Sword Saint's Reincarnation

Book 3 Chapter 42: The Shaded Catacombs (5)

The curtain of darkness reached Aelfric first as the Undead Soldiers quickly closed in. At the same time, the green fireball flew toward him. The moment the darkness enveloped Aelfric, Rylan saw him flinch, disturbing his own casting.

“Ignore your eyesight,” Rylan quickly said as he readied himself to dash forward. “Use your mana to perceive them. Keep their speed and previous positions in mind.”

Aelfric gritted his teeth and nodded. In front of him, an orange Fireball took shape. It was much smaller than the Undead Mage’s, but it helped push out the darkness a bit. Meanwhile, the fastest Undead Soldier was less than two meters away from him. Rylan narrowed his eyes and lowered his center of gravity, circulating both his mana and Aura to use Snowstorm.

Suddenly, instead of merely shooting forward, the Fireball expanded as it was fired, quickly taking up the space in front of Aelfric as he took a large step back, already chanting. The flames grew, then swallowed the Undead Soldier and the enemy right behind it.

He changed it into an area-of-effect spell because he couldn’t clearly tell where the enemies were.

It was the right call, but against these enemies, it wasn’t enough. Rylan gripped Silver Twilight’s hilt tighter, filled with the desire to intervene. As he expected, the Undead Soldier walked right through the flames with little damage, its mouth clacking as if it were laughing at Aelfric.

The gap between the Third Circle and the enemies in a Dungeon at the level of the Fifth Circle is too large.

But Aelfric needed to go through this. His entire family did. For their sakes, they needed to learn how to fight. Rylan gritted his teeth and forcefully kept himself from acting as Aelfric continued to stumble backward, followed by the curtain of darkness. The Undead Soldier covered the distance between them with two large steps and raised its broken blade above its head with one arm.

“Aelfric! Dodge!” Rylan couldn’t help but yell.

Aelfric flinched, which slowed him down. Just as the sword descended, he stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding it. The blade crashed against the stone floor with a loud noise, making Aelfric flinch again.

It was then that the second Undead Soldier broke through what remained of the Fireball. It rushed at Aelfric at an angle, swinging its broken sword horizontally. Aelfric blinked, then suddenly stepped back just as the sword arrived. However, the gap in speed was too large. Even though the Undead Soldier had needed to cross the distance between them, the blade still cut Aelfric’s belly to create a large, shallow gash. Aelfric screamed in pain as the rusted magical steel tore through his skin and flesh, forcing blood out of the wound. He stumbled backward, reflexively putting his free hand on the wound.

Both Undead Soldiers raised their empty eye sockets to look at him at the same time.

“Ignore the wound! Keep fighting!” Rylan shouted.

Aelfric gritted his teeth and pointed his shaking wand at the two Soldiers. The curtain of darkness still assaulted him. Rylan looked up. The Undead Mage’s green fireball was almost upon Aelfric. Without hesitation, he swung his sword, circulating both his Aura and his mana. Pure white energy coursed through the blade, followed by his blue mana. They extended beyond the blade itself to slash through the air and reach the fireball. Unceremoniously, they split it in half, devouring what remained of the Mage’s mana and crushing it.

Aelfric would have died to it.

There was no way for the boy to have been able to deal with the Undead Soldiers and the Undead Mage’s spell at the same time. Rylan quickly looked back at Aelfric, who had just stepped to the side to avoid a stab, though the attack grazed his left arm, creating another gash. He gritted his teeth.

He needs to learn how to fight while being injured.

Rylan endlessly repeated this thought to himself as he stared at the battle. The third Undead Soldier arrived, closely followed by the fourth and fifth ones. This time, Aelfric cast the same icicles as before. Because the distance between himself and the enemies was much smaller, the icicles hit their mark. However, they merely crumbled as they crashed against the Soldiers’ damaged armor and broken bodies, as if hitting a steel wall.

At the same time, one of the Soldiers slashed Aelfric’s legs, forcing him to his knees.

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This is it.

This was Aelfric’s limit. To begin with, there was no way the boy would have won against eight undead enemies at the level of the Fifth Circle. Without hesitation, Rylan shot forward with Snowstorm and swung his sword.

Stormcaller Sword Style, Second Movement: Crackling Edge.

His pure white Aura and blue mana dominated the hallway as they crackled with electricity, dispersing the thick curtain of darkness around Aelfric in a heartbeat. At the same time, it reached the Undead Soldiers as they looked at him for the first time. Some of them started retreating, but it was too late. Once Rylan’s energies washed over them, their armor shattered and their weapons crumbled, followed by what remained of their flesh. Lastly, the bones disappeared into countless fragments. In just over three seconds, all Undead Soldiers had vanished.

Rylan looked at the Undead Mages, which were staring at him. They started their chant-like clacking as they raised their rotting staves. He didn’t even blink and swung his sword again. The wave of twin energies washed over their heads, destroying them completely. What remained of their corpses fell to the ground.

Rylan looked at Aelfric. The boy was staring at him with a bitter smile.

“I wonder when I’ll be as strong as you,” Aelfric said in a pained tone as he looked at the wounds on his legs. “Damn, these ones hurt.”

Rylan smiled sadly and crouched to touch Aelfric’s arm.

“You’ll need to keep fighting to catch up to me,” he replied. “Just how it is. But I promise it gets easier. You were just fighting enemies above your current level. I want to teach you how to fight under pressure and intense danger.”

Aelfric sighed as he winced.

“Sure, I get it. But man, it hurts.”

Rylan waved his hand. His mana wrapped around Aelfric and lifted the boy’s body into the air as he withdrew his Aura.

“I know, brother. I’ll be here to help you through it all, so let’s keep going. Now, let’s go back to Mar’s Mages and get you some healing.”

Rylan started running back in the direction of the others.

“Will the others need to go through something like that?” Aelfric asked as the displaced air ruffled his hair.

“Yes,” Rylan replied in a severe tone. “It’s important.”

Aelfric nodded, not saying anything else. They quickly reached the others. Once they got close enough, Elizabeth frowned at Aelfric’s injuries almost immediately. Rylan looked at Melvin as he walked closer. Without a word, the man nodded and raised his wand. After a moment, green mana wrapped around Aelfric, mending his injuries in real time. A few seconds later, they were gone. Rylan willed for the mana around Aelfric to recede, making the boy land on the stone floor.

“Couldn’t you have stepped in before he got injured?” Elizabeth asked after a second in a reprimanding tone as she looked at Rylan.

“Getting injured is part of the process of fighting. The sooner he learns how to keep fighting even when injured, the better,” Gerard replied before Rylan could do so.

Elizabeth glared at him, but he calmly stared back.

“It’s necessary,” Gerard continued. “Even if we don’t like it.”

Regis sighed and looked at the floor.

“Damn it,” he said nervously. “Am I next?”

Once Rylan nodded at him, he sighed again. Lillia slapped his shoulder.

“Don’t be a wuss,” she said. “We needed to go through this sooner or later. We couldn’t stay sheltered in the Academy forever.”

“…We still had some time before fighting enemies at this level.”

“Our enemy is the Empire.”

Rylan nodded. Lillia was right. His deeper purpose behind doing this was to teach his family how to struggle against superior enemies.

“Lillia is right,” he said, making everyone look at him. “Our enemies aren’t weaker than us. They’ll always be stronger. All of you will need to fight, including Mom.”

This time, Gerard frowned, but didn’t say anything. Elizabeth shifted nervously, but eventually nodded with a serious expression.

“Alright, onward,” Rylan said, then pointed at Regis. “You’re up. Come to the front.”

“Goddamn it,” Regis said under his breath as he walked forward, earning another slap from Lillia. Aelfric walked back to his own spot, close to Elizabeth and Gerard, who both laid a hand on his shoulders.

“You did well, son,” Gerard said.

Elizabeth nodded.

“Even if your brother could have been softer,” she stated.

Aelfric smiled at them.

“Rylan explained it to me,” he replied. “And Luna will enjoy hearing that I became a fighter.”

Rylan and Lillia chuckled.

Such simple motivation is often the most effective.

He looked at Regis, who was nervously shifting in place.

“Let’s go,” he said.

The party continued to make their way deeper into the Dungeon.

***

The Warden turned its head to look into the hallway. Darkness clung to its black armor, and the lantern it held still shone brightly with green flames. However, it seemed to pull the surrounding darkness into it, making the whole room even dimmer.

The Warden could feel it. Several enemies above its own power level had entered its domain. However, they were accompanied by much weaker enemies, as well. Above all, there was one enemy that stood out to it. After carefully evaluating the enemy’s readings that it could feel, it reached a single conclusion.

The enemy was a monster. The kind that could easily annihilate it, without any trouble.

His mana levels were lower than its own, but the Warden’s danger sense, which it had honed as it developed in the Catacombs until it reached its current position, was screaming at it.

The four other enemies were also stronger than the Warden itself, but the single enemy still stood out. In such a situation, there was only one possible choice. The Warden sent its orders rumbling throughout the Catacombs.

All it could do was have every single one of its servants flood toward the enemies and attack them. All with the hope of injuring the monster, even if only a little. It would struggle with its entire forces.