47: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Twelve

The Hall of the Luminous, Part Twelve

EXP Gained: 350

EXP: 360/440

WS Tokens Gained: 250

WS Tokens: 7810

That last wave had been much more intense than Neve had expected. 

She wished she'd have more time to catch her breath, but, no. The next wave would appear in ten seconds. 

She needed to act fast. 

Using up 300 more mana, Erin appeared before her. 

MP: 495/900

[Yeah... I'm definitely not going to have enough mana to have Erin with me through all of these waves. I'm going to have to go through at least one or two alone.] 

Because she'd been resummoned, Erin's mana was full. Before Erin could even get a word out, Neve was tossing a Potion of Medium Agility in her direction. 

"Here!" She called out. Erin caught the flask as three figures began materializing at the other end of the room. "Don't waste any time, drink the damn thing!" 

Erin listened to her, drinking the potion's contents and tossing the flask away. It rolled to a stop by an old skeleton sitting to the left. One that Neve hoped wasn't a reflection of her own future.

The lamia took her blades from her personal inventory and got into her fighting stance, as Neve continued breathing slightly heavily behind her. 

Soon, the next three enemies finished materializing. 

Like the four that had come before, these were creepy, odd beings that felt like they'd been pulled straight out of a child's nightmares. One was a type of alligator with long, thin limbs and an almost insect-like body. Its mouth was curved up like it was grinning, showing off two rows full of sharp teeth. 

The other two creatures were bird-like, with long, black beaks and tiny, red eyes, along with lizard-like hands and extremely long legs. 

All three were level 36. 

[Under 10 levels of a difference with me. Just a 5-level difference with Erin. They're essentially just as strong as we are at this point,] Neve thought. [Again, I'm really going to have to do a good job of directing Erin to make it through this. Let's see how much that potion helps, too!] 

"Erin, use The Lamia's Hunt!" 

A red aura wrapped itself around her summon, signaling the activation of the skill. 

The dark alligator raced toward Erin. The two birds stayed where they were. 

The bigger enemy lunged at the lamia. Neve's summon was able to dodge away easily, but more pressure was soon applied to her as the birds began casting spells. 

They both cast the same one, conjuring a pair of dark orbs above their beaks that caused runes to appear under Erin's body. 

Neve had no intention of finding out what those runes did. 

"Get away from those runes, then, paralyze the two birds with Freezing Gaze!" 

Robotically, Erin did as she asked. She slid away from the two runes appearing beneath her and dashed toward the birds, closing the gap between them almost instantly. 

As soon as she was in front of them, she used that spell, shrieking, and paralyzing the enemies, all while the alligator struggled to stay on top of her. 

"Take them out!" Neve then yelled and the lamia quickly stuck both blades through the bird's heads. 

It had been difficult to tell how effective the 10 Speed gained from Ahlakan's potion would be, but now that she saw Erin in action with it, she did feel like its benefits were quite noticeable. Especially when stacked on top of The Lamia's Hunt. 

Time would only tell, however, whether this advantage would allow them to get through the final waves. 

That was something Neve would worry about later, though. 

Right now, they had a few fights to win. 

With the only enemy from this wave remaining being the alligator, Neve continued issuing orders. 

"Erin, get between the enemy and me!"

The lamia slithered to the center of the temple then, ignoring the alligator as it attempted to bite down on her as she passed. It let out a gross, bubbling sound then like it was about to puke. 

And it did just that. The alligator spat out a dark green glob aimed at Erin's back. 

"Dodge to the left!" 

Erin did so on Neve's command and the green gob fell just ahead of Neve's feet. She heard it sizzle, burning the ground. 

Neve then returned fire with a few {Iceballs}. 

MP: 475/900

As per usual, her intention wasn't to hurt the alligator much herself but to slow it down and give Erin more openings so that she could go in for the kill. 

As she wasn't being commanded anymore, Erin began moving on her own, looking for an angle. 

The alligator shot out another glob of that green acid. Neve didn't need to tell Erin to dodge this one. The lamia circled around the alligator, not yet moving in to attack, even though, to Neve's eyes, it felt like she could. 

[... Is she being hesitant? Should I order her to?] 

It was hard for her to tell what was happening, and, unfortunately, they didn't have much time left before Erin's time ran out.

And so, Neve shouted: 

"Go in, hit its body!" 

For just a split second, Neve saw an alarmed expression grace Erin's gorgeous face as she heard that. Whatever reservations she had, however, went out the window as her summon instincts took over and she listened to Neve's command. 

As soon as she went in, however, the alligator jumped up and clamped its teeth around Erin's neck. 

[What!?]

Neve flinched. 

Erin continued, however, doing as Neve had asked and stabbed both her blades into the alligator's body before she disappeared. Whether it was because her timer ran out or because the alligator had killed her, Neve could not say. All she knew was that one moment, the summon was there and the next she wasn't. 

[I... How did that just happen?] 

The alligator had been heavily injured, though. So, although this ended up as a 1 versus 1, it was a fight Neve could win, as the creature was practically half dead. 

[I don't need to get any closer to it. I can just use my range advantage and-] 

The alligator, understanding Neve's plan all too well, began running at her. 

[Shit!] 

Neve shot out more {Iceballs}, bringing her mana down to 445 as the alligator lunged toward her. It jumped, moving to do exactly what it had done to Erin but, Neve managed to avoid its maw and she ran toward the opposite side of the temple, trying to maintain her range advantage. 

One after another, Neve continued firing off {Iceballs}. Eventually, the enemy was slowed down significantly enough to where she could take it a little easier. 

As wounds piled up on its body, the alligator began literally falling apart.  0

Its mouth was broken by one of Neve's {Iceballs}, leaving it hanging unnaturally. Its skin was peeled back and ripped off, and finally, just before it would have reached Neve, it stopped moving entirely. 

An EXP message over her head let Neve know she leveled up, but, for now, she disregarded them. She'd take the EXP messages in at the end of this run. 

[Holy shit,] Neve thought, taking deep breaths. 

Checking her mana, she found she had 380 remaining. 

[Shit... I only have enough mana to summon Erin one more time.] 

And she still had 3 more waves to go. 

[... I can't summon Erin for this one, or the next, or I won't be able to summon her for the wave 15 fight which will obviously be the hardest,] she realized. [I'm going to have to go through these next two waves on my own... and try to keep enough mana to summon Erin when they're done.] 

Her head ached as she tried to think about how she was going to get through this, all while the next set of enemies began manifesting. 

[I'm going to have to take some time to regenerate my mana. Even then, it's not going to be enough to summon Erin a second time, but I can get some mana to use more offensive spells. Which means,] she continued, [I need to spend some time doing nothing but dodging. And, for that, I might want to use my potions.] 

The idea hurt, given that she'd wanted to save them for later, but with how this current situation was going, it felt like she was going to have to do that. 

A bright light shined at the back of the temple. The three figures appearing urged her to stop hesitating. 

So, she pulled out one of those Potions of Medium Agility and gulped its contents down as the enemies came into view. 

Two overgrown rabbits and something that looked like a lizard with a turtle's shell on its back. 

These enemies were level 39. 

As soon as she was done with the potion, she threw it aside and began casting {Iceball} at the rabbits.

[Judging by their triangle formation, it looks like that lizard is a mage. I need to take it out first, then deal with the rabbits. At the same time, I need to make sure I have enough mana to summon Erin, so I can only use 8 offensive spells. 4 for each rabbit, maybe?] 

It was the best plan she could think of with this much pressure on her. 

She put it into practice, continuing to launch {Iceballs} until she saw her mana reach 300. The spheres of ice crashed into the bodies of her opponents as they attempted to close the gap.

Once all 8 spells she could afford to cast were out of the way, and the rabbits reached her position, Neve started running. 

[Hit and run. That's the best plan I've got. Let's see if I can make this work!] 

The first step was to take out the mage who was currently launching spikes of ice across the air, sending them flying at her. 

[40 Speed. Hopefully, I didn't put all my attribute points into that stat for nothing!] 

She dodged one projectile after another, while the rabbits chased her at the same time. The projectiles crashed into the ground and broke, sending bits of ice flying through the temple. 

Neve reached the turtle monster, grit her teeth, raised her staff, and slammed it down on the monster, dealing...

... Very little damage, if any. 

[Oh... Right,] Neve thought, blinking. [My Strength is literally 5.] 

The turtle smacked its lizard-like head into Neve's abdomen, almost mockingly. Neve was pushed back, spitting out blood as she felt something crack within her. 

"Aaaa..." 

The rabbits had finally reached her. 

They jumped up, looking to crush her under their feet. Neve's eyes widened and, off instinct alone, she rolled to the side. 

Reaching for her inventory, she got up to her feet, drank a healing potion, and started running again. 

Her body healed up and Neve ran in circles again, looking to perform exactly the same strategy. Only, now, she had been reminded of how pitiful her melee damage was. 

So, moving around the rabbits, she made her way back to the lizard, stood before it, and slammed the back of her staff into its head. 

And, she kept running. 

[Slow and steady,] she thought, as the rabbits robotically jumped after her. [Slow, and steady...] 

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