Hungry Necromancer

Jungle and Eldwin fend off the constant trickle of monsters that pops out of the tunnel while I recover. Which will still be awhile because I've spent out of the little I've recovered, fending the monsters off with well timed and coordinated casting of [Death Grip], summoning Eldwin and summoning the [Healing Dire] that strengthens my torn pathways little by little.

With how tender they are I can kiss the [Mana Empowering Soul] goodbye for sometime to come. At least until I can check back with Aste and call for some alchemical cures. The [Healing Dire] is only capable of so much, and it seems Mana Pathways are above its power.

For the moment, even after our victory over the hundreds of monsters that gathered to eat us on this layer, the Beast Mother's Cavern still fights back. The tunnel is…a tunnel, dark and seemingly endless with the echoes of water droplets and slow, menacing slithering that emanates from the depths.

And from these depths dozens of Drakes charge down the slope every couple of minutes. The time gap between the next dozen is constantly decreasing, soon we'll be overwhelmed with how little numbers we've got.

'So we've captured the layer but we can't afford to hold it. Fuck.'

We'll be forced to retreat back down to the second and first layer, where a fresh brew of monsters awaits us, a weakened us. The second layer is the furthest we've gotten without the Spirit Warriors, so we'd be running all the way out of this mess.

'If it comes to that I just hope they don't follow over to the top.'

Even with Panda's and the remnants of the Demme Warrior's aid it'd be tough holding off the hordes of all three layers, the casualties would be innumerable. But perhaps casualties are the exact thing I'd need to put a stop to the madness before even more casualties occur.

But these are all hypotheticals, I've still got a chance to recover most of my mana all while adding more Spirit Warriors to the fight, our numbers will increase the same as theirs and we'll fend them off, right?

[Loyal Spirits - 29]

It's still possible.

With a tired grunt I lob another ball of mana at a waiting Spirit Warrior and vivify them so they immediately pick up a weapon and fly out into the mess of battle. I've lost quite a few of them, but the ones that remain, as I anticipated, wield a stronger will to fight.

Their battlecries, led on by the ever eager Eldwin reassure me as much. After we get through that tunnel and find what lies behind, what the entire third layer is fighting so hard to guard, I'll get the actual numbers of Loyal Spirits I've got in my guard.

Frankly, they may be the biggest gain to reap if we get out of here alive. Big if considering it may as well be my silent prayers to Lotar keeping the monsters from the lower levels from ascending and joining the fight to have us for dinner here.

Although terrifying, the fear opens the door to more hopeful questioning from my logical side. If there are monsters down there, respawning after we've turned the lot of them to ash like the last time we invaded the dungeon, what's to say they can't be ignored?

'Yeah, we could just sprint right past them, that's essentially the point of running away right? Not engaging in battle with the pursuer?'

Right, but then we've got no strong destination, we'd be pulled out into the open and the roaring of monsters spilling out after us would cause a ruckus that'll wake up at least half of the Forest's creatures.

We'd be bringing on an even greater army of monsters assuming the monsters don't get confused and brawl it out amongst themselves.

"Aargh!" I get off my butt, angry at my own thoughts and call out, "Alright guys, all at once now!"

Gathering most of the mana I've recovered I cast a wide [Summon Spirit] spell and summon what's left of the Spirit Warriors.

"I thought you had to conserve mana!" Jungle yells out, dodging lashes from the smaller Lindworms.

"I do, but I figure I've got other ways to recover mana than sit on my butt and wait for the white snakes to slither out of that tunnel!"

That said, I wrap both hands in mana, moulding a familiar spell with slight difference to it as I charge after my flooding Spirit Warriors. The tide of battle is shifted so much in an instant that my next worry is not getting to use the spell.

But there's always that one unfortunate creature. Stumbling away from one of Jungle's searing Spear Blasts, a Drake finds my outstretched hand slamming into its face. Immediately my hands get a good grip on the startled creature my spell kicks in.

As the scales on its body flake and crumble, moisture, blood, saliva dry up and its muscle tears off, my pathways are rejuvenated with stolen mana.

Out of habit the default version of [Soul Drain] I cast is the one that fills my health, I'd almost forgotten that I'd unlocked the variant that fills my mana. It'll be making frequent appearances from now on.

Dusting my hand on my clothes I move on to the next confused victim, slashing and clawing against two Spirit Warriors's ceaseless assault. Swift as a fox I catch the beast by its head and yank it out of a letal swipe only to have it crumble in my hands a second later.

"Don't worry, there's going to be more to kill." I flash a grin at the perturbed Spirit Warriors and begin dual casting [Soul Drain].

Jungle cackles a bit through heavy pants, he gawks at the clear path ahead to the dark tunnel, "We cleared it. We cleared it!" His legs give as he crumples to the ground and I dart to his aid.

"You alright?"

"Yeah…yeah I am. I'm just…really tired."

"Right…"

All this time I've been thinking of Jungle the same way I think of Anselm, eternal. But he's more human than any of us gathered here and even with healing from the Dire, he can't recover his stamina without rest.

He's pushed on for this long, I can only imagine how much his muscles ache and how hard it'll be to get up again, "I'll let you rest for a minute, still need to recover mana. But we've got to get down that tunnel soon, I need this to be the last time we crawl up here because if it isn't then we're not going to be getting up here anytime soon."

It's true, we can't do this again without the same amount or more Spirit Warriors because the flurry of spells I chain casted to save us earlier isn't something I can pull off again. At least not until my pathways stop this aching. Even little external mana dumps like that I get from [Soul Drain] exacerbate the aching.

He grunts weakly at me, barely managing a grin, "I'll be ready."

Letting him be, I turn to the remnants of my Spirit Warriors and offer a curt nod, they're ready, on guard watching the tunnel while those of us still living recover our strengths.

It doesn't take long for the tunnel to spit out another couple dozen Drakes and a pair of Lindworms. Hands wisping with mana I lead the charge out after them, tackling a snappy Drake with one hand and launching a [Death Grip] at another, simultaneously turning both to dust.

The Lindworm tries to smack me away but the combined efforts of the Spirit Warriors sees a chunk of its tail hacked off. It and its companion roar indignation, their breaths of flame push us on the defence but not before I snipe another Drake with [Death Grip] and [Soul Drain]

'A couple more of these Drakes and I'll be at full tank. If I'm lucky it'll work on a Lindworm and half that time.'

Behind our current enemies are more trooping in, "That was fast." Squinting my eyes to see through the burning about the floor of the slope I begin to make out the single outline of a monster, a white snake. "Fuck."

"Alright guys, stand back, leave it all to me!"

Before my order can get through to everyone the snake introduces itself by spitting a ball of lava our way. The ball splashes upon impact with the ground, the heat putting me and several Spirit Warrior's off.

Still the snake charges but before launching out of the lava's path I'd sent out Shaco. With him waiting behind the lines I can pull off a quick and just combo of [Death Grip] and [Soul Drain] on every monster on scene.

The aching gets worse the moment I'm flooded with mana, gritting my teeth I manage through it and find the encroaching white snake is undeterred. The [Soul Drain] on it must have failed.

It slithers over it's pool of lava and whips a stained tail at me in the air but I'm too far to reach and now it struggles with its own shadow.

"Fuck. That's all of them, this might be harder than I thought."