Swordsman's Regression: Reawakened as a Necromancer-Chapter 86: Minions vs Minions

Percival was alone.

The world outside celebrated unity whilst he faced the precipitate of aloneless. The consequence of challenging a Gate World solo.

Nevertheless, if there was one thing the sword-wielding Percival knew, it was giving up wasn’t an option.

Not when an entire world had it out for him. If he was going to be more powerful than the rest of them, this Encounter Zone was but a grain of sand amongst the desert of things he must accomplish.

Within that grain of sand however, a tinier grain existed; one that he had to crush first in order to crumble the entire grain.

The Magma Elder.

⸢Threat: Magma Elder (Lvl 80)⸥

⸢Main Skills: Hive Command: Controls the Saurian Scuttlers⸥

⸢Magma Manipulation: Can cause intentional geysers⸥

⸢Intelligent Core: High intelligence and ability to deceive⸥

Percival narrowed his eyes.

The Elder narrowed its back. They glowed like pits of molten gold.

It might have expected a long stare down, but Percival didn’t care for that. He burst into an attack immediately.

He had made his analysis long ago.

Since the Magma Elder was the sole force commanding the lizard-crabs, killing it would leave the crabs disorganized, and far easier to put down.

The math was simple: cut its damn head off.

He exploded forward, Lightpiercer already cleaving through the air in a golden arc of ⸢Blessed Edge⸥.

He ignored the mountain-sized Scuttler Alpha, and aimed at the stone figure perched upon it.

Almost unbothered by Percival’s attack, the Magma Elder sat still on its mount. Then, it raised a hand, fingers like cooling stalactites.

Three Saurian Scuttlers immediately interposed themselves between Percival and his target.

His enhanced blade sheared through the first, cracking its lava-shell and spilling glowing viscera.

⸢Blessed Edge⸥ increase cutting power by 100%, which made slicing through their hard scales far easier, but the momentum was spent.

The other two slammed into him, using their full mass to tackle his Constitution and drive him off his feet.

"Nrggh!"

Percival grunted as the impact sent him skidding back, greaves scraping grooves into the hot obsidian earth.

He winced as the steam from a geyser hole beside him rose, burning the side of his face. He ignored it, keeping his focus on the three Scuttlers that were attacking again.

One struck its pincer at it, aiming for his face. Percival quickly raised Lightpiercer, using the flat of the blade to block the attack.

CLANG!

The song of metal reverberated in the air.

Heat radiated from the Scuttler’s shell, searing the air. The pincer started to drip Lava Poison onto his vambrace.

Hissss.

The metal hissed, the enchantment within flickering as the orange heat began eating through.

Even the Obsidian Ironwolf’s metal, being a B-Grade armor, couldn’t completely repel the burn.

Percival groaned as he pulled his hand away, only to immediately reply with a slice at the creature’s pincer. Then, he swirled to the left, and with the same motion, he cleaved through the face of the creature.

The other two immediately attacked. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

One came with pincers snapping shut where Percival’s head had been a heartbeat earlier.

Percival lowered beneath the strike, and then cMe his blade, flashing upward in a tight arc that split the joint clean through.

The pincer hit the ground. The body followed after as Percival slashed, spun and slashed backwards.

He pivoted on his heel.

The last barely had time to raise its shell before steel tore across its scales. The strike was precise—too precise—biting into the softer seam beneath the armor.

The creature shuddered once, then collapsed in a spray of ichor and fractured shell.

The Scuttlers all collapsed in halves, their pincers leaking lava.

⸢Saurian Scuttlers (Lvl 66) killed⸥

⸢+900 EXP⸥

⸢Title Bonus: +1300 EXP⸥

Silence covered the Stone Land. Somewhere in the distance, a geyser erupted.

Percival looked over his shoulder, eyes locked on the Magma Elder who grinned mischievously back at him.

That was when Percival came to the realization that no matter what he did, as long as the Beast Source of this Encounter Zone was still pulsing, the Elder would continue to call upon more Saurian Scuttlers to protect it.

But the wretched stone man wasn’t the only one who could summon minions.

Percival planted his feet, ignored the two Scuttlers that were already advancing, and thrust his will into the spectral barracks of his soul.

"Awake."

Instantly, with loud explosions that caught the Saurian Scuttlers off guard, azure flames erupted in a semicircle before Percival.

Thirty-six pillars of fire solidified into bone, steel, and cold purpose.

His Skeleton Soldiers materialized, their empty eye sockets instantly reflecting the hellscape, armors burning with death mana.

The Magma Elder, up on his mount, narrowed its eyes curiously. Perhaps it was its first time seeing a Swordsman summon the undead.

Percival gave them their order. "Kill the lizard crabs. Or at least keep them out of my way while I deal with the Elder."

The Skeletons obeyed with no hesitation. The moment his order registered in their hollow skulls, they charged the confused swarm of Saurian Scuttlers.

Infuriated, the Magma Elder pointed at Percival, not even the Skeletons, ordering his lizard minions to kill him.

The clash was instant and brutal.

With the Stalkers, it had been different. This was not like the predatory dance. The Stalkers had been clever for the most part, they fought with Intelligence.

This on the other hand, was a grinding, brutal war of attrition.

The Saurian Scuttlers were mindless beasts under the control of an intelligent beast. Percival’s Skeletons used to be mindless, merely fighting with no coordination or tactics.

But after Percival’s extensive training, they were anything but mindless and it showed in the way both minions fought each other.

The Scuttlers struck like a collapsing wall.

Instead of advancing in lines or formations, they poured forward like colliding bodies, claws scraping stone, molten shells grinding against one another as they forced themselves through sheer mass.

Soul burning swords punched into them and were ripped free. Bones shattered under heat and weight. Still, they came on.

A Scuttler took a blade through its neck joint and tore itself free, dragging the weapon out with it.

Another lost a pincer and rammed forward anyway, slamming its carapace into a Skeleton hard enough to explode bone across the scorched floor.

They didn’t adapt.

They didn’t hesitate.

They simply replaced the fallen with more bodies.

Percival moved, striking whenever the pressure reached him, but the Scuttlers never broke focus.

Even when Skeletons blocked their path, even when the burning blades hacked at their legs, they lunged past them, snapping blindly toward Percival, heedless of the cost.

The Skeletons answered in kind, but made sure to fall into the mindless chaos.

They raised their shields when they had to, swung their swords when the opening arrived, aiming at the seams rather than the scales.

When one Skeleton collapsed under a crushing blow, another stepped into its place, hacking at the Scuttler that tried to crush its cohort.

Another Skeleton Soldier wearing the Furnace Steel Armor braced its shield against a Scuttler’s charge. The impact sounded like a landslide.

The shield glowed red-hot where the lava-shell made contact. The Skeleton held, but its HP bar began a steady, sizzling decline.

Another Skirmisher darted in, stabbing at a leg joint. Its Blazeforged Blade scored the rock-like hide but didn’t sever.

It was like fighting moving mountains.

Realizing its mistake, the Skeleton went for the seams that connected the pincer to its leg.

The Scuttler shrieked at the Skirmisher, giving its fallen companion the chance to rise and stab the lizard crab through its rear.

On his mount, the Magma Elder watched with intrigue. It looked incredibly curious, watching the Skeletons move like intelligent humans, like seasoned warriors, even though it knew they were mindless.

It must have wondered how Percival was able to achieve such a thing.

But at the moment, there were other things to worry about.

Other things like Percival himself.