Irethiel surrounded the skeleton soldiers to serve as our shield, and Silvia, Alice, and I stood together in the middle, ready to face the approaching final monster wave. But then something unexpected happened.
Suddenly, a hail of arrows from the sky began to fall upon us.
—Swish —Swish —Swish
!?
"Ah, shit—" Alice exclaimed as she noticed the approaching arrows and as well as the nearing monster wave.
But because the arrows were shot unbiasedly in our direction, they would even hit the monsters that were approaching us.
"Hmm, Ares, what should we do now?" Silvia inquired as she turned toward him, but she noticed Ares standing there with his eyes closed.
"...."
However, Ares quickly opened his eyes, which were now glowing blue, and slowly lifted his left hand, which revealed a glowing blue tattoo.
And all the arrows abruptly stopped in midair as soon as they got close to them.
Kheoung!—
Kheoung!—
When the wave of monsters was not far away, Ares immediately changed the direction of the arrows from them to the approaching monsters.
Swish!—
Chieeek!—
With agonizing screams, all of the nearby monsters collapsed to the ground lifeless after being struck by the arrows.
And immediately afterward, the skeleton soldiers began to fight onrushing monsters as well.
A moment of shock briefly overcame Silvia and Alice, but they quickly snapped out of it as they needed to deal with the massive waves of monsters that were heading straight for them.
— Slash — Slash
But as the monsters, like the kobolds, faced the skeleton soldiers, they smelled the bodies of their kin and slowed down, sensing something odd.
There were bones of their kind scattered around the battlefield.
Naturally, the discovery of bones was not unusual.
The strange thing was that the bones were completely black.
Keong! Chieek!
When one of the kobolds became suspicious of the anomaly, it approached the bone and sniffed it.
Slice!
The kobold's throat was slashed in an instant by something that suddenly materialized from the pile of recently killed monster corpses.
He was killed in an unexpected attack with no opportunity to retaliate, which stunned all the monsters who witnessed it.
And instantly more skeleton soldiers began to emerge from the dead monsters.
Chieek?
!?
The skeleton soldiers spread out and began to hunt them down.
Slash! Slash!
Naturally, the monsters decided to strike back.
Kerr!
They swung their clubs, crude swords, or maces, and some of their blows struck the bodies of the skeleton soldiers.
Cling!—
...But they couldn't even scratch the skeleton soldier, and the monster's weapons, which struck him, produced a spark and sounded like they were striking coarse iron.
!?
'Was their attacks not powerful enough...or were the bones of the skeleton soldiers too strong?' I pondered before we too decided to join in the battle as well.
...
...
We continued to fight the monster waves, and the hail of arrows was shot in our direction several times, but I used it to our advantage by redirecting it to the monsters, killing them instead.
And as we continued to kill the monsters in waves that seemed to never end, we lost track of the passing seconds.
But thanks to Silvia, who used her illusions to slow down the monsters, while Irethiel continued to build the skeleton army out of the corpses of the dead monsters we weren't having much of a hard time.
Though Irethiel ran out of mana in between because she is still not at her peak and her mana only appears to be replenishing at a significant rate according to her.
But, I reckon that amount of mana was already impressive.
Nevertheless, I gave her numerous mana potions because she appears to supply a large amount of mana into the skeleton army in order to effectively control them.
And we continued to slaughter monsters for a brief moment before hearing the gate notification and the monster wave stopped...
[End Of The Final Wave!]
[Phase 2 has concluded!]
[Be prepared, the final phase is about to start!]
Hufff, Hufff, Hufff, Hufff
"I-I can't take it anymore," Alice exclaimed as she collapsed on the bloodied ground, no longer caring.
It was literally a bloodbath, and the entire area around us was stained red with monster blood, as well as hundreds of monster carcasses littering the ground.
"...Do you know what the final phase is, Ares?" Silvia asked, her face drained from exhaustion.
As if the atmosphere wasn't bad enough for her, she also has to use a lot of mana to create large-scale illusions and keep them going.
Huuuu—
"Perhaps it'll be a boss monster?" I replied casually while panting and standing with the help of my katana.
"...."
"...Are you all right, Ares? I believe you are overworking yourself!" Silvia approached me with trepidation.
"No, I'm fine; I just need to rest," I explained.
"Are your potions depleted?" Silvia inquired, concerned.
"...Yeah, that was the last one I drank," I replied.
"W-What! So, Sir Ares, how are we going to get through the final phase with you in that condition?" Alice immediately inquired.
"...."
But before I could respond, the ground beneath us began to move and quickly entrapped me and Silvia's legs, rendering us immobile.
!?
"H-Huh? W-What the hell is happening?" Silvia muttered, taken aback.
"...Earth magic?" Startled, Alice exclaimed.
"You guys did a fantastic job battling the endless waves of monsters,"
"...."
We turned to look behind us when we heard a man's voice, and as we did, we saw the blonde-haired man, the muscular man, and a pink-hair woman emerge from the forest.
"Yes, seeing him fight honestly caught me off guard—who would consider him to be a teenager? He was like a killing machine, mowing down monsters left and right.
I must admit that I'm quite impressed," The muscular man stated.
"...."
"What the heck are you guys up to? Hey Victoria, release them right this instant; this is no time for joking around," Alice said with brows furrowed.
When she heard her, the pink-haired woman turned her face sideways, averting her gaze with an awkward expression.
"Sorry, but no can do because they will have to die here for us to be promoted to rank A," the blonde hair guy said evilly.
!?
"...W-What! You can't be serious, can you?" Alice was surprised by his response.
"You are already an A-Rank, so you have no idea how long we have struggled to get promoted, but now we finally have a chance," the muscular man explained.
"How typical of humans!" Irethiel remarked telepathically.
"...That's how humans are, they won't mind stepping on others to get ahead, ...and of course, I am no different from them," I told Irethiel telepathically.
"...."
"...How will killing them help you advance to A-Rank? Have you guys gone insane?" Alice retorted angrily.
"Hey Victoria, I knew these two were idiots, but I wasn't expecting this from you," Alice said.
But the pink-haired woman didn't respond and remained silent.
"...."
"...And how do you intend to clear this gate without his assistance, can you explain?" Alice expressed her disappointment while slowly moving toward them.
"We don't need his help to clear this gate; we can do it the same way we've been doing all this time," The blonde-haired man muttered and drew an arrow toward Ares.
"Y-you seriously?" Alice exclaimed and dashed toward the blonde-haired man, but the muscular guy blocked her path, while the blonde-haired guy quickly shot an arrow at Ares.
—Swish!
'What a moron!'
***