The enemy had incredible toughness that stumped Oscar. He gazed at the rusted knight that moved as though it did not feel any pain from his heavy blow. The other two rusted swung their swords, precise and filled with power.

Oscar looked astounded by the sheer weight behind each blow he deflected and countered. But his Adamasreis approached its limits, prompting Oscar to retreat and dodge each sword rather than meet it head-on. His Prinstyct quickly darted from one rusted knight to the other to gauge each of their movements, allowing him to dodge while suffering only a few scratches, nothing too serious thanks to his defense elixir.

However, these knights had an unreal sturdiness. Oscar thrust his 'Silver Lance' to impale one of them, but his lance only pierced slightly into the armor. Unable to move his lance out, Oscar canceled the spell and leaped backward before their swords could cut him.

"Are these things illusions?" Oscar activated Eliren Breaker but found nothing out of the ordinary. Next, he glanced at his friends briefly to see how they fared against these strange knights.

Austin's hands could not be seen as he swung his daggers like the wind, laying several shallow cuts on the rusted knight's armor; then, a slight sizzle came from each cut, corroding at a snail's pace. Austin had beads of sweat flowing down his indifferent face with ragged breathing. His strategy was simple, melt down enough places in the armor to make it collapse and kill the body inside.

To the side, Erik fared worse due to exhaustion, but his flames burned as they constantly swirled around the rusted knight to melt it down. His small plump face had a wild expression with bloodshot eyes as his gauntlets punched out with the layer of magma to hasten his efforts.

Oscar frowned as more slashes came his way, forcing him to keep moving. Feeling himself slipping away, he quickly calmed down to understand these rusted knights properly. These few exchanges showed that the rusted knights had heavy blows, ranged slashes of light, and unnatural toughness, but they lacked speed.

Without a great amount of speed, their actions were easily understood and countered with his Prinstyct; the issue was their coordination. The three rusted knights moved as one unit to entrap Oscar at every turn, and their swords deliberately swung toward key spots to force him certain ways.

'Silver Star'

Oscar shot a fast silver star toward the head of one of the rusted knights, not piercing through but still forcing it back.

'Adamasreis'

'Flowing Mountain'

Oscar redirected the Reis from two of their swords and swung hard on the legs of one, tripping them to the ground. Then, he faced the last one with a stone-cold face. His muscles trembled, and the Ein surged around his body.

The Ein transformed into two silver shoes, and metal poles extended out his heels, creating sparks against the ancient stone floor. Oscar bolted ahead with the sound of his metal heels kicking off the ground like a cork being popped out.

'Grade Two Silver Burst'

This movement spell used the force of the silver poles popping out from the heels to accelerate Oscar and then detracting for ease of motion. Oscar furthered his spell by taking in the sudden flow of Reis that went up from the impact of the silver pole on the ground and willed the Reis to explode from his toes to create a second acceleration to add to his already-boosted speed.

'Silver Lance'

'Shattering Wave'

Appearing like a blur thanks to his speed, Oscar penetrated deeper into the rusted knight with his silver lance and put all of the Reis he could into his 'Shattering Wave' to destroy its armor. The armor of the rusted knight impaled by Oscar began to crack and burst into pieces, revealing a crystalline set of white bones with a pulsing blue core in the rib cage that shattered into pieces.

Oscar reached his hand inside and pulled out the blue core, causing the rusted knight to fall to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut suddenly, and the white crystal bones turned to dust. Even Oscar did not know what kind of creature these rusted knights were; they were not recorded in any records he had read about Exalt Beasts and previous expeditions into Ashen Grove.

"Can think about it later." Oscar fell back with 'Silver Burst' kicking him backward. Two heavy swings hit nothing but the air in front of him from the other two rusted knights; their armor rattled around as they trembled. Oscar frowned and put away the blue core into his space pocket. "Do you feel anger or some semblance of emotion? What sort of strange things are you?"

With no response from the rusted knights, Oscar rushed in and unleashed his entire arsenal, using 'Silver Burst' to move in all directions with the added Reis from his toes, stabbing his 'Silver Lance' with 'Shattering Wave', and shooting out 'Silver Stars'.

Even with 'Ein Awaken' to help lessen the loss of his Ein, Oscar became incredibly drained. His obsidian eyes looked dull from exhaustion, and his face was dirty with the hair disheveled. A raspy breath escaped his pale lips.

In front of Oscar's tired body, the three rusted knights were slammed on the floor or walls, each with their armor in tatters and white bone dust spilling out. Off to his side, Austin and Erik were panting heavily with strange metal masses that were once their foes.

"These things are tough." Erik groaned while staring at Oscar in shock. "How the hell did you handle three of them?"

"We're not suited for it." Austin bandaged a wound on his arm instead of using a precious heal elixir. "I'm a stealthy fighter, and you're not there yet in terms of power."

Oscar plopped to his rear and exhaled. "They're too tough. I'll need to collect their armor and analyze them later." The extreme hardness of those armors made him wonder how they would work for his own needs. But he frowned, recalling how fragile those white crystal bones were.

After a short period of rest, Oscar and the others recovered to normal. Oscar gathered all the pieces and fragments of armor from his fallen foes and stored them in his space pocket, along with the scorched, melted metal from Erik's enemy. He didn't touch Austin's because of the acid covering it.

"Oscar, if we run into another such group, we should force them into a chokehold and pick them off one by one," Austin recalled how they combined their spells to kill off the strange mound creature from earlier.

"Sounds reasonable. Kill one, then back off and create another chance to kill another." Oscar nodded. He went over to the front of the group. "I'm the vanguard."

"I'll stay between the two of you and provide support with my fire." Erik hurried over to the center. One of the reasons was that he was the weakest in their group, so he could not reliably handle the front or back. Erik clenched his fist, vowing to fight harder.

With their formation settled, Oscar led the charge into the ancient basement, but their faces turned to frowns as they saw nothing but prisons and empty storehouses. However, when Oscar opened the door, his face turned to one of shock; inside were six more rusted knights. The rusted knights faced Oscar, and their bodies creaked from not having moved in a long time.

"One at a time!" Oscar shouted and fell back with Austin and Erik. His deer anima manifested itself, and they got it on its large back. The moment one of the rusted knights ran out of the room, Oscar had his deer anima kick off the ground.

'Silver Lance' 'Shattering Wave'

'Dark Rend'

'Fists of Fury' 'Flame Spear'

With their spells working in tandem, they instantly overwhelmed and destroyed the armor of two rusted knights, but the knights still moved because their cores remained inside.

"Austin!" Oscar signaled.

'Dark Tendril'

Austin manifested two thin tendrils that whipped through the air and wrapped around the cores. With a forceful tug before the rusted knights could slice his tendrils, Austin pulled the blue cores into his hands. Before his flat smile, the rusted knights crashed to the floor. "We're fine."

Oscar smiled and had his deer anima keep moving as the other four rusted knights chased them, unleashing slashes of light that his deer anima zigzagged to dodge. With a mental image of the basement parts they scouted in his mind, Oscar turned toward another promising location, one of the prisons. His deer anima burst through one of the doors and readied itself by the side.

Another set of rusted knights foolishly entered his trap.

Oscar and the others unleashed their spells again, destroying another two before bolting through another door to circle back to where they discovered the rusted knights.

"There are only two left. I'll take them to the wide hallway from before. You two take one. I'll take on the other." Oscar got off his deer anima.

Soon, the other two rusted knights came toward them, and they entered a fierce melee. In short moments, Oscar dispatched his foe with all of his might, as did Austin and Erik. They traced back their steps to collect all the armor, which Oscar gladly took, and returned to the room.

The room did not appear strange. However, Oscar's eyes gleamed at the large cellar door in the corner.

"Where do you think this leads?" Oscar pointed at the door.

"Let's see." Austin opened it without hesitation, but the trio's eyes widened as they stared down another flight of stairs, but these stairs were not made of stone but of a mellow green material.

Oscar jumped down onto the emerald steps and beheld a strange sight, one that reminded him of the Spire of Ascension. A large gate with the engravings of a large emerald serpent with antlers, five claws, whiskers, and a large mouth full of sharp teeth. He had read about these creatures before; it was said that dragons had numerous forms, but the most prominent ones were similar to Celestina's dragon and the magnificent carving in front of him.

The gate represented this beautiful dragon wrapping itself around a large tree. Its emerald eyes gleamed because of the jewels that represented it.

Austin and Erik also came down and gazed at the dragon; even Austin seemed to be taken aback.

Then, suddenly, the gate shook. Light spilled over in a thin line down the middle of the gate, getting brighter and larger with every passing moment.

"Remain cautious!" Oscar quickly regained his senses and held his bulwark close. The other two also remained followed.

The gates flung open, and the bright light engulfed them. Oscar tried to squint to see through it, but the light was too much. "What is going on!"

His shouts did not reach outside the cellar door, muffled by the light. Before the light could escape out the cellar door, it closed itself shut through some unknown force, leaving Oscar and the others to their fates.