Several Ice Golems shaped as beasts approached, we had gotten rid of a dozen Bandits in the first group we found and fought, and there they were. This time they had not merged together but were a dozen of such beasts, they were smaller and not as monstrous as the others. With varied stats and Skills, each one taking over the powers of the Bandit that held their "Cores" which were the very accessories imbued with this strange curse.
[Lesser Accursed Undead Ice Golem: Lv25] [Rank: B-] [Status: Furious]
A monstrous entity formed from the power of Accursed Frost Magic conjured by the power of several Cursed Accessories that activate once the wielder is dead. In normal circumstances, each wielder would turn into a different, frozen undead golem. It is a Lesser version of a much stronger Ice Golem, but its capabilities are incredible, and holds within the power of the host that died holding its core. One of the many wicked creations of the Frost Queen through the fearful powers of the Cursed Crown of Skadi.
[Skills: [Accursed Frozen Claw] [Spiraling Icicle Spears] [Frozen Domain] [Freezing Curse] [Freezing Howl] [Frozen Jaws] […]
Even then, these guys are still B- Rank, so they should be a decent enough amount of EXP. I think I can handle them by myself.
I quickly pointed my hands at the Ice Monsters, their very presences freezing the floor beneath them and anything within our surroundings, as I did the same thing I performed before, combining the power of two Skills into a greater one!
"[Black Lightning Strike] + [Dark Storm] = [Abyssal Lightning Storm]!"
Just like before, an enormous cloud of darkness gathered all around the golems, as if I had summoned a thunderstorm right out of the blue. The clouds began cracking and zapping with lightning, unleashing slicing black winds and sharp and deadly lightning strikes, beginning to damage the twelve Beasts.
The lightning and winds concentrated around them as countless black lightning and slicing black winds started to destroy their bodies, shattering into pieces even more easily than their big friend from before.
CRASH! CRASH! CRAASH!
They released pathetic roars as if trying to intimidate me, their magic attempted to pierce me but it went through my body for the most part, as I easily shattered them all into tiny pieces, and stored everything left behind inside of my Inventory. It was better to just store things right after killing them than leave them to pick up later.
I had considered raising them into zombies before, but that would had been annoying as I wanted to finish this quickly, but it ended extending for a bit too long.
"A-Amazing, we can't compare to Lady Maria's incredible magic…" The Goblin Chief said.
"In just a single spell, they all died…" Syllis said with surprise filling his eyes.
However, things were not over, the group of thirty bandits my Undead team just killed ended transforming and fusing into a B+++ Ice Golem, but they easily started to overwhelm it, the two fire ghosts were the strongest at that, easily melting the entire thing and blowing it away into pieces.
The enormous ice beast fell into the ground, crumbling apart into pieces. I swiftly regrouped with the rest of my Undead while bringing my own troops, as I stored the enormous beast shattered remains, we cannot leave that thing alive for now.
"Master, we were just finishing off the Bandits when they suddenly all turned into a giant Ice Golem, we managed to defeat it though." Silvio sighed.
"Indeed, it was slightly scary- well not really, more like surprising? It wasn't a big deal." Francesco said.
"Yeah they surprise you and got a lot of power, but we came well prepared. Nonetheless, they're hardy, so it takes more than a while to completely shatter them when they're merged…" I sighed.
Darkbound got closer to me as he suddenly pointed at the left corridor.
I saw things through my Phantom Familiars spread in that area, finding that the remaining Bandits, being roughly 40, had dispersed into four groups, each one of 7 to 13 members, and they all ran towards the other routes of the mountain where the other bandit hideouts were located. Sadly for them, I had blocked such routes.
All these other four small Bandit Groups were apparently this very Bandit Group of over 120 men. It seems they simply split into smaller groups to walk back to these other hideouts, which allowed them to cover more terrain. This entire cave system is very amazing, I could probably use this mountain to mine for resources, as a way closer place than the dwarven mountain, although this place lacks as much magic as the other, there might be something valuable if I dig enough.
Nonetheless, for now, the mission was to exterminate them. However, I didn't wanted to stop their transformation into Ice Golems. I had already tested it, I get both EXP from killing the bandits as they are and then an extra bag of EXP by killing the Ice Golems they convert into. So to maximize gains, we'll provoke them to transform into separate B- Rank Beasts if possible, as they give more EXP when they're a big group than when they merge into a single one.
"Alright guys, this is the plan, we'll divide and conquer. Let's make four groups, I'll accompany the four groups to reassure your victory, let's go."
I quickly divided the groups into four, one led by Silvio and Francesco, another led by Darkbound and Syllis, another by Goblin Chief and Mercury, and a last one led by Pyro and Gero. Of course, I was the one leading them but… yeah, they're the leaders here. It makes them feel special.
"G-Get away from us!"
The first group finally reached one of the bandit groups, 12 men trembling in a corner, a pathetic sight for the oh so powerful bandits.