Doomsday Pillars

"Can you move your body, Aria?" 

"Yes, I can." Alex saw Aria struggling to stand up while trying to hide the painful expression on her face. It seems like she still needs more time to fully recover. He could sigh and grab her shoulders, motioning her to stop trying to stand up.

"You, stay here and finish your food. I will go and check the situation outside the barrier."

"But.." Aria said, trying to retort him.

"No but. You will only make things harder for me with your current condition.. Stay here."

Alex then quickly ran towards the entrance of the cave, trying to see what was going on. There, he saw the being that attacked the barrier, the inhabitants of the abyss\'s main chamber, the 3rd abyss creature that came after the critter and the hellhound.

[Gargoyles]

[Level 70 Abyss Creature]

[Tier 3 - middle stage]

A black colored stoned-skin humanoid creature with wings folded on its back and a face that resembled a lion could be seen smashing its fists into the barrier, trying to destroy the unknown obstacle in front of it. The creature seemed to be on the verge of going on a rampage, seen from the expression on its face that became ugly with its saliva dripping onto the ground while baring its sharp teeth.

Fortunately, only one gargoyle attacked the barrier. Alex let out a sigh of relief, then immediately decided to open the barrier and let the creature in before it attracted more of its kind into the cave. He dashed back to where the [Defensive Formation] artifact was placed, intending to deactivate it. Before he deactivated the barrier, Alex shouted to inform Aria of the situation. "Aria, there is a monster in front of the cave. I have to let it in, before he can attract the others. Stand back and be careful."

When the barrier was deactivated, the black creature immediately moved its legs and entered the cave. The gargoyle was one head taller than the height of an adult human with a body that wasn\'t bulky at all, on the contrary it was very lean. But, one mustn\'t underestimate its prowess based on its physique, its skin looks and as hard as a rock, coupled with the sharp claws on its muscular hand and legs. This creature is a nightmare to fight against.

Before the apocalypse occurred, statues of gargoyles carved by stone could be seen on top of archaic architectural buildings, serving to ward off evil and to divert rainwater. But, the history of the creature itself is documented as far as 13000 years ago by ancient Egypt and commonly seen in the ancient Greece temples. The creature was said to be a demon that guards the gate of hell.

Alex himself has many experiences fighting against this creature, it was considered to be his hardest enemy in his previous life. The gargoyles normally turn into stone during the day and go active during the night. When the night falls, it would take advantage of the night to hunt and destroy any human settlements. Even though most Sky realm fighters could match their strength and speed in combat, the main threat comes from its nearly indestructible body. It has a resistance against normal weapons, therefore this time, Alex didn\'t take out his tier 2 sword but instead, he used the tier 3 dagger given by Jerry to fight this monster.

He couldn\'t underestimate this creature at all, so he immediately used his fourth stage hexagram technique. He quickly dashed toward the monster with his maximum speed and slashed it, trying to end the fight as fast as he could. But unfortunately, the monster had reaction time and speed that was not inferior to Alex\'s. It managed to avoid most of the attack at the last moment which resulted only in a small cut.

The monster retreated while staring warily at him. Alex went back in pursuit and did another slash toward the monster. The gargoyle sidestepped the attack by moving its right leg to the back while smiling mockingly at Alex. He really felt the distinct power difference between the hellhounds and the gargoyles. Unfortunately, he doesn\'t have any skill in using knives.

Gargoyles attack with their claws. Alex also jumped back to avoid it. Currently Alex\'s gaze is fixed on the mouth of the cave. He had to finish this battle immediately before any other creature could follow him.

The gargoyles suddenly move forward with its claws wide open, ready to tear Alex\'s flesh apart. He instantly jumped back to avoid it while thinking how to kill this monster fast and furious. His gaze is currently fixed on the entrance of the cave, worried that another gargoyle will pop out of nowhere. He had to finish this battle immediately before any other of its kind could be attracted here.

He casted [Blind] spell toward the monster direction and then throw the knife at the gargoyle. Unexpectedly, the monster was able to avoid it while its loses its vision. But, Alex\'s attack didn\'t stop there, dozens of [Light Missile] could be seen flying in the air and hit the monster\'s body.

The monster blocked the attack with its both hands and the attacks barely left any scratches to it. It seemed that the light missiles were unable to injure it. Alex of course knows this. Suddenly, the gargoyle screamed in pain and fell to the floor.

Aria, who was surprised why the monster suddenly fell, realized how Alex had defeated the gargoyle. The tier 3 blade could be seen stuck behind the gargoyle head, heavily injuring the monster. He uses [Telekinesis] spell to bring the knife back to attack the monster from behind like a boomerang. Without any knife technique, he was forced to use this method. Telekinesis wasn\'t strong and accurate enough to use on a sword but it was enough for a knife.

The gargoyle seemed to be trying to get up but Alex immediately approached it and continued stabbing the monster a few more times. He then smiled at Aria. "These gargoyles can only be hurt by magical weapons or magic itself. They have the same strength as those early stage sky realm fighters and the most problematic thing is that there are thousands of them inside the abyss." he explained.

Aria was speechless when she heard that. 

"So basically, this is the mess we\'re in right now. So that\'s why we really need to seal this cave. Maybe by destroying the entrance until you are completely healed and we have a better strategy."

She nodded in agreement. Alex then quickly walked towards the entrance to destroy it when suddenly he noticed something that turned his face pale.

"Dammit!" He cursed in his heart.

\'Grrr…\' \'Grrr…\'

Alex took a few steps back as there are now four of those gargoyles entering the cave entrance. His mind quickly calculated his chances of winning against them. \'I can probably win against two of them at the same time. Maybe three, but definitely not four. And what if more of them enter the cave again? We\'ll be screwed by then.\'

Before the gargoyles could attack, Alex charged towards them, seizing the initiative to attack. His sudden charge made them move sideways to avoid him but he didn\'t chase any one of them. He continued charging toward the entrance and smashed himself to the small stone pillar that supported the cave entrance. His aim from the start was to destroy the entrance, preventing any chances of more gargoyles entering.

\'GRUMBLE\' \'GRUMBLE\'

Sounds of the pillar breaking could be heard as the pillar finally broke into pieces, blocking the cave mouth finally closed.

Alex used [Illuminate] and shouted at the gargoyles to get their attention.

"YO! You guys are the ugliest creature I ever see. Come, let me fix it for you!"

\'SCREEEEECH\'

Roars could be heard as the gargoyles jumped toward him together, wanting to kill this insignificant insect in front of them. Alex\'s mind was calculating hard, thinking how he can win against 4 Sky realm level monsters that can only be killed by a magic weapon.

[Hexagram Technique - stage four]

[Blind]

[Transparent] 

Alex quickly casted his spells, his invisibility skill was already able to be used after a day had passed and finally he took out his last hidden card. He reached out to his back and drew the wooden sword. He then charged toward the approaching gargoyles.

In the split second that the gargoyles lost their sight, Alex quickly swung the wooden sword at the two closest gargoyles. The two gargoyles were split easily like a butter. His skill was broken with this attack as his presence was quickly discovered by the other two gargoyles. The other two was shocked when they looked at how easy Alex killed their kind. He immediately tried to take advantage of their shocked condition and swing his sword horizontally toward them. They try to get away from him but only one manages to dodge because Alex managed to cut off the legs of one of them.

The fallen gargoyle is quickly killed by Alex\'s subsequent attack while the last gargoyle tries to counter attack but its moves are intercepted by [Ice Wall] cast by Aria. The next thing it noticed was the sight of its body falling to the ground, its head being separated from his body by Alex\'s slash.

Seeing that all the gargoyles was dead, Alex suddenly knelt on the ground exhausted. He had put all his energy into those few moves and now he was running low on the energy. He took a bet and it turned out to be right. The wooden sword must be a high-level magic sword. 

Just now, Alex used his spirit energy as he swung the sword and it really worked. He then looked at the wooden sword in his hand.

It was glowing, with one of the seven marks shining brightly.