Chapter 13: Ace in the Hole

With that decision made, I focused on the battle, besides me Aria had already begun charging on another group of Duskwraiths rushing towards us.

I, too, ran alongside her. Our job was to keep these things at bay before Vexis defeated the big guy over there.

With every second that passed, this goal seemed more and more impossible, with hordes of dusk wraiths rushing out of the room at the corner of the stairs.

Wait, was there a room near the stairs? The last I remembered, that place had been nothing but a normal wall. Maybe I was mistaken.

I glanced towards the center of the hall where Vexis stood with his longsword clashing against the giant werewolf-like thing. The floor underneath them was drenched in blood, with dozens of duskwraith corpses lying around them.

Despite swinging with tremendous power, Vexis's sword barely managed to penetrate past the beast's scale. Beast knew it as well and so was brazenly attacking Vexis without giving much regard to the defense.

Vexis leaped up in the air, bringing the entire weight of his longsword down upon the boss duskwraith. The boss duskwraith dodged to the side, seemingly disappearing into the air, before his tail struck at Vexis's chest, throwing him away the hall's edge.

We needed to get out of this place as soon as possible. I mentally concluded before stabbing a duskwraith in the chest.

Despite being of similar ranks, it was clear to me that Vexis wasn't going to win this battle on his own. The reason was simple: since the beginning of the battle, Vexis hadn't cast a single spell, not even to protect his precious princess.

Aria and the rest of her party were already pretty worn out before they arrived at this fort.

According to Aria, one of there members had looked down at his shadow in the desert. Now, I couldn't guess the specific of the incident since the desert always reacted differently when one looked at there reflection. However looking at their battered state even a blind man could tell that they had gone through something horrendous.

Whatever it was, the incident must have caused Vexis to run out of mana; that must be why he was simply relying on his body's pure strength and why this place hadn't already leveled to the ground.

"Damn it, it's been so long since we started fighting; why hadn't we begun retreating yet?" I questioned. Aria, however, didn't answer and instead continued fighting.

The boss duskwraith rushed towards the collapsed Vexis, tearing apart any duskwraith unfortunate enough to stand in its way. It then pinned him under one of its legs and grabbed and lifted his sword.

"You… damned…" Vexis tried to raise one of his arms to attack, but at the same time, the nightmarish creature plunged his sword down, impaling his raised arm and stopping only at mere centimeters above his chest.

Thus, the struggle began, the beast trying to plunge the sword down while the man trying to hold it up. Our last defense was crumbling down in front of our very eyes.

"NOOO!!!" Tess and Thorne simultaneously shouted and tried to reach their commander but were stopped by the overwhelming horde surrounding them.

"You better have an Ace in the hole, princess," I spoke to Aria while kicking a duskwraith in its torso.

"Don't…" Aria was about to say something when a shout caused her to pause midsentence.

"TAKE OUT YOUR SHIELDS!!!" Vexis shouted while taking a small orb out of his pocket.

Aria and the others immediately reacted, with Tess jumping down to the ground and Thorne taking several steps back. All of them took out a metal disc with weird engravings on it and brought it closer to their chests.

"Come here." Aria grabbed my good arm and pulled me closer to her, activating a similar-looking talisman.

Suddenly, a strange golden aura began enveloping us, taking the form of a ten-foot-tall armored knight. The knight stepped forward and took both of us into his embrace, placing down his golden transparent shield in front of us.

Around us, the dusk wraiths were trying their best to pierce past the shield, only to claw and bite in vain. Looking around, I saw the same thing happening with Tess and Thorne.

Seeing that all of us were protected, Vexis uttered some chants and threw the orb at the big werewolf before activating one of his own.

A blinding light flashed in the center of the fort, forcing me to close my eyes. What followed was a series of giant thundering sounds strong enough to deafen a normal person.

I wanted to see what was happening but couldn't; whatever this attack was, the shockwave from it had been enough to almost sweep me off my feet despite the shield protecting us.

The flash soon subsided, and I slowly opened my eyes. What lay in front of us was a scene of pure devastation; a large part of the floor was gone, replaced with a giant crater in the center of the room. An entire side of the fort had been torn apart, revealing the Gleaming Wastes on the other side.

Around us, where just moments ago used to be dozens and dozens of dusk wraiths, now remained mutilated beasts' corpses. Even my status window was going wild with notifications.

Elemental Convergence Detected.

Do you wish for [Duskwraith(Lvl-2)] to absorb the stray soul?

Yes/No

Elemental Convergence Detected.

Do you wish for [Duskwraith(Lvl-2)] to absorb the stray soul?

Yes/No

Elemental Convergence Detected.

Do you wish for [Duskwraith(Lvl-2)] to absorb the stray soul?

Yes/No