“Yeah, yeah. Focus on what you’re doing,” Licht urged.
“If I’d caught up to him, I would have squeezed the life out of th…”
After a quick glance back, Gaelle sharply tilted to the right, barely avoiding an elemental beam that shot past them.
“What the fuck, Goblin?!”
The red wyvern beneath them snarled in complaint as well.
“Focus on shaking off that bastard.”
“What do you think I’m doing?” the silver haired elf retorted. “I’m trying. No, I am doing my best. You. What are you doing? Come help instead of complaining.”
Licht let out a weary sigh. “I’m out of MP.”
“And me? You think I’m an infinite bank of MP?”
“I at least started with less than you.”
It made sense for Licht to be out of MP already. Earlier, he had done his part trying to delay the undead chasing them through the night. Sorcerer was only his secondary core class, and he had yet to invest many points into intelligence. The contrast between his MP and his HP, especially his SP, was vast. He considered arguing further, then stopped. It would not help their situation.
The group that had attacked the citadel had razed it and fled, leaving them with the troublesome task of dealing with the rogue undead now chasing them.
Scratching his head violently as the abomination drew closer and as Goblin kept complaining, Licht forced his mind to work. He glanced up at the three moons high above, expecting something. Nothing happened.
“Will it have to come down to that?” he murmured.
“Come down to what?”
He might have been out of MP, but he was not out of HP or SP. In fact, with his skills and abilities, which made him more knight than sorcerer, he would likely perform better relying on SP. That was a given. But using SP meant engaging Cleon in close combat. He had tried that earlier, and the memory left a bitter taste. Even if undeath had reduced Cleon’s overall strength, that version of him was still a monstrous berserker. He did not want to trade blows with that thing again.
He looked at Trouble, his blade, his loyal weapon. It too had not escaped the encounter unscathed.
“Oi. You hearing me? It’s no time to space out.”
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“Can’t you manifest another of your sigil to restrain him? You said you’ll never deploy all of them at once, that you keep a handful in reserve, at least to stay connected to your other half.”
Goblin gave a short nod and immediately acted on the suggestion. With an outstretched hand, he deployed an ancestral tree that closed around Cleon like a prison. It shattered on the third strike as the undead Cleon broke free.
“Good lord.”
“I have another,” Goblin announced, conjuring a second ancestral tree. Cleon broke free on the first attempt. Goblin summoned another, then another. On the fourth failure, Licht patted his fellow Dungeon Master on the shoulder.
“Enough. This isn’t working. Don’t waste any more ancestral trees. Use one to make a shield around Gaelle. It won’t withstand a direct hit, but it will cushion it.”
Goblin looked at him with an expression that made Licht frown. “Dude. That was my last.”
“Shit.”
Cleon was closing in fast. The sacrificed sigils had at least bought them some time. Licht tiredly ran his fingers through his red hair and glanced again at the unusually bright moons.
“Are they really not planning to intervene?” he frowned.
“Who?” Goblin followed his gaze and immediately understood. “The Seraphims?”
“Yeah. They’ve arrived. They’ve been observing for a while now.”
“The bastards…”
“If only they made a descent...”
They both looked at Cleon as he unleashed another attack, forcing Gaelle to execute rapid, sharp maneuvers to evade it.
“We would dump this on them, like those lunatics did to us.”
Licht nodded. “But from the look of it, they don’t want to get involved.”
Goblin was silent for a moment. Then a smirk crept onto the corner of his mouth. “What if we got them involved?”
Licht frowned, curious about whatever plan had made him smirk like that. “How?”
“I’m not really sure where we are anymore, but I’m pretty sure that about ten minutes from here at Gaelle’s full speed, in that direction, there’s a city. Ninety thousand people, I heard. Big enough that the three faiths established equally large temples for the people. What if we accidentally happened to fly in that direction? What do you think will happen?”
“You’re serious?”
Goblin gave him a look that clearly said, do I look like I’m not?
“Dungeon Master 07 will hate us for this.”
“Meh. Between receiving a scolding and getting killed by that thing, which do you prefer? Mine is the former, by the way.”
“You talk like it’s the only alternative,” Licht said.
Goblin frowned. “What do you mean—”
Seeing the scroll Licht conjured out of his spatial ring, he instantly understood, though it did not change his stance. “If you think using that is a better alternative than my plan, be my guest. I refuse to use any of my skills or stats as collateral.”
The scroll in Licht’s hand was no mere scroll. It was a contractual scroll, one that allowed the user to bargain with the system, usually for temporary boosts such as MP, HP, or SP recovery, enhanced offense, or defense in exchange for a price. That price was typically exorbitant, permanent, or both. It was not the kind of thing one could abuse. Though the extent of the boost might tempt repeated use, it was meant as a last resort. Goblin could not bring himself to use it here.
Listening to him, Licht realized that he could not either. Even if he activated his Starseer Protocol against Cleon and used what he could think of as collateral for a boost, the best he would manage was slowing this Cleon down, not defeating him. It was definitely not worth it. There was nothing to gain from that, only losses to suffer.
“Sigh. At least I tried to give an alternative. In light of the circumstances, I’ll take your suggestion,” he said, returning the contractual scroll.
“Then you know what to do,” Goblin replied as he immediately began producing monsters to throw at Cleon, buying them precious time.
Licht knew what had to be done. He leaned forward and said to the red wyvern, “You heard that, Gaelle. Veer south. Be gentle, subtle. Let’s not make our goal obvious.”
The red wyvern let out a screech as it initiated the requested maneuver, making it look like an attempt to gain speed.
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