrows clattering off his scales. A few pierce, but those are skill-enhanced somehow and there's only about four of them. He rushes in as Keira triggers Abyssal Dive, vanishing only to reappear atop the wall with a bubble of darkness swirling around her. The shouts spread into the small fort, yells of panic joined by the clattering of armor and weapons as I conjure a massive axe, laughing as I chop a massive hole into the wall.
The logs part with a thunderous crack, and then I'm inside. I throw the axe into the first bandit I see, the full power behind my absurd strength and mana nearly cutting them in half. Flooding more mana into the construct, I twist it just a little to destabilize it. The result is exactly what I wanted; the mana detonates violently, a quiet chime informing me of a new skill as I rush into the fray. Ouro is already tearing into the bandits, a growing pile of corpses around him. Keira is terrorizing the wall, blinking in and out of reality and deflecting arrows back into the archers that fired them. Angelina, understandably, is still at the edge of the clearing watching the massacre happen.
A trio of armored bandits rush towards me, hammers raised in a three-pronged attack that I dodge with a lazy flap of my wings, sliding away as I try something I haven't done since the battle with the lich. Plates of mana slam into place mid-air, a suit of armor forming in record time. Four arms, each wielding a different weapon, counter the hammers with mechanical precision. It's taking all of my focus to manipulate this thing, but damn is it effective. A spear stabs a leg, a longsword taking an arm as a tower shield deflects another hammer strike and its own hammer retaliates.
Within a minute, I've dismantled all three of them and moved on to others. My construct tears through the bandits almost as fast as Ouro does, and it's not long before all thirty or so are dead. Keira and Angelina join me in the yard as I take a moment to look around at the makeshift fortress. Its surprisingly well-built, sharpened logs set deep into the ground surrounding what used to be an old military outpost, if the faded banners depicting a sword behind a shield is anything to go off of. The main building is little more than half-repaired ruins, wooden braces supporting crumbling archways and collapsing walls. For some reason, whoever the boss of these bandits is hasn't left the fort yet despite us massacring their underlings.
Stepping through the wide open front doors, I notice why almost immediately. A crystal arch has formed in the middle of the fort, a swirling wall of color filling the center. Unlike that first dungeon, there's no prompt to enter nor a barrier blocking my entry as I push a hand into it before quickly pulling back. Turning to the others, I smile and clasp my hands with excitement.
“So, who's up for a dungeon dive?”
Keira and Angelina share a look before sighing and joining me in front of the portal. Taking their hands and unsummoning Ouro, I step into the light with them in tow.
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