Saintess Summons Skeletons

“The sap is harmless, Topaz,” Sofia told her from her position in the back.

Nodding to Sofia, Topaz stepped up to the doors once again and resumed the cutting.

“You know these plants?” Astelia asked, curious.

“Know is a bit of a stretch, but it’s not my first time seeing them, I just never realized it was the same plant until I saw the characteristic blood-red sap,” she explained, then, whispering into Astelia’s ears, she added, “This should be the dungeon’s main monster. It’s a kind of living tree that takes over dead people, empty armor suits, things like those. It can also just be in the form of a ‘fake’ tree, and as far as I know, only these specific parts are dangerous, the general roots are just roots. I don’t know the name but I’ve seen them in the spirit forest.”

Sofia could see the realization of something on Astelia’s face as she told her this. Astelia whispered back, sounding excited by the discovery, “I have heard of this from the Queen! There are monsters like these in the forest, yes! They’re really tree monsters, the system calls them the ‘Hallowed purifiers’, apparently they feed primarily off of curses!”

Curses? That would certainly explain their presence in the black primus forest since Zerei was buried under there. And on the 99th floor of the ranking spire… Yeah it’s not a stretch to say the place it was based on might have been cursed.

They’re not very smart so that will make good fodder for the students.

The last roots blocking the doors fell and Topaz opened the way into the next room, she took a step in but En who was right behind her grabbed her by the belt and pulled her back, “Watch out!”

A dog-sized monster fell from the high ceiling right in front of Topaz. It looked like a four-legged mechanical steel spider fused with a bunch of creeping roots and vines. Half-covered in leaves, it was almost hard to see amidst the vegetation if not for the one glowing red eye-like bead on the middle of its body. Having missed its prey, it let out a mechanical screech and skittered away.

“Thank you, En,” Topaz thanked the furry girl without looking back, her axes ready, she carefully peeked into the room, trying to see if more creatures were waiting in ambush.

That does look like elven steel monsters, just like in the sunken city of Joah’s dream. It must have been based on a real place, then. And it was clearly parasited by the fake trees, but it’s hard to say which one of the two was in control. It looks not quite as clear cut as the possessed armors pareth fought in the trial, I could have sworn the roots wanted to keep attacking but the thing fled anyway.

Lola summoned the armor for her spirit guardian, it was pre-charged with mana this time, and the spirit could instantly take over, the summon took the lead in front of the formation for the exploration now that it was starting to be more dangerous.

Good, let it take all the dangerous corners.

In an almost religious silence, the two groups of five students advanced through the overgrown halls and the narrow passageways connecting them until the spirit guardian entered a large round room that spanned multiple levels. They were at its bottom floor, from the upper levels dozens of the root-bearing mechanical spiders crawled down, legs clicking on the walls and weaving through the omnipresent thick vines as if gliding over them.

Lola was first to see it coming thanks to her guardian and warned the others, “Retreat! We’re outnumbered, to the last passageway!”

Everyone quickly fell back as they heard Lola’s warning over the sound of the countless monsters running their way. Inside the connecting passageways that were only large enough for three people to fight side by side, they would be able to control the tempo of the fight much better than in the wide-open halls. Nice call! Good to see that Lola was listening when I rambled on about proper positioning. Oh, that’s bad…

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One of the students of Astelia’s group fell over as they backed off, feet caught in a vine. It would hinder the retreat of everyone else and put them all in danger. The hooded student with his daggers was quick to act, cutting the roots entraving the fallen student’s foot and helping him get up, but these were precious seconds lost. The running Spirit Guardian, Topaz, En, and Opal were still all out in the open when the spiders reached them. Pareth was following behind the group so he wasn’t in a position to help.

I can’t reach there fast enough if something happens… Do I burst through the wall? That’s several meters of stone, the whole thing might collapse.

Astelia tapped on Sofia’s shoulder, “I’ll teleport over, cover the back.”

“Thanks,” Sofia answered, relieved to have someone else to count on. The back of the student’s formation was wide open due to the emergency and if not for Pareth being there, more monsters coming from the back would be devastating. Still, worried, Sofia used her mana senses to observe the situation as a whole. Seven students were falling back in the passageway, three still outside, Astelia flying a few meters above them, and crawling monsters all around them. It was not looking too good.

The Spirit Guardian kept receiving mana packets from Lola, orders about how to act, as a result, it stood its ground and met the assault of the monsters, hacking and kicking at them as best it could. Topaz and En were on its side, as melee fighters, they were the frontline of the group, so despite the sudden onslaught, they were not completely overwhelmed and they were strong enough to kill the creatures in one or two hits each, spreading red sap and black oil everywhere. Any mechanical monster they felled was replaced by two more like an endless wave. Behind the three, right at the entrance of the passageway, Opal spent all this time preparing a spell, while Shaily had turned back to heal the fighters with a light sprite, and Lola was concentrating on giving orders to her Guardian.

Nice! Punch the eyes, En! Keep the pressure on!

Finally, Opal’s spell was ready, mana surging at her fingertips, she raised the wand in her other hand which released a blue flash. This was something Topaz had explained to everyone as far back as the first event in the forest, Opal’s signal to take cover. Topaz and En jumped back straight into the passageway, rolling to the sides of Opal, each with several spiders on their tracks while the Spirit Guardian was completely getting swarmed on and could not move anymore.

Opal released her skill, a violent surge of blue flames spewing from her palm in a large cone. The monsters, the Spirit Guardian and Astelia were all in the cone of fire. The vines on the mechanical spiders caught fire and they spread out in a panic, spreading the flames everywhere, while the Spirit Guardian chased after them, finishing them off, unbothered by the fire.

Oh, that’s a lot of mana for a single spell at her level. Very effective.

The one spell had exhausted Opal, it seemed, and her sister had to catch her as she fell back, Topaz also called out to the other students, “Can someone extinguish the fire?! The monsters are retreating but it's spreading too fast!”

“I’m on it!” Shaily answered, a few almost invisible water sprites appearing near her and flying out of the passageway into the burning hall.

After a few minutes, despite the students coughing from the lingering fumes, the fire was contained, at least in the vicinity, and the Spirit Guardian came back from its hunt. Sofia smiled as she observed how her students had fared. No big injuries and quite a few level-ups! Good! Perfect! We didn’t even have to intervene, that’s going to be worth a lot of tokens.

The instructions Sofia had received for the counting of tokens here were quite simple. The group all shared a single score they would all get. There was a maximum possible score, level-ups and kills would award a certain amount of tokens while severe injuries and teacher interventions would take them back There were also a few special single-person bonus prizes for those who discovered magic items or contributed the most in fights. So far, it was looking quite good for Sofia’s group.

Astelia teleported back to Sofia, despite getting caught in the fire spell before, she looked completely untouched. “Your students are good,” she complimented Sofia, ”I did not have to do anything. The further part of the dungeon is burning though. Sorry about Clint’s stumble, he put your group in danger.”

“It’s fine, not your fault. And I don’t think he wanted to fall either. I believe the magical flames will run out soon, and if I’m correct, the regular ones won’t be enough to burn the red sap, so no need to worry about that.”

“Hmm, you might have a point,” Astelia answered cheerfully, “then my students are up next!”

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