It was completely impossible!
An incredibly old looking man glanced into the orb in front of him. The projection coming from the artifact evidently showed what this group of younglings had done to his army of the dead.
In just a few seconds… they completely eliminated his army, and even turned them all into ashes and Spirit Orbs. The man's face was completely filled with astonishment. It had been a long time since he saw somebody become capable of slaying his entire army
And it was indeed with the help of a wielder of light magic, a Holy Mage, or well, as this world's church called them, a Priest. However, this Priest was but a young girl brought by this group of kids. How come she was so strong?
"Just how many Blessings of the Holy Spirits has this young Priest received to be able to even eliminate the powerful Rotten Giants so easily?!" The bearded man exclaimed, his almost skeletal hands hit the table in front of him, as the orb over the table ended rolling and falling from the table.
The orb shattered into pieces, as the projection quickly dissipated. The man's furious eyes only ended growing even more frustrated as he saw what his rage had provoked. Immediately after, he conjured a phantasmal hand from his own hands, grabbing the broken orb and reassembling it together using phantasmal essence.
Suddenly a ghostly presence possessed the Orb, which began to float in front of him, even if shattered, it suddenly began working just as before, but this time, it had gained sentience.
"These children are not ordinary at all. What sort of children has this village been raising until now?" The man wondered. "Well, no matter. It is not like that's the only Undead I have. I'll bet everything on this last batch, my strongest so far. And while we are at it…"
The man's dark presence began to emerge from his body, as he looked into a large red crystal that was located behind him. His old and weak body slowly walked towards the crystal, containing only the most purest of demonic essences…
His old and skeletal hand slowly caressed the gigantic crystal, as a sick smile emerged on his old and dry lips.
"I might as well just do it…"
Meanwhile, within the Miasmic Swamp, the miasmic black waters began to bubble intensively, as several amorphous figures slowly began to crawl outside. Monstrous and mutated undead monsters, skeletons, and other horrendous creatures began to crawl outside, slowly moving towards a straight path, like an army hearing the command of somebody.
Their numbers quickly went from a handful to a dozen, and then twenty, thirty, forty, fifty… their numbers quickly increased with each passing second.
"I've been preparing this for so long now… Those damn children are threatening my plans, but so be it. It is not as if my current numbers can't destroy that village until nothing remains. Without the knights and soldiers to protect you, how will you be able to handle this?"
"A-Atrocity?" Erika asked while feeling slightly scared over the simple tale.
"Yeah… He… He killed his parents and raised them as zombies!" Eric said, scaring Erika.
"Whaaaaat?! That's nuts!" Erika said.
"I see…" I rubbed my chin. "Could this man have survived and hold such a strong grudge against our village to the point he's willing to stay here while the rest of the Cult escaped?"
However, a second after, I sensed footsteps several meters away from us, countless of them.
"Ready yourselves, that guy already sent a second batch of EXP our way. Let's make sure to receive it with open arms."
The footsteps of countless Undead was easily heard by all of us. We quickly stopped moving, as the figures of zombies, skeletons, and larger beings than them emerged. Rotten Giants were there, by more than ten, while Skeleton Knights and Armored Zombies were almost as common as the normal zombies and skeletons we saw before.
While Skeleton Knights wore armor made out of rusted metals, Armored Zombies were covered in bones protruding from their bodies, and strange black crystals as well, which enhanced their defenses. All Undead, in fact, had one of these weird crystals, which turned into ashes when Elizabeth unleashed her powers before, so I was not able to get any sort of example to inspect.
But from what I can tell by merely watching them, these were some sort of Demonic and Miasmic Crystal made by the crystallization of such corrupt energies, which enhanced the power of Undead and Monsters by several times. These Undead in particular held many of such crystals, to boot.
"T-Those Undead look mighty strong this time!" Eric said while trembling.
"Come on, get your shit together Eric!" Chris roared, getting in front as his Fire Fox emerged, flying around, and unleashing an Aura of Flames, which quickly encompassed us at the same time I brought Moby to do his trick to enhance our Agility and Evasion.
It seemed that Chris had gained a new Skill named [Aura of Flames], not only did it enhance his MP Regeneration Speed, Agility, Dexterity, and Intelligence by +10%, but it also did the same with anybody he conjured it over, becoming a valuable buff.
"I suppose it is time for my new Undead to shine." I immediately waved my hands as several Summon Cards emerged one after the other out of my Grimoire. Most of my Familiars died in the last fight, so it was time to fill up the gaps, and I've accumulated just enough MP to summon until the very last slot I had available- of course, I had to drink a Lesser Mana Potion after that.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Suddenly, twenty Black Skeletons emerged out of thin air, holding Ax with them, which enhanced their power further through Moby's and Chris' buffs. Alongside them, there were 10 Blood Zombies, which organized into a line in front of me.