Gamer Reborn

Chapter 364

The massive wave of frost pulled the attention of all the reptiles. Unlike inside the dungeon where they would be attracted to anything foreign there was nothing on the outside to suppress that lizard brain reaction of getting away from something that dangerous.

“So it begins.” The prince said as he felt the mana bomb go off as he decapitated another lizard.

With that the prince started to pick up speed as he pumped the runes on his armor looking to get as much speed as possible as he circled the woods killing the lizards as they ran away.

With the lizards running in all directions a good number headed for the rest of the group. Elara and Arianwyn wasted no time in putting a little bit of distance between themselves before both of them released their domains.

Ajax mostly stayed on the defensive, besides hardening the earth beneath their feet and creating a small earth wall he purely focused on using [Mana Syphon] on as many lizards as he could, pushing its range further and further.

Elara and Arianwyn started firing off spell after spell, their domains letting them bombard the wave of lizards. Unlike Aranor the two elves give off the same impression of danger to the lizards so instead of running from them the lizards charged right for them.

Darkclaw wasted no time jumping in to play protector for Elara, he would have done the same for Arianwyn but not only did she already have Regalia filling that role but her winter domain was much better defensively than a storm one and the cold would also negatively affect him.

“We’ve got fliers.” Benedict called out as he pointed towards the arch as a wave of flying lizards that Ajax would call pterodactyls took to the air. The pterodactyls were much more fragile than their ground locked brothers, in exchange however they were not only faster but from the wind mana Ajax could feel surrounding their wings they wouldn’t even need to slow down as they attacked.

Elara was quick to change her priority. While Arianwyn continued to focus on the giant lizards on the ground she almost exclusively started to shoot the fliers out of the sky with bolts of lightning.

With the increasing number of enemies something finally made it past Ajax's small perimeter and headed towards the group. Being only a level seventy five non miniboss monsters Ajax had no issue dodging the bite attack before crushing a molten infused axe straight into its skull.

The problem there came when Ajax tried to exclude the lizard from his [Mana Syphon]. Not wanting to use his skill while technically making contact with the lizard, Ajax tried to stop his skill from working on it. The flash exclusion however not only removed the lizard itself but all of the other lizards as well for a brief moment.

The brief boost in power from Ajax flashing his [Mana Syphon] off then back on once he killed his enemy came as a big surprise to the rest of the lizards as most of them ended up tripping and face planting into the dirt before they started moving once again. Not everything ended up going well however as Ajax himself suffered the reverse effect, with his physical enhancement going away for the brief moment his skill excluded the lizards, Ajax front foot ended up twisting his ankle as it tried to support the momentum Ajax had built up.

Aranor had finally managed to make it to the arch in this time, this was lucky for the team that happened to be exiting the dungeon at this exact time. A group of twenty people with their levels in the low fifties were shocked at what awaited them on the outside, they had just finished clearing the second floor of the dungeon and they were not ready for something like this.

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“Is there anything coming out after you?” Aranor asked them in a strict tone.

“No, sir, I don’t think so.” The leader quickly grasped the situation and adapted. “We triggered the obelisk and cleared the last of them.” with that he turned his attention back to his team. “Form a defensive perimeter to protect the mages and Caelithra.”

The entire battle lasted no more than twenty minutes from the moment Aranor and the prince joined in culling the beast, not only that but nobody had died following that moment. Darkclaw had his shield integrity lowered to about 50% and Regalia was missing a few scales here and there.

Ajax had only faced four more lizards following his first encounter and he took care of all of them with his bow as he used his Light and Life mana to fix his leg and Harold took the job of the frontman. This didn’t mean that nobody had died as a result of the break. Aranor and the team that came out during the battle had started looking for survivors but had so far only found the torn up leftovers of what had been the elves not fast enough to evacuate.

“Well that was a good warm up, '' the prince said as he joined Ajax and the rest of the people from Gryndor, his armor was governed in lizard blood but Ajax couldn’t see a single scratch on it. “Good thing there was no floor boss.”

Ajax was amazed as he looked out over the battlefield, since the lizards were just monsters breaking out from the dungeon they left behind no bodies, more than a few of them did however leave behind empty shells of ice when they had died to Aranor’s initial attack.

“How was your first dungeon break?” The prince asked all of them.

“This wasn’t my first.” Ajax answered as he thought back to the kitsune floor boss that forced his entire team to run.

“It's the first one you saw outside of the capital, they are almost common there with how many people delve, but we also have proper defenses in place.” the prince said as he looked with pity down at the corpse of what remained of an elf. “Far fewer casualties there.”

An elf sprinted past their group as Elara, Darkclaw and Arianwyn were returning. From afar Ajax could also see Aranor and the group that exited moving towards them as well.

“He’s probably the scout.” the prince said. “They sent him to let the others know it's safe to return.”

That was a dark thought for Ajax. He had gotten a lot more used to death as he lived on this world but even then he had been sheltered from most of his second life as well. The people returning now wouldn’t be any safer the second time around if a break happened. With a shake of his head he put the thought out of his mind, it wasn’t his issue to solve, everyone knew the risks all he was responsible for was clearing the last floor when he was not being boosted.

“We can go ahead and bring the carriages inside the clearing.” Aranor said as he joined them. “We won’t be able to enter until tomorrow as they will be reestablishing order.”

“Did the guards make it?” the prince asked.

“Most of them did, I didn’t see many uniforms.” Aranor replied. “I doubt they’ll be the ones coming back.”

All in all there were less than twenty casualties in total thanks to the quick response from Aranor and the prince. Messengers were sent out to all the small villages in the surroundings warning about there possibly being lizards still out there if they had made it past the perimeter the prince had kept.

Ajax moved on to the newest notification blinking for his attention in the corner of his vision. As it turns out it had been well worth the twisted ankle he had gotten by following his restriction. He had managed to gain the skill [Empowering Restriction].

“What is it?” the prince asked as Ajax pulled him aside.

It was Ajax’s turn to throw him the same cocky smirk he was usually on the receiving end of. “There is a new record for the number of restrictions it takes to unlock [Empowering Restriction].”

The prince’s face first saw a shadow of confusion fall over it before his eyes opened wide in realization and shock. “You already got it?!” The prince tried his best to keep his voice low as he quickly activated a privacy item.

Ajax knew that there was no chance he would have managed this with his Trait but he didn’t let that keep him from basking in his success. “I did, it happened when I twisted my ankle by following the restriction on [Mana Syphon].”

“That makes no sense, your restriction wasn’t that big.” the prince said as he stroked his chin.

Ajax blushed a little in embarrassment. “When I tried to stop using [Mana Syphon] on one lizard for just a brief moment I ended up stopping it from working on all of them.”

The prince quickly put together what happened and even matched it to the moment all of the lizards tripped during the battle, still something wasn’t adding up for him. “Is it because both skills you limited were Legendary?” he couldn’t help but wonder since unlocking the skill after only two restrictions was unheard of.

“Now that you have the skill however we need to talk about how you will use it.”