A Path Of Bone And Poison - Chapter 78 War pt 2

On the outside things were Just as hectic. Tje advancing army of Velocinids and Rosethorns could be seen approaching. The trees themselves seemed to be getting closer as well. But the advancing forest did not have the serene feeling from before, rather it had a dark and sinister feeling. A feeling that sucked the mana right out of a person.

The wizards were the first to notice the phenomenon. As their mana started to deplete at a rate that only those who had abnormally high wisdom or blessings could keep up with.

I watched my mana slowly begin tonwiddle away. Thankfully my wisdom had advanced enough that the drop was not significant yet. It was dropping at the rate of a point a second. In an hour it would deplete by 3,600 points.

Sierra was better off. Her mana did not drop at all, and when she tested it she found that her mana still managed to recover despite the loss. Her wisdom was over 2,000 so of course she would be one of the few wizards we could rely on.

When the battle started I could not be more ready. My depleting mana was scary, it made me realize just how reliant I was on my magical abilities. Hylia was worse off. Her arrows cost her mana, and her mana had long since been depleted.

However she was still a spider, and had her fangs to fight. Archery was her forte, but with her strength and defense she was a capable fighter as well. This meant she could not passively sit on my shoulder and fire her arrows. Rather she had to get into the middle of the Frey to attack.

The first wave that struck us was an army of Velocinids that somehow was as big as the army of ice ghouls we had faced in the instance. This time I did not have the luxury of my gorilla warfare with my grenades. Their were far to many allies in the mix. I was forced into single combat, only able to cast grenades when I was far away from any of my allies.

This being the case I relied mostly on my bullets and bone blade.

The Velocinds were much weaker than the ghouls, and even a single bullet could slay the beasts. They stood no chance as I mercilessly slaughtered them.

Like wise the other members of my party were having a relatively easy time killing their prey. These low level beasts were nothing but trash mobs when we encountered them.

The other D ranked parties were not having it as easy as us. We were an abnormal group, strong enough to be a C class party. There was a total of around 300 D ranked adventures left after the betrayal of their previous comrades. They were faring extremely poorly. The Velocinids cared nothing for their lives, the powerful beasts behind them were much more terrifying than death.

The parties did not escape from the attack unscathed. At times the Velocinids moved in such a way as to completely surround a party. The isolated party would inevitably lose members. Especially those who were magic related.

Here, in this battle, melee was king. The once arrogant Wizards could only hang their heads in defeat as the melle fights they had always looked down on saved them time and time again. If they managed to survive at all.

Hylia was not in a good spot as well. Her bite was only enough for so much, and only recieved a boost from her natural weapon mastery. She was forced to use her coins to purchase some skills to upgrade it.

[Heavy Bite]

Bite attacks do twice as much damage

[True Natural attacks]

Bite attacks do 10% true damage

[Shredding Bite]

Your bite attacks shred the opponent, leaving them bleeding for 1/5 strength damage every second for 5 seconds.

The purchases painted her, as they used the rest of her coins. But the situation could not be avoided. Only true natural attacks did not bother her, as it would effect her arrows as well. Still this skill cost twice as much as the others.

The effects of her new skills were immediate. The Velocinids who had previously been giving her no end of trouble, now became like putty in her hands. If only she could have used her arrows she was have been a fox in a hen house.

The spiders began to die at an incredible rate around our party. Our wounds would be healed immediately by the fire walls Sierra had cast around us. The healing effect was only a secondary benefit though. The true purpose was to protect us from three sides, guiding the enemy into a single direction.

The strategy was simple, but it was effective. Thousands of Velocinids died by our hands, unfortunately what we. And everyone else had forgotten was that Velocinids did not confront their opponents like this. Velocinids were hunters. They stalked their enemy. And soon the entire guild would pay for the folly.