<~> Chapter 128If there was ohing that stood out to me more than anything else on this mission, it was just how different it was to work with a rge group. I watched our bieams form six lines of guards outside the door to the sed-floor ballroom. This experience couldn't even pare to what it was like when my party explored the midnight castle dungeon.

  The rge double doors of the ballroom were closed but the miasma oozing through it alpable. I had talked with Captain Jasper ahead of time about it so we were prepared to face whatever was oher side of this door. As Jasper had said, if there was a rge moo fight in this pce, the ballroom was most likely pce it would be. There wasn't an interior rer than the one in front of us. Everyoeeled themselves as the two guards in front pulled open the doors.

  The blood-spttered ballroom doors creaked open revealing a horde of shadow demons, not much rger than individual people. Rather than e big thing, it was clear we were instead dealing with many many small things. As soon as the hallway light lit the floor of the ballroom the shadows swarmed toward the doors. It brought back images of the demon break we fought.

  The rge gss windows were pitch bck, holding the early daylight back from the dark ballroom and allowing the shadow demons to flourish in the gloomy enviro. The room itself wasn't pitch bck though, an unnaturally dim glow came from the dles in the deliers, sending fusing shadows all over the ballroom. They mixed with the monster's presence making them even harder to distinguish.

  Despite the sight of the intimidating horde, there was ation from the guards who immediately pushed in and formed expanding ranks as they created a barrier of shields through the doors. While the monsters looked like moving shadows, they weren't intangible and the guard's swords and spears cut them down perfectly fine, allowing us to take hold of a strong position ihe room.

  I quickly checked my spells. [Light Orb] would likely be quite useful here si would be strong against the shadow monsters. There's also my luck magic, I haven't had much reason to use any of it tely but now would finally be a good time for it. I may as well start with a game of [Bckjack].

  I drew two cards, eight of clubs and ten of hearts, off to a great start. I tossed the cards over the heads of the frontline. My magitrol let me kly where the cards would nd, they weren't physibsp;cards, rather magic representations of them. Meaning, the Magitrol stat governed how they would nd rather than my Strength or Finesse.

  The 18 hit and a frankly huge explosion crashed introup of the monsters, chipping away at their huge ranks. A few of the guards gave me a surprised look before refog oask ahead of them. I don't think they expected that I would end up being a respectable mage based on my outer appearance.

  No notificatio, it must be ting the kills as part of a group participation like it had during the dungeon break. I tried a [Light Orb], the enemy I hit staggered but it was hard to tell how much damage the shadow creatures had taken without any real visual indications. I robably better off relying on [Bckjabsp;even if the amount of mana it took was rger. I was just about to cast it when I had a sudden thought. What about [Fireflies]?

  [Fireflies - Light Magic Spell]Create small floating lights in an area equal to Magic Force x 1 foot. Magitrol improves the ability to move and manipute the lights, Magic Force improves the brightness of the lights. Fireflies ward off shadow and dark-aligned enemies if their primary bat stat is lower than yic Force.

  I was unsure how it would go but the spell was cheap, retively speaking, and a bit more light might help the people fighting if nothing else.

  I cast the spell and the effect was noticeable and immediate. As the small twinkling lights spread out around the people fighting, the shadow monsters looked like they had been zapped. When they got too close to the fireflies they stuttered and froze in pce just long enough to leave themselves open for the fighting guards.

  "Lilith! Keep doing that. Maintain that spell as long as possible." I wasn't sure where it was ing from but Jasper's voice cut through all of the other hout any interference. I had thought his voice was always clear when he had been giving out orders throughout the day but I didn't realize until now it must have been some kind of skill.

  The cost to maintain fireflies was negligible, any drain it had was much less than my natural regeion, even without any hard numbers it was easy to tell.

  "Not a problem!" I yelled out. I couldn't see Jasper in the scramble but I assumed he could hear me.

  For now, I had plenty of mana to keep tributing with bckjacks. I drew again, five of diamonds and seven of hearts. A middling hand and the resulting explosion suffered pared to the st one. Ohe cards were drawn the mana was already used so there was no point in folding them. Even if I got bad hands, I may as well throw them anyway.

  King of diamonds and six of spades for a total of 16. Pretty good, though it could be better. I threw the hand and watched the resulting explosion clear out another k of the ballroom. My hand was a 15, slightly worse tha but nothing to s. I had a det amount of ma but I was draining it much faster than it would take to get through the wall of ehis would be an endurance fight, I couldn't afford to use everything up right away. I decided to go for one more hand before serving the rest for now.

  Two kings for a total of twenty, it was the rgest explosion so far and it felt quite o watch over two dozen of the shadow enemies vaporize in the are explosion. I stepped bad instead intensified the power of the fireflies using my magitrol. It didn't do anything more to the ohat had already been affected but a slightly rger number of them behind the closest enemies were now shuddering too. The guards calmly tio take safe attacks when the shadows froze up ahemselves open, slowly w against the tide of enemies.

  I couldn't do much more if I wao serve my mana so I sed over the small battlefield. Man was liberally using fireballs to blow up the shadow monsters, the nature of her magic let her go on as long as she could stay focused. Torien had switched to a crossbow and had fallen in lih the crossbowmen guards. A rge barrel of bolts had been brought in a dowween them and they were standing on a hastily structed scaffolding that had been brought through the doors to give them an angle over everyone's heads. The sight almost made me ugh because nearly every time we were in a situation like this Torien found a way to be standio all the ammunition.

  Silva and Mimi were he front, stabbing the shadow demons over the shoulders of the shield wall. We had been told we weren't expected to be directly involved with bat but no one seemed to mind the two of them tributing like this, there were just too many moo turn away the help. Bel was currently healing one of the guards who had taken a nasty scrat his arm. When he was all healed up he got bato the line of spearmen and Bel was on standby, watg over the guards so she could quickly run and heal someone from behind if the situation called for it. Anythihreatening, like the man from before, came to her to get healing so she could serve her energy.

  With the group's bined efforts we were tearing through the horde of shadow demons. With my party supp the well-disciplieam of guards, it wasn't long before the st of the shadow monsters would be killed.

  Something didn't feel right though.

  After a while we had killed nearly all of them. There were only a few stragglers left, yet the miasma that filled the room hadn't faded as much as it should have. There was something else here, something hiding. I focused on my [Mana Sense] and cast [Light Beam] once again to scour the room. I double-checked all of the ers, trailed up the statues that cast creepy shadows, and finally settled och-bck windows. What is causing that?

  I intensified the light on the windows but they remained pitch b the dim dlelight. The light from the dles... in the deliers of an abandoned castle? I looked back at the ceiling, paying special attention to the deliers. The glow of my magic cast deep shadows onto the ceiling but they didn't resemble the deliers the light should be casting.

  A pierg scream filled the ballroom and made the guards look around in panic. Luckily, some of the ones who had been watg my as were quick to ready their ons in preparation. A giant shadow creature fell from the ceiling into the middle of the ballroom a good ten yards or so from us. The creature was hard to see clearly but it shimmered in my light magiow that it was in the middle of the room, it was visible in the distortion my light magic created.

  "Guards! Ready shields!" Jasper's voice could be heard throughout the ballroom and the town guards were quick to form ranks with whoever was o them. I hadn't moved much since we first started pushing into the ballroom so I was still close to Bel and the twins. Mimi and Silva were up ahead, having fallen in with one of the groups of guards that had advanced deeper into the room.

  None of the ranged batants waited for orders to attack, crossbow bolts and whatever magic the guards and Man had on hand flew towards the monster. It took the magic attacks head on but the fire projectiles stopped in mid-air.

  "Magic attack! Cover!"

  The guards holding shields in the front ranks cast some kind of barrier magic that interlocked with each other and created a wide of magi front of everyone. Only a breath ter a wave of fire rolled across the ground and smmed into the interwoven shield the guards had formed. The only unlucky ones iack were the ones on the edges of the massive shield, who got singed from behind wheack ed around the edges of the barrier. I had been worried for a moment but the tough guards just pat out the fmes and fell bato the shield wall.

  "Mages! No fire attacks! Switch to crossbows if necessary!"

  Jasper's voice was reassuring itle, I wasn't sure if it was some kind of effect that came with his voice or if it was just the encing feeling of someone being in trol of the situation.

  I drew another hand. Jack of hearts, Ace of diamonds, Bckjack.

  A rge explosion shook the room as my bckjack hand did serious damage and caused the shadow demon to stagger.

  "Guards! Advahe guard captain took advantage of the opening and the guards surged toward the mohey closed the distand encircled it before it could regain its bearings.

  The guards quickly ahodically pressed in, log the monster between the shield walls from all sides. Now that we were closer, the monster's fire attacks spshed up against the shield barriers and sprayed all the to the ceiling, but the guard's shields held. The monster had now bee pletely trapped.

  "Spears!"

  ns in the shield wall opened up iapestry of barrier magic to allow the guardsmen to stab into the creature from every ahe fire attacks it was using bsted through the gaps but anyone who was hit directly either shrugged it off or was dragged over to Bel for quick healing.

  It was now only a matter of time, the monster was being stabbed repeatedly from every side. Its formless shadow body was twisting and turning in the encirclement looking for any escape but it found he guards stood in a pool of blood that flowed through the gaps in their magic barrier as the monster became more and more desperate to flee. Eventually it ceased its struggle and slumped against one of the barrier walls before its body began to colpse us ow, virtually melting into a puddle that seeped through the barrier's gaps.

  [Yroup has coordio defeat a horde of Faceless Shadows][Your party has coordio defeat a Shadow Fme Behemoth]

  [Your level has increased from level 41 to level 42][Novice Magian has increased from level 9 to level 10][Luck Magic has increased from level 1 to level 6][Light Magic has increased from level 9 to level 10][Light Manipution has increased from level 9 to level 12]

  [Learned Enha Magic Spell Light Imbue][Learned Light Magic Spell Light Ward][Learned Luck Magic Spell A Touch of Good Luck]

  In respoo the notifications everyone cheered, the shadows that had been blog out the light began to fade and the light filtered through the windows once again. In a short span of time, the dark and gloomy ballroom filled to the brim with the corpses of shadow monsters was finally filled with the bright midday light. As the light poured across the shadowy monsters, their bodies began to burn away and disie into small particles that quickly faded away.

  My friends came over, eae looking happy aed. I wasn't the only ohat leveled.

  Saine

  Hello! Hope that fight was fun, I enjoyed writing it. chapter we get to dig into those new upgrades! See you ime!

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