Nero did not hesitate before launching his flames into the bones. He did not intend to freeze them. Rather, he wanted his flames to consume the energy that was trying to control the bones.
He did, however, retreat a little to create some distance between himself and the bones. The team also retreated while searching for the source of the sound. If the door to corruption had opened on its own, then they were in for a world of trouble.
But the door that opened wasn't the door to the final room, rather it was the one that led to the second floor. Another team had appeared, though they stopped when they saw Nero and the rest.
No doubt they too had orders to compete for the artefacts with the other teams, which meant that they weren't necessarily allies. Their first interaction would likely determine the nature of their relationship moving forward.
Nero looked at them and in a single glance was able to guess many things. They were all teenagers, which was not a surprise, but what usually accompanied their age was inexperience, and therefore nervousness and fear.
Indeed, their stances were tense, holding their weapons close to their chest and looking back at them gravely. In their eyes Nero could detect countless thoughts. There was hesitation, wariness, and even a hint of relief. He could tell that they were considering what action to take.
His own teammates were wary as well, for they knew full well that they would be competing for artefacts with other teams.
Nero decided it was best to set the tone himself before anyone did something counterproductive.
"There's some kind of curse trying to animate these bones!" he said loudly, so that the other team was aware of the situation. "Help me destroy the curse before we have a new enemy on our hands. We're all Kolari here."
His words meant that even though they were competing, they were essentially from the same background. They should help each other when they could.
Although Nero's team was mostly unhurt, many of them still had dried blood on their hands and faces, and their armour showed some wear from the constant fighting, which made them look intimidating. It was clear they had seen combat, which clearly revealed that this mission was not going to be a walk in the park.
The newly arrived team was being led by a young man with blonde hair. Upon hearing Nero's request, he decisively stepped forward, wielding a sword and a shield. Having to fight against other Kolari soldiers made him uncomfortable, which is why he was more than glad to help out when Nero requested it. This is exactly how things should be.
"Verdant-2, eliminate the curse," he said boldly before leaping forward.
A white light began to shine around his sword as he ran towards the bones. When he came close enough he slashed his sword in the air, and the white light shot out of his blade and into the bones. Nero moved his flames aside so that they wouldn't interfere with the attack, but he underestimated the power of the slash.
It caused an explosion of light and ground the bones to dust, even going as far as eliminating some of Nero's flames.
But even as impressive as the display was, they had only affected a single drop in the ocean. The room was still filled to the brim with bones, and they had only destroyed the ones that had spilled out.
The ones that remained began moving even faster, joining together to form canine-like creatures coming up to Nero's waist.
"Retreat out of the corridor, we'll bottleneck them. Gabriel, build a sand barricade a metre (3 feet) high at the opening."
Nero's team retreated immediately, but Verdant-2 hesitated, looking towards their gallant leader. He too hesitated for a moment, his thoughts unknown, but seeing how many bony creatures were coming out of the room, he retreated as well.
As per Nero's command, Gabriel built a small barricade, rising only a metre high, but that in itself was enough. It would cause the creatures to have to jump. If they tried to crash into the wall, they would be burned by the sand. Not to mention, like embers rising with the hot air, grains of sand randomly rose from the barrier, burning anything they touched.
Originally Nero wanted to try and prevent the bones from becoming animated to begin with, but when he channelled his flame into the room he realised that the cursed energy inside was extremely dense. Whittling it down slowly, with everyone's help, would be a much more effective strategy.
That was assuming that the bones did not take on a much more powerful and dangerous form - an assumption Nero did not make. There was obviously something different about this room, so anything could happen.
Since the situation called for long range combat, Nero quickly opened his card case and took out Air Bullet, opting to attack the bony creatures from a distance. The rest of his team did the same, and only Remi stood in the back. Instead of attacking, she used augmentation cards to bolster the team.
But unlike Azure-1, Verdant-2 had a dedicated long range attacker, as unusual as it was. The archer was short, which was ironic because he was using a short bow with a graceful arc, though its handle where the archer held it from was straight.
He either had an ability or a card which created arrows, because the archer would only need to pull the string back for a brown arrow with a needle bodkin point to just appear, the perfect size for the bow.
Each of his shots was extremely deadly and, more importantly, accurate, cutting through the skull of each of his targets.
The size of the bow and the shorter draw, accompanied by his clear expertise allowed him to shoot rapidly, filling the corridor with countless cony corpses. With everyone's combined efforts, it almost seemed like this would be an easy battle. But then the bones of the creatures they had already defeated once again began to move.
"We need to destroy the bones thoroughly!" the blonde leader of Verdant-2 yelled.
"I have a way we can do that, but oxygen might become a problem," Nero said, maintaining his calm despite his ever-increasing excitement. This time around, he had used Radix Augmentation in advance, so for every creature he defeated up close and was able to touch, he could feel his body being rejuvenated just a bit. It was almost imperceptible, but every bit counted.
"We'll take care of the air, you take care of the bones," the blonde youth yelled, and stepped back giving Nero space. He and Jackal shared eye contact. They had practised more than just simple tricks, such as switching fire yellow flames to blue ones. No, they'd also practised how to create massive explosions that produce an incredible amount of heat for Nero to immediately make use of.
In the case of these creatures, just the explosion might be enough, though it wouldn't hurt to use his own cryoflame afterwards as well if the curse persisted.
From his card case Nero summoned another card, and used it to spray a transparent liquid down the corridor while Jackal clasped his hands together and summoned his flames between them, compressing them as much as he could.
Jackal's flames were quite ordinary, but the nature of his ability allowed him to manipulate them in interesting ways. By compressing his flames he could create much hotter, more dangerous flames, but the process was very aether intensive. It was not something he could do frequently. But when the time called for it, it created a powerful explosion.
If the area of his explosion had already been covered in flammable liquids beforehand, then all the better.
"Remi, throw up a shield around us as soon as Jackal throws the fireball!" Nero instructed. As the person with the greatest aether reserves, since she barely fought, the task of erecting shields and barriers were hers.
The number of bony creatures in the corridor kept on rising, and as Verdant-2 retreated a little the pressure on them decreased. A few of them even made it past Gabriels wall, but fortunately Harold made quick work of them.
The set up for this attack took slightly longer than usual attacks, which was usually bad. But this time, Nero wanted to gather as many bones in the corridor as he could. When the pressure was finally getting too great, and Gabriel's sandwall was on the verge of breaking, he finally yelled, "now!"
Jackal did not hesitate in throwing the fireball he had been creating in his hand. It was yellow, and barely a few centimetres wide, but it began to expand the moment it left Jackal's hand, becoming unstable.
But before it completely collapsed on its own, it crashed into the skull of one of the creatures, dripping in the liquid Nero had sprayed. Then it unleashed a fiery inferno, right mere metres away from everyone.