BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

But the monsters pressed forward through the barrage, and the undead got reduced in numbers so much as to not be able to serve their purpose anymore.

The creatures inevitably got closer, and as they did, Erik felt his strength continuing to drain. Everybody else was in the same situation, which made their mood even worse and their concentration falter.

The last of the undead forces met their end in gruesome ways. Some were ripped limb from limb by razor-sharp claws, others were devoured whole by gaping maws, and the remaining ones crumbled into dust as the monsters’ powers got unleashed.

Without that buffer represented by the undead, the three-headed beasts sped up toward Erik’s army.

"Don’t stop attacking!"

Another monster fell to the assault of starlight fireballs, then another—but it wasn’t enough.

For every creature they brought down, thousands more pressed forward, and the Chimaeric Demons were being affected by the enemy brain crystal power—their wings beating slower, their movements becoming sluggish, and their muscles trembling.

Yet not everything went bad. Based on this preliminary encounter, something became clear.

"Their ability doesn’t work on brain crystal powers!" Erik said.

[We had been lucky.]

<Damn…>

Then a clone called for him.

"Master, our speed is dropping fast. The attribute drain is affecting our movement, and at this rate, we can’t keep the distance for long."

Erik watched in growing horror as the gap between his forces and the pursuing monsters continued to shrink, despite everything they threw at them.

The ocean stretched endlessly ahead, offering no salvation, while behind them, death approached on leathery wings.

"Shit…" There was only one thing Erik had to do at that point. He ordered the Chimaeric Demon he was riding to go to the rear of the formation. @@novelbin@@

Something he had the duty to do as the leader of the army. He didn’t know if it was going to work, but he had to try, regardless.

Erik reached the rear of the formation. Based on what he saw, he would need to use a lot of mana to kill the creatures, but he didn’t know exactly how much.

He fired wind blades from his hands, one after another. They cut through the air with a whistling sound, leaving streaks behind them as the clouds parted. But when they hit the monsters, the blades only made small marks on their tough bodies, as it looked like the scales of the three-headed void ravagers were made of some kind of metal.

"I need more power," Erik said, doubling the mana input.

The next wave of wind blades cut deeper into the creatures’ skin, leaving foot-long gashes that oozed dark fluids, but even these attacks weren’t enough to bring the massive beasts down, and they continued advancing as if they only had that to do.

"Fuck!"

He increased the mana output by 50% with each change, monitoring his system interface as the consumption rate climbed. The numbers flashed in warning red as his reserves began depleting at an alarming pace.

With another change to his power output, Erik’s wind blade—now many times stronger than the initial ones—sliced through one of the three-headed beasts. The monster crashed into the ocean below, but Erik couldn’t waste time thinking about this success.

<Are they into the Chimaeric Demons range?> Erik asked the biological computer.

[You want them to turn into undead?]

<Isn’t it obvious?>

The system sighed.

[No. They are too far for the Chimaeric Demons’ brain crystal power to reach them, and even if they weren’t, I doubt our army has enough mana to turn such powerful creatures into undead.]

"Shit!" Another of Erik’s ideas crumbled.

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The monsters kept moving forward without stopping. Their power was draining everyone’s strength, making Erik’s army weaker by the second and making it harder for him to move his arms.

The monsters kept coming, even though Erik’s wind blades left deep cuts in their bodies. They were aggressive to a scary degree, but one much worse than anything Erik had seen before.

Erik kept sending blade after blade, which now consumed an enormous amount of mana, but he couldn’t afford to reduce the power—anything less would just waste energy against their armored hides.

The problem was also that the creatures were much farther than his absorbing range. He wasn’t absorbing mana, which meant he couldn’t level up and had no way to regain mana.

He would be able to absorb mana once the creatures came within his absorption range, but by that point, their attribute-draining powers would have reduced everyone’s strength to dangerous levels.

His army’s speed and strength would be so severely diminished that mounting an effective defense would become impossible. Even standing upright on their mounts would become a struggle, and that was if the clones had enough strength to sustain their weight in the air.

Through the mental network, Erik sensed his clones’ growing fatigue. Still, they kept their barrage up, because there wasn’t much of a choice if they wanted to survive.

Then it happened.

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

[0%...1%...5%...30%...70%...100%]

[Mana successfully absorbed, starting converting procedure.]

[3...2...1...0]

[Mana successfully absorbed into experience points. 464800445.021101 experience points awarded to the host.]

"FINALLY!"

The first few kills came—one beast, then another, then three more in rapid succession as he found his rhythm. The monsters were now close enough so that their deaths released mana he could absorb, each one adding to his power.

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

[0%...1%...5%...30%...70%...100%]

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

[LEVEL UP.]

[LEVEL UP.]

[LEVEL UP.]

Erik’s interface flashed with level-up notifications as he cut down more of the creatures. He reached the one hundred mark, but that wasn’t enough.

The monsters weren’t many compared to his army; the difference was like comparing a swarm of wasps to an army of ants.

The clones had around 600 strength points, but the three-headed void ravagers had 808. It might have looked like a small difference, but it was not, and the more the creatures got closer, the more the difference got severe.

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

[Hostile creature killed: Mana-absorbing process starting.]

Besides, his level-ups were getting increasingly harder to achieve—each new level needed tons of experience points compared to the previous one, making the progression harder and longer despite the massive amount of mana he was absorbing from the dying creatures.

He killed creatures who gave him hundreds of millions of experience points, yet all he got from them were three level-ups.

Realizing that made Erik turn around to see if the others were ok.

Emily was firing with her sniper rifle almost mechanically. She had to pump a lot of mana into the weapon for it to be effective, but even so, she got some kills. Yet the monsters kept advancing.

Mira and Amber went into the rear of the formation, too. Mira could take advantage of her shapeshifting power by turning her arms’ muscles into that of an Erendu. That thing must have evolved from a sort of bull-like animal; Erik knew about it from photos and knew those things had a great muscle mass.

If it weren’t for mana, Erendus would be among the thaids with the greater muscle mass out of the thaids, at least among those small-sized.

She used all that muscle mass to draw arrows into her bow, which also increased her strength, making the effect overlap.

The weapon increased the might between each arrow, but she wasn’t strong enough to kill. The disparity in mana and strength was too great, and there was only so much she could do.

As for Amber, she made sure the clones were as far away from her as possible, and she released her poisonous gas.

That seemed to have worked better than most of the attacks launched from Erik’s side, but even that wasn’t enough.

The creatures’ skin bubbled and blistered where the mist made contact, forming dark purple welts across their thick hides. However, the dense layer of mana surrounding their bodies, their natural mana armor, deflected most of Amber’s corrosive attack.

The gas simply rolled off the magical barrier, dissipating into the air before it could penetrate deep enough to cause serious damage.

Yet, the creatures’ movement slowed significantly as Amber’s toxic mist enveloped them. The dense purple fog reduced their visibility to mere feet, but since they were all in the sky, even if they couldn’t see their opponents, Erik’s army’s position was still easily deduced.

However, this slowed them down, but they kept coming forward without stopping.

"I can’t do much more!" Amber said. To do all that damage, she had to use almost all her mana.

At the same time, the monsters’ brain crystal power affected everyone more and more. Mira’s attacks became increasingly weaker, and she was forced to pump her birth brain crystal power more to make the arrows faster and more accurate.

The problem was that her birth brain crystal power was simply too weak to fight against the draining effects of the three-headed void ravagers.

Their field drained attributes at a huge rate, while Mira’s birth brain crystal could only increase the strength of her arrows so much.

"I don’t feel well," Mira gasped.

Amber remained silent, using every bit of strength just to stay mounted as the draining field sapped her strength. The Chimaeric Demons weakened severely.