The 33 adventurers spent some time preparing their combat formation and came down to the best decision they could. Adrianna, as the most effective tank, would hold the frontline, along with the two Guardians from the UHC. Several Grandmaster Swordsmen, Bowmasters, a Greatsword User and a Magic Swordsman would be the damage dealers. The two Grandmaster Luxomancers and three Grandmaster Pyromancers, Theodore included, kept up the magic damage and elemental defense, while the three Priests would handle healing and blessings. At the rear would be the sole Marksman, who had several abilities that were meant for one-hit kills and pinch hits. Considering the abilities of the fighters involved, this was undoubtedly the smartest and strongest formation they could design.Adrianna clanged her hammer against her shield, "We"re ready for battle." Her silver-blonde hair matched perfectly with her white-silver armor, fluttering with holy power. She"d pulled out all of the stops she had, which was only possible now thanks to a full recovery and Seran"s formation guiding the undead towards them if they escaped, funneling them into a path as wide as their formation was.
Seran nodded, "Alright. Stand ready. My first spell might be a bit of overkill." He treaded forward to stand halfway between the adventurers and the undead. "Here we go." Clapping his palms together, an act which nearly alerted the horde, Seran began to cast a powerful light magic spell, "[Heavenly Light: Heaven"s Arrows]!"
High up in the sky, a cloud formed around the sun, which then had a small wisp of cloud covering it like a window. In that window-like cover, one could see an Apollo phantasm stepping out of the sun, bow in hand. Drawing his bow back as far as possible, it seemed like the sun had become his arrow, blindingly bright even through the cloudy film. As he prepared to release the arrow, the film cleared, releasing the powerful solar light that had been hidden. Then, Apollo let his arrow fly. From the sky, hundreds of arrows of brilliant light came shooting down, piercing through metal, bone, rotten flesh, and earth, everything in its way. The unearthly sounds of the undead dying in droves brought chills to anyone that heard it, from high-pitched wails to loud groans and roars.
When the last of the arrows fell, and Apollo"s phantasm dispersed from the sky, the wicked devastation that Seran"s spell had wrought was fully visible. As the powerful light arrows had burned away the fog of dark magic, one could spot innumerable holes in the ground and corpses were strewn around. Some of the more powerful corpses had holes drilled through their heads and sternums, and even their weapons were pierced through. This was exactly what Seran had designed the spell to be: a ma.s.sive AOE attack meant to pierce anything with the power of light.
As the adventurers lay eyes on the new scene, they finally understood just what kind of person Seran was. They hadn"t gotten to see him fight before, so they hadn"t been completely convinced. Now, however, they"d got a good look at the destructive power the young demiG.o.d wielded. They did recover quickly, as the remaining thousands of undead surged towards the suddenly appearing enemy.
Seran almost grinned as he prepared to fight head-on, but he had to keep his face as calm as his mind for this battle. From his inventory, he withdrew a weapon he"d made during his journeys in the forest: a dragon-head guandao made of meteoric steel, one of the strongest metals in existence, and glossy black wood from one of Yggdrasil"s branches. Spinning his new weapon, which he"d named [Yggdrasil"s Comet], he infused the blade with fire, light and life magic before making a huge horizontal sweep. A long slash extended from the blade and cut down dozens of zombies and skeletons, which were quickly trampled by the following horde. The white-haired boy continued to make huge sweeps with his guandao, cutting down undead like stalks of wheat. Seran grunted and activated his demiG.o.d aura, which began to emanate a powerful aura of terror that even undead would feel.
After a long time, the aura of fear Seran had built up began to affect the weaker undead, and, as Seran cut down as many as he could, several C-ranks escaped him and ran towards the exit of the formation. Seran wasn"t worried about them, as he knew they could handle themselves. Instead, he focused on taking down as many as he could with each move. While he was doing that, he made sure to strike the B-ranks and the handful of ranks that charged with the horde.
Nearly an hour pa.s.sed of nonstop combat, for both Seran and the adventurers, and exhaustion was already prevalent in some of the latter. Even with Seran cutting down more than a hundred with each attack, even hundreds, the number just didn"t seem to dwindle at all. However, after everyone had lost track of time, the number coming out of the cemetery began to lessen by a great deal.
Seran saw a major difference after another hour, as the C-ranks had almost stopped coming, and those that still did ran away upon seeing him, with only B-ranks and ranks still attacking him. That didn"t mean anything good, though, and he couldn"t allow himself to relax at all. The guandao"s meteoric edge carved its way through even the mithril armor that the strongest of the ranks wore, turning expensive magic items into sc.r.a.p metal with each strike.
Then, finally, the onrush of enemies ended as Seran"s weapon sliced a Zombie General in half from the skull to its crotch. Even with his Infinity power, he felt quite exhausted from the constant physical and magical combat, which he"d never had to do since he was dragged into Aregard. Leaning on the guandao"s handle, the white-haired, green-and-red-stained boy panted as he tried to catch his breath. He wasn"t defenseless, though, as he still heard suspicious sounds from deeper in; it wasn"t empty yet. Not by a lot. He shouted back to the group, "That"s it for the horde! Take a break if you need it, and use my mirror to call June! I"m going deeper in!"
Adrianna responded by yelling, "Good luck, Seran! We"ll let June know!"
And with that, Seran waited until he recovered his energy before beginning to crunch his way forward with each step, using the blade of his guandao to light up the area, towards the dark and gloomy crypt at the back of the cemetery grounds.