The level 5 spell quickly took hold, increasing the weight of the Bone Dragon by 25% suddenly. Such an act had devastating effects on the battlefield, especially for a large foe like this that relied on its powerful elemental affinity to move about quickly.
Not only had its attack backfired, but it was even temporarily 'crippled' while in the sky, allowing Mikey and Joneson to land devastating attacks! Joneson struck with Clarent in one hand, and a summoned Shadow Blade in the other.
The accompanying flames of the sword seared the Bone Dragon, but otherwise did not do any elemental bonus damage as the Destroyer Class undead retained its affinities from when it was alive.
Mikey's attack was done with the Demonic Spear that had a base damage of 100 points. Against the Bone Dragon which had no armor aside from its high Endurance, Mikey dealt a minimum of 1,000 damage with this strike alone.
As for Joneson, his damage exceeded 1,200 points. In just one co-ordinated strike, the duo had seared off nearly 20% of the Bone Dragon's life!
This gave the various combatants on the battlefield great hope as morale rose. Darius smiled and left the two undead to their battle, as the Bone Dragon had been practically defanged at this point.
What they needed to do was watch out for any upsets or second winds. Stuff like the Bone Dragon suddenly transforming, perhaps temporarily regaining his formerly alive form or an even stronger hidden boss who had disdained to show themselves, but forced by circumstances to come to light.
Darius gestured to Gunner who stood behind him. The large lad nodded and began his attack with the usual Earthen Stomp augmented by gravity. Darius even made sure to increase his weight by 25% as he was falling to increase the effect.
Once Gunner landed, he reversed it to reducing his weight, further making the already agile half-giant more like a blur. With his Strength and Endurance both crossing 50 points, he met one of the Adept melee monsters head-on.
It was a large Bone Golem with two thick pillar-like arms and a body of natural bone armor that was sleek and smooth, not like lower-tier undead of the same variation that had sharp ridges and spikes.
Gunner activated Explosive Strength straightaway and used the special motor control of Fast Regeneration to limit his Stamina expenditure. This was usually why most Adept fighters in non-Agility classes would focus on getting these two categories to the basic ability level, because one complemented the other perfectly.
The duo met with a punch, their fists clashing and creating a shockwave that cratered the ground around them. Without pause, they began dueling like barbarians, punching each other so fast and forcefully that repeated shockwaves erupted around them.
Many other fighters gave these two a wide berth as they seemed to be in a world of their own. Darius checked to see Gunner's HP loss against their enemy and found that they were largely tied with Gunner being a bit superior only thanks to his Defense stats.
However, the Bone Golem was also hard to kill for Gunner because it had higher Endurance than he did, so their battle would not end anytime soon. Darius looked over to the priests and saw that they were chanting a group spell.
The battle had been going on for about 3 minutes and they had still not stopped chanting. Whatever spell they were cooking up would not feel good for the Bone Dragon at all!
It seemed that except for him, everyone else was engaged in a serious battle. Darius chuckled as he was not in a rush and wanted to survey the entire battlefield for any anomalies before taking up the task he put for himself.
He scanned everywhere, using a mix of Inspect and Analyze to understand what was going on and check if he might have overlooked any hidden traps or combatants. Not finding any after a very meticulous search, Darius calmed down and began casting Heal.
That's right, Darius was not going to participate by abusing Blink and Sparks. Today, he was content staying back and act as a bonafide healbot, with his spell restoring 80% of HP to all chosen targets for a mere 40 MP.
Since he had 1,000 points of mana and his regen was 20 points a second, he only lost 20 points with every heal assuming he cast it once a second. This meant that until his mana bar emptied, he could cast 50 heals easily!
True to that thought, he whaled away. Not a single person fighting was allowed to go below half their HP, as they would feel a strangely pleasant life energy welling up inside them, healing their injuries and rejuvenating their will to fight.
The fighters didn't have time to check who the amazing healer was but those on the sidelines casting their spells were able to tell that Darius was the one. They were shocked and amazed at how powerful his spell was, but more importantly how quickly he could cast it!
Prepared for this extra attention, Darius moved his lips as if he was whispering something while making handsigns. Immediately, the onlookers understood, this magical genius was somehow capable of using One-Word Cast!
After all, their minds would never even dare to entertain the possibility that Darius could instant cast without any need for any incantation whatsoever. It wasn't that they doubted his abilities, but rather that it was an accepted fact that nobody could do so.
To compare, it was like how human society on Earth had accepted the fact that they couldn't sprout wings and fly. If the news were to spread that some fellow had done so, hardly anyone would believe it.
It would be normal to substitute the story for the one in question having used a hidden jetpack, a wingsuit, or some uber-science tech that allowed levitation, but never that he could naturally fly.
His Heals alone laughed at the casualty rate that had been so high in previous battles, allowing the living forces to decimate the undead. Of the 45 or so remaining undead Adepts, only 10 or so remained, and they were being ganged upon by the rest of the living.
