Chapter 241: Undead night attack (5)

While Eldrian stopped himself from recklessly attacking, he did not wish to run and leave these people to fend for themselves. Forcing down the hesitation that was growing as he looked at the insanely high HP of the undead bear, Eldrain shifted to trying to figure out what to do. Knowing that most damage would be ineffective, as proven by his two spells.

His two spells had both done basically no damage, far different from the other zombie he had fought. Against the undead direwolf fire had been extremely effective, but now it had only done normal damage. Eldrian assumed this was because of the size difference, the zombie arkbeast was a Beta. It was almost two meters tall and four long, his spells barely even covered half its leg's width. Compared to the direwolf where it had covered its entire neck.

His two spells had done just 17 damage in total, for a cost of 44MP. Luckily this also meant that it did not bother the undead bear. It kept focusing on Piredes who was trying to keep it from moving past him; while careful to not receive another hit. One that would likely be his last.

Grateful for the time giving to think, Eldrian stepped back and tried to figure out what he could do to help. The first thing he did was store Aoidos and pull out Gray, believing that it would be much better for hacking at the zombie bear.

Eldrian also tried to figure out where the zombie's weakness was, failing in doing so; and seeing the centaur failing in keeping up due to his excessive bleeding. Not having any more time to delay Eldrian charged forward, used Drive along with Double Strike to try and sever one of its hind legs.

While the attack landed perfectly, Eldrian only managed to cut to the bone. Not at all what he had hoped for and even worse this seemed to pull the undead's attention. Turning towards Eldrian it roared in anger. The stench of decay filling the air and causing Eldrian to almost lose his focus, his mind going numb for a second as he realized the horrible smell surrounding him for the first time.

With its roar, it also moved to swipe at Eldrian like one would a fly. Seeing him as nothing more than an annoying bug that needed to be swatted. Eldrian jumped back to not end crushed on the ground, trying to focus on the wound he had managed to inflict, having seen something starting to heal it.

What is that? It seems quite similar to the black mass the skeleton utilized. Eldrian wondered while continuing to move back and out of the reach of the undead arkbeast's massive claws. Just its legs were almost as big as Eldrian, its claws like daggers. He would probably die from one attack, ripped in two. Eldrian felt certain the damage would not reflect what Observe showed him.

As he dodged Eldrian quickly thought of something that might give him some time to regroup. Jumping back again, he quickly summoned two empowered Floga's. Throwing each at an eye of the undead beast, causing it to howl in fury as its eyes were destroyed and its sight robbed.

Seeing this work Eldrian sighed and relief and shouted, "Get the others to safety, I'll keep it busy." His shout was not just aimed at Piredes, but also at Altien. Luckily both had no courage to jump forward and thus assumed it was meant for them.

Hearing a voice the undead charged towards it, Eldrian forced against one of the buildings to not be ripped to shreds. Sweat dripping down his back in fright, Eldrian realized he needed to keep track of where he was in the street. He was quite used to not having massive buildings stopping him from dodging. Such large obstacles gave him an idea, but also almost just caused his death.

Slipping past its side Eldrian was glad to see both the centaur and demi-human following his shout. The former quickly helping his wife up and gathering the children into an alley. Altien following with Maria on his shoulder.

"Hey! Over here!" Eldrian taunted to keep the bear focused on him, trying to keep his voice loud enough to hide their footsteps and the kids crying. As he shouted this he moved to a narrow alley he had seen. Slipping into it while continuing to shout, the bear charging blindly with only the thought of enjoying a meal. It smashed with massive power into the side of the alley, finding itself stuck due to its massive frame. Its flesh merged into the walls from the force of the impact.

In a blind rage, it continued to try and attack Eldrian, forcing its claws to move. Flesh ripping off as its moved, along with parts of the wall. As it did this it also started recovering its sight, its eyes replaced by simple voids of darkness.

Crap, how does that even work? Eldrian wondered as he realized the undead was regaining its sight. This didn't matter much as Eldrian couldn't get past it even if it was blind, nor could he run out another existence as the alleyway was a deadend. The only reason Eldrian was worried was if the beast could back out and go after the others.

Wait, nature magic was effective, wasn't it. Eldrian suddenly thought as he watched undead trying to break the walls bounding it. To Eldrian's astonishment, half a meter of the walls has already started crumbling as the beast kept clawing closer. While doing this harmed itself, the damage was nothing much.

Let's just try healing it, can't be worse than wasting time with the other spells! Eldrian thought, leaving the discovery of why nature magic was effect to a time where his life was not on the line.

Not knowing which would be better, Eldrian pulled out Aoidos again for its ability. While at it he also cast Thera and Anthizo on the undead. Stupefied by the damage it did.

Thera did a whopping 36 damage while Anthizo did only 10. This single combination had done more than all Eldrian's previous efforts, though the self-harm the undead was doing in trying to fit into the alley actually surpassed all this.

Seeing the damage Eldrian cursed himself for his misunderstand when having tested spells against the direwolf zombie. With new hope, Eldrian quickly kept casting Thera. It was far more mana efficient than Anthizo, seeing as both cost basically the same amount of mana, but Thera did basically three times the damage.

Eldrian kept casting until he ran out of mana, having even used Aoidis's ability. At this point, he had done another 213 damage. Looking at the undead's movements having slowed Eldrian sighed in relief, as by this point it had dug into the alley by another meter. Luckily there was more than ten meters for Eldrian to fall back into. He just needed to recover his mana and end this fight.

It would take quite some time, but Eldrian felt it was certain to kill it before he reached the dead-end. As such he calmed down and started wondering why nature magic worked against the undead. Along with if it would work against all the undead, not having tested it against the skeleton. For some reason, Eldrian felt that the skeleton would be immune, but he didn't know why he felt that way.

Naturally, he kept casting as soon as he had enough mana, meaning basically every 25 seconds and when Aoidos's ability came up. He didn't wait for his mana to stockpile since each cast caused the beast to slow down and gave Eldrian more time before he reached the deadend.

Nature magic, at least what I am using is healing. It is the transfer of energy, mana being turned into free energy that the body can use to heal. I am not too sure how this works, nor what type of energy it becomes. But that isn't important, the clue must be in the fact that it heals.

What is healing? That is the key... At this moment, after almost another minute of falling back and casting Thera, Eldrian realized he still had 25 free attributes. With not a second to waste he quickly added it to intelligence to increase his chance of surviving. Having become slightly worried as it seemed the undead was closing in faster than his mana was recovering.

Dumping it all into intelligence Eldrian boosted his intelligence to 155, bringing the damage of his spell up to 43. In the end, Eldrian managed to kill the undead with just a meter to spare. The entire ordeal in the alley had taken nearly 5 full minutes. The walls stripped of their integrity, in certain places it had broken completely, allowing one to enter the building if one so wished.

Sighing in relief as the last few minutes had been quite taxing, Eldrian cursed as he felt how tired he was. His mind seemingly covered in a fog and his mana hidden behind a mist. Sure enough, magical fatigue... Eldrian sighed as he realized what the meaning of these symptoms were, confirmed by looking at his stats. He had not gained this debuff in a long time, and it now seemed much more real.

Affecting his ability to think clearly, along with controlling his mana. Not just limiting his regen and total amount.