As those monsters came closer, Carmen could feel their individual auras a bit better. There were only three, which while not great, was still better than there being six to fight.
As it was, the combined auras of three of those unsettling monsters was getting to be suffocating, especially as they got closer.
“Wait, Kagriss, calm down. Let’s make a plan? What do we know?” Carmen said, holding the lich. “So they can’t use magic except crude reinforcement spells; they’re mostly physical oriented; they’re weaker than true knight-class warriors, but are much more persistent…anything else?”
“They’re resistant to holy magic,” Kagriss muttered. “You’re right, Mistress…they’re nothing to be afraid of. Forgive me.”
Carmen shook her head. “Feeling fear means you’re alive. Fear is required for courage, and conquering that fear and pushing beyond it is true bravery. You’re brave, Kagriss.”
She stood up on her toes while pulling Kagriss down, kissing her on the lips. Kagriss’s eyes widened—she’d never expected her mistress to be so proactive. Kagriss had always been the initiator before.
To be honest, Carmen surprised herself as well with that move, pulling away redder than before as she touched her lips.
Well…she did want to be more proactive instead of letting Kagriss take the lead every time, but she had to admit now wasn’t the best time. However, she just wanted to encourage Kagriss a little.
“Anyways…let’s figure out how we’re going to fight against them. There are so many, and fighting fire against fire with brute force won’t cut it this time.”
“Mistress, can you defeat one of them by yourself without my help?”
“If they’re all like the one we just killed, then yes.” That was true especially if the battlefield was in an open space, like this one, where she could put the full potential of her sword to use. “Do you have an idea?”
“It’s nothing complicated…I just think that if I can stall the other two with my magic, we might be able to take them out one at a time.”
That was a good idea. “Still, how will you stall them? Can you focus on two control spells at the same time?” That chain spell that Kagriss had used earlier was powerful and probably required sustained concentration to maintain it. The more powerful the spell, the more effort needed to be expended to maintain that concentration. “Are you up to the task?”
Kagriss’s head bobbed. “Yes, Mistress!”
“Then I leave it up to you. Once they come, I’ll block them at the entrance and you take the chance to stop two of them while I take on the third.”
When Kagriss nodded again in agreement, they each took an appropriate position in the chamber, with Carmen at the entrance of the tunnel and Kagriss slightly to the side so she had a clear line of fire.
The overwhelming undead auras heralded the monsters’ arrival, and then they finally appeared around the bend, running like beastly humans on all fours. The sight of that uneven, twisted gait made Carmen sick to her stomach. Humans were not meant to run on all fours, yet that’s how these beasts chose to move.
Digging her feet into the ground and stabbing the point of the greatsword into the stone, she pressed her hand against the flat of the blade to brace herself. She began to construct a spell that would have been instantly cast had she been a proper templar. However, as an undead and thanks to the interference from her sword, the spell took a while to construct, which was why she hadn’t been able to cast it earlier against the first monster.
This time, she had the time to ready herself.
“Bulwark!” A shimmering golden surface appeared over her sword as well as herself, as if she was encased in some kind of crystal armor. The shimmering surface felt uncomfortably warm on her skin.
Lacking a shield, she had to use the closest alternative that she could find to block with—her greatsword.
Putting her center of gravity even lower and trying to ignore how her own spell was almost hurting her, she prepared for impact.
With an ear-piercing screech, the claws of the leading monster scraped across her empowered sword as it swiped at her, trying to knock the weapon aside.
However, her spell held. The monster not only failed to pierce through her defenses, the unexpectedly tough resistance made it lose its balance as it had put most of its strength into the blow.
The two other monsters behind it caught up and slammed into it, throwing them into three layers of flesh and an entanglement of limbs.
“Now, Kagriss!” Carmen shouted. She didn’t dare undo her spell just in case Kagriss failed to properly secure her targets. On the other hand, Kagriss only had one chance since Carmen wasn’t large enough to block off the entire tunnel.
If only the monsters hadn’t been so confident in their strength, they could have just slipped past her on either side and that would have been bad. Once they untangled themselves, there’s a good chance that they’ll do that anyways.
Please succeed, Kagriss! Carmen prayed in her mind.
Undead mana gathered behind her, temporarily overpowering the massive presence of the three monsters before her. It split into two masses, two spells, and two chains snaked around her from behind, striking two monsters from the pile and entangling them in black chains, wrapping them up in cocoons of metal.
Now, there was only one left in front of Carmen. Since Kagriss upheld her side of the job, then naturally Carmen didn’t want to fall behind.
The monster staggered to its feet and lunged at Carmen who couldn’t move well because of the Bulwark spell. However, as the monster struck toward her a second time, Carmen was already preparing a second Art.
Once more, the claws of the monster scraped futilely against the sword. As it expended its momentum, Carmen called forth the Art that she had been preparing. “Bulwark Breaker!”
The shimmering armor on her body and sword exploded outwards, forcefully pushing the monster behind with a scalding, holy blast. And not only that, the thin but potently durable fragments shot forth like shards of glass, embedding themselves shallowly in the monster’s skin.
Free to move once more, she charged after the disoriented monster and grabbed the first part of its body that she could get a good hold on and pulled, flinging it backwards so that it flew into the chamber, smashing against the wall. Pulling her sword behind her, Carmen charged after it.
A dull hollow noise of her blade splitting the air sounded as she cleaved toward the monster. The huge blade looked powerful enough to slice its body straight in two, but suddenly, the monster held up its hands and laced its claws together. A huge amount of mana, so great that it was chaotic and uncontrolled, flowed into the monster’s claws then.
When the greatsword crashed into the claws, the claws surprisingly did not break.
“Impossible!” How could something so thin, so fragile looking as the monster’s claws stand up to her greatsword? Carmen had to remind herself to not panic—so close to the monster, every negative emotion she felt seemed to be amplified many times over. If she began to doubt herself, she could forget about feeling confident again.
That’s right, she had to remain calm. It was normal that the monster’s claws were so durable—it had pulled out so many surprises again and again, and just a little more won’t matter. She couldn’t keep applying what she knew about undead to these monsters. “Nothing is impossible with these things. Everything is normal. I can’t let that startle me…”
From what she did know, however, these monsters seemed weak to being pressured. It wasn’t very adaptable in the short term, so as long as she overwhelmed it with a flurry of attacks, there was a good chance that it wouldn’t be able to fight back. Carmen narrowed her eyes and jumped back. She shouldered her sword, winding up for a second blow.
The sword crashed down, and once again, the monster managed to catch the sword between its claws. However, instead of giving up completely and backing up, Carmen simply pulled back her sword and the moment she cleared the claws and the sword began to drop once more, she pushed forward.
She leaned her entire weight into the greatsword as it shot forward, piercing into the stomach of the monster. It couldn’t adapt in time.
“Sever!”
A black light shone briefly before a cutting wave of mana expanded from her sword. The undead versions of her Arts tended to be more powerful and easier to use, especially if the holy versions weren’t any more effective.
A huge gash ripped open in the monster’s chest, but Carmen did not have any illusions that it had been defeated. Pulling her sword out with a wet squelch, she began to systematically chop up the monster into ever smaller bits. But she had only managed to bisect the monster three times when Kagriss suddenly called out from behind her.
“Mistress! I can’t hold them anymore!”
Carmen whirled around, leaving the monster behind. After being reduced to that state, even a monster like that should take a while to recover. She rushed over to Kagriss’s side, following her gaze to where the two chained undeads were. “What do you mean?”
“They’re dissolving my chains somehow,” Kagriss said, looking worried and more than a little guilty. “I’m sorry, Mistress. I failed.”
“No you didn’t. Do you know how they’re doing it?”
Kagriss shook her head.
Carmen watched as the chains holding the two undeads down, the part where it sank into the undead’s skin, began to corrode. It was a slow by steady process.
Black mist had covered the length of the chains, and it was in that thick, almost opaque mist that the chains were being dissolved. The secret was in that black mist of undead energy, but what was it?
With another look to make sure that the monster she had just disabled wasn’t an immediate threat, she ran over to the two monsters and scattered the mist with a swing of her sword. As the mist dispersed briefly, she felt it.
It was the unmistakable glow of holy mana, hidden beneath the shell of undead mana. It was like the reverse of what Carmen liked to do when she needed to use undead mana without anyone knowing.
The two monsters had been slowly dismantling Kagriss’s binding spell using holy mana that felt just as wrong as their undead mana, all while hiding their activities from Kagriss and Carmen using a screen of undead mana.
Now that she thought about it, these monsters had never used combat spells against her. Could it be that these monsters were actually potential high mages?
Was their bestial, instincts driven actions just an act, or were their innate talents with magic just that powerful?
And most importantly, why are they able to use that strange holy mana?
You can probably just have there be two broad categories of spells-melee and ranged. Templars/undead knights are mainly melee spell casters that might be able to do some ranged magic if the need arises, while priests and liches are ranged casters that might be able to do melee spells but usually lack the focus to use them in the heat of battle.
If you don't want to have to retcon things, you can just have the human name for melee spells be Arts and have the demons/other races all just use the word spells for everything that uses mana. Maybe even make it a plot point to have Victoria tell Carmen that "Arts" are just the human name for melee spells (poking fun at humans' limited understanding of mana), and then have Carmen use the phrase melee spells and then later Arvel, Fleur and Anne also call "Arts" melee spells and have it spread from there.
Actually, thinking about it-even Arvel+the others calling them melee spells instead of Arts could be a plot point-the higher ups in the church that are corrupt and may be more aware of what the "demons" actually are and of a lot of things they do/say might recognize it as coming from a "non-human source" and be suspicious of Arvel and company for using it, possibly leading to an investigation into Arvel and company or increased suspicion of them possibly being in contact with non-humans
For the abominations-it looks like there might be something to my guess that they may be made from some kind of experiment combining holy and undead mana
Oh, that's actually a pretty good idea, but it feels a bit... far fetched. Since it doesn't fit into anything I've planned. Hmmm
@TypeAxiom It doesn't seem too far fetched to me (at least, the part about switching calling Arts-> spells), we haven't seen much of the non-human world and haven't seen any non-human using "Arts" except for a few skeletons who could just call it that based on the instincts from their body or as mockery for the living humans they fight. You could just have Victoria or whatever other non-human they run into next call them spells instead of Arts without having to change any published chapters.
The part about the church higher-ups finding it suspicious is just an idea to kick around and see if it has any merit. It's one possible way for Arvel, Fleur and Anne to start being actively investigated/targeted by the corrupt church members, but the undead control gems and Arvel investigating them already can be a route to that as well.
Wow! Camilla grew more proactive, although shyness is still as strong as ever. I hope Camilla will be able to push Kagriss down next time and make her taste the passive role. Ufufufu!
Thanks for the chapter
As I understand it, Arts are spells with a quick execution, for being of direct application and short range, which were made for melee, right?
I really don't see any problem with the Arts also being called spells-melee or martial spells, depending on the region or race. Since they are used in sets with martial arts.
Petite Camilla must have looked really adorable stretching on tiptoe and pulling Kagriss down by the collar so she could reach her lips! I would love to have an illustration of this scene, even if it was just the lineart!
Thanks for the chapter, perhaps the citadel undead are turning slain cleric etc in to abominations...
My cookie?
@TypeAxiom ehehe
Thanks for the chapter.
My impression is arts is that they are spells that are quick to cast and exhibit great effect.
So if arts are spells, doesn't that mean that Carmen loves to learn new spells, but is limited to her talent or perceived talent such that she can't cast advanced spells?
She also seems to have some talent for adapting and refining spells, judging from her ability to convert holy spells into undead mana compatible spells. Her intuition about magic is also quite sharp, since she quickly deduced the nature of blood mana soon after she first wielded it.
Basically what I have set up, and you probably can already tell, is that after basic magic, higher tier magic is split into two lines: the fast and direct magic that is better in the havoc of close combat; the slower and longer ranged magic that can have more abstract or larger effects. You can either cast one type or the other but not both for a given affinity.
Previously, I have Arts set as especially powerful or optimized spells, but I feel that's really arbitrary and dumb, so I kind of want to phase out that term in its current usage.
I considering making Arts these "combat/war" magic, and some other term for the "high" magic.
Thx for the chap.
For spell and Art why don't just split them in one for melee or with a weapon, like with sword/spear and even bow, and one for Mage like Kagriss ? Melee/bow one are Art and Mage one are Spell ?
forcefully pushing the monster behind with a scalding, holy blast
forcefully pushing the monster behind with a scalding, holy blast = forcefully pushing the monster back with a scalding, holy blast
Thanks for the Meal
First blood is mine~!!!