Cardin The Third's face suddenly turned sinister. Wisps of dark energy started circling around him until he was completely covered in souls. His aura suddenly changed to that of an evil undead mage, and the flesh on his face looked like it would fall off at any moment. I could even see some white bones peeking through the crumbling flesh.
Cardin The Third raised his scepter vigorously and shouted angrily, “Are you still fighting for the weak, Xinran? You truly are the shame of the G.o.ds of h.e.l.l!"
Xinran's eyes turned chilly as she raised her own spear. “You dare to insult me, filth? Die, Cardilla!"
The next moment, Xinran pounced toward Cardin The Third, gathered a coat of b.l.o.o.d.y energy around her Dragonbone Spear, and thrust it toward her enemy!
“Hehe…"
But Cardin The Third chuckled sinisterly while waving his scepter. “Dark Tongue s.h.i.+eld!"
Swhoos.h.!.+
A s.h.i.+eld of pitch-black light appeared and blocked the attack completely. It looked like the energy of the spear was absorbed into the s.h.i.+eld.
Cardin The Third's laughter grew even more savage. “Hahaha, your seal isn't fully undone, is it? It looks like I, Cardilla, can finally perform a meaningful service for the h.e.l.l Legion! How much glory do you think killing a traitorous G.o.ddess is worth, Xinran?!"
Xinran retorted through gritted teeth, “Get lost!"
She kicked the ground and launched herself into the air, lunging at Cardin The Third. With a flip of her body, she squarely hit him on the shoulder with a kick!
Bang!
8954!
The kick was powerful enough to sound a bang, its sheer blunt power throwing Cardin The Third several steps back. In fact, it was so powerful that it shredded the fabric around his shoulder area and revealed the white bones beneath. However, the undead mage was no weakling himself. A quick chant later, his wounds were healed by a surge of dark energy.
Raising his scepter to the air, Cardin The Third also known as Undead Magus Cardilla started chanting a new spell. “I, Cardilla, offer a contract to the evil spirits slumbering in the depths of h.e.l.l! Rise and obey my will—Roar of the h.e.l.lhound!"
“Roar roar!"
Two high-level summoned beasts came into existence. They were giant, blood-colored beasts about two meters tall, both endowed with a long fiery tail. These savage-looking h.e.l.lhounds also had a sharp horn on their forehead and two rows of sharp fangs with viscous saliva dripping from them. The look in their eyes made it clear that they wanted nothing more than to shred Xinran into pieces.
I couldn't help but be worried for Xinran. These summoned undead creatures looked incredibly powerful, and according to the undead magus, most of Xinran's power was still sealed. It was impossible to tell if she was strong enough to beat the two summoned creatures right now.
“Roar!"
The h.e.l.lhounds dashed to Xinran's left and right side, pounced toward her and opened their jaws wide.
Calm and collected, Xinran raised her Dragonbone Spear at the last moment and spun like a top, her b.l.o.o.d.y cloak whipping loudly behind her.
“Lotus!"
Crack crack crack...
Both h.e.l.lhounds suffered ma.s.sive damage when the counterattack hit them—
23487!
29873!
24646!
……
One of the h.e.l.lhounds let out a screech and died, its head completely pierced by the Dragonbone Spear. The other h.e.l.lhound was thrown back against a stone pillar. However, the screeching beast had managed to snap off a piece of Xinran's armor, still chomping on it viciously despite the blunt force trauma. With only a few bites it devoured the piece of dark metal completely.
Although Xinran came through the fight unharmed, she had lost a small portion of her shoulder armor, her pale, unblemished skin visible through the hole.
As I had thought, the h.e.l.lhounds' attack power was nothing to scoff at. Xinran was already starting to fall into a disadvantage.
Cardin The Third laughed loudly and raised his scepter again. “Xinran, I can summon countless more h.e.l.lhounds like that, but you… how many can you kill before you fall completely? Hahaha! Still, I'm curious: why have you awakened once more? What made you open your eyes again?"
Suddenly, Xinran turned toward me and looked me in the eye. I thought I saw a flash of sadness behind those pupils. “What are you waiting for? Are you going to just watch while he kills me?"
I s.h.i.+vered once before swinging my sword and sending a miniboss flying. “I'll help you the moment I take out this small fry!"
“Mn. I'll wait for you!"
Xinran launched herself toward Cardin The Third again before she finished her sentence. This time, she avoided the h.e.l.lhound's attack and focused on attacking the undead magus.
Obviously, Xinran and Cardin The Third's battle would be going on for a while. Therefore, our party's job was to kill the miniboss as quickly as possible and help Xinran take out Cardin The Third.
At the same time, I was wondering if this was all part of the game developers' design. Had we come without Xinran by our side, we would one hundred percent be killed already. Did this quest become available to me only because Xinran was my “pet"?
Before I could think any further, Murong Mingyue healed me thrice in succession to full health and prompted me to charge into the fray again. I kept swinging the Purgatory Sword left and right and dealing the most amount of damage to the enemies out of everyone. Even the pets were out in full force. Stat-wise they weren't of much use at all, but they could hold off an enemy for a while and keep them busy. No one, not even me, could handle multiple minibosses attacking me at once.
Seven to eight healing spells later, some of the minibosses started ignoring us and charging toward Murong Mingyue. Our beautiful priest immediately turned pale. “What should we do? Any of these minibosses can break my s.h.i.+eld in two hits! What do we do!?"
Beiming Xue replied calmly, “Sister Mingyue, back off for the moment while I draw their aggro!"
“Mn!"
While Murong Mingyue was running to the back, Beiming Xue raised her Purgatory Bow and fired an Evil Spirit Volley. It immediately became apparent that she was better than most archers out there. A Rank 7 Evil Spirit Volley discharged 9 arrows at random directions, but in Beiming Xue's hands 6 of the shots. .h.i.t her targets perfectly as if they were laser-guided or something. Four of the minibosses immediately switched targets again and charged toward Beiming Xue.
Again, I knocked back the mob blocking my way before yelling, “Beiming, leave the mobs to me!"
“Okay!"
Beiming Xue ran like the weightless wind until all four mobs appeared in front of me. The moment they joined the original group of mobs who were already attacking me, I immediately raised my sword and activated Thousand Mirage Slas.h.!.+
Boom!
I successfully dealt a ton of damage to the minibosses and aggroed them all.
I kept moving around the hall while the Dark Wasp buzzed all around me, using good positioning and blocking to reduce the amount of damage I took as much as possible. As a result, only two minibosses were able to land a hit on me while the rest wasted their time chasing me all over the place.
To my surprise, He Yi was able to keep track of my movement and get in the way of the minibosses who were trying to reach me, buying me even more time and safety as a result. Her growth gladdened me greatly. He Yi was an intelligent woman in her own right, and today she proved that there was nothing in the world she couldn't learn as long as she set her mind to something.
That being said, Beiming Xue was even more skillful than He Yi was. She kited the minibosses with me in mind, so while I was keeping the minibosses busy at the center, she ran rings around them and pumped them full of arrows!
……
About five minutes later, the generals finally dropped dead and turned into dust. They were all undead creatures who had somehow slipped into the human city through various concealment techniques. Words couldn't even begin to describe how scary they were.
I didn't expect the minibosses to drop anything good, so I didn't even bother to gather the loot on the ground. I was only at 25% HP when I took out the last miniboss, so I said urgently, “Heal me to full, sis!"
“Got it!"
Murong Mingyue ate a Magic Consumable and waved her staff again and again. I was at full health again in less than 10 seconds!
Finally, it was time to take out Cardin The Third!
Boom!
Meanwhile, Xinran had thrust her spear forward and fired an energy beam. The energy beam pierced through a gem on the throne and hit Cardin The Third squarely on the chest, carving a black wound on his chest and eliciting a painful groan from his throat. His earlier confidence was all but gone at this point.
But Xinran wasn't faring much better than him either. She had killed G.o.d knows how many h.e.l.lhounds during the 7 minutes we had taken to clear out the generals, and even now Cardin The Third was still summoning more undead creatures. The armor covering her waist was completely shredded, revealing the smooth and pale belly. The armor covering her chest was also threatening to fall apart completely and revealing the glorious mounds beneath. Finally, her cape had been shredded into ragged cloth by the h.e.l.lhounds, further indicating how worn out she was.
I locked onto Cardin The Third and activated Charge!
The corrupted king was swinging his scepter and chanting, “I, Cardilla, offer a contract to the soaring birds who dream of destruction—"
Unfortunately for him, I managed to stun him before he could finish his spell, the Purgatory Sword plunging deep into his chest. “You can stick that up your sister's a.s.s!"
MISS!
12894!
I wasn't expecting to deal this much damage even though I had triggered a critical hit and hit a weak spot at the same time. The undead magus was this fragile only because Xinran had completely shredded his dark s.h.i.+eld.
Thud!
Beiming Xue's Freezing Arrow hit the boss accurately and greatly slowed both his movement and attack speed!
Shocked, Cardin The Third waved his scepter again. “I, Cardilla, offer a contract to the endless devils slumbering beneath the abyss—"
Once again, the poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d was interrupted by a blue slash between his neck. Magic Piercing Slas.h.!.+ The attacker was none other than our beautiful leader herself, He Yi!
Puchi!
3987!
The boss's second attempt to summon a new undead creature was canceled thanks to He Yi's timely attack. The Magic Piercing Slash was a Level 70 Magic Knight skill with a 50% chance of interrupting spell cast. It was one of the greatest trump cards a magic knight could have when facing down an enemy mage on the battlefield. In the future, if a magic knight managed to survive a bombardment of spells long enough to get close to a mage party, the skill would be one of the many trump cards they could have to deal with a mage!
