Chapter 28: Ugly, Mad, And Sinister
Anse stood at the rear of the battlefield, occasionally throwing a cantrip to help Zahir stabilize the defensive line, but his attention was always on Land.
Listening to the constantly popping combat logs, he was grinning from ear to ear.
Land hopped along the defensive line, specifically targeting areas dense with monsters, releasing one or two Dragon Breaths before switching spots; the occasional bursts of breath greatly reduced the pressure on the humans and skyrocketed morale.
One minute passed quickly; he released at least six breaths, about once every ten seconds, with quite high efficiency.
Later on, the monsters scattered upon seeing him approach, sharply reducing his kills, but nearly a hundred monsters were still affected by the Dragon Breath.
Anse’s experience prompts never stopped, coming intermittently, generally only a few points each; they were all small fry that died, but the quantity was substantial.
As soon as Land finished, Zahir received his gesture, ran off the battlefield, and came to Anse’s side.
“Got any more?” Zahir’s eyes gleamed with anticipation.
“Yes!” Anse laughed and extended his hand toward him.
“Lightning!” Zahir still remembered the lightning effect Anse had just caused.
“Good.”
Moments later, Zahir similarly leaped into the monster group on the north side, briefly gathered himself, then opened his mouth and spat; explosive electric light spread, electrocuting countless merfolk, and even the nearby combatants had their hair stand on end, looking quite abstract.
To avoid friendly fire, Zahir had to dive deeper, even jumping to the flood’s edge to wreak havoc, acting extremely arrogant; monsters with Challenge Rating below 4 couldn’t stop him at all.
The other combatants were happy about this too, taking advantage of the chaos to strike killing blows; the combat was several times easier than before.
Seeing this, Anse tugged Brat: “Let’s go, we’ll pull back.”
Although Kuo-Toa were stupid and mad, they were still a sentient race; he had already noticed quite a few merfolk professionals riding Giant Crabs heading this way— if they didn’t leave now, there would really be trouble.
“Huh?” Brat wasn’t satisfied yet and was feeling pent up, “How about giving me one too?”
“No, let’s go.”
Anse quickly retreated, soon reaching the earth and stone slope where Finn was.
Brat looked disappointed but stayed by his side the whole time.
“Too dangerous.” Anse explained.
The casting speed of Dragon Breath was very fast, comparable to Quick Cast, but the caster needed a channeling process; without spellcasting experience, it would be very slow and easy to get targeted— if one’s strength wasn’t enough, it was really quite dangerous.
Moreover, Dragon Breath plus Jump required a total of 4 mana points; he now had only 11 mana points left— if mana was too low or depleted, the spellcaster would enter exhaustion status; he had to save some mana for emergencies.
Anse observed the battlefield and found more and more humans gathering, with people constantly joining the combat; the human side had already gained control of the situation, with casualties sharply reduced.
‘Contribution is big enough; slacking off a bit won’t hurt.’
He still remembered before, when he was the obvious target and got locked onto by two javelins; Brat had nearly died— to live longer, it was better to play it a bit safe.
Now he only hoped those monsters affected by Dragon Breath would hurry up and die, ideally none escaping, though that was unrealistic.
On the battlefield, after Zahir released his final Dragon Breath, he only felt utterly refreshed, giving him the illusion that his spellcasting ability had returned.
He stood on the Chongsa River bank, turned to look for Anse, but saw the old priest not far away pointing at the river water beside him, his expression anxious:
“Watch out below the water!”
With a boom, a huge shelled creature leaped from the Chongsa River; amid the sky full of water mist, massive armored claws clamped toward his body.
It happened suddenly; Zahir retreated while activating Shield of Faith, a field of faintly glowing energy enveloping him.
“Clang—”
The giant claws clamped onto it but were firmly blocked.
Zahir had just thought to take the chance to withdraw when a strange scepter suddenly extended from the monster’s back, striking the shield; lightning burst out, the shield shattered, and he was blasted several meters away, crashing into the muddy water, limbs stiff, unable to get up for a long time.
【Armored Monster, Aberration, Challenge Rating 4】
【Kuo-Toa High Priest, Kuo-Toa, Challenge Rating 6】
‘High Priest?!’ Anse saw from afar, his heart sinking with an urge to run.
The Kuo-Toa High Priest had Challenge Rating 6, but he was a level 10 spellcaster, even more troublesome than the Duergar Warlord.
The Armored Monster was no pushover either; it was a large aberration, amphibious, immune to poison, and could sense magic.
The Armored Monster, carrying the Kuo-Toa High Priest, charged rapidly toward Zahir, but he and Land were too far away to rescue him.
“Whoosh—”
At the critical moment, a javelin whistled toward the Armored Monster; its reaction was too slow to dodge, so it swung its armored claws to block.
The shell cracked like a spiderweb, the javelin embedding over halfway; the Armored Monster paused, emitting a piercing screech.
“Such great strength!” Brat exclaimed in amazement.
Anse looked from afar; on the Chongsa River bank, a burly figure in a red-based gold Flame Fist robe had already thrown a second javelin, then picked up a great axe and charged.
‘Seems like a Flame Fist member.’ He recognized the clothes.
The second javelin hit again, accurate and ruthless.
With this delay, Zahir had shaken off the paralysis and stood up; holy light flashed over his body, restoring most of his wounds, then he charged up after that burly man.
The Armored Monster swung its huge armored claws, creating waves of dull whooshes, its momentum terrifying.
Zahir and the other fought mainly with hit-and-run tactics; the Armored Monster’s strength surpassed even the Duergar Warlord’s, but its reactions were slow and intelligence low— not hard for an elite professional to deal with.
They were more wary of the Kuo-Toa High Priest on the monster’s back.
However, aside from occasionally firing a lightning bolt of not particularly strong power, the Kuo-Toa High Priest’s presence wasn’t strong.
“He has no spellcasting ability left!” Anse realized.
The Magic Net was fair to everyone; the Kuo-Toa High Priest, aside from a few spell-like abilities, also relied on spell slots.
“Let’s go, we’ll head over too.” Anse picked up his staff and ran toward the river bank; such an opportunity couldn’t be missed— maybe he could even leech some experience.
By the time the three reached the river bank, the Armored Monster had lost one forelimb; judging by the wound, it was that Flame Fist burly man’s doing.
Anse focused his gaze on him; it was easier to detect attributes during combat:
【Flame Fist Elite, Human, Level 8 Barbarian（Berserker）】
‘So strong, no wonder he can go toe-to-toe with the Armored Monster.’
A level 8 professional, even without mastering powerful feats, would inevitably have made great progress in attributes.
The two apparently also realized the Kuo-Toa High Priest was a bit weak; they coordinated, their offensive fierce.
The Flame Fist Elite moved to the Armored Monster’s blind spot, crouched low, red light glowing over his body; the next moment, he charged like a wild bull to the Armored Monster’s rear, so fast he left afterimages, great axe raised high with raging fury swirling around it, then slashed down with momentum.
The Armored Monster could only twist its body slightly; the great axe had already fallen, slicing deep into its waist along the thigh root; a large amount of blue-green liquid sprayed out, its body going limp as it collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Zahir seized the chance to step forward, thrusting his sword into the Armored Monster’s neck up to the hilt.
Anse had just raised his hand to finish it off when he sensed strange mana fluctuations from the Kuo-Toa High Priest.
“Watch out—”
He shouted, then immediately triggered the Spell Storing Ring; three Magic Missiles whistled toward the Kuo-Toa High Priest.
The next moment, surging blue-purple energy spread from the High Priest, covering a range of over ten meters around; massive thunder and corrosion energy instantly engulfed Zahir and the other, pooled water vaporizing, the ground covered in dark purple or black corrosion marks.
The three Magic Missiles dissipated into nothing just as they neared, having no effect.
‘We’re done for.’ Anse’s heart turned ice-cold.
Thanks to Maozao, Renshenbuyu, and Book Friend 20220602025759276 for the reward.
Thanks to all reader lords for your support and suggestions!
Creature types:
Aberration: Purely otherworldly existences, such as Abyssal Fish, beholders, flumphs, and Mind Flayers.
Beast: Non-humanoid natural creatures, such as horses and wolves, as well as most giant animals.
Celestial: Magical creatures tied to the upper planes, such as angels and pegasi.
Construct: magically created creatures, such as artificial lifeforms, helmed horrors, and Shield Guards.
Dragon: Scaled creatures of ancient origin, such as red dragons and wyverns.
Element: Creatures from the Elemental Plane, such as fire giants and water elementals.
Fey: Creatures tied to the Feywild or natural forces, such as dryads, goblins, and pixies.
Fiend: Creatures tied to terrifying lower planes, such as balors and hell hounds.
Giant: Towering human-shaped creatures, such as cyclopes, fire giants, and trolls.
Humanoid: People defined by identity and class, such as wizards, pirates, and warriors, encompassing members of all races.
Monstrosity: Unnatural creatures of strange origin, such as mimics and owlbears.
Ooze: Gelatinous creatures, including black puddings and otyughs.
Plant: Sentient vegetable and fungal monsters, such as myconids, blights, and treants.
Undead: Including ghosts and deaders “revived” to life, such as ghosts, vampires, and zombies.
