"By Lorcan's beard, if I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have even entered the sanctuary in the first place," Baron said. He stood surrounded by a barrier of light that emerged from the lantern he held in his hand. The wraiths would attack him, only to get stung by the light barrier and then move on to find a new target.
"Why don't you help take some burden off the others? Use that ax of yours to smite some wraiths?" Killian shouted from a distance.
"No thanks. It will only cause unnecessary problems if I were to intervene. Unlike you freaks, I am a perfectly normal person." Baron said.
"Coward," Killian said.
To him, the human who had befriended the elf was more admirable than a coward who only hid behind artifacts and watched the others battle for their life. At least he respected Rudolph in this regard.
"Why don't you just leave then? Or do you have some anterior motives for staying here?" Aryn said, narrowing his eyes.
"Do you think I want to stay here? Please, I would have long left if it wasn't for the barrier that was covering this place. I tried to break it but failed miserably." Baron admitted. "I am actually surprised none of you have tried to escape. It isn't like you are obliged to fight them either."
"We aren't obliged but there are about ninety other people here too. If we were to leave this place as it is, somebody is bound to stumble here and lose their lives to these damnable creatures." Aryn said.
"Good luck to you then," Baron said and sat down.
"This bastard-" Killian wanted to teach him a lesson. He was about to make his way towards Baron when he was stopped by the woman.
"Focus on the fight," she spoke for the first time in a while.
"Yes, my lady!"
----------------------
Rudolph had listened to the discussion and his goodwill for the bearded man disappeared. He had a strong dislike for such kind of people who watched the misery of others without lending a helping hand. His dislike emanated from his school and college days when he was a target of constant bullying because of his physique and background. At those times, except a few, practically nobody had stepped into to protect him or at least consoled him after it had happened.
To him, Baron reminded him of those people who would only sneer at his misfortune, and that made him dislike him.
Rudolph continued to survive the onslaught while working out ways in his head to solve his attack deficiency. He couldn't rely on Apocalypse fireballs as they drained too much aether. His main mode of attack and greatest strength; his swordsmanship was compromised after the purification domain. Previously he could kill the wraiths in three to four strikes but now he could only kill them in six to seven strikes he didn't have the luxury to wait this long, the remaining wraiths didn't give him the time to do that as they drowned him with their sheer numbers.
'Should I invest my accumulated stat points? Will that help?' he thought.
Thinking about that, he mentally opened his archives and added 2 points each to the body mechanic stats while of the remaining 5, he again added 3 to his strength and the remaining two to his aether assimilation stat.
This gave him 150 points in his Overall Combat Ability, officially pushing him to the Iron I rank with 1640 points.
He felt a warm stream of energy entering his limbs as he invested the stat points. The feeling was quite euphoric.
With the increase in his stats, Rudolph was able to somewhat offset the decrease in his stat points and now it took him 4 to 5 strikes to finish each wraith, still too long by his standards.
His rate of assimilation increased to 15 from 12 strands per minute, and that is neglecting the 25% reduction he had received from Tyril's skill. With the constant utilization of thought acceleration, his expenditure surpassed his recovery rate and he was drying his aether reserves fast. He needed something which will allow him to kill the wraiths at a faster pace while also allowing him to use his sword in the process. He wanted a melee skill like the one Tyril was utilizing.
'What if I also cover my katana with flames?' he thought, looking at Tyril.
The flames had already proven to be effective against the corrupted wraiths. He didn't know if he could do that but there was no harm in trying.
While constantly evading the wraiths, Rudolph formed an apocalypse fireball in his hand, but instead of releasing it like he always did, he guided it towards the katana, hoping to achieve the same result as Tyril.
His first attempt failed as the fireball dispersed as it touched the surface of the blade.
He tried again, much more carefully this time but the results were the same. The fireball dispersed upon contact with the blade.
His mana reserves were running low and he tried more a couple of times, both times failing to achieve the desired result.
'What do I have to do to make this work?' he thought, looking at Tyril, more specifically the sword in his hand. He gave up on defending himself and focused solely on the burning sword, trying to figure out its secrets.
The sword was burning but upon focusing, he found that the flames weren't just covering the long sword, they were originating from within the sword, more specifically from many hair-thin veins lining the body of the blade. The veins acted as carriers of aether, distributing it evenly across the sword surface and Tyril then used a skill to turn the aether into the fire.
"So that's how it is," Rudolph said. He seemed to have understood the technique behind the skill and now it was time for him to execute it.
He sensed the veins in his katana and then guided the aether towards them. Soon the whole sword was covered in the aether.
He tried to light it but failed at his first attempt but he understood the process behind it, he tried again and the whole blade caught fire and soon the fire turned to black as the fireball had.
Ding! You have learned the skill [Aether Manipulation – Flames of Hell] (Iron) (Level 1).
Aether Manipulation – Flames of Hell] (Iron) (Level 1) (Active)
Description: The darkness inside you conveys itself in form of a flame that threatens to burn the world to cinders. Cover your weapon with flames to increase the attack power by 50%. Every slash delivers a minor burn status with 80% efficiency and a major burn with 40% efficiency.
Activation Cost: 15 Aether/minute
"That's so sweet," Rudolph said, waving the burning katana.
Tyril was also astonished.
"How did you do that?" Tyril asked. It had to know that it took him two months to perform this particular skill but the deplorable human had learned it within minutes. It wasn't him but the woman and Killian were also looking at him.
"Nothing a bit of focus can't solve," Rudolph said. He couldn't possibly tell him that his connection with the miasma and increased perception had allowed him to perceive the mysteries of the skill.
He was eager to test the might of his newly learned skill and he didn't have to wait any longer, surrounded by wraiths he could use the skill to his heart's content.
Now that he had covered his katana with flames, his lack of attack power had been solved. Rudolph started a killing spree.
Ding! You have killed a Corrupt Dark Wraith (Iron l). Gained 12 Origin Essence.
After 2 minutes, he had gained another 10 stat points from Origin Essence and his class had also increased to Level 4, giving him another 4 stat points.
"Found it," Aryn yelled all of a sudden.
A green glow emanated from his body and covered the ground.
"Strike that with all you've got." Aryn pointed to the place that glowed the brightest. The urgency in his voice compelled Rudolph to act without hesitation.
As Rudolph dashed towards the target, Baron's countenance went through a drastic change.
"Nooo!!!" Baron yelled.
Rudolph ignored his yell and stabbed an unassuming rock placed on the roadside. The rock cracked and soon the cracks expanded and covered the whole place. It looked like reality itself was breaking apart.
The cracks continued to grow with the sound of glass shattering, and the barrier surrounding them broke into pieces. Above in the air, he saw a long spatial tear from which loads of wraiths were coming from, and below on the ground, there was a network of complex lines and arrays that ran throughout the whole City, and coincidentally or not, the center of the array where all the lines converged was the place where Baron sat.
"That's... That's a dungeon evocation array!" the blue-haired woman said. She was shocked by the turn of events.
'Dungeon Evocation?' Rudolph was puzzled. By the look of all their faces, it seemed that he was the only one who had no idea what was going on.
"Do you have any idea what you have done!? Do you have any idea what you have ruined!? All of us will die now!?" Baron shrieked.
"No. You will die. A very horrific death at that." Aryn said.
"Hahaha, you won't be able to catch me," Baron said, his body surrounded by crimson aether. "Blood Sacrifice."
"Don't let him complete the spell!" the elf shouted. Randy flashed before Baron and tried to chop his head but it was too late, his body started withering at visible speed and all the blood and aether from his body surged into the arrays and the slowly constricting spatial tear expanded, twice as before.
"Long live Mythic Dusk," Baron said before his head rolled on the ground. Randy sheathed his knives and looked at the expanding spatial tear.
The spatial tear had stopped spawning any wraith but that only lasted for a while before something else came through it. It was a monster with a wriggling mass of flesh as his body and he looked over the group with its crimson eyes. For a second Rudolph thought he had seen the dreadful creature smile at him. His instincts were screaming, telling him to get out of here as fast as possible, the monster before him wasn't something that he could handle, that all of them could handle.
"What now?" Rudolph asked the elf.
"Now we run!"