Chapter 36: The calm of an errand boy
The man-eating monsters made weird sounds with their mouths as they moved. They abruptly started running towards the band when the strongest and tallest man-eating monster pointed at them with its club.
Strings of magical incantations sounded out before the monsters had even begun to approach. Bundles of bone arrows flew towards the man-eating monsters out of thin air, and those above the level of magic apprentice even fired out a stronger incantation, bone spears.
Bone spears was a necromancy magic similar to bone arrows, but one had to be at least at the level of a novice mage in order to master it. The power of the spell was also slightly stronger than bone arrows. Bone arrows and spears flew out simultaneously, through the air, making straight for the eight man-eating monsters.
These eight monsters knew to dodge the attacks as they ran, but they weren’t a race known for speed. Some were still hit by the bone arrows and spears.
Except, their bodies were exceedingly durable. The bone arrows only caused them to cry out with pain and temporarily affected their speed, but couldn’t pierce their bodies. Only the bone spears left bloody holes on their bodies, with green blood trickling out of them.
The eight monsters continued to get hurt as they approached, but none of them fully lost the ability to fight. They crashed into the outer defensive perimeter and started attacking the inner ring.
Han Shuo stayed within the defensive ring in an orderly, unruffled manner. His face full of calm, he looked coldly upon the fast approaching man-eating monsters and slowly sized up their battle strength.
“Let the dark creatures attack!” Fanny gave a great shout as her beautiful features turned grave as she saw the man-eating monsters drawing near.
Everyone started directing the outer ring of dark creatures to attack as Fanny’s words rang out. The summoned ghouls, skeletal warriors, zombie warriors, and hate warriors all held their positions firmly, striking out only when the man-eating monsters closed the distance.
But the man-eating monsters were tall and buff, and their muscles provided them with a tough defense. Apart from the hate warriors, which could actually cause some damage with their metal clubs, the effect of the other dark creatures’ attacks was quite limited.
The ghouls and skeletal warriors were particularly ineffective. They were immediately pulverized beneath the studded clubs, with the skeletal warriors falling to pieces and the ghouls dying in a mass of flesh and gore. The zombie warriors were more durable and could take multiple hits from the studded clubs, but they too staggered around weakly after being hit a few times.
“These damned man-eating monsters are a bit tough to deal with!” Gene started to worry as he saw the outer perimeter of dark creatures begin to collapse, and yet the man-eating monsters remained standing, even when bleeding profusely from various magic attacks.
“Hold the line! Don’t let them breakthrough, otherwise we’ll surely die if we face them in close combat!” Fanny called out loudly, a trace of anxiety appearing on her beautiful face as well.
Rounds of bone spears continued to appear as she chanted her spells. They honed in on one particular man-eating monster, with the final spear piercing the monster through the eye and penetrating its head with one stroke. This caused the man-eating monster wobble, and then fall lifelessly to the ground.
The remaining seven man-eating monsters seemed to lose their minds after their comrade had been killed. It was like the two with spears had been activated as they cried out with weird whooshing sounds and suddenly threw their spears out. The spears drew a curve in the air, and whistled sharply as they pinned down the two hate warriors.
The two hate warriors were the strongest meat shields in the outer perimeter. Although they didn’t immediately lose the ability to move, their movements became slower now that their bodies had been impaled. They were pretty much ineffectual after two man-eating monsters started marking their every move.
At this moment, only two hate warriors and six zombie warriors were left in the outer perimeter. The zombie warriors were inferior to the hate warriors in every way, and the pressure on the former had increased with the hate warriors being impaled by spears. Two zombie warriors had fallen in the span of a moment.
“What to do, what to do? Will these damned man-eating monsters eat us?”
“Oh my gosh, why are their bodies so durable? The bone arrows have no effect when they hit!”
“Screwed, we’re all screwed. We should’ve gone back yesterday, wah… wah…”
Rounds of depressed complaints and fearful sobs rang out from the students’ mouths, affecting even their spells for a moment.
“Master Gene, let’s use the corpse explosion spell, quick!” Fanny called out suddenly and her beautiful face hardened upon seeing everyone become so forlorn.
“Oh perished soul, my will be the command, surrender your body to me, explode violently, Corpse Explosion!” Fanny and Gene both chanted at the same time, and Fanny pointed at the man-eating monster that she’d previously speared when it was done. Gene pointed at another fallen zombie warrior.
Two violent explosions suddenly erupted from the man-eating monster and zombie warrior’s bodies. The four injured man-eating monsters next to them, including two zombie warriors, who were fighting against them, were all affected as they flew forcefully through the air.
The four man-eating monsters were blasted apart with loud sounds along with the two zombie warriors. They all lay still and unmoving, obviously completely done for.
Han Shuo’s eyes shone brightly as he fixed them on Fanny. He was quite gobsmacked by the corpse explosion magic. He had seen clearly just now that the exploded man-eating monster’s body had abruptly lit up after Fanny had finished her incantation, to be followed by a frightening force. Of the four man-eating monsters, who had been blasted apart, three of them had died underneath Fanny’s magic.
Han Shuo had previously only heard a bit regarding corpse explosion magic. He understood that only adept mages could cast it, and that explosions would vary according to the mage’s strength. Fanny’s corpse explosion magic had been noticeably stronger than Gene’s. This may have had something to do with Fanny’s magic and using man-eating monsters as fodder.
However, it seemed that the corpse explosion spell significantly drained their mental strength. Fanny and Gene’s faces were both pale after casting the spell and they panted heavily.
Up until now, of the original eight man-eating monsters, Fanny had killed one with a bone spear, and four more had been killed with the corpse explosion spells. Although the two hate warriors had been impaled by the man-eating monsters’ spears, they continued to hold their ground and resolutely tied up two more man-eating monsters.
Only the strongest and tallest man-eating monster hadn’t been unduly affected. It wielded a studded club and sprinted over like mad, making weird noises and even yelling simple phrases like “I… I will… kill you”.
“We’ve just used the corpse explosion spell and pretty much drained our mental strength. We’ll be unable to use any other high level magic for a while. Everyone run!” Gene’s face grew panicked and he yelled quickly.
Fanny glanced around and urged, “Everyone hurry and leave! Don’t get caught by these monsters.”
Everyone panicked even more after these words from Fanny and Gene. The resources on the side were all forgotten as they all frantically tried to distance themselves from the studded club-wielding, quickly-sprinting man-eating monster.
Except, although the man-eating monster’s speed wasn’t too fast, it was still faster than the students’, particularly as the latter sometimes tripped over the skeletal warrior remains as they panicked. This resulted in completely incomparable speed when compared to the man-eating monsters.
Fanny’s thoughts were with the students as she urged them to leave and hung back herself. The tall man-eating monster, who remembered that it was Fanny who had cast the corpse explosion spell and blown three monsters to pieces, chased after her without a second thought upon seeing that she had fallen behind. Its club was raised high and crashed down towards Fanny.
“Master Fanny, be careful!”
“Watch out! Fanny, behind you!”
Lisa, Gene, and several others all cried out in shock and fright as they saw the club descend towards Fanny from behind.
Fanny turned upon hearing the others’ cries and discovered that the studded club was falling straight at her. The sharp points of the studs sparkled with cold light, and the accompanying whooshing sound gave testament to the strength behind this blow.
Her enchanting face with starkly-white without a trace of color, and her beautiful legs were suddenly without strength. A feeling of mournful helplessness rose within her eyes as the studded club grew larger in her vision.
Clang. Sparks flew everywhere.
Fanny’s beautiful eyes widened as she looked in front of her, a bit lost. Two studded clubs had appeared in front of her at some unknown time, and the two had collided together. The sharp studs had already been flattened at the point of contact, which still emitted some metallic sparks.
She followed her gaze down the opposing studded club and suddenly discovered that Han Shuo had appeared on her left. Both of his hands were tightly grasping the studded club that was completely disproportionate to his body. Veins had popped out on his forehead and arms, and his face twisted in a grimace as he stared fixedly at the man-eating monster.