The sword wielding nameless figure stood on the defensive, blocking many of the projectiles thrown at him and the monster still shrouded in darkness, as for the ones it failed to deflect they were delflected by the unseen monster itself using what seemed to be a shadow barrier.
Taking a sort of heroic pose, pressing its right hand that was holding the sword against its left shoulder, the swordman nameless figure gracefully swiped its sword in a horizontal arc sending forward a wave of orange fire that moved alongside the ground and rose up to three meters in the air.
"Mage, dispel that wav! Shield bearers, protect them from the needles!" shouted Malmiere and everyone followed his words without question, as he had expected hidden by the brilliant wave of flame, shadow needles emerged from it, aiming for all of those without shields.
Before the mage were to dispel the wave, Malmiere grasped his spear tightly, held it like a javelin for a few moments before launching it away, a mettalic-like sound rang out and when the wave was dispelled, the sword wielding nameless figure was seen with a spear piercing its body and trying to pull it out without much success.
As it was busy with the weapon embedded in its body, the nameless figure received an arrow on the side of its head and faded away while still standing, the still hidden monster that manipulated shadows was unperturbed by the loss of the one keeping it from getting blasted into oblivion and casted a new spell, four puddles of shadows formed on the ground on front of it and plain humanoid shadows emerged from them.
Unfortunately for the monster that summoned them, they weren't the best at stopping projectiles and a single pierced through one of them and then into the summoner, a sound of glass shattering was heard and the small orange flamethat flickered in the dark disappeared.
'That was weird, they aren't supposed to be capable of teaming up until deeper in the dungeon, is it only a coincidence that this happened or...?' thought Malmiere as his eyes darted at every dark corner he could see.
"I don't sense it at all" he muttered to himself.
Meanwhile, backing away, Vlasfimia was surprised at how poorly the two nameless figures performed with their abilities they could have done much better, summoning those shadows when the other one was still alive would have allowed them to add some more pressure for example.
Vlas rubbed his chin as he thought of something interesting, so as to facilitate the process of resuplying the expedition, they had buildt a small camp near an entrance to the dungeon, that way the distance the space mage needed to travel would be smaller, the Holy order being what they are, they had started to take care of the nearby population and basically doing the city guards job.
He could also harass them, surely that would prove problematic to the expedition if the supply they are planning on getting is somehow damaged or if certain supplies are missing but first, he needed to make sure the expedition down there would have something to worry about while he his busy above ground.
Thinking along these lines, Vlas decided to try something he had yet to use against the expedition, he rounded up as many monsters as possible, going as far as to go fetch monsters that were in specific areas of this floor, nameless figures, hoarder spiders, ruin spiders, cave goblins and even managing to get a rare monster for this floor, he got them all to stand into a tunnel the expedition would have to go through and locked them up on both sides using the power of his flame by erecting two opaque barriers that looked like portals due to the way they moved.
Also leaving a few traps for good measure, Vlas disappeared from this floor and without knowing why, Malmiere heaved a sigh of relief.
Taking care of the camp that was set near the dungeon would as easy as stealing a candy from a baby, Vlas could precisely assess this level of difficulty thanks to his experience in stealing candies from babies.
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Far away from the kingdom of Kotique, a young squire was escorting a carriage or more accurately was escorting an important figure, although he was present on this mission, he had not been told the identity of the escorted individual for safety reasons he presumed, wearing a most common plate chestplate and gambeson as well as barbute helm, he looked just like any other squite or even knight if one was far enough.
The young squire had particiated in escorts missions multiple times before and nothing had happened in any of them, curiously enough, the squire would wish for something to happen, not for he wanted misfortune to befall the person inside the carriage but because without actual combat, the squire knew that he would not progress as a warrior.
Today, his wish would finally be fulfilled a group of dark clothed individual was blocking the road, all of them wore hoods and seemed equipped in similar manners, clearly, these were no common highwaymen, these were hired hitmen.
"I command you to move out of the way" spoke the captain in charge of the escort, despite what could be heard from his voice, he wasn't convinced his words woud work, they were more of a formality.
In response, the men blocking the road only took on a fight stance and so did the escort once the captain did a small handsign.
What happened next, was obvious, the two group clashed right here in a rather unceremonious way, as the fight started, one thing was clear, the assassins were stronger than the squires and knights guarding the carriage and more experienced, however the escort was more numerous than the hitmen as such the battle was in fact rather balanced.
At least at the start, as the battle went on, the numbers of the escort started to dwindle bit by bit and soon only the captain and the young squire remained standing, the captain was too busy to notice it but the squire had only sustained a few scratches as injuries.
"AH!" the captain let out a yell as he cleaved through two assassins at once, their positioning had been unfortunate to say the least.
Raising his head, the captain received the full brunt of a battle axe to the chest sending him flying away hard enough to make his helmet fall off his head, his chestplate had protected him but the blunt force of the strike had went through and one of his ribs had pierced lung, with no healer or healing items around, his death would be certain.
"Captain!" spoke the squite as he kneeled next to his captain, not losing vision of the last assassin standing, he had been wounded but only lightly and had stayed put for most of the fight, he was in good condition to fight for a while.
The captain did not speak a word and instead handed his weapon, a longsword to the squire, the young squire got the hint and nodded to his captain, strapping the sword to his waist and grasping his spear tightly as he advanced toward the last assassin, he was not afraid.
"Listen kid, get out of my way, surely you value your life more than the coward who remains hidden in this carriage" spoke the assassin in gruff voice souding like he had done nothing but inhale smoke for years.
"I value the person in this carriage more than my life, I am a squire, I have sworn an oath and I shall see it through" spoke the young squire, the assassin was surprised, the determination he felt in the squire's voice sounded genuine and strong.
"Then pay with your blood!" shouted the assassin as he rushed toward the squire but was soon forced to halt as a spear tip accurately aimed for his almost struck him.
Both of them wielded weapons with long ranges but the squire still had the advantage in that category and the assassin was forced to evade and deflect the restless thrusts thrown at him.
Suddenly, the assassin stomped his foot on the ground and a large amount of sparks appeared in front of him, blinding the squire, he still thrusted his spear, trusting in himself that it would be directed were it meant it to be, he felt his spear being pinned to the ground and suddenly his spear felt much lighter.
He quickly recovered from the momentary blindness and discovered as he had thought that his spear had been broken in half, breaking a spear like that was not a meagre feet, no matter the weapon used, he quickly threw the handle left of it at his foe and pulled out the captain sword.
The assassin flung the piece of spear handle aside and proceeded to swing his axe, now the young squire had lost his advantage and was the one forced to evade the constant strikes from an opponent with better reach than himself.
There was enough space around for him to be able to dodge the strikes without risking to back himself against something, however with no window to strike back, he would lose to attrition eventually.
As the assassin swiped at the squire's legs, the squire remembered what had happened a few moments prior, the assassin had used a battle art, dodging the strike by jumping back the young squire did the same as the assassin and stomped his right foot.
The assassin saw a bright yellow light and then he saw nothing, the squire plunged the sword into the hitman's unprotected side, piercing both his lungs as well as his heart.
He pulled out the sword, cleaned it and handed it back to the now pale captain before putting an end to his agony.
Something bright appeared in front of the squire, a system window, except this one was different from the rest.