WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 146: Three Element
But Ben's grin faded the moment he felt it, something was wrong.
CRACKLE!!!
His body moved on instinct. The pickaxe spun in a blur, sweeping low.
Purplish lightning exploded from his own shadow. "What—?" he muttered, eyes narrowing.
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From the darkness, serpentine figures rose shimmering specters born of lightning and shadow.
Ben jumped, just as the first slammed into the ground where he'd stood, leaving a crater of scorched stone.
He flipped mid-air, twisting as another come up behind him. His pickaxe swung wide, cleaving through the phantom in one clean motion
More rose.
A dozen shapes, leaping from the pool of his own shadow, lightning tethering them together in arcs that crackle like spiderwebs across the ground.
Ben landed in a crouch, his gaze sharp. He dashed forward, slipping between two charging specters, his pickaxe glowing faintly.
One swung. He ducked.
Another lashed out, he rolled beneath the arc of electricity, then came up with a savage uppercut that bisected its form.
The ghost split in two, its body bursting into sparks. The rest closed in, a wall of serpent phantom slithering toward him.
BOOM!
He struck the first head-on, shattering it into a cloud of sparks. Another lashed out from the side he twisted mid-swing, driving the haft of his weapon into its chest and slamming it into the ground.
A pulse of lightning shot up his arm, but he didn't even flinch.
The battlefield turned into a war zone of flashing light and deafening shockwaves. Phantom claws scraped at his armor. Electric tendrils coiled around his legs. But for every hit they landed, he destroyed two more.
One dove from above. Ben jumped to meet it. His pickaxe spun in a full circle, cleaving through it cleanly mid-air before landing hard, sending a quake across the stone.
Behind him, three more appeared, arms drawn back, lightning gathering like blades.
Ben didn't wait. He stabbed his pickaxe into the ground.
A barrier of stone erupted appeared around him. The bolts struck it detonated in sparks.
Ben stepped through the ruined wall. His eyes locked onto the last five specters as he hurled himself forward.
He vanished in a blur of motion reappearing behind the first with a pickaxe buried in its chest.
The remaining four turned.
A burst of mana exploded from Ben's as he consumed more mana. His pickaxe became a blur, trailing streaks of pure destruction.
Each strike left behind only silence and broken phantoms.
When the last specter burst into a final scatter of static.
The Magus narrowed his gaze, still feel amused. He still haven't gone all out with his mana, but it's clear to him mana alone is not enough.
Still, he wasn't ready to transform. Not yet. He wanted to test more things. The rainbow flame on his ring pulsed.
Swoosh!!! Crackle!
A burst of blue fire ignited around Ben, swirling like a cyclone, heat warping the very air. In that same moment, the Magus vanished in a flicker of lightning.
Ben's eyes snapped sideways.
Swoosh!
The Magus reappeared right beside him, fist already inches from his face. Ben shifted, just enough to avoid the full impact but the Magus grinned wide. "Got you."
The fist opened. His palm clamped onto Ben's shoulder.
BOOM!
A surge of raw lightning exploded point-blank, the force rippling through Ben's armor, sending shockwaves through his body.
The impact launched him backward, smashing through stone and shattering the terrain beneath his boots. Dust and debris spiraled upward as the ground cracked from the blast.
But Ben never hit the ground.
Mid-flight, he twisted, planting his pickaxe deep into the stone wall beside him, slowing himself with a screech of metal against rock. He landed in a crouch, smoke rising from his armor.
His chest burned, lines of scorched flesh marking where the lightning struck, but even as the pain flared, his wounds were already knitting back together.
'Good thing I kept this armor,' Ben thought, rolling his shoulder. 'Without it, I'd have wasted mana on recovery.'
He glanced down at the chestplate, faint mana glow pulsing across its surface.
***
Grimslate Chestplate
Type: Armor
Use: Equipment
Rarity: Rare
A sturdy armor, forged from condensed Grimslate ingots and enhanced with stable magic inscriptions.
Effect: Mana Dispersal – Reduces incoming magic damage by 20%.
***
He'd almost handed it off to one of the Krell Tanks. Seemed logical at first asthey were frontliners. But Elvira had talked him out of it.
"You may be able to regenerate," she'd said, "but what if they hit you again before you do? A half-second of vulnerability is all it takes to die."
Now, in the middle of combat, he realized how right she was. One extra second to react. in a fight like this, that could be everything.
The Magus tilted his head, lips curling in anticipation.
"Let's raise the stakes, shall we?"
Three gems glowed from his ring. Mana surged through his veins like a tidal wave. His cloak whipped behind him as the ground cracked beneath his boots.
Swossh!
Shadow exploded outward in jagged tendrils, encircling the battlefield like coiling serpents.
Blue flame ignited around each tendril, creating spiraling rings of hellfire that floated mid-air. And above it all, arcs of lightning crackled, weaving through the flames.
Ben narrowed his eyes, as he feel the mana signature is familliar.
The Magus stepped forward, his voice low but carried by mana. "Let's see you handle this."
Then he vanished.
The shadows moved first rising from beneath Ben like spears. He jumped, twisting in the air, just as a lightning bolt shot straight toward his chest.
He blocked it with the flat of his pickaxe, but flames spiraled in immediately after, licking at his arms, trying to wrap around him like chains.
Ben's armor sizzled. He growled, spun mid-air, and landed with a grunt, only for the shadows to shift again. This time they solidified into jagged claws, slashing across the ground.
BOOM!
Ben leapt backward, narrowly avoiding them. His pickaxe spun in his hand.
He stomped down, sending a pulse of mana through the earth. His adaptive muscles surged, bulking his frame. Then he charged straight through the triple-element storm.
