Dragon King's Harem Chapter 49. Pyro Temple
As expected, once we entered the barrier the monsters' attention was fixed on us.
"ROOOOOAAAHHHH!" Their loud cries echoed into the sky, warning the others that someone had broken through the barrier. Unlike the previous monsters, the monsters around the sacred place were the guardians of the place and they were the manifestation result of mana from the sacred place itself to protect it from evil people who wanted to 'pollute' the place as well as a test for the intruders, whether they had the right set their foot into that place or not.
Luckily, none of them could fly. So as long as I could control my movements well, I should be able to beat them. I swung my hand forward and the weapons launched towards the closest monsters to me. My bazooka and revolvers fired by themselves. While I flapped my wings to fly above them.
Seeing my attack, the monsters tried to repel it with their fire skills. Large flames burst out of their mouths, but we were able to dodge easily by flying higher since I had the aerial advantage. The dozens of fire spikes launched at us as hundreds of sparks flew their way towards us.
"Barrier!"
Evelina swung one of her hands forward and her floating staff that followed us, glowed and created a transparent wall in front of us.
At the same time, some announcements appeared in front of me since I managed to land my weapons and my shots at them.
[Overkill!]
[You have cut a Flame Lizard for 480 HP] X2
[You have shot a Firoyote for 477 HP] X2
[You have shot a Firoyote for 475 HP] X2
[You have shot a Fire Rattlesnake for 474 HP]
[A Fire Rattlesnake is in heavy bleeding effect.]
[Its HP will decrease by 5 points per second]
[Its Speed will decrease by 80%.]
[You have cut a Flame Lizard for 482 HP]
Some of the monsters died, but it was different from the usual monsters. They turned into fire mana and disappeared. As for the monster that was affected by the bleeding effect, instead of blood, what came out of the wound was a red flow of mana, as if it was smoke coming out of its container.
Meanwhile, due to their attack which landed on Evelina's Mana Barrier, I could see that the transparent wall was about to break.
"Barrier!" I commanded as I took over her Mana Barrier in my Telekinetic skill.
[One Mana Barrier is in your control]
As the new Mana Barrier appeared before me, I threw the old Mana Barrier at the previous Fire Rattlesnake. In one movement, the transparent barrier acted like a guillotine blade, separating the monster's head in one slash.
My wings continued to flap, carrying Evelina and myself as if we were dancing in the sky with the two suns as our spotlights, letting the dry air brush our faces and hair. I manoeuvred skillfully in the mid-air, shifted our bodies side to side, letting their attacks past us. My eyes were fixed on the mass of monsters below me who were turning the sand below us into hot, roaring embers. I focused my concentration since I had to attack, defend and dodge, also making sure there weren't any other attacks from the sky.
My hand kept moving as I used my Telekinetic skill to throw my Mana Weapon at them as well as Evelina's Mana Barrier as my supplementary weapon. Meanwhile, like before, Evelina used her Mana Barrier and concentrated her concentration to protect me from all sides, but still ... She couldn't block all the attacks of the more than one hundred monsters below us since more and more monsters were arriving from around the temple. And Eir, just like me, he flew and dodged the enemy's attacks as he threw his Frost Bolt at the monsters. Even though his level was much higher than those of monsters, with their huge numbers it was quite troublesome.
It had been a while since we had been fighting and I could feel my Mana was decreasing rapidly since I had been using my skills non-stop, as well as Evelina and Eir. Our sweat dripped from our foreheads to our chins. The clothes we were wearing were getting wet with sweat. Our breath began to pant due to fatigue. But slowly the number of monsters was reduced and depleted.
As the last Fire Rattlesnake's head separated from his body, an announcement appeared before me.
[All enemies have been defeated!]
[Level Up!] [Level Up!] [Level Up!] [Level Up!]
[You are now Level 43. HP +200, Mana + 80, ATK and MATK + 20, DEF and SPD +8]
[HP: 2350/2350] [Mana: 880/880]
[ATK: 260] [M.ATK: 260]
[SPD: 114] [DEF: 114]
I flapped my wings and flew towards the stone building.
As our feet landed in the centre of the stone stage of the temple, we dropped ourselves and sat down to catch our breath. No one said a word after that, there was only the sound of our ragged breath, even though our HP and Mana were full right now, since Evelina and Eir also rose 1 level from the fight earlier.
"Do I need to take our water supplies, Your Majesty?" asked Eir after we were silent for a minute. His gasping breath was clearly heard between his words.
"It's fine," I said as I got back on my feet and ignored the rest of my tiredness that was biting my body.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I walked towards the altar that was actually just a stone tablet with a magic formation glowed in red. The only thing on that stage. My steps stopped in front of it and my hand touched the magic formation. An announcement appeared before me.
[New essence detected!]
[Fire sacred place's essence]
[Do you want to extract it?]
[Yes] [No]
'Yes.'
A similar magic formation appeared under my feet and it also glowed in red just like the formation in front of me.
[Essence Absorption initiated ...]
The formation let out sparks that flew upward and swirled around my body. Just like when I was at the Ancestral Chamber, the sparks turned into flames that surrounded my body. Then my body absorbed it. In an instant, my body temperature rose, but rather than burnt, I felt a nice warm sensation.
As the flames disappeared, an announcement appeared in front of me.
[Congratulations! You have acquired a new skill: Flame Pillar!]
[Flame Pillar (Requires 10 Mana) - Skill used to create a Fire Pillar that lasts for 1 minute. The number of max pillars increases by 1 per base level.]
I pulled my hand and the formation dimmed. Then I turned around.
"Let's go back," I said.
Which was answered with a nod from Eir and Evelina. Like before, I hugged Evelina and flew back to our Yegauns, but as we got closer I realized something. Several monsters lurked and surrounded our mounts, thinking they were free preys. Several Cruel Cratula also hid in the sand and approached our mounts slowly.
Meanwhile, sensing danger, our Yegauns swept their eyes around them restlessly and let out a low growl, without moving from their position.
"Krrrrrrr!" Even though the wild Yegaun could fight, the tamed Yegaun was different from the wild one. They were trained to obey their riders' riders, not to fight.
Seeing their state, I increased my speed. Since if one of those monsters attacked, even if they were protected by Evelina's Mana Barrier, they would likely go berserk in panic.
Unfortunately, as that thought crossed my head, a Ruthless Rattlesnake who was nearby suddenly approached them quickly and swung its tail at them.
- BRAK!
A loud thud was heard as the monster two tails slammed into the barrier and as I feared, our Yegauns stomped their feet and tried to run away in panic, causing them to crash into each other and crash into the barrier, throwing them into chaos.