Chapter 85 - 67: Attacking the Zombie Horde
Chapter 85: Chapter 67: Attacking the Zombie Horde
"Is that the Death Devourer? How did you guys let him run over there? Weren’t you saying the clearing in the middle is the zombies’ barracks?"
When Phantom saw this scene, he asked the squad in surprise.
The group told him the truth, explaining that the Death Devourer had claimed he could sense the Death Energy in the clearing wasn’t fatal to him, which was why he decided to risk it.
"Fine... I guess!"
Since it was already done, Phantom couldn’t really say much. He had arrived now, so even if something went wrong, he could still pull the Death Devourer out.
So, Phantom silently joined the crowd of onlookers, preparing to watch Rose’s performance.
A while later, the sky brightened completely. The early morning sun filtered through the trees, casting its light upon the graveyard.
The patrolling zombies glanced at the sun with disgust and sank back into the ground.
Without the interference of the patrolling zombies, Rose strode to the center of the clearing and, before the zombies could react, activated his skill, "Devour Death."
A steady stream of grayish-white energy was drawn out from the surrounding ground, all of it surging into Rose’s body.
A few seconds later, an enraged roar erupted from underground.
A burly zombie emerged from the ground. The moment he appeared, he frantically scrambled toward the edge of the clearing, quickly escaping the range of the Death Devourer’s skill.
Appearing at the same time were more than ten armored zombies, including the one that had conversed with the Minotaur last night.
As soon as they surfaced, they, too, ran toward the edge of the clearing, just like the burly zombie.
However, under the effect of the Death Devourer’s skill, only a handful of zombies managed to escape its range.
"What is this thing?"
Having escaped the range of the Death Devourer’s skill, the leading zombie asked the question, his voice filled with lingering fear.
At this moment, many more zombies emerged at the edge of the clearing. They all looked to be the most basic version—stiff and slow.
The leading zombie commanded these low-level zombies to test the area and quickly came to a conclusion: within a 100-meter radius of the decaying tree in the center, any low-level zombie that stepped inside would lose its vitality and turn into a true corpse.
Even high-level zombies could only last a few seconds longer.
He himself could endure it for a while, but facing this decaying tree, which felt like a natural predator, he had no confidence he could destroy it.
The burly zombie then ordered the other zombies to use ranged attacks on Rose.
So the horde of zombies stood at a distance, opened their mouths, and spat out globs of venomous (corpse poison) liquid at Rose.
However, as soon as the liquid entered the range of Rose’s skill, its deathly aura was sucked away by him while it was still in mid-air, turning it into ordinary liquid that fell to the ground.
The burly zombie had his subordinates try several other methods, ultimately discovering that simply picking up stones from the ground and throwing them was the most effective form of attack.
However, after being hit by a few stones, Rose was no longer motionless.
Originally, he had planned to ignore these lesser zombies and focus on absorbing the immense Death Energy underground. Once he was finished, he would deal with the zombies and their haphazard attempts.
But now, he was forced to make a move.
He was seen pulling himself up from the ground, yanking his roots from the earth, and extending his head, arms, and legs.
He strode toward the zombie horde, which scattered in a panic. The high-level zombies, in particular, took just a few hops before disappearing into the forest on the other side.
Many of the slower, low-level zombies were caught in the radius of Rose’s skill and stopped moving within a few breaths.
Rose moved slowly. Seeing he couldn’t catch the fleeing zombies, he returned to the center of the clearing to continue absorbing the energy from the structure underground.
And so, the horde of zombies ran back and resumed throwing stones.
"You guys go help him out. It doesn’t look like there are any higher-level zombies. The leader is just a legendary-grade hero, and after Rose drained so much of his energy, his strength is greatly diminished." Phantom saw the Death Devourer Rose’s predicament and ordered the squad members to attack the remaining zombies.
He himself remained in the forest to provide backup, guard against any surprises, and protect Lin Kong.
And so, all the squad members except Lin Kong transformed into their Beastman forms and charged.
Yuan Xiaobo took the lead, rushing toward the zombie horde. His body glowed with golden light as he charged straight for the lead zombie, and before it could react, he struck it on the head from behind with his staff.
CLANG—
A crisp metallic sound rang out. The burly zombie was struck so hard it became dizzy and nearly collapsed.
"Who the fuck are you?"
The burly zombie was furious. Its lair had been taken over by a strange wooden man that he and his entire zombie horde couldn’t handle. Now he had to watch as the energy in his home, which had been accumulated for several days and had a great purpose, was sucked away by that piece of wood.
And now, some monkey-headed thing had snuck up on him with an iron rod. It was a good thing his head was tough now. If this had happened when he was alive, he probably would’ve kicked the bucket.
The burly zombie saw several other animal-headed monsters charging behind Yuan Xiaobo. He commanded his subordinates to stop their attack on the decaying tree and deal with this group of animal-heads first.
’I can’t deal with that piece of wood, but I can’t deal with you lot? You’re just upright animals! Still animals, aren’t you? Nothing but blood-food!’
So the burly zombie thought.
Then, he swung the longsword in his hand and attacked Yuan Xiaobo.
Yuan Xiaobo, his body glowing gold, fearlessly clashed with the burly zombie. He was incredibly fast, nimbly weaving and attacking around the zombie. On the rare occasion he made a mistake and was struck by the zombie’s greatsword, it only produced the sound of metal striking metal, leaving him unharmed.
As the squad captain, in addition to the attribute bonuses from being a Yao and the skills learned from his Druid class, he also possessed unique talents: [Nimble] and [Adamant Body].
[Nimble]: As a naturally agile member of the Monkey Race, years of leaping between great trees has forged a nimble and reflexive set of skills.
Evasion +30%, Speed +30%, Jump Distance +50%, Agility +100%.
[Adamant Body]: Stimulated by Spiritual Energy, a portion of his ancient bloodline has awakened, causing his body’s surface to metalize and granting him an Attack Power equal to his Defense Power.
Passive: Defense +100%, Strength +100%, Attack Power = Defense Power
Active: Defense +1000%. Continuously drains energy and stamina.
(PS: The passive effect is still active when Adamant Body is actively used.)
[Nimble] was a talent acquired upon becoming a hero, while [Adamant Body] was a talent gained after passing the Celestial Tribulation to become a Yao.
Of course, he also had skills common to most of the Monkey Race: [Throw] and [Balance].
The Monkey Race’s innate talent, [Nimble], provided Yuan Xiaobo with agile movement, while Adamant Body granted him immense Defense Power and a matching Attack Power.
Therefore, Yuan Xiaobo had no fear of the zombies’ corpse poison. Against opponents of the same grade and level, no one had yet been able to break his defense. And if his defense wasn’t broken, the corpse poison naturally couldn’t affect him.
The other squad members followed close behind Yuan Xiaobo, charging to the zombies’ location. Seeing that Yuan Xiaobo was already fighting the burly zombie leader and not at a disadvantage, they launched their attack on the other zombies.