“Celeste spread my flames. Fireball!”
I wasn’t a powerful enough mage that I could do more than throw a fireball, but I still decided to equip it and send it down the path. Using Celeste’s wind, we could create a flamethrower effect. Celeste had tried to push them back with just wind, but as soon as they were blasted, they took to the air, and then it became a truly terrifying sight. Adding flame to the wind was the only way to hold them back.
Miki’s attacks were basically useless, since the insects didn’t have much of a response to soul attacks and she couldn’t stun them. Thus, she focused on fireball to help me, but her Basic Magician was only at 15 and she didn’t have the high Mana jobs like Hero and White Mage. Her magical strength was below my own.
Similarly, Lydia and Shao weren’t able to do much. There were hundreds of thousands of creatures, and any given swing could only kill one or two at a time. Terra did her best, but she similarly couldn’t keep them back. any barriers she created they’d just climb right over and continue on.
As a result, if it hadn’t been for our fireballs and Celeste’s wind blades, we would have fallen already. Unfortunately, it was hard to see a party’s weaknesses until they were suddenly exposed. It turned out we were weak against a large quantity of rather weak enemies. Had I known it would get this bad, I definitely wouldn’t have tried it.
“Shao!” I called out, “Come here.”
My only option right now was to depend on a combination skill. I could pick either fairy dust or spirit fire. Since fairy dust seems to lean to a more restorative effect, I decided on spirit fire which contributed to a more offensive ability like we need now. I glanced through her abilities quickly. I finally found a level 12 Shadow Knight ability. It was called Shadow Poison. It essentially poisoned monsters by attacking from the shadows. For the weak insects who hid in the shadows, it would be extremely effective.
“Cast, Shadow Poison!” I instructed while pulling out the magic dust.
“Yes!” Shao did as I instructed, raising her hand and beginning the spell.
I had Miki cast her spirit fire and throw it at Shao. Immediately the magic began to change.
“Shadow Flames!” She instinctively called the name of the new spell.
Instead of poison, the shadow became dark flames. Anything residing within them let out a screeching cry. The flames spread out across the shadows from one to the next. The flames attacked indiscriminately, and I saw them igniting Lydia’s shadow as well.
“Light!” I immediately cast light around us.
The shadow flames were instantly vanquished for us. However, my lights spell only went one way, so the flames continued to ravage the insects, it burned more and more, becoming a dark inferno of black. The screeches and cries continued, but the thing that continued faster was the death of the insects. They were weak against flames, and they were creatures that hid in shadows. Shadow Flames was a spell they definitely couldn’t fight against. Even if they could have resisted the poison, the shadow flames raced down the hallway.
I hadn’t expected this effect, but it was definitely strong. There were nearly a million insects, and they all died in a spreading wildfire of shadow. The flames were so powerful they seemed to be trying to eat the light around us. This spell was extremely powerful in a dark, shadowy labyrinth, but it was also just as dangerous. I began spamming orbs and making a circle around us to keep the inferno at bay.
Meanwhile, just about every insect on the floor died in the span of ten minutes. When the fire finally died, I realized that we had destroyed over half a million insects. Their experience was rather tiny compared to harder monsters, but at this number, that didn’t even matter. For the girls with 4X experience, they gained the equivalent of killing over 2 million insects. As for me, with 10X experience, I gained the experience of killing over 5 million!
The levels began to race across my vision.