In The Academy As Sukuna

Ch 15 - Dungeon (Part 6) - Battle Beneath the Throne

"In battle, it is not the strongest who survive, but those who adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of the fight"

(POV: Ryomen Sukuna)

(Earlier, in the Throne Room...)

There was a deadly tension in the air as I faced the skeleton king, looking right into each other's eyes, but none of us was making a move.

Faint sounds of metal clashing and falling of bodies came from the other side of the room, indicating that a huge battle was underway, but neither of us two was paying any mind to it.

I remembered feeling a surge in the king's mana every time I killed a summoned mage. It could regain mana used for summoning when the undead died.

Limitations likely existed, like a smaller amount of mana received compared to the cost of summoning, and a distance restriction.

Every time the boss needs to heal or regain mana, it orders a summoned undead to kill itself, or for other undead to kill it, regaining a little mana.

There are not many places where a large amount of undead creatures could be hidden, the most probable one is...

...right under the throne room

Or my whole deduction is wrong and I'll die.

This whole situation reminds me of my friend who found a bug in a game.

When a necromancer class unsummoned their summon at the same time when it is killed, they get their mana back completely.

It was a broken bug that existed for 2 days before being patched, but we wreaked a lot of havoc in that time.

.

.

.

As I was falling down into the pit, I looked around to check if everyone was safe.

All four of my teammates were getting ready to land, reinforcing their legs with mana to break their fall.

I did the same, but with Cursed Energy. I landed on my feet, the ground cracking beneath me as I arrived.

The room was huge, even bigger than the throne room, but came not even close to the grandeur the latter had.

It was like a cave, moss hanging from its walls. It was filled with sounds of clacking bones as tens of thousands of summoned skeletons moved around.

I saw my four teammates immediately starting the kill these creatures.

Anny's attacks were the most effective, as she had the best area-of-effect spells.

Mana started to converge around her as she prepared a huge fire spell.

Johan shouted, "Anny, how long for that spell?" Anny, sweating and focusing, replied, "Ten seconds! Keep them off me!"

An extremely bright light, followed by loud crackling sounds was seen. A huge ball of fire formed in front of her extended hands as she struggled to keep it under control.

The smell of ozone assaulted my nose, as Anny released the spell, no longer able to keep it under control.

The amount of mana that spell took was no joke, but because of that, its effectiveness was unrivaled.

The spell exploded right in the middle of the horde of skeletons, killing more than a thousand singlehandedly.

Bones flew everywhere throughout the room, which caused even more skeletons to be caught in the crossfire.