Of course, there was always the option of just controlling them all mentally, but that was quite literally like multitasking a couple times over in the middle of a fight to the death. It was too risky, and most importantly, too mentally straining for the time being. If his spirit stat rose a bit more, maybe that was going to change, but right now it wasn't a realistic option.
And so, he tried to let some mana flow into his staff. He didn't exactly have a ton to work with yet, but it could be enough. With the staff filled, Ashton could project his existence into it. Basically, he was just turning this staff into a true extension of his body. It was something that he had done a lot in Lumia, after hearing about a concept called Sword-Body Unity. It was apparently something possible for every sort of weapon, not just swords, once someone had become skilled enough for their weapon to practically meld into their very being. Not physically, but... spiritually.
Ashton was never skilled enough to achieve this. In the hundred odd years that he tried to become stronger with a staff, he was never able to get good enough. He just wasn't suited to become a fighter. However, after he started learning more about potion-making and how to control his mana as a consequence, this idea just came to him.
One of Ashton's specialties was 'mana state alteration'. Basically, he could fairly easily change the natural pattern that mana presented in to make it accept certain aspects of materials or refuse others. But it could go beyond that. Everybody's mana had a natural pattern that it defaulted to when left on its own. That pattern was disrupted when mana was actively manipulated, but Ashton was able to, shockingly easily at that, force mana that he manipulated back into its default pattern.
There generally wasn't a use for this, obviously, but it seemed useful for when he manipulated his weapon. By filling his staff with mana in this way, he just managed to have this 'passive' knowledge of where the staff was just by feeling it. Spinning it around was like swinging his arm. It didn't make him immediately more powerful, but it definitely helped speed up the pace at which he improved. Though, with the level of mana and overall power he had until now, it was a bit too hard to keep this up for long. But even if it was just fifteen or twenty minutes at a time, this could be pretty damn useful.
Ashton hoped that somehow, he could use that method that basically extended his body to then channel the summons with. Once the staff was filled with his mana, he activated the channelling skill with the wisp. Like they were pulled there magnetically, the wisp shot toward one of the staff's ends.
Ashton moved the staff a little, and the wisp followed along with the tip of the staff. Of course, the same rules seemed to apply as with moving his hand. The further the tip of the staff was away from Ashton, the closer to the edge or his channelling range the wisp would move.
A smile appeared on Ashton's face, and he started spinning his staff around to build up some momentum. The wisp moved along with the tip of the staff, shooting around Ashton with ease. Though, the wisp was lagging behind a bit, since they still had a speed limit. Ashton focused on the wisp and told it to shrink down a bit to gain more speed. That much was possible through purely mental channelling at least. Now, this should be useful for some far, far more complex attack patterns.
As the goblins were coming closer, Ashton also came out of 'hiding', though he really had just positioned himself behind some of the playground equipment. The first one that saw Ashton hit the others on the shoulder and pointed at him.
With that, the five goblins reacted fast and ran ahead, and even the orc seemed furious and ready for a fight. After all, the orc corpses were pretty hard to miss.
But Ashton kept spinning around the staff, pulling it closer to his body or pushing it away to create a good route for the wisp to follow. Right now, it was just four inches in diameter and, due to the nature of the wisp, clear white and translucent. The orc seemed to have spotted it, though the goblins simply weren't looking at it right now.
And so, the first goblin was hit with an attack to the side of its head. As blood splattered around and it fell to the ground, a message appeared to Ashton's side. Followed by a few more annoying ones.
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[You have killed a [Goblin]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 15 Coins]
[[Observer in the Veil] awkwardly points at the unique method of Channelling]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] scoffs and explains they like this method better than before]
[[Executor of the End] is surprised at your improvisation skills]
Ashton ignored the messages. He wouldn't let himself get distracted by these things in the middle of a fight again.
As he spun the staff, the wisp kept shooting around, hitting the other goblins. They didn't always die in just one attack. Rather, it was actually a little hard to aim like this, since he wasn't quite used to it. Plus, as the goblins tried to push through the edge of Ashton's range, it was getting a bit harder to hit them since Ashton needed to pull the staff in closer in awkward ways..
Obviously, if anything managed to get through the wisp, they would be attacked by Ashton with his staff directly, but this still made it clear that this wasn't quite perfect just yet. There had to be some more ways that he could improve this method.
But well, he would have plenty of test subjects today, so hopefully that wouldn't be an issue. In the end, once four of the goblins were dead, the orc grabbed the last one by the head and threw it backward, grunting at it. It was clear what this orc was doing.
It told the goblin to go and get the rest of the monsters so that they could take Ashton down together.
"Clever. I guess you know you alone aren't enough?" Ashton said, holding his staff loosely in one hand, "But that's fine with me. I wanted to test some new stuff out anyway, so this works."
Ashton clicked his finger and swapped out the wisp for the salamander's flames for now. It was important to know how the different elementals' channelling abilities worked with this method. After all, it was hard to move the flames and water and the same speed as Ashton could move the wisp. So if they were going to lag behind, he had to get a feel for it.
Ashton started spinning his staff around again, and the salamander's fire seemed to follow behind pretty well. Though it was hard to keep it in that 'sphere' shape that Ashton usually used it with, which would cause an explosion upon making contact with an enemy. But this time, the flames were being moved too fast to keep together like that.
But well, fire wasn't just strong when it could be used to cause explosions. Ashton kept spinning his staff around, hitting the orc with fire from basically all sides. Its clothes soon caught fire as well, and its flesh was being charred and burnt off its skin. It wasn't exactly quiet about how painful this was either, yelling as loudly as it could as if to make sure the other monsters were going to come back faster.
Though before long, the orc just started running in. It seemed to be under the assumption that Ashton could only fight at a distance, but of course, that wasn't the case. The moment the orc came into his own range, he tightly grasped the spear and stabbed it forward, hitting the fist that it was trying to punch with.
Ashton could feel the bones in the orc's hands cracking breaking the vibrations in the staff, but at the same time, he could feel the impact of the attack in himself as well. So, he slightly loosened his grip and let the orc's punch push back the staff, and then Ashton tightened his grip so that was holding the weapon by the 'front'. But that only caused ruin for the orc itself, and it was hit from the back by the flames.
It was startled and turned its head around, but Ashton just hit it on the underside of the chin with his staff. The orc stumbled backward, and Ashton continued hitting it as much as he could with his staff. The monster fell to the ground, and Ashton detached the flames from the staff again, instead manipulating them more closely with his hand.
He pushed the fire into the orc's face. It was a pretty brutal death, but it was effective. While the orc tried to tear the fire away from its face, Ashton slammed his staff down onto it a few times. A broken nose, caved-in orbital bones, a popped-out jaw... and soon, the orc's skull had cracked, and a death message appeared in front of Ashton.
[You have killed an [Orc]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 26 Coins]
He let out a slight, relieved sigh. That went well. Ashton was doing great. He just had to be careful now with the monsters that would be coming any second now.
For that, he decided to climb onto the playground equipment, specifically, that wooden castle that was standing in the middle. There was a spot fairly high up that seemed like it could be good to hide in. Plus, if he was up there, he could act defensively even if a mass of monsters came at him.
And that was a good choice. The moment he sat down up there, he spotted the first monsters coming in. It was at least another thirty goblins and... three whole orcs. If there were eight of them here, including the leader, that meant there were just two more in the main camp on the other side of the school.
But that was good. They obviously weren't going to send the entirety of the group from the front back here, but Ashton was a bit worried about that scenario.
If they split up naturally like this, though it was still not how Ashton would have liked this to happen, he had a much better chance at taking them all down while staying safe.
[A [Bonus Chapter] has been redeemed]
[Currently Available Milestones] (to be updated)
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[Current [Bonus Chapters] in queue... [5 Chapters]]
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