"Don't drag me by the collar!" Ning Xin complained but had no strength to resist.
"Don't be so reckless in future."
All his Glacial Models were smashed and the broken chunks were reused till they were fully eaten away by the True Topaz Golems.
While he still had enough mana to enhance himself, he dragged the reckless fighter away after her attacks started missing due to her bone-dry stamina. Even in a mana-less state, she had taken at least another 500 more down.
Ebony himself played the role of a tank and drew as much attention as he could and took every cheap shot he could with his feet. It had been a nice chance to loosen his muscles and use the parts that he used to use more often.
The reinforcements seemed endless and every alleyway was blocked. Not so much by dead bodies since nothing much remains of the destroyed golems. They have caused a bigger commotion than expected. Especially since the sky had dozens of Homunculi simply floating there and exuding their domains to cover the sky. He would fly if he was by himself but Ning Xin might not even be able to come out safe even if she had mana. The Homunculus also covered the exits of every street and pathway.
Now that they weren't near a tower, he was able to see that their domain was beyond 'troublesome'. The True Topaz Golems would fall apart in a minute if they accidentally entered the domains.
He shoved his wrist to the blood-drinking human but was quickly interrupted and he had to swing her around violently.
"I don't think I can drink anymore…my body's not listening to me." Whatever emotions were behind her words, Ebony didn't catch it. Despite what she said, she managed to sheath her swords.
"Grab tight and tuck your hair under your mantle." He got her onto his back and gave her a piggyback.
They had been stuck here for the past 16 or so hours and she already drank his blood twice. With how hard she pushed her physical body with that life force enhancement it wasn't that shocking that her body already went beyond its limits.
'Less than a quarter of my mana pool remains.' Ebony didn't need to check his status to know how much mana had left.
It was bad that every time they killed a True Topaz Golem, the Homunculi furthest from them would reduce their domain and let reinforcements in before getting it back up. The numbers they were surrounded by actually didn't change.
"Rest."
Ning Xin didn't take long to fall asleep on his back.
He evaded every attack gently so that she wasn't disturbed. There was no way he was going to be able to break through their ranks alone when they attempted to do so as a duo multiple times.
His excessive mana expenditure slowly shut down. He didn't need Chaotic Repulsive Membrane if he didn't get hit nor did he use Stalwart Endowment. He just needed Frostblaze Augmentation for Agility. If he didn't attack, his usage decreased further.
He just needed to shut his mind off, believe in his body, in Treading Stride and slowly weaken Frostblaze Augmentation to conserve even more mana. To the point where it looked as if fists and projectiles were phasing through him or touching but not hurting him.
His opponents never changed tactics, they had limited patterns and made it simple. So he fell into a pseudo sleep together while carrying another person.
❅❅❅
Scarlet Rhael Ning Xin woke up with an aching body.
"Ugh."
She felt sick from the movement of her sleepy self. Then she remembered falling asleep while fully entrusting herself to the man carrying her.
Her mask was in the way of her rubbing to remove the sleep from her eyes so she squinted to look around.
'Nothing changed. How long did I sleep?' She checked that she fully recovered her mana and wasn't having a throbbing head or unmoving and throbbing muscles anymore.
Her attention pulled to the numbness in her legs and arms, her legs were tightly clamped while she personally clung on with her arms till they went even paler.
She took deep breaths to calm herself.
"You can let me down now." She found her fingers to have gripped so tightly that she was having trouble waking them up. Since he was dodging with the minimum amount of movement she thought it was a good idea not to move around too much.
"Ebony, I'm awake, you can let me down now." She thought he didn't hear her the first time but even her second call was ignored.
'His eyes aren't open. Is…is he asleep?'
Her body was fully awake now and she regained control of her hands. She pinched his cheeks.
"Waake uppp!"
His eyes fluttered and she finally realised what she was doing. She pulled her fingers away from his face and put them back to the same position, hoping he didn't notice it.
"Mm…good morning."
Her heart raced at his morning voice, she didn't understand why she liked it so much.
"Mo-morning."
'Why did I stutter!' She yelled internally.
A loud grumble echoed.
'Why are you embarrassing me!' Ning Xin mentally yelled at her stomach.
"Time to break out for breakfast."
'Aw. no no no.' She shook her head at getting disappointed that she was no longer getting piggybacked despite the necessity.
"One more minute!" She gathered life force in her heart and came up with an excuse.
"Hmm? Ah, sure." He must have sensed that her heart stopped beating.
She had to thank the Homunculus for giving her this chance to enjoy being carried. As thanks, she wouldn't cook them.
'The big heads just stayed in position instead of attacking? Is it because they are not even Grandmasters and the blue ones are better at fighting? They don't have the capacity to think like other natural monsters?'
The Homunculi only closed in on them a little but she didn't see signs of consumption around them so they must have kept their distance the entire time. She had to correct Ebony that they weren't domains and just a spherical spell like his mist or her immolation.
Just because he could use domains he thought every single one could do it. She would feel confident if she could use it as a King Class since the mana consumption was usually unreasonable to sustain and that was if she could create such a spell. She was a little uncomfortable that he could actually use it for a minute or two. Thankfully, it was even less sustainable for him when she fought him since she could counter it a little.
Her advantage in stats mattered little if she was in his domain. The stronger he was, the more he spurred her on. Not to mention, his domain was not as strong as she imagined. He did not gain absolute control so his domain might be a deformed or degraded version which made much more sense for a Master.
Clinging onto his back, his scent tickled her sensitive nose. Incensed Meditation was beginning to kick in and she saw herself from a higher perspective. As if her perception had split from her body and she was looking at herself from above.
'This is…is this how he sees the world? Wait, what's my body doi--STOP!'
❅❅❅
Ebony felt warmth on his cheeks and woke up.
He greeted the woman who woke him up, she must have woken up due to hunger as her belly informed him. Her heart stopped beating and he gave her the time to gather her energy so that they could burst through the blockade in one go.
It's been more than a day and they had started off with a bang, he began to feel the protest in his body. His stamina was also beginning to drop so it might be a good chance to give themselves a break to recharge with food before they continued.
The problem was how far these non-thinking creatures would chase them. Would it be better for them to put their efforts into hunting instead of breaking free?
It didn't appear to be the right choice as he was sure they would be worn down before the endless reinforcements. It would be a lot easier if they weren't the True Topaz but just the regular Topaz Golems since those wouldn't give them trouble no matter how many there were.
Ebony was taking in the situation around him since he just woke up to check for the most suitable direction to come out free but he realised they had lesser space to move around due to the Homunculus closing in. Luckily they had woken up before things got riskier. He did not expect Ning Xin to lean in further and push her face towards his.
The warm mask smacked into his lips and nose pretty hard.
He blanked out again.
He reacted to the sudden strength in her legs and arms and reflexively held down to which she responded violently, pounding his back with her lightning-fast fists.
Ebony coughed from the heavy impact since she lashed out her Core Skill in the same moment. He didn't have all his enhancement and he was completely off guard.
"Let's go!" She managed to eke out as she sliced two of the True Topaz Golem behind where she stumbled from pushing herself off his back. She drew her swords and guided them as if they were part of her body.
He got his buffs going and chased the steam roller, she was producing more steam than usual.
"Sh-shut up!" She shouted amidst her charge.
"What?" Ebony didn't even say anything but he put that aside, "I'll handle the Homunculi, take care of the others."
They didn't take long to reach the fence holders.
The Homunculi got their spherical spell up and pushed her back since she didn't dare to stay within it for long. The Untarnished Topaz consumed the True Topaz Golems around them, freeing up space for his guided kicks to reach them unhindered. His kicks rammed Sonic Intrusion into its belly and they couldn't dodge since he linked his feet to his target with Guided Path.
Guided Path whipped around to his will, making his kicks hit every single time. 4 Homunculus were on him while the others held their position so that Ning Xin could escape the enclosure. Her attempts to fly past were constantly obstructed by their domain-like spell.
All he was required to do was open up a path for her to escape through and he would be able to run out without issue.
He linked himself with all 4 Homunculus, to as many of their limbs as possible. While he attracted his kicks and punches, their attacks were repelled. It hasn't worked out very well yet since it usually repels his own body away rather than the opponent if they had high strength or Intelligence if they were flying with magic. This didn't always put him in a better position so it was a work in progress.
These Homunculi seemed to have very limited spell casting as all he had to deal with was close-quarter combat. They never fell for his attempts to fall back which meant that he couldn't pull them away from the other Homunculus.
Ice and pure mana were reduced by their topaz but gravity mana appeared to be untouched in their spherical spell so there were things it couldn't consume. He could never find out why topaz mana had this property that appeared as if they could 'consume' everything. They asked the topaz magic hunter girl before but her topaz magic didn't have such a property so it boiled down to these unique creatures' usage.
Ebony searched for eye contact with his fellow prisoner and nodded to her.
He cast his domain that focused his efforts into gravity and dragged the four Homunculus to him as he jumped backwards. The movement caused cracks to appear all over them as the sea of mana around him violently vibrates against any body of motion except himself unless he manually removed them from the ill effects.
That short period of time allowed Ning Xin to dash out, the surrounding Homunculi didn't react in time to cover the gap he opened.
His mana consumption skyrocketed as the arms of ice that were conjured to hold onto all the Homunculus were quickly destroyed and repaired. He released his domain once Ning Xin left with a contingent of pursuers.
As long as she doesn't get trapped again, he wasn't that worried. Unfortunately, every single Homunculus gave up on keeping him enclosed and left to chase her. They knew that they couldn't keep him in place.
'The Homunculus are a little less robotic than the Golems.' He was still glad that they didn't gang up and surround them for whatever reason. The best reason he could think of was that they seemed to be reluctant to destroy the city that much.
They gave up the chase since they couldn't even see her anymore, turning their efforts to him.
It took over 3 hours to turn 7 Homunculus and about 60 True Topaz Golems to frozen dust before they stopped chasing him.
He didn't return to the factory where his party was at, he pulled his green body to a random house and hid inside. Meditating and waiting for his body to counter the foreign mana and heal his body. He had about half his health but all of his organs were safe and he only took a couple of minutes to look physically recovered. He inspected his robes but they were undamaged after he detached the scales he had cast.
It would've taken much less effort and lowered the risk if he had Icicle. It told him that it wasn't a complete mistake to pick up a weapon.
The 'green one' was indeed dangerous to most people, the expedition group was lucky that not many were dispatched against them. He saw a slightly differently shaped 'green one' closer to Democlus, a bulkier upper body and had a hunched back. It would be better if he didn't have to fight that any time soon.
The streets around the inner ring of factories were repopulated but he managed to get back to the others without getting spotted. Waning Presence got impressive gains.
"Food's there." Kong Jing pointed to the closest table.
"Where is she?"
"Dunno."
"Are you still going to hold onto Icicle?"
"Yeah."
"Mmm."
He ate his meal in silence. It was salty chicken on overcooked rice and he ate every morsel.
It wasn't hard to figure out where she went as she was making a lot of noise. She was really energetic and was back to the hunt. Of course, he had to join her.
Ebony couldn't be sure but she seemed to put a little distance from him every time he got closer to help her block an attack.
The constant hunt went on for about ten days. They dropped the combined spell twice more but got complaints and he also understood that if they destroyed any more factories, the production rate of hunts they could get would reduce.
They encountered many other hunting groups in this time since there wasn't much else for the majority to hunt. No one picked a fight since there were plenty of prey to go around. Not many factory raids were done though, they must have left the loot and the storage of topaz mana alone so that production could continue and they could gain experience.
As for the holes inside the factories, Ning Xin persuaded him against entering as her instincts were sensing immense danger. He was also not keen on jumping into the darkness and unknown in this instance.
No more factories lay ahead of this inner ring so if Homunculi were also an artificially produced creature it was not made anywhere in the tomb city.
The sightings of Homunculi increased but everyone retreated whenever those came out. Ebony only saw about 2 parties that actively hunted Homunculi, one of them consisted of the first metal mage he saw and the other had a swordsman that had a very impressive mana reading when he cast his body enhancement. More impressive that the mana reading of Ning Xin when she cast her enhancements.
He clashed with the Sword Grandmaster when he was fighting two Homunculi and the man decapitated his prey. The Grandmaster's horizontal sword slash went through both Homunculus and hit Ebony but he apologised with a "didn't see you there." Ebony just nodded since he got an apology and wasn't injured but Ning Xin was absolutely furious.
He managed to stop her from killing the man, so he walked off with a missing arm. They had a healer in their party so all's well. The swordsman had a really good body enhancement skill as his arm didn't turn to ashes so he got it reattached with his party's healer present.
Ning Xin didn't listen to him at first but turned obedient after he patted her shoulder.
As for the party with the metal mage, they always avoided the two of them whenever they saw each other. Well, after the incident with the Sword Grandmaster, he and his party avoided them too.
The decrease in Golem and Homunculi populations led to an increase in the monster population. Just over the past week, Democlus had to move five times. He sensed a huge threat before any of them and informed people in the respective area of the threat to move away.
Ebony underestimated the tomb city as large monsters weren't able to climb through from under them. Very few diggers could climb through the floor. Democlus handled the unknown threat and no one had seen what he warned them of before. At least, Ebony never saw them. The fact that a huge deposit of minerals and mana ores below them also made it unlikely that anything would attack from below other than whatever the tomb city was linked to.
Mark joined them in their hunts twice to get some levels, he can comfortably defend himself now. Ning Xin helped him charge his supply of fire mana. They moved their residence to a factory in the inner ring. The factories didn't look any different but the puppets here worked in pairs and although the production was smaller in scale the overall production speed was similar.
Currently, Ebony was chasing a Teratish for its meat.
He didn't expect to get a call but he picked it up anyway.
"Great! You picked up. Are the two of you okay?" Roya's voice came through.
"Mmm. Did something happen?"
"Huh? Where are you? Were you in a dungeon?"
"Underground, I think somewhere under Hoarfrost Glade."
"No wonder, be careful okay? You might want to stay there, the Trolls are attacking now. Too many to count, the Empire is at war now."
"Too many to count? Did the Empire not see them coming? Is the village safe?"
"I'm not sure about what happened outside the village. We talked to some of our old friends but the Trolls appeared suddenly and many somehow bypassed the sea borders, the Tides. Don't worry about the village, there aren't any borders protecting us but the Trolls sensed our Guardian's presence and none of them came close."
"Alright, please take care."
The connection was cut off, she might not have heard him. Being underground must have messed up the connection.
'Bypassed the border towns and cities? If there are too many to count, there's no way the Empire didn't spot them from the seashore. Hoarfrost Glade doesn't have a port up north, is that where they sneaked in from?'
Ebony was probably wrong since he didn't have much information to make conclusions. He was worried about Arcta, they didn't have many fighters there and Roya must have played things cool. Even with how dense he was, he knew the Thoyas well enough.
The situation above ground must have been pretty bad for her to call and check with him.
"I'm worried." Ning Xin caught the escaping Teratish and even overheard his conversation.
"Mmm."
They didn't need to exchange words to know that they wanted to get out of this tomb city now. These days were more fruitful than any other dungeon they had been to but levelling slowed as their level gap with their prey closed.
"I'll remain here." He wasn't that surprised that the craftswoman wanted to stay.
Mark was of the same mind.
"Catch." Icicle was finally returned to him. It was ice cold and brightened up like the True Topaz Golem when they came into contact with his hands. The glow leaked out from its scabbard.
"I'm not that worried but protect her well, rascal."
"Take care of yourself." Ebony returned the sentiment of the oddly shy older sister of his.
He put Icicle neatly through his robe, at a glance he couldn't tell if anything changed.
"You too Mark, I'm not sure what will happen in half a year but I don't have a good feeling about it." Ebony warned.
"...I know."
"I tried to get as close to the gravestone as possible. They have another type of Homunculi that I am quite wary of getting close to. It has thin upper arms but huge forearms, thin thighs and massive calves along with a large head. It's transparent with purple veins. To be honest, it allowed me to live and I think it's only because it doesn't leave the gravestone. I'm not sure if it has any ranged capabilities but please don't attempt it. Democlus was right, we wouldn't even be able to get close." Ebony gave them his lengthy scouting report. He didn't tell them that he managed to Identify the creature to be only level 300 but every hair and cell he had told him that if he had taken another step forward, he wouldn't be alive now. And that was when only one of them was staring at him while he had Waning Presence working furiously. He was quite scared because the creature was only Master rank and not an evolved level 300.
For Democlus, a King Classed individual to say so much about the gravestone, he didn't need to get any closer to tell that there were more fearsome creatures. He was a little excited that there were strong opponents near his level.
With this little detail, he made a strong point for Kong Jing not to enter the mines or whatever depths the factories were linked to.
He left all his Glacial Models here with a simple 'protect two of them' unsure if it would work but he was pretty sure they wouldn't attack people even if they were out of his range of control. Since he used and broke them a lot there were only 3 spares remaining. It was better than nothing.
The sisters shared a hug, he got a light jab and they left the tomb city without informing Democlus.