While the soldiers all had a lot of morale boosts due to the fact that some had witnessed an undead bepletely destroyed, they also understood that they were not done with their jobs. Although they had neared the pyramid, they were finding more and more of the death runes on the buildings, stone coffins, and even on the stone roads that they walked on.
"Some of the false death runes are carved roughly. They are new too. It means that some undead can carve them." Walker had been watching the runes they found carefully after he and Gil had finished talking. He couldn''t focus on what they had witnessed Gil do too long. Other things came up.
"That''s a problem since we have only seen the lesser mummified priests and mummified priests. I doubt they can make runes like that." Su wasn''t just hinting at what everyone else was thinking. She was sure that there was more. "There has to be a high mummified priest that''s doing it. Or a mummified rune carver. We already know they experimented with undead. How could they not make something like that?"
"I knew you would say that. But I can''t break those things like Walker or Gil will. So how do we deal with that?" Remey seemed more frustrated knowing that she would be very limited in battle with an even more powerful magical undead that focused on resting more undead.
"Fire and light." Midnight grabbed on to Remey''s arm and made one of her ws light up with light elemental mana. She made a punching motion. Midnight had stayed in her dragonkin form after she had seen the other royal dragons fighting. Now that she could use the light w attack, she wasfortable remaining like that until she saw a more powerful undead to fight. Then she would go back to her dragon form to give it her all with elemental dragon breath attacks.
"Yes yes, my elemental knuckles can do damage too. But If I had a natural elemental knuckles then I could crush them forever." Remey and Midnight both wished they could use the natural mana but were both staring at Gil and Waker hoping for some sort of guidance.
"The high elf dagger technique just fuses the small amounts of elemental mana they attract. It''s not really something I control. It just gathers it and it boosts my body. But it also costs me a ton of mana and energy to use. You saw me after I used the high elf technique once." Gil tried his best to get their curious gazes to shift away.
"I will work on a way to buff everyone''s weapons with natural mana. But I still need to figure out how to imbue an attack with only natural mana. Gil''s style gathers mana all around him. The natural mana is just resting on his de and in his body. But it''s also because he has an affinity with natural mana because he is around it so much. His body grew to ept natural mana. All of you spend a lot of time near me too…"
This was the same with spatial mana. Walker had seen that the others might awaken a storage skill or a skill with spatial mana because he used it around them all the time when using his storage skill. Therefore, the same had happened with the natural mana. It was very clear that as they had all leveled up and trained, that the natural mana had been able to seep in to their bodies. This would be odd but for the fact that it was very healthy.
Natural mana was the key to the world in an essence. It was the perfect bnce of elemental manas which made up the world. This could be seen as the foundation of all things that they knew to a degree. Thus, the party would all have some affinity with natural mana develop.
Midnight already had one due to her bond with Walker. She also had all affinities because of her unique blood and being a true dragon champion. Su also benefited from this as she was rted to Midnight through binds as well. Her earth affinity would be stronger while she gained more affinities. But it was worth pointing out that she also had a light affinity by always being around whalers and training with them.
For a lot of those that had seen this and understood things about affinities, it was stunning. Many people would grow up and only have the affinities they were born with. Only in unique situations would anyone gain other affinities. Yet, here they learned that being exposed to a certain mana for long periods of time while growing could cause them to develop an affinity. That did make sense though. Everyone adapted to the life they lived while they grew up.
"Fine fine fine. I will figure things out when I can. But as soon as we find a way to make a natural mana attracting knuckles that attach to my gloves, I am using that thing every day!" Remey pointed at Walker knowing it would be him of all people that figured this out.
"I think we should be worried about what the undead are doing. They retreated after that attack by Gil." Ventus voiced her worries. She wanted to ensure that they were really safe for the moment while they were destroying runes. It was easy to see that an intelligent force had made the undead retreat. But would it still let them keep breaking away the runes it needed to keep attacking the rest of the world?
"I would expect them to be preparing to defeat us. They already know we are attacking on arger scale. Whatever undead is around wants us to walk in to a trap." The surety that was behind this theory made a lot of sense. However, it was the one that said it that shocked everyone. <novelsnext></novelsnext>
Right in front of everyone was Onyx and the other scouting members. They had all revealed themselves from the shadows. "Onyx, good job. But what do you mean an ambush?" Walker wanted to praise Onyx and the other scouts more. But his words and sudden appearance put everyone on edge.
"We managed to enter the pyramid but had to retreat after just a few corridors. It houses powerful undead. Even some undead monsters. Some which are preparing to ambush at the closest row ofrge stone buildings. They look like lizards but they are covered in metal spikes and bandages." Onyx motioned with his head for one of the scouts to move forward.
The scout showed a drawing of what they had seen. It was exactly as Onyc had said. Therge size was easily more than would be able to be taken down by the average soldier. It would be an ambush that could take down half the army if not more! Not to mention the fact that the undead could reform and be a much harder beast to face as it attacked them from behind after reforming.
"Can you show me where? I will get an all around appraisal on the undead so we can prepare better." Walker didn''t hesitate to start moving. Mordant also joined him so he could help them hide in the shadows while getting more details.
The sudden changes made the soldiers stop. They could take this chance to rest for a moment and also prepare for a harder battle. They had all known this woulde. Dangerous undead that were more than just mummified worshippers, soldiers, or even the heavy guardians that required them to work together to defeat. These undead were made for killing and nothing else.
Rise took charge along with Su and Alice to begin healing and preparing anything they needed. The pushing from Rise was enough to ensure that every single soldier, no matter their affiliation, worked hard. She was the driving force behind a lot of the blogger pushes to purify the undead here.
"I don''t like the idea that we might be facing undead monsters. We already know that some of these undead used the weak dragon blood in them to be these twisted things. What would happen if they had worse monsters?" Mordant said this as if he was trying to avoid a future he had seen.
"I thought of that too. It''s why I keep holding back so much and relying on the soldiers to work on the weaker undead. It''s the same for the other dragons too though. There''s enough space to use your dragon forms out here in this domed city. You all know there are worse things though." Walker pointed out the obvious.
"Like an ambush. We should be prepared and not give away our actual strength." Mordant spoke softly before they hid themselves in the shadows following Onyx toward the pyramid.
….