Astartes and the rest of the party did not make too much fuss after clearing the Lionmen Abode Catacomb. They had already done it before. They were pleased at their improved power though. The just ended battle was a good test of how quickly they were progressing.
They once again generated an uproar among the F-Ranker and E-Rankers when they cleared the catacomb so quickly. Astartes especially was in the spotlight since many had come to recognize him as the person that achieved a solo wipeout of the [Lionmen Abode] Catacomb yesterday.
This time he even did that with a party in shorter time!
This made the rankers begin to revere him. The name of the rising star among the rankers of Yosemite City, Infinity, began to spread throughout the city.
Astartes set his sights on the next Class F Catacomb, the Snakemen Habitat Catacomb! A luxurious ranker association car picked them up and drove them to their destination. Autumn Leaf and Willow Steps clicked their tongues with delight as they enjoyed the luxurious interior of the car. Even Adele had a relaxed smile as she sipped a rather expensive, cooling drink found within the car's beverage compartment.
The fifteen minute drive arrived quickly and the stepped out of the car and headed towards the [Snakemen Habitat] Catacomb. Just like the Lionmen Abode, there were rankers that were also present at this location. After going through the necessary formalities, they walked past the mana boundary at the entrance of the catacomb and began their next catacomb raid.
Unlike the wide plains topographic feature of the [Lionmen Abode], the [Snakemen Habitat] was a forest. A dark forest. Astartes stood in the middle of their formation while he directed Oaken Shield to cover the rear and protect Autumn Leaf. Adele and Bear Paw led from the front, while Willow Steps was positioned behind them.
A minute into their journey through the first floor, everyone was sent into high alert when a massive snake tail suddenly attacked the party from the rear!
Oaken Shield was quick to react, blocking it with his shield. However, the force of the attack pushed him back by a few steps. The attack was revealed to have come from a scaled human being that had the lower body of a snake. Its eyes and tongue were that of a snake and snake scales covered the sides of its face.
It was one of the Snakemen, the monsters of the catacomb.
He managed to successfully protect Autumn Leaf from getting caught in the attack but the Snakeman did not retreat and attacked once more with its massive, elongated tail. But before its attack could reach Oaken Shield, Astartes made a move before everyone else.
[Darkness Hand]
A black hand of darkness emerged from the ground and seized his body instantly constricting its appendages around it in an overwhelming fashion!
Within seconds, the Snakeman's struggles and vicious hisses were rendered futile had its vitality drained by the hand of darkness and was killed in a single attack.
With the death of the Snakeman came the attacks of more Snakemen attacks from everywhere!
Compared to the Lionmen that preferred frontal attacks, the Snakemen were more adaptable fighters. Some of them used their powerful snake tails and attacked from the front, while others moved from place to place, dodged attacks from the party and searched for opportunities and counterattacked viciously.
This proved to be a new challenge for the party. Oaken Shield was forced to passively take on attacks of two Snakemen. When he wanted to attack, he was forced to retreat, blocking the attack of another Snakeman that aimed to kill him by attacking from his side. Bear Paw and Willow Steps were in similar difficult situations where they were forced to take on the attacks of multiple Snakemen and began to trade wounds in exchange.
As for Adele, she even had more Snakemen gang up on her but it was to no avail as she cut through their stomachs with her sword, spewing their organs and greenish blood to the floor. Even so, she was besieged by more fierce Snakemen who were not afraid to trade injuries and with their numbers, pinned the party back.
Clearly the [Snakemen Habitat] was a Class F Catacomb like the [Lionmen Abode] but its difficulty and complexity of enemies and strategies were totally different. This was something Astartes quickly realized and internalized.
He could not afford to underestimate any catacomb he challenged. Even an unprepared E-Ranker could perish in a Class F Catacomb.
Despite making mental notes in his head, he quickly assessed his next course of action and quickly turned the tables of the battle.
Beat adaptable enemies by being adaptable yourself.
He used [Darkness Hand] constrict and kill a Snakeman that nearly wounded Bear Paw from the side, allowing him to use his [Brute Strength] skill to smash another Snakeman's head, crushing it to a pulp.
At the same time, Astartes cast his [Icicle Blast] firing ten icicle swords at the Snakeman attacking Oaken Shield and Willow Steps. Although some of the Snakemen moved trickily as retreated at the attack of the icicle swords, many of them were still decapitated with a single slash and their chopped heads rolled down the ground, the shocked and fearful expressions still present on their faces even after death.
Reducing the pressure on the party with two moves, allowed the others to once again regain the advantage in one on one battles and they unleashed their full abilities, killing snakeman after snakeman in rapid succession.
Adele, who was an E-Rank just like Astartes slayed several Snakemen with her sword, but still sustained some wounds on her body including a scratch on her face and a slash at her arm from the sharp claws of the Snakemen.
Although it did not affect her battle ability that much, it was still a little painful. However, as she charged towards a final attack from two Snakemen, a milky white healing glow covered her body and healed her wounds even seconds.
It was Astartes' [Greater healing] skill which he used on her. Since Autumn Leaf was already preoccupied with treating the wounds of the others, Astartes decided to support Adele.
The effects of his healing skill was much better and quicker than Autumn Leaf who stared at Astartes with as much surprise just like everyone else!
Adele grinned when she saw this, "You cheeky lad!"
With a satisfied smile on her face, she once again charged forth, brimming with power and confidence and slashed apart the limbs and torsos of the remaining Snakemen killing the last batch of them to end the battle.
Astartes did not hesitate to use his [Greater Healing] multiple times on Bear Paw and Willow Steps as well, and brought them back to full recovery. Apart from the slightly destroyed clothes of dented armor, there were no grievous wounds and everyone was ready to go.
They had cleared the first floor just now and entered into the second floor. Just like the Lionmen Abode Catacomb, the second floor of the Snakemen Habitat was a lot more intense.
Their arrival into the second floor was met with an intense monster wave tactic strategy by the Snakemen. This was a tactic that Astartes and the rest were already accustomed to and handled the Snakemen very efficiently.
But in the midst of battle, a Snakeman appeared out of a tree out of nowhere and attacked Oaken Shield who had been battling two other Snakemen! Its tail attack was like a sharp knife and pierced through Oaken Shield's thigh causing him great pain and leaving him wounded on the ground.
Before the Snakemen could finish him off, an icicle blade performed a quick horizontal slash, decapitating the heads of all three Snakemen.
[Greater Healing]
Oaken Shield was quickly healed by Astartes while, he focused on using his [Icicle Blast] to whittle down the enemies and protect everyone's rear.
"Watch out for Snakemen Assassins. They can be very stealthy." Astartes instructed.
"Roger that!" The others responded.
From this moment onwards, apart from taking down the Snakemen that attacked from the front, they made sure to beware of the sneak attacks of the Snakemen Assassins who camouflaged perfectly in the surroundings and attacked from unpredictable angles.
Their usefulness was short-lived however.
This was because Astartes' skill proficiency in the both his [Icicle Blast] and [Darkness Hand] skills had gone up!
SKILLS: Icicle Blast (F)(76), Darkness Hand (F)(51)
Icicle Blast had reached the Master level, while the Darkness Hand skill had reached the Expert level!
His combat power soared tremendously!
[Icicle Blast]
20 smooth and refined ice blades without hilts appeared around him. They circled around him intelligently and he could direct and control them very smoothly with very intricate detail with only but a mere thought!
He did not fire them and waited patiently, observing everything around him carefully. Soon, a snakeman appeared above them, over a tree top. Its movements were very stealthy and its target, Bear Paw was engaged seriously in battle without realizing that he was about to be attacked.
However, before the snakeman could attack, a single ice blade pierced through its head and killed it! Its speed was so fast and piercing power so great that with a single hit, the outcome was lethal!
Astartes did this on multiple occasions, and took out several Snakemen Assassins from causing havoc on the battlefield singlehandedly. His attacks were too fast to avoid for the creatures and hence were slaughtered mercilessly.
In the meantime to support his comrades, he did not use his [Icicle Blast] at all.
[Darkness Hand]
Instead of one, two hands of darkness that looked like they belonged to demons emerged from within his shadow!
The hands of darkness extended itself to more than 10 meters and constricted the figures of two snakemen, draining away their vitality in mere seconds, giving the space for Willow Steps and Oaken Shield to focus on killing the remaining snakemen!
His monstrous abilities he displayed on the battlefield could not be matched and the second floor was cleared after a few minutes. This left the third and last floor where they were going to face the Catacomb Lord!