Chapter 170.1: Welcome Home (Part 1)
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There were five large skeletons in the room, the Vessel Guardians. They were different from those in the previous palaces, each having a different weapon, a greatsword, pike, axe, hammer, and a sword and shield. Each of their attack patterns differed depending on their weapons too.
But that had all been discussed beforehand. Everyone in the group already knew which one was a better match for themselves.
Mira and Tryd were the highest ranking adventurers there, so they each selected the toughest opponents.
「Mira, good luck with yours. But remember to tell us if anything happens.」
Saying that, Tryd went to fight the strongest one, which had the sword and shield.
「Okay, got it!」
Mira smiled happily as she faced the Vessel Guardian with a pike, waiting for the signal to start. At the same time, she quickly looked around the room, setting spots for her summons to appear on.
「Well then, mission start!」
Tryd made sure everyone was looking at their assigned enemy before giving the signal, and then dashed forward saying that. Everyone else did the same, squaring off with the Vessel Guardians.
The Vessel Guardians also began to move in reaction to them, holding their weapons ready to fight back the intruders. Only one Vessel Guardian, the one with the pike, began to walk forward. Mira had not rushed forward, so the Vessel Guardian walked toward her instead.
Just a moment passed and Tryd's weapon hit his Vessel Guardian. The strategy to fight them was to hit once and retreat. Due to their size, their weapons had quite some mass, so underestimating their power was a bad idea even if one had a higher rank than them. It was best to avoid getting hit at all during the fight.
Once Tryd's attack landed, he skillfully jumped back and created distance between them.
That was the moment Mira waited to enact her own plan.
「Go forth, Pegasus. Deus Voltage!」
Mira spoke loudly, making sure everyone else could hear her commanding Pegasus. Pegasus also neighed proudly, spreading his wings wide and releasing lightning.
There was a bright flash, which swallowed the Vessel Guardian with the pike as a loud thunder shook the room.
The trailing end of the thunder when a low clacking sound was produced. It was the Vessel Guardian falling to the floor. All other noise stopped. Even Tryd forgot he was fighting, staring open-mouthed at the fallen Vessel Guardian.
Mira had been hoping the loud noise would create an opening for her to show off. In the end there had been no need to plan ahead so much.
Tryd and the others were clearly shocked, but the remaining four Vessel Guardians switched their targets to Pegasus, designating him as the major threat.
(Good good, things are going well.)
Noticing everyone's attention was on her, Mira smiled seeing it was time for the main show, and activated her summons.
「I'm done with mine. I'll help the rest as we agreed now!」
They had agreed that once she defeated her Vessel Guardian, she would help the rest of the group. So Mira went the extra mile and helped everyone else.
She summoned Dark Knights one after another from the many locations she had marked earlier. They quickly reached fifty in number, and barely a few seconds later there were a hundred of them. Mira needed her Sage Art's Enchanted Eyes to gather mana from nature when creating an army, but her own mana was enough for a small platoon.
「What..?! Is that... summoning?!」
That was clearly an excessive number of summons. A single Dark Knight was powerful enough to defeat a Vessel Guardian, but Mira was going for visual impact here, her Dark Knights forming a black wave that swarmed the Vessel Guardians. They focused purely on attacking, not caring about any resistance from the enemy.
Normal adventurers could fight the Vessel Guardians without issue as long as they were careful, but the Dark Knights made those attempts seem insignificant by how one-sided the fight became.
Seeing that incredible power at work, Tryd could only smile awkwardly, watching the Vessel Guardians vanish under the black swarm.
「See, this is the true power of summoning!」
After just a few seconds all the Dark Knights were sent away, leaving the room silent. Only the cores of the Vessel Knights remained scattered on the floor.
「That's incredible, Mira! I had no idea summoners could be so powerful!」
Tryd sounded impressed, picking up one of the cores. 「I know, I know!」 was Mira's proud answer. The other members of the group also laughed and let out comments like 「Amazing,」 and 「Thank you for making it easier.」
It really felt like they understood just how powerful summoners could be, greatly changing their impression of that class.
(Good, it worked. That's another step at making summoners appealing again.)
Mira felt like she had left a lasting impression on Tryd's group, which she relished as she picked up one of the cores and threw it inside a Vessel. Once all cores were in their respective Vessels, a heavy sound came from above them. Some mechanism had been unlocked.
「Nice, our work here is done.」
「Right. Let's get going then.」
They headed upstairs at a brisk pace. The only thing Mira had failed to understand was that the impression of summoners left in Tryd's group was based on the power of a Wiseman, the strongest summoner.
Now they would expect that same power from any other summoner they met from now on, but Mira would only notice that much later.
「Still, that was so cool. I didn't know summoners could do that.」
All of the members gathered at the top of the palace and obtained the third glyph, and now they were going back down. Tryd had been left so impressed he just kept repeating that, praising the power of summoners he had just witnessed. Mira had greatly surpassed his expectations.
「I get it already. I could tell she was something else from the moment I saw her Pegasus.」
The man forced to listen to Tryd the most was already annoyed, constantly telling him he got it. His name was Viz, currently ranked B but getting closer to A. He had noticed Pegasus was a powerful creature from the onset, showing how skilled he already was. But that was also the reason why Tryd spoke to him the most.
「I know. That lightning was so powerful, but I really think what happened after that was even more impressive.」
「She summoned a bunch of Dark Knights, right? I get it, okay?」