Nirvana's Skeleton warriors fought smoothly, dodged attacks and even blocked despite how fragile they looked. Nirvana's crimson eyes jumped between enemies rapidly, probably giving out quick mental orders.
I'll have to ask her how she does it later.
In the meantime he focuses on decimating the riders. He used Dash, Observe and Stealth conservatively because of how much mana they used. But he used Fireball to eliminate enemies that stayed too close, and Dark Maw to kill Goblins and their riders together.
Serpent's call!
BOOM!
The schema ability summoned a writhing beast made of stone that crushed and swatted goblins aside.
Faust grabbed a Goblin rider off its mount and kicked the Bronze Jackal so hard it's bone snapped.
Attribute Drain.
But it didn't work for some reason. It must have had something to do with the nature of the event.
Well let me try Growth and Bolster together.
He activated the Schema ability and felt his muscles grow. He increased in height just a bit and felt he could go farther, but stopped.
Greg's schema works on a time limit. The more he increases his strength the shorter it lasts. Besides, Faust didn't want to make his Replication ability too obvious.
He allowed a hammer to hit his body just as he used the Bolster skill.
BANG! CRACK!
The hammer broke against his head. The goblin's eyes widened in shock, but then they popped out of its skull as Faust slammed the pommel of his dagger into the back of its head.
His strength pulped the Goblin's skull like a rotten tomato.
Okay this Schema is fun as hell.
Spider's Chimera Schema had more potential, but was too chaotic.
Right now she had sprouted two pairs of clawed hands from her back and was fighting eight goblins at once.
Then suddenly her hands changed into butterfly wings and flapped weakly against the goblin she just tried tearing apart.
The pain of the transformation hit instantly. "Argh! SHIT!" She cursed before using Dash to escape her encirclement
Her eyes were half closed so she tripped and skidded over the ground painfully. Riders closed in on the moment of weakness. But her friends were there for her.
Zen's arrows clipped two riders simultaneously, and skeleton soldiers intercepted the riders giving chase.
If she was alone she'd be dead right now.
A rolling mass of almost a thousand Goblins were now charging towards them from the rainbow gate, catching up with their riders.
Goblin mages sent up streaking balls of fire and boulders into the air at the army setting up behind Faust. But they wouldn't reach.
Instance Replication!
Spells instantly bloomed in front of him and surged up to intercept the spells.
BOOM!
The explosions crackled like thunder, lighting up the night sky and the two armies set up.
Faust used Observe finally and counted almost two hundred Goblin riders coming at them through the darkness and burnt grasses.
He moved over to where Nirvana's group was. "You should move. Two hundred enemies are about to run you over."
Dealing with thirty riders was far different from two hundred. Zen's eyes flashed with a hidden light, the Observe skill.
"It's too dark," he cursed, firing another arrow.
"Focus on the details. Like the grass being trampled over and the movement of shadows," Faust suggested.
Zen squinted then his eyes widened. "Yeah. I see them. I wasn't paid enough for this. We should run."
Zen and Spider went out of their way to warn the other groups of people fighting the riders above the barricades of the massive group of riders coming.
But Diego was still flying above them. He used his Schema to magnify Zen's voice with a thought.
"Two hundred riders incoming! They are—" Zen covered his mouth, then whispered. "Why is my voice so loud? Ahem. I know we're in another world, apocalypse whatever. But some of you really need to take a bath—"
Diego cut him off, facepalming.
Now safely behind the barricades they watched.
But Faust heard the riders before they even came. The ground was shaking and dark figures surged in the distance.
"That's a little intimidating," Nirvana muttered, drawing the sword Faust had traded with her.
"You'd say they were crazy, if you could see what they were charging at," he mused, while glancing at the sword. She's still using that?
His naginata wasn't obsolete yet, but he had been using the dagger and cutlass duo to maximise dash. He should actually use it now, since he wouldn't dash carelessly with so many enemies.
He sheathed the cutlass and dagger and drew the naginata out from his spatial bag. Nirvana noticed and grinned genuinely.
"I thought you threw it away," She said like it was something sad.
The first words that came to mind was: Eh, not yet. But he was starting to understand how challenging Nirvana might look.
"You cared that much?" He said instead.
"Uh, no. I was just…. Oh! Look! The monsters are here."
Faust turned away chuckling and held out a hand.
Focus.
Fireball.
The spell structure emerged above his hand and he filled it with as much mana as he could.
A roaring Fireball far bigger than what the mages behind him were conjuring formed over his head. His Focus skill allowed him to craft the spell faster and better than usual.
People turned at the heat, frowning and about to complain, but simply watched in awe.
"How much Spirit do you even have?" Thalia said in exasperation. She took out a recorder and clicked it on. "Note: subject has at least 200 Spirit."
Rolling his eyes, Faust released the ball of fire out.
It soared like a small meteor lighting up the night sky. There was a silence to it. A fear that teetered on disbelief. Like the mass of fire was sucking all the air from every lung.
But before it even came down on the Goblin horde, another fireball hit it mid air and caused an early detonation.
BOOM!
A wave of force rolled over the scorched, chaotic field, flattening the grass. An expanding conflagration of flames bloom over the riders. The force of the explosion even threw some of them off their mounts.
Every player turned upwards in awe. The previous Fireballs seemed pitiful in the face of this power. But Faust was pissed.
It's too easy to intercept because of how big it is. All that mana… wasted.
Thalia's eyes glimmered with hidden light as the dancing sparked of the explosion faded. "Level 3 Heavy Fireball."
Can you appraise a Spell? Faust thought. Now that I think about it, it's pretty obvious.
He appraised one of Nirvana's skeleton soldiers.
[Summon Skeleton Lv2]
[Grade: Iron]
[Details: Summons a skeleton. Their durability is terrible, but their attacks are mediocre.]
She had been summoning a new one every minute so the cooldown must have been around that time. The eight skeletons rattled in place patiently, unaffected by the fearful looks the other players gave them.
He returned to the riders that were still closing in and decided to try something.
Instance Replication!
And like that his previous fireball reappeared mid flight. He lost no mana since Schemas didn't really use any mana and got a second fireball.
Thalia blinked in surprise and appraised the fireball. "Replicated Fireball? What the fuck?"
The Goblin mages had no time to block his fireball this time. It crashed into the monsters with ground-shaking forces. Instantly almost thirty goblins and their jackals in close proximity died. Ten more were badly burnt.
And even more were thrown off their mounts by the concussive force of the blasts.
Zen eyed Faust while shooting an arrow with the same emotion as many others. They all wondered internally if he had any hacks installed.
"Do you know any cheat codes, like some gta shit," thr archer asked calmly. "Do you have one that lets me level while i'm afk?"
Ignoring the boy, Faust admired the variety of applications Instance Replication had. He could replicate the Effect without bothering with the process.
You endure the first hit? Well, he could just replicate the force of the strike at that same spot again.
Not to even mention things like Dash or Focus.… It's actually so broken.
The riders were barely a hundred by the time they reached the barricades. They tried jumping over, but the tanks slammed their shields into them and broke their charge. The smarter riders circled the barricades, but this slowed them down.
And they met the strongest players on the edges of the formation.