The night hunters didn't waste any time once they realized an intruder was in their lair. The closest ones lunged out of the mounds. Some that were more deeply stacked inside the mounds clawed their brethren on top of them, trying to claw their way out.
They hissed and shrieked, making a cacophony of voices that eerily sounded very much like humans but also not.
Jack had known that these night hunters had a rather fast crawling speed from the last time he fought them. But it turned out they were faster. When he fought them inside the house with Grace and Spring Crown, the hunters didn't have much space to develop their speed. Different from then, this hall was large. Once the night hunters separated themselves from the mounds they were in, they crawled toward Jack and developed faster speed the longer they crawled.
Jack didn't dare to engage them directly when they came barreling at him with such speed. He jumped to the side and rolled on the ground. At the same time, he fished out three equipment-free stones and equipped three out of the seven Themisphere Royal Battle Armor. His head, upper body, and lower body were now covered in glamorous armor.
With the two shortswords in both hands, he lunged at the group of night hunters that had just stopped their charge. His two weapons danced among the night hunters, slashing and slicing as he moved in their midst.
Unlike the battle in the house, this place had enough space and he didn't have to prevent the night hunters from getting past him, so he was free to move as he wished. His eight diagram illusory steps let him move fluidly among these hunters while his formless flowing sword style cut them whenever he passed them by.
He didn't have mana sense, but his improved sword's heart let him translate all input from his traditional five senses and responded accurately using his swords. Each of his slashes cut into the night hunters' necks. Most of these slashes scored critical damage.
The night hunters weren't durable monsters. They were easily killed. After just a short time since they started clashing, around ten dead night hunters were already down on the floor.
Yet, more and more came. The ones Jack had killed were not even a fraction of the number within this hall.
Without any skills or buffs, he couldn't completely dodge all the attacks just by relying on his movement art. Some of the night hunters managed to hit him. His three armors mitigated the damage. Normally, a shield was broken with one clean attack. This time, even if it was clean, the shield was just cracked.
As Jack received more hits, the cracks were getting worse. After six hits, one of his shields was finally broken. That shield was able to sustain so many hits all thanks to his royal armor's high defense. If it was any other player's armor, their shield could probably defend mostly three hits.
Jack tried his best to not get swarmed. He kept moving away from where the night hunters were overcrowding, but that was difficult to do without mana sense. Peniel tried to help by giving him warnings about incoming attacks from his blind spots, but there were too many. He couldn't do much even with those warnings. Many times he almost got surrounded and he had to brute force his way out. This was the time when he received the most hits.
His Themisphere King's Scale Pants could automatically heal 30% of his HP when his HP fell below 50%. So, when he lost another shield, his pants automatically recovered one of his shields.
Still, as the battle continued, he couldn't help but lost that shield again. Not long after, his last shield also cracked. He quickly used one shield-protect stone to avoid getting any more damage. During the time he was invulnerable, he used two adhesive bandages to recover the two lost shields.
"Damn it! I can't go on like this!" Jack said to himself.
The best spell he could use right now was the Perpetual Lightning Judgement. That spell would nicely obliterate this swarm of night hunters. However, to cast the spell, he needed to equip a magic staff first. Most offensive spells required a magic weapon to cast because they required the damage count from the weapon to calculate the spells' damage output.
He only had one equipment-free stone left, he wanted to save it for his Storm Breaker.
He took one skill-free stone out. He was ready to use Lightning God Barrage. The divine skill didn't cover as much area as the Perpetual Lightning Judgement, but it should still reduce the enemy number by a huge portion.
But before he used the stone, he heard Master's voice.
"Don't waste that on your offensive skill!"
Jack then saw the air on one side of the hall getting distorted. Energies of lightning, ice, and fire filled that space. These energies then swept across the hall with terrifying force.
The night hunters were still attacking Jack. He didn't dare to be careless. He activated the skill-free stone and used his best defensive skill, the Lightning God Suit. Lightning covered his entire body and electrocuted the night hunters close to him.
The Lightning God Suit protected Jack until the elemental flood arrived. He felt himself getting swept in this torrent of energies along with the night hunters. He saw them get electrocuted, burned, and frozen at the same time.
He was experiencing the same thing as the night hunters, tumbling around helplessly within this elemental flood. However, his shields were completely fine. This was because the current spell was cast by a teammate.
When the elemental flood receded, he looked around the hall. All the night hunters were laying on the floor, unmoving.
Jack knew Master's intelligence stat was insanely high and these night hunters were not that durable, but he wondered if he could have survived the spell just now with only three pieces of armor and the Lightning God Suit. He couldn't properly gauge the spell's power without his mana sense.
'What the hell is that spell just now?' Jack asked Peniel in his mind.
'That is Sea of the Elementals,' Peniel answered. 'It is the spell from the Elemental Master class. Master's Elemental Master has reached level 70.'
