Chapter 40: Ghoul

On the empty ground at the edge of the Two-Fingered Mountain.

Several fresh, dirt-filled giant holes on the ground, still retaining unstable spiritual energy and magic.

Broken swords and corpses.

Overturned flags and a foul stench reaching the sky.

Dimia closed her eyes tightly, focusing her mind, as the magic released from her hands spread throughout the entire magical prison.

She attempted to deconstruct this spell through her magic.

But this was never a simple matter.

The witch's face was very pale, and even the gold of her hair had dimmed somewhat.

There was a bloody hole in her abdomen.

Although witches do not die from internal organ damage, this still inflicted real, substantial harm upon her.

In the first wave of attacks, she had held the upper hand against the werewolf.

As a witch, she learned spells much faster, and she possessed considerable mastery over control spells that counter melee warriors.

At first, she even thought this would be another quick and perfect victory.

Unexpectedly, a sixth-rank mage of Shadow Arts and an even stronger sixth-rank orc suddenly appeared.

Caught off guard, Dimia was immediately severely wounded.

And she was quickly trapped by the enemy mage using a Shadow Prison.

Those soldiers who lost her spell support soon collapsed under the assault of the enemy's sixth-rank orc.

What made Dimia feel strange was this:

They showed no intention of pursuing the fleeing soldiers.

Whenever they gained even a slight advantage, commanders would lead their troops in a desperate pursuit; this was almost the hallmark of the Ruin Brotherhood in days past.

A year ago, Dimia had learned the tactic of deliberately showing weakness to lure them into a prepared ambush position.

This trick worked against the Ruin Brotherhood every single time.

Now, the Ruin Brotherhood's strength far exceeded the usual.

Even more unusually, they lacked their former recklessness.

"Hey, mage, is she trying to break your spell?"

The werewolf Cassidy asked.

The Shadow Mage glanced indifferently, then could not help but exclaim:

"Truly worthy of a witch; her understanding of magic is so profound."

"So, does that mean she is about to break free?"

Cassidy felt somewhat nervous.

Capturing this witch had taken quite some time.

Moreover, her spells were immensely powerful and difficult to deal with; though she was only at the early stage of the sixth rank, she had nearly blasted them into mush.

Amy suddenly hacked at the rocks on the hillside, her battle spirit soaring.

"Let her out, Amy will beat her up!"

She indicated she had not fought enough yet.

The Shadow Mage and Cassidy glanced at the orc, then simultaneously decided to ignore her.

"Rest assured, Young Lady Werewolf, my spell is not so easily broken."

He stepped back into the shadow beneath the tree.

A seasoned Shadow mage should be within shadows at all times.

Cassidy looked at him with disdain.

"You know, mage, getting some sun isn't a bad thing; look at your face, it's as white as a vampire dead for three years."

"Don't vampires turn to ash when they die?"

The Shadow Mage was stunned for a moment, not understanding.

Cassidy rolled her eyes widely.

"That's a popular meme on the Snow Hill Evening Post lately, you idiot," Amy mocked.

"See, even the orc knows it."

The Shadow Mage averted his gaze, awkwardly chuckling twice: "I don't like reading newspapers."

Then, he suddenly became serious.

He looked toward the mountain path in the distance.

"There is some movement there."

Cassidy looked in that direction; a ripple of spiritual energy cut through the air, growing fainter and fainter.

The strongest witch of the current stage is already trapped.

Shi Ying Town has no figures left who can threaten them.

Yet, for some reason, the 【Beast Heart】 possessed by the werewolf remained tightly tense.

"That is the area Pan Ni is responsible for," she said.

"Who is Pan Ni? Is she powerful? Amy wants to fight her," said the orc Amy.

"Oh! She is a ghoul mage; you won't like her, Amy," the Shadow Mage advised.

Cassidy hesitated for a moment, then said:

"I must go take a look."

"Don't go; you need to help transport this witch!"

"Isn't there a beastman here?"

"She's hardly the working type—a girl whose head is all muscle!"

"That's right, Amy's brain is muscle too." The female beastman nodded in agreement—for beastmen, muscle was the highest praise.

Just as they were about to reach the central battlefield.

Rod sensed a prickling sensation from the spiritual breeze.

He was instantly on guard and darted forward.

The very next instant, at his original position, a human figure burst from the earth.

Right after, the soil on the ground bulged into mounds one after another, crawling forward from not far away.

He drew the 【Sacrifice Body Sword】 and cleaved an oncoming 【Corrosion Orb】 clean in two.

Who goes there?

The stench of rot in the air had already given it away.

Ghouls.

Not far away, a slender woman in a white robe, holding a lantern, drifted down lightly.

The hood on her head was caked with mud, and her dry, filthy black hair hung forward like a waterfall, completely covering her face.

A tattered belt, stripped of its gems, cinched her slender waist, accentuating the swell of her chest.

Unfortunately, the rot on her exposed arms and feet proved that this was a hideous female ghoul.

"A ghoul with intelligence—rare indeed."

The fact that the other party could cast spells was enough to prove she possessed intelligence.

Rod pressed forward, not yet in reach.

Four raggedly dressed male ghouls burst from the earth and swarmed to attack.

"Only fourth-tier."

Rod stacked all his buffs in an instant.

At this point they were some distance from the woods, so 【Tree Armor Art】 offered no special bonus.

Sssst!

A slash of the sword.

Three ghouls had their heads cleaved open simultaneously.

The fourth was a touch slower, and so happened to dodge that strike.

Right after, ghouls crawled out of the ground in an endless stream.

These ghouls weren't high-tier—the strongest was only early fifth-tier—but they made up for it in numbers.

They surged forward all at once, surrounding Rod among them.

This tactic might work against ordinary human warriors.

Their stamina was finite after all; being swarmed by ghouls carrying corpse-rot poison, even a sixth-tier warrior would drop again.

But unfortunately.

The inexhaustible recovery of 【Tree's Blessing】 and the extraordinary stamina brought by 【Second Heart】.

Made falling impossible.

The only pity was that Rod had no large-area spiritual offensive spell, so the killing was a bit slow.

During it he even considered attacking from inside the 【Chang En Fa Yin of Eternal Light】, to trigger a bigger blast.

Too bad it didn't work out.

Gradually, Pan Ni realized something was off.

Because the low-tier ghouls simply couldn't slow the opponent's advance.

As a ghoul mage who specialized in summoning-type spells, she finally realized the other party was no easy mark.

She clicked her tongue inwardly.

If not for her sole sixth-tier ghoul servant being blown to death in the earlier battle with the witch, she wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

In this situation, she was the one being countered.

Watching Rod leap and weave, the number of servants dwindling rapidly.

She stopped hesitating.

From behind her hair, her mouth uttered several awkward-sounding incantations.

The blue flame in the lantern in her hand flared with a whoosh, burning fiercely.

Then.

A batch of ghoul servants' eyes glowed red, gathered together, and piled into a small mound.

As the pitch of Pan Ni's incantation grew more impassioned.

Magic flowed across the surface of the ghoul servants' flesh and blood, gradually stitching their skins and meat together.

The lifeless flesh and blood began to writhe.

In no time, they combined into a ghoul over three meters tall.

Judging by its spiritual aura, it had already reached sixth-tier.

At the same time.

Rod suddenly noticed the corpses at his feet fusing together, gradually trapping his feet like a puddle of slime.

And the composite ghoul had already reached him, raising a giant hand toward him with a face on its palm.

A fierce gust from the palm struck him head-on.

"Die, human!"

(End of this chapter)