Looking back at the three centaurs, Adam realized they probably wouldn't make it. Menius had rushed into the crowd of wraiths and although he killed many, he didn't defend at all. The damage left by the wraith were bluish claw marks and some bite marks, and Menius had tons of them on his body.
As for Cilliore and Agera, they were the only ones who had a chance, but Adam could see from where he was that Agera had pretty much lost her mind, she barely defended against the wraith. As for Cilliore, although she was fighting fiercely, once she saw her little brother…
For a moment, an idea came to Adam… end their sufferings. Even if they survived today they would probably only be shells of themselves, plagued with either guilt or endless sorrow.
What would be more cruel, try to save them and let them live with their emotions, or end everything here?
In the end, Adam sighed and rushed toward the centaurs. Menius was on his last leg, but Adam reached him before he could die. He dispersed the surrounding wraiths and grabbed Menius and threw him across the room to safety.
As he did so he could see his eyes, and there was no gratitude in them, only sorrow. But Adam steeled his mind and rushed toward the two female centaurs. He was currently in despair, and his rational mind was being suppressed by his emotions. If after this he still can't go on, then he can take care of it himself.
Adam reached the two females without much of a problem, and did the same for them. Agera, although she didn't know him, didn't even struggle as he grabbed her and threw her across the room. As for Cilliore, she was the only who looked grateful.
As she landed… crashed at the entrance of the room, Cilliore first looked at her two teammates, making sure they were alive before looking at Adam.
However, as she did so she saw something she hadn't seen before. At the other end of the room was another wraith, a different one, as well as…
She froze when she saw the body, the cold, motionless body. She tried to get up, but immediately fell. She looked down and saw two of her legs were injured from the landing.
In the middle of the crowd of wraiths, Adam shook his head seeing this. He didn't save her so that she would rush to her death. That's why when he had thrown her over he had made sure to put more power into his throw so that she wouldn't be able to get back up immediately.
Back to his case, the wraiths weren't much more intelligent than the low level undeads. All of them were rushing at him, all stacked into a big crowd.
Adam had a perfect skill for this situation, and although it would only deal half the damage because of their resistance, most would die anyway.
Adam stomped his foot on the ground, using [Mighty Strike] and [Icy Stomp], and a wave of frost instantly spread to the surrounding 15 meters.
-86000 HP!
Although he had done less damage than he thought, all the Elite Rank Wraiths had been killed by the attack. Unfortunately he only had the ice version of this skill, otherwise even the Chieftains would have died.
Since he couldn't launch a second [Icy Stomp] because of the cooldown, he took out his sword and made a 360 slash, using [Mighty Strike] and [Aqua Slash], using the steam version of it.
What came out wasn't exactly a circular flying slash that hit all the enemies at the same time, because he couldn't make a full turn instantly, there was a small lapse of time between the beginning and the end of the turn.
But it didn't make much of a difference in the end, as all the wraiths were hit, and their lack of defense made those behind suffer too.
Another circular slash later, only the Lord Ranked Wraiths were left, but even they had suffered damage. They only had 600k HP, and there were only twenty of them so a minute later all the wraiths had been killed, except for the last one.
What surprised Adam was that this last wraith hadn't attacked even once since the beginning of the fight, and had instead waited for Adam to finish his small army. However, Cilliore, even though she was injured, she still had her bow, and she had fired a few arrows at the wraith, but he had parried them rather easily and ignored her.
This was a strange behavior for a monster, so Adam didn't attack directly, and instead walked closer to the wraith. Seeing this, Cilliore stopped shooting her arrows too.
As Adam approached the wraith, it suddenly said "Why did you come here?" Adam was surprised this Wraith could talk, and as he saw it's status he realized something.
[Sword Wraith] (Elder, Level 70)
HP: 1,800,000/1,800,000
The only speaking monsters he had come across were the goblins, but they had a close resemblance to humans so it was understandable, and the Elder Rank monsters. Maybe that the Elder Rank was the specific rank for a monster to become able to talk? And then maybe they would gain true sentience when they reach Lord Rank, which was why Neith could already speak to him mentally?
Of course, this was only a conjecture, he would have to see in the future if the pattern repeated itself.
"I came here for that hammer. As for them, they came here for this centaur." Adam pointed at the hammer, then the dead centaur he presumed was Cilliore's brother.
The Sword Wraith looked at the dead body and said "This one attacked us for no reason, and we had to kill him… I can't let you take the hammer."
Adam shrugged and replied "It doesn't really matter, whether we fight or not I will get it in the end. It's your choice, whether you want to disappear or not."
The wraith looked at it's sword with a seemingly lost look as it said "You can't take the hammer…"
Adam couldn't help but sigh, it looked like not all monsters were equal in intelligence. This wraith seemed to have a broken spirit, it could speak but it almost looked like it was left with instructions and had to follow them as well as it could.
The Sword Wraith looked back at Adam and asked "Can you fight me? I want to see your swordplay." This surprised Adam, but he still pointed his sword at the Sword Wraith and said "If you want."
A hint of a smile appeared on the ghostly face of the Wraith as it rushed toward Adam, slashing his sword at a quick speed. Adam parried the blow to the side, but the Wraith quickly followed by another slash, which Adam parried once again.
As he was about to counter attack though, he saw the Wraith slash once again, but with more speed. He parried, but the wraith gained even more speed. Adam understood this was the Wraith's swordplay, each attack was followed by an even faster one, and if one didn't break the rhythm the sword would only become faster and faster.
This surprised Adam a lot, because from what he could see this swordplay could be considered a High Heaven Grade Swordplay. Back in old Adam's world, the swordplays were classed in two big categories, Earth and Heaven Grades. Heaven Grade Swordplays were those only achievable after opening the Fifth Gate, and the Mortal Grade ones were all those below.
For the Earth Grade Swordplays, they were split in Low, Middle, High and Top. Adam's Eternal Rest is in reality a Heaven Grade Swordplay, so even without opening the Fifth Gate his swordplay was already a little stronger than even a Top Earth Grade Swordplay, but this was an exception.
For someone who didn't open the Fifth Gate, learning and using a Top Grade Swordplay was incredibly difficult, and even a High Level one would need a great talent and years of learning. Even Searing Light, who was an old cultivator who had lived for many years, his swordplay was only a High Earth Grade Swordplay.
But this Wraith here, who couldn't open any Gates, had actually comprehended such a swordplay. This surprised Adam quite a lot. Unfortunately for the wraith, Adam had already fought against similar swordplays, and his own was even better.
With three powerful slashes, the sword in the Wraith's hand was sent flying, but because it was a spirit sword it disappeared and reappeared in it's hand. However, it stopped fighting, and looked down at it's sword in shock.