บท 35: Attacking The Castle!
Before they started the attack on the castle, they both wanted to be in the best condition they could be in since they both really wanted to succeed. If they tried to attack while being both physically and mentally exhausted, they were not too confident in the results it would bring. And since they were not in a hurry, they didn't even consider the thought of instantly attacking.
They both rested for about 10 minutes before they felt like they were rejuvenated. And they decided to attack the castle. But before doing so, they drank some water and ate some snacks that they had prepared beforehand, and brought with them in Thufrat's backpack. Their plan when it came to attacking the castle, was to have Ark take care of the boss, while Thufrat handled the small fries.
And even though they didn't really know what they were up against. They were both very sure of their abilities to both escape and fight. Since they both held the same conviction, no conflicts arose, and they went on their way towards the castle. Since they were only a bit away, they arrived after a couple of minutes.
The castle in front of them was made out of normal-looking cobblestone, the only weird part was that the stone emitted weird Mana fluctuations. Neither Ark nor Thufrat thought that this was really weird though since it seemed pretty normal to fortify your defenses with the help of magic since the castle would be easily destroyed otherwise.
The gate to the castle was made out of a reddish-looking wood, as Ark looked puzzled, Thufrat explained that it was blood-seeking wood. As Ark heard this name, he was a bit freaked out, the name of this wood was way too freaky. As they were about to destroy the gate, the gate suddenly emitted a weird sound. As it suddenly opened up from the inside.
What waited on the other side of the gate, was the last of the skeletons forces. But these forces were a bit weird. First of all, there was not as many undead as they had anticipated. But instead, these seemed to be the elite forces. The skeletons were not High Skeletons yet, but they were not far from it, and there was about 75 of them, give or take. At the very back of these forces stood a High Skeleton, this High Skeleton was clad in weird clothing made out of hides and it held a bone whip in one of its hands, and resting at its side, was a bipedal wolf. After a quick inspection, Ark was informed that this was a werewolf and that the High Skeleton was a beast tamer, a very rare class apparently.
The werewolf was snoring away, as it was suddenly whipped by the High Skeleton harshly. The werewolf cried out as it was enraged, the only thing the High Skeleton did was point towards Ark. The werewolf, disturbed from its sleep and in pain, instantly lunged at Ark. The werewolf attack pattern was a bit weird, as it interchanged between bipedal and running at all fours. The werewolf was level 50, and it was a rare monster, which meant that this was a very formidable opponent.
As it lunged towards Ark, the rest of the skeletons started attacking Thufrat. As he had grown stronger after awakening his bloodline, he wouldn't really have a problem with dealing with these skeletons, but he was a bit worried about the battle between the wolf and the werewolf since the werewolf should be stronger. But Thufrat wasn't really sure since he had seen this wolf battle before, and he held a certain degree of confidence in it.
Being distracted during combat could be lethal, and he decided to let nature take its course, letting them battle it out. On Ark's side of things, he tried hard to create distance with the help of magic, since that was his strong point, and it was working well so far. The werewolf started to grow irritated by Ark's way of fighting since it was just whittling it down, and it suddenly started to glow red, emitting a ferocious air, as it suddenly erupted with newfound prowess.
Ark, seeing this, was a bit surprised, but he didn't back down, instead, he activated his [Envoy Of Holiness]. As he started to radiate the holy aura from before, his prowess also went up significantly. As the werewolf was approaching rapidly, Ark penetrated his Mana into the ground. A split-second later, a javelin emitting a holy light suddenly burst out from the ground beneath the werewolf. The werewolf, annoyed by this sneak-attack, swiped at it with its claws, instantly destroying it. Ark was a bit surprised by the werewolf reaction speed.
But since a sneak-attack wouldn't work, he would just attack it straight on with all of is power. As he thought about this, the werewolf was already in front of him. Since he just used a move, he didn't have the time to prepare a big move, but he still condensed a reasonable amount of Mana on top of his claws and met the werewolf's claws head-on.
What he didn't expect, was the large amount of strength contained in this werewolf's move, as he was sent flying even when he used his Mana to attack. He flew straight into one of the castle walls, and he could feel how messed up his internal organs were. The werewolf didn't let up its attacking, and it lunged towards Ark again. This time though, Ark had more time to accumulate his Mana, and he used it to project a large shield-like wall in front of him. As the werewolf saw this, it instantly sneered as it slashed out with its claws.
The shield didn't offer much protection as it shattered instantly upon contact, but at that time, Ark was already long gone. The werewolf, dumbfounded, turned to look around. It didn't get to finish its actions though as it was suddenly pierced through its back by an arrow condensed out of light. But even though the arrow did considerable damage as it pierced straight through the werewolf, it wasn't enough to bring it down.
The werewolf, being critically injured, was surely going to bleed out. But this wasn't a good thing since it would just risk it all to kill Ark before going down. As Ark thought about this, the werewolf turned to him and stared him straight in his eyes. Its eyes were completely bloodshot, and if gazes could kill, Ark would have died a hundred times already. As they kept eye contact for a couple of seconds, the werewolf suddenly disappeared from its previous position.
A chill went down Ark's spine as he abruptly twisted his body to dodge a killing blow, but no matter how hard he tried, the werewolf put its entire being into this blow, and it wasn't something Ark was capable of dodging. Three long bloody lines suddenly appeared on Ark's right side as he tumbled down onto the ground. As the werewolf also exhausted the last of its vitality in its blow just now, it just collapsed on the ground in a pool of its own blood.
Ark was seriously thanking his former self for investing some points into his vitality since that was the only reason he was alive right now. The injury he had gotten right now as way too severe, and if he didn't try and heal it, it would definitely be life-threatening. As Thufrat saw this, he went all out as well, trying to kill the rest of the skeletons as fast as he could.
Since the werewolf was dead, the skeleton beast tamer was completely defenseless, and it ended up being easily slain by Thufrat, who entered a state similar to Ark's some time ago. As he was in this state, he seemed to have supreme control of the earth, and he was a lot more powerful. This was Thufrat's bloodline at work, and he managed to finish off the rest of the skeletons all by himself.
Ark couldn't move, and he was just slowly healing himself on the ground, Thufrat was also pretty exhausted and he sat down next to Ark, and examined him carefully. Seeing the light element swirling around Ark's wounds, he let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like the wolf would heal itself eventually.
As they both sat in silence and recuperated, Ark suddenly caught a glimpse of aglimmer in the corner of his eye, out of curiosity, he glanced towards the glimmer, only to see a shiny blue crystal the size of an infants fist peeking out of the werewolf's corpse. This was a Mana crystal!
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