Battle of Sandork

*COUGH!*

*COUGH!*

Zamira coughed as smoke came from inside that cave, the wails of despair coming from inside told her that Constantine's plans had succeeded, she was awed... initially she understood nothing about his plans, it was all so vague.

**

**

"W-What is this thing?" She asked while laying on the ground together with Constantine, careful to not be detected.

He was using his magic to create something, it was like a piece of silver rock that resembled the blood of sandork, but it was lightless, missing the might of the primal mineral.

"This is a stone called quartz... look."

Using his light magic he made a small wisp of light inside the quartz mineral and Zamira's eyes widened.

That looked exactly like a Blood of Sandork!

"Quickly cover it." He said and she used some of her rags to cover the stone.

He then took two bomb arrays of his own and planted them in the soil, making sure to cover them properly.

"H-How did you make it shine? is it fire magic?" She asked, not completely assured of the understanding of his magic, as far as she knows he has fire and wind magic, but that doesn't look like fire, it is just light...

"Yes, it is." He lied, light magic is supposed to be used only by elves according to Aurelianne, he couldn't tell her that yet.

After regarding the stone for a while, he decided to do something extra just in case, with his root magic, he created several roots from the ground up to hold the stone in place, this she couldn't see.

"That should keep them in this area." He said.

"Could you explain what you're doing?" She requested; believing she'd be more efficient in this plan if she actually knew what he is doing and how is he doing it.

"There is no time to explain, follow orders... once the operation is finished, I'll explain... those ogres don't pay attention to this entrance which is supposed to be the connection to the 'wild tooth ants'... I suspect it is something related to that abyss and I won't stay here to prove it." He said and crawled back to the group, she followed.

"I need you to pay attention to my every movement, Zamira, you're my right hand as of now" He took out two of those weird red balls which contained magic and presented it to her.

She nodded with some apprehension and accepted it, although she knew how to fight, she didn't know how to follow orders and fight in an organized manner.

"I'm going to go out there and plant some bombs, take this... they're bombs, when you see me making you signals, take the cover out of the stalactite and retreat back here." The rest of the group approached and listened to his orders.

Most of them were clueless but he simply smiled and waved his hands.

"Don't worry, your part in this is simple, wait for the explosion... the path will most likely be blocked due to the fallen rocks, use the bombs to clear inwards, there might be some ogres still remaining, that's when you come in, kill whoever is left!"

"What if it goes wrong?"

"Well, if it goes wrong, in the worst-case scenario, the stones will be too strong for my bombs, in which case we will have a difficult battle ahead of us as the bombs I planted beneath shouldn't kill more than two or three ogres, meaning we'd have to kill the rest on our own."

"We will be ready!" Andre said with an enthusiastic smile, he wanted to see what the outcome of his plans would be.

"Hmn, then I will be going, you can all remain here. Zamira! come, it's beginning!"

"Yes!"

**

**

Everything had gone exactly how he expected it to go, to the point she felt frightened.

The group stood in front of the dusty entrance that was blocked by rocks, it wasn't a dense layer, and the light on the other side could be seen from the cracks.

She simply placed the two bombs she obtained in front of it.

*BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM--

*BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM--

The two bombs exploded and cleared a small path big enough for them to pass.

"MORE EXPLOSIONS!"

On the other side, they heard the voice of the leader, Samson, together with several grunting ogres.

They readied their weapons and Zamira signalled for them to charge!

"WWOOOOO!!" The war cry was released and although it didn't go along with Constantine's wishes, at least it served him to know that the operation was coming to an end, his gaze set on the biggest ogre in the room and he prepared to fight.

Phasing through the small gap they encountered a scenery of terror, perhaps the number of rocks that came loose due to Constantine's explosion was more than he expected, but at least a quarter of the ogres' camp had been destroyed by the fallen rocks, only three ogres remained.

Samson was staggering as apparently, a heavy rock fell on his head while the other two were heavily injured...

Three out of eight, five had perished with their corpses lying beneath the merciless rocks.

The moment Samson saw a group of humans coming out of the crevice, he knew everything had been stagged!

"KILL THEM!"

He rushed back to the camp to get his weapon but at that moment something fell on top of him, Constantine jumped and glided using his wind magic until his spear was straight on Samson's back!

*PUCHI!!!*

"I WILL TAKE CARE OF THE LEADER, YOU GET THE OTHER TWO!" The conqueror yelled his orders and plunged his customized lance as deep as possible into the ogres' flesh!

"WOOAAHHH!!"

The ogre was strong, of that, there was no doubt, but Constantine refused to let go of his weapon, the moment that happened, he'd be dead.

[Your magic is quite low, act with caution... this is the best moment for Heaven's punishment to take action, remember!]

[1st Ether Magic Core (Wind): 12%]

[2nd Ether Magic Core (Wind): 20%]

[3rd Ether Magic Core (Earth): 8%]

[4th Ether Magic Core (Wind): 12%]

Constantine frowned while looking at those stats, he decided to focus on using a single core to allow the others to restore themselves, since the 2nd core was the one with the most mana, he used that one.

Eventually, his spear was released from the ogres' back as he stumbled toward one of the tents but regained his balance midway.

"DISGRACEFUL HUMAN!" Samson took his halberd and regarded the bastard that caused this disaster, a little girl that looked more like a manwhore than a warrior.

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE, GIRL!" Samson prepared to charge toward the 'girl' that stopped with a gaze filled with disbelief.

"... excuse me?" Constantine thought he heard wrong.

[Hahahaha! He thinks you're a girl! THERE YOU GO HAPPYGIRL!] The Valkyrie wasted no time to release her poison like the vixen she is, not that he cared, already used to the tongue he'd eventually discipline.

If before he wanted to kill Samson, now the two couldn't live in the same cave.

*CLAANGG!!!*

!!!

The impact of his spear and the ogre's halberd had him know that he wasn't the ogres' opponent in the physical department.

*WHOOSH!!*

Using the magic of his second core to the limit, he focused on the fire, expecting to see a small gust of flames heading in the ogres' way.

Instead, it was a moderately sized barrage of flames that caught the ogre by surprise.

In the distance, the group was fighting the other injured ogres, it wasn't a difficult fight for them, they were competent, that much he could tell.

"So you're a magus, peak of the nascent magus going by that spell just now..." Samson regarded the 'girl' with cautiousness, the human had a mantle covering his head and a set of clothes and robes that made him look more like some sort of shaman than anything else.

"..." Constantine didn't say anything, he just became a Nascent Magus, but his opponent didn't need to know that.

Aware that physical damage would be useless against this monster, he could only hope to tank whatever he had until his cores replenished.

But there were several ways in which he could face this ogre until then.

*BAAANGG!!*

The ogre's stamina was running away due to his injuries, but he never stopped his attacks, the fact that this little shit destroyed years of work in a single second scorched his sickening bones.

For several minutes the fight continued in which Constantine merely evaded all of his attacks with an analysing gaze, only sometimes did he encounter obliged to strike back and in such exchanges, he always lost due to the difference in strength, but never enough to show an opening to the ogre.

*BAANG!!*

"DO YOU ONLY KNOW HOW TO RUN!?"

Samson whose stamina was starting to reach the brink, felt irritated, especially when his partners were far away, only one remained to receive a merciless beating from the four humans until he perished.

"No..." Valentine said calmly, smirking even.

The ogre slashed forward once again, but at that moment, he felt how his leg slipped on 'mud'... and he lost his balance.

!!!

'W-What just happened?'

*BAANGG!!*

His body fell heavily due to the momentum, enough for Constantine to approach casually and plunge his four-stings spear into the ogres' head with all his strength as if he already knew where he was going to strike, where he was going to step, where he was going to fall.

"You repeat the same movement too much, monster... who is the girl now?" He smirked evilly, making sure to extract the bloodied spear and plunge it back enough times until he was sure that the demon had died.

[...] Zebellia couldn't say anything.

And the humans who regarded him plunging his spear in a corpse multiple times... certainly couldn't either.