A Path of Bone and Poison 100 The Inverted Tower 3

The locusts did not wait for us to get into formation, they began to swarm us as soon as they appeared. Thankfully, we were all quick to action. I fired several grenades into the center of the swarm. The damage I did was minuscule compared to my normal, but there were literally millions of the beasts in the blast range.

Not a single locust fell under my bombardment, but they delayed them enough for Sierra to cast several fire walls. She even broke her roll temporarily and fired fireballs at the swarm around us. The fire healed us, while causing damage to the swarm.

Her actions did not lead to reprimand from Hylia, most likely because she was already in the thick of battle. The swarm was far too thick for her to manage to fire her bow, rather she was forced into melee. Surprisingly, this did not seem to affect her much. Four long lances like legs appeared from her back. But this was not all. The steel like thread that she normally used to make arrows began to weave together, forming thick club like weapons in either hand.

Her entire body began to glow in a holy light, it was obviously that she had used her skill. She began to attack the swarm, her moves were like lightning, each strike incredibly fast, leaving behind dead bodies in their wake.

I could not help but admire her, I had no idea she was capable of such intense melee combat. But when I thought about it, while I had been training at home, they had been receiving intense training from masters. It was no wonder they had begun to outpace me.

My attacks were not the only ones to suffer. You could say that in this situation Hylia was the perfect warrior, she had speed strength and accuracy. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Leisha. Her attacks were viscous, in her transformed the state she incredibly strong, her attacks would be able kill most beasts in only a few strikes.

These locusts were her natural enemy. Her movements were far to slow, and the locusts could easily dodge her attacks. Even if they could not, they would simply faze into an ethereal state when she attacked. Her biggest flaw was exposed when fighting these beasts.

Thankfully, she had decent defense, and the constant healing from Sierra was keeping her alive. Sierra's healing was also dealing damage to the locusts. It was slow but steady damage, but eventually locusts began to fall to her fire damage.

The weakest member of the party was actually the second most useful person in this fight. After a period of adjustment Bailey was accurately able to locate the locusts when they turned ethereal. This prevented us from being sneak attacked. I would coordinate with her, casting my grenades at their hidden location. Because the attacks were not physical, they were able to damage their ethereal forms.

Bodies began to pile up, or rather they would have if they did not turn into pixels and disappear. The constant field of pixilated matter became a burden to our eyes, causing us a temporary loss of vision. The locusts did not have such a problem and used the opportunity to swarm in.

Thankfully Hylia thought fast and ordered Sierra to bombard our area with fireballs. The damage was enough to kill the swarm, but at the same time it kept our Hp from falling to zero. I did not stand idle during this time either. Even in a blinded state Bailey could locate the locusts, and through Hylia she continually sent coordinates for me to bombard with my grenades.

The battle continued like this for hours. The Locusts began to slowly die off, but our bodies had become exhausted. Even with the constant flow of hp the fatigue was not something we could keep away. Worse yet was even though Sierra had an insane Mana recovery, hours' worth of spells had caused her Mp to fall to critical levels. We would not be able to hold on much longer.

I looked out with a tired expression. I could see that the Sky was still completely dark with the locusts. Even after hours of fighting their numbers had barely dwindled. I could not help but sigh. It was time for me to so that. It was the only way.

I entered stealth as I told Hylia my plan. I did not wait for her response. She was not really in charge anyway. I utilized my shadow step to put myself in an advantageous position. It was time.

I could feel a massive pull on mana as I began to cast my spells. A continuous barrage of explosions began to fill the sky. A barrage that did not end. As my mana rapidly depleted, I could feel it coming back at an even faster rate than I could spend. Explosion after explosion filled the sky.

Bellow I could see the party struggling without me there. The damage they were taking was much higher without another defender. Unfortunately, if things I continued like they were we would all die. Her plan had been a good one, but it would not work on this enemy.

Even as my mana and Hp continued to be overfilled I could feel the exhaustion filling me at an incredible rate. But my actions were working. I could see the swarm of locusts diminishing at an incredible rate.

Inside I could feel the Necromancer King laughing. The combo I used had pulled me much closer to him. But it was the only way. [Overload] was my unique legendary skill. I had gotten it for having the killing blow on the Arachne Empress that attacked Slagstone City. It used 20x the mana of a regular spell but did 10x the damage.

When I mixed it with my grenades and my [War's Mistress] title the damage I inflicted with the grenades was much higher than it had been when we were attacked by the ice wraiths. Unfortunately, the strain on my body was much higher than it was then as well.

My exhaustion was reaching a point where I could barely keep my eyes open. But thankfully the swarm had been diminished to only a few stragglers. I used the last of my energy to shadow step back to the group, where I immediately fainted.

Chapter end