(Always check the paragraph comments. I add pictures sometimes.)
The Eight Edge Assassins failed to kill the four huddling humans. Something leaped out of their shadows and killed the assassins. Apparently, the shadow summons can hide and wait within human shadows, a useful infiltration technique.
Those assassins failed, but they provided sufficient information. Not only that, the shadow army's estimated number was at least a thousand. The shadows, I recognized some of them; they were summoned or created by Nazarick.
How did he usurp control over them? They were pop monsters, especially the doom lords. I can understand why some were usurped since they were created from human or demi-human corpses, especially the death knights, they already have some spiritual or physical tether, but the doom lords and the rest raise some questions.
That Sung-bastard also tried to resurrect the eight edge assassins, but was surprised when their corpses turned into motes of light. Was this a side-effect of the granted wish? Demiurge theorized that each floor or level was a separate reality.
When you go to another floor, you technically don't exist for Nazarick's systems nor its magic. But since you exist but were not part of the system, you're in an existential limbo where you persist but don't exist.
By wishing for a gate spell that can cross dimensions, or at least the dimensions inside these thresholds, a connection was made, and thus everything was now all interconnected. A part of the system again. Was that why the summoned creatures vanished instead of persisting?
Or, the likely answer, Sung-bastard's magic was just different?
Well, I should focus on my opponent. That Reinhard-knight was doing that thing again, where he closes his eyes. I scanned him, and there were no changes to his HP or MP. I didn't sense any magical effects nor any minute differences.
"I hate assuming without proof, but is he praying?"
This was not an ideal situation. I am up against the enigmatic Reinhard-knight, this ethereal summon, and some powerful shadows preying in the dark.
"Triplet Magic: Obsidian Blade!" I chanted, and three black blades appeared a few meters in front of me, then shot forward. Clang. Clang. Clang. Reinhard-knight just swatted them away; he was probably vulnerable to its element, not the blades themselves.
"Ice Knife!" A simple spell that explodes with a frostbite blast, enough to stun and chill. The knife rushed forward, and Reinhard-knight instead grabbed it and redirected it to me. I have to admit that was very cool.
The ice knife shattered as it struck me, no effects whatsoever.
Then that ethereal summon appeared behind me, thinking that it was slick. It wasn't.
I whacked it away with the blasting staff, sending it flying. Reinhard-knight went after that thing and caught it; their team coordination was lacking, but they cared for each other. I can exploit that.
I can sense the displeasure from that black-haired boy; he probably gave that ethereal summon a mental command. After that, a wave of rabbits leaped out of the boys shadows, multiplying by the second. I didn't sense any expenditure or costs from these colossal waves; he was probably using a different kind of resource dissimilar to magic.
"Widen Magic: Fireball." The wave of cute bunny rabbits exploded from the fireball's scorching heat. They turned into a tar-like sludge that then shortly disappeared. Was that the resource? How was it harvested or spent?
Also, I was now inside a cage made out of bunny rabbits. I let myself be trapped. I poked the rabbit, and it just stared at me with its wide eyes. They didn't have a pulse or any warmth.
They were alive but not in a conventional sense. I pried away a single rabbit and crushed it with my bony hands, no blood, just sludge that then dissipated.
"I wonder how it reacts to ice."
"Widen Magic: Iceball." The rabbit cage turned into ice as the ice ball exploded. [ Iceball ], a spell that turns anything into an ice sculpture if they didn't have the proper defenses. A basic stun spell. The rabbits were still alive beneath all the ice but were incapacitated. I then broke the ice rabbit cage with a single punch.
"Fly!""Freedom!" "Penetrate up!" "Greater Magic Shield." "Greater Resistance." I flew away while casting some buffs, seeking distance and a proper view. I think I know the deal about these rabbits, just a hunch.
"Sensor Boost." "Rabbit's Paw." "Undead Guidance." "Paranormal Intuition."
I whispered instead since there was no need to cast silent meta-magic on these basic spells.
[ Sensor Boost ] allowed me to widen the range of my senses and sharpen my instincts.
[ Rabbit's Paw ] and [ Undead Guidance ] provided me with a chance to uncover some small clues that could be useful or irrelevant. [ Paranormal Intuition] supplements both [ Guidance ] and [ Rabbit's Paw. ]
"I see..."
Well now. I already had my suspicions, but what I saw confirmed it. Nazarick had a similar function, as did some other guilds — an infinitely expanding population of weak monsters, so long as the source was active. To provide time and to expend enemy resources.
The rabbits had a source too, and as long as that source was alive, these rabbits would multiply endlessly. I instantly spotted it, a rabbit hiding behind a shelf, and it had a mark on it.
I was suddenly hit with a powerful force. It was that ethereal summon again. Reinhard-knight threw it straight at me. Most of the damage was resisted rather than nullified. We crashed into a shelf full of colorful products.
This was getting annoying. I have yet to gather substantial information against my target. "Boost Magic: Paralysis." The barbarian ethereal summon limped, but it was squirming. This paralysis won't last long then.
I rose and was about to stomp its head until a large brick hit me. The brick didn't have any magic embedded into it, but I felt a tiny prick of damage nonetheless. What was this guy? That shouldn't have dealt any damage, but it did.
"Maximize Magic: Barrage of Arrows." I chanted, sending a massive barrage of enchanted arrows straight towards him, their damage and effectiveness boosted. However, not a single arrow struck him; they all changed course, avoiding his person.
I didn't sense anything magical, and not even a single micro-expression from him to cause that redirection. How was he achieving that kind of feat? As soon as I asked that question, he pointed at me, and the arrows started flying towards me instead.
"Wall of Protection From Arrows." "Projectile Awkwardness." A spherical barrier appeared, protecting me from my own redirected arrows. Any spell that requires travel and aim was either swatted away or redirected.
Hmm... that Grasp Heart spell was effective. "Maybe single-target spells are effective against him?"
"Hold Species." I chanted, and it was indeed effective; single-target spells worked on him, but the spell itself may not. He just shrugged off the spell. So, a high resistance but not immunity to stunning and restricting spells.
"Dominate!" The spell worked, but the effect was shrugged off again. A high resistance to mind control, too, but not immunity. A punch then struck my face, and Reinhard-knight was getting faster, and he clearly wasn't going all out, either.
He keeps targeting my head. Was he aiming for a critical hit, or just trying to shatter my skull? Whatever his intent, I now know which spells to use against him.
"Temporal Stasis." A ninth-tier spell. I managed to cast it against him as I was sent flying. It was effective; he was now stuck in place, but I could see his eyes moving and his body quivering. A high resistance against temporal spells, too. Not immunity.
"Shit! Reinhard's incapacitated!"
That black-haired boy cursed as that ethereal summon leaped forward straight at me. That paralysis spell was a seventh-tier spell, stronger than [ Hold Person ] and [ Hold Monster ], also boosted up to one tier, and this thing recovered within seconds.
I was tackled straight to the ground, but I quickly rose and pulled out my blasting staff and struck the ethereal summon with it. Instead of flying away, it was only dragged a few meters before grinning at me.
The sound of glass breaking alerted me. The temporal spell wore off.
Reinhard-knight recovered faster than I expected and then explosively charged forward. I was tackled instantly, the force of the impact shattering several shelves against my back. I was pinned to the ground as they unleashed a relentless melee barrage that overwhelmed my defenses and passives.
"I hate this matchup!"
"Greater Teleportation!""Body of Effulgent Beryl!"
I teleported above them, then flew away instantly. That ethereal summon was manageable, but that Reinhard-knight was different; every punch was not the same, each more powerful than the last.
The two of them were chasing me. I need to lure them away from backing that Sung-bastard. "Albedo! I've drawn them away! Keep that Sung-bastard at bay!"
"Understood, I will pick up the pace!" Albedo replied with the message spell.
"Widen Magic: Slow!" A fourth-tier variant of the [ Slow ] spell family. This one was a massive wave blast instead of a single target. Mahoraga was affected, but it was clearly resisting it.
Reinhard was unaffected, as expected. Then, he appeared above me.
He then kicked me straight to the ground, crashing my back and skull against the floor. The floor's tiles cracked and fragmented, also producing a cloud of smoke. [ Body of Effulgent Beryl ] was a decent counter against him, but that knockback was troublesome.
"Absorption." "Indomitability." "Physical Mantle."
I need to repeat that stalling tactic, the one that I used against Riku Aganeia. This Reinhard-knight was most likely an honorable knight with a strong moral compass.
That tactic will be effective then.
"Wait! Stop! Let me breathe! I can't! I absolutely can't! Let me have a single breather!"
(An image I forgot to upload.)