61 (61) Fighting Death

A horrible stench wafted into Kraton's nose, countless sharp limbs poked his hairy body as the Flesh-stripped Zombies clambered over him.

"ROAR!" With an almighty yell, Kraton flung the putrid zombies away from him and leaped out of the moutain of corpses, freeing himself completely from their grasps.

The explosive momentum seemed to produced a blinding light the instant it was released, but was dimmed out by the piles of undead bodies, the corrupted corpses and rotting flesh tainted the light a dark raisin colour.

Even Lysine was outstanded by his mighty display of strength, but only before realising that it had been a minute already since he had activated Power Boost. The combination of Power Boost and Explosive Leap made it easy knock the lightweight zombies aside.

As soon as Kraton landed, the legion of undead threw themselves at him once again, but this time they were met with a barrage of punches, pushing them back.

Meanwhile, Lysine was airborne. With three of her skills rendered useless against the undead, she could only rely on fatal strikes with the help of Barren's large coverage of attacks.

Noticing the Lamia's movement, Lloyd focused on taking her down first. She was the most vulnerable in his view as her attacks were very uneffective in getting past three or four of the undead.

The several tendrils of darkness merged into one, large concentrated whip. He clenched the dark weapon with both his hand and swung it through the air. Unlike the other whips, this one fanned out near the tip enveloping a larger area the further away it went.

Like a fly dodging a fly-swatter, Lysine tried to dodge and weave, but after a while it began to become too tiring and she began to slow down. With her decreased speed, Lloyd was able to strike a hit, grounding the Lamia in a dazed state.

The young man changed his attacks into a relentless bombardment with a hundred whips. The flurry of attacks caused great scars to appear in the stone floor, and a dozen of them hit its mark.

Lysine cried in agony, but managed to activate Dash before the killing strike arrived. She attempted to find shelter next to Barren, but he too was becoming swarmed with the undead.

Every wave of undead required a large crystal spike to clear away, but those that got close enough had dug their teeth and claws, trying to crack the crystals which made up his body. As soon as they did, many of them self-destructed, leaving a few scratches on his impenetrable hide.

Kraton was in a worse state, the Flesh-stripped Zombies had exhausted his energy, the effectiveness of Harden became less and less, allowing many of the monsters to leave bloody cuts on his body.

As each of them were becoming tired and overwhelmed, Lloyd attacked more fiercely. Each of the dark tendrils had a large aura around them, the presence of this aura made the Bosses' movements slower and more tiring.

It wasn't long until a dark tendril pierced through Lysine's body, many more followed suit, riddling her body with holes. In the midst of the pain, she flicked her tail sharply, droplets of green venom sprayed towards the blonde man.

In the lapse of death, she shrieked out in pain as her body contorted, the tendrils tearing her body. The bliss of death arrived as she departed the battlefield in a wisp of white light.

<Boss Lysine has been defeated>

The confirmation from the player system caused Lloyd to grin, but shortly after a painful stinging flared up on his leg.

Lloyd looked down and discovered his thin clothing dissolving away, a patch of liquid nestled in the centre. The skin and flesh under the clothes were corroding away, and was beginning to look a lot like the Flesh-stripped Zombies' flesh.

He reacted quickly and smothered the region of flesh with dark energy, dousing the toxins. Even with his quick reaction, his whole leg felt numb. In addition to his broken ankle, standing was a tricky task.

Seeing that the other two Bosses were occupied, Lloyd sat down. Attacking with his dark energy didn't require movement anyway.

The next Boss he focused on was Kraton, but he still had to keep an eye on the Crystal Golem due to its plethora of attacks.

Kraton was already in a pickle, and when the dark tendrils lashed out and joined the fight, he was doomed to fall sooner or later. Around him, were deep craters and burnt rocks, he had survived until now purely by brute force and his vast health. But his body was nearing its limit.

Around ten or so Flesh-stripped Zombies had died to his hands, an impressive feat especially considering the circumstances. However, those that had not been killed soon enough had exploded right on him. Although his skin was tough and durable, it wasn't at the level of Barren's crystal physique.

During the cooldown of Power Boost, Kraton had to rely on using Basic Attacks as his exhausted body could not dish out an constant level of damage.

A newly summoned Zombie approached him, its cold, gleaming claw-like hand poised to attack. It lunged forward amidst the crowd of battered monsters, aiming towards a gaping wound at the side of Kraton's wasit.

The hairs on Kraton's back rose, sensing the incoming danger he swung around, sweeping his club at all the monsters around him. As luck would have it, the cooldown of Power Boost had ended and his sweeping strike held enormous power, yet from experience he knew it would not be enough.

When using Physical Pummel without the Power Boost, it had taken four to five hits to defeat a monster, Power Boost was only enough to half their health - and that was when he was full of vigour.

Nevertheless, Kraton did not deactivate the Basic Attack function as he was sure his strength was well below average right now.

*Crack*

His club collided with five Zombies in the way, including the freshly summoned one. And the club smashed through it's skull, bones splintered everywhere.

The five Zombies collapsed and turned back into black wisps of energy. Out of the five of them, three were already very injured, yet the other two had also been instantly shattered into dust.

A message flowed at the back of Kraton's mind: <crit> .... <crit>

Luck shined upon him, the multiplied damage of the crit, coupled with the Power Boost was enough to decimate a Zombie in one hit. The Critical Attack function had improved at level 31 from 5% to a 15% chance, but that was still quite low, and the chance to crit the same attack on two different opponents was tinsy.

Lloyd was shocked when he saw the newly summoned Zombie just evaporate into dust with one attack, however being a seasoned player, he realised the cause very quickly.

During the whole battle, he had kept an eye on all three Bosses and had analysed their skills and attack patterns. From his calculations, he guessed that the only skill that could be activated right now was the leaping skill.

Dozens of dark tendrils expanded from his palm, they darted through the crowd of monsters and twisted around Kraton's body. Kraton resisted and snapped out of two or three, but soon he was overwhelmed and constrained by the dark tendrils.

Like pythons, they constricted, squeezing Kraton's body and preventing him from using his skills. The Flesh-stripped Zombies took hold of the situation and pounced, their putrid bones cut and slashed and blood poured out from Kraton's body.

The ground rumbled and shook and a shape pierced out of the floor. A shark spike, like a stake was slanted at an angle, rocketing towards the man on the floor.

Lloyd cursed, he was so close at finishing of the other Boss, yet the Crystal Golem had sent fatal attack right towards him. He quickly recalled the dark enrgy, the outstretched tendrils dispersed away and returned back to Lloyds palms.

With a slamming motion, two large tendrils formed immediately and smashed againts the ground. The force blasted Lloyd into the air, barely dodging the spike by a hairs breadth. However, the crystal spike pierced right through one of the dark tendrils, Lloyd swore at his repeated mistake. He should have turned them intagible right after propelling himself.

The impact of the spike and cut tendril spung the man around, falling at an awkward angle. He muttered a command under his breath, and twenty Zombies appeared beneath him, creating a mountain of rotten flesh and bones.

Lloyd fell into the rotten mountain, the peak caved in as Zombies cushioned his fall. In a few seconds, the Zombies clambered away and Lloyd was found resting - mostly uninjured - on the floor.

He glanced around himself and was relieved that both Bosses were still occupied by the Zombies. Without waiting around, he shot a dozen dark spears right towards Kraton. The light from the glowing stones could hardly locate the rapid spears, and even if the light did fall on them, the dark composition made it look as evasive as a shadow.

Kraton was counting down in his head, the number had reached ten, but he felt danger apporaching him all of a sudden. Ten seconds and his skill cooldown would end, yet ten seconds might be too long.

Five seconds... and a pain erupted in Kraton's chest. He dropped his gaze and saw three long, dark points sticking out of him. Coldness consumed his heart, sommething he hadn't felt for quite a long time now. He turned towards the man who killed him and glared.

<Boss Kraton has been defeated>

White light poured through the crowd of Flesh-stripped Zombies that had surrounded Kraton. Simultaneously, their rotten heads turned towards Barren as their targets changed.

Barren let loose a grinding roar that shook the stalactites on the ceiling. A wave vibrated through the floor, tripping up all the Zombies on the floor. With a green glow, Barren smashed his hands into the shaking ground and the tremors increased in intensity.

Dozens of massive jade vines burst out of the ground, walls and ceiling of the room, their combined size covered almost every part of the room. The vines plummeted down, squishing the Flesh-stripped Zombies like ants.

Lloyd winced in pain as the collective death of his summoned monsters felt like a sudden heartache.

Yet once the pain subsided, he held a grin in his face, almost as if he was having fun.

The dark energy accumulated back together again, and Lloyd cast it forward. The small space in front of him was unaffected by the vines, and that patch of land began grow darker as the dark energy covered it.

"If numbers don't work, then try one of these!" He laughed in glee as a powerful pressure invaded the room once again.

Unlike before when the Flesh-stripped Zombies climbed their way out of the abyssal cracks, the dark shadow seemed to grow and rise. The rising shadow created an eerie scene as it did not have an outline, just darkness.

The shadow continued growing until it was just a few metres shorter than the height of the room. Barren stood dwarved against the shadow, and even he felt the pressure from it.

The shadow slowly moved, the side facing Barren slowly opened up like a cloak and a dark black surface glinted briefly. A large, black, metal stick was uncovered as the shadowy cloak parted, Barren traced the stick upwards and found what had been glinting.

The top end of the stick was attached to a similarily dark blade which curved like a crescent and ended in a sharp point. The weapon was a gigantic scythe that reeked with an aura of death.

The top of the cloak was also shaped like a hood, but nothing could be seen inside of it. Suddenly, two slanted bright green eyes appeared in the hood, staring at the Crystal Golem.

The giant figure bent down, wisps of black smoke emanated from the fold of the cloak, a dark, bony hand protruded out of the cloak, it's fingers pointed upwards, gesturing for Barren to attack.