She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (WN)

The black creature expelled from the orb lay lifeless on the ground, like a stillborn child. Its shape resembled that of a human skeleton, but there was one major difference, it had no fingers, or hands for that matter.

Arlon looked at its forearms, and he noticed the lack of fingers Mira had mentioned. At the same time, the black skeleton slowly stood up, but its behavior had an eerie accent to it, as if time was being rewinded for it, or like a fallen marionette being picked up by its strings. Because of that, the whole scene had a surreal hue to it, but when its skull turned to look at the four visitors, its empty eye sockets had a sinister fire in them, full with bloodlust and indicating it viewed them as enemies.

It stood with a crooked stance, reaching with his right arm up into the air. In response, the black clump that still floated overhead stretched into an ellipse, then thinned into something akin to a string that trickled down on the skeleton, covering parts of it like ragged clothes down to its torso.

That was a monster born from the melding of multiple phantoms, gaining a particular power to inhibit and possess other objects. It was called “Legion Wraith”, one of the strongest monsters that spawned in the Libra Fortress.

Whenever they were defeated, they would drop a weapon befitting of their type, but they only had a 10% chance of spawning. That explained Arlon’s earlier reaction, saying they were lucky. He had heard a lot about Legion Wraiths before, and he had a firm belief that their current group would easily be able to defeat it.

「…!」

A faint, almost inaudible shriek came from the monster, but as low as it was, it still conveyed a mad and violent intention. As soon as they heard it, Hebi jumped to her golem’s back, calling out to Sasori to follow, whose tail stood upright with bristled fur.

「It’s coming.」

Arlon felt the air around him change in an instant, so he jumped behind the Dark Lord, hiding in its shadow while glaring at the center of the room, taking a small bottle with a transparent fluid out from his pouch. Mira looked at her companions to ascertain they knew how to deal with the monster before focusing on its movements..

A mere instant later the Legion Wraith raised a vengeful scream while lifting its fingerless hands up into the air. Crimson flames formed on the end of them, quickly forming a large fireball held above its head. That was the Legion Wraith’s opening attack, a one hit kill that covered the entire area around it, which killed everyone in the group that first encountered one back during the game phase.

The fireball illuminating the room in a red glow grew up in size exponentially, eventually reaching the same size as its caster before vanishing for an instant, after which a bright flash inundated the room giving it the appearance of an overexposed photograph while the air itself seemed to tremble as it burned in hellish flames. What followed felt like the breath of a fire dragon, giving their surroundings a humid and unbearably warm feeling.

「So excessive.」

After the white shield vanished into thin air, Mira appeared from behind it.

「I had heard about this before, but it was stronger than I imagined.」

Stepping away from the Dark Lord’s side, Arlon looked at the scorched walls. The small bottle he held was empty now.

「Thank youuu~ Wait.. .you three immediately reacted knowing that would happen. Was I the only one who didn’t know..?」

Sasori hesitantly looked from behind the golem, heaving a sigh of relief seeing the other three were safe.

「I obviously prepared for everything.」

Hebi spoke with her usual deadpan as she repaired the golem that was cracked all over.

Mira had the attack pattern and timing beat into her subconscious from past experiences, so she partially summoned the Holy Knight’s shield at the precise moment the flames went past her. Arlon had heard about the Legion Wraith’s attacks from his friends, so he had a water element bottle ready to bolster his resistance to fire, while using the Dark Lord as a shield. Hebi had thoroughly studied anything pertaining to the Libra Fortress before leaving, so from the start she created a golem with stones resistant to fire, and Sasori had simply relied on Hebi’s genius to get through it. Once the destructive wave had passed, the four came out and stood in front of the monster as if nothing had happened.

The echoes from the opening attack still lingered in the air as both sides jumped at each other like a dam breaking.

The Legion Wraith began shooting multiple small fireballs in quick succession like a machine gun from both of its arms. Arlon jumped to the side, calmly looking at the monster’s face through the barrage of attacks, pouring more fighting spirit into his battle axe. Sasori easily dodged all the attacks, jumping from one side to another through the rain of fireballs, and returning fire in the shape of disk shaped blades. With heavy footsteps, the golem charged straight ahead while receiving blows to its face, layers of stone being peeled off it with loud noises, but its body still remained intact. Hebi stood mounted on its back, holding a cursed dagger in her hand.

(Normally it only used the Gatling Gun attack near the end of the fight, but I guess some things have changed since back then.)

Mira stood one step behind the frontline, observing all the differences with her knowledge of the game, while giving attack orders to the Dark Lord.

The Legion Wraith continuously attacked in a mad daze, but the blades that came flying and embedded themselves in its shoulder threw the ritual out of order, so it stopped moving its hand for a moment, and no one present would let that opening go.

Arlon had been carefully watching from a low stance in wait of a good opportunity, and now he darted ahead at full speed. There was not a speck of wasted energy spent on his movement gained from all the experience he had absorbed, but as the strongest monster of an A rank dungeon, the Legion Wraith’s eyes still followed his movements. But it did not react, or rather, it could not react since there was a black blade coming at it from ahead at breakneck velocity.

An instant later a snap like that of shattering glass resounded through the room. The noise of the Dark Lord’s sword colliding with the barrier the Legion Wraith desperately formed in front of it.

The monster had judged the biggest threat came from the Dark Lord, so it focused its attention on defending that attack. Next it wanted to get rid of Arlon, the second threat, with its usual repertoire of attacks, but before it could do anything the barrier shook like a wave on a water surface. The Dark Lord was an embodiment of slaughter, so it would never back off after having one attack thwarted. As a result, the Legion Wraith had to look out for its attacks again, which gave Arlon the best opening he could ask for.