Rush

The second wave began five seconds after the first lantern changed, zombies shuffled out of the holes and started charging Atlas and the knights, clearly much faster than the last ones. Everyone kept their calm and the round went as smooth as the first one, the enemies were unable to breach the knight's defensive line and Atlas was used to fighting while surrounded by this point, its longsword cleaving five or more in a single swing.

Third.

Fourth.

Eighth.

The tenth wave was the first to show changes other than more numbers and faster zombies. The number of zombies released from the holes reduced but in turn, a few amalgams, titled chimeras by the knights, joined the fray. The chimeras were on the weaker side, but still much stronger than the average zombie.

Atlas started taking minor damage from the collective efforts of the chimeras and zombies but its energy quickly mended the nicks and scratches while the knights attacked the chimeras in groups of three whenever they came close. The subsequent rounds went more or less the same save for a few major injuries to the younger knights to which they knocked back some sort of green sludge in a bottle, causing the wounds to seal up like Atlas' did.

The knights were slowly but surely showing signs of exhaustion, hundreds of zombies had fallen to the efforts of the group yet they weren't halfway done. Atlas thought it a bit odd, if this was part of training the younger knights then shouldn't they hold up better than this? It didn't know that it was actually its own fault, the golem was deemed a high-danger target and the difficulty was raised accordingly.

While it didn't have any obligation to save them, beating the boss would definitely be easier with decoys... Allies, yes, allies.

While Atlas was fighting it was gradually creeping its energy throughout the floor of the chamber, taking control of the entire floor took a while but once it did it would be able to manipulate the stone freely for less energy. This was a trick it learned while resting in the room it found on this floor. It aptly named this trick Domain but the Status window did not recognize it as a skill, but that didn't matter to Atlas.

The eighteenth lantern changed from blue to red and looking at the poor state of the knights Atlas decided to use earth magic for the last seven waves, especially when it heard a familiar skittering. Two large bipedal beetle-like monsters came from either side of the room and both charge at Atlas.

'𝘋𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘴? 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦,' Atlas shook its head, but this time it was ready. It lifted one leg and stomped down hard, the force cracking the stone beneath its foot and sending a ripple of energy across the room. The stone floor trembled for a moment before thin stalagmites suddenly shot up, piercing several zombies while the twin beetles managed to dodge suffering minor cuts, but they clearly weren't expecting the stone spears to bend and chase after them.

The knights were surprised and panicked but quickly put two and two together, connecting the earth magic to the golem causing Saric to raise the danger level of Atlas in his mental notebook.

Even Atlas was a bit surprised by how easy it was to control the floor, it only took a second for it to make a spike and pierce a zombie's head before retracting it back into the ground. The twin beetles put up a meager defense, clearly not able to handle several tendrils of stone chasing after them from multiple directions. While the force of the spikes was not enough to pierce the hard chitin shells the beetles had too many soft spots that could be taken advantage of.

Thus the nineteenth lantern switched color shortly after the last one did.

Checking its energy count Atlas was satisfied, '𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵.' But before it could celebrate too much the twentieth wave began, an egregious number of zombies with a few massive chimeras that didn't look like could even fit through the holes came out. With the threat of the massive chimeras, Atlas was forced to focus its attention on skewering them and the larger zombies around them.

The knights seemed to have renewed their vigor as they began the shout chanting and shield-drumming, and with a clearer view, Atlas could see their shields firing weapons made of burning light, igniting anything they touched.

'𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦."

Atlas poured energy into the ground and the room trembled once more, the sound of stone grinding against stone filled the air, and patches of the floor wriggled as if it were alive. The floor underneath the massive chimeras shifted, tripping them towards beds of spikes that weren't there a moment ago. Thick stone tendrils wrapped around their bodies and pulled them down with force resulting in a gruesome but highly effective sight. Once the chimeras were dealt with Atlas returned its Domain to a dormant state to conserve energy while it dealt with the rest of the zombies.

The horde eventually fell, a little over half burning to death while the other half were all bisected or crushed by Atlas. The twentieth lantern changed to red, and the next wave didn't come immediately after, giving the knights a chance to recuperate.

Vale was visibly excited despite being tired, probably wanting to ask about the golem's earth magic but remained in the defensive formation. Saric ordered the group to use a minor vigor potion and weapon oils while Lager was vigilant of Atlas, clearly not happy with its high strength.

Atlas stabbed its chipped longsword into the floor and the floor gave way like putty before pulling the sword out looking brand new. The golem was satisfied with its increasing mastery over the earth magic, the pace it grasped the skill only increasing since it upgraded to Advanced Earth Magic.

Thirty seconds passed by and sounds of zombies and chimeras filled the room again but this time there were only a few zombies while there were at least thirty chimeras of varying strength.