Ravyn eventually calmed down after that. At this rate, she'll exhaust all her mana before we even fight the queen.
"Try to conserve your mana Ravyn."
Ravyn sighed.
"It's too hard! I can't wield dark and light equally. If I need to use a light spell, I can't amass dark energy at all!"
"Huh, and I thought you were a prodigy."
"When did I even say that!?"
I shrugged and walked ahead.
"Come on, just a few of them left and we can go back home," I said.
We continued down the tunnel and encountered a few more ants on our way.
Of course, I had Ravyn take them out by herself. While she was doing that, I was trying to see what the problem was.
I noticed she was struggling and it was because of the way she activates her attacks. She amasses the required mana but the process to execute it is slow. She isn't venting out enough mana and she is also not circulating it fast enough. And it is even more difficult for her since she has to do two types of them at the same time.
Well... I would tell her how I am able to do it since I circulate every one of them but that is because I am able to fuse the elements even though I have some types that clash with each other. For example, flame energy cannot mix with water energy since... well, it's pretty obvious why, and lightning energy cannot mix with earth since that would cancel it out.
So since I have so many elements, what I do is accumulate each of them separately.
Normally, mages or any class that requires mana has to accumulate mana directly, that means that they also have to accumulate energy that clash with each other. Then when they cast a specific spell such as fireball or something like that, it will not be launched at its full potential, that is because the water energy inside them clashes with the execution. So what these people have to do is dispel that energy so it doesn't conflict with the spell.
But I manage to discover that I am able to carry out mana accumulation with each type of energy separately. The spiritual flow is limited to the size of the host's soul. I do not know my own spiritual depth, but from the amount of energy I can generate, I can only guess that it is so vast.
My entire body has countless spiritual veins that accumulate each and every kind of energy I am able to manipulate. Hence why they do not clash with each other.
However, creating spiritual veins to accumulate a large quantity of energy is not so easy, but the results are worth it.
My mana capacity shows the amount of mana I can carry, it doesn't show what kind of energy I currently hold in possession. That is the work of the caster and the caster itself. It's complicated, but it is what it is.
But I have been reading of another way, which is less complicated and very common for mages, and it is mostly associated with one's emotion. I don't know how it works, but it works.
The hard part, however, is that I've never seen Ravyn in any conflicts involving emotions.
But maybe the queen and the elites can help with that.
I remember they are about the same level as me according to Dragon's Blood, so I'll see how that will work.
"Nero, are you there?" Ravyn asked, waving her hand in front of my face.
"Huh? Oh, right. Let's get moving, shall we?"
We continued down the dark tunnel until we reached a giant chamber.
Thump-thump~
I looked over at five giant ants with interesting-shaped horns coming out of their heads. They weren't the regular horn shape that you would see, instead, they were jagged.
So these are elites, huh?
Hmm... I think this could work.
"Alright. Go ahead, Ravyn."
"Huh? But they are way stronger than me!"
True, they were all around level 4,000. But, there is no other choice.
I pushed her forward and used Stealth to hide my presence.
"Huh? Nero? Wh-where did you go?"
"You got this, Ravyn."
Now then, time to watch from the sidelines.
Ravyn gulped as she turned around to face the five elite Tri-horn ants.
"Damn it!!" She groaned before jumping back and firing Divine Arrows using a bow made of light.
The arrows hit the Tri-horns and it managed to penetrate through their skin, however, it wasn't powerful enough to pierce the flesh.
The Tri-horns screeched and darted towards Ravyn.
Ravyn performed Holy Flash, spreading light through the room, and then performed Holy Shift, a skill similar to Shadow Shift but with light.
As she dodged the Tri-horns, she then threw a Holy Bomb at them. The explosion caused one of the Tri-horns to lose its horns.
Hmm, despite being a lower level than them, she's doing quite alright.
The only thing I have to do is to watch out for her mana as I can sense it being drained quickly.
After a while, she was beginning to do little to no damage. I wondered why until I saw the hardened parts on their body.
I see, guess Divine Arrow is too low leveled to pierce that. Or maybe it's because she is not concentrating enough mana to have her arrows pierce it.
It seems I'm gonna have to step in.
I dropped down and grabbed one of the Tri-horns by their legs and threw them to the other side of the wall, tearing their leg in the process.
I guess I should deal with one of them for now.
The Tri-horn I had just threw shrieked as I had just torn one of its legs off. I dashed towards it and slammed it into the wall. I continued to ram my fist into its face. Another punch, then another, and then I lost control of myself.
I became too absorbent in bashing the ant into pieces, that I forgot what my goal was until I saw a jagged horn protrude from my chest, snapping me back to reality.
It seems that I'm gonna have to keep my emotions in check before I talk about others. This could lead to... unfortunate events.
Luckily, the Tri-horn ant that had just pierced me missed my heart so I was safe... for now.
I turned and grabbed the Tri-horn and used Necrosis. The ant eventually melted into a pile of rotten flesh, leaving only the horn intact.
I tried to pry the horn out from my chest but it was jammed somehow.
While I was distracted by the horn in my body, I received another one, this time my right shoulder was pierced.
I turned and there was another ant. Tch, can't give me a break, huh?
As I was about to take care of this one, my left shoulder was pierced.
I was pinned and no way to free myself.
I looked over my shoulder and the last Tri-horn and that was facing Ravyn was now charging towards me with its horn aiming for my heart.
Oh shit!
I tried to free myself, but I couldn't feel my arms. So I resorted to using Flight, lifting the ants with me.
They were heavy, but I managed to lift myself off the ground a few feet into the air. Once the ant pierced me, it wasn't my heart but my stomach that got pierced.
"Ough!"
I coughed out blood. Now, this may appear to be fatal damage, but as long as it doesn't get my heart, I am fine.
I just need to...
-to...
Crap, I feel my stamina draining away.
I don't... have enough energy to... move...
I eventually dropped onto my knees and fell to the ground. The Tri-horn ants then removed their horns from my body, ripping out a few pieces of flesh before turning to Ravyn.
I was still alive, but my strength was all drained. The only thing I can do is watch her now.
The horn from the Tri-horn I had killed earlier was holding me up. I could see a terrified expression on Ravyn's face as she saw the state I was in.
"You... you..." She said and suddenly her body began to glow. I thought it was to activate her Holy Aura since this usually indicates her activating it but I could sense divine energy behind it.
Suddenly, there was a flash that engulfed the room in light. Then when it died down, I noticed Ravyn seemed a little different.
Her hair was now flowing white, which illuminated as her aura wrapped around her. I also noticed that her eyes seemed to shine silver which never happens when she uses her Reaper's Evil Eyes.
She lifted her hand and pointed at the ants before they were wrapped in divine energy and then crushed them, leaving only a pile of mixed flesh and exoskeleton. The horn was also broken which was scattered everywhere.
I see... this is Divine Adjudicator. The power to wrap an enemy in divine energy and then crush them with unrivaled strength that the caster doesn't even wield. Well.. diviner is one of the strongest classes to possess.
I watched as she killed every single elite with her newly obtained powers except one who tried to escape.
But it was quickly shot with Divine Arrow which pierced through its body, which was encased in hardened material.
After that, she exited out of her Divine Adjudicator form and ran to me.
"Nero, Nero! Are you alright?"
"..." I didn't respond and pretended I was dead.
"Nero!? Oh god, I can't sense any life from you."
That's because I slowed down my heart rate and I still had Stealth on. It's very powerful if used right.
"Oh no... what would big sis say?"
...big sis? Kiyomi? Is that what she calls her?
I couldn't help but smile and snicker once I heard that. Then I received a slap across my face.
"Ow."
"Idiot! You made me worried!" She yelled at me as I got up.
"Hehe, sorry, but it was necessary."
"Necessary that you almost got yourself killed?"
"...well..."
"Huh?"
"It was an act."
To summarize it, I controlled the ants using Shadow Puppet and forced them to pay attention to me and stab me. For some reason, I kind of got absorbed into it and forgot I was actually controlling them until I saw my mana decreasing at a slow rate. Also, not feeling my arms and having my stamina getting drained was not part of the plan.
The plan was a bit flawed but, hey! It worked!
"Now then, try using a Divine Arrow while circulating dark and light energy."
Ravyn responded by launching a Divine Arrow at me, which I dodged.
"Umm, y-you can calm down now," I said.
"Let's just get this over with," She said as she walked over to the tunnel leading to the queen's chamber.
"'kay."
Good, her accumulation rate with both of them is perfectly balanced. It seems she is a prodigy... well, not really.
Anyway, I followed her as we entered the queen's chamber, but before I entered, I turned around as I sensed a cold presence in the air.
I looked around, but nothing looked suspicious. Guessing it's just me.
.
.
.