Chapter 221: The Devil Is A Devil Even When It’s Dead
The most troublesome thing about Nightcry for the Players was not its stronger attacks or its immunity to pain after its resurrection, but getting hit by the zombie blight debuff!
The Players would turn into zombie-like monsters once they died with that debuff, and while those monsters were weak, Cleric Players wouldn’t be able to revive them. Moreover, they would have to wait for three days before reviving at the Lifestone if they didn’t have a Resurrection Ankh!
Still, the Players who had gathered at Trinia to slay the devil were experienced veterans who had basically experienced almost every circ.u.mstance (whereas newbies would die immediately). Having grown in one event after another, all of them had great confidence and the toughness to become even more valiant in the face of greater setbacks.
Even if Nightcry had become stronger after its resurrection (mainly because it wasn’t doing nothing while taking hits), it had lost all strategic sense and fought sheerly by instincts. Therefore, the Players found it easy to handle it after mapping out its attacks.
Besides, the creature basically had no divine attribute although it possessed an abnormal divine power, and naturally wasn’t resistant to Rules. It was affected by every skill the Players had, and even if they couldn’t kill it swiftly, it greatly eased the pressure on the Players when it came to damage output.
Moreover, with someone like Mufasa who could rely on his skill to block and parry a majority of Nightcry’s attacks regardless of the gap between their levels, the battle began to favor the Players’ side.
“Anyone who isn’t a warrior don’t get too close, and don’t get in the way of the Kengyoku! That Holy Lancer over there—take your condor to the rear and shoot the beast right there!”
“Warriors, try not to get it! Getting trampled or crushed is still better than being instakilled—the Clerics could at least revive you!”
“d.a.m.n it, friendly fire! I would have smashed your brains out if friendly damage wasn’t lowered!”
“Medic! Wait, I mean Clerics! Where are the Clerics? I’m hurt, and I’m bleeding green everywhere! Quick, heal, and purify me!”
“Oh no, the Aquatic Angels can’t summon seafood now—those things can get zombified too!”
“Well, arrows are no use now. The Boss’s head has been shot so many times it’s a porcupine now.”
“Marni’s got trampled to death… again. Anyone going to revive him?”
“By the way, feels like the little elven lady beside him has been slacking all along.”
“Woah, are you saying that the elves might kill steal?”
Amidst the chaotic shouts of the Players where some of the reputable Players temporarily took command of the situation, Nightcry’s HP finally dropped to twenty percent—down to the kill zone.
But that was when the weird happened: Nightcry’s entire body suddenly ballooned, as if it was being filled with gas.
Having guessed that it was about to unleash some special attack, all the Players instinctively pulled away when the creature simply blew up right in front of their eyes.
After that, many smaller devils that looked just like Nightcry but were half the height of an adult streamed out of the corpse. Like a horde of zombies, they poured forth at the Players like a surging tide!
Although they had low HP and the Players could take one down by a single skill, the problem was that they were too many!
They just couldn’t get rid of them before the little devils reached them—and from the looks of their dark-green razor-sharp talons, they definitely carried the zombie blight too!
It would be game over the Players if they were all infected. The blight rapidly shreds their HP, and all the little devils needed to do was buy time so that they could infect everyone!
Mufasa, being a Player who had his skill points invested purely in Kengyoku without any AoE skills was overwhelmed by the horde in no time at all, swiftly becoming the first victim.
But as things become very dangerous, Princess Leah who had slowly faded into the role of side character felt as if something unseen was poking at her brain. She was promptly inspired, realizing that she was a Warrior Princess and not an ordinary Player with a sword.
Hence, she threw aside her longsword, illogically drew a flagpole lance taller than herself out of nowhere and stabbed it firmly into the ground.
“Blitzkrieg Formation! Temporal Drag!”
Hence, a golden halo immediately cascaded away around the girl from beneath the flagpole and unfurled outwards.
All the Players within the circle of light promptly felt their bodies becoming much lighter, whereas the little devils would become much slower when the same light touched them!
“Well done!” Edward’s eyes twinkled. Having a.s.sumed that this would be a team wipe, he swiftly relayed new instructions to the other Players. “Hit them now! Don’t mind it if your attacks aren’t in sync—just hit hard!”
Having escaped imminent doom, the Players rallied and cast a myriad of skills at the horde of little devils, with most spells detonating amidst the creatures with colorful fireworks.
Eventually, only a handful of the little devils were left when they finally reached the Players. Even if they were quite agile in movement after being caught in Temporal Drag, they were actually weaker than Player zombies and were soon mostly culled by the other Players.
But just as the Players a.s.sumed that the day was once and became at ease and even started chatting while fighting, whatever little demons that remained began to balloon like a pufferfish—just like Nightcry’s corpse did not too long ago.
“Tsk, are these things going to split apart too?!”
The Players shuddered at the thought of those little devils bursting into even smaller, mini devils, and began to focus their firepower to kill them all immediately.
And yet, the little devils weren’t bursting into mini devils.
In the instant that the Players struck their bloated bodies, they burst apart like a p.r.i.c.ked balloon, letting loose green ga.s.ses with the scent of apples that shrouded all the Players.
“I’m hit…” Edward dropped to the ground.
The green gas was naturally zombie blight—and unlike how it was transmitted by touch or open wounds before, the debuff effect stacks according to the amount of green gas that each Player breathed in. Even if the Clerics and Holy Lancers would persistently purify them, only one layer of debuff could be removed!
Moreover, their skills were on cool down—meaning that every Player would become a zombie before their zombie blight status fades!