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Arlon went straight ahead, unleashing an attack with all his might. All his fighting spirit was focused on a severing pattern, and when his axe touched the Legion Wraith’s thigh, it cut through it like a saw. Having lost one of its legs, the Legion Wraith reacted by resuming its fireball attack, but Arlon was no longer in front of it, having run away a distance before carefully looking back at the monster. The Legion Wraith appeared to be kneeling as it irritatedly looked around the room. As it did, it saw a giant with a body of inorganic matter stomping on the body part it had just lost. The golem’s incredible strength was clearly visible even under the dim lights, but its violent nature was even more obvious.

A moment later the golem reformed its body into a more blunt shape as it charged against the Legion Wraith, the sound of bones breaking clearly resounding through the room.

「So the bones are weak against physical attacks…」

Mira had a slanted smile as she watched bone and stone fragments flying from the collision. The golem lost almost no momentum after colliding with the Legion Wraith, resulting in them being sent flying against the wall with incredible force and making the room shake. The black skeleton was largely broken, appearing like a pile of rubble, but it still kept moving.

Its fingerless arm was struck forward into the golem’s torso, but it was pushed away by a cracked stone arm and the fireballs shot an instant later collided with the ceiling like fireworks that failed to launch properly. Flames rained down, like a red curtain of light that fell to mark the final act of the fight. The golem moved again once the flames burned out, its cracked arm pushing harder against the Legion Wraith.

「I’ll finish it.」

Hebi said as she grasped the dagger, her curse tool, and darted ahead with a speed not unlike Sasori’s. Next she muttered something, which caused magic power to be concentrated on the golem’s right arm, and soon after the pressure from it against the Legion Wraith caused it to shatter together with a part of the monster.

The black skull had its jaws wide open, a hurtful and thick grunt coming out of it like a lump of black mud. It sounded unbearably pitiful, but there was no one there who paid attention to it. Mira had heard the same sound countless times before, and the other three had long moved on from being affected by the cries of their enemies.

Thus, the last strike on the Legion Wraith was just as merciless, striking from the bottom of its chin towards the top of its head. The two fires in its eye sockets vanished instantly, the black skeleton quickly turning brittle like ashes, as if it never had been anything more, and turned into small particles that vanished in the air. The shrill sound in the room also stopped then as silence returned to the room. Hebi had been expressionless since the fight started, but the corners of her lips lifted ever so slightly as she watched the soft shine of her dagger like an afterglow of the fight.

(I guess that weapon made the Wraith glow like that as it died.)

Mira had seen countless Legion Wraiths die in the past, but the body would always quickly turn into sand and silently scatter on the ground. But this time something slightly different had happened. The particles that once formed the skeleton emitted a soft light, which was then sucked into the dagger.

「Is something wrong?」

Arlon noticed how intently Mira looked at the unknown dagger and the unfamiliar phenomenon. She assumed it was once again something developed during the last thirty years.

「It’s just that I never saw a weapon like that dagger before.」

Hearing Mira, Arlon followed her gaze and spotted the dagger, 「Ahh, Hebi’s」 he said with a knowing expression.

「If I recall correctly, those were called mys… something daggers. I heard they’re really common amongst necromancers…」

Arlon fell silent after that, knitting his brow a bit while grunting, unable to remember anything more.

「Hey! Hebi! What is that dagger you have again?」

Eventually Arlon gave up on trying to remember so he decided to ask her directly. In reply, Hebi proudly looked down at the dagger before replying, still smiling and in a good mood.

「This is a Mystic Dagger. It’s a tool to extract mourning souls and seal them. They’re useful to perform more advanced rituals.」

She held the dagger high for a moment so the two could get a good look at the blade before stuffing it back in her pocket. Thanks to that fight, Hebi had been able to add the ‘conglomerate’ feature from the Legion Wraith to the buffs at her disposal when using her skills. That unexpected addition put her in a good mood, so she ended up speaking more than usual. Mystic Daggers were a required tool to perform the rituals developed and popularized in the last couple of years, though it only had an effect in particular monsters with souls similar to the Legion Wraith.

「Hmm, that’s a rather interesting item then.」

Having heard Hebi’s explanation, Mira appeared impressed. Hearing that, Hebi’s mood kept bettering as she excitedly created a new golem. This golem’s arms were larger than the earlier one, thick like a tree’s roots.

「This is how a stone golem looks with the added ‘strong arm’ buff. There are other similar ones to empower the legs for example.」

After saying that, Hebi took out a small bottle with a green liquid which she gulped down while grimacing. That was a potion to recover mana, though it had a rather bitter taste.

「So necromancers have been advancing as well.」

Mira muttered to herself as she lay a hand on the golem with burly arms.

(Maybe there’s something similar we could create for summoners.)

Looking at the golem, Mira began thinking about the summoners’ future again.

「Oh right, almost forgot.」

Arlon jumped, having remembered something and went to pick up the sword that fell at the feet of the golem. That was the object that housed the Legion Wraith, a weapon with special properties.

「So it really is a Beast King’s Red Fang. This will make for a nice memento.」

He grinned as he pointed the sword towards the ceiling, the blade changing from blue to black depending on how the light hit it.
Being rewarded greatly for their efforts, there was no foe left in the Libra Fortress that could pose a danger to the four. The new, stronger golem worked harder than the earlier one as the group easily broke their way through the second floor.