Spirit Taming

Chapter 627: Play The Part

"Incoming, three skeletons from the right. They are charging over a thin layer of ice."

The warning from grace was making the battles go much easier. From what everyone had realized, grace was not going to be the same as a usual escort target. She was the escort, yes, but she was also able to see more. She was able to learn more.

It had only taken two more battle attempts for her to begin issuing orders. For her mind to adapt to a new position where she had to realize her limits. Especially since she was quickly noticing the habits that Clark used when observing everyone.

His eyes never lingered in one place for long. Every single new plant, change in terrain, and person's actions found their way in to his view. While this had been due to the analysis skull, Grace had taken it as the reason he was able to make some of the best call outs when they were in battle.

By replicating it, her strategic intelligence was beginning to find its niche within the group. She had mostly been in a supporting role. This played a very clear role when she was helping Ralph forge. Yet, she still had felt that she was behind and not that useful. This would help change that.

"Ella, how many of the hammers have we beaten and how many skeletons?" Grace's question came after Maria had fired three arrows. Isa managed to help two of them change course and hit the skulls instead of the neck bones of the dwarven skeletons. This change had been enough to prove that Isa was growing. Reese had stepped out of line to beat the third while Jerold covered his position.

"We have gathered the shards of fifteen hammers so far. They are becoming fewer because I believe that this part of the grove was mostly where many dwarves fell. That's also why there are remnants of skeletons more often here or functioning dwarven skeletons." This had been kept track by Ella. It was a surprise that they had gathered so much material so far.

"The dwarven skeleton remains we have seen add up to thirty three and the ones we defeated at nineteen. But there should be more beasts. Jerold already pointed out the signs of blunt force that did not leave behind evidence of a hammer. We believe there is another more elemental beast if not something similar."

This theory was not at all due to anything that Clark had said. He had taken a very large step back in leading. He realized that if they were acting as an escort group and that their main escorted figure was Grace, he had to act accordingly.

This chance to step back allowed him to understand how well the group was truly doing at an intelligence level.

Grace had been able to learn things from everyone. She had even picked up some of the tracking habits that jerold used to be able to spot tracks or smaller details. The work with ralph and improved her physicality which was why she was slowly able to adjust to the cold a little better with the help of the dragon welp.

That, and she was generally getting her energy back since she was not running around and fighting.

She had taken some of the signs from Maria that were looked for when someone might need healing or general care. Then she had been able to use the small studying tricks that Ella used to memorize information and recall it quickly. This helped with weak points in the hammers.

Besides this, she was very knowledgeable about the teamwork that Brad and Reese had come up with. The blunt force defensive style of fighting that Brad used while Reese came with a sharp piercing attack was ideal for her forward protection. She utilized it consistently.

The only two people she did not seem to have a grasp for were Isa and Clark himself. Isa was able to adjust the elemental energies she used. But she was limited to wind right now. But because she lacked the same skills that grace herself had because of her own beast's wind affinity, she was a little lost.

Therefore, Isa had been practicing adjusting wind currents while the wind caterpillar was celery making leaps and bounds in its own learning. It was still young, and just as every beast learned quicker when younger, it was growing very fast.

Clark was a wild card. Everyone in the group felt that.

He had consistently gone off on his own. Presented information that he should not know. Shown off strength greater than all of them. It was hard to tell what he would do. But that was a key fact here. This escort training meant that Grace could have someone held back as a trump card.

A guaranteed win so to speak.

Would this be the case in reality? Maybe not. But saving the strongest to ensure that they had their top condition when faced with greater danger was always a better choice. Clark did this as well. But he believed the group's teamwork to be their trump card and his solo strength to be a risk for them.

"You know that beast we are trying to find?" Jerold suddenly spoke up before they move any further. No one else needed him to say anything more either. They had found the beast that made the attacks and marks they had seen on skeletal remains.

'Broken dwarven golem- uncommon

This broken golem had taken on a greater amount of ice energy due to the fact that the metal core that held all its energy was broken. Due to this, ice energy melded with it and caused its intelligence to become null. It is blindly attacking all living things that it comes across because the last orders it received from its creators was to fight.

The creators of dwarven golems use unique forging that is impossible for any other race tio replicate due to the incredible secrecy of dwarven forgemasters.

This allows them to create metal cores that can mimic or completely become beasts depending of the materials used. Some will even make them bond and become part of their spirit beasts. Others will use them instead of binding with other beasts entirely. They are limited in intelligence based on how and what techniques are used to forge them.

The dwarven armies are made up of thousands of these golems. However, this one is broken. it can not function properly and many weaknesses are open to be exploited. Its body is made of degrading metals that have become infused with ice energies. It is ideal to reforge them and create different alloys or to make…'

This was the last beast that Clark was waiting for. He had expected to find more of them, but from what they had found so far, this dungeon was barely holding on. Most of the beasts had eliminated themselves or degraded entirely.

The broken golem was clearly missing an arm, had exposed joints that had once been covered with armor, and was being held together by multiple pieces of ice which cracked and refroze as it moved. It had already seen them though.

"The joints and the core will be the weakest parts. Attack them and we will have a very large amount of metals that can be reforged or used to draw out ice energy then later reforge as a stronger alloy. It would be good training for you and your frost finch to control ice energy that literally ebbed away at metal energy." Clark did not hold a single bit of information back.

He felt that Grace should choose how to use this material potential herself.

"Then we must take it. Clark, can you please handle this? There are many beasts coming our way since we made a lot of noise coming here." Grace had just spotted a position that Clark hoped that they would be in.

Seven dwarven skeletons and four of the hammers were moving toward them while also fighting one another. This attack has been brought on because of the small size of the grove and the commotion of the group's battles.

Beyond that, the wind that Isa had made caused changes in the stillness of the dungeon. Small branches had let snow fall that had been there for many years. There were even places where small branches had fallen since the trees were not really alive any longer either.

Being able to have Clark handle the strongest opposition while the rest of the group closed around Grace wasideal. He could fend for himself while the group handled the main defense. There was also a benefit that the materials would be better preserved than if Brad fought the broken golem. Clark could see the weak points and already shared that. He could use his black lightning spear to handle it.

"Devi, start distracting it. We are treating this fight like one with our lives at stake. Full effort through and through." Clark did not see a point of holding back. He was a body guard right now, he should act that part well.