Chapter 24 - Heated Battle
Felix is not an arrogant person, at least he doesn’t think so. He felt he was justified. If he has the strength to back it up is it really conceit?
You could say he only respects the strong. But that would also be incorrect since he believes he will eventually reach those heights. He might even reach higher! So although he would act polite he also wouldn’t lower himself.
His father the count always told him he was too full of himself. He was sent out of the house as punishment. His mother who always dotes on him tried to persuade his father but it was to no avail.
Though reluctant, Felix had to leave the house and experience the real world. His father hoped that by becoming an adventurer he would realize that there are things outside of his control. That arrogance can be lethal.
Unfortunately Felix never experienced failure, he was praised by party members and wanted by organizations. Who is to say he isn’t justified?
That was until now at least, he realized he had been too relaxed. There were signs of danger, he just chose to ignore them. There were reports, yet he still shrunk down his team!
Was he not at fault? Wasn’t he too full of himself? He felt like he could and would survive the ordeal so maybe he was still justified, maybe they were just too weak!
But he knew that couldn’t be true. He was the leader. His job was to not only ensure the completion of the mission but to ensure the safety of his party members. He made a mistake! He failed!
Felix couldn’t deny it. But he could try to make up for it.
His situation wasn’t precarious, he felt confident! But he had just learned that being overconfident was a mistake.
As if to prove that point he realized something was wrong. The buff that the magician cast wore off and never replenished. That could only mean one of two things, he is preoccupied, or he died.
“HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL DOING?!?” Even though he sounded angry he was extremely concerned.
‘I was too full of myself’ His expression turned ugly.
He would need to get serious, but the problem was that he didn’t know if his allies were still alive. If they were still alive and he stopped his spiraling flames controlling the crowd they would die then. For the first time in his career he felt he was inexperienced, he did not know what to do!
‘Screw it!’ He did something reckless at that moment.
The flames that were initially simply spinning around him acting as a wall between him and the skeleton grew fierce and flew forward in bursts. The skeletons that had surrounded Felix were charred and swiftly finished by his blade. The bursts of flames allowed him to gain a few seconds to breathe and analyze the situation.
‘F*ck!’ He saw it. He saw his teammates laying limp on the ground.
He felt a turmoil of emotions but before he could even consider mourning them he would need to eliminate his enemies. The burst of flames had long since stopped and instead Felix’s sword was coated by bright orange flames. He trusted his armor and his skills and began his massacre. He moved swiftly through the crowd cutting off limbs and decapitating enemies. The only thing the skeletons could see was an orange light weaving itself through the crowd decimating them.
Felix saw a skeleton donning a black robe attempting to throw a punch at him in the corner of his eyes. He easily dodged the attack and swung his blade towards the neck of the defenseless skeleton. To his surprise, it met resistance!
Eyes widened, Felix quickly pulled back his blade before letting out another short burst of flames. The power behind it was much weaker so it simply stunned the surrounding enemies. Still that was more than enough for him to step back.
But what he didn’t expect was the searing pain that he felt on his back as he retreated. A green acid-like substance was corroding his armor and burning his back. He quickly realized what was going on as a black vial approached him from beside. He tried to burn it to a crisp using the flame on his sword.
The black substance quickly evaporated but permeated through the air creating a cloud of poisonous gas. Felix inadvertently breathed in the poisonous substance putting his lungs felt a sharp pain after he breathed it in.
The unique-looking skeleton had long since caught up to him and deliver a punch at Felix’s face which contorted with pain. The sudden punch brought him back to reality allowing him to attempt another swift retreat.
He dodged a variety of different vials that flew by him as he retreated towards the wall. He had unintentionally cornered himself. But even though he felt pain all over his body, Felix still wasn’t planning on giving in. Felix squeezed out all of the mana in his body to do one final move, the orange flame that covered his blade grew in size and shone a bright yellow. He released a sweeping slash that attacked all of the enemies in front of him simultaneously.
All of the surrounding skeletons were mercilessly blown back and destroyed. The only survivor was the unique skeleton who now had a giant gash across its black robe, the cut revealed its charred body.
Seeing that the enemy didn’t die like the others made Felix’s face look grim. He mustered all the strength in his body and then…!
He ran. He ran towards the merging corridors while the irregular skeleton was stunned. He ignored the pain on his back, the pain in his organs, and ran.
“F*CK!!!” Felix cursed out loud as he ran through the random corridor. His face contorted in pain, anger, and humiliation.
His corroded clothing, his burnt hair from overexerting himself, the damn poison! It all reminded him of his failure and it all weighed on him heavily as he ran.
“I will be back you sh*tty dungeon!” He continued to run towards the exit in silence.
***
Ed who had just receive a lethal move was wincing in pain. Before he could recollect himself his opponent had already run.
‘That was way too powerful!’ The image of the glaring yellow light mercilessly cutting down all of the remaining skeletons was still playing vividly inside his head.
Knowing that he did all he could, Ed plopped down onto the ground. A system warning sounded inside his head at that moment. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
[Warning, one out of four enemies remain]
But Ed couldn’t really care about it. He looked down at his new battle scars, the black gash across his body contrasted greatly with his pristine white bones.
‘That was not fun’ He was looking around the battlefield where skeletal limbs lay everywhere.
[Reward will be confiscated if the trespasser leaves the dungeon]
The dungeon really wanted the escapist dead but Ed still ignored the message. If he didn’t need to face a penalty he didn’t really care. His other skills were already good enough and the dungeon only gave him what he needed whenever it pleased, his assimilation skill alone was good enough for him. He wasn’t keen on taking more lives.
‘Status!’
[Name: Ed$#&!]
Type: Skeleton
Health: 357/600
Strength: 2
Agility: 1
Constitution: 5
Dexterity: 2
Mana: 8
~Skills:~
[Adept Throwing lvl. 4] -Show info-
[Swordsmanship lvl. -1] -Show info-
[Hoarding lvl. 6] -Show info-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Transmission Lvl. 1] -Show info-
[Minor Explosion Resistance lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Deduction lvl. 7] -Show info-
[Assimilation lvl. 2] -Show info-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Language lvl. 1]
Proficient at two or more languages.
~Achievements~
[First Kill] -Show info-
His health had been halved in a short period of time, his opponent’s flames were not to be trifled with.
‘I guess I can read a book now’ Ed was mentally exhausted but his mental fortitude was pulling through.
He started to read the introduction but then quickly put the book aside. All of the magic terminology and the complicated theory would only exhaust him more.
‘It’s like learning science all over again’ Ed opted to lay sprawled out on the ground until his mind was sufficiently recovered.