As the knights and mages unleashed their most powerful attacks one after another in an attempt to stop the golems, Erik stood fixated on every object that emerged from the ring. But the seconds kept ticking by, and the shelter still hadn't appeared, causing Erik to grit his teeth and mobilize his mana, giving up hope.
Turning his head to glance at the ongoing battle, Erik grabbed his machetes and raised them into the air. At that moment, Kaiser leaped from his shoulder and grew in size, while Tiberius began to release dark mist. The instant Kaiser landed on the ground, now standing about 1.7 meters tall, two large runic circles formed in the air, beginning to shape spheres of fire and darkness.
Soon, two massive spheres of fire and darkness took form, but just as Erik was about to launch a desperate fight, a silvery glint caught the corner of his eye. With a flicker of hope, Erik snapped his head around and focused his gaze, spotting a silver sphere covered in engraved runes emerging from the ring. With sharp eyes, Erik swiftly summoned several solidified Myst hands to seize the sphere while announcing loudly.
"I've got it!! Take concealment potions and get ready to run!!"
"You're the best!!!!"
At the same time that two gigantesque spheres of darkness and fire shot toward the golems, Elara's excited voice echoed amidst the chaos, prompting Zoe and Tomás to turn and look at Erik with wide grins.
Wasting no time, the knights leaped back to the Myst platform with everything they had, while the mages used every ounce of their mana to conjure barriers. As a brutal explosion of black fire erupted outside the barriers, everyone drank concealment potions that had come from Erik's ring, while the platform began to speed forward.
"Chen, Ethan! How much time do you need to reestablish the formations elsewhere?!" Holding the orb firmly in his hands, Erik looked at Chen and Ethan. Ethan quickly replied with a serious tone.
"At least 5 minutes for something makeshift! About 30 for something more powerful!"
"Ok, we're moving near the stairs!" Erik nodded and shot back, then turned to the others and ordered.
"I need you to buy me exactly 5 minutes to deploy the formations and activate the shelter!"
"""Understood!!!"""
Seeing the others respond in unison while gripping their weapons tightly with determined expressions, Erik nodded in satisfaction and placed his hand on Kaiser's neck, commenting.
"I'm counting on you."
The wolf howled with confidence, then transformed into a bolt of lightning and shot out from the barriers. At that moment, Erik announced seriously.
"Hold on tight!"
The instant Erik's voice rang out, the platform lurched forward, causing several mages to fall to the ground and use their mana across their bodies to stick to the platform and avoid being thrown off. In less than a few seconds, the platform came to a screeching halt. Erik created new runic circles as a bolt of lightning landed beside him, taking the form of Kaiser, and he shouted loudly.
"We're here! Tomás will lead in combat, and Elara will direct the mages! Go all out!"
"Understood!!"
Right after speaking, Erik launched the spheres of fire and darkness, then created multiple magic circles to form several layers of barriers. The mages quickly began conjuring barriers and casting attack spells while getting back on their feet. At the same time, the knights, barely affected by the inertia thanks to their strong bodies and reflexes, leaped off the platform to initiate their assault.
Meanwhile, Erik rushed to the rear, holding the orb in his right hand and channeling mana into it before tossing it nearby. Under Erik's watchful gaze, the orb began to fall without the slightest sign of activation, making him narrow his eyes. But just before it touched the platform, it trembled violently. After spinning on itself a few times on the platform, the orb finally lit up faintly and rose into the air.
Seeing the orb ascend with a slight spin, a clear sign it had activated properly, Erik let out a sigh of relief and quickly turned to observe the battle. Noticing that, despite everyone's best efforts to reduce the number of golems, they kept accumulating at an alarming rate, Erik focused on the walls while making mental calculations.
After calculating how much mana he could use without affecting the duration of the empowerment potion, Erik raised his machetes and created different sets of runes around him. The rune sets soon formed arrows of fire and darkness, which shot toward the golems emerging from the walls. At that moment, a small, tired howl echoed near his ear.
"Thanks for the effort, Tiberius. Let's find some food for you."
After Tiberius howled with excitement, Erik turned to the silver wolf beside him, who was gently nudging him with its massive head. Erik smiled calmly and softly patted the huge wolf's head, then commented with a grin.
"Go help the others. I'll get food and biscuits for you too."
Kaiser howled excitedly, then turned into a bolt of lightning and shot into the fray below. Meanwhile, Erik turned to look at the shelter, which had grown in size and was very close to reaching its maximum capacity. After firing a couple more rounds at the walls, destroying many golems before they could emerge, the shelter finally activated fully.
But unlike a normal activation, the top of the spherical shelter with its strong gothic style didn't release the smaller spheres responsible for shields and camouflage. Not even the automatic stairs unfolded, and the door remained tightly shut.
"So the chains even damaged the artifacts inside the rings… This damned ruin has left me bankrupt… I really shouldn't have come…" As he recalled everything in his rings, Erik couldn't help but mutter, visibly pained and reluctant, while using a Myst platform to fly up and reach the door.
Upon reaching the door, Erik quickly placed his hand on it and channeled mana into it, causing it to slowly begin to rise after a few seconds. When the doors were halfway open, Erik slipped inside the pitch-black shelter and swiftly conjured several runes that created small spheres of light, spreading in all directions and fully illuminating the place.
Arriving at the small circular pond in the center of the shelter, Erik conjured more runes, which arranged themselves around the pond. After about a minute, the runes engraved around the pond lit up, and the water took on a beautiful bluish hue before rising into the air, forming a sort of water cabin.
Stepping inside the cabin and creating more runes, which positioned themselves in a ring around Erik's feet, the runes carved into the pond's floor activated after a couple of minutes, and it began to descend like an elevator. Soon, Erik could see the lower floor of his shelter, so he conjured more runes to create new small spheres of light that shot out in all directions to illuminate it.
With the light, Erik found himself in a large, circular space filled with all kinds of tools, worktables, and shelves and weapon displays on the walls. Meanwhile, in the center of the room stood a circular chamber with a terrace. Inside the chamber were tables with glass containers of all shapes, while on the terrace stood a massive smelting furnace surrounded by worktables and tools.
Without wasting a second, Erik exited the elevator and completely emptied his storage pouch onto the floor, then rushed to the weapon displays. From there, Erik grabbed a pair of bluish machetes, some swords, shields, staves, and daggers before running to the shelves to collect potions, various accessories, and more, stuffing them into his storage pouch.
After mentally tallying everything he carried, Erik glanced at a glass case in the corner of his vision, which contained three strange dark spheres engraved with numerous runes. After a few seconds of hesitation, Erik opened the glass case, grabbed a single sphere, and raced back to the elevator while ordering Tiberius on his shoulder.
"Eat whatever you want, Tiberius. I'll be back!"
Instead of happily jumping toward the food storage, Tiberius clung tighter to his beloved contractor's shoulder and barked with its adorable puppy 'voice,' sounding resolute. As he entered the elevator, Erik turned to look at Tiberius with a small chuckle, then sent a Myst hand to grab some dried meat from what he'd left on the floor and offered it to him while commenting.
"Then let's fight together."
Tiberius barked cheerfully, then began gnawing on the meat as the elevator ascended.
…
…
…
Outside the portable shelter, Tomás sliced a golem in half, then leaped into a backward somersault, dodging a laser. While spinning in the air, Tomás created three small magic circles around his sword, then unleashed a powerful glowing flying slash that split a golem attempting to punch him mid-air.
Upon landing, Tomás looked around, finding total pandemonium. Dozens of golems clashed with the knights of his team, while powerful magical explosions erupted everywhere. But no matter how many they destroyed, the golems didn't seem to diminish; instead, they kept piling up, already leaving two of the Bikereas with serious injuries.
(The difference between having Erik and not having him is truly overwhelming… It only took a couple of minutes for us to end up in this mess…)
Tomás reflected with a somewhat bitter smile while conjuring four magic circles on his sword. Without the black flame explosions, each golem became incredibly resilient, comparable to a high-ranking Illuminated-level. Meanwhile, their attacks, though worse than their defenses, were still at the peak of Ascended level, with some reaching Illuminated level.
Thus, destroying each golem was a complicated and exhausting task, even for him. Additionally, the concealment options proved ineffective when the walls were active, forcing them into combat just to survive. This inevitably caused the golems to accumulate, as more emerged from the walls and others rushed in from other corridors.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Tomás gripped the hilt of his sword tightly before darting forward at a terrifying speed, appearing just in time to deliver a slash and save one of his Bikereas.
"Thanks, President!"
The young man got up from where he'd fallen, thanking Tomás while holding his sword, broken in half from the fight. Noticing the bleeding wound on the young man's shoulder, Tomás quickly commented while looking into the distance.
"Take a healing potion and fall back with the others. Things are getting complicated."
"Understood!" The young man nodded seriously, then downed a recovery potion in one gulp and ran toward the rear.
Meanwhile, Tomás stood still, gazing into the distance as a brutal fire explosion occurred just a few meters to his left. At that moment, Zoe, riding atop her white fox spirit, arrived at his side and commented in a somewhat dark tone.
"I've got a bad feeling. The music sounds strange."
"My left eye is twitching… That only happens when I'm about to face mortal danger…" Tomás replied while sending a flying slash at a golem attempting to shoot at him, managing to knock it back, though it didn't do much damage.
Zoe, for her part, gripped the hilt of her katana tighter, taking Tomás's words completely seriously. After all, her grandfather had explained time and again that such strange premonitions were incredibly accurate when it came to mana users with extensive experience in life-or-death scenarios.
"But we have to buy time. I know Erik will find a way to get us out of here." Full of determination, Zoe spoke in a serious tone while extending her Ethereal Projection. Tomás nodded and commented with a smile while taking a combat stance.
"Maidens in love truly have blind faith in their beloved…"
"…"
Zoe remained silent at the comment, with no intention of denying or confirming it, which made Tomás laugh. He added in an oddly amused tone while his gaze focused on what seemed to be a horde of at least a hundred golems charging down the corridor toward them.
"But I think I've got a bit of maiden in love in me too, haha."
After speaking, Tomás shot forward toward the incoming horde, leaving behind a sonic boom that ruffled Zoe's hair. She couldn't help but roll her eyes for a moment. But quickly, the beautiful knight brought her hands to her waist and ordered in a serious tone before darting after Tomás.
"Let's go all out, Hiyori-sama."
***
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