399 Hurry, To The Surface!
—–
As the Phantasmal Mimic was bombarded with countless attacks, I quickly reached its back using [Shadow Sneak]. Eleanora quickly emerged at my side as well, as the two of us channeled the power of the Tier 2 Soul Attribute Magic Spell [Soul Pierce], the only spell of this tier capable of hurting Souls directly.
Imbuing the power of the spell into the tip of our spears, we immediately attacked, reaching the Phantasmal Mimic’s phantom soul surging from its various bodies and piercing it with our weapons. Normally, it would deal no damage as the soul is intangible, it cannot be hurt with physical attacks, but that’s different when magic and spirit energy is added, and it gets even worse with this spell’s power and demonic energy and vampiric energy coming out of Eleanora, my weapon, and my own body.
CLAAASH!
“GRAAAHHH…?!”
The Phantasmal Mimic immediately panicked. It wasn’t killed with one hit, of course, and its body immediately reacted. A swarm of sharp blade-like bones flew towards us, attempting to slash through our bodies. However, Eleanora intercepted them and shielded me using her Blood Threads, however, I also used this opportunity to try out my new Skills.
And this was… [Shadow Manipulation]! Within this Skill, there are special Shadow Techniques, and the ones available at Level 1 are Shadow Domination and Dark Whip! While the Phantasmal Mimic was struggling to get our spears out of its phantasmal soul, I immediately intercepted the hundreds of bones fired my way by unleashing [Shadow Domination], a Shadow Technique that not only allowed to imbue pure darkness into an item, but to possess them, slightly similarly to how Necromancers can imbue souls into items to turn them into undead.
FLASH!
Suddenly, Eleanora’s eyes opened wide as hundreds of sharp bones suddenly turned completely black, obeying my will as they began to unleash black auras. The bones stopped in midair. This felt a lot like using Telekinesis, but it was more complex, I had to put my mind to control each bone. Well, it wasn’t as if it was hard for someone with a mind as monstrous as mine.
“GRAH?!”
The Mimic lost control over most of the bones it was controlling to stand up, the treasure chest immediately fell into the ground, as it panicked, immediately attempting to close itself so it would be able to protect itself from my upcoming attack.
CLANK!
However, the two spears piercing its soul stopped the beast from escaping my punishment, as a hundred black bones fell over its body, imbued with the darkness of Shadow Manipulation and Shadow Domination, the bones were reinforced by thrice their original slashing power, weight, and durability, easily beginning to chip away the treasure chest that was the main vessel of the soul, all while slowly beginning to slash the soul countless times.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
“GRYYSSSHHHAAA…!”
The Phantasmal Mimic roared in agony as an explosion of black flames erupted from within its body, shaping as enormous demonic hands and sweeping around its main vessel, trying to intimidate us to move away.
However, that wasn’t going to stop us.
“Shadow Domination!”
I had already imbued the power over my own Spear and Eleanora’s spear, Gluttony and Envy, as the spears turned completely black and with the help of Eleanora’s Blood Threads, we moved them deeper into the Phantasmal Mimic’s phantom soul, making the monstrous creature made of many souls to scream in agony.
CRAAASH!
“GRYAAAAEEEHH…!”
However, the bastard was strong enough to unleash another storm of black flames, as Erika moved forward, imbuing her sword with her Aether and unleashing another cross attack, intercepting the flames and also hitting the Mimic once more.
CLASH!
“GRUUOHH…!”
The Phantasmal Mimic quickly attacked Erika by unleashing a storm of slashing bones, as I quickly intercepted them with my own Black Bones, a battle of bones was unleashed, as the bones began chipping one another, small pieces started exploding everywhere.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Ugh…! [Job Change: Priests]!” Erika cried, the many Dolls around her immediately changed their appearance, turning into priests and then releasing countless small rays of holy light, impacting the entire Phantasmal Mimic’s furious soul.
“A bit more…!” Eleanora said.
“Now!” I roared.
While Erika distracted the Mimic, Eleanora quickly absorbed my Mana and controlled her Blood Threads once more, manipulating the spears which I was also trying to push further into the soul of the Phantasmal Mimic, until finally, both spears pierced the deepest part, reaching the Soul Core itself, and shattering it into countless pieces!
Crack… crack…!
CRASH!
“GRUOOOHHHHH…!”
The Phantasmal Mimic erupted in agony, the countless souls stitched together to make up its soul exploded outside and separated, wailing in agony. However, I used Shadow Manipulation and captured the souls into a net made of several Dark Whips unified together, bringing them all towards me.
I took the souls and devoured them all, using the other Tier 2 [Soul Eating] Spell, the lowest tiered spell that allowed the consumption of souls to reinforce the user’s soul. Of course, these small and weak souls would amount to nothing much in terms of power, but it also had the power of giving me part of their memories.
BAAAM!
The entire shattered treasure chest and all the bones it had fell into the ground. Some blood began coming out of the treasure chest, as its interior revealed rotten flesh from an actual Mimic as well.
“W-We did it…” Said Eric.
“Well, wasn’t THAT hard.” Chris said.
“It was all thanks to Blake though, that spell he used was crazy…!” Erdrich noticed what I did.
“Ah, well, maybe I could teach it to you one day.” I said. “If you have enough affinity.”
Just as the battle ended, I saw the Grimoire showing some EXP earned.
[You and your Party defeated the [Shadow Phantasm Mimic (D Rank)] x1]
[You earned 200000 EXP]
[Your Level has increased from Level 20 to Level 21!]
[You earned Stat Points and Skill Points]
A single level was more than I expected from this thing, it ended being D Rank, the same Rank as that Wyvern. If we were able to deal enough damage it meant this thing was weaker than the Wyvern or we had grown way stronger since then, or both.
Nonetheless, we didn’t had any time to lose here.
“Let’s go to the surface, quickly!” I led everyone, as we made our way into the surface, finding ourselves in the forest once more. The putrid smell of rotten flesh and miasma filled the entire air, the Necromancer might had not gone alone to the village, but with an army at his disposal…
—–