Things got intense fast! No sooner had they finished taking the [Stout Black Root] did they initiate their attack!

  “Push back the invaders!” The one that looked like he was leading them commanded.

  Others roared in recognition of their order as they moved like a pack of wild animals. One had already jumped right at me before I could even process what was happening. I was too slow as he thrusted his sword right at my vitals!

  But instead of seeing a blade through my body, there was a wall of shadow tentacles that had blocked the attack. It seemed I was saved by my faithful butler.

  “None shall lay a finger at my master!” Paimoth announced with his hand raised, the intensity of the shadows around him grew at a chaotic rhythm while the lights for his eyes dimmed to near nonexistence. Guess this is what he looked like when he’s pissed.

  He wasn’t the only one as I could feel my minotaur start to activate a familiar skill. I had to stop him before he does something crazy!

  “Mordred stop now! Now is not the time to use your [Bloody Rage]!!” I ordered.

  He thankfully got the hint as the intensity of his rage calmed from a raging storm to heavy rain. “Right sorry boss. I’ll just knock them out like usual. Got to let out some steam after seeing them try to harm you.”

  Mordred than gave a quick glance towards Paimoth before clicking his tongue and whispering something under his breath. He pulled out his trusty ax as he aimed it at his opponents. “Alright, time to make you all pay!!”

  I brandished my own sword as I gave out my orders to my minions. “Everyone stand back! We need to determine our enemies’ strength! So only me and my henchmen will fight!”

  The usual minions followed through, not wanting to comply was of course the orcs who wanted to voice their complaints. Though they got the message that now wasn’t the time. I clearly have no idea how strong they are now so I couldn’t risk my minions until I got a better assessment of their strengths.

  Still… that is a lot. As a first test I thought of simply sinking the ground before them. That proved to do little more than provide a mild distraction. They easily managed to get past it, opting to simply hopping over it. At least this proves they aren’t completely mindless yet.

  “Hate to break it to you Master Vladimir, but it seems the one I’m keeping at bay is making some cracks to my shadows.” Paimoth warned, doing his best to keep himself looking composed.

  Responding to his cautions, I sprang into action and hopped to the side, conjuring a ball of water and freezing it into ice when I flung it at the attacking soldier. Though the ball of ice did little more than annoy him, at least I managed to get his attention.

  My faithful shadow butler picked up my intent and immediately commanded his shadow tentacles to grab hold of the attacker’s leg and lift him up in the air upside down. At the same time, I changed my direction towards the soldier. Readying my blade to my side before I swung, reforging the tip into a mini hammer head as I bash the soldier’s head. Thankfully, he was wearing a helmet so it shouldn’t do any real damage to him.

  But it wasn’t enough, the extra endurance from the [Stout Black Root] was reducing the impact. I decided to use another classic move of mine instead. Using my [Dimensional Box] I stored the ground before him with enough space to fit him and deep enough to make it difficult for him to climb out.

  “Drop him down now!” I ordered which Paimoth complied with. The tentacles loosened their grip on their opponent dropping him on the makeshift hole. No sooner did he fall than I covered up the hole, making sure to leave enough space for air to flow in and condense it enough to keep it from collapsing on him.

  “Right, that should take care of him for the time being. How is Mordred doi-”

  The ground below shook like a quake. Hearing closely, I could make out the sound of digging.

  No way…. He’s actually digging himself out! But I made sure there was enough space from the exit to make that difficult. So the only way would be to dig to the side first before climbing up. I acted immediately and concentrated.

  Using the property change of materials takes a lot out of me so I had to act fast! I hardened the ground below like a sphere with the intent to trap the soldier and keep them from digging any further.

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  Meanwhile, I could see Mordred was having more of a difficult time handling the rest of the soldiers than he anticipated. While normally he could easily dispatch a group of humans with the blunt end of his axe. They were proving durable enough to that I can see him contemplating using the sharper end just to make a more even playing ground with the way he was twitching his fingers on the handle.

  “They’re a lot tougher than I thought boss. I may have to get serious if to stand a chance!”

  “Guess we have no choice! Alright I grant you permission, just try not to cause any lasting damage!!” I managed to say, despite having to keep my concentration on my hardened ground sphere.

  Paimoth himself was trying to provide me with some of his Mana. How did he manage to do so? According to him, it was through our connections from our contract that we’re able to share various things between us that normally would be impossible. In this case it was his Mana. That would effectively make him my Mana battery, something I would have to go through at a more ideal time!

  Thanks to that though, I was able to more quickly provide Mana to my skill and speed up the process. Hopefully it will be enough to keep the soldier in place!

  But just to be sure… “V! I need you to keep track of the bad guy’s movements underground! Can you do it?!”

  The young goblin proudly saluted “Got it Mr. Vlad!! I’ll do my best!!”

  They concentrated with all their might, probably trying to visualize. I had to imagine what their skill would look like to them, but I would picture it more like one of those HUDs though I doubt it considering they wouldn’t know.

  “Ok! I see the bad guy! They’re over there!!” V pointed at the general direction to their left.

  …. right I doubt they would be able to accurately point out their location. What to do….. Wait I know!

  “Paimoth, you can sense my Mana flowing through the ground right? Can you give V some kind of marker so they can tell if they got past?”

  “Easily done, my master!”

  No sooner did he make his proclamation did small shadow tentacles surround the area. “Will this suffice?”

  V nodded “Yup! And….. they haven’t made past it yet!!” they continued to point out their location.

  With that info in mind, I put more of my focus on that area, putting more Mana to increase its speed. At this point this would have completely drained me out, thank goodness Paimoth had a much larger Mana pool.

  With all of our combined efforts, we just barely managed to securely trap the soldier. I nearly dropped on the ground myself, catching my breath from the excessive use of Mana. Compared to that, Paimoth looked no worse for wear. Just how much Mana does he have?!

  V meanwhile hopped for joy for their success, confirming our success. As for the rest, Mordred was surprisingly still struggling even with holding out less. Those [Stout Black Roots] really were something else….

  Not wanting to be left out, Jordan nervously stepped up. Fidgeting with his hands as if they were performing in front of a classroom. He really is rather different for a Gnoll…

  “I-I can do this….” Jordan told himself, trying his best to psych himself up before he extended his sharp claws.

  Taking one more step, my Gnoll suddenly sprinted to the crowd of soldiers. His claws looked sharper. He bared his fangs which looked ready to gnaw down their next meals. I could feel a bit of tensity increase around him so I could only surmise that it must have been a skill, probably something to increase his strengths…

  I decided to take a quick peek at Jordan’s stats while I try to recover so I could figure out which skill he was using.

  Sure enough, I managed to find it.

  [Gnoll Feast], based on the description it seems to be a simple increase in power. Not too drastic at first glance, my only problem would be the cost of his hunger. While most of us could handle being a little extra hungry, for Gnolls it could be a bit dangerous….

  Still, with the amount of power these soldiers have it’s best not to go easy on them and not make any unnecessary ri-

  “I can’t take this anymore!! I want to join in this fight as well!!”

  My eyes widened as I saw one of my orcs rushed into battle, club in hand! He hyped himself up by roaring a battle cry! “Taste my club!!”

  With a wave of his club, he aimed for the nearest soldier who in turned countered back clashing his sword with his weapon. For a moment it looked like my orc was overpowering the soldier.

  But I couldn’t help but worry, the fact that the soldier could even power through an orc’s strength was concerning in itself. I jumped into action, managing to gain enough energy to extend my sword’s length and change its flexibility and swing it like a whip.

  My worries were proving correct cause the moment my now metal whip had started to wrap the soldier’s sword, it had already destroyed my orc’s club and was going for the heart!

  I used all my might and pulled with little success, only managing to stop it in place. It was enough as my orc used the opportunity to punch the soldier’s weapon away before using his other fist aiming for the gut!

  After confirming his success, he looked at me to cheer only to flinch when he saw my expression. “Oh uh…. I’ll just get back to the others boss….”

  He sheepishly walked back to the others while I could only sigh as I glanced back at him. Whether or not he noticed, but there was a big gash at his chest. If I was just a bit slower….

  This is a mess. I didn’t think that it could get this bad with the [Stout Black Root]. I started to clench my head, already feeling the overuse of my mana kicking in. If we don’t do something soon, I don’t know what will happen.