The hoard approaches.
Hikari could sense it.
She couldn't see through the mist anymore.
It had thickened as the raid went deeper towards the ruined city.
The gauntlet of Silora was suppressing the power she gained from the floating eyes.
She rests the gauntlet on her chest.
It minimizes the strain on her arm.
The ghouls approached.
She lets them close in.
They gnawed at her boot and tried to climb her.
But the aura emanating from the giantess's gauntlet saps their strength.
Hikari builds up mana in her gauntlet.
A short channel.
Pulse.
The ghoul's bodies harden.
They freeze up like statues.
The next wave of ghouls tries to climb over.
Their weight shatters the ghoul statues.
Pulse.
Pulse.
The ghoul's bodies disintegrate.
Their crystals chatter on the ground.
Thud. Thud.
The ghoul golems approaches.
Hordes of smaller ghouls follow.
Hikari held the gauntlet close to her chest and channeled.
Thud. Thud.
Another horde coming up from her right.
And another one from her left.
And behind.
Her mana builds up.
The ghouls approached in all directions, attempting to envelope her.
Hikari holds her ground.
The smaller ghouls gnawed at her boots.
A golem ghoul raises its fist and barrels down on her.
Hikari stands her ground.
Her mana builds up.
Skin of wyvern.
The golem ghoul's attack bounces off.
It was thrown back by the recoil.
More golem's smash into her.
The masses of flesh crowds around her.
A golem bares its fangs and tries to bite her leg.
Her mana builds up to full.
Release.
A powerful pulse of holy light.
The mist in a sphere cleared for a brief moment.
The golem cores chattering on the ground.
Thud. Thud.
She powers down.
It was not over.
More enemies approach.
Thud. Thud.
More massive than what she faced until this point.
Thud. Thud.
Their steps were loud as cannons firing in the distance.
Hikari could sense them.
A cannon crew can spot their large shadows from far away.
Hikari faces them.
Gauntlet on her chest.
On foot in front of the other.
Her wyvern sword behind her back.
Thud. Thud.
She channels the gauntlet.
Aura of the goddess Silora.
The air around her sword freezes.
Heart of wyvern frost.
Her mana builds up.
The golem emerges from the mist.
Thin blood red veins on their bodies visible to the keen eye.
It matches her size and mass.
Thud. Thud.
The slow, lumbering statue raises its fist and hurls itself towards Hikari.
Hikari leans back, falling backwards.
The golem's weight hit empty.
Thud!
It smashes its fist into the ground, creating a crater.
Its friends emerge from the mist.
All this time, she was building mana in her gauntlets.
Hikari charges towards them.
She steps onto the golem who was struggling to get off the ground after it whiffed its attack.
Her gauntlet glowing with power.
She lunged towards the golem following behind.
The slow moving golem was slow to even put up a guard.
Her fist smashed into the golem's chest.
It caved in.
A powerful pulse was released on impact.
The golem's elastic flesh instantly hardened and was shattered into pieces.
The golems around her were stunned.
Hikari turns to the golem flanking her on the left and raises her knee.
The sole of her boot smashed into its chest, shattering its brittle body.
She jumped up over the golem on the ground and stomped it into pieces.
Airborne, she tucked in her legs and dropped kicked the one flanking her on the right..
She lands.
The last golem ghoul was right in front of her.
She kicked it.
It staggered backwards.
Its flesh held together.
The effects of the holy aura had worn off.
The golem was regaining its mobility.
Hikari steps into its range.
The golem swings from the side.
Parry.
The frozen wyvern sword freezes its hand.
The golem loses its balance.
A kick from Hikari onto its knee.
It drops to its other knee.
Its fists smashing into the ground.
As it looks up, a shining ivory fist crashes down onto its head, shattering it.
Its flesh disintegrates.
Its core drops.
The core was larger than the smaller golems that populate the starting area.
It glows deeper.
She keeps her sword and holds up her hand.
The trick still works as she powers down her gauntlet.
The crystals around her chatter and float towards her.
She gathers them in a pile.
"Too bad I can't keep them."
It was quite the haul.
It would have filled up a third of her harvest sack.
Plus, the crystals from the big golems would have sold for more for its weight given its higher concentration.
Farming with the gauntlet's power was very efficient.
But she had to carry the satchel charges.
The processing plant had been closed down anyway.
The raid party had been given explicit instructions to destroy any crystals at this point.
The danger levels deeper into the mist was considered too high to allow distractions from harvesting crystals.
She raises the gauntlet over her head.
Her other hand channels the mist.
The crystal pile clusters together tighter, their rough edges crackled as they were packed against each other.
Her knees gave, bringing the weight of the gauntlet and her upper body down onto the pile of crystals.
All at once, the pile was smashed to pieces.
A sudden surged of mist energy was released.
"Mmm…"
Her gauntlet absorbed the power.
She senses the mana building.
She focuses.
In case it does something like blowing up into pieces or something.
But it doesn't.
It began slowly releasing that energy it absorbed into her.
It didn't feel like mist energy like that one she absorbed from the rune stone dropped from the floating eyes.
—- Gauntlet of Silora —-
[gained physique : 10]
[gained mana : 10]
[gained defense : 10]
She stops to check herself.
She feels fine.
It feels good actually.
The gauntlet has restored some of the mana she lost fighting the waves.
It's very faint, but she might have gotten just a little stronger.
Or she might have just imagined it.
It would have been a decent consolation since she couldn't bring the crystals back.
She picks up her satchel pack.
She pulses the earth.
No cracks, the ground around her is safe to walk on.
She looks into the distance.
A blurred outline of a city engulfed in shadowy black flames.
"Looks bad."
Luckily she's not the one storming it.
She takes a glance around for anything worth looting.
The crystal formations she found near the ghoul hive would be nice.
She really wants to see if the gauntlets were boosting her stats.
Perhaps another large pile would do it.
However, there were nothing but small ones that were comparable to the ones dropped from ghouls.
The larger formations only start spawning everywhere deeper into the mist.
"Time to go."
She shrugs.
Just as she takes a step, she spots a floating eye.
Out of a new habit she developed, she draws her throwing dagger and aims it.
She paused.
"Rey told me not to attack it."
She glances at her gauntlet resting by her side.
The mana it absorbed had gone.
It had returned to its dormant state.
She turns her eyes towards a tiny crystal by her boot.
It was so small that it would be a necklace for her lady.
She turns back to the floating eye.
Thin blood veins all over its body.
She could sense that its mana presence was stronger.
really don't touch the floating eyes.
I know you might have done that.
But at even one level higher than the starting area, the mist entities that summons becomes much stronger.
She remembers Rey's words.
She glances at her gauntlet again.
It was quite the weapon.
A rare occasion that she gets access to such high grade equipment since her Lady could scarcely afford it.
Her eyes locked onto the floating eye.
The air around her dagger freezes.
"I'd manage."
The cold steep lunges into the eye.
Its flesh hardens, causing it to plunge into the ground.
A deafening screech.
Movements.
Movements everywhere.
The gnarling of ghouls.
A flying monster dives her one of nowhere.
She draws her sword at the last moment and skewers it.
The flying monster smashes into the ground before disintegrating into the mist.
She looks up and senses more flying over her.
Thud. Thud. The sound of golems approaching.
"Beans."