Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A man appeared before the group’s sights.

His large, honey coloured eyes poked at their faces and bodies from his head which was covered by unkempt black and purple hair.

He donned a simple dark shirt and baggy grey linen pants as he spread his arms wide as if to receive Tulnas and rest who vigilantly walked into the open space after the Guild leader had confirmed that there were no traps through his expansive could sense.

Behind the man who stood a few meters before them with a welcoming gesture and a smile, a large fire was raging with twelve robed figures sitting around it, strategically placed as they surrounded a complex formation that they fed purple energy stemming from their bodies.

Tulnas narrowed his eyes.

He felt streams of energy blossoming from the formation in a different manner from what he had seen, rising through the rough ground as they flowed to different locations.

Hundreds of locations!

‘This is it…!’ he thought.

Skullius and the others also felt it.

‘Is this what’s causing the Clusters?!_.

Indeed it was. Clusters were created by bundles of clashing energies.

Tulnas’ theory had been correct yet heavily underexplained.

Bradd growled as its normally adorable face turned aggressive, feeling the menacing energy being expelled from the opponents before it.

Gertreld split from the group and started walking to the side while her keen eyes checked the opponents that she was about to face.

Natalika walked towards the other side, her keen senses taking in the structure of the entire area and matching her up against the opponents before her.

Ginie remained in place, taking deep breaths as she focused her mental energy.

There were a lot of intricacies about Mind Casting.

Physical strength could be cultivated through various means while mental strength could also be cultivated, making the normally intangible energy something that could actually interact with external matter.

The process was harder than when one built on their physicality though.

Bursts of transparent energy created quibbling waves over the space as Ginie utilised another one of her techniques from the Mage-Form Mimicking Art.

She, Natalika and Gertreld noticed the same thing under their sensory abilities and so did Tulnas, but he decided to test it out to be sure.

“Bradd…” he called.

VWUP! VWUP!

Two objects shot past the man with multi-coloured hair as they rushed towards two of the robed figures sitting in the complex formation!

BZZT! BZZT!

The two items which were actually plain spears made from golden-brown sand seemed to knock against an invisible construct that covered the group protectively, bits of lightning sparking from the collision!

“I see…” Tulnas said in a low voice.

There was some kind of barrier around the group of figures.

The man with purple and black grinned as he sat his open hands at his sides.

“Surely you should know that it won’t be that easy,” he said.

Skullius looked left and right at these ladies, Tulnas and the man before them warily, carefully concocting his own plans.

He noticed that the following fight might just be way out of his league but he was already here and he might as well gain as much as he could.

‘Well. It certainly doesn’t make me happy to know that I’m essentially alone in this. At least I’ve recovered all my mana though,’ he thought as he expanded his senses to the limit.

In a battle like this, he could easily get taken out by something he didn’t even see.

With his link with Red Rage who was also warily eyeing the opponents, he began to strategise the best ways to survive.

A spherical swirl of vicious, gusty winds burst beside the man in the dark shirt blowing his hair in all directions as well as his clothes!

From this, another man who slightly cocked his head as he saw Tulnas’ group appeared.

His rather ordinary face would probably give one the illusion that he was some random fodder but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Ah, so they’re here,” he said, his brown eyes looking around. “They don’t seem very strong considering they got past your rather stupid traps Guissepo.”

“That’s extravagantly harsh. But… of course! The traps weren’t meant to be too extravagant, after all. If they were, these young heroes probably wouldn’t have reached this place.”

“Right…” the other man said exasperatedly. “So what’s the plan? We just follow your idea and ignore Leader’s orders?”

“Extravagantly so… Extravagantly~ so.”

“You say that word way too much.”

Tulnas furrowed his brows.

‘These bastards are completely disregarding our presence. They are not even bothering to hide their conversation,’ he thought.

Natalika, Genie and Gertreld became extra wary.

Frankly, they could tell that these two were no pushovers judging by their radiant blue cores and confidence.

‘That makes them worth fighting…’ Natalika thought as she burned with anticipation.

The man whose name had been announced to be Guissepo turned back to the group after receiving a shrug from his companion as a response to his enthusiastic statement.

Seeing that the group remained stationary, not acting immediately, Guissepo produced an unnerving smile as he spoke.

“Is the venue not to your liking? We can do this in another location I have prepared for this extravagant occasion. Care to join me?”

Tulnas scoffed as he raised his hand which made Bradd waddle to the front with its face turning fierce, an abundance of sand moving from the ground and swirling around the creature.

“Are you lonely or something? Go by yourself,” Tulnas replied with a cocky grin.

The atmosphere grew a lot more tense as the man by Guissepo’s side casually walked forward, his dark robes moving aside.

“In that case, let me invite a couple more people to make it an extravagantly more entertaining exchange…” Guissepo said.

From the formation, two figures with black and gold robes walked forward, reaching up to Guissepo. One of them was a man and the other was a woman.

…!

Tulnas noticed a leakage of profoundly concentrated energy from the woman and the man, and it registered in his senses the ridiculous amount of strength and skill they possessed.

One was a Mage, the other was a Summoner…!