Seed Of Speed

The four skeletal knights pulled themselves out of their graves, each standing three meters in the air. Their steel armor was corroded black, yet a sickly green energy clung to it, powered by their cores, safely protected within. Each one carried a different weapon, a broadsword, a lance, a battle-axe, and lastly, a mace and shield, that gave off a toxic glow.

"Well, this is new…" Stormblade said.

(Katalina, what the hell is going on?) Diego asked, but he was only met with her laughter and a new mission alert.

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Special Mission Acquired!

- Defeat the skeletal knights!

- Requirements: You and group members must destroy the cores of the four skeletal knights. 4 of 4 remaining.

- Rewards: and 50 skill points

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(What is that reward?!?) Diego thought excitedly.

::Well, there is little point in you dedicating your time to learn weapon crafting with your powers, so there is little chance that you will ever get an enchanted instrument. If you and your team can defeat them, I am willing to reward you with something special::

"What should we do?" Tovao asked.

"We kill them, of course!" Stormblade said.

"I believe they are already dead," Kang said as a small, porcelain bottle appeared in his hand and he emptied the contents.

Stormblade shot Kang a dirty look, but before he could say anything, Diego suggested, "I'll have one of my clones support everyone while I handle the battle-axe wielder.

"I'll take the broadsword," Stormablade said.

"Mace and shield," Kang said simply.

"I guess that leaves me the lancer," Tovao said.

"I can support everyone with minor buffs and holy water spells," Rainshower added.

Diego put away the drum and pulled out his black spear. The Diego with the ki'ta moved next to Rainshower with a smile as the rest of the group spread out. Each person split off to match their chosen knight while the empty-handed Diego waited just a few meters in front of Rainshower and his clone and behind the others. His main body would focus on magic and aiding the others.

Four globes of mana-water floated out of Rainshower jug then shot out at the four facing off against the knights. The slivery glow surrounding the first three's bodies intensified while the Diego in front was covered as well, but in the next moment, his other two bodies also took on the glow. Although it sparked her curiousity as to how the clones were covered by spell without costing anymore mana, Rainshower kept her questions to herself as she side-eyed the man next to her.

Just barely above a whisper, Diego started "Bodies" by Drowning Pool, "Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor…"

As he screamed out the last "floor", in his best imitation of Drowning Pool's lead singer, the purple miasma was pushed back and away from the Diego singing while an alert appeared in front of his eyes.

::{War Song} has evolved into {Holy Hymn}::

The combination of his {War Song} and Rainshower's holy water blessing had inadvertently created {Holy Hymn} which would expel anything corroded by Death-Shadow mana, and, what it could not expel, it would weaken it greatly as the holy energy would try to purify the dark energies. The purple miasma was pushed away, leaving a fifty-meter circle empty, centered around the Diego playing the music.

Although the others were surprised at the new development, the skeletal knights did not give them the opportunity to observe the changes. Unlike the mindless skeletons that threw themselves at the nearest living creature, these knights clearly had the ability to rationalize what was going on and who the biggest threat was as all four sets of fiery eye sockets locked on the two in the very back. Despite the power of the {holy Hymn}, a strange coldness started to seep into both Diego's and Rainshower's bodies and their complexions started to pale at a visible rate, even quicker on Rainshower as she had not casted the buff on herself.

::Snap out of it, Diego!:: Katalina yelled inside his head.

The foreign energy fluctuated briefly, but it was long enough for Diego to flair his chi and mana, breaking the Shadow-based hypnosis. His empty-handed clone jumped backwards and channeled some energy into Rainshower to also free her while his main body continued to use {Holy Hymn}.

"Attack!" the spear-wielding Diego yelled, and the four men charged their chosen knight, striking out with their weapons.

Diego charged forward with his [White Lightning Array] and struck out with his strongest attack, [Ten Strikes, One Thrust]. Despite his incredible speed, the battle-axe wielding knight easily tracked his movements and shielded itself with the flat of its axe. The spear pierced through the weapon, but that consumed most of the energy, so it stopped just a few centimeters into the b.r.e.a.s.tplate. The real problem appeared when he tried to yank back his spear. The weapon had begun repairing itself and had now trapped his weapon.

::Channel Light mana into your weapon, idiot::

Diego did as he was told and channeled Light mana into his spear, dying it white while the silver glow turned golden. He ended up taking a step back as his spear suddenly loosened like he was simply pulling it out of water. He chuckled at his own stupidity as he twirled his spear through his fingers. Katalina had long ago explained to him that his perfect Light attribute also gave him the 'Holy' affinity that was tied to that branch, unlike Rainshower's Holy affinity which was under the Water attribute.

With his confidence significantly boosted, Diego wielded his spear with both hands, chopping out the spearhead much like how Tovao would with his glaive. The combination of the blessing and his own Light mana, the spear cut through the skeleton's armor like it was tofu. Although the armor repaired itself quickly, the drain of power from the core was undeniable as the sickly green glow began to dim.

Although Diego was now having an easy time with his skeletal knight, the other three were having a more difficult time. Stormblade, as the team's attacking shaman, was still at ease fighting the giant knight, albeit without dealing the kind of damage Diego could.

Stormblade's sword constantly flashed with lightning wrapped around it. He made the mistake of testing the skeleton's strength with a clash of blades just to be forced back a dozen, heavy steps while also splitting the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. The wound disappeared with just a simple healing spell, but he was still frowning as he knew that there was no way he could survive a direct attack.

He may have had poor affinities which exacerbated his weak mana-pool, but that had just forced him to focus even more on the path of the warrior, only using magic to support himself further. His body lit up, visible to the n.a.k.e.d eye, with bands of violet, blue, and yellow energies while he activated his strongest spell, his second custom-spell, {Body of the Storm}. It was a buff spell that increased his power thanks to the Thunder mana, increased his flexibility through the Water mana, and his overall speed with the Wind mana.

With the boost from his spell and the power of the blessing keeping the Death-energy at bay, Stormblade also fell into a rhythm of attacking and dodging that allowed him to whittle away the power in the skeleton's core. That let Diego's main body focus on the two martial warriors who were in a much more disadvantage situation.

Kang was managing to keep the skeletal knight tied down in surprisingly close range, but no matter how hard he hit, he was not able to cause enough damage to be noticeable. The knight would swing its mace, that was nearly the size of Kang himself despite being a one-handed weapon, from side to side, trying to knock Kang away. Every time the mace neared, Kang would fall over, barely missing the spiked, metal head and then deliver a flurry of kicks as he pushed himself back up with a spin.

There was even one time that the knight had tried to outsmart the method, dropping the angle of his mace so that it almost dragged across the ground. Kang simply stepped on the shaft of the oversized and jumped up from there to deliver a punch straight to the knight's helm that then crackled with bolts of violet lightning. The knight was stunned by the invading energy while Kang flipped backwards to put distance between himself and the knight as he received a warning from Diego.

"Incoming!" Diego sent with a bit of chi so that his voice rang in Kang's ears.

While Kang was knocking back the skeletal knight, Diego's main body had his empty hands outstretched to the sides as a white circle appeared floating above both his hands with a rune of Light placed in the center. It took a few moments to charge up and could only move in a straight line, so he had to use the spell at the right moment. Just as Kang moved away, the two floating circles erupted with a solid beam of pure white light and crashing into the knight's b.r.e.a.s.tplate. When the light finally dimmed then disappeared entirely, two gaping holes were punched through the black armor.

"What spell was that?" Rainshower could not help but ask after seeing the sheer damage the spell had caused.

"I call it {Light Cannon}, but don't let the effects fool you, it's only because these things are powered by Shadow-based energy. A normal shaman would be able to deflect the spell while a normal person would only have some heavy burns," the Diego who had casted the spell replied.

Kang gave him a nod before he charged back into his fight with the knight. Diego's spell, while powerful against these creatures, had not hit the core, so the skeleton began to regenerate, although at a slow pace than normal. It was clear that Kang would be able to handle himself, so that Diego could devote his time now to saving his brother.

Tovao, unlike the rest, was having a miserable time. He lacked the mana to boost his body as Stormblade had done, and he lacked untouchably, yet clumsy-appearing style of Kang. Without many options, he began a hit-and-run style of fighting against the knight.

Although he was the weakest in the group, he understood that fact. After seeing Stormblade unable to handle his knight's attack, he knew better than to attempt a head-on confrontation, but he also had to keep the knight from approaching Rainshower and the Diego playing music, so he was trapped in between a rock and a hard place.

The knight thrusted his lance at Tovao who dodged to the side. His arms suddenly enlarged as he brought his glaive down on the lance with an overhead chop. The lance drilled into the ground from the force of the impact combined with the last of the knights thrust, but it easily removed it, bringing up dirt with it. In that moment, Tovao dashed forward while swinging his glaive upwards, across the knight's boney arms and b.r.e.a.s.tplate, but against his expectations, the arms did not break, nor was there a single scratch on the metal. It was only the silvery-blue flames that trailed behind the blade that caused any damage as they sought to purify the skeleton.

Tovao flinched back as a skeletal hand reached through the fire and tried to grab him. Although he managed to dodge the attack, his shirt was ripped by the boney claw. Flames engulfed his entire body as he pushed his evasion skill to the extreme and got away from the knight. The tip of the lance chased after him, forcing him to keep dodging back and back. He was pushed back to the point that he was almost in line with Diego's main body before he managed to counterattack, sending back a streak of silvery-blue flames.

The empty-handed Diego watched his brother for a moment, impressed. Despite being an undead creature, the knight's thrusts were swift, and it was clearly strong, but his brother was able to deflect the attacks just enough so that he could dodge the attacks. That meant that even though his cultivation was the lowest among the group, his physical strength was actually the strongest. When his body turned gold, Diego realized he need help and made a circle with his hands while casting another spell, {Light Machine Gun}.

The space between his fingers lit up with a ring of small light runes, matching the one he used with {Light Cannon}. One after another, the runes exploded with light, shooting a white laser-like beam at the skeletal knight. As soon as one extinguished, the next one lit up, and by the time the third one had fired, the first light rune had reappeared. Each rune would act as a focus for his mana, allowing his normal {Light Bullet} spell to be fired in rapid succession hence the "machine gun" effect. His constant training with Swordflash had caused him to come up with all types of crazy ways to use the few spells Katalina had taught him. Although she would create an outline for each of his ideas, the only new spells she had taught him were the "bullet" spells and "canon" spells, everything else had been off the world's knowledge based on what information Diego had gathered so far, with the addition of Time and Space elements.

The skeletal knight was peppered with bolts of pure light mana, turning its armor into swiss cheese. It was not long before the b.r.e.a.s.tplate crumbled and revealed the glowing green core, three times the size of a normal skeletons. Diego focused his aim on the ribs and, although the core flittered around inside for a second, it only took a handful of shots before he hit the core and it shattered. The skeletal knight collapsed to the ground in the next moment, leaving behind giant bones and the black steel armor since the weapon dissolved without the power from the core.

After destroying one so quickly, Diego's main body turned his attention to Kang's opponent while the spear wielding Diego put away his spear as he retreated and casted {Light Machine Gun}. With two of his three bodies using the spell, even with the other using a form of {War Song} to replenish his mana, the drain was significant. Tovao did not even get the chance to help the others before it was clear he was not needed. The other two were already holding out better than he had, and with Diego's help, they finished off their opponents in a few minutes.

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Mission Complete!

- Defeat the skeletal knights!

- Requirements: You and group members must destroy the cores of the four skeletal knights. 4 of 4 remaining.

- Awarded: and 50 skill points

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(So, how do I get the instrument?) Diego asked silently.

::I'll help you pick some materials and then you can rent a private crafting room. I'll take over your body and craft you the best instrument I can with the materials and the power contained within your body::

(Really?)

::I'm just a complex spell projection to help guide you on your chosen path, not a fortune-granting system that can pull treasures out of thin air::

(Heh, sorry.)

"Good job, brother Brightmelody," Stormblade said as he patted Diego's shoulder. He was breathing a little harder than normal, but he was otherwise fine.

Kang and Tovao joined them as they met up with Rainshower and the other two Diegos. Diego dismissed his [Speed Clones] so that there was only one of him again and gave everyone an appreciative nod. Thankfully, everyone was unharmed, if a little tired, but that moment of peace was quickly interrupted by the sound of stone rubbing against stone. A chill spread down his back and Diego did not even turn his head to see what it was, only asking a single silent sentence.

(You planned this, didn't you?)

::Maybe::

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Special Mission Acquired!

- Defeat the courtyard guardian!

- Requirements: You and group members must defeat the guardian.

- Rewards: and 50 skill points

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