Underground Prison (2)

"Destruction Ball!" The female umbral human shot out a dark red ball, filled with cursed energy, at Acedia.

Acedia, who was busy with keeping the other umbral human off her neck, sensed that attack and used blink to dodge.

"You annoying little brats..." The corners of her mouth twitched slightly as she narrowed her eyes, reassessing the combat capabilities of her enemies.

Individually, they weren't strong at all. She guessed that she could take them out in a single hit if she had the chance.

Yet, she couldn't.

The combination of both of them together was just way too annoying for her to do anything, as they didn't even give her a chance to cast a single higher-tier spell.

Although a magician usually had more destructive force than a normal fighter, in a situation where a magician is cornered, they had it way harder than one.

The reason for that is the casting time that is required for magic spells.

However, that wasn't the reason why Acedia struggled. Even amongst the magicians, she was one of the best.

The reason for her struggle is the lack of information that she possessed.

'The speed and strength of the fighter are mediocre at best and the magician is around the 7th tier.' Clicking her tongue, her eyes trailed onto the thing that made her struggle so much.

It was the cursed energy that they used.

As Acedia didn't know what exactly the effects of their cursed energy were, she had to be wary of getting hit, as a single hit could seal her fate if the magic was lethal enough.

And unfortunately for her, dark magic was one of the most lethal types of magic.

Acedia stepped forward, casting a spell in her left hand as she accelerated.

The two umbral humans readied themselves to attack, stopping her from casting any spell.

However, Acedia was faster, immediately firing off a barrage of water bullets, stopping those two umbral humans from advancing.

While the magician used a manashield to block off those attacks, the swordsman was forced to try to deflect every single one of the bullets, which was, due to their sheer number and speed, almost impossible.

As a result, the first drops of blood were shed in that battle.

Luckily for him, water bullets weren't very strong, which was the reason why it only hurt for a short while.

The blunt force of those bullets wasn't enough to actually break anything, making them essentially useless in high-tier fights.

At least, that was what most people thought.

Dealing damage with that spell wasn't Acedia's initial goal.

Water gun was a barrage-type spell that could stall time for quite a while ― at least enough time for what she had prepared.

As the barrage of the water bullets stopped, both of the umbral humans let down their guard, watching the Acedia, who was now only multiple meters in front of them.

Seeing that chance, they didn't want to waste their opportunity, immediately rushing forward to finish her off.

"What a shame," Acedia whispered in an icy voice as she smiled at her incoming attackers, raising her right arm. "You should better dodge."

Around the palm of her hand, the surrounding mana distorted, before sucking itself in a spiraling motion, compressing into a tiny drop of water.

"The drop."

The water drop shot off. slowly flying against the rushing enemies.

"Is this the extent of your power?!" The swordsman couldn't contain his laughter as he saw the single drop of water slowly floating towards him.

He could've dodged it with ease but just chose not to, as he didn't see it as a threat.

It would hurt his pride if he actually tried to dodge a single water drop.

Tilting her head to the side, Acedia formed a wide, sinister grin. "Idiot."

As the drop touched the tip of the nose of the swordsman, it just splashed around...

He smirked, thinking that the useless spell Acedia used was the best she could do.

However, right after it splashed into different droplets of water, it sucked itself in again in a spiraling form, before imploding, erupting into a massive water wave,

The pressure of the water crushed the walls of the prison and ripped apart the bodies of the umbral humans like they were nothing more than mere sticks.

The dark blue blood of the umbral human spread around, coloring the water in a dark color, before the water disappeared, sucking itself into nothingness.

The only one who was left amidst the chaotic destruction was Acedia, who massaged her forehead. "Why do they never dodge? I'm even kind enough to tell them to."

As the prison walls were completely crushed, it was easy to find the exit, even through the labyrinth.

It took her only a few minutes to locate the exit to the upper floor and immediately she took the chance.

As she arrived on the upper floor, a bunch of unfriendly faces instantly greeted her looking at her with angry expressions.

"You've got to be kidding me." Acedia groaned as she watched the group of Umbral humans ready their weapons and go into their stance.

"Well..here goes nothing, I guess?"

***

***

I slowed down when I entered the monster area, already sensing the presence of a few of those beasts nearby.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like they had already noticed me.

Because if they did, they would have already started chasing me.

Turning my head to the presence of those monsters, I could see glimpses of a fight, as a giant gigantos grabbed a hunter and threw him against a wall.

Right after he killed that one hunter, a depth knight climbed on the top of his body with a giant great sword in his hand.

Reaching the shoulder of the gigantos, the depth knight used his black greatsword to decapitate him with a single hit.

The head of the gigantos was sliced off cleanly and fell to the ground with a thump.

Ever since we entered this ruin, it seemed weird to me that the monsters in this kingdom never tried to attack the people here.

However, seeing it now, it all made sense.

In my experience, lost ruins were usually inhabited by a specific type or group of monsters, who all used that place as a sort of base.

Due to that reason, they all harmonized and rarely fought with each other.

But if we consider the number of people who live in this kingdom, it is quite logical that the smell of all those people attracted other monster groups and types of monsters to this place, which resulted in fighting against each other for the large quantity of prey.

I cracked a sinister smile as the gears started to turn in my head.

This would be easier than expected.

No matter how much they fought with each other, if prey appears before them, they all would all focus their attention on the prey.

Which, in turn, meant that the only thing I had to do was to appear before their nose and lure them to the cultists.

The monsters would then shift their attention to the cultists and thus give me an opening to just dash to the tower without any difficulties or effort.

"It's settled then."

And with these words, I set my plan into motion.