Boom!
The sound of a distant explosion up ahead made the group stop in their tracks. They all turned to look at Jet who had a frown on his face.
“There are other participants up ahead.” He said with a frown.
With his declaration, everyone’s expressions turned stony. As for Leon, his face remained as stiff as it always was. Showing expressions with only a skull was a difficult thing to do…
They picked up the pace that they had been moving at, although it was easier said than done. They mostly came across High B rank monsters now, and the variety of monsters had increased. There were faster and hardier variants mixed in, so the amount of time that they needed to spend fighting varied, although they tried to mop them up as quickly as possible.
Before long though, they came across another group of people that were killing monsters. A team of Demons were utilizing powerful spells to decimate a trio of monsters that stood in their path. They were already killing the last one when Leon’s group arrived.
“Oho? Competitors! Kill them!” One Demon growled and launched a fireball at Rodius’ head. The man easily dodged the fireball, triggering his transformation in one smooth motion and launching himself at the group of Demons.
No one tried to stop him, as the Demons had already shown their stance when they attacked first. No one would try to beg for their lives.
“I’ll hang back this time.” Leon nodded at his friends as Darius followed behind his father. Maria stood back like Leon, while Jet teleported forward. The Obsidian Skeleton raised his hand with a dark flame dancing on his fingertips. A malevolent spell was brewing. He cast his hand forward, and a dark haze appeared around the eyes of one of the Demons, blinding his senses. Not only his vision, but also his sense of smell and feeling were also dulled considerably.
[Your skill, <Apprentice Dark Magic>, has gained a level!]
The notification was music to Leon’s ears. He continued to run subterfuge with Dark magic, hindering the performance of the Demons quite easily. They did not pose too much of a threat as they fought blindly. Sometimes they would even attack each other as they thought they bumped into the enemy.
The enemies were not weak, though. When they saw that things were not going well for them, they immediately cut their losses and turned to flee. They let out powerful AOE attacks that disrupted Darius and Rodius, giving them enough space to run away. In the end, not one of the Demons died, but they were quite badly injured.
“Hmm, too bad we didn’t get to kill them now.” Rodius murmured as he examined the battlefield. The place was pretty torn up, with craters littering the brown earth and the few trees around that place having been destroyed completely.
“It doesn’t matter.” Leon shrugged and walked over to what remained of the monster corpses. He rose them and turned them into his summons before stuffing them away.
The group then continued onwards.
“Whoa!” Leon couldn’t help exclaiming when he saw the giant dinosaur in front of him. It was easily the same size as the armored giant from the previous floor. To Leon, the giant monster simply resembled a T-rex. But it looked a hundred times more vicious than the images he had seen in his past life.
Grrrr…
The monster growled as it looked down at the people who had just stepped into its domain. The ‘boss room’ of this floor was not a room, but a very large, circular space that was cordoned off by multiple large boulders that formed a sort of ring.
As the boss growled, the surrounding rocks began to rumble. Immediately, Leon had a bad feeling, and his bad feeling turned out to be right. In the distance, he could see trails of dust beginning to rise through the sparse cover of the trees. And in front of those trails of dust were large, powerful dinosaur monsters. Raptors and other variants sped straight toward the boss room as their leader called for them.
“Oh, crap.” Darius muttered. Maria’s face paled, while Rodius had a determined expression on his face. A few dozen monsters were heading their way, and from the wave of oppressing auras that surged forward, they could easily tell that they were all High B rank.
Indeed, this was the Tower of Trials, and this was one of the Trials. This overwhelming number would be difficult to overcome, but it was the essence of the trial. How would they cope with the overwhelming number? The Gods were watching to see how well they could cope with this obstacle.
“Stand back.” Leon suddenly said and stepped forward. A cold aura wafted from his body as he stepped forward. Wisps of darkness rose from his body and the mana around him surged. He raised his arms up into the air.
Rumble!
The earth beneath his feet began to shake and quake. Leon poured an outrageous amount of mana into his Supreme Skill as he activated everything he had. The number of High B rank monsters heading their way were just too many for him to think that only a portion of his power could handle it. Even his C rank summons would be valuable here.
Boom!
Another explosion rang, but this time, it was different from the earlier one. This one shook the heart of all who heard it. It sounded as if the world itself was moaning in pain. A black pit spread open, radiating coldness from its depths, and monsters of all shapes and sizes rushed out. Large and small, but they all bore one thing in common. They bore the dark mark of Leon’s mana.
“Come forth!” Leon bellowed as he opened up the Abyss of the Undead. One by one, his elite summons, both old and new, stepped out of the abyss. Both the named and unnamed, they all answered their master’s call. Whether they were once human or not did not concern them.