The effects of the spell Daniel had just used were amazing.
Not only was it able to stop the leader's charge, but it was also able to inflict some real damage to it.
'Not as destructive as my Demonic form but it is able to distinguish allies from foes and it doesn't seem to consume nearly as much mental energy, really a spell worthy of the light element. Also, Daniel has become a rank 2 mage, he sure is the leader of his generation.'
Noah judged from his position inside the wall.
'Yet, not even ten of them are enough to take down the leader.'
The rank 4 worm recovered immediately from the impact and pounced again the two nobles.
That time though, it aimed for Daniel.
Daniel didn't hesitate and launched another white ball which stopped again the charge of the leader with its explosion.
"I'll refill my mental energy with my pills, let's attack it while it's busy recovering from the blasts!"
Daniel ordered, creating many white lines that crashed on the rank 4 worm.
Milo did the same, launching more wind slashes on the beast.
The leader of the Excavating worms suffered more injuries and tried again to charge toward the cultivators but another ball of light sent it back, unable to react to the other series of attacks that crashed on its body.
The morale of the two nobles rose as they continued to use that tactic, yet, after more than six spells were used, the weakness of that strategy was shown to them.
The leader was covered in injuries but they were mostly superficial and shallow, not one of those created with their martial arts had ever surpassed the layer of muscles under its skin.
Only Daniel's spell was somewhat able to leave some lasting wounds but even those were simply small cuts compared to the surface of the beast's body.
It was clear that they had to change strategy.
Daniel had traces of sweat on his forehead but he didn't hesitate to use a different spell after the eighth ball of light exploded.
He closed his eyes and a pale light enveloped his figure.
The light became denser, hiding his features and almost blinding everyone in the room.
Then, the light separated from his body, creating a shining silhouette that stood still in front of him.
"I can only use this one after accumulating the sunrays for an entire day. I'm afraid we might consider escaping if even this spell doesn't work."
"What should I do?"
Milo asked after launching another series of attack toward the leader.
"Stab your weapons in the light, it will empower your knives but you'll be forced to fight in close combat to see its effects. I'll handle the rest."
Milo nodded and immersed his knives in the silhouette of light before shooting toward the recovering worm.
The leader had understood that something had changed so it used that time to focus on healing.
It didn't need to personally deal with the two cultivators, it only had to use the superiority of its body to slowly exhaust them.
Also, its pack had arrived by then.
Hundreds of Excavating worms in the human ranks came out of the various tunnels of the room.
They directly pounced at every human they saw, their orders were clear.
Worms began to rain in the underground room, momentarily halting Milo and Daniel's assault.
Troy knew that it was his time to act.
He created two foxes made of fire that ran on the ceiling of the room, spreading their destructiveness on the exit of each tunnel.
Tens of worms died in one instant, the spells of a rank 1 mage were more than enough to handle those weak beasts.
However, more worms kept coming, and the fire-foxes were slowly consumed to handle them.
Troy had already a potion in his hands which he gulped before creating two more foxes.
'This spell is strong! The foxes can be moved at will and they will keep burning everything in their path until they exhaust the fire. I believe that's one of the strongest spells of the fire element!'
Noah's judgment wasn't that far off from the truth.
Troy's spell was powerful, his family had expended a large sum of money to purchase it from the academy.
The only problem was that Troy's sea of consciousness was still in the first rank: not only couldn't it handle a protracted usage of that spell but even the effects of the spell itself were limited to the human ranks.
However, Daniel and Milo were reassured seeing their companion taking care of the pack and resumed their assault on the leader.
The shallow injuries that they had previously inflicted on it had already healed in that short break, only the small ones caused by Daniel's spells were still visible on its body.
Milo jumped on the leader, his knives shone with a white light.
The rank 4 creature compressed itself and pounced Daniel, uncaring of the other human that was coming at him.
However, Milo's attack revealed itself quite more dangerous than it had expected.
Milo performed fast movements, his weapons almost disappeared as he slashed the body of the leader.
His martial art emphasized speed and precision after all, his attacks were extremely fast!
The knives stabbed the worm's skin and pierced its muscles, stopping only when they touched its bones.
Also, the light on the knives dispersed inside its body, burning everything in its path before being consumed.
The leader released a loud screech but it could not stop its momentum, clashing with the white silhouette that Daniel had promptly moved in front of him.
Daniel's spell held on, it blocked the worm's charge and burned the flesh that touched it, making the worm release another loud cry.
Then, Daniel slashed with his sword.
His weapon passed through the silhouette and covered itself in the light before inflicting a deep cut on the leader.
The rank 4 creature was forced to retreat, the power of Daniel's new spell had surpassed all its expectations and it needed to plan another approach.
It was at that moment that it noticed that the light inside the silhouette had dimmed greatly.