Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 77 - Corrupted Fossil

"It’s her! I’m telling you, it’s her!" Mickey spoke frantically. "If not her, then who!?"

He gestured his flippers around wildly as he continued. "She’s literally called Darkwitch Mika! Sure, names aren’t evidence, but look at this!"

He opened a drawer and proceeded to show them more evidence. Water samples had shown increasing corruption closer to her island. There were testimonies from fishermen who’d seen strange lights from her direction. Most damning of all, reports of missing wildlife that were last seen heading toward her territory.

"But I can’t get close enough to prove anything for certain." Mickey said, frustration clear in his voice. "The corruption is too thick, and these... things keep appearing. So many things."

"Things?" Zara popped up.

"Yes, things!" Mickey answered animatedly. "She does things! Strange creatures get created, these are monsters! Monsters I tell you! Monsters created out of what should never be a monster. One time, even ash from burnt wood gathered up into a beast!"

After a moments silence, he added. "I wish we would take action against her already."

"I can understand the feeling." Valeria responded to the agitated penguin. "Many criminals rely on that uncertainty to continue their crimes without punishment."

That lit up Mickey’s eyes. "Exactly!" Then he fell back into a tired sigh. "Not much I can do about it now..."

After a moment, Mickey continued. "To begin with, even without additional information, Mika is suspect based on population distribution alone."

While that drew eyes, he continued animatedly. "The strong make a very low percent of the population. And only a fifth of anyone strong knows magic. So the perpetrator has to be a powerful mage, right? We don’t see those every day. But even then, not every mage knows such arts. Yet, she must, given by her title of Darkwitch."

"That is indeed true." Lumi had to note. It wasn’t as if Mickey was accusing her for no reason. Every sign really did point to her. "And you’ve been trying to find conclusive evidence since."

Mickey sighed. "Indeed." He flapped his flipper vaguely towards the sea. "No one knows how strong she is. We’d need to show up with a full, powerful, ready combat force. If she’s innocent... well, I’d be willing to take that risk. It isn’t as if we are impaling her on the spot. Isn’t the risk of scaring an old woman worth potentially stopping this? I don’t understand Johno."

He opened up a drawer, a clearly aged, yet shining trident within. He took it in his flipper, then held it close to his chest. "I retired from fighting over a decade ago. Yet I’ve had to do so multiple times recently because of these threats."

A deep rumbling suddenly shook the ground. Mickey’s eyes widened. "Just like I thought! Again!"

Right on cue, as monsters were being complained about, a roar echoed from outside. Through the window, Lumi could see shapes emerging from the ground. Skeletal creatures made of corrupted ice and stone, with burning eyes of sickly green.

[Corrupted Fossil - Level 33]

"I knew it!" Mickey wailed. "With you arriving, of course they’d send another force! They’ve been attacking more frequently! Necromancy, it must be! Who else but a dark witch would raise the dead? Can’t leave well enough alone, can she!?"

The team rushed outside to engage the creatures. These enemies were unlike anything they’d typically encountered. These were ancient fossils given unholy life through necromancy. They stood at various heights and widths, their bodies a horrifying fusion of prehistoric bones, corrupted ice, and stone. Where living creatures had muscle and sinew, these abominations had ice formations holding their skeletal structures together, with chunks of rock serving as armor plating.

"Fossilized remains!" Marcus observed, fire already dancing around his hands. "Someone dug these up from deep ice and animated them."

Zara retorted. "That, or they dug themselves up."

"Less analyzing, more fighting!" Jin called out, lightning crackling from his hands, ready to engage the enemy.

Lumi quickly assessed the situation. About fifty of the creatures were advancing on the station in a rough semicircle, their movements slow but purposeful.

He took a look back at Mickey behind him.

[Mickey: Level - 38]

He gave him a small wave. "We’ll handle it."

"Thank you!" Mickey gratefully responded.

The bones looked ancient. Whale ribs, seal skulls, even mammoth tusks, all bound together with corrupted ice and stone.

"Remember what we discussed." Lumi called to the Knights. "Let me get a hit on each one before you finish them."

"Still don’t understand why that matters," Jin laughed, "but sure! We’ll all do that!"

Several corrupted fossils advanced, each one shaking the land with every step.

Lumi smirked. If the monsters thought this was a feast, he would teach them this would be anything but.

He raised his wand, firing countless streams of light. He fired them at rapid speed, each one angled and curved in just the right way.

"RORARR!"

"GRREUHHH!"

They let out loud noises of anger as they quickly found themselves all changing target to the mage who had just sent light piercing through them all.

The monster in front leapt into the air, lunging towards Lumi.

Lumi shook his head. "Their experiment was a clear failure. Their creations lack intelligence."

He didn’t even move. Right as the monster was about to land to squish him into the ground, Valeria calmly stepped into the way.

She held up her hand.

Carried by momentum, the monster struck her palm, and it was halted on the spot. Valeria squeezed her hand, and her fingers broke into the fossilized stone that made up the main body of the creature, holding the entire monster in the air.

"...?" The primitive intelligence of the Corrupted Fossil could not understand its predicament. It raised an arm to smash down onto Valeria, striking her head. She didn’t even flinch. She tightened the grip, and the monster entirely snapped in half as she severed it with merely her hand.

She looked over at Lumi behind her. "What kind of dramatic performance was that, just standing there?"

Lumi gave a grin, but responded academically. "Just testing if it would recognize the greater threat. It didn’t."

His gaze shifted to the left of Valeria, and with a raise of his wand, kept firing more magic. He was a never-ending cannon of magic, spells twirling through the monsters.

It got to the point that some monsters, despite being untouched by the others...

[EXP +72]

Were being defeated by him alone.