A Greater Enemy

[Monster Classification: Greater]

'Greater?'

Nick steadied the grip on his sword even as the entire earth shook underneath him. His shaky hesitation when applying the balm to Juliana was all but a memory now that he had a physical enemy to face.

'What does Greater mean? Another kind of ranking system?'

Thinking back to the earlier Fallen, he realized that it made sense. Despite being D-Rank just like the goblins, they were much stronger.

Which meant the boss that was rising from its grave was likely far more powerful than the Desert Basilisk.

He took one wary glance at his injured squadmates; Fynn with a torched shoulder, Amelia completely bruised but otherwise intact, Juliana barely clinging to life.

Yck was barely injured, just enough to be incapacitated.

If the fighting broke out here, they were too weak to defend themselves. It would just take one errant attack and they would die.

Nick returned his attention to where the boss was spawning from. The ground melted and bubbled as many skeletal arms rose through it.

Even the surrounding gravestones weren't safe, falling into the bubbling abyss, melting and then gone forever. As the arms thrusted themselves out of the ground they melted as well.

Then, a large, singular form of nightmares rose from the ground—a dreadful combination of the dead that coagulated into one entity.

Its head was the first to rise. 2 voids of darkness disguising themselves as its eyes stared into Nick's soul as the skeletal head rose through the air, revealing a hideous smile. A purple ethereal light billowed from its indented nostril to imitate breathing.

Like any other nightmare, the Apostle of the Remembered wasn't going to end anytime soon. Instead, as the rest of its body rose the intensity only thickened.

A large robe made from the skins of multiple races draped from its broad, spiky shoulders and flowed along its back into the abyss. 3 arms jutted out of either side of the Apostle, each holding a distinct trinket.

Looking closely, he saw that they weren't exactly arms, but a collection of smaller bones that melded together to form a singular, large constant that could be described as an arm. The bones clanged together as if they were gears every time the arm moved.

At first glance, Nick thought that each of the trinkets was just a staff. Each of them had the same motif of a rod connecting to some kind of orb, but the weapon itself couldn't be called any regular staff.

That's because each orb was actually a skull–Nick recognized each of them as a skull from one of the different races. There was one for an elf, orc, mizukai, vakir, dwarf, and fallen.

The Apostle's smile grew impossibly wide as it finally found a living enemy to exercise its rule upon. Sparks of purple lit in its eye as the skull of the elf lit up.

>--< Wave 2 Beginning >--<

--(Survive for 5 minutes against the endless horde)--

'Survive?' Was he not expected to kill this beast now?

If that was true... he looked behind him at his fallen teammates with silent hope. Their odds of surviving increased significantly.

He still had to get the boss as far away from them as he could though. According to the message, the Apostle would bring some type of an endless horde.

5 elvish archers appeared in front of him as realization dawned on him. Each staff allowed the Apostle to summon warriors from that specific race endlessly.

Which meant there was actually a new plan, even if it was risky. What if he ignored the boss completely and the quest and focused only on killing as many of these summons as possible?

Right now, he had the boost from his zone state and Juliana wasn't going to get better any time soon. She would survive for the 5 minutes simply because she had to either way. If she died, she wouldn't be able to kick him anymore, so he knew she'd be ok.

The truth was, this would be one of the best times for him to level up so he couldn't pass it up.

Dozens of elves appeared before him, huntsmen and archers and druids–all the various classes he'd expect from such a race. Their eyes glowed with pure malice that was uncharacteristic of their race since the symbols of life were corrupted by the mark of the dead.

[18 Elvish Huntsmen summoned; HP 45/45]

[23 Elvish Archers summoned; HP 35/35]

[10 Elvish Druids summoned; HP 40/40]

[First descent of the horde begins!]

Seconds after the last message appeared before Nick he swiped his sword through the air, cutting through 5 arrows at once. The elves were looking to draw first blood.

Shadows appeared on every side of Nick as totems rose from the ground with majestic fervor. Green energies scattered over the battlefield, drowning it with an aura of life.

Nick watched the archers draw their arrows as the shadows continued flanking him in groups of 6. Within just moments they had entered their perfect formation, assuming their position as an army facing a single person.

But what was the person called who singlehandedly led armies across the fields of war and destruction?

The [Fang of Finality] rose above the executioner's head as the Emperor looked at the impudent soldiers. They foolishly believed in the old adage that there was strength in numbers.

If only they knew the truth, that it was easier for a single attack to kill everything if its targets decided to remain close to one another. Even the ones furthest inside had little defense when all was said and done. No amount of corpses was enough to block an [Emperor's Slash].

With a wild fury, Nick attacked the shadows head-on. His sword quickly found flesh but one strike wasn't enough. Each hit would send an aoe blast that dealt damage to all surrounding enemies.

Even if it took 5 or 10 or 20 slashes, the end result wouldn't change in the slightest. These subjects would be cut through like butter–51 elves sacrificed for experience points.

Pulling his sword from the shadow's shoulder blade with cold indifference, Nick dodged an errant strike from the living corpse's flailing dagger with ease before slicing his chest open. In that instance, it would've been beyond easy for Nick to simply behead the disgrace.

However, if he did that, he wouldn't be able to make use of his perk.

With every strike of his sword, the shadow's allies grew more and more wary. Before long, the huntsmen were far too injured to maintain their invisibility.

Arrows whizzed past Nick's head and even though he had to block a few with his sword, the distraction wasn't nearly enough to calm his assault.

The druids summoned totem after totem, but not even an instantaneous rate of healing would be enough at this moment.

Blood squirted from the plentiful injuries he inflicted on the huntsmen but Nick still continued. He didn't need his eyes to tell him that his attack was working as the cries of pain were indicative enough.

A rhythmic peace fell into Nick's soul as his sword continued slicing flesh until the huntsman in front of him was nothing more than a mangled corpse.

With Nick's help, the huntsman had endured 78 straight attacks before he finally fell. His last teammate had died at the 54th attack.

Looking at the Apostle, Nick no longer felt that same fear. Instead, he thought, 'Who was given that quest to survive again?'

[51 D-Rank Elves: Lesser Classification defeated]

[Experience Gained: 1,275]

[Level 3; 1,613/2,000]