Chương 215: Not this shit again…

"FIRE!" With a snap of the bowstring, the magical arrow disappeared, and an explosion rocked the swamp. I could see the closer drake getting blasted on its shoulder. It didn't slow it at all.

"Aim for the weak spots!" Tom bellowed. They were durable, as Marcus said. That explosion managed to rip off a patch of scales the size of a palm, but nothing more, and to an undead monster it was basically nothing.

"I'm trying! That thing moves too much!" replied the archer. The previous explosion masked the sound of Marcus' atlatl, but the aftermath was clearly visible. The man had accurately thrown his slim spear straight into the farther monster's head. It didn't go into the eye, but pierced the head all the same. The problem was, the monster just flinched and continued moving towards us. That one had a core all right.

Another twang sounded from Andrea's bowstring, and a different-hued magical arrow embedded itself into the same monster she hit before. This time it pierced the head and disappeared into the body. Not even the fletching was poking out, and still the creature moved. Just our luck. We got two at the price of one, and both had cores. I started hexing both monsters, and to my dismay, out of ten hexes only half stuck. The others failed to pierce whatever magical defenses they had. Damn my low stats.

I didn't have that much mana to throw around. I cast again until both drakes had five hexes each, the magic slowing them down. Not by a mile, but enough to make a difference. Beside me I saw Rhea creating magic circles in the air. Then she took out a pearl from her bag, and after floating in the air, it touched the middle of her circle formation, bursting into flame and empowering whatever ritual she was casting. More spears and arrows followed.

Now the long-range fighters were trying to hit joints to disable them, with moderate success now that they were slower. The monsters were side by side now, hobbling as more and more projectiles found their way into their legs, but our time to deal with them from afar was finished. Despite everything, the drakes were strong and fast, having eaten up the distance between us in seconds.

"Alya! Frederik! Block them!" Tom's voice carried something magical this time. I could clearly feel it. The two frontliners got jolted by the command and shot forward like one of Andrea's arrows. Alya went for the first drake, her blade igniting with maroon flames that trailed as she moved, bringing it down like a guillotine on the monster's shoulder.

The blade sliced through the place Andrea blasted before, cutting through muscle as she sidestepped a swipe of the claws and started a very dangerous dance with the thing. Frederick instead proceeded to literally shoulder-check the monster in the face. It didn't really stop it in its tracks, but it surely grabbed its attention. Contrary to Alya, though, he was using his arms to block and parry the drake.

Then, when he could, he would strike back, his fists sounding heavy as they hit the monster, even from a distance. He really had improved a lot, and after a round of stat fruits his defenses were off the charts.

"Keep them busy. Quinn, go for the legs! Chloe, support them!" shouted Tom. Quinn was already moving. He disappeared and reappeared behind the monsters, blurring to my normal view. Only with my senses could I keep track of him accurately. He started slicing into the monsters' legs, ducking under the tails that lashed out at him, but the effort on the drakes' part was lackluster as they focused most of their attention on the frontliners. Alya was a whirlwind of strikes.

She deflected claws and bites alike, her sword ringing with every impact. She managed to blind her foe, while Frederick instead went into total defense, no longer capable of sustaining his attacks, but it was more than enough to keep the monster at bay, especially with whatever magic Chloe was throwing at them. It didn't directly damage them, but they were far less coordinated than before. Rhea's ritual flared brightly, the magic consuming itself only to then flow into the drakes.

At first I couldn't detect anything different, but then bright yellow motes shone from inside the monsters' bodies. It was like I could see through them.

"The light marks the core!" she said triumphantly.

"Good work! Now disable the front legs, Quinn! Marcus, reinforce Fred! Alya, just keep it occupied! Elias, slow it down more!" Tom's orders went off one after the other, and finally I understood what had happened before. There was a magic trying to influence me. I could feel it clearly. It had a mental component that I could easily resist. I suspected the others could too. It was minor, but the remaining magic was something different. Royal Road is the home of this novel.

Visit there to read the original and support the author. I let it work without blocking it. Actually, if I didn't do anything my aura would just eat it up, so I intentionally let it pass and felt a surge of power coursing through me. The boost was not extreme, but it was there. I channeled more hexes and discovered that there was a clear difference from before. It was like my magic was energized somehow. All of my new hexes penetrated the monsters' magical defenses.

Part of it was due to my trait, Hexer's Touch, but Tom's commanding skill had a hand in this too. I saw Marcus abandon his atlatl to retrieve a massive bone club from a leather pouch, a spatial storage for sure, given that it would have been impossible to fit even a tenth of that weapon in there. The old man charged the drake Frederick was keeping at bay, if keeping it at bay was acting as a chew toy for the blasted thing. I was actually impressed, though.

He was getting roughed up, but at the same time everyone else would have become minced meat in his place. His durability was incredible. Marcus managed to get the younger man's arm out of the drake's mouth by repeatedly smashing the side of its jaw. Now free, and with another frontliner helping him, Frederick proceeded to charge some kind of skill. His right fist started glowing with a silvery light as he and Marcus resumed harassing the monster to keep its attention.

"Move out of the way!" shouted Andrea suddenly. I saw she was charging a powerful shot at the drake Alya was currently engaging. The warrior glanced back for an instant, then skillfully parried a mighty sweep of the monster's claws and turned slightly to the side, exposing the softer flank to Andrea, who didn't miss the chance. The light of Rhea's ritual was still there, exposing the core's location. I felt a great deal of mana coming out suddenly from the older woman.

She was channeling many skills at once, both to empower herself and her arrow. Suddenly a streak of light pierced through the drake, burning itself into my retinas, and after a moment the air screamed as it filled back up the void created by the passing of the arrow. The drake started to twitch and attack its surroundings randomly, all the while roaring. Claws rended the ground. Its tail nearly got Alya as it turned in a circle. It went totally mad and started to leak a foul kind of magic. I could feel it.

It was like a bad smell, necrotic mana maybe? It came out of the wound and dispersed into the atmosphere, but most of it went back into the swamp.

"I didn't get any kill notification!" shouted the archer.

"Because it's clearly still alive!" shouted back Alya, all the while trying to keep the raving monster at bay. I felt a spike of mana coming from the dying beast.

"It's about to attack! Alya, fall back!" I shouted. The drake, while clawing and rolling around, opened its mouth, and a second later a thin beam of swamp water shot out like a laser. It cut through the earth and the few trees like they were butter. Then it turned, and I saw Alya jump and twist her body to avoid the attack. Tom stepped in front of Chloe, raising his shield, while I instead placed myself in front of Mary and Rhea, manifesting my aura and taking the sweeping jet of water in their stead.

The magic was stopped easily enough. Easily given that the jet hit my aura for only a fraction of a second. If the jet had been aimed and sustained, that would have been another matter entirely. I saw Tom sliding slightly backward but tanking the hit, while Marcus used the other drake as protection, hiding behind it. The water jet left deep furrows in its scales and flesh, but the drake didn't even react to it. It just continued trying to maul Frederick while unknowingly shielding him from the worst of the attack.

I saw the jet hit his arm for a moment. The man let out a shout of pain, and his glowing fist stopped glowing as the magic left a flesh wound on him. It was the first time I had seen him bleeding until now, but the wound wasn't that serious, all things considered.

"I got you!" I heard Mary shout from behind me. Then a golden-green light appeared on Frederick's arm, and his wound healed so quickly it was gone after a few seconds. Finally the water jet ended, and the creature slumped on the ground, dead.

"Now it's dead!" Andrea chimed. Yeah, we can see that…

"Alya, cut off the other drake's tail! Quinn had already disabled its legs. We just need to be mindful of the head!" Tom's command was heard and executed quickly. Alya's sword got enveloped in aura. Then the sword itself took it and compressed it along its edge, and like a butcher at the cutting board, the tail got cleanly separated from the body. If the monster felt anything it didn't show it. It just tried to turn its body to snap at Frederick, who resumed channeling that skill. It was quite a long channel.

Actually it was less than five seconds, but in a battle like this, five seconds were five too long. I saw him dash towards the drake's belly, and with a shout he punched where the light showed the location of the core. His punch tore through the hard scales and half a yard of muscle, creating a small crater of flesh in the side of the drake, leaving Frederick's arm embedded in the monster, which started to thrash with renewed fury. But the man held steady, and planting his foot on the open wound, he pulled.

With a shout his arm came free, making him stumble backward, but in his grasp I could see a large crystalline sphere, the core. The second drake fell, slumping lifelessly into the wet ground of the swamp.

"Well, that didn't go too badly, no?" asked Andrea, a playful grin on her face.

"It was terrible. We really need to improve our coordination," said Tom.

"I agree. We are much stronger than this, and we won't start any solo fights until we can take these things down without a hitch," I said to everyone. And I meant it. Tom needed to use his commands better. He needed to lead the team like an orchestra conductor, not just give a couple of orders here and there. His commanding skill was very useful. He needed to work on it. As for the others, well, I had a lot more to say.

"Everyone, we need to improve, so I want to hear what you think could have been done better, and not about the others, but about yourself. You know your skills and traits better, so it's up to you all to do the best you can," I told the vanguard as they approached. I didn't want to start more drama with "you should have done this and that." I would make them point out their own inadequacies, and they would have to correct them.

They wouldn't like it, but if everyone started pointing out the mistakes of everyone else instead of their own, it would devolve into a never-ending discussion.

"I'll go first," said Tom. I gave him a nod of approval. He knew what I was trying to do, and played along. It was good to be working with competent and mature people.

"Wait! I know what she did wrong," Andrea said while pointing at Rhea. Not this shit again…