Free Web NovelChapter 472: Vampire + Gnoll + Zombie? What Kind of Chimera Is This!
Murphy’s warriors attacked the south side of Plague Town with the help of the treant army, and they had already begun an intense battle with the Gnoll BOSS “Zombie Commander” Kenport who was guarding that area.
This scene was immediately observed by Flesh Render in the sorcerer’s tower.
But it didn’t care, as if it completely hadn’t noticed that enemies had already invaded their stronghold.
The events that occurred in Plague Town over the past few days were unknown to outsiders. Although Flesh Render and Lame Claw completely lost control of the Construction Tower due to an “overly successful” resurrection ritual, King Gnawbone sealed within would definitely become a nightmare for these Transians once released when necessary.
Flesh Render didn’t think the Transians could capture its town.
Most importantly, having obtained the “Staff of Creation” and studied it for several days with some progress, Lord Flesh Render had long lost interest in continuing this “mortal play” with these vampire servants.
The reason it still remained here was only to spend some time making a new body for Lame Claw before planning to withdraw completely.
The timing of the players’ invasion of Plague Town was perfect, right at the moment when Flesh Render was awakening Lame Claw.
“You stay here!”
Flesh Render limped as it shouldered its already packed belongings, while also carrying a red bucket in its hand, filled with various materials it might need after entering the Land of Creation.
It said to Lame Claw, who was just climbing up from the surgical table and still adjusting to its new body:
“I will leave you all the access rights to Plague Town’s defense facilities, all the sorcerers here are under your command, help me buy some time here.
Release our King from the Construction Tower when necessary!
Its endless power and hatred for the living will help us destroy all enemies of the Gnolls.
I must hurry to visit the Land of Creation again.
I must bring out our Gnoll civilization tablets, it’s said only with those in hand can our race have a king again.
Lame Claw, you don’t need to hold here for too long. After three days, regardless of the situation, take our King and leave! When you leave, you must activate the self-destruct spell formation of this mage tower, burying all the Transians who charged in along with all traces of this town.
I will wait for you to regroup at the end of the swamp leading to the Dark Mountains.”
“I suggest you don’t go.”
Lame Claw’s entire head was sutured onto the body of a “fresh” Gnoll sorcerer, its vocal cords seemed to have a small problem with the suturing, making its voice very harsh.
But the insane Lame Claw didn’t care about such minor issues.
It staggered up, tilting its head and said to Flesh Render:
“You’re not clear-headed now! You think you’re rational but you’re crazier than me! You clearly can’t resist the guidance of that inexplicable desire in your heart, like an invisible hand pulling you towards death.
You’re not rational anymore, Flesh Render.
You’re like those stupid barbarian soldiers who can’t resist the temptation of fresh meat, swallowing poisoned bait just to satisfy their appetites.
If.
If you insist on going to your death, give me back my soul casket first!”
“And then what? After I give it back to you, then what?”
Flesh Render twisted its head eerily and sneered:
“I don’t quite believe the chaos in the Construction Tower was just an accident, and I even less believe that you didn’t leave some self-preservation measures when resurrecting our King.
The events of that night were orchestrated by you, Lame Claw!
You wanted to use King Gnawbone’s power to catch both me and the explorer in one net, this way you could not only be free but also have exclusive access to the mysteries of the Land of Creation.
How cunning.
Unfortunately, your little schemes couldn’t fool me.
The moment I give you the soul casket, King Gnawbone would rush into the mage tower and crush me to death in the next second, right?
Don’t forget, I chose you as an apprentice when you were young!
Don’t forget, you were taught by me!”
Hearing Flesh Render expose its tricks, Lame Claw immediately let out a discouraged roar, its strange eyes that couldn’t focus on the same point rotated, seemingly briefly regaining consciousness as it shouted angrily:
“But you turned me into a monster!”
“I only gave you power, taught you knowledge, becoming a monster was your own choice! Don’t blame your stupid mistakes on me!”
Flesh Render roared.
That voice seemed to explode from every bone in its withered body, it howled with a kind of “angry disappointment”:
“When you went mad and turned all the clansmen in an entire valley into walking corpses! It was you who still didn’t know restraint after being punished and attracted the Netherworld Arbitrator!
It was I who saved you from that desperate situation!
It was I who pieced your broken body back together bit by bit, it was I who restored your shattered mind to the point of madness, it was I who sacrificed ten years of my life to help you escape the search of the Netherworld’s will!
You fool!
I once groomed you as an heir, while every step you’ve fallen to now is self-inflicted! You didn’t just recklessly play with your own life, you reckless bastard! You also broke the hope I left for the future and the heir I chose for the clan.
But I don’t want to discuss these with you anymore!
You guard here!
You must hold off those damn vampires and their servants, I need time to retrieve our clan’s sacred relic.
After this is over, I’ll return the soul casket to you!
You and the Plague Clan will have no more relations after this, if you’re satisfied with being a monster then continue being one, perhaps you can find another Gnoll willing to clean up after you.
I’m tired, Lame Claw.”
After roaring, Flesh Render waved its hand wearily, signaling Lame Claw to get lost.
The corpse constructor limped away, while at the top of the now quiet mage tower, Flesh Render looked at the Staff of Creation in its hand.
Its old cloudy eyes were filled with some indescribable desire.
“Treasure… ah, our clan’s treasure…”
Flesh Render caressed the metal staff in its hand.
Its eyes were filled with a kind of tenderness that could give people goosebumps, as the window opened, the fully armed wyvern was already waiting in the swamp wind filled with unease.
Flesh Render hugged the metal staff to its chest, carrying the red bucket as it mounted its wyvern, like an old worker running away with a bucket.
It spoke in a deep voice as if making a vow, saying:
“I will soon bring back what we’ve lost, yes! It won’t be long.”
————————
“What? Meow King’s squad was wiped out? Didn’t they break in? How did they not even beat the first BOSS? That shouldn’t be right!”
Joy Stick, who was commanding the steady advance of the veterans of the Hammer and Sickle Corps on the northern defense line, received some “bad news” – his good friend Meow King had died minutes ago in the first battle of the Plague Town raid.
The “war correspondent” Little Ashina had already posted the full process of this failed BOSS fight on the forum, which had already become today’s hot post.
Joy Stick quickly took a “battlefield slack” to open the in-game forum and carefully read about the BOSS fight on the southern front.
To summarize, it wasn’t complicated.
Kenport’s individual combat power had severely decreased after being resurrected by the Plague Clan’s necromantic arts, but this zombie BOSS gained toxic corrosion and poison spray abilities.
Meow King died carelessly to these two vicious skills.
He was having too much fun slashing that he forgot about the accumulated poison DEBUFF on his body, this thing stacked up to frighteningly high damage, and his self-purification ability as an Avalon believer wasn’t enough.
Lady Aqua’s consecutive dispels had a gap in the middle, which directly poisoned to death that guy who was wielding a legendary weapon and crazily circling around to stab the BOSS’s weak spot.
He died so miserably!
Reportedly to the point of no remains, fortunately their team’s Led More Than Three to Five Pecks had powerful defensive equipment, seeing the situation wasn’t good immediately raised “Avalon’s Kingdom on Earth”, the strongest defensive divine art currently mastered by players.
This protected the others to safely withdraw from zombie Kenport’s attack range, and then safely leave Plague Town under the pursuit of the minions.
But their retreat from the position meant raid failure, and the Young Lady withdrew the spirit energy countermeasures on that side, instead issuing a team quest to destroy spirit energy nodes.
This quest required player teams to temporarily leave Plague Town and go to two other places in the swamp to set up spirit energy relay points, taking back the swamp’s spirit energy from the Gnolls’ hands, thereby weakening Plague Town’s defenses to allow more people to enter for raiding.
This was clearly the development team guiding those new players who couldn’t participate in the raid, directing them to do some manageable quests instead of wasting time staying here.
This bad news also made Brother Stick’s face show a smile full of pain and sadness.
He exited the forum and said softly:
“Serves you right for ‘going solo’! Now you know you were wrong? We’re best friends for life, cooperating with each other is the path to success.”
“However my master, have you noticed that your companion’s failure means the defensive forces inside Plague Town far exceed your previous expectations?”
Melia Korando Lessenbra’s voice quietly sounded in Joy Stick’s mind, she reminded with a heavy tone:
“In terms of individual domain combat power, your team is not much stronger than Meow King’s team, they even had the assistance of first-rate healers and supporters among the warrior groups, yet still couldn’t overcome the blockade set up by the Gnoll sorcerers.
This means that if you were the first to attack in there, the result you encounter might not be much better than theirs.
Perhaps you should adjust your previous deployment.”
“Hmm, makes sense.”
Brother Stick was willing to listen to advice, he immediately summoned his deputy Lin, and based on the battle details disclosed by Little Ashina on the forum, had Lin arrange for emergency equipment changes for his team members before entering Plague Town.
Thanks to economic support from the wealthy merchant Life Is Pretty Good from Treasure Bay, Brother Stick’s team was extremely generous in this operation.
They had prepared several sets of equipment for different scenarios in advance based on the attack types of the undead they encountered in the swamp.
Now knowing the gate BOSS was poison-based, they immediately switched to the “Spirit Defender” chainmail they had purchased at high prices from Lady Tris’s alchemy cottage.
This set of equipment belonged to the rare sequence, with mediocre attributes in all aspects, but uniquely enhanced protection against spirit energy and elemental damage, its attached defensive attribute enchantment naturally included protection against poison erosion.
By the time Joy Stick’s team killed through the last stronghold of the northern defense line, it was nearly midnight.
The Young Lady descended from the sky as before, very procedurally inquired and after receiving Joy Stick’s affirmative answer, again opened spirit energy countermeasures on this side, tearing open the spirit energy defense of Plague Town’s north gate.
At this time, Joy Stick and his team members who had already changed into special equipment charged in aggressively.
They had already learned from the lesson and made adjustments, they were very confident they could cut down Kenport this time!
And the only problem was
“Damn, it’s not Kenport! Our BOSS here isn’t the Zombie Commander! This raid has issues! The guardians faced on the three directions are different!
The crafty development team set up a rotating BOSS mechanism.”
The hunter Dou from Tiger Leopard Cavalry released his newly tamed falcon for reconnaissance, but the feedback made Dou greatly alarmed, he shouted:
“There’s a strange dark area in front of us, can’t see clearly what’s inside, and there’s no other path to bypass it, I guess we’ll be attacked as soon as we enter.
This spirit energy defense armor we’re wearing is too bulky, severely limiting our movement speed, I estimate we can’t fight whatever weird thing is ahead.
Should we retreat first?”
“Wouldn’t retreating mean giving up the raid opportunity? Change equipment! Switch back to the previous Winged Cavalry war armor, spirit mages reapply status effects.
Let’s wait a bit.
This raid has 6 hours, enough time for spirit mages to record spell slots again, record all poison resistance spells as support spells instead.
We should at least see the BOSS’s face, otherwise we’ll really be laughed at on the forum.”
Brother Stick was also a bit annoyed.
He knew the crafty development team definitely wouldn’t let players easily grasp the BOSS’s timeline, but he didn’t expect the development team to play it this big this time!
Such a small town actually had three different gate BOSS set up in three directions, plus two mage towers, damn, the length and scale of this raid isn’t shorter than advancing into Blood Vulture Halls.
From the players’ perspective, this move by the development team was quite conscientious, but from the raiders’ perspective, this was simply an epic pit.
This means players on the three battle lines couldn’t copy each other’s raid experiences. I know the development team has always been playing mind games with raiders, but did you have to go to this extent?
Regarding Joy Stick and his team members’ complaints, “dog planner” Lord Murphy who had already flown to the skies above Plague Town for first-hand melon eating and strong spectating expressed that he was really innocent.
Damn it!
If I could really interfere with “raid design”, I’d arrange a treasure-stealing goblin every ten steps in the raid for you, letting you all graduate with one raid run and then successfully become Transia’s fearless champions to kill in all directions.
Only you babies still think the development team is omnipotent in this world.
However the fact is, Xiao Cui and I are about to exhaust our brain cells for your big improvement.
“However, this thing in the shadows is indeed a bit strange.”
Murphy raised his hand in the high sky, letting the spirit vulture Revnor perch on his arm as he adjusted his vampire vision to look down at the shadow area in front of Brother Stick’s team.
The players couldn’t see, but Murphy could.
There was only one guy hiding and waiting to hunt in there, however just this one guy even made Murphy feel a slight threat.
“What the hell is this thing?”
At the same time Murphy frowned, below Joy Stick had already grabbed his heavy shield and Winged Cavalry war blade to step into the dark area first, he and several support shield bearers planned to do reconnaissance while the spirit mages were preparing spells again.
But as soon as they entered they felt their senses being suppressed, standing before his eyes was a tall naked Gnoll barbarian, but the fur on its body was like bizarre beast mane, grown extremely long, making that guy look like an atavistic beast.
More terrifying was that the aura emitted from this thing let Brother Stick confirm this was an undead, but there was a force perception very similar to his own pressing against Joy Stick’s mind.
“It’s the Wolfsbane Clan’s vampire heart!”
Melia the “White Wolf Maid” who was sharing vision with Brother Stick immediately explained:
“Its current condition is stuck between wolf-bat transformed vampire and normal Gnoll! Someone used vicious methods to activate the power of the Blood Wolf Clan’s vampire heart, and applied this blessing from midnight to this Gnoll corpse.
Blasphemy!
What terrible blasphemy!
My master, you must be careful!
This monster before your eyes simultaneously possesses the powers of undead, vampire and Gnoll, even in the undead domain this is a monster that has never appeared before.
I suggest you all retreat immediately!”
“We’ve come this far, no way we can retreat!”
Joy Stick gritted his teeth, fortunately this dark area also activated his blood thirst as a vampire, increasing Brother Stick’s combat power another level.
He signaled his brothers to get ready, then as the main tank he threw forward a detection spell.
Just like classic taunt pulling.
The detection spell quickly took effect, as the twisted being before him howled and charged towards Joy Stick, Brother Stick also saw clearly this thing’s specific attributes:
Name: Test Subject 16-C
Rank: Level 28 Silver Body – Chimera 【Midnight/Savage/Netherworld】
Class: Unable to determine
Status: Midnight Blessing – Wolf-bat/Hunting Stance – Ranged Invalid/Netherworld Enhancement – Soul Devourer/Delicate Balance/Near Loss of Control
Creator: Plague Clan Corpse Constructor Lame Claw
Evaluation: Extremely dangerous.
“Damn, it really is a chimera?!”
Brother Stick complained, raising his shield to meet the monster head-on with a bang.
After becoming half Mountain Folk through transferring to Winged Cavalry and receiving the Forest Spirit’s war blessing, he had long since stopped fearing this kind of direct confrontation, however the latter’s strength was surprisingly great, instantly reminding Brother Stick of the feeling when fighting those Blood Wolf madmen in the sewers back then.
He planted his feet firmly on the ground but was still knocked back several steps, making him realize the strength attribute of this thing before him had reached the point where it could overwhelm him.
“Guerrilla tactics!”
He shouted:
“Don’t charge head-on! Spread out, hunting formation! Spirit mages use spells when ready! Hunters switch to incendiary arrows and dragon breath pellets, this thing is immune to ranged damage, try applying status effects!”
“Swoosh”
The veterans of the Hammer and Sickle Corps scattered into a standard circular enclosure within seconds, not needing Joy Stick’s detailed commands.
They formed combat squads of five people each, after the shield bearers moved forward to hold position, the DPS immediately maxed out.
Although this monster had ranged immunity, the veterans weren’t afraid of melee combat, each watching for opportunities to strike one blow but never getting greedy, the smooth operation of the entire team made Murphy nod repeatedly in the sky above.
Yes!
This was exactly the combat method he wanted to see from elite warriors.
Brother Stick also felt proud of his team, he had a feeling that perhaps he could kill this strange chimera on the first raid attempt.
This illusion of “I can counterattack” lasted until he personally saw Tiger Leopard Cavalry Dou holding the lion spear thrust into this monster’s eye socket attempting an execution, when the latter’s huge body exploded into flying bats with a bang.
Damn!
Brother Stick knew it was over.
Reality indeed proved so, after avoiding critical damage through bat transformation the BOSS immediately entered phase two of hit and run, its activated vampire and Gnoll speed stacking so fast that the defenders couldn’t hold “aggro” at all.
Without professional defenders’ protection, this maddened BOSS could take down others almost one claw at a time.
The power overwhelming was secondary.
This damn thing’s undead attribute gave it the ability to directly attack souls with “true damage”, this was probably the “Soul Devourer” trait marked on this guy’s character card.
“Retreat!”
After the fifth team member fell, Joy Stick decisively issued the retreat order without any hesitation.
When they withdrew from the shadow enclosed area, that monster didn’t pursue which immediately gave Brother Stick an idea – if they couldn’t kill it, why not destroy this guy’s “hiding place” first?
Since it possessed the advantages of three types of creatures, that means it should also have at least three types of weaknesses right?
And without the shadow’s cover, fighting in daytime would at least make the vampire part of this guy unable to rampage anymore, the sun’s weakening effect on vampires might put it in a weakened state.
“Don’t worry, we can beat it!”
Brother Stick confidently said to those beside him:
“Rest for 3 hours, brothers slower than me leave the raid, replace with comrades skilled in trap tactics and explosives handling, find five more speed-type melee substitutes to enter the raid!
Spirit mages first find where the spell formation maintaining this shadow area is, destroy it!
We’ll try again after the sun comes up.
I don’t believe it!
As veteran players how can we not even get past the gate BOSS?”
