Chapter 548 - Flanker Flanking
Kurukuru looked at Dave bemusedly, twitched its antlers and licked the blood out o his scythe-like hands.
"Thank G.o.d we never made an enemy out of this guy," Flanker said.
"Well yeah, he ended up being a great ally," Dave replied and unconsciously rubbed the creature"s head. His pet petting behavior overtook his senses and didn"t realize he was petting a calamitous predator until the creature rubbed his triangular insect head against his hand, obviously enjoying the treatment.
"Ahem, well, Kurukuru, see, this kingdom. It"s mine, don"t eat the people in it, but anything else is yours. Are we okay with that?" Dave asked.
The predator nodded. "Good, then, if anyone comes asking for trouble take them out, and if you find it difficult, just run back to the Undead kingdom, you"ll have many allies there who can lend you a hand. I"ll put in a good word for you." Dave added.
The creature once again nodded and went to the corpse of Hammer Hand, he dug one of his scythes in its abdomen and raced forward dragging the fallen carca.s.s with him.
"Hey, he took the loot and ran off!" Flanker said.
"It"s his right, he killed the calamity. Also, KuruKuru is an evolving type of predator, he"ll only become stronger the more he eats. And we"re better off with a stronger ally than some loot."
"You might be right, but still…we didn"t even see what loot we had there."
"We still have another carca.s.s right over here," Dave pointed at the s...o...b..ring rotting corpse.
"Yeah, I have a feeling that I don"t wanna touch something that disgusting." Flanker added.
"Wuss," Human Fortress replied and touched the corpse for loot.
He soon shared the screen with the rest of the players.
***
Skill Book
[Subservience]
[Acid Core]
500,000 Gold.
***
"Rather cheap loot," Flanker said.
"Well it has a skill book so it should be worth something, share the description."
***
[Subservience] Control and manipulate a target for 5 seconds. Level doesn"t matter. But the target cannot be commanded to kill itself, causing it death by other means such as making it jump off a cliff, on the other hand, is possible.
Cooldown 60minutes.
[Acid Core] an embryo of acid that can be used to enhance weapons and give them an acidic trait.
***
"Well, good stuff."
"Can I get the manipulation skill book? I kinda lack ways to defend myself you know."
"Well, I"m always s.h.i.+elding you even if you"re not paying attention." Human Fortress said.
"Yeah, but still I mean one day, you"ll probably be dead you know. I could use the skill, but whatever skelly can have it."
"Nah, flanker is right, it"s best to have the healer have a skill that he can protect himself with, if you all agree I say give it to flanker," Dave said.
"No problem here," Ralph said.
"Same here," Perfect Shot added, "He"s the only one without a legacy."
"Right, I forgot about that, then it"s yours, what about the core?" Fortress said.
"I don"t necessarily need it. Ralph?"
"My weapon"s Unlimited is not allowing other buffs to be applied on the sword. So not for me."
"Same here, I"m a tank," Fortress said.
Perfect shook his head, "Those types of buffs don"t work on bows. We should probably keep it for Mercy, she has daggers and is the best at applying debuffs on enemies."
"True then, let"s head out I say we"ve done our job for today."
The moment Dave finished his words, he received a private message.
"Skelly… we need help." It was Valentine.
Dave frowned, the right hand of the strongest super guild is asking for help? Right now, they were the top in Conquest, not even Heaven Dawn or the Blood Ragers could contend.
"What"s going on?"
"Four calamities are a.s.saulting the West, I and warlord could barely control two of them. We need help or we"re doomed. We"ll pay however much you want. Just come, please, hurry."
"It"s not about money," Dave said. "The calamities are going to ruin the game for everyone. I"ll be there give me a second."
"What"s going on?" Ralph asked.
"Your guildies are getting wrecked."
"Huh? No one informed me of anything. Ah, s.h.i.+t, I had my private message off so I can focus on the fight… holy c.r.a.p so many messages I"m gonna get chewed."
"No worries, guys let"s continue our Calamity hunting," Dave said and the group teleported to the Western Capital.
The moment they arrived they saw dozens of falling rocks from the sky cras.h.i.+ng against buildings and terrain all over the capital. And from the look of the situation, the attack spread along the whole of the western sky.
"What kind of calamity can do this!" Flanker said.
"Not a calamity," Satan Slayer said, he had appeared right in front of the group. "It"s a dragon, p.i.s.sed that a calamity dared a.s.sault him and he is blowing off some steam. But that"s not the problem."
"What"s going on?" Dave asked.
"Look over there," Satan Slayer pointed at a nearby mountain.
A ma.s.sive dragon made of stone and rock was roaring against the skies. And even from such distance, Dave could see a great black mark stuck against half of his body.
"A calamity is trying to take over the dragon, he is going rampant trying to get the thing off of him and it"s causing such reactions."
"d.a.m.n, we"ll see what we can do. Where are the other calamities?"
"Warlord and Valentine are holding them off, but they can"t stop this one, also it"s a greater calamity. Please be careful, I"ll have to head out I need to help valentine."
"Right then, guys, let"s move," Dave said and the group rushed out toward the mountain.
The dragon"s roar echoed louder and louder, as the party has gotten closer. Suddenly, Dave"s sword and s.h.i.+eld began humming. Durandal vibrated hard enough that it was about to fly out of Dave"s back. And ajax opened its jaws and echoed a destructive screech that was loud enough to wake the dead.
"What the heck is going on?" Flanker asked.
"I have no idea man," Dave said, "It"s the first time they ever did this. I guess it has to do with that thing there. Let"s get closer and see."
With each swing of his barbed tail the dragon would collapse a great part of the mountain, and with a stroke of his paw would generate stone that would grow up in all sorts of shapes.
The mountain he was on became more and more like a hedgehog made of stone.
The closer the party had gotten to the dragon, the more dangerous the terrain became. The dragon"s rampage was getting dangerously out of hands. And from the looks of it, the creature that was stuck against the dragon had almost fully consumed it. Only one side of the dragon"s face was left untouched by the dark shadow.
Dave inspected the dragon but the inspection didn"t take the dragon into effect it showed the calamity that was stuck against it.
***
Name: The Shadow That Walks Behind
Level: 666
Tier: Greater Calamity of Fear
Danger level: Calamitous!
Damage: 0
HP: Variable
PD: 0
MD: 0
Skills: [Back Seat Management]
Once the Shadow That Walks Behind manages to control an ent.i.ty, it becomes it, and it can use its skills and powers.
The stronger the ent.i.ty that the calamity wishes to control the longer the time it will take to control it.
All skills, HP, and defensive values of the controlled ent.i.ty become those of the shadow that walks behind.
Killing the hose of the Shadow will kill the shadow itself but The Shadow that Walks Behind can instantly jump to a smaller ent.i.ty to control once the host is closer to death.
Lore: one of the greater evils of old-time, The Shadow that walks behind had managed to stuck itself to too many enemies, and was one of the rarest beings in the world. Legend tells that this shadow had managed to control a great weapon and had killed the one that made them, causing the sword and s.h.i.+eld to curse themselves in order to never repeat the same feat.
***
"Holy c.r.a.p, it"s the shadow that killed Vulcan…" Dave said.
"What? Who?" Ralph asked.
"My s.h.i.+eld and sword, they are cursed, they cursed themselves to not reveal they"re true strength because of this very shadow, it must have controlled them and killed Vulcan who made them, thus they became like this."
"You mean those already bada.s.s swords area already nerfed?"
"Guess so, now we definitely gotta kill this guy," Dave said. "Sorry dragon boy, but you"ll have to die."
Dave ducked under one of the dragon"s claws and sliced at his paw. Durandal revibrated against the claw and hummed even louder.
The shadow stuck against the dragon manifested a small skull-like head and spoke, "The Weapons that could slay G.o.ds! It has been so long since I last saw them. Give! They are mine!"
"Like h.e.l.l they are, you"ll die today, and I"ll get their revenge from you!" Dave blocked a tail swipe from the controlled Stone Dragon and rejected it against it dealing minor damage.
"Euh guys?" flanker asked.
No one listened to Flanker, they were all busy with dodging the monster"s attacks.
"GUYYYS!!" he called but no one heard him.
"Aight gotta do it myself, [Subservience]." Flanker said, and almost immediately, the shadow that was encompa.s.sing the Dragon was sucked out and shaped itself into a ball. Dave and the rest of the party looked dumbly at the boss.
"I think it"s a new attack pattern be careful!" Dave called and the rest were on guard.
Flanker shook his head, then noticed a small insect that was right next to his foot. He waved his hand and the ball took over the insect then Flanker unceremoniously stomped it.
***
Congratulations on having slain the first Great Calamity of Fear: The Shadow That Walks Behind.
Hope had slightly returned to the world.
The earth Dragon is forever thankful to you for ridding it of its c.u.mbersome situation.
***
"Aaand that"s how we do it." Flanker said at the party who were all staring dumbly at him.
Flanker looked at them weirdly and all he could say was, "What?"