[Bone Reaver - Level 38 Undead
HP: 1,840/1,840 MP: 418/418]
[Skeleton Summoner - Level 32 Undead
HP: 354/354 MP: 1,090/1,090]
[Skeleton Knight - Level 39 Undead
HP: 1,115/1,115 MP: 975/975]
[Wight Lord - Level 37 Undead
HP: 1,019/1,019 MP: 777/777]
[Wraith King - Level 36 Undead
HP: 570/570 MP: 936/936]
Darius' and Gunner's expression became very dark when they inspected the leaders of the Journeyman undead stampede heading towards them. The duo shared an uncertain look before firming their eyes and getting ready to fight their way out of here.
Darius instantly understood what without Blink, he would have to fight like how he had originally planned to, as a sort of Lancer Mage.
He had refrained from using his spear ever since his painful lesson during the battle with the Blue Troll. He had planned to learn better Lancer Arts or perfect his skills before risking his life by using weapons over magic.
Unfortunately, the current situation cared very little about his plans and forced him to come out with his best.
As such Darius summoned the Demonic Spear from his Inventory... or at least he wanted to, but he paled when he suddenly remembered that it was still in the hands of Mikey.
Come to think of it, Clarent was also still with Joneson!
After all, the initial plan had been to battle with Marasmus, and who better to use these two overpowered weapons than the powerful vampires?
With them, they should have been able to pressure the former Stonekeeper while Darius bombarded him with Heals and Gunner worked his own magic. Of course, that path had become unnecessary thanks to his negotiations.
Still, Darius' forgetfulness could be understood, but could not be forgiven.
It could be understood because he had been in a tense situation back then and between Thanatos taking away the undead duo and the eviction of him and Gunner not even a minute had passed.
However, it could not be forgiven for Darius should always have his mind sharp and aware of such things, regardless of the situation.
Allowing external pressure to make him fumble like some poor merchant with nothing to his name was unacceptable!
Darius could only take out the steel spear and hold it tightly. He also deposited the stone into his inventory, hoping it would cut off the signal between himself and the undead, but it was clearly wishful thinking.
The undead still roared and attacked the duo like a wave. Gunner quickly stood in front of his master and activated his Earth's Guardian skill. He had no time to jump into the air and add extra oomph to his skill, but he still used Earthen Stomp solidly.
This sent the vanguard of the undead crashing down to their feet, giving the duo some breathing space. Darius quickly cast Adjust on himself and Gunner, lightening their weights by 25%!
With Darius at 30 Agility and Gunner at 25 Agility, this was significant enough to make them much faster. He jumped above the undead wave and stabbed his spear down, using it like a pole to vault himself over the first wave.
Gunner also realized that patiently fighting back every opponent was foolish. What they needed to do wasn't to fight, but to rush through, using their superior Agility to maneuver around foes while blocking as many attacks as they could.
Otherwise, they would be swarmed until they died here!
Gunner braced his feet against the ground and took a pseudo-runner's stance, when he had built enough force that a green wave formed before him, he flashed forward like a bullet, charging through the ranks of foes and using his superior Strength to bash them aside as he made a beeline for Baratuo.
Darius remained lightfooted as he tried to maneuver around foes using a much gentler method, but this put a heavier strain on his mental faculties. The amount of combat data he needed to process as he moved swiftly in order to prevent himself from falling into an encirclement was immense.
Without the Supreme System's auto-casting feature, Darius would not even be able to cast any spells while he was moving like this. As it were, he mostly used Heal whenever he saw a particular weak undead with less than 500 points of HP.
This victim undead's death was always able to terrify the others nearby, overriding their desire to retrieve the First Resurrection Stone. His strategic use of the spell was what carried him through the early stage of the breakout.
However, Darius and Gunner were quickly obstructed due to the ever-growing numbers and more importantly, the various undead monsters that possessed projectile or ranged attacks.
For Darius, it came in the form of the various Wraith species. They exclusively chose him as their target and cast their various spiritual spells upon him. Darius' face quickly became pale as he spat out blood, his nose and ears bleeding profusely.
Being hit by one or two Fear spells and the like was easy to deal with, but when there were hundreds? His fledgling Mind Power tendrils were overworked protecting his mind!
If it were not for them, Darius would have quickly been turned into a vegetable from the overwhelming load on his mind. These mental attacks prevented Darius from moving as smoothly as he did as he had to channel his cognitive functions towards resisting such attacks.
Wherever he saw them, he made sure to strike these Wraiths with a Heal spell, instantly vanquishing their lives. This scared a few of them, but not the whole lot.
He may scare away 3 wraiths, but 10 of them would come quickly fill in the gap, and rush into battle fearlessly before they were killed or scared again. This cycle was draining on Darius' mana, and he knew he couldn't keep it up no matter what.
Gunner's charge was pretty straightforward, but no matter how resilient the large lad was, he could not bulldoze through everything. As he passed by many undead, they would use the chance to claw at him or swing using their weapons.
More often than not, they were blocked, however a few hits managed to land on his body. While most were useless with his level of defense, a few left some cuts and bruises on his skin.
