Chapter 2358: Benched
Sam joined up with three others and blocked its escape route.
He planned a formation and made them execute it along with them. He operated the core of course, while the rest of them are operating the nodes to strengthen the formation.
The skeleton looked around lost, not knowing which way to go. The formation blocked all kinds of senses. Just when Rashma was about to pin it down from behind...
"To the left. Hold on to it properly. Your node is fluctuating. The illusion will collapse. If it even gets a semblance of sense, it will break out. You won't be able to stop it."
Sam's words resonated throughout. As if on cue, to the left of him, the guy holding the node seemed to have tripped.
The energy fluctuation was huge enough to trigger a gap in the defense.
*BAM*
The skeleton rammed through that gap and escaped. While its body is passing through, the formation barrier closed in on hurriedly. Sam filled that gap. However, the sudden influx of energy seemed to triggered something in the trinket on the skeleton's back.
At the same time, Rashma's attack coincidentally hit the skeleton at the exact same spot as the trinket.
It loosened and fell, right next to the guy who tripped the formation.
*BOOM*
The trinket exploded with all the excess energy stored up inside of it.
The explosion blew him away with that weird death energy completely corroding his body. The formation broke completely, but that also crashed the skeleton to the ground.
The skeleton was captured, but one of them is down. He was immediately taken back to the hide out where he was being treated by the healers.
The necromancers were sent to examine the skeleton.
Meanwhile, in the meeting room.
Drik charged at Sam who stood there calmly.
Just when he was about to punch, Rashma made a move and stopped his charge with just two fingers.
"You did that on purpose. That formation fluctuation story is bullshit. That trinket you placed on the skeleton exploded because you wanted it to explode."
Sam just smiled and said.
"I can understand why you think I did it on purpose. And I am not going to convince you otherwise. However, just know that if I really want to create a hole for one of your guys, I don't have to go through so much trouble.
I could do it a lot more easily and efficiently. You wouldn't even know what is happening before I am done with it."
Drik didn't know what to say to that.
"How do you explain the trinket?"
Sam threw one and said.
"Examine it yourself. Believe it or not, it was just an accident"
"I don't believe you. You are sitting the next one out." Sam just shrugged and sat on a chair. Rashma looked at him in askance and he just gestured for her to go and continue the task.
Drik went to the formation team and gave them the trinket to check it out. He then asked them.
"Is it really not possible to use a stationary formation for this? Why can't we just use a defensive formation to lock the skeleton down? Why do we even need a formation that needs our actual physical presence there to control it?"
"The black skeletons are way too powerful. Their energy levels are way past second grade. To set up such a formation we need equipment like the metal pillars Sam used to create that large formation around.
For now, guard for me. Make sure no one disturbs me."
Sam said and sat on the floor. He closed his eyes and went into a meditative state. He activated earth elemental fusion and he looked in the same color as the soil in the ground
around them.
Some people did come to check on him. However, they never got past Crow. They did take a glimpse at him. However, they just assumed he is cultivating. They cannot really say anything against it when they are all cultivators.
Time passed.
It is way past the twenty four hours limit.
Drik, Hari and Rashma and coordinating the people well and captured the black skeletons. However, to their dismay, the black skeletons are increasing in number. And even the number of skeletons are also increasing much much faster than their speed of capturing them. The situation became extremely complicated. Drik didn't know what to do. He took the lead
proactively and now even though they are making progress, the size of the job kept on
increasing with every passing second.
Finally, after hours he came back to the hide out and knocked on the door where Sam stayed.
"I need to talk to him." He asked Crow.
"He is cultivating. You have to wait."
"There is no fucking time to wait. Situation is getting out of control."
"Let him in."
Sam opened his eyes and called out.
Crow let him in. Drik looked at Sam who is still on the floor. He didn't raise up and he didn't
stop his cultivation. He just opened his eyes. That is all. Of course, he also deactivated his
fusion mode.
"What do you want?"
"I need your help."
"For what?"
"To figure out a solution. The number of black skeleton..."
"Increased? By my calculations, it should be thrice the amount that you already captured and
it would soon be four times. You are actually a lot more efficient than I thought."
"How do you know that?"
"I am not going to answer that. What do you want from me and what price do you want to pay
for it? Just discuss that and that alone."
"Price?"
Drik along with the rest of the members are all confused.
"You are seriously negotiating now?" Drik asked with gritted teeth.
"In your own words, I am an opportunist. I have a reputation to live up to."