Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Summoners.

It had to be.

Skullius recognized the foreign feel when the forty and some armored individuals set off their mana which towered over each of them like a visible twister tinged with bluish-white that threw around their surroundings hatefully.

Trees around them along with the innocent, stationary ground were dug into, and then a majority of the mana they released flooded to their feet and poured into their shadows which became distorted. Whether their shadows stretched backward, forward, left, or right, each curled and elongated, forming an ugly, colossal shape from which hints of light began to pour out.

Skullius frowned.

'Portals…' he thought.

Summoners, unlike Tamers, called forth abominations from unknown places after using the allure born out of how their class energy to attract these monsters and make contracts with them.

The unknowns behind where Summoners called forth their contracted beasts was why anyone bearing the Summoner class was to be killed in Pelian by order of the Royal Family – the Royan Family.

On the flip side, it seemed Emeradis embraced Summoners – all things Energy Former, really.

'Looks like they are getting ready to call some creatures… quite a lot of them,' he thought as he narrowed his eyes.

Skullius had encountered a Summoner back in the day (well, months ago). He had been a member of the Evenfall Cult, and his summons were peculiar. While he wasn't the one to fight the bastard, he had noticed him opening portals to release all kinds of freakish creatures and the feeling those portals gave, Skullius hadn't quite managed to forget it.

This was the same.

Right then, it happened.

From the glowing pores spotting the dark, colossal shapes behind the Summoners, speedy, dark shadows whizzed out with a loud, collective buzz.

Every heard turned at the hum. Even without the great visual range of Skullius, many managed to deduce the fact that an unimaginable number of creatures had appeared.

There was a lively sort of intensity in the great hum, and its tune was so full of life, greed, and menace that it caused the ground to vibrate, shifting stone and soil alike.

All across the continent, it was heard, and all over, it caused gripping despair to set into the hearts of those who heard.

What was it?

Where was it?

These questions were answered almost immediately.

The ground, already made dark by the canvas of the night, became a shade darker.

A massive clump of green and blue painted over the sky while swirling like sand, squirming like a horrid infection. It looked too great to be real, and instantly, the impossible numbers that made it were revealed.

Hundreds of millions of odd little creatures shaped similarly to seahorses with a chitinous shell of verdant green at the head and ocean blue at the tail could be seen, their long, but thin wings flapping impossibly fast while somehow managing to not crash into those of fellow abominations. At best, they seemed to be about the size of a palm, but that detail wasn't comforting in the least.

They had no limbs, but they did spot two long antennae that draped from the sides of their cylindrical, protruding mouth like thin beards.

It was hard to discern how strong one of these was, but that didn't matter. As a collective, they seemed to possess the power to destroy the entirety of Opungale with one, meaningful dive, which wasn't even accounting for what kind of abilities they had other than the physical power they could produce.

Skullius clicked his tongue.

Ashema by his side was looking up, watching the organized formation of these creatures become the sky to this continent.

"What in the world are those things?" he asked.

"Beats me. But I'm certain many people are about to die because of them…" Skullius said, and immediately, he felt a desperate push from nature, urging him to move quickly and save as many Sif as possible.

He sighed but maintained a stern visage.

That was going to be a hassle.

WHOOOOSH!

A deafening noise unlike the fall of a massive wave at sea came and the incredible gathering of the strange creatures fell… and dispersed into tens of thousands of smaller groups.

They were… impossibly fast.

Skullius felt several of the creatures land around him, but he didn't give them a chance to act.

He stole Ashema and vanished, appearing further away.

"How kind of you," Ashema remarked as they landed on top of a great hill.

"I still have a lot to learn fro—"

Skullius activated [I Am The World] again, evading a speedy clump of the creatures that had already set sights on him.

'They are pretty keen. How about this?' he thought, and another of his skills was activated through the Preeminent Attegoth.

[Absolute Zero].

Skullius' only, [Evil Darkness] blessed stealth skill was used. It hid the presence of him and whoever he touched. Ashema noticed that a peculiar effect was layered over him.

'Darkness? Again?' he thought.

He didn't recognize what kind of effect was imbedded in the vague darkness but he, along with Skullius who smirked, noticed that the blue and green creatures didn't come rushing towards them.

"It worked…" Skullius said.

"Your use of darkness. It is definitely reminiscent of what I've seen some of our less…gifted, kin do."

"Is that right? I'm going to need a demonstration," Skullius said much to Ashema's frown, but he didn't get to air his rebuttal because the Hybrid Luman skipped over space again and appeared within an Aurora that was further inland, far from the approach of the Maqians.

Using the vision granted by nature, he looked around.

He wanted to see what it was that these summoned creatures could do.

Honestly, if they were barely as much of a threat as the Maqians qualitatively, Skullius wouldn't be urged to urgency, after all, now of his current abilities could destroy the swarms of these creatures easily. Additionally, he hadn't gathered enough mana for such a grand feat, though he had some wild ideas.

What Skullius saw made him scowl.

No.

Urgency was needed for sure.

This… was ridiculous.

Even Ashema was perturbed as he looked down, watching with his single the tragedy that befell every single living thing on Opungale.