Elemental Cats

Toz and the others could feel the effects of Wyrie's amplification magic begin dying down. But they were already in front of the stone archway leading into the room where their target was. Besides, at this point, there would be no sneaking past, no matter how advanced their stealth was.

The line of armored soldiers standing in front of the wall was one thing. The thick layer of enchantments and death magic painting the archway in a faint ghastly light was another thing that prevented them from getting into the room. But the last and most unavoidable thing was the fact that they were alive.

According to the information that the general had obtained somehow, it was impossible to step into the Fountain of Death unnoticed if one had a beating heart, which was something all of the six partaking in the mission did. Even if they could pause their heart from beating for a few moments, they would still be detected.

Rather than sensing the actual heartbeats of a living person, the Fountain of Death clashed with the life force of living beings. The general hadn't gotten any more information than that. But they didn't need to know any more than that since knowing the reason why or how it worked wouldn't change anything. They would still have to barge into the room and destroy the Fountain of Death.

That was their mission. And if they accomplished it, they would have to try and get out of the Fortress alive.

With the mission's objective on the opposite side of a line of armed soldiers, Toz and the others were tense. They couldn't help but, even if they knew they didn't have time to dally. Wyrie wasn't out of mana yet, and they could use what she had left to remain cloaked and plan their attack, or they could attack at once and use Wyrie's magic to increase the power of their attacks.

Since they didn't need to plan their attack, they went with the second option. Wyrie would focus on amplifying the power of the others' attacks. And if she had some mana to spare, she would strengthen the defenses Braxton put up to give them more time to defeat the knights and destroy the Fountain of Death.

With a plan of action at the ready, Toz and the others didn't waste any time and immediately dispelled the stealth.

The knights with full plate armor were visibly stunned as the six appeared from seemingly out of thin air. Toz and the others took advantage of their surprised state and launched their attacks.

Since getting into the room was the priority, Seich took the lead in an arrow formation.

Seich drew the two swords at his hip and reinforced the straight, hair-thin blades with a layer of bright yellow light. With one glowing sword in each hand, Seich bent forward and dashed toward the knights while reinforcing his body with his light attribute magic as well.

Although Seich clearly had the capabilities to cross the distance between their group and the knights at once, he intentionally slowed down so that he wouldn't be separated from the others. And the yellow streak of light was quickly followed by Mifter, surrounded by a layer of translucent wind that blew around him and cut even the air apart.

After Mifter came Wyrie, who, the moment Seich's swords made contact with the enemy, amplified the magic Seich put into his blades. Even while struggling to keep up with Seich and Mifter, Wyrie timed her magic so that she only used it when she really had to, which kept her mana usage to a minimum.

Seich's yellow blades of light expanded due to the apparent influx of mana and cut through the metal of the knights' full plate armor.

Seich's reach was enough to slice apart the two knights in front of him and graze a third and fourth on either side. He used the opening he created and jumped over the knights who hadn't even had time to collapse yet and burst through the archway, right into the mist of death attribute demonic energy.

Mifter was tight on Seich's tail, and he conjured a gale of wind on either arm that he thrust out and sent into the two lines of knights. He hadn't had enough time to create powerful enough wind to put the knights into complete disarray. But he pushed them far apart enough to make an opening that would let Wyrie pass through without having to worry about losing her head to the knights' swords.

With the first three through the archway, only Toz, Hal, and Braxton remained. Braxton and Hal brought up the rear.

Hal isolated their surroundings and kept any sound of their sneak attack from escaping, which would delay the reinforcements for as long as possible. And Braxton was creating a large wall of earth that would fill in the archway and block the reinforcements from entering the room.

But neither Hal nor Braxton could deal with all the knights at the same time.

Thankfully Toz was there to cover them as they backed into the room where the target for their mission was.

Toz's sword blazed with orange flames, and he used the incredible heat packed into his blade to cut into the knights that came too close. At the same time, he used his space magic to keep the other knights restrained and stop them from ringing the alarm or attacking the other two. And if he got an opportunity, he used his lightning bolts to destroy those armors that were out of reach for his sword.

While disassembling the knights, Toz noticed that the armors were hollow. There wasn't anybody inside. The realization that he was fighting the armors themselves made Toz stumble, and his face paled.

No one told him he was going to fight haunted armors! However, he drew upon what he had learned while fighting the zombies and cleared his mind. At least they didn't get back up after they were cut or blown apart.

"Watch out!"