615 Familiar Enemies
Blue-purple Clusters.
Among Clusters, they were considered to house beasts that were more often than not harder to deal with for your average mercenary, even if they bunched up to form large teams of highly relevant powers.
It just so happened that when Clusters crossed into the purple threshold, the worlds within them became extraordinarily large and complex, some even spotting absurd features like suns and incredibly abstract concepts like powerful religious beliefs that were very real as well as unusual Rules.
As for the creatures that were housed within and the Cluster Generals whose mana kept the entire Cluster stable…
Well, that went without saying. They were powerful.
“Why is it so dark?” Red Rage asked while looking to and fro.
The gleam from his body could not overtake the darkness that he and his master had spawned into. This was the second time his light had failed to shine over the surroundings.
Quite disappointing.
“We’re in a tunnel,” Skullius said.
His awareness was incredibly sharp.
A thin pulse rushed outwards from his feet and coursed through the limited space they had appeared in, giving him an extremely detailed image of the enclosed space they were in.
The range of this ability capped at seven miles and it was very intricate, incorporating every sense Skullius had, any available environmental factors as well as his mana to finely craft a picture of everything.
This was a shallow description no doubt, as the most unique function which made it more than just a handy tool weren’t about Skullius alone..
Everywhere the pulses from the activation of the skill ran to, all living and non-living matter would be forced to react to them, prompting for more information to be introduced in a rather strange fashion.
With non-living matter, the residuals of temperature, mana and even air over or within them were incorporated by the skill to widen the search and divulge more information while for living things the same applied but the skill could also temporarily borrow the victim’s senses to enhance its own!
The Hybrid Luman had combined four high level skills, [Koten Machi] included to craft this Special skill which went by the name, [Graceless Hunter].
“Hah…” Skullius voiced with a look of surprise on his face. “You wouldn’t believe what’s up ahead.”
He took steps forward, leading the way out of this enclosure while Red Rage followed behind him by tracing his mana signature.
The tunnel went on for roughly twenty meters before it ended abruptly, introducing those it housed within it up to this point to a ginormous space, as far as Cluster worlds were concerned.
There was light, finally, though dull.
The sky was overcast, actually hiding a sun that was high up.
It wasn’t clouds smeared over the sky.
It was…smoke?
Still, the sky was the least attractive detail to the two as there was something much more prominent before them.
“Well… THAT is shocking,” Red Rage said but without the pitch of actual shock. “Are we still in a Cluster?”
“Apparently.”
A massive wall cast a dark shadow on the two, its height being close to 400 meters. Its rough cast exterior was certainly menacing, with the cracks and gouges of age and perhaps war decorating its thick mass that was probably old enough to tell some cities in Aigas bedtime stories.
A giant set of black, wooden doors could be seen at its face, though they did seem a bit too small to be considered a ‘front entrance.’
Given where they were located, this was probably the back entrance and Skullius had a feeling that this was actually designated as a response to people like him.
Outsiders.
Additionally…
“Are those… runes?” Skullius frowned.
“Yes they are, master,” Red Rage replied.
Another detail on the face of this wall, was the pairs of runes drawn over it with equal spacing, their simplistic designs aglow with a gold, intimidating light.
Yes.
They WERE runes.
Skullius could tell.
Some brimmed with a ferocious howl of mana while some seemingly masked a variety of things, including their enemies.
This got Skullius a bit excited.
Something here was proficient in certain types of runes?
From the blue, thousands of objects suddenly shot down towards Skullius and Red Rage from high up the wall, their speeds challenging the winds as they sailed towards the two mercilessly!
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Long, black arrows stormed at them, and they certainly didn’t look typical enough to ignore, so much so that Red Rage chose to dart before Skullius and float with chest pushed out in defence!
The ground screamed at the assault, most of the arrows actually sinking deep to the tails within it!
That was how much speed they had!
As for those that managed to accurately aim for the two…
TING! TING!
Their momentum rapidly slowed as they reached the Juvenile Pelvic Arbiter and as if they were steel spoons knocking lightly against glass, the only thing these arrows served to do was to produce a dull, pitiable symphony.
“I often forget you’re actually a loyal summon, you know?” Skullius said with a smirk.
“I grew out my phase, Master,” Red Rage responded a bit embarrassedly with the shadow of sweat hanging on his helmet. He then floated up when the hail of arrows passed, going towards the wall.
OOOOM!
“Oh?” the Apostle titled his head and stretched out his hand. “It seems there’s a barrier protecting the wall itself.”
His hand tried pass to touch the wall but an invisible force resisted his entry.
“I see. That must be another function of the runes,” Skullius hypothesised while following the Arbiter. “That said, these runes do look a little too…weak. They must be a weaker type of rune. Plus, I can sense mana constantly being funnelled into them from somewhere.”
The Apostle nodded in understanding.
“What do you want to do then?”
Skullius gave a short laugh before extending his hand forward and mentioning the name of a skill.
[Greatest Mana Attraction].
…!
From the blue, the wall rumbled, almost as if it was shockingly pulled towards Skullius, its integrity lessening a great deal!
Faintly, panicked voiced sounded from the wall but they did not know the thick of it!
An outrageous amount of mana started to flow from glowing runes on the wall, rushing past the invisible barrier and coiling into the hand of the Hybrid Luman!
The suction was ridiculous!
The draw was atrocious!
The process didn’t even take three seconds to show results as with a glowing ball of white that rapidly grew in size within Skullius’ hand, the runes flickered and the barrier faded in and out of existence!
Audio.
Visual.
These were exposed to the Hybrid Luman and his Apostle more clearly with this.
When the runes finally turned dark, the supply of mana being exceeded by the rate of consumption from the Hybrid Luman, a swarm of enemies standing in neat rows about the wall appeared, some showing confidence while others showed utter shock.
Both Skullius and his Apostle were blasted with nostalgia at the sight of the creatures before them.
“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?” Skullius said with a smile.
“It sure does, Master,” Red Rage choked.
“Haaaauuuuu Kaka!” the undisputed leader of these troops, judging by his extravagant adornment howled, seemingly uttering a war cry to prepare for the fight.
He was tall and thick, garbed in a fitting thick black, clunky armour, none of whose edges were smooth or crafted with attention to beauty.
A heavy sword could be seen behind his back, his thick hand cradling the long hilt tightly as he roared.
His dark green skin contorted as he howled continuously and his black beady eyes showed a malicious light, as did those of the troops behind him readying their weapons.
Goblins.
They were goblins.
Unlike the ones Skullius and Red Rage had last faced in the Tremur, these ones were vastly stronger given that they were Cluster beasts and from a high level Cluster at that.
“Wow. The smaller ones are Tier 6 or 7 and that thick one is Tier 8. We have our work cut out for us, Red bro. Not to mention these are just the ones stationed at the wall,” Skullius said as he took slow steps forward.
“I for one am excited, Master. My children get to play some more.”
“Your killing intent was passed down to your beasts then?”
“…In a way.”
BOOOM!
The thick goblin suddenly dropped from the wall and landed on the ground before Skullius and Red Rage.
A massive amount of mana raged from its body, causing a massive storm that grew within an instant and made a grand display as the creature drew it sword and got into a very barbaric stance, its eyes locking onto the one it viewed as the greatest threat.
Skullius.
Red Rage flew up to deal with the others, leaving the two below staring at each other, one more than the other.
The thick goblin sucked in a deep breath, his giant sword ringing loudly as prepared to charge!
He was strong.
Very strong.
Skullius could tell but…
He scoffed.
“Sorry, but I don’t have time to deal with the likes of you,” he said before extending his hand and his index finger forward as he softly called the name of another skill.
A Special skill.
[Undaunted Calamity.