Chapter 419: Sometimes, You Handle Things Yourself

Nether Flames Whip!

Still trying to fly my way out of the tunnel, I focused my mana into my right arm and a second later a blackish rope of fire began coiling out from the base of my arm. A flick of my wrist and a long whip spanning at least ten meters lashed out at the dying Fire Dryder like a live snake. The female Fire Dryder was immediately rendered immobile by the fiery binding. This time, no amount of willpower was going to be enough to save her. With a quick tug, I severed her body with my whip like a hot knife through butter and tossed the two halves at her oncoming companions… Finally, after two fireballs and a whip, she’s dead!

Because I aimed the halves along the path that the Dryders had to pass by, one of the Dryders, a greenish Poison Dryder, inadvertently stepped onto the still burning corpse and instantly burst into flames!

“Aooooo!”

Its pained cries echoed throughout the cramped tunnel. It didn’t even have the presence of mind at this point to figure out a plan of action; that was how overwhelming the flames were. Once a being was covered with even a single mote of Nether Flames, they would experience an unbearable burning that seemed to work from the inside out till that being was finally burnt to cinders. The quickest way to deal with these flames was to cut off the part that had touched the Nether Flames. Unfortunately, the Poison Dryder didn’t have the judgement to make such a decision. Their ability to coordinate elements was something trained into them by the Dark Elves. On their own, their intelligence was nothing impressive.

Long story short, that Dryder was a goner.

Silly monsters, that’s what you get for defying me. If you don’t step back now, I’ll use my Nether Flames to burn you all to a crisp. I’ll… Hey, at least let me finish my monologue first!

Just as I was about to make a stirring declaration and raise my own spirits, even more Fire Dryders began rushing out from behind. They swiftly overtook their brethren and used their own bodies to block off every nook and cranny my Nether Flames could possibly use to try and harm their non-fire resistant brethren.

Hah, you think that will be enough to save you all? You wish.

Nether Flames Wall!

A wall of blackish flames rose from the ground out of nothingness. Yet with so many Fire Dryders arrayed before me, even that wasn’t enough to deter them. The gathered Fire Dryders immediately fired off a volley of fireballs at the wall. An explosion of mana later, I felt my mana pool immediately empty out by a significant percentage.

Shashlik, this won’t do at all. At this rate, my mana will be used up before they die out. Faced with such overwhelming numbers, I knew that I couldn’t turn this into an endurance match. That was why I cancelled my Nether Flames Wall while I tried to find another spell to use against them.

The question is what can I even do now?! Can someone tell me how exactly am I even supposed to fight against an enemy that clearly has limitless numbers?

With no other choice open to me, I summoned my Shadow Demon back from the frontlines. Upon returning, the Shadow Demon immediately embarked on a massacre of the ten offending Fire Dryders while I took this opportunity to toss out more Nether Flames fireballs. Because of the chaos created, I was able to sneak a few shots at their non-fire resistant brethren, even turning one Metal Dryder into cinders in an instant.

Good job, Shadow Demon. Not only is their formation messed up, they even lost one Metal Dryder -I call that a win. Metal Dryders are a rare strain after… wait, why are there so many appearing all of a sudden?

While my Shadow Demon wasn’t completely immune to all attacks, this usually wasn’t a problem as its agility and sheer deadliness often meant that defense wasn’t a big concern. But these Metal Dryders had the ability to survive a full strike from the Shadow Demon, and in such a desperate fight, this ability was enough to fully counter the strengths of the Shadow Demon.

This soon played out amongst the defensive formation of the Dryders. Just as my Shadow Demon was happily hacking through its sixth kill, its next swing was abruptly stopped by the carapace of a Dryder. Unbeknownst to me, a Metal Dryder had managed to sneak into the frontlines and grouped up with the remaining Fire Dryders.

As an elemental creature, the Shadow Demon’s defenses were basically zero against anything other than the element it was strong against. For example, a fire elemental being was basically a nightmare for fire mages, and free food for any other element… this applied to the Shadow Demon as well.

In the just blink of an eye, the Shadow Demon had suffered numerous injuries as it remained stuck in the carapace of that Metal Dryder. Not only were the Fire Dryders attacking it, so were the Poison Dryders and the Ice Dryders behind it… it’s dead, my second Shadow Demon has died… balls.

Having lost two Shadow Demon in no time at all, my body suffered a shock like none it had ever experienced before. This wasn’t just a simple case of one plus one equals two, the blowback from this second loss reached even my mental state. I could feel a ripping pain in my very soul. For just the briefest of moments, it felt like I had lost all my senses… Thankfully, this side-effect did not last long, else those Dryders would have been able to launch a sneak attack against me.

“Didn’t your big sis tell you already? Just relying on the Shadow Demon isn’t enough.” Seeing that I had recovered somewhat from the mental shock, Ferti’nier took the opportunity to remind me of her existence once more. “If you keep going down this path, how long do you think your body will last?”

Blast…

The damage caused by my Shadow Demon dying wasn’t just a simple addition; they stacked. In short, that second death did not just deal me the damage of one death, but rather also that of the previous death as well. If this were to continue in quick succession, there would come a time when my body would simply cave in, and I would either die or be crippled. My Shadow Demon was basically worthless now in this situation.

What to do… If I can’t use my Shadow Demon, who else can I call for help? Ferti’nier, is it possible for me to summon over some of my subordinates from Purgatory?

“Of course, you can. If it’s that new fiancee of yours… but that requires time and an offering.”

‘My new fiancee… wait, are you talking about Mo Ning? What the heck do you mean by fiancee? She’s a horse! And stop trying to lump me with some strange person who does it with whatever race they can lay their hands on… Oops, I didn’t mean to discriminate against you Dryders… It’s just I can’t accept your way of life, I’m sure you will understand…’

The answer Ferti’nier gave me could be said to be the worst of the worst. While it might have sounded like good news on the surface, was there anything worse than knowing that there was a workable solution, but just not for you?

“Little brother, you better think of something quick. Your big sis doesn’t want to die at the hands of some spiders yet.”

‘Why are you even telling me this now? What’s the point even? If you had just told me about that ten seconds nonsense from the start, would this have even happened?!’

“What do you mean nonsense?”

‘Don’t you start that with me!’

Even as I was sparring verbally with Ferti’nier, the Dryders never ceased in their advance. Just like before, they maintained that mix of Fire Dryders and Metal Dryders as they cautiously approached me. Clearly, my Shadow Demon wasn’t going to work against this formation.

Well, if summoning a helper isn’t going to work, I’ll have to do this myself then.

Shadow Demon!

I summoned forth my Shadow Demon again. The moment it took shape, it immediately charged in the direction of Dryders just like before.

Seeing that, the Dryders calmly encircled their shadowy enemy with the Fire Dryders taking the flanks while the Metal Dryders handled the center. This time however, the Shadow Demon did not engage with them. Instead, the second before they clashed, it suddenly did an about turn and retreated.

Fully expecting an attack, the Dryders were stunned by the sudden reversal and couldn’t react for a second. Their less-than-bright minds clearly hadn’t been programmed with what to do in this situation.

Naturally, they had no idea as to what was coming next either. After all, even I considered what I was about to do next crazy. As the Shadow Demon charged in, I followed closely in its wake. Once the Shadow Demon had gathered enough of their attention, I had it turn around while I reached out and grabbed its neck with my right hand. The moment we came into contact, the Shadow Demon suddenly changed form.

The area above its neck began to shift into a hilt while its lower half began to shift into a blade.

Shadowfang: Inverse Cut!

The moment I grabbed hold of a completely formed Shadowfang, I successfully pulled off the Inverse Cut, a technique which I wasn’t able to use in the past. In the eyes of the Dryders, my body was retreating, yet a moment later, their bodies had been split in half. It was only then that they realised that my blade had struck them…

Inverse Cut was the martial technique taught to me by Habona when she handed down the Shadowfang to me. In the past, I wasn’t able to pull off this move no matter how much I tried. In fact, that even led to me creating the Revolution Slice. Who would have thought that this desperate situation ended up being the inspiration for me learning the Inverse Cut.

Now, that’s serendipitous.

The Metal Dryders hidden amongst the Fire Dryders were the first to react to my attack. During the cooldown between my Inverse Cuts, they took the opportunity to rush towards me, carapaced arms stretched out while they spat their spider silk at me.

Revolution Slice!

Faced with the combined attacks of two Metal Dryders, I calmly began rotating my body, dodging both their claws and their silks at the same time. As I did so, I spun Shadowfang around in a deadly blade dance. With its blade reaching up to two meters in length, a single sweep from me was enough to slice those two Metal Dryders into pieces!