NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: A Hug of Gratitude
As a group of six girls fought on the right side of the massive chamber, Christel took the opportunity to circle around and reach the elevated platform, just as the hellish creatures headed toward the girls' location.
Running across an entire football field would take a professional about 15 seconds, and Christel had to run in that time to prevent the bosses and their adds from coming down the embankment.
With a bit of sweat on her forehead, Christel calmed her breathing and with three arrows pointed before the ramp. 'Fire, Fire, Fire...'
Throughout the time, Christel became very interested in the magic arrows that the girls occasionally released. This led him to integrate his power into the arrows, thus creating the crystal arrow and the self-guided arrow, the first being an arrow with very strong penetrating power and the second as an auxiliary method.
Watching the moments when the girls released a magic arrow, Christel tried to feel the changes in their physiques or any -magical- energy she could see. Which has led Christel to feel a bit of the cold and hot energies, especially that of the blue pillow girl who has usually stayed close to her.
'Fire, Fire, Fire...' And so Christel with her eyes fixed on the downward ramp on the side of the room where the girls are, Christel released the three arrows.
*sizzle~* With the sound of fire, a wall of fire rose behind the ramp and managed to burn the skeletons that were about to come down. Christel doesn't know if she has talent for -plastic magic- but when she saw the wall of fire, she got excited. 'Okay, now. Ice, Ice, Ice...'
*sizzle~* The six girls turned to see the flames rising on the ramp near them, and were amazed, then they turned to the short girl in the background preparing to throw another arrow.
The team leader became serious upon seeing the little blonde and white girl.
(POV translation)
"Come on, sisters! Let's take out the infested to help the little angel and purify this cave..."
"Okay ~ "
"Yeah..."
"Heyy~"
The leading warrior girl, threw a motivation to her companions and with her spear, she swung from right to left and a zombie was split in half, and with the movement, she buried the tip of the spear in the ground and used it as a support to kick and hit a zombie that was behind the previous one by the neck and broke it, then fell on her feet while pulling the spear in a circular motion and hitting a third zombie. All this while arrows flew above her and hit the furthest creatures and her spear companion a few meters away from her also fought.
The youngest girl with blue locks also felt motivated by her team leader's words when she saw the wall of fire and the blonde-haired girl, she didn't want to be left behind and prepared another fire arrow.
A flash of light, larger and longer than normal, passed over the enemy line and struck a fallen shaman in the background who was preparing to resurrect a body lying on the ground. This lightning bolt not only completely destroyed the fallen shaman, but also froze everything around him, encasing everyone in a 30-meter radius in ice and frost.
"Haa~..." The younger girl with blue locks was astonished by the shot she had just made, she had never had an attack that affected more than 5 meters in radius, and feeling her internal energy, with the amount of mana now in her, she feels that she can make two more equal shots.
"Keep going sisters! ..." The leading warrior girl was also impressed like all the other four girls, but the fight had not stopped so she had to act and command. The other girls also continued fighting, leaving their praise and encouragement for after the fight for the youngest and most promising girl.
At the same time, two blue lightning-like arrows flashed on the platform at the bottom and a small ice age appeared across the platform, almost extinguishing the wall of fire at the entrance of the ramp. Christel felt that 25% of her energy had been drained by these two attacks, and without thinking about it any further she just turned around and walked away a little, now attacking the frozen skeletons and fallen red-skinned creatures again with crystallized arrows, breaking them.
"Kitear, Kitear, Kitear...~" Now, Christel, having control of the field, relaxed, and enjoyed the cheating method of the -LoL- players, with the joy of feeling like a -Pro-, and making fun of the -Nobs- players.
Christel also noticed the blue ray shot down freezing a wide area, thinking that it was a normal method and that she can do it now as well.
And, although the largest blue-skinned zombie didn't freeze, having the most dangerous large, purple-skinned shaman fall into an ice cube calmed him down. The boss zombie, called -Corpsefire- although it has the word -fire- in its name, is not really a flame zombie, but with ice elements, making it practically immune to cold and freezing attacks,
Although not much is known about the story of -Diablo II- from the surrounding objects and those seen throughout the cave passages, this place seems to be a mine passage in a natural cave, exploited by a group of miners, and this -Corpsefire- is the leader of the group of miners.
Approximately 20 years have passed since the events of -Diablo I- and the destruction of Tristram Cathedral, and the beginning of -Diablo II- when the new hero travelers arrived at the Rogue camp and began their adventure to destroy Diablo and his brothers.
'The leading warrior girl who seems to be the only one over 20, was just a child when corruption and destruction swept through these lands, and the other girls were born into a dark and conflicted world.' Christel shot a crystallized arrow at Corpsefire, and the arrow shattered like a glass bottle thrown at a wall.
"Shit..." Christel's mouth pouted. 'Hell difficulty level is no joke for a poor level 1' Christel complained in her heart.
"So Kitear, Ice, Ice, Ice..." To defeat this guy, you had to rain down arrows on him, and only the leader girl could break through his defense, but this guy whose name has the word fire in it, isn't that simple, attacking him in melee will freeze you, and if you kill him, he'll explode! 'This guy has already taken a couple of my Warriors (Characters) with his death...'
With another fire arrow, Christel made a turn towards the back, heading towards the middle of the chamber. Looking around, Christel saw many human skulls and bones surrounding a pentagram, with an altar on a table attached to the wall in the background. On the altar was a black spherical crystal. But it's not that the crystal is black, but rather there seems to be something like black ink inside the crystal sphere. An unpleasant smell and feeling emanates from the crystal that gives Christel the creeps, as if she needs to take a shower.
'Hunm' Christel, with a Hunm, shot a fire arrow at the table and the fire burned the entire pentagram, bones and altar. As if a cry of anger and pain came from the subsoil of the cave, Corpsefire seems to enter enrage mode and accelerates its movement as if it were a zombie from a T-virus movie.
Christel continued to shoot arrows at Corpsefire's chest which gave him a push back and slowed him down. While continuing to destroy the skeletons armed, Christel approached the frozen fallen shaman and with a dagger of about 30 centimeters, Christel exerted her mysterious power to transform the dagger into crystal and stabbed the shaman in the chest. 'Uhnm, because I feel like I have Armament Haki, although crystal and not black...'
*crack* With a breaking sound, the poor fallen shaman boss had no time to fight this battle and shattered into pieces of ice.
'Well, loot~' Christel was attracted to the staff this fallen shaman boss was carrying from the start and took it, unlike everything else except Corpsefire, this staff was something that didn't freeze. 'It's black and looks like metal, but this staff feels like wood. Maybe it's from a tree unique to this world.'
Christel placed her bow on her back, hooking it onto the quiver she was carrying. And holding the staff with both hands, Christel changed her class from archer to warrior and began to hit the other skeletons and frozen fallen.
Christel approached the wall of fire, by this time the fight had already been going on for 10 minutes or so, and with a feeling she waved the staff towards the wall of fire and it disappeared little by little. Corpsefire in the back was approaching Christel, and as the only monster up on the platform, Christel didn't worry and approached the girls who were already finishing off the last monsters.
All the girls were feeling tired, the area was bombarded with black coal with small flames here and there, and parts of the floor were frozen, Christel looked at the body parts of corpses on the floor, thinking how hard it will be to clean everything up.
"Hey~..." Christel ran with sweat on her forehead, greeting the girls and beckoning them to the back.
"Don't get close, just attack from afar...!"
Christel, with her two palms together in front of her, was shaking her head at them, as if to tell them not to attack hand-to-hand.
"◿▱◁□▱◯◿◦ ◦ ◦" With a few words and a wave of her hands, the leading warrior girl had all the other girls split up, and in a crescent formation around Corpsefire they attacked with arrows.
"Here..." Christel tossed the quiver of arrows with the bow to the lead girl, since they were hers in the first place, and prepared to upgrade from warrior to sorcerer class.
Corpsefire who was bullied by a bunch of girls felt enraged, but couldn't do anything, in any direction he was attacked and deciding to go down a path, the attacking girls on that path would move away.
Christel felt like she had lowered this boss's life by at least 5% the whole time, but now Corpsefire's life bar was going down faster, and signs of his hardened skin like cracks began to appear.
'If fire and ice don't work on him, only crushing physical damage can hurt him, Earth, Earth, Earth...' Christel pointed the staff with both hands at Corpsefire and began to cast her spell, or at least what she thought was a spell.
And it's not that Christel wasn't smart and thought of attacking with light or holy magic, which everyone knows is the most efficient against these evil creatures. But Christel, although she doesn't feel like a bad person, definitely doesn't think she's a good person, and praying to a god or believing in the light in her heart, are things that would never have crossed her mind.
A small yellow light swirled in front of the staff, and dirt around it began to gather forming a sphere around the yellow point of light, Christel thought that perhaps if Dumbledore saw her, he would drag her to Hogwarts to receive her education.
"Veee...~" And with a scream from Christel, the sphere of earth shot out from her staff, breaking all logic of movement in physics.
*boom* With a loud, dry bang, the earth cannonball hit Corpsefire's chest hard and sent him flying, the earth ball broke into pieces and then crumbled to the ground losing the power of the yellow light, Corpsefire hit some stalagmites.
"Everyone, hide, now, now, now!!!..." All the girls, hearing Christel's screams, saw her hide behind a nearby stalagmite and crouch down, covering her head with her hands. All of them, unaware, but not stupid, and although surprised, did the same as Christel and looked for their closest and thickest stalagmites.
Christel watched as Corpsefire's body cracked further and a red light came out from the cracks. Thinking of self-destruction after being defeated, she quickly hid herself, warning the other girls.
A few seconds passed, with the girls wondering if everything was okay, when.
*BOOOM...* A huge explosion and pieces of earth and hot stones, even with flames, flew everywhere with a strong current of wind.
With the girls' screams of surprise and fear, Christel heard that they were all fine, since there was no cry of pain.
And when the explosion ended and everything calmed down, suddenly a wave of light burst from the ceiling of the cave, and as if the sun had risen, the darkness disappeared, and only the feeling of a normal, ordinary cave remained.
But Christel felt in her heart an energy that enveloped her like a hug and she thanked her.
Christel felt happy with this feeling.