There was no need to talk twice, everyone immediately dropped what they were doing and began to run. Energy pumped down my limbs and the ground cracked as I took off.
But we didn't get far.
There was massive explosion and the pot pit erupted! Blood exploded upward, sending blood and bodies flying in all directions.
Not only that, an aura of intense bloodlust began to radiate all around, bringing with it a pressure that made our limbs shook.
I started to climb the stairs as fast as I could, my heart beating fast to drown out any other sound from my ears, but then Grimoire suddenly appeared before me unsummoned! Flickering with green fire that cast no heat.
It was so unexpected that I almost stopped running but then....my Grimoire suddenly jerked me back! I fell with a scream, hit the ground hard, but I felt no pain thanks to my new body.
I glared at the Grimoire. "What?"
"Torvan!" Temur called. He was halfway up behind Litha, but he heard my scream and looked back. "Come on up!"
The pot was sending out an aura that made it almost hard to breathe and everything to appear in an haze of red.
I ignored the Grimoire and ran up the stairs again, my feet barely cleared two steps before it flared again and slammed into me making me to stumble.
I cursed as another explosion rocked the pot and shattered it.
Something dark crawled out of the hole and started moving toward me. I couldn't see it clearly, but it had too many tentacles and flesh for my liking, and it was moving incredibly fast.
I reached out with all my mental power, yanking my Grimoire into my mind with all my power, It resisted, but after a second tug, it dissolved into a green light and disappeared.
By the time I got control of it, the Devourer was already looming in front of me. It looked like an octopus, but its body was made of hard brown skin. Teeth jutted out of its body like spikes, and a single red eye glowed in the center of its head.
It raised one massive tentacle that filled my vision and my heart stopped at the sheer pressure that was coming from the thing.
For a moment, I forgot I was Awakened, I forgot I was Iron rank. I just stared as that tentacle came down.
I....am dead.
But then a red streak shot out of nowhere and slammed into the monster, sending it back out from shock than anything.
And then another arrow, still burning with a red aura, lodged firmly into its head with a thwack!
Temur landed in front of me, shaking the ground enough to snap me out of my trance. "You said you want to be powerful, don't you?! Then prove it! This is a proper monster. Let's see what you got."
A red aura surrounded him like flames, curling around his body like a sheet of molten fire.
Above us, Litha cursed. "This is why I don't like working with idiots." She turned to the survivor. "You stay here."
Then she bent her mana, made herself lighter, and jumped, falling as fast and light as a feather.
I shook myself free of my fears and took a deep breath, then with slightly trembling hands I called my Grimoire, and it came eagerly, like a puppy.
I opened the first page and read my skills.
[Welcome...son of Death]
[Iron rank –> Dance of the Bones], [Iron rank –> Unholy Bond], [Iron rank –> Unholy magic]
[Unholy Magic: Use Unholy magic to fuel your Monster Necromancer spells: mastering this skill is the step to perfecting all your spells]
[Dance of the Bones: As the faithful student of the Death Lord, you can use the spell, Dance of the Bones to control monster bones, make them stronger, and shape them in any way you want. Even unlock special abilities trapped in the bones. To use the spell, cast in the name of Mors...]
[Unholy Bond. Bind dead monsters and make them yours. But sadly, only unique monsters can be Bonded to the faithful student of the Death Lord...]
I read it and it sink into my brain as if it were planted there. I couldn't just bond any monster? What the.....is that how it's really supposed to....
I shoved that thought aside and started looking for monster bones around me.
Meanwhile, Temur and the Devourer were fighting. "It seems the summoning isn't complete. You're weaker than you should be." He nocked another arrow, infused it with his aura, and released it.
The arrow shot forward like a bullet of blood.
It slammed into the monster in almost the same spot as before.
The force sent it staggering again, but apart from that nothing seems to happen to it.
"You're eating my aura?" Temur asked, putting his arrow back into his spatial ring and pulling out one of his many swords.
His Grimoire is different from others. It manifested as a long-dead, great warrior, mentoring him in the art of aura fighting. Every bit of mana he absorbed is converted into aura.
He raised his sword just as something heavy landed on the monster.
Temur blinked.
Litha was covered in blinding blue light as she bent the mana she was emitting into a shield around herself covering herself in a thin sheet of shield like an armor.
She then began to punch the monster, pouncing the monster to a pulp with every strike.
When she said they were above-average Iron rank, she it seems she wasn't really exaggerating.
But not matter how she punched, the monster only seems to be regenerating.
"Ahhhhhhh! Get out of there, Litha! Now! Now!" I shouted. I had found a piece of bone earlier, still attached to some rotting flesh under a dead man.
I didn't know how [Dance of the Bones] worked, but when I touched the bone, something welled up inside me. Unholy magic flickered at the tips of my fingers, bright green.
I did the only thing I could think of and I poured all the Unholy magic in me into the bone. Strength left me as it flowed into the bone and it cracked, throbbing with power and swelling with green fire.
I knew instinctively I'd fucked up somehow but I did not know how.
I ran, shouting again. "Get out of there, Litha! Now!"
Litha looked up, sensing more than seeing what I held in my hand.
The mana in the air shuddered as I ran forward with the abomination in my grasp. She abandoned the monster she was punching and ran toward Temur, projecting a shield around the two of them.
I threw the bone at the monster and ran back as fast as I could.
There was nowhere else to hide, so I jumped into the pot pit, hoping nothing hot remained inside.
There was a brief silence...and then.
The bone exploded, first with green Unholy magic fire, then it was sharply followed by an electric yellow spark that shook the ground and sent a blasting shockwave through the room, turning near stones to dust.
Temur whistled behind the shield. "I motivated him that much?"