Chapter 257: Spirit Warriors (P3)

"Pull of the Dead!"

The ground erupts with both corporeal and physical arms grasping at the charging Lindworms, bringing them to a halt and attempting to bury them while I prepare my next spell.

Channelling the mana within me I take in a large and heavy breath, careful not to swallow as the spell I've got within does it's work. 

Already they've begun to break out of my spell's grasps, expected but a bit too soon. However, my next spell activates painfully, the cost for casting without a proper medium.

Exhaling the breath it bursts out of me as a deadly mist of necrotic energies, breathing it ought to be fatal. As the Lindworms squirm and trash at their aching bodies I spit out a chunk of flesh from my mouth, a bit of my cheek taken as the medium for the spell.

The injury is poisoned with necrotic energies as well, energies that aren't under my control because I refused to stuff rotting flesh in my mouth to cast the spell. A tendril of [Death Grip] launches out into the dark cloud and latches onto one of the Lindworms.

"Soul Drain." I mumble, the necrosis eating through the gash in my cheek.

A deafening roar erupts from within the mist, soon followed by a charging half corroded Lindworm breathing weak breaths of fire. It finds me outside the mist and instantly makes me its target.

Caught off guard I've got little other choice than to send out a soul to incinerate it. 

[31 Souls Remain]

With the soul out and about I use it primarily to fuel my mana, while I hurry over to the Soul drained Lindworm. The mist clears out with a snap of my finger but within there's no corpse to be seen or raised. Where I'd expect a corpse to lie is nothing more than ash, the same ash left behind whenever most of these creatures die.

"Fucking hell. How is this even possible?"

"A little help here!" 

At Jungle's cry I leave the pile of ash and send out dozens of tendrils into the scuffle, grasping, snapping, draining and rotting the enemies my hands fall on. The last Lindworm still stands, snaking about in the air, breathing hot blue flames in the face of anyone who tries to get at it and smacking down my pesky Spirit Warriors.

Eldwin hangs from a sword sunk into the beast's neck, I watch him press his weight into the sword and pull down on it, the resulting tear spurts thick dark blood over everyone below.

The Lindworm slams at the point of injury, successfully flattening Eldwin against its scaly hide but also sending the blade further into its flesh. Dumb.

Choking on it's out spurting blood and flames the beast falls and as the last embers of life leave it's body its entire mass becomes ash. Useless ash.

'It's like they know my greatest weapon is corpses.'

Whoever this 'they' is I'm still not sure, but it certainly feels like there's some greater manipulation to these monsters. If they'd turned into gold, gems and adventuring equipment like in games then I'd be pissed but incentivised to keep the climb going. But it's just ash.

The other monsters I've encountered generously leave their corpses behind for me to use in my next battles, the goblins, the shambling mound, the wolves, Werebears, spiders and so much more. 

This is frustrating.

Everyone gathers themselves again, panting and grumbling pains and limb loss. A cursory look around tells me everyone of my Spirit Warriors got hurt and damaged somehow.

"Alright, gather up, healing time before we move on."

"Good…this…tear in my gut is…not great." Jungle stutters, crumpling to the ground a bleeding mess.

Eyes wide I catch the tear he's talking about, whatever he took one took a large chunk out of his gut. There's a whole lot of red and with each heavy breath he takes the red spills over and I get a glimpse of the mesh of organs within.

"Fuck! Summon Spirit: Healing Dire!"

The Dire manifests beside me and with the help of a Spirit Warrior we inch him closer to the healing spirit. The wound begins to close up instantly, through his grunts and groaning I find that the organs I glimpsed weren't at all whole. 

"Fucking hell, Jungle. I don't think you're prepared for this Beast Mother. These are just her children!" Whilst I scream at him the Spirit Warriors gather up, hands held with Eldwin at the front.

Patting his shoulder I infuse him and every other Warrior in the connection with mana, a convenient method to fuel my pseudo army. The bunch of them look on in horror at Jungle as he continues healing, the fear in their eyes evident especially with the continuous growling and snarling overhead.

"We haven't even taken a step into this layer and you're down. I don't know how many other layers there are but I know the monsters we'll meet are going to be much stronger than the ones here.

"If you're falling here then…why in hell's name do you even think you can defeat this Beast Mother? Has your intention been to toss the responsibility of slaying it onto my shoulders?"

As the Dire fuses the last of his sundered skin he grunts, "It was never my intention to have anyone kill my foes for me, and it still isn't! I'll kill the Beast!"

"Doesn't seem like it. The Mother hasn't even shown her face and you're nearly dead, what if I didn't have a healing spell? You realize that's the only one I have right? You'd be dead."

"Then I'd be dead fighting the damned creature! I'll kill it with or without your help!"

At this I scoff, as a thought occurs to me, "You know, in theory I could simply wait until you die, reanimate your body and summon your spirit the same way I've done with my Warriors, I'm sure you'll make a fine addition."

He loses all expression and his mouth hangs open, speechless.

"Oh relax, I'm not actually going to do that. It'd be a waste of mana since you wouldn't keep your skill with your trusty spear."

"Oh…I was thinking it's a good idea actually."

"What?"

"Your Warriors are immortal, yes?"

"Uh…yeah, basically."

"And they are invulnerable? They receive damage but get up anyway?"

"As demonstrated by this battle? Yes." I shake my head, "But that doesn't mean you can beat all opponents just because you can tank damage. I've been with Anselm since…well since, and he's saved my hide countless times thanks to that invulnerability. But counting on it almost ended my life, you couldn't take on a Gamma Warrior as a simple Spirit Warrior and those are the weakest of the cultists."

"And what's the comparison of these cultists to the beasts we face here?"

"Uh…comparison…well, we haven't gotten up to the fourth layer but I'd say whatever waits for us there would be at Gamma level, if not a bit stronger." It's a rough estimate especially since a lot of these enemies wouldn't match up to me if they left corpses behind rather than ash.

"Actually maybe the fifth, if there is a fifth."

He sighs, the disappointment in his strength evident by the dispassionate way he twirls his spear, "I'll make it there."

"Will you?"

"I'll. Make. It. There." With that he turns away and follows the sounds of monsters.

"Without having to die I hope." I mutter under my breath. Eldwin hums right beside me and I ask, "What do you think his chances of survival are now that you've gotten a taste of the harsher battles?"

He clears his throat and takes a look back at the other Warriors waiting for me to make a move, "Well, Milord, this battle has been hard and I sense some women and even some men may want to stray aside from your service."

I shake my head waving off the concern, "Oh don't bother about that, they are all free to leave, you too. But all our battles won't be as tough, consider this an over preparation for what I truly need you for. This climb is entirely Jungles' thing, although…the gems will be something we return for."

"Right, of course, sire."

"So? Do you think he'll survive to see the end of the fourth layer?"

Slowly Eldwin shakes his head, "To be true with you sir, I don't have much faith in many of us surviving."

"Myself included?"

Sadly, he nods.

"Oh wow, such little faith." He starts to look hurt but I quickly add with a gentle tap of his shoulder, "I'll show you why I've survived as long as I have. You and whomever of the Warriors remain, I expect to have you lot with me for some time to come. But enough talk, let's get to him before he gets killed."

With that we run over to Jungle who has already gotten a bunch of monsters circling him. A pair of Lindworms, another swarm of Drakes and at the back of it all a large hissing white snake that watches it all with a focused eye.

"A miniboss. Brilliant."