164 Little Swarm 2
The semi-circle of dihexapedes surrounding them all paused for a moment as they were weakened.
*BOOOmmm!~~tat tat tat*
“You shouldn’t rest in battle.” Jay smiled after sending an explosive tooth.
The explosion rang out and for a moment as the mist dispersed around it, temporarily making it easier to see.
A gaping crater was formed in another dihexapede’s flesh and unfortunately for the poor creature, a bone arm was soon sticking into the deep wound, tearing up its insides.
[65 Exp]
The other dihexapede’s seemed to slow down a little after the second one died, it was like they had lost their vigour – though both Jay and Anya knew it was because the less of them there were, the weaker they became.
While not possessing much intelligence, the creatures slowly made their way around the front line and began attacking at the sides.
Despite being level three, there were still about 20 of them and they still had the numbers to overrun their enemies.
“Ah, Jay?” Anya looked a little worried.
“I know,” Jay leisurely nodded as he sent some more exploding teeth into each side.
[Your skeleton has been slain]
[Your feeble creature has been slain]
“Dammit… bad time to die guys.” Jay thought as he watched them crumble.
He brought them back as quickly as they went down; glad he invested in his mana pool.
“Only one more…” he thought as he went back to fighting.
*Shring!~ BOOOOM!*
A sword slash was followed by a quick tooth spell, bringing another dihexapede down to the ground as a skeleton hand pierce into its body.
It could only screech with its last breath as its insides were pulled out.
[65 Exp]
“Jay, help!” Anya yelled as two dihexapedes had made it to her, about to slash her to pieces.
Jay only looked back at her with a smile – the third dihexapede has just died as she yelled out.
“Huh?!” Anya was about to use her prostrate ability, but then the enemies froze in front of her – no attack came.
Along with them, the dihexapedes suddenly all froze and screeched before returning back to the mist and hiding once more.
Anya was still looking confused as Jay was still looking at her with a cheeky grin.
“Care to explain?” Anya said while rubbing a finger between her eyebrows.
“Well, you only need to kill three of them and they retreat. Killing two seems to weaken them, then a third makes them give up.” Jay raised his chin with a slight smile.
“Oh… so you figured it out. I guess I was too focused on the battle to realise.” Anya said as she reloaded her crossbow.
“Heh, yeah. Anyway, let’s keep moving” Jay said as he added the bone pile back to his ring, along with any fallen skeletons.
Slowly but surely, Jay was changing. He was beginning to see the broader picture of battles rather than the one versus one fights.
With his skeletons fighting for him, he could practice tactics and strategy while being able to analyse the battle freely with a calm mind.
It was a simple skill to have, but for a normal adventurer it would take years to get a feel for it. Many wouldn’t even learn such a skill unless they found themselves in a leadership position, instead just following orders and focusing on their fighting skills.
“Let’s keep moving. Hopefully the next tower isn’t too far” Jay pointed into the mist.
Once again, the party began running through the mist.
“Do you hear that?” Jay pointed up as they stopped running and listened for a moment. Instead of the odd background screech in the distance, there were new sounds – hearing thudding, crunching and clashing sounds.
“Yeah…” Anya narrowed her eyes, gazing into the mist. “It’s coming from up ahead.”
“Mmm… let’s stop running.”
Jay began walking again as Anya followed. They didn’t want to run right into the middle of an intense battle in the thick mist.
They could both hear some battle sounds mixed in with a sea of screeching.
After fighting the dihexapedes all this time, they could now recognise the difference between their normal screeches and the ones they did when they were in pain – and these were definitely the latter.
As they got closer to the battle, the thick mist began to clear and they could see the majestic fourth pyramid standing in all its glory, silently standing under the overcast sky.
The mist behind them formed a wall, it was like a barrier was holding it back.
Jay and his party stood at the very edge of the mist – ready to retreat back into it at the sign of trouble.
As they looked around they found where all the noisy racket was coming from.
In front of the pyramid, piles of corpses were littered around, stacking up and forming a small mound of flesh in front of a line of spearman statues.
Each of their shields had a few scratches on them but it was nothing compared to the damage they dealt to the dihexapedes.
Each of their dihexapedes lives were snuffed out proficiently while their bodies collapsed pathetically in an ever-growing pool of black blood and organs.
The line of spearmen formed a phalanx which stood at the top of a small ramp. They were aligned between two pillars which connected to the pyramid with large walls – the only way into the pyramid would be through them.
In the pyramid behind them, strangely, was a small human-sized entrance. None of the statues could possibly hope to fit through it.
The most intriguing part was the units backing up the spearman statues.
Behind the phalanx of spearmen were some floating statues. Each of them had no lower torso or weapon – instead they had some large gauntlets which ended in long claws.
“Huh… just like the giants at the third pyramid.” Jay thought as he recalled the huge statues at the entrance to the third pyramid. It seemed that these weren’t just for show – each of them were launching spells from their gauntlets.
“But how are they using magic… aren’t they magic immune?” Jay raised a brow as he gazed at them.
Each of their gauntlets were periodically charging a purple spindle-shaped spell which was sent off into the swarm of dihexapedes. The spell seemed to have no effect though, as the dihexapedes were similarly immune to non-physical magic.
Jay thought it was quite foolish of them to keep casting ineffective spells, but he guessed that the statues were simply too old, relying on their instincts as they kept launching endless, useless spells. Their minds had left them.
**Bonus chapter 1/5***