Chapter 653: Skeleton Army III

The undead cast another shield and swiftly retaliated with a curse that spread like a dark net, its strands reaching for his arms and neck.

Elion threw himself behind a rising slab of stone, then drove it forward, forcing the creature to destroy its own incoming obstruction before it could resume attacking him.

The creature’s reserves were extraordinary, but they weren’t endless.

It was summoning reinforcements, restoring its wounds and defending itself from a swordsman who refused to give it even a moment to recover.

Little by little, the strain began to show.

The first sign was a delay.

Elion’s blade struck a barrier, broke it, and nearly reached the undead’s throat before the next one appeared.

Previously, the layers had overlapped so closely that he could barely distinguish one from another, but now there had been a gap.

A very small gap.

He smiled.

The undead mage drew back, its spectral eyes narrowing as it raised the staff higher.

A vast sphere of flame gathered above it, swelling until its radiance illuminated the fractured ceiling and cast the broken cavern into trembling silhouette.

"Down!" Elion shouted, seeing the angle of the forming spell.

Maya reacted quickly, raising a curtain of water in front of the group while the others lowered themselves behind fallen stone.

Elion thrust both hands forward, wrenching a massive section of the broken platform upward into the path of the spell.

The fireball struck.

KRAAA-BOOM!

Flame and pulverised rock exploded across the upper hall, the concussion hammering against the walls and shaking dust from every crack.

The water in front of Maya burst into steam, and Elion felt the heat sweep over his back as he rushed beneath the spreading blast.

The undead mage had spent too long preparing it.

He reached the throne before it could finish lowering the staff, his sword tearing through the single barrier it managed to raise.

The tip grazed the creature’s neck, opening a thin wound from which dark vapour streamed.

The staff pulsed again, but the miasma that emerged was noticeably weaker.

’Got you!’

Elion didn’t give it time to recover.

With a shit-eating grin on his face, he attacked from the left, forced a barrier, and struck it until it broke, then stepped around the throne and came at the creature from the right.

Its answering fire spells became smaller, the curses thinner, and the green pulses spreading toward the rest of the cavern began to falter.

Behind him, Maya noticed the change, even as she supported Mayumi and Yaana from the back against the dwindling army of undead skeletons.

"Keep pushing!" she shouted, sending another lance of light over Cole’s shoulder. "It’s not replacing the skeletons as quickly!"

Uta caught a skeleton around the waist and hurled it into a cluster near the wall, where Yaana’s scythe followed a heartbeat later.

Mayumi and Cole advanced together, their blades working in quick succession as the gaps between their enemies finally began to remain open.

At the throne, the undead mage drifted backward.

For the first time, it seemed more concerned with keeping Elion away than destroying him.

One barrier hovered close to its body, shivering beneath every strike, while the staff’s glow throbbed unevenly in its spectral hand.

Elion let it retreat.

He stepped back as well, lowering his sword slightly while gathering earth into his free hand. Broken fragments lifted from the floor and compressed together, forming a long, narrow stone lance with a wickedly sharp point.

The undead raised its staff, forming a small sphere of fire that sputtered at its tip, then shot toward him.

Elion easily moved aside, dodging the flaming projectile, and then he threw the lance.

It tore through the air with a violent whistle, aimed directly at the creature’s upper body.

The undead mage dragged its remaining barrier into place, but the stone point struck the weakened surface and punched through in a spray of flickering light.

Elion watched it close the final distance.

’Time to finish this!’

His body flickered into a blur as he charged in for the final hit, the cavern twisting around him as he reached impossible speeds.

One instant, he stood several paces from the throne; the next, he was directly in front of the undead, even before the fragments of the stone lance fell to the ground.

The creature’s eyes widened, its staff beginning to rise far too late.

Kurogoroshi flashed in Elion’s grip as he poured a large chunk of mana into it.

A swift diagonal cut severed the arm holding the staff, and before the detached limb had begun to fall, Elion reversed the blade and sliced through the other.

Both arms spun away.

The bone staff struck the edge of the throne with a sharp crack, its glow stuttering as it bounced onto the platform.

The undead tried to pull back and run, releasing a hoarse, strangled cry that tore through the cavern like a final command.

Every remaining skeleton stopped, then, all at once, they turned their backs on Maya and the others.

The horde abandoned its attack and charged toward the throne, hundreds of bony feet scraping across the fractured floor. Maya stared after them for a heartbeat before lifting her gaze toward Elion.

They were already too late.

"Flowing Edge."

Elion’s sword moved with a smoothness that made the preceding violence seem almost clumsy.

The first cut passed through the undead’s neck, separating its head from the wispy folds of its cloak.

The second followed without a pause, shearing through the lower body beneath the dark orb, while the final motion carried the blade clear of the upper torso without so much as brushing the core encased within it.

The creature’s wheezing scream died in its throat, if it had one.

Its severed head hung in the air for the briefest moment, the stunned expression upon its gaunt face illuminated by the light of the nearby torches.

The menacing flames within its eyes flickered, diminished, and slowly went dark.

Elion let his body fall and landed on his feet beside the broken throne.

The undead’s remains struck the platform a moment later, its cloak collapsing around the severed pieces while the staff rolled to a stop near his boot.

Thin trails of black vapour curled upward from the ruined body, leaving the dark core intact within what remained of its chest.

The charging horde continued toward him for a moment before eventually, then came the sound of hundreds of bones hitting the ground.

It began near the throne and spread through the cavern in a vast, rattling crash, as though someone had swept the strength from every remaining skeleton at once.

Swords fell from lifeless fingers, shields struck the floor, and entire bodies collapsed into untidy heaps before they could take another step.

The noise echoed between the pillars long after the last skull had finished rolling.

Elion slowly turned.

Where an army had been rushing toward him, there was now only a field of scattered bones and abandoned weapons.

Beyond them, Maya and the others stood with their weapons still raised, looking around as though they expected something else to move.

Nothing did.

Killing the undead mage had brought an end to every one of its summons.

Elion looked down at the remains beside his feet, his brows drawing together as he understood what had happened.

Its mana hadn’t merely been used to summon them; it must have been sustaining their movements throughout the entire battle as well.

Hundreds of undead, all fighting while their master cast barriers, fire spells, curses, and healing magic without pause.

"Damn, you were overworking yourself huh?" he murmured, lowering Kurogoroshi as he looked toward his dead foe.

The undead mage must have possessed even more mana than he had initially assumed.