Battle against the undead

*BOOM*

[Fireballs], [Arclight Ray], [Frost Spike], [Earth Blast] …

A multitude of spells were being cast every few seconds, with the goal protecting the party or killing a few undead each time. However, rank 2 Poison Ghouls were not beings that could simply be killed with a single spell that dealt less than 30 degrees of damage.

Only a minute passed since the undead skeletons began pouring into the research room, yet already 3 acolytes lost their lives, and 13 beastmen were on the brink of death. Fortunately, the beastmen's armours and attributes allowed them to take on a certain number of rank 1 skeleton warriors without necessarily suffering major injuries.

Compared to magical beings, undead were much weaker. However, they were very numerous, and often possessed mastery over a certain type of weapons, most likely what they retained from their past lives. This allowed beastman peak knights to fight on an equal footing with two or even three rank 1 skeleton warriors, thanks to their superior gears and skills.

Marianne noticed a [Strengthened Ghoul], which was about to wipe the expedition party. However, Marianne belonged to the Magus Family Deville, and her grandfather was one of the strongest Magus of the Magical Court. She had a trump card:

[Thunderbolt], a powerful enhanced rank 3 spell that dealt 68 points of damage, a force that could threaten a newly advanced Magus who was careless. The strengthened ghoul was unbelievably strong, but it was very weak to the thunder element, just like fire elementals were weak to water spells. Upon contact, it was reduced to a pile of ash.

Jane was taken aback, but retained her calm at this unexpected trial of death.

She then cast [Thunder Enhancement] on the beastmen, which provided a small buff of thunder damage whenever their flail hit the skeleton warriors. It wasn't a huge buff, but it still provided 4 to 5 degrees of thunder-elemental damage to their attacks. As it was cast on more than twenty soldiers, the effects were huge.

If before, the beastmen peak knights were capable of repelling the endless waves of skeleton warriors, they were now crushing them. However, Jane was currently defenceless, and the burden on her mana pool seemed to be quite heavy, as she had to consume a mana potion to replenish it every few dozen seconds.

Drake was quite shocked. Each mana potion cost over twenty magic crystals, yet all the thunder tower faction acolytes seemed to have prepared a dozen of them.

'You can never underestimate a big faction's reserves…', Drake thought as he noted down this information.

Marianne then looked at Drake, and ordered: "Drake, use your subordinates as meat shields if you have to, but protect Jane while she cast the spells. I heard you have managed to hunt a rank 2 magical beast, so even if poison ghouls attack your group, you should be able to take care of them!"

Before she could say anything, Drake grumbled. It was obviously one of the safest role he could have been assigned to, most likely because Marianne wanted him to stay alive, but Drake didn't know how to feel when he saw dozens of skeleton warriors heading towards Jane.

Ever since she began casting her zone buffing spell, the skeletons seemed to have made her a target.

Fortunately, the beastman formation was rarely breached.

Drake signalled his team to move and proceed to a turtle formation surrounding Jane and the crossbowmen. Meanwhile, Rey and the other knights with enchanted shields started to tank the blows of the enemies, while the 5 peak knights wielding great swords attacked them.

Every time a rank 2 poison ghoul appeared, Rey would switch his Grand Roman Enchanted shield for his great sword and cleave it. He might not be an acolyte, but his fighting prowess was on par with the beastman's commander, if not superior. He was a proper half-grand knight.

However, these ghouls were not weaklings either:

[Name: Poison Ghoul

Rank: Rank 2 Undead Being

Status: Weakened (Originally a rank 3 undead being)

Attributes:

Strength – 6.9 | Dexterity – 2.4 | Constitution – 5.6 |

Spirit – 10.9 | Mana – 10.9 / 10.9

Perk: Bound to the laboratory

Skills: Poisonous Bite (If the target's blood system is successfully corrupted, deal [Spirit] degrees of damage every few seconds unless an appropriate antidote is taken, or the poison taken out of the blood system)]

[Name: Earth Ghouls

Rank: Rank 2 Undead Being

Status: Weakened (Originally a rank 3 undead being)

Attributes:

Strength – 7.2 | Dexterity – 2.8 | Constitution – 6.5 |

Spirit – 11.2 | Mana – 11.2 / 11.2

Perk: Bound to the laboratory

Skills: Boulder Smash (Rank 2 spell), Earth Aura (Defensive Rank 2 Spell)]

Drake supported his team, taking care of the weakened sides, using his vastly superior agility to destroy the strongest and most dangerous foes, mostly Earth Ghouls who were too tough to be taken care by mere peak knights. The turtle formation and the months of hunting together allowed the Fifteen Dragon Wings to enhance their strengths and make up for their weaknesses through coordination and incredible teamwork.

The acolytes who were daring enough to take a look to Jane's well-being could only gasp in shock upon seeing such efficiency upon dealing with the undead. Even rank 2 ghouls were being destroyed in a matter of seconds.

As for the rank 3 ghouls, Marianne made sure to fight them. After killing two more rank 3 strengthened ghouls with her thunderbolt spells, the remaining three rank 3 ghouls closed the distance with her. Obviously, they had deemed her ability to fight in close combat to be non-existent. It was their mistake.

Marianne unsheathed her magical dagger, and proficiently stabbed it into their bodies. She didn't have high agility or anything, but the magical dagger allowed her to momentarily boost her attributes to half-grand-knight level, in addition to burn her opponents with an abyssal fire.

Once they were stabbed, the ghouls screamed in agony. The fire burned them without showing any signs of stopping. [Endless fire]. This was the magical dagger's effect. As long as the victim was alive, an endless fire would burn the wounds.

Eventually, as the number of stabs increased, they were reduced to charred corpses.

"Shadow Crossbowmen, shoot the rank 2 ghoul at 6 o'clock"

Drake didn't fail to notice that the battle was looking in their favour. The skeleton warriors were being destroyed, and the rank 3 creatures had been dealt with by Marianne. Drake smiled, while secretly taking advantage of the fact that everyone was focused on the enemies to put a few Grade 2 magical cores from the rank 2 ghoul corpses in his pouch, while continuing to cut through the undead.

'What a bountiful harvest…'

*SPLASH*

The more Drake observed the rank 1 acolytes, the more surprised he was becoming. Unlike an army of knights who were homogenous and practiced the same set of sword art, the acolytes were incredibly diversified. Drake knew about acolytes' versality, but seeing it first hand was something else entirely.

Golems, arrays, scrolls, parchments…The acolytes were using their trump cards one after the other, sometimes managing to save their lives, sometimes their trump card being insufficient.

Drake saw many ranks 1 acolytes deal with rank 2 Earth Ghouls by using their trump cards, a very surprising fact. It was quite unbelievable.

[Fireball Spell Parchment – Grade 2 Consumable]

The most common trump cards the acolytes used were parchment, on which were inscribed a spell matrix. You didn't have to know the spell in order to use a parchment: only mana was required. This had tremendous potential. By using the parchment, an acolyte who had no knowledge of the fireball spell for instance, could cast it with a strength exceeding his realm.

Drake had encountered this kind of treasures more than once on the market, since it was one of the key items of the [Arcane Faction] backed by Magus Kayle, Magus Mayrose, Magus Tunnel, Magus Heister and Supreme Magus Helios.

As for the golems, Drake spotted at least 5 of them.

[Iron Golem – Grade 2 Magical Construct

Attributes:

Strength – 8.0 | Dexterity – 1.2 | Constitution – 10.0

Perk: Made of Iron (Invincible unless the golem core is destroyed, high defence), Regeneration (Damage can be healed by supplying mana)

Skills: Smash, Punch, Charge]

It was truly impressive, and every few seconds, dozens of skeleton warriors would fall, alongside a ghoul. The Alm Battle had once made him realize that he wasn't invincible. This undead battle made him realize that no matter how 'weak' an acolyte was, he could unleash terrifying destructiveness. The rank 1 acolytes' trump cards really picked his interest, but even more so, Marianne's own strength frightened Drake.

After one hour of constant battle, the laboratory became calm again.

Out of the 20 rank 1 acolytes, only 6 survived. Out of the 50 beastmen who joined the expedition, only 12 survived, and all of them seemed to have been poisoned with a lethal poison. Considering their constitution, their odds of survival were close to 10%.

As for Drake's faction and the 4 disciples of Magus Jackal, it seemed like they had survived no casualty at all.

There was a deep silence.

Marianne Deville was on the ground, gasping for air as she was suffering from the backlash of using her magical dagger. Jane passed out after overusing mana, while the Arthur and Jack were pouring their wounds with healing potions as they groaned in pain. The six acolytes who survived were naturally above-average: an old man could control two iron golems at once, the other had a surprisingly mind-blowing mastery of an illusion spell that created mirages, while the four others had used several extraordinary spell parchments and strong elemental spells to survive.

Obviously, every single acolyte who survived this battle had survived because of their own strength. Luck wasn't enough in this battle.

However, as the expedition party thought that it was over, the sound of a skeleton marching sent chill to everyone.

"Hohoho…Ants waking me up from my sleep and destroying my creations! How disrespectful!"

It was the skeleton belonging to the deceased magus lying on the chair. It waved its hands, and a terrifying volley of arrows suddenly rushed towards every single human and beastman being in the room.

*SPLASH*

A [Rank 3 Lich] had entered the place.

Turns out the undead ghouls and skeletons were not mutant undead who somehow awakened their own souls. Since the beginning of the battle, the lich was controlling its underlings and forced the acolytes to use their trump cards! Now that everyone seemed to have entered a state of weakness, it appeared and planned on supressing this threat.