Doomsday Pillars

Inside the main chamber of the abyss, one man could be seen hiding in a pastel blue colored icy bush, observing something in the distance. His gestures looked like a hungry tiger ready to pounce on its prey.

[Hexagram stage 4]

[Wind Walk Scroll] - tier 1 wind element spell

[Energize Scroll] - tier 1 lightning element spell

"Let's go." Alex softly said to someone, while no one was seen near him.

Alex used all the buff-type magic scrolls that he made and prepared before. He then immediately dashed forward with his full speed, charging towards a pack of gargoyles with his sword in hand, ready to annihilate whatever lays in his way. This time, Alex dared to attack a pack of 10 gargoyles at once.

He ran towards the gargoyles, swords pointed at them. When the gargoyles noticed Alex's presence, he already reached them with his swords swinging to two closest gargoyles.. The gargoyles could watch as their two brethren' neck slashed and their head rolled down to the ground by Alex's Tier 3 Light sword and Strokes.

Taking advantage of the shock caused by his surprise attack, Alex immediately stomped his feet on the ground and darted toward the nearest gargoyle. The targeted gargoyle was woken up from its stupor and quickly threw its sharp claws at him. Seeing the incoming attack, he swiftly twisted his body to the side, efficiently dodged the gargoyle's attack and proceeded to do an upward slash with Strokes at it.

The gargoyle was startled when it saw Alex dodge its attack and terrified by his swift counterattack. It quickly tried to defend against Alex's slash by crossing its arms in front of the sword's trajectory. Too bad, the sword easily sliced through its arms and cut its body in half from the bottom up.

Seeing the bisected body of the gargoyle, Alex continued his attack and began swinging his Tier 3 sword towards a gargoyle behind the bisected gargoyle who was stunned to see its companion slashed into two. 

[Light Pulse]

Layers of light appeared on the surface of the Tier 3 sword as it slashed through the air, cleaving the stunned gargoyle in half. 

With the technique and scroll he had used, Alex's speed was tremendously increased by the buff, giving him a speed that was 3 levels higher than the gargoyles. In his first preemptive strike, he was able to finish off 4 gargoyles at once.

"Okay… 4 down, 6 more to go." said Alex calmly.

The remaining gargoyles finally could see the thing that annihilated their brethren, a man standing there with their companion bodies sprawled on the ground behind him, with a shining white shortsword in his left hand and a wooden sword in his right.

Angry roars echoed in the air as the remaining gargoyle dashed towards Alex, bloodlust expression and murderous intent apparent in their face. The gargoyles were determined to kill Alex, avenging their fallen brothers. Alex, who saw the impending charge, instantly took his stance and braced himself to face the attack.

When the gargoyles were storming Alex, a faint silhouette appeared behind the pack. Aria, whose figure appeared out of the silhouette, swung her tier 3 knives towards the necks of the two slowest gargoyles, intending to finish them off. The pack was coming to an abrupt halt when they heard the sounds of bodies falling to the ground from behind them. Their bodies froze in shock when they saw their brothers who had just been alive were now dead.

Naturally, when Alex was about to initiate the ambush, Aria had already gone ahead and waited for the perfect moment to swiftly assassinate the gargoyles, reducing their risk in this battle. That way, they currently just have to fight against 4 gargoyles instead of 10. The fight wouldn't last long at all, especially with Alex's accelerated speed and Aria's invisibility, 

If the gargoyles decided to run, Alex would use the [Iron Chain Scroll] he prepared earlier, a tier 1 metal element skill that could draw out an iron chain to temporarily bind the gargoyles. Although this tier 1 spell could be immediately destroyed by the gargoyles, within the few seconds of them trying to escape, Alex would already behead them.

"One got away, Alex." Said Aria, pointing her finger at a flying gargoyle.

"Don't give chase." Alex serenely answered.

"Why? We'll be screwed if it comes back with more gargoyles," asked Aria with worry in her voice.

"Don't worry. We are prepared this time" said Alex with a faint glint appearing in his eyes. 

After spending a whole month practicing his enchantment, Alex concluded that it was time for him and Aria to gather more spirit stones for their cultivation and his training. Coincidentally, they were already strong enough to sweep through the main chamber without a hitch, so he decided to let one gargoyle escape and lure more gargoyles to their location. They could obtain more spirit stones as well as training their combat skills against hordes of enemies at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.

Within a few minutes, sounds of wings flapping could be heard from a distance. They immediately turned their head toward the direction and saw more than 20 gargoyle coming from the sky.

Alex who saw this couldn't help but to smile widely and shouted, "Not bad! Come here, you lumps of spirit stones!"

As if offended by Alex's provocation, the crowd of gargoyles roared at once and prepared to dive toward Alex.

"Be careful there, Mister gargoyles. Hehehe.." Alex mockingly said with a loud laugh.

When this group of gargoyles was in the sky under Alex's position and ready to attack, suddenly a hammer-like strike came from one side and from the other side a hailstorm came.

[Smite - Rank 3 Light spell]

[Hail - Rank 3 ice spell]

Instantly, nearly half of them were knocked down, crashing to the ground with a loud bang. Alex and Aria swiftly finished off those who fell while still observing those in the air. Both [Smite] and [Hail] are the strongest area-of-effect attacks they currently have.

The dozen of gargoyles that had dodged, immediately dived from the sky towards Aria and Alex, intending to kill them. But before they could arrive, Alex quickly cast a spell and tore a scroll in half.

[Blind - Rank 1 Light spell]

[Dark Smoke scroll]

The [Blind] spell was aimed to blind their eyes for a moment while the [Dark Smoke scroll] took effect, enshrouding Alex's surroundings with black smoke, obscuring the gargoyle's line of sight as their vision recovered.

As the spell and scroll took effect, Alex quickly attacked the gargoyle who dived into the smoke and lost their sight. He then swiftly cast [Telekinesis] to gather spirit stones from the dead bodies. Afterward, he took out another scroll.

[Ice Manipulation scroll]

Shortly, A ring of ice formed under Alex's feet and quickly formed a deep cave hole. He gestured to Aria to follow him. The two of them entered the cave and Alex then blocked the cave using the still active [Ice Manipulation], leaving no trace on the ground they had stepped on earlier.

Alex got hit on his shoulder as he turned around to see Aria's condition, "What was that for?" he confusedly asked while rubbing his shoulder.

"What was that shout earlier, huh?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Hehehe… I couldn't help it, I'm just excited." Alex shyly said while scratching his head, he then continued. "Let's take a rest here."

When the smoke from [Dark Smoke scroll] dispersed and the gargoyles finally could properly see their surroundings again, their two prey were already out of their sight, vanishing without a trace.

That was the series of preparations that Alex prepared for the battle against the gargoyles today. Apart from those spells and scrolls, He also prepared a [Stone Skin scroll] if they couldn't avoid the fierce battle.

With the [Ice Manipulation scroll], Alex was not afraid to face the hordes of gargoyles. He can make a hiding cave anywhere and anytime, letting him retreat at will. It also gave him the initiative in battle.

Days passed by as Alex and Aria continued to do the same thing over and over again, hunting and killing the gargoyles during the day and cultivating and training his engraving at night. They were carefully and slowly accumulating their strength in their endeavor to get out of this abyss.

Days become weeks, weeks become months and 4 months later, Alex and Aria are used to fighting gargoyles. They're not even afraid to fight 20 to 30 gargoyles at once, proving their improvement over the months.

After eradicating the last attacking gargoyle with a slash of his sword, Alex abruptly turned to face Aria and said.

"I wonder how many gargoyles we've killed." Alex said as he cleared the blood on his swords.

Startled, Aria was silent for a moment before saying, "7221 gargoyles."

"Did you seriously count it from the start? Hahaha.." Alex teased her.

"S-Shut up! You asked." 

Even though they have killed more than ten thousand gargoyles, Alex and Aria still have to be careful to avoid the place where the horde of gargoyles are still in their statuary form. With their current combat skill, they will not be able to fight against them.

"It's been almost six months since we have been here. I guess we are strong enough to head back now!"

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Written and Directed by Avans, Published by W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l,

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