"Contact," Horus announced, voice filling the dark tunnel only illuminated by the red glow of their flares.
John, Wally, and June all turned back to him, so Horus added,
"Ten enemies. No scouts I think; they have a particular life sign. They are all congregated at our escape point as guards."
The Firespitters kept guards at specific points, protecting any tunnels that led to a storage space, breeding ground, or to the fourth floor.
June rubbed her hands together, excitedly glancing between her brother and Horus. "So what's the master plan? Bait and switch, academy manoeuvre nonsense, Fort Thunder special?"
Wally rolled his eyes. "We're going to jump out and kill them all."
"John, take that cloak of yours and make sure no enemies leave to alert others," Horus suggested.
"Aside from that, yeah. We just jump out and kill them."
◇◇◇
The cavern room was still. No vibrations, no voices, no footsteps. Just ten metallic beasts the size of dogs frozen to the spot.
Firespitters were war machines. They didn't feel pain, hunger, or fear. Just the desire to follow orders and attack anything that moves.
Horus could trace John moving in place behind the monsters. He wasn't looking, still standing ten meters away from the cavern in the tunnel. But with Life sense he could see the world in a black and white, grainy image.
Once John was in place, he signalled to Wally and June behind her. Then he jumped out of the tunnel, racing across the uneven black stone with speed that made his body blur.
His sword bloomed with blue and purple radiance, revealing the entire cavern. The monsters glinted with the light and the holes in their bodies immediately ignited with white fire.
A spider web of flames came down on him, Horus leapt off the ground and phased his body through the attack as it carved molten lines in the ground.
Once the fires faded, Wally and June popped out.
June strummed her Gittern, intently waiting for the signal to stun the Firespitters. Wally got in front of Horus, taking the charges of the Firespitters. Their heavy metal bodies slammed against his shield with bone-rattling force.
But the white glow of his shield skill absorbed the force of the attacks, and Horus swept out from behind the Paladin, sword flashing as he sliced through the monsters.
He made deep slashes without any fear of his sword getting stuck in his enemies' bodies. June had given him an interesting perspective on using [Fading].
His sword dug deep into the monster's body, digging into its core with a flash of sparks. Then he phased it out of the monster's body, smoothly transitioning into another slash.
This was the first form taught to the young children. Luna form. It was meant to flow between ten slashes that flowed through one another, whether blocked or dodged. The mana flow attached to this technique had never made sense to him.
At least until June mentioned phasing his sword out of a monster's body if it got stuck. Luna forms channel mana to your sword only after the slash ends or in between. This was never overly explained because his instructors weren't meant to coddle learners.
But now he understood. Each time mana reached his sword, he activated [Fading]. His sword had already cut through a body, so the activation allowed it to escape the body and preserve his flow and power.
So each slash tore deep into a monster's body like it was butter and swam out like a ghost.
Wally gave him a surprised look but followed well, stopping monsters from attacking Horus from behind and worriedly counting the seconds in his mind.
"Now!" Wally yelled to his sister.
Before the seven-second cooldown of the Firespitter's attack, June ended her song immediately. The tune sunk into the Firespitters' bodies, the air above them vibrated as they were stuck in place.
Horus and Wally retreated in two different directions. There were only four Firespitters left after Horus' flurry of attacks, but Wally's shield couldn't take all those attacks, so they split up.
Wally protected his sister, while Horus would dodge using [Fading]. Once the stun faded, all the Firespitters unleashed the strength of their flames on the room.
One of the Firespitters tried to turn and leave, likely to alert a Scout Firespitter and draw the full force of the third floor on their heads.
But John was there. His invisibility ended as he attacked, spear splashing against the Firespitter's body rapidly. On the third strike, the Firespitter jumped at its attacker, but John's spear glowed red.
John got low and stabbed upward like he was spearing a fish. This time the spear stabbed right through the monster's body and core.
Meanwhile, Horus finished off the last three in a few seconds. The brief violence lasted barely thirty seconds, and everyone seemed to feel it was too easy.
[Twilight Swordsmanship] > 18 > 19 (Common)
[Reflexes] > 19 > 20 (Common) [Skill Limit Reached]
"I was waiting for something bad to happen," Wally murmured. "Didn't know you would go sicko mode on them. When did you start cutting through steel like that?"
"He was fading his sword through their bodies," June explained with a smug smile, but her smile twitched. "That was pretty crazy though. It was like you were dancing in the middle of a fight. Some of those Firespitters jumped through your body and I felt like my eyes were tricking me."
Horus smiled. That meant he did it well. Twilight swordsmanship was meant to be light and ethereal. It was like watching the image of a man superimposed in a chaotic battle. Like he was there, but not there, close but far and always unpredictable.
"It's all thanks to you," Horus said, forcing a smile. "I just got better with the first form, and my Twilight Swordsmanship reached level 19. Now if I can only master the third and fourth."
John walked over and set his spear down. "19? I'm still on 15 on my Spear skill… I've been meaning to ask how many—how many Adept skills do you have?"
"It's about to be four," Horus said with a grin. "Five if I gain the levels from what we're about to do."
His three friends glanced at their status panels and winced. It would be a while before they got their skills up to Adept, unless they got into a very serious fight against enough enemies. The system gifted levels based on how hard you worked, but also rewarded people for fighting above their level.
June bumped her shoulder against his, pouting. "I want a cool magic skill too. Like [Lifesight] or the one you got for [Tolerance]."
"How high is your [Tolerance]?"
"Um… okay. Actually no, it's orc shit. Level 6…"
[Tolerance] was very hard to level, similar to [Perception]. Horus pushed himself to pat her on the back affectionately and tried to say some words, but couldn't come up with anything… right?
Why was he so worried about what to say to her? He was taught to speak clearly and briefly at all times.
John whistled, drawing everyone's attention. He knocked on the wall of the dungeon. "Sorry to cut you guys off, but we should get started."