NOVEL NEXT 575
[17]
With great urgency and pressure upon her shoulders, Bethel cycled through her skills like a mad woman, hoping to overpower her targets like any other target. However, reality was harsh, and her opponents weren't simple minded fools akin to beasts and goblins, they kept a close eye on the mana coursing from her heart, timing their retreats every time the [Blazing] flourished into her weapon and fired off her skills.
[16]
Taking another hit to her back, tenderizing her rear-delt into a numbing sensation, she continued to rage and rage like a feral tigress, launching her attacks without rest as the three continued to annoyingly dance around her. The experience reminded her of both the duke and Robin, the two who were capable of easily remaining out of her reach, to dance upon the precipice and taunt her in doing so.
Having spent enough time dancing upon their palms, realizing that they were entirely content with stalling and delaying her, she mentally wrote down an apology to Clam before deliberately enduring blows onto her shoulder, catching the cultist off-guard prior to catching and rooting the man's ankle with [Rooting Axe]
Before they could even react to her willingness to throw her body into harm's way, a second axe appeared from the left which instantly destroyed the man's Adam's apple. With this, the pressure upon her shoulders finally lessened somewhat as she shifted her axis and pounced towards her next target.
Frightened by her ability to shoulder blows and cuts that would wreck anyone else, even those clad in steel plated armour, the remaining two began to simply keep their distance and utilize their blood weapons to keep the hyena at bay.
[15]
On Clam's front, the man was surprisingly doing well, apart from occasionally experiencing and enduring phantom pain. Due to [Offensive Bastion] he had been successfully blocking and returning 25% of their attack power back to the cultists, which only left them confused and numbed from also experiencing phantom pain. It was only after a few minutes of exchanging blows before they finally managed to figure out the trick behind it, thus also shifting their fight into one that was more attuned to delaying and stalling.
Having no chance at catching the more agile fighters, Clam repeatedly attempted attacks towards their companions who were occupied with others, resulting in a messy battle that soon caused many to falter and slip.
[14]
Without professional training and guidance in battle tactics and military drills, the cultists soon found their solo/rogue style of combat inefficient as they kept bumping into each other due to their lack of environmental awareness. Which was only amplified due to the ferocity of the humans amped up by [Courageous Aura]
Usually, when humans were met with a strange group dressed in red cloaks, equipped with horrific looking blood weapons and surrounded by undead, they would typically be filled with fear and fright, which resulted in slower processing power and the unwillingness to engage and commit. And yet, the small group of 4 before them kept advancing, endeavouring to behead them as if they were no better than goblins, all albeit Gary.
[13]
Finally feeling the battle flow, adjusted his speed and tempo accordingly, Oliver wrestled over control of their exchanges, the constant in and out dipping to his advantage as he ramped up [Order Swing] by deliberately destroying every little barrier they propped up to delay him. Resulting in his sword beaming with mana that thirsted for real prey, for blood. With his weapon literally urging him on, dragging him forward with momentum and weight, his strikes, cuts and swings caused his feet to slide inches forward like a Rottweiler would when dragging its owner forward via the leash.
Ruining the distance they had gotten used to, finding his sword seemingly somehow longer and reaching further, the cultists began to accumulate wounds as they were highly inexperienced in fighting upon their back foot. One, even dropped his weapons to turn and run, only to break his nose upon crashing into the barrier fuelled by the two divine-beings above. For everyone within the large arena, it truly was victory or death.
[12]
Gary punched, kneed, elbowed and clawed into the cultist's torso and face, anything that wasn't protected as the two were now entangled and rolling through the dirt in a wrestle. With his sword thrown aside due to its inefficiency in such close quarters, he did his utmost to prevent the katars from reaching his face, to the point that he was basically hugging and trying to choke out the man. After a few minutes of scuffling across the ground within their own little bubble, he managed to acquire the man's rear side, making it increasingly hard for the long-claws to reach him with enough strength and power to even matter.
With his heart pounding away, his ears ringing from the trauma, and even covering both fighters with his nosebleed, Gary continued to strangle the leaner man even after he was long dead. A certain fear had covered his mind, an awareness that he was nothing special when compared to his companions, nothing unique when compared to these cultists who could summon undead, cast barriers and create weapons out of blood, a fear of dying and being remembered through history as the man who was merely there.
[11]
With their numbers lessening, reducing the amount of pressure and ability to kite them, Bethel's [Rooting Axe] began to hit their marks as their inadequacy to fight cohesively began to show glimpses of fractures. To hammer in the final nail upon their coffins, Chloe had found windows to assist her allies, firing homing arrows that curved around her friends, utilizing them as blind spots before puncturing their legs and removing their mobility. With their defeat solidifying by the seconds, betrayal quickly overcame their group as knives and blades tore through their backs, ending their beating hearts.
"What the shit!?" "Have they gone crazy!?" Clam took the short window presented to him to regather himself, inhaling deep breaths of air whilst positioning himself besides Bethel and ensuring the woman was alright. After all, he wasn't certain whether [Defending Nature] would even work anymore if she were to lose her head.
Oliver also took the chance to boot the corpse off Gary, and helping the man off the ground as he was the most injured out of the party, having no mana to empower his body.
Sacrificing his own brethren, only two cultists remained standing as one prioritized solely on maintaining the barrier upon the heart, something enforced by the occasional arrows that tested its defence. The lone standing fighter bellowed a wicked laugh prior to thrusting his sword through his own abdomen, which resulted in him drowning out his voice as his face fell into the dirt.
[10]
Catching Oliver's arm, preventing him from advancing further, Bethel threw the empty potion vial away as the massive blood cot began to swirl and transform. Rising and coursing into a faceless humanoid that sported two large horns and dastardly wicked claws.
A volley of arrows flew overhead, the head, neck, heart, stomach and limbs all received an arrow each.
"Stop standing around watching and kill it!" Chloe's loud voice broke the four out of their surprise as they launched themselves forward, slicing, cutting, stabbing and destroying the humanoid that had yet to settle and solidify, they exerted their utmost as the limbs kept regenerating, kept reconnecting, and kept growing through every wound.
[9]
Unbeknownst to the four, only Bethel's attacks dealt any damage to the creature, as
[Against all Odds]
All successful attacks deal bonus 2% of target maximum HP as true damage.
was their only source of true damage, disregarding Clam's [Offensive Bastion]
[8]
After a gruelling minute of nonstop attacking, the blood cot finally broke like a water bubble, erupting and dispensing its warm crimson liquid all over the humans. Having had some enter through his mouth, Gary collapsed and began to shiver and shake, the toxins entering his system as if to drag him along towards death's embrace.
Eyes on the prize, Bethel easily beheaded the last cultist before weapon swapping to her largest great sword. With [Blazing] erupting and covering its large frame in fire that evaporated even the moisture within the air, she finally had the chance to dig deep and commit her mana into full throttle, sending wave after wave into the artificial heart, destroying it from the inside out as the blood within cooked.
He wasn't sure if it would help, but Oliver quickly dug his sword in, funnelling [Divinity] to its utmost as his heart began to bottom out due to his mana emptying out.
The demon inside the heart uncurled its body, awaking from its slumber to find its body too weak to house his soul, it locked eyes with Bethel as his equally red eyes scrutinized the woman who declined him entry into the world. Sending goose bumps into her, a gift of nightmares filled with sleep paralysis, it gave up on entering through this gateway as its vessel crumbled into ashes.
"[Hero] You have my word, I'll remember your face..."
-
[Success!]
[Reward:]
[Immunity]
-
With their summoners, mages, fighters and catalyst dead, the remaining ghouls broke and collapsed as their flesh no longer kept their bones together, crumbling before fading into ashes.
Chloe performed a light smack on Bethel's head as she was honestly quite annoyed with her performance.
"If a dungeon boss starts to transform and absorb strength from its surrounding, do you stand there fiddling your thumbs around your arses watching it do so!?"
Bethel's joy was short lived, as she began to question herself, realizing that whilst this world was a game to her, to the inhabitants, it was life or death.
"If you see a ballistae in front of you, are you going to stand around and let your enemy reload!? Be better!"
..
Violet ignored the lot and made her way to Clam and Gary, the two who were covered in injuries, prioritizing Gary as he was unconsciously twitching and spasming.
[Sacrificial Rite] !
Consuming her own summons, the mana transmuted from negative to positive elements before entering the man's blood stream. With Clam actively enduring the pain of poison eating him from the inside out with [Defending Nature] Gary would survive to see another day.
..
Oliver shifted his gaze away from the fields, from the hundreds of human corpses that no lay motionless, and towards Einhoren's ruined walls where echoes of fighting could be heard flowing across the winds.
[Chloe Bedevere: Lvl 90]
[Violet: Lvl 86->87]
[Bethel Everett: Lvl 85->87]
[Clam: Lvl 80->83]
[Oliver: Lvl 83->84]
[Gary: Lvl 75]