18. O Sole Mio (8)
18. O Sole Mio (8)
"So the main force was a necromancy-type dungeon... Blades and arrows won't work easily! Switch to blunt weapons!"
"Damn. Of all things..."
"I really hate bone-heads..."
As soon as the figures of skeletons emerged from the shadows, Maria's orders rang out.
Everyone who heard her, tracers and warriors alike, gripped the hammers or clubs they had brought as secondary weapons.
Even if you had a favorite weapon, adapting your equipment to the opponent until you gained special skills was one of the fundamentals of being a proper adventurer.
"I'll definitely find them...!"
Even Leonis was gripping his staff tightly with both hands, his expression full of resolve to jump into the front lines if necessary, knowing he himself was stronger than an ordinary Skeleton.
His 'Technique' was probably focused more on manipulating magic than moving his body, yet he wasn't sparing himself at all.
His special regard for Sonia and her friends clearly wasn't a lie.
The only ones still holding swords as they were were Maria and Daniel, who were confident in their skills.
Even Daniel had picked up a heavy club in his other hand, so the only ones keeping their usual armaments were Maria, Sonia, and me.
"Still, that's a relief. There are a lot of them, but no special variants. Just what you'd expect from a newly born dungeon."
"Don't let your guard down. You never know what might happen."
"It's hard not to let your guard down against Skeletons. Let's find your siblings quickly and get out, Miss Maria."
"... Fine."
But even so, as shown in Daniel and Maria's exchange, people weren't all that tense.
It was common knowledge that undead raised after death couldn't retain the abilities they had in life, and no matter how you looked at them, the Skeletons in sight appeared to have been local Ain-type monsters or bandits when alive.
"I heard a group of bandits went missing recently."
"Looks like they were here. Did they try to use the cave as a den and get wiped out?"
"What complete idiots."
That is, exactly until the very next moment.
- Ttak!
Cheok!!
The instant Evangeline clacked her jawbone.
The undead legion, having raised their weapons once, stepped forward.
All at once, as if a single body.
"What the, that's..."
"Soldiers...? No, they don't have shields..."
A sense of wrongness instantly spread among the people who saw it.
The sight wasn't of ordinary Skeletons that mindlessly rush at the living with hostility, but rather resembled 'Skeleton Soldiers'—classed up with no particular unique traits, yet growing collectively stronger in power the more they gathered.
'Good heavens. She really drilled them hard, I see.'
At the sight, which was clearly more elite than the last time I saw them, I swallowed several emotions internally.
Admiration for Evangeline's tenacity and effort in finally instilling 'tactics' into those idiot Skeletons, and pity for the Skeletons who had tactics beaten into their bones by Evangeline without even properly understanding why.
On the other hand, knowing that all of it was ultimately for me, even happiness.
Hiding a smile was incredibly difficult, so I decided to cover that smile with a manufactured emotion called the composure of a destined victor.
"The Skeletons seem smarter than expected. If you can just hold out a little, Sonia and I will use magic."
"We're counting on you, mages!"
With that, Sonia and I stood behind, while one apprentice warrior and Gyeonghan stayed to guard us.
"Sonia. Are you ready?"
"Yes, teacher...!"
"In a chaotic melee like this, you shouldn't use magic that's hard to aim. What then?"
"Binding!"
"That's right. Clever."
"..."
Sonia smiled quietly. I stroked her head once, then looked straight ahead.
Because I felt 'jealousy' shooting directly at me, or more precisely, right next to me.
'Don't be too hard on her. You're my first.'
Flash.
'Right. Then... the targets are four. You can handle the rest on your own.'
- Ttak!
Cheok! Cheok! Cheok!
The moment I designated my 'targets', the slowly approaching Skeletons lengthened their strides.
Over fifty Skeletons approached, encircling the wide room from all sides, while the adventurers stood with their backs to the entrance to face them.
The order Maria immediately issued after that was appropriate.
"Move into the entrance! We have to narrow the front we're fighting on!"
- Keuaa!!
Kwang!!
That order produced two effects: the temporary disruption of the adventurers' formation, and one Skeleton seeing it, failing to overcome its instinct, and charging forward.
That one's going to get scolded later. That kid.
The massive Skeleton, which had been the bandit leader in life, rushed in while letting out 'Battle Cry', a trait it succeeded in inheriting in death.
『Battle Cry - During combat, temporarily amplifies the Stamina stat proportionally and reduces all stats of opponents with lower Stamina than the user by half the amplified amount.』
Though it was ordinary grade and the amplification ratio was very low, because its Stamina stat was so high, it was a truly excellent trait that could reduce most adventurers' abilities slightly, if only for a moment.
At that cry, everyone on this side except Daniel, Maria, and myself stiffened up.
This was a skill meant to be used during a full clash, not at the start of a charge—a guy who clearly displayed the limits of an ordinary Skeleton.
"Incoming! It really is just a Skeleton. It couldn't maintain formation!"
"I'll handle it, you take care of the people!"
"Hurry back! Move! Quickly!!"
Maria stepped forward to face the charging 'Axe', while Daniel immediately turned around to encourage the frozen people and reform the formation near the entrance.
The entrance to the room was quite wide, so a gap wouldn't disappear completely, but he apparently judged that facing them at the center was better than nothing.
It was a proud moment for my past self, who had deliberately widened the entrance in preparation for adventurers visiting my dungeon who would form such formations.
In a place like this, you can't form a perfect formation unless you have quite a lot of people.
There was only the best possible and the next best.
"Mages! This way! Miss Susan, guard the mages' rear!"
While Daniel reorganized the formation like that, Maria and Axe clashed first.
"You're nothing special...!"
Hwareuk, kwang!!
- Deolgeureok!
The result was naturally an overwhelming victory for Maria.
The 'Giant Skeleton' side, standing close to 2 meters tall, was overwhelmingly larger, but with no flesh or muscle left on its body, its mass itself was lacking, and even in life it had been just a muscle pig with virtually no other skills.
Maria, who seemed momentarily surprised by its unexpectedly strong power, quickly regained her cool and succeeded in deflecting its large body, causing it to lose its stance.
It was her strength, which wasn't lacking compared to a Skeleton to begin with, plus the power of the orange explosion caused by the Fire Element gathered on her blade.
"Die...!"
Kaang!
However, she had no choice but to miss that golden opportunity she had earned. Due to the force contained in the blade tinged with red light that swiftly intervened from the side.
The exquisite angle of the intervening blade was positioned so that advancing would unavoidably result in injury, making it impossible to dodge or block; Maria also had no path but to retreat.
"Another one... Wait, you... That power and that armor..."
Maria, who deflected it with her greatsword and retreated a step, soon found something familiar.
The red light that bloomed and vanished on the sword, and the breastplate worn by the Skeleton. Two elements.
The blunt but always worried, kind, and lovable younger sister. She had simultaneously recognized both the material of her friend's equipment and its traits.
It was inevitable that the eyes of Maria, who had been constantly impatient, would turn upside down with fury.
"You took Jack...! Where is Lemia, where is Lemia!?"
Kakang!
Five clashes happened in an instant between Maria and the Skeleton.
Maria's blade was sharp and fast.
But the Skeleton, intensively trained by a master who recognized its special talent and having never neglected its own training, did not yield easily against a high-grade warrior.
Even without having undergone class up yet, Evangeline's specs were approaching high-grade, surpassing formal-grade.
"Maria!! You have to pull out!!"
"Where is sheaaaaagh!!!"
Normally, Maria would have recognized that kind of skillful swordsmanship and retreated to look for an opening, but now she swung her sword, surrendering her body to anger and impatience.
And because of that, she didn't realize she was trapped between the enemies.
"Damn it!"
Tak!
In the end, the one who started moving toward my formation was Daniel.
He rushed forward, holding a short sword in one hand and a hammer in the other.
Whether it was love or just a bigger misunderstanding mixed with comradeship, the sight of the man charging without hesitation was quite cool.
The problem was that this was reality, not a movie.
"You need to give the physical coordinates more variability there. The enemy won't stay still."
"Ah, yes!"
Behind that, I continued giving advice to Sonia, who was using a binding spell in real combat for the first time.
When I told her that binding the legs of just a few in the front line was enough rather than the whole group, Sonia commendably suggested she try it herself.
Thanks to that, Sonia, sweating from nerves and concentrating so hard she couldn't even open her eyes, was entirely focused on my words.
I had no reason to stop her, and there was no interference from around us.
This too was a luxury afforded because their enemies, meaning my soldiers, were still Skeletons in the end, even if they were a bit special. And I had no reason to interrupt the enemy's luxury.
She was probably just driven by the obsession to achieve it with her own hands.
"Maria, Maria!! You have to break out! These things use tactics! You're getting surrounded!"
"Keuuugh...!"
The two most threatening ones were still tied up, unable to escape from the Skeletons.
Maria had shaken off her anger, realized her situation, and regained her cool, but it wasn't easy for the two of them to break out of my army.
- Ttak!
Kakang!
Evangeline herself, never overextending, was holding onto them and stalling so they couldn't escape easily.
The sword that flashed out from between the weapons of the ranked Skeletons possessed a sharpness and sophistication that even an adventurer a level higher could never afford to underestimate.
That swordsmanship was even beautiful.
- Dalgeurak!
"These bastards... they're pushing us so we can't regroup!"
Furthermore, my soldiers under her command, aided by necromancy, were repeating agile hit-and-run attacks.
Now they could truly be considered an army of the living.
How did she train them so splendidly? When this is over, I really should praise her plenty.
"D, damn. This is seriously going bad...?"
"Sh, should we run...?"
The formal adventurers who were tracers or trap specialists, and the apprentices who were just simple warriors, were equally unable to help.
They tried to rush in somehow, but as my soldiers' formation tightened, they couldn't actively intervene.
A formal adventurer had the ability to hold back at least three or four ordinary Skeletons, and even apprentice adventurers could hold one or two; with four of them, they could tie down over ten and buy time for a high-grade adventurer to break out.
But they were panicked or prioritizing their own safety, failing to exert their full abilities.
Of course, my Skeletons had a commander making them 'not ordinary', so the situation was far more serious than usual.
"I'll...!"
"If you rush in recklessly it's dangerous!"
- Kuwaak!!
Kwang!!
On top of that, the 'Axe' I was directly controlling was threatening the rest with power even stronger than Maria's, using Battle Cry at opportune moments.
The guy was stupid both in life and after death, but with an almost human-like cunning, it aimed at the other adventurers instead of the two high-grade adventurers, shattering any hope of 'rescue'.
Ultimately, it was time for the mages, who could deliver powerful attacks or control from a distance against Skeletons, to step up.
"Right in the middle of the group fight would have been best, but now is good too. We'll use binding magic for the two of them. I'll finish off the others."
"Yes...!"
"Now, let me help. We have to be quick."
I approached Sonia, draped an arm over her shoulder, and placed my hand over the back of her outstretched hand.
Sonia, whose growth had stopped at a younger age, was now about the same height as me, who had become quite small, so the posture wasn't awkward.
In that state, I synchronized her mana.
When her trusted teacher's hand overlapped hers, her face, subtly turning red, was quite cute. Even if she hadn't fully blossomed from being unable to tend to her beauty, a beauty she was still.
It was a pity that face was about to be ruined.
"Ready?"
"Yes!"
"Good. Prepare... now."
"「Absorbing Plant」!"
Kkudeudeudeuk...!!
Sonia's low but powerful cry.
Along with it, the seed of mana scattered from her fingertips quickly accelerated its growth, sprouting into a vine that steals the stamina and life of what it binds.
"What is this...?!"
"Vines...?!"
It bound the bodies of Maria and Daniel, not the Skeletons.
And at the same time.
Peoeok—!!
"「Shadow Restraint」."
I activated my magic while striking the nearby Leonis with the Skull Staff I summoned from my inventory.
Not a demonic plant rapid growth spell like Sonia's, but the curse of shadow magic bound together with necromancy.
Chwareureureuk...!!!
"A, a Necromancer...?!"
"Mage...!"
"Why...?!"
The shadow, merging with the cave's darkness and spreading instantly, grabbed at the adventurers' ankles, dragging them down.
"Kuhk...?!"
Leonis, weak in body, could neither dodge nor block the staff swung with the powerful body of the Dungeon Lord.
Ironically, the sight of him collapsing overlapped with the sight of Sonia collapsing back when the novice adventurers had visited this place.
Cheocheocheok!
"Aagh! Let go!"
My legion approached in sync, binding or subduing the adventurers.
"Huh...?"
Amidst all that, the only ones unharmed were me and Sonia.
I patted her head and spoke.
"Well done. Just as expected from my first disciple."
The smile I always wore when dealing with her—this time I didn't show even a faint one. Never.
『Dungeon Level has increased. Lv.2 ▶ 3』
『Demon Lord Candidate 'Libertas's Dungeon Lv.3』
"Magnificent."
My face reflected in her wavering, pale blue eyes.
In that reflection, a piercing light was visible.
A light originating from my pupils, flashing within the shadows of my black hair, exuding a sense of presence.
