Niss and the group made their way to the massive ancient fortress. They remained at the tree-line as they observed the castle and its entrance, waiting to see the guards or other defenses the dungeon had.
During their journey, Niss learned the spell tome and was ready to give it a shot, excited about his new ability.
'Binds of Hatred' creates dark red magical chains that bind the caster's arm to their weapon. The chain can be retracted, lengthened, or shortened, and its strength is determined by the maximum body infusion the caster can achieve, as long as the caster is imbuing the chains and their body.
Other applications include chaining a victim's arms to the ground; however, this requires a lot more mana and is significantly weaker, as the caster is not directly imbuing the chains from their body.
Observing from the edge of the forest the group saw the stone steps leading up to a larger area that looked like it used to be a garden area long ago, but now it was only the structure of it that remained. Beyond the ancient garden ruins, there was another set of stone steps leading up to large wooden double doors with iron rings in them, the entrance to the castle.
Standing on either side of the large wooden doors that led into the castle, there was two strange looking stone statues, they looked as though they had been part of the castle decor at one point, but now there was disgusting gaps in the stone where raw flesh and sinew could be seen holding the stones together.
Even holding perfectly still these statues could not fool Niss, he expected to find these here noting what he heard about them from the guild before they set out.
'Stone Gargoyles
C-rank monsters
Immune to poison
Made of hard stone encasing their reanimated flesh these monsters swing their stone claws and can bite down with great force making close range combat very threatening.'
These were formidable monsters, this dungeon was famous for them as every time the dungeon reappeared it would somehow always summon these guards, as if the castle itself was providing an endless supply of them.
Sneaking up to the first set of stairs leading up to the garden area, the group was ready to execute their plan for dealing with the gargoyles. They did not have Trevor with them so tanking them head on would be very foolish. Instead they put the plan Niss had made into action.
"Icy Bindings!" Lysandra sprinted up the stairs her frozen aura flashing out all around her, she shot heavy amounts of mana into her ice spell aimed at the feet of the stone gargoyle on the right side of the door, the closest one to them.
Sprinting up right behind her was Curt who sent wind blades flying at the monsters arms and head, keeping it from breaking free from the ice as best he could. While Siarra followed up behind them channeling her aura into a long fire spell.
Niss was next up the stone steps, a flash of his obsidian aura crackling in the air around him.
"Galeforce!" Niss shouted, imbuing air magic all around him, further increasing his speed even more than his aura infusion already was.
Following up with this burst of speed, Niss flung his kama out in front of him, keeping his arm extended towards the handle he chanted another spell.
"Binds of Hatred!" Ominous and chilling sounds of laughter could be heard quietly in the moments the chains materialized, as if the manifestation of them left a faint connection to the underworld.
Chains of red and black wrapped aggressively around Niss's forearm. They launched forward from his wrist passing directly into the palm of his hand before extending even further. The chains screamed forward in a mix of the red and black color of the chain and the dark obsidian aura of Niss's magic.
The chains bound decisively around the shaft of the kama, binding it completely and passing the extension of Niss's aura into the blade. Immediately Niss could feel the difference, although the chains themselves required great effort to keep manifested, they were boosting the effect of his aura infusion on his weapon to a large degree.
'This is way cooler than I thought!'
Yanking his right arm towards him he willed the chains to shorten and bring the kama back to his hand.
So, the chains obeyed his will. The kama stopped its forward movement, flying backwards towards him as the chains had no slack, shortening at the same rate the weapon traveled.
SMACK.
The weapon landed perfectly in his grip. The chains wrapped around his forearm extended making a more elaborate clockwise twisting pattern going across his arm and onto the kama. He felt the connection between him and his weapon more than he had ever felt it before.
However Niss was in the middle of a fight he did not have the time to admire his amazing new ability, instead he had to use it now.
Skidding to a halt in front of the gargoyle on the left, he stayed about five meters back from it. With his sudden stop all the kinetic energy behind his fast movement had to go somewhere, so Niss launched his kama at full speed and strength at the gargoyles head.
The chains extended quickly to keep the kama from losing any momentum. The blade arched from Niss directly into the head of the monster.
CRACK!
The tip of the blade was buried into the stone scalp of the monster, splitting the stone apart where it landed bits of bone and flesh could be seen.
WHIPPP!
Niss yanked his kama back, the chain pulled taught and the kama was freed from the scalp of the monster.
'This is perfect! I have a way to fight at short range instead of only being in tight melee! Trevor is gonna love this when he sees it!'
Niss had a wicked grin on his face as he sprinted even farther away from the other gargoyle dragging the attention of this one with him.
CRACK!
WHIP!
CRACK!
Niss was launching his blade over and over again splitting pieces of stone but keeping his intention on the revealed sections of flesh and sinew around the joints, he knew the monster was weakest in these places but he also couldn't hold himself back from hearing the sickening crack of his blade splitting stone.
CRACK!!!
On the right side of the door the first gargoyle was being heavily controlled by Lys and Curt's magic. While the monster was restrained it struggled and groaned, grinding its stone teeth together in a ear piercing screech. Siarra was just finishing her long chanting when the ice began to crack at the monsters feet.
"Erupt in a pillar of FIRE!" Siarra yelled as she aimed her wooden staff forward at the gargoyle.
BOOM!!!
A massive tower of flames shot up into the sky from the base of the gargoyle, it instantly melted the ice restraining the monster but it did not matter at all, the monster was simply shredded away by the intense flames, ash and bits of stone falling to the ground where it once stood.
"Hahhh.... Hahhh..." Siarra panted and knelt down for a moment to regain herself, Lys and Curt watched over her as they saw Niss finishing his fight as well.
CRACK!
WHIP!
Niss finally severed the head of the gargoyle from it's body, he could have killed the monster faster but he was practicing his new spell and enjoying it thoroughly.