664 10/11 15:31 (Autumn, Night, Dungeon Propriety of the Guild in Astrar, Tenth Floor)
Evan sighed, his sword flashing forward and cutting in half the wave of fire sent towards him, the blue viscuous blade having shifted to neutralize the heat and flames alike, letting him move to reach the still red Unit, launching a kick on its chest just strong enough to send it reeling without killing it.
Turning around immediately, his sword enveloped in sparks of electricity flashed forward a couple of times, cutting apart the stone spikes that tried to impale him before surveying the arena briefly.
Klevel was casually fighting against one of the Units hand-to-hand, taking advantage of his wealth of experience caused by his age to keep it under control, moving around its attacks and launching his own in between its staff strikes, continuing to suppress it and keeping it busy.
"How many times did that one die?" The swordman asked his Partymate.
"This is only the fourth time, I am sorry to say." The Priest answered back, Channeling Holy-Attribute Mana into raw physical might, swinging at full power his Unique Arma, Vital Energy flaring around the weapon, an Art derived by [Iron Blow] where she magnified the force of the blow in exchange for increasing the strain on the weapon itself, meaningless worry in this case considering his staff's innate indestructibility.
His blow struck true, crushing the side of its head, an otherwise critical blow in an organic opponent that was still far from enough on its own to an inorganic one.
Klevel continued on with its blow, spinning his staff and crashing it back down upon the Unit's turned neck, cratering its chest inward before finally finishing it off with a final blow that caused it to crumble apart.
Its body dissolved, leaving behind only its two opaque gems spinning around each other and slowly rising in mid-air.
The Elf turned away, taking advantage of the time he bought to Cast a Holy-Attribute Spell on both himself and Evan, restoring their Energy once more.
The Human wordlessly nodded back in thanks, his Prismatic Sword of the Elementalist flashing forward, its grey blade easily parting his metallic opponent again and again, cutting it apart until only its gems remained.
And as this was the fifth time that particular Unit was destroyed, its gems fell on the ground, glowing weakly but completely still otherwise.
His eyes moved all over the place again, stopping briefly on the other four gems that rested in the ground, their corresponding Units having already been destroyed five times and so they were left harmless, before turning towards the only one still fully active, the one still glowing a dull orange.
Upon seeing his gaze, the Boss Unit immediately Casted another Earth-Attribute Spell, burying themselves immediately to gain time and prepare, thing that actually was an advantage for the two members of the Iriblades.
After all they didn't want all five of them dead at the same time or the second phase would begin immediately, being much more efficient to first exhaust the Units' Reserves to minimize the amount of Energy that the second Phase would have access to.
Not that the rest of their Party would have actually done this.
Between Azure's straightforward killing intent, Marine's easily riled-up personality and tendency to flood a place if challenged long enough and as the result of the two being together, Fora would grow irritated enough to simply brute force the Boss as quickly as possible.
Which lead to Evan's current consideration. "Why exactly did you choose these teams?" He asked, impaling his sword in the ground, its blade now composed of a bright orange gem-like material, Channeling his Mana in the ground underneath his body, forcing his enemy to need to contest his will if any Spell would be Casted on the ground beneath him.
Klevel reached him, landing on the ground protected by his efforts. "What do you mean?" He asked more curious than anything else.
"Well, this whole Dungeon is concentrated in testing the most amount of Attributes possible and in this the two teams are quite mismatched. Azure can hit all five Elemental Attributes without issues, sure, but both Marine and Fora are more or less stuck only using the Water- and Earth-Attributes respectively, that Azure already is able to hit." He hesitated before continuing.
"I believe that while our separation into two teams, one of three and one of two makes sense, as does the fact that I and our archer are in two different teams, both because of our roles as the principal damage dealers and the amount of Attributes we can each use. In addition, considering how I can use all nine of them, it makes more sense that I am in the team of two. But what I don't understand is-"
"Is why you are in a team with me, correct? Don't worry, your analysis is correct. Quite frankly, the optimal teams would have been you with Marine as a Support in one team while the other would have been comprised by Azure, Fora and me. After all I am proficient with both the Holy- and Dark-Attributes, widening their options." Klevel confirmed, having long since organized the ideal teams for this Dungeon and thus highlighting that a real reason existed.
"Then why?" the Human asked, taking advantage of the fact that only one Unit was active at the moment.
Klevel sighed. "I was planning on telling you once the Boss would be defeated, before we took the Dungeon Crystal but-"
"Then tell me once we are done here." Evan nodded, cutting him off at once and concentrating back into the fight they were in, trusting that he would tell him his reasoning later.
Evan used his Unique Skill, Elementalist, on his own Mana, causing it to shift to the Fire-Attribute while maintaining his sword's alignment with the Earth-Attribute.
And as a conseguence the ground he was affecting, while still being solid, rapidly heat up, becoming a substance similar to lava, the heat expanding not towards the two Iriblades being left comfortable as the heat was vented outwards, further increasing the difficulty of interfering with the rock beneath them.
"How much longer until your Unit is done regenerating?" Evan asked, his eyes searching any traces of the buried Monster.
"In around five seconds or so." Klevel responded, his ears twitching to hear any traces of attacks directed towards the two of them, his Holy-Attribute Mana surrounding his staff and ready to smash apart any incoming projectiles.
"Very well. In that case…" The Human rose his Unique Arma once more, its blade shifting from being made of amber it was now composed entirely of incredibly pure water that, despite its liquid state was still maintaining the general shape of a blade.
"3." Evan started counting, once more using his Unique Skill on his Mana itself, shifting it into the Air-Attribute, wind starting to swirl around it, conjoining with his water and starting to fill the air around them with floating cold droplets.
"2." Klevel continued on, his own Mana flaring before concentrating in a single, Holy-Attribute mass around the butt of his staff that upon striking the ground separated itself to form a slowly blooming flower made of a soft golden glow, pulling in the Energy from the air around it to then radiate outwards, feeding both Evan and Klevel himself.
An ideal Spell for a battle of attrition considering the fact that given enough time it would more than make up for the Mana spent in the Spell, especially while in a place as filled with ambient Mana as the inside of a Dungeon and considering the fact that as a wisp of Mana alone, it behaved similarly to an Immaterial Existence.
Immediately after Dark-Attribute Mana exploded from his staff gently, flowing together and mixing with the droplets in the air.
"1!" Evan ended, swinging his blade and releasing a wave of wind in time with his swing, picking up the water drops and sending them all over the place, causing them to soon enough burst into waves of elemental Energies.
The two dull gems belonging to the Unit that Klevel destroyed collided once more, detonating in a wave of power that reconstituted in the Unit, just in time for a wave of sharp winds and Dark-imbued waters to fall upon it, stopping it from accessing any of those Attributes or be annihilated in an instant.
The old Elf smiled slightly, glad of their coordination, pointing his staff towards the Unit and blasting it with an almost harmless wave of Holy-Attribute Mana, dodging its Damage Nullification to apply a Status Effect on it, an inverted Benediction that would deal it a little bit, pratically insignificant amount of Holy-Damage every second, thing that seemed meaningless considering they naturally had a Nullification but meant that it could no longer use the Holy-Attribute.
The ground around the batch still being protected from Evan ruptured upwards, ammassing into large jagged masses that started floating in the sky.
"Hoh?" Evan smiled, the liquid form of his sword changing once more, transforming into solid lightning.
The masses exploded, raining down upon the two as large spears that tried to impale them and the Human answered in kind.
The lightning forming his blade erupted forth in long branches that precisely thrust into each mass and anchoring in the ground in various points.
Satisfied, he once more used his Unique Skill, Elementalist, affecting this time his Lightning-Attribute itself and shifting it into Earth-Attribute, transforming the branches into solid rock that held itself up on its own, blocking the Unit's projectiles in mid-air.
As his own Earth-Attribute Mana first took control of and then unified with the rocks thrown at the two of them, merging them together, Klevel posed one of his hands on the stone and the other on the flower of Holy-Attribute Mana, awaiting for Evan's next move.
And soon enough, the Attribute of the stone changed once more, bringing with it the stone shards and transforming them both directly into Holy-Attribute Mana, Energy that was immediately linked with the Priest's flower, joining the two in a single whole that absorbed and radiated an higher quantity of Energy, faster and more efficiently than the initial state at a pratically insignificant Cost.
Once he was done feeling his Vital Energy and Mana being fully Restored to their maximum, the stress on his body and Soul vanishing as if they never existed at all under its overwhelming radiance, Evan acted once more.
Turning his Prismatic Sword of the Elementalist to the Curse-Attribute, its blade becoming a jagged purple, and then his own Mana to the Holy-Attribute, he linked the two together with the much bigger flower, letting it become the combination of the two.
The flower bloomed once more, the three meters tall golden flower opening its wide purple flowers and emitting a quite more powerfull radiance.
If the nature of the Holy-Attribute was a positive change, adding and increasing the "plus" and the nature of the Curse-Attribute was a negative change, adding and increasing the "minus" instead, this Spell combined the two aspects together by stealing the Energy directly from everything and everyone that is not the Spell's Targets and then sharing it with the two of them, not an attack that could be Nullified but a simple Effect that would dodge their Resistances entirely.
Energy flooded into both Evan and Klevel, rejuvenating them, the Human stepping forward, clenching together his hands, his Unique Arma being left behind between the flower's stem, helping maintain the fragile balance of their Spell.
The swordsman's body was enveloped in a thick layer of Mana, flaring upwards and outwards as his steps sounded out. "I may not be an expert without a weapon but I still know more than enough to deal with you." He voiced out, his Mana constantly changing in its Attribute while the Priest was currently tending to the flower, assuring it would be stable in its growth.
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