Chapter 593 - Surprising

Ryan somehow managed to avoid having his head pierced by an arrow, but his shoulders weren't so lucky. In the end, Ryan created an ice wall above him to stop the hundreds of magic arrows created by dozens of Arrow Showers, and then he took out the projectiles from his shoulders and then used Heal. He did that while he watched the armored crocodiles being killed by the droves by that attack. 

"It looks like the dungeon master here doesn't deserve any mercy either," Ryan said.

"It surprises me that you considered offering some mercy given that they were trying to invade your planet," Femradiel said.

"We are at war, so it can't be helped," Ryan said. "Still, some things can't be forgiven, no matter what."

For someone like Ryan, who only had a few trustworthy allies, the idea of sacrificing minions to take down a tougher foe was beyond disgusting and annoying. While he used his golems like that before since they could self-destruct, some might think that he didn't have any reason to feel angry, but there was a subtle difference. Golems are inorganic creatures, and even when they are about to fall, they don't look even a little bit in pain. So, they were more like weapons than proper living beings. The same thing couldn't be said about the armored crocodiles. While they were his enemies, even on the battlefield, some things can't be done to the enemy.

This time Ryan didn't hold back, so his Ice Wall lasted for quite a while. Upon noticing that they were sacrificing their allies in vain, the archers stooped. Ryan could sense two groups of archers in the east and west. Their numbers were close to one thousand each. So, he assumed that would be easy. He grabbed his Celestial Summoner's Crossbow and fired once at the enemies on the east side. While his bolt didn't kill the archer, when the Magma Golem appeared, it crushed the creature thanks to its massive weight.

When the armored crocodiles resumed their attacks, as if nothing had happened, Ryan already had his cutlass in his hands, and just like before, he cut their throats before they could even scratch him. However, even with his speed, Ryan couldn't overcome a horde of monsters with two weapons alone. Five enemies approached from behind and swung their weapons at him. Once again, Ryan protected himself with an ice wall.

"Well, let's see that in action," Ryan muttered.

Before more enemies from other directions could try to attack Ryan as well, he summoned a Magic Sword. Much to his surprise, a flame sword that was as big as him and emitted a powerful heat appeared. It couldn't be wielded even by Ryan's hands… Regardless, when some armored crocodiles entered its range, the weapon automatically attacked them with a single insanely fast swing. That didn't seem like the power of a level one skill… The monsters that got by the flames suffered some serious burns and were forced to back down, but that came with a price. Ryan noticed that the weapon decreased in size.

"That is a pretty neat skill," Femradiel said.

Ryan nodded at that and immediately used all his mana to summon three other magic swords. Ryan's defense increases exponentially, and even though he wasn't moving a single finger, the monsters were unable to get close enough to attack. However, the other group of archers began to fire once again. The first one still was busy with the Magma Golem.

It was time to see how good that spell was as a throwable projectile. While Ryan was using some mana potions, he made one of the flame swords fly toward the second group of archers, and when the projectile hit one of them, the weapon exploded, burning everything in a ten-meter radius down to a crisp. The range was rather limited, but the power was pretty good.

"Well, then… let's make this skill as efficient as possible," Ryan grinned from ear to ear.

Ryan approached the army of him while using INT potions, and just as expected, his magic swords began to cause a lot more damage. It was kind of weird to defeat so many foes without attacking them directly, even though using Magic Bows was no different than that.

Around the time the second army of archers managed to recover from Ryan's attack, the first army also defeated the Magma Golem. Before they could try anything, Ryan used Flash several times and appeared in the center of the first army. As expected, his Magic Swords defeated several of them effortlessly. The archers tried to split up since the second group prepared another stream of Arrow Showers. However, Ryan wiped out dozens of them and wounded several others heavily due to the explosion.

When the rain of arrows fell, most of the archers were unable to escape, but Ryan was already preparing himself to wipe out the second group. Then, suddenly, Femradiel warned Ryan.

"A powerful presence just left the fortress," Femradiel said. "It is heading in the opposite direction… it looks like your plan to lure the dungeon master failed."

"Shit… so much for holding back," Ryan said after clicking his tongue and then using Teleport to chase the dungeon master. "Why the hell did they give up so soon? I barely defeated a few thousand monsters."

"I have no idea…" Femradiel said. "It is kind of surprising that such beings would dare to fight Isis's army when they are this coward. I guess they don't know the enemy all that much and just selected the closest target."

That seemed too good to be true… if that were really the case, then Ryan's job would be a lot less annoying than he had expected. In any case, Ryan found the dungeon master much faster than he had expected. The creature was flying, but for some reason, it was extremely slow. It was another crocodile-like being, but that one had yellowish skin. Almost golden, in fact… while that wasn't much important, Ryan couldn't help but notice since the other armored crocodiles weren't different from each other, not even the rangers.