As soon as we saw that we were surrounded on all sides, Dion cursed and hurriedly began chugging as much alcohol as he could.
I quickly looked around, then to the map. 'One, two, six, seven, eight, fifteen, twenty, twe—, curses!'
There were more than thirty ghouls surrounding us, and from what I could see on the map, even more kept coming out from the huts and hurrying towards us.
Celeste began violently scratching her hand in fear, while Evelyn immediately reached out and grabbed her arm, then asked again shakily, "Wh-what, what do we do now?"
I gritted my teeth and was about to give the answer, but Dion immediately answered for me. "What else, we fight our way through and hope that we don't die."
"What?!"
"It's the only way." He immediately reached out his free hand. "Come, Ino."
Instantly, a gust of wind blew around us, and a large wooden spear magically appeared in his hand.
As the clacking laughter of the ghouls grew louder, I quickly raised my hand too. "Come, Aika Soryu."
Smoke immediately poured from beneath my sleeve, cascading to the ground, followed by a flurry of black feathers. Just before the feathers vanished, two swords sprang from my shadow.
Simultaneously, Celeste also quickly reached out and called out, "Come, Lilith."
Red flames formed and danced around her arm before converging on her palm and transforming into a tiny sword no longer than a small kitchen knife.
Evelyn was the only one without a weapon.
Barely a few seconds after we called for our weapons, the ghouls around us began moving.
"I'll try to take care of those in the front. You both take care of the back while we keep pushing north." Dion snapped as he raised his spear to the front where three ghouls had begun lunging at us with terrifying speed, each with their bone sword raised high, and their eerie voices clacking.
However, before the ghouls could reach us…
[The character Dion Athamas has activated the exclusive skill: Lock & Push.]
Instantly, the three ghouls froze mid-lunge. Then, as if an invisible force slammed into them, they were violently shoved back. The trio became a projectile, slamming into the ghouls behind them, dragging them backward. They kept flying, moving so fast that even crashing through the bamboo huts did not stop their retreat.
Dion began advancing forward with Evelyn following close behind.
At the same time, I immediately dropped my wakizashi to the ground and it shimmered into smoke and coalesced into Aika.
"Together, Aika," I said, handing her the katana. She understood and nodded, took the blade, and ran two fingers across its flat.
[Flames of decay]
Instantly, the katana ignited, becoming a sword of burning black flames.
Simultaneously, I raised two fingers of my left hand close to my lips, then raised my right hand up. Then I began expelling every bit of mana that I had into the air.
Instantly, ten large magic circles began to slowly form in the air high above us.
While this was happening, two ghouls lunged in our direction with terrifying speed. Aika immediately crouched on one knee, readying her lunge.
[Activating combat tutorials…]
Then she shot toward one of the ghouls with her sword of flames raised to her side.
Following combat tutorials, upon reaching the ghoul, she fluidly ducked beneath its horizontal slash, simultaneously carving a burning arc across its side as she moved past.
The creature shrieked and reached for its side as the spreading black flames instantly engulfed its entire body.
The second ghoul immediately redirected its lunge toward Aika, aiming to strike before she recovered her balance.
However, before it could reach her, I shifted the two fingers held near my lips and aimed them at the ghoul. A black magic circle flashed into existence, and a ball of flame blasted out, enveloping the ghoul's head and causing it to seize up mid-lunge and struggle.
…And before long, both creatures collapsed.
[EXP: +200]
[EXP: +200]
But things were just getting started because almost immediately, more than fifteen ghouls surged toward us.
Without slowing, and guided by combat tutorials, Aika shot toward the nearest ghoul. Since our level was too low to deflect their blows, she relied entirely on the duck-and-slash tactic. As long as she could leave even a tiny wound, the Flames of Decay would consume the creature.
Moments after her lunge, she had already killed another ghoul, then quickly redirected her momentum toward the next.
Meanwhile, I looked up to the ten magic circles that had finished forming high up in the air. Then my gaze flicked to the battlefield and I immediately snapped my raised right arm downward, yelling: "Descend, flames of decay."
Instantly, projectiles of black flames rained down from the ten magic circles above, like a flood of deadly black spears. Before the ghouls lunging at us could know what hit them, nine of them were already engulfed by the descending flames, causing them to halt and shriek as their bodies slowly began to decay in the eerie chill of the flames. Only one had managed to dodge the flames. The flames that missed hit the bone-strewn floor, instantly incinerating the surrounding skeletons and turning them to green dust.
Before the ghoul that had dodged the flames could resume its lunge, Aika's sword of black flames ran through its back, bursting out of its chest.
I immediately swayed and staggered as that rain of flames had drained me entirely of my mana. It was no surprise to me, after all, I did have a really small mana core.
Fortunately, I was prepared for this. And so, I immediately reached to the side where my inventory opened up and I took out a mana elixir and immediately chugged it down.
I could feel my mana slowly replenishing and in just a few seconds, I was back to a full core.
Lifting my gaze back to the battlefield, I saw Aika raise the katana high, and the already intense flames around the blade swelled. She brought the sword down in a sweep, and a wave of fire roared out, instantly engulfing two charging ghouls.
But right at that moment, my eyes caught a different ghoul: a blur of terrifying speed aiming to strike her from behind.
It had almost connected when I immediately yelled, "Aika! Behind you!"