A cloud of dust and smoke closely followed the eruption of the ground, which, along with the already low visibility, made it impossible to see.
"Damn!" exclaimed Cwenhild as she dashed into the dust cloud. She had no doubt that Lex would survive even if he was taken by surprise, but the other three might not. She used a seemingly simple palm attack in the air, causing a gust of wind to clear the cloud, revealing Lex heroically blocking the stone spears from attacking the three behind him.
If it had just been a single stone attacking him, or even multiple attacking from the same direction, he could have gotten by with using Talk to the Hand. But three different sentient stones seemed to be attacking him from various directions, causing him to run around, blocking each attack with his shield. The three injured members weren't just sitting idly by either. Jovi had Patrick on his back and was trying to build some distance, while Sohee prepared a spell to attack, her attention completely diverted, leaving her vulnerable.
Upon learning the situation was under control, Cwenhild diverted her momentum and attacked one of the sentient stones. Were this a normal stone, her single attack would have pulverized it, but on this rock it only spread a few cracks.
The rocks had no mouths so they could not scream, but the spirit energy surrounding them vibrated violently, causing everyone to be hit by a wave of dizziness. Sohee, however, was able to finish her spell in time. A dome of purple light formed around the three sentient stones, blocking their attacks while simultaneously attacking their souls!
The spirit energy in the air began to vibrate even more frenziedly, giving birth to the illusion of shrieking. Just as Sohee was about to sigh in relief, the ground started cracking, revealing more and more stones.
"We need to regroup!" yelled Lex to Cwenhild. "I can't tell how many there are, but even as is, we're surrounded." Even Lex could only block attacks from a single direction at a time, and with them being surrounded and outnumbered, they would need to work together.
"Leave it to me," yelled Patrick and clapped his hands together.
An invisible, yet strangely tangible ripple traveled through the air, originating from his clap, slowing down the rocks attacks. He did not need to explain what he had done for all the team members knew each other's abilities. The rocks did not have eyes, and while no one could tell exactly how they perceived the world around them, there was a good chance that their perception was based on spiritual energy - similar to the way spiritual sense was derived from spiritual energy.
Patricks clap could create energy ripples within a small radius, effectively weakening all spiritual perception abilities. It was originally designed to work against scouts, but for creatures solely dependent on such abilities, the ripple was even more effective.
Taking advantage of the short interruption, Lex and the others regrouped, though there seemed to be no hope of escaping. More and more rocks were revealing themselves, already increasing the numbers to over a dozen, and during the brief clashes they had, they were not able to kill any of the rocks.
"Can you tell why you aren't able to sense them?" Cwenhild asked Lex. This was the first time Lex hadn't been able to foretell an attack, and they needed to understand if this was a unique circumstance or something that could be replicated.
"Pretty much. I didn't sense anything, because this wasn't a trap. These rocks just happened to be in the ground we were covering. Even so, if they had been asleep, I would still have been able to sense the danger. It's more like they were in some kind of stasis that made them no different from ordinary rocks in the ground."
Cwenhild nodded, understanding the limits of Lex's ability, and moved on to the next matter.
"The situation is serious, but not impossibly so. Form a circle, and coordinate on the attack. Ness, you take lead on the attack and the rest will support you."
"I'll cover the ground so that it doesn't erupt under us," Lex added. "But the range is only about 10 feet so stay close."
Lex's defensive technique, Talk to the Hand, was originally designed only to be used from the hands. However for Lex, who mastered the technique with a depth that may have even surpassed the creator of the technique, making small alterations to use it from his feet was no issue.
The three injured gathered in the center of the circle, all the while activating their abilities to support the team. Silvia, another one of the group members, a body and soul cultivator, began healing them while the rest focused on attacking and defending.
Having collected themselves, and working together once again, their lethality shot through the roof. Ness was a human torpedo, shooting through the distance that separated herself and the target, leaving only destruction in her wake. Tim was using his bloodline to boost the explosiveness of her attacks while Jovi was increasing her speed. Patrick kept causing ripples, to distract the rocks, while the rest either intercepted attacks aimed towards Ness or protected their circle.
The tides changed like a flip of a switch, and the number of rocks finally started decreasing instead of increasing. In just a few seconds, when she managed to destroy 5 of the rocks, even the rocks changed their strategies. Instead of endlessly barraging the circle with stone spears, the rocks rolled towards one another.
The rocks attached themselves to one another with practiced precision, and in a moment, they went from being numerous individual sentient rocks to one massive, humanoid monster made of many small rocks. Ironically, though, the shift made it even easier for them to destroy the newly formed rock monster.
The only reason they were disadvantaged to begin with was the overwhelming numbers, attacking them from different angles. With that advantage lost, it did not matter at all that the rock monster was stronger in this form. After all, their group was not lacking in strength.
"Investigate the rocks, see if there is anything of value. If not, we'll move from here before taking a rest once we put some distance between this place and us," said Cwinheld.
Since Patrick was best at investigation, he scanned the rocks and discovered these rocks were not normal. They could serve as valuable crafting or forging material, but unfortunately that was as far as their speciality went. The rocks were too heavy to take along, and after they grabbed a small memento of the fight, the group sprinted away, this time more vigilant.
As it turned out, the prudence was well founded, for only a few minutes after they left, many strange creatures had been attracted by the sound of fighting. Finding nothing other than the corpses of the rock monsters, the creatures dispersed. Some who were interested in the corpses fought with one another. Yet none of that had anything to do with Lex's group.
They ran all the way to the entrance of a forest and, after scouting for a bit, found a secluded area to rest in. They weren't tired enough to warrant rest, but if the three injured members of the group weren't adequately healed, they would not be able to keep up with the group.
All in all, they had performed well, considering this was their first actual encounter as a group, but the three who were injured couldn't help but feel embarrassed. After all that training, they had been the first to falter.
Of course, there were two other people who were feeling something else entirely. Bearin and Nick, the two who had been targeting Lex, stared at him with disgust. In their opinion, Lex was entire incompetent, and had proved as much by the fact that he hadn't warned them about the attack. One could argue that detecting enemies wasn't what Lex was brought onboard for in the first place, so a misstep in this regard mattered little. After all, every warning he gave them benefited them greatly, and was a bonus on the fact he was supposed to advise them on survival. It was just that, he had been so good and so consistent with it that this little matter had slipped their minds.
Once the three were finally healed, or rather healed enough, the group continued their journey. As they were running in a forest now, they encountered more beasts, but fortunately Lex was able to warn them with ample time, allowing them to overcome the ordeal smoothly.
A few hours later, they finally reached the first ruin, and the moment they laid eyes on the ancient structure, everyone other than Lex gasped in excitement. A moment later though, lex caught on as well.
These were no ordinary buildings - their design, their material, even the size of them, they all signified who the inhabitants of these buildings had once been. The Crystal race!