The battle was stale since everyone was already used to the regular carriers attack pattern. Lunge, grab and bite. It could be simply repelled or easily dodge depending on what you prefer to.
Some liked to fight close combat at ultra close quarters and kill them with stabs in the head. Nik was one of those people. Since birth, he had a small stature that made him nimble and quick-footed. Though his strides were shorter than others, it resulted in him being able to make quick adjustments to his movements.
Nik dove towards three das.h.i.+ng carriers and lunged inbetween two of them. The last one who got ignored hurriedly tackled the one blocking it while Nik slashed at the other carriers neck. The sharp blade separated the neck from its body and it slowly slid down. Before the head could hit the ground, it quickly disintegrated into stardust. At the same time that the head was falling, he nimbly side-stepped the incoming claws and stabbed the carrier through its eyes. Sure the short sword was sharp, but the skull was of the same material with the sword and considering that the skull is the hardest bone in the body, a sure kill wouldn"t hurt.
Nik was thankful that dead bodies disappear here. With his fighting style of recklessly charging in while relying on his agile body, a delay in pulling out his weapon could be detrimental. Though everything felt like a game, he know for sure that he only has one life based on experience. He have saved a lot and traveled most part of the town while meeting various people.
The last carrier was about to pounce on him when a bonespear suddenly struck the sides of its head. Nik turned around and saw his old partner looking at him. It was the old man who always stayed by his side like a guardian angel. The only reason why he"s still alive even with his battle style is because of this person. The ranked two amongst the prisoners, Bartolome Fernan.
Nik nodded his head and Bartolome slightly shook his head. Nik knew that he would be scolded later, but he would still refrain from changing his battle style. This somehow made him feel alive, like he was always excited and everything felt like it was normal.
If Nik was placed in a normal society, he was the type of person inclined to do something bad for something good.
"Clear!"
"Clear!..."
Numerous loud shouts resounded on the area. The ghostly mausoleums turned rowdy when numerous weird hunchback bone-dried carriers came running towards the group.
The weird carriers have tattered clothes all over them and their skins were sticking closely to their bones. They would sometimes run normally, then suddenly slow down and murmur things. Those five weird carriers scattered at certain distances with each other while slowly inching closer to the group.
Nik regrouped with the others and waited for orders, but something weird happened. The sun vanished and darkness filled the earth. A red moon appeared in the sky and showered everyone with b.l.o.o.d.y rays.Whenever it hit a gravestone, a hand would climb out followed by its body. The skin would be the same dried up ones that sticked closely to the bones. The only difference with the normal carriers would be that these carriers have red eyes while not having dark web-like cracks surrounding their eyes.
Despite all the sudden changes, Nik stood at the frontlines while waiting for orders. When the carriers were a few meters away and no one has given command, he turned and looked to his sides. There were numerous hooded ghostly figures standing behind him slowly distancing themselves from each other. They appeared like spectres commonly found in fantansy books. He looked around and searched for everyone, but couldn"t find them.
Just then, a sudden forceful push came from behind him and pinned him to the ground. Before he could feel the agonizing pain that should have come, he felt his back lightened. One of the ghostly robed figures grasped the carriers neck and broke it. Afterwards, it casually tossed the body to the side.
Nik recovered from the sudden fall and quickly stood up. He looked around and noticed some of the robed ghostly figures helping other ghostly figures. When one of the robed figures was about to be tackled by a red-eyed carrier, a yellow barrier appeared on its path and blocked it. The robed figure with a raised hand was emitting rhythmical crunching noises as if laughing. As if not contented, it continued opening its divilish mouth and spouted more words. If he knew that it was Edward, he would probably rejoice not to hear him spouting nonsense.
***
Everything happened fast and no one was prepared for it. Even now, Jun was still not sure on what was happening. After their initial clear with the initial carriers, a group of weird reinforcements were summoned by the old priest. Five Hunter-like carriers appeared from thin air and hurriedly dashed towards them when the priest pointed forward. They ran weirdly like apes since they were also using their hands as they ran. Mid-way, they slowed down and started chanting weird phrases.
Jun waited but nothing happened.
After waiting for what could actually happen, the carriers resp.a.w.ned like they have always been doing. He knew that everyone was already capable of defending themselves, so he focused on those weird carriers in the distance. He felt that something was wrong when no one was moving even though the carriers were already in front of them. Especially Nik, who he favored a bit due to his will to improve, who was dazedly looking on all of them. When the regular carrier lunged at Nik and pinned him to the ground, he hurriedly grabbed its neck and broke it. At the same time, he observed everyone and noticed that most of them were dazed except for Edward.
Edward looked around, then shouted: "Hail endurance!"
Afterwards, he started maniacally laughing while dis.h.i.+ng out nonsense after nonsense. Though he knew that it was to "magically" increase the purity of his energy, hearing it was still unbearable. Even if he was tempted to try if spouting nonsense could really make your skills powerful, Jun managed to stop himself. Just thinking about the reactions of other people when they learned about it would make him die from embarra.s.sment.
Jun observed the overall situation and managed to confirm that everything was connected to those weird summons. He quickly swapped weapons and brought out his white revolver.
"Take care of them, can you do that?" Jun said without looking back and immediately aimed at the distant carriers. The nearest one was ten meters away and he quickly shot it. Since he was recovering energy, he refrained from using Time Perse to aim, but used Enhanced Sight to get a closer view. Well, he learned today that a closer view doesn"t mean correct aim.
The shot hit the weird carriers body and it wailed loudly while crazily rolling on the ground. He noticed that two of the masked men recovered from their daze. At the same time, the others finally fought back against the carriers which lightened Edward"s energy consumption.
"What happened?" said Jun towards the two, who were busy a.s.sessing the situation. The one who answered was the second most strongest slave he had.
"I think we got trapped inside an illusion." the voice sounded old and withered but still dutifully replied. The man looked around and hurriedly ran towards Nik.
Nik on the other hand was surprised and jumped back to avoid the man. The man stopped and distanced himself from Nik, but stayed near enough to be able to protect him.
Jun pondered about the new information and finally confirmed that it was really those creatures doing. After thinking about it, everyone"s stat build centered around strength, speed and wits. It might be true that having high endurance gives resistance to illusions and maybe also gives resistances to various debuffs.
Since there were more people to defend the others, Jun decided to go on the offensive. He doesn"t know what the others were experiencing but he won"t wait for things to get worse before taking action.
Jun hurriedly ran towards the weird chanting carriers. When Jun approached them, they ran away from him and so he decided to aim from afar. They never left a certain distance from their targets, which made it easy for Jun to aim accurately this time. He shot two in the head while the rest were in their chests. He then finished them off by bas.h.i.+ng their heads while cursing them under the heavens.
He looked back to his group and ensured that everyone was awakened. When he verified that they already did, he noticed that the priest on the sermon podium started chanting once again.
Jun tilted his head and cursed under his breath.
"Not again."
He ran as fast as he could and when he was about fifty meters away, he activated Time Perse and stopped the time. The priest"s mouth was still open while Jun was already on his aiming position. He still had thirty percent energy, so he wasn"t scared of energy exhaustion.
He zoomed in and steadied his aim, on top of Enhanced Sight, everything appeared like it was meters away from him. He could even see the priest thick eyebrows and its yellow eyes that stared at him lifelessly. A golden tooth reflected the sun"s ray causing a slight sparkle, but it didn"t hinder Jun"s aim.
The shot was fired and Jun quickly cancelled Time Perse. With his energy right now, he couldn"t afford the energy drain of a bullet moving on a stopped time.
The bullet flew straight towards the nose and came out behind the head.
Jun said with disappointment, "I was aiming at the mouth."