Chapter 863: More Monsters Equals More Loot
I took a battle stance as the horde of monsters rushed towards us from all three directions.
I thought about bringing more Shadow Guards out of my shadow to deal with the monsters. But seeing that there wasn't really a lot of space in the corridors, having more of them would be a hindrance instead so I refrained from that.
Since there were three different passages, I arranged for three of us to stand at the front to face the charge of wave of monsters.
I took the passage with the Gnoll Younglings while I got Eins to watch the goblins and Drei to deal with the Minotaurs.
Vier would stay behind us and make attacks of opportunity with her halberd while Zwei and Funf would support us with their arrows and magic.
As the Gnolls sprinted towards me on all fours, I heard a hum coming from beside my ear and I realised Lisa was the one making the sounds.
I turned my head slightly to the side, "You seem relaxed despite this…"
"Hmm~ Hmm~ Hmm? Oh~ Of course I would be, Aster~ You're here with me after all~"
"The fact that there's a whole horde of monsters charging at us doesn't bother you at all I see…"
"Ehehehe~ I am here to support you as well, Aster~ You don't need to worry~"
Right.
Not gonna lie, I do feel reassured that I have her on my back.
I shifted my concentration back to the monsters in front of me, shifting my grip on my swords as I prepared my attack.
Chapter Explore:
The lead Gnoll was practically salivating as it ran towards me, splatters of drool dripping out of its snout everytime its front legs impacted the ground as it rushed towards me.
Right as it was preparing to lunge towards me, I shot out a [Static Bolt] at it, the spell striking it in the chest and paralysing the monster momentarily.
The Gnolls that had been following behind it could not stop in time and ended up crashing into the lead Gnoll, creating a pileup in the corridor.
I leapt towards the pile of Gnolls and swung my Light Sword out while letting out a yell.
"[Sixfold Multi Slash]!"
The blade itself sliced through two of the Gnolls and decapitated their heads, right before six more slashes materialised in the area in front of me to slice up the rest of the Gnolls indiscriminately.
I leapt back to avoid the blood splatter from the Gnolls as they were slashed apart, some of them literally being cut in half from the skill.
Hmm~ It's been a while since I've used Valour skills since I've been so reliant on my magic but perhaps I should start learning a few more?
The sound of yips interrupted my thoughts as I was reminded that there were still monsters around me.
Not all the Gnolls had been in that pileup and the ones behind quickly climbed over their dead comrades to try to continue their mad rush towards me.
One of them even used the dead Gnolls as a springboard to leap towards me ahead of the rest of its brethren.
I pulled back my right arm as I lowered my stance, waiting for the airborne Gnoll to get within range before I did a sword thrust with my Shadow Blade.
The Gnoll impaled itself on my invisible sword as my blade went through its head to embed itself in its back.
With the Gnoll still attached to the blade, I turned it into an improvised hammer as I swung it down to smash it against another Gnoll that was attempting to attack me from below.
I then pulled out my blade and poured my mana into both my Light Sword and the Shadow Sword.
Half of the corridor was suddenly bathed in a bright yellow light emanating from my Light Sword while the other half seemed to get darker as the dark flames of my Shadow Sword appeared to eat up light itself.
With both blades in my hand, I rushed head first towards the horde of Gnolls while Lisa continued her carefree humming behind me.
One Gnoll tried to swipe its claw at me from my left and I ducked under the blow to cut open its chest with my light sword, the blade slashing through skin, muscle and bone like they were made of paper.
Another Gnoll tried to do the same from my right and I simply raised my Shadow Sword to block the blow and the Gnoll ended up setting its hand on fire.
The black flames started to consume its flesh and the monster let out a wail of pain and panic as it tried to put out the fire, not knowing that it could not be quenched.
I left it to burn as I turned to face the third Gnoll that was bracing itself to leap at me.
Unfortunately for it, I moved in front of it faster than it could complete its crouch and stabbed my Light Sword through its head, separating its face into two vertically.
A short distance away, a Gnoll climbed over the corpse pileup and prepared to lunge at me to bite my head off.
"[Laser]~" Lisa hummed, materialising a beam of light that pierced through the chest of the monster where I presume its heart was.
The monster looked down in shock before falling backwards, crashing into another of its brethren that had also tried to climb over the corpses and pinning it under its weight.
I didn't have time to thank her as I had to pull out my Light Sword just in time to avoid another Gnoll from slashing its claws at me.
I then went ahead to smack the Gnoll at the back of its head with my Shadow Sword.
Yes, I didn't even bother cutting it and just used the effect of the black flames to set it on fire.
The Gnoll let out a yip before it realised it was burning and immediately tried to run back to its comrades for help.
You can imagine how that went as the panicked Gnoll crashed into the horde which made the previously small fire spread into an uncontrollable blaze.
Shame that the first one I burned ended up letting itself burn to death or else this would have started earlier.
Five more Gnolls managed to avoid the flames to try and cut me down, probably thinking that if they took me out, the flames would be quenched as well.
I lowered myself into a stance before spinning in a circle, my two swords slashing open the guts of three Gnolls and flinging them away from me.
One of them managed to get past my guard to claw at my chest while the other one lunged at my left arm and bit on it.
Both attacks ended up having no effect on me as Lisa's armour deflected the claw strike away and protected me against the bite as well without leaving a scratch.
I went ahead to smash the pommel of my Shadow Sword into the face of the Gnoll that was biting me to dislodge it from my arm before I slashed the same sword at the other Gnoll to cut open its chest.
Lisa then went ahead to cast another [Laser] to finish off the Gnoll that had been reeling from my pommel smash and that cleaned up my side of the corridor.
Turning back, I found Drei in the midst of flipping herself over a minotaur while cutting its head off and Funf blasting another minotaur with a gout of flames.
There was only one other minotaur left and Drei used the minotaur she just decapitated as a springboard to launch herself towards him to stab her swords into his chest.
The monster let out a roar of pain and tried to grab her in its hand but Funf shot a [Static Bolt] at it to stun him, giving Vier enough time to leap towards the larger monster to smash her halberd into his head, splitting the monster down the middle into half.
Eins and Zwei were still stuck fighting the goblins as there seemed to be more of them than I thought and there were already a pile of goblin corpses in front of Eins as she cut them down one after the other.
I realised she hadn't even moved from her original spot this entire time and any goblin that entered her range was instantly cut down while those outside of it were shot down by arrows courtesy of Zwei.
The remaining goblins were trying to taunt Eins by poking at her shield while using their dead comrades as meat shields against Zwei's arrows.
I think… You girls can stop playing with the goblins and just finish them off already…
As though responding to my thoughts, Eins immediately moved forward and smashed through the remaining goblins with her shield, flinging them all into the air.
Zwei then went ahead to accurately shoot them all with an arrow to their heads each, killing them all before they came crashing back down onto the ground.
With the final monster dead, I finally realised just how many corpses there were here.
In other words… How much loot there was and it was all for me~
Let's start looting, girls~