Chapter 883: Giant Undead Beasts
“Never mind, let’s not talk about finding the way. I’ve already taken a look of the surroundings along the way just now using the Warlock’s Eyes, and didn’t spot any magic traps or gears. Just watch out for your own team and be prepared for battle anytime. The Tower of Dusk will walk in front,” Lin Li suddenly said with generosity. Although he said that there wasn’t a need to specially assign a pathfinder, the Tower of Dusk would be doing just that by walking at the front.
Of course, this wasn’t because Lin Li had suddenly become altruistic. After entering the valley, a battle could start at any moment. Thus, it wasn’t necessarily the most dangerous at the front and safest in the middle. Moreover, Lin Li’s aim was to find clues about the Immortal King, while the others were here for the treasures in the tomb. If Lin Li let another faction reach the tomb first, they would definitely start to excavate the tomb once they entered. If they ruined any important clues about the Immortal King in the process, that would be something Lin Li definitely wouldn’t want to see.
Thus, the team that planned to cross through the valley settled the arrangements quickly. The Tower of Dusk would be at the front, followed by the Glittergold Trade Union, Mithril Alliance, and then Caesar Family. Although the Caesar Family managed to escape from the chore of leading, it became the last after much negotiation with the Mithril Alliance.
Upon entering the valley, the Tower of Dusk led the team towards the tomb cautiously. A strong death aura surrounded the exploration team, making the atmosphere tense and solemn. No one dared to have any bit of negligence. Everyone used 100% of their concentration, preparing for any sudden attack that might arise.
Joseph, who was in the middle of the team, looked at those in front and behind him. He wasn’t satisfied with this arrangement, and secretly blamed Claus. Did Claus not know what would happen if the Tower of Dusk was at the front of the team alone? How could he call back his people so easily?
Joseph was clear that President Felic of the Tower of Dusk wasn’t someone with noble character and integrity. The reason why he chose to lead the team was because he could reach the tomb earlier than the rest and gain more benefits that way. In Joseph’s original speculation, he thought that both the Caesar Family and Tower of Dusk would send out their people to lead the way. That way, the Caesar Family could provide supervision, and prevent the Tower of Dusk from getting all the shares. Little did he expect that Claus would give up straight away. He didn’t believe that Claus didn’t see this problem. Thinking back to the Life Potions Felic had given to the Claus for free, it seemed that their alliance wasn’t so strong after all.
In the pitch-dark valley, the expedition team sustaining illumination spells looked like a moving fire snake, maneuvering slowly along the skeletons of numerous giant beasts.
However, when the expedition team was about a third into the journey, the ground started shaking violently. Those giant beast skeletons which had been partially buried in soil slowly stood up from the ground, releasing an even stronger death aura from their bodies.
Indeed, it wasn’t the most dangerous in front and the safest in the middle. As each giant beast skeleton stood up, the entire team was encircled by the skeletons; whether one stood at the front or back of the team became totally unimportant.
However, the people in the team were the elites in each faction, after all. Thus, they didn’t get flustered by the sudden appearance of these skeletons. Being on their guard all the time, they immediately responded to the situation and stood in the best defense team formation.
Although these giant Undead beasts had enormous bodies and looked intimidating, their levels were actually not very high. Most of them were about level-17 or 18. The expedition team consisted of hundreds of people each at least level-15. With their special battle formations on top of that, their power was enough to fight with these giant Undead beasts even without considering the Legendary powerhouses’ power.
The battle broke out at that instant.
The recitations of spells, the roars of Warriors, the buzzing of magic, the clashing sounds of weapons… All kinds of sounds filled the valley that was peaceful and quiet just moments ago.
However, this brief interaction with the giant Undead beasts made some people in the team, especially the Warriors collaborating with the mages from the three factions besides the Tower of Dusk, realize that something wasn’t right. They were shocked to find out that while these giant Undead beasts didn’t have high levels of power, their skeletons were exceptionally tough, as if they were made from steel.
The Mithril Alliance and Caesar Family mostly used great axe Warriors as the dominant attacking force. Every great axe Warrior was at least level-17. With the mages supporting them with all kinds of strength-enhancing magic, each of their strikes could reach the peak of level-19 in power.
However, these great axe Warriors’ invincible great axes lost their power when facing the giant Undead beasts. Even if it were metal pillars of the same thickness, the great axe Warriors would be confident to break it into half. However, when the same amount of force was used on the bones of the giant Undead beasts, it could only chip down a small bone shard. Moreover, the rebound from the strike was so great that the great axe Warriors almost dropped their axes.
Out of all the Warriors, great axe Warriors were the strongest in terms of attack. Now that the great axe Warriors couldn’t fare well in facing the giant Undead beasts, what more the other shield-sword Warriors or spear Warriors with their significantly lower attack power. As for Assassins and Archers, they had totally lost their use in this battle. No matter how powerful their bows and arrows were, or what kind of deadly poison they had, they couldn’t harm the giant Undead beasts even a bit.
The great shield Warriors who were in charge of defense were even worse off. They totally didn’t expect the giant Undead beasts to be so strong that they could knock down a hill. A brief interaction with the giant Undead beasts had resulted in a few of the Warriors being thrown into the air together with their shields. Those steel shields were instantly bent after colliding with the giant Undead beasts, so much that they could even be used as a pot for cooking.
As such, the only ones who could deal effective damage to these giant Undead beasts were the mages. However, this didn’t mean that the giant Undead beasts were weak in front of magic. It just meant that their magical defense wasn’t as heaven-defyingly powerful as their physical defense.
Back when they faced the Whispering God, Joseph had secretly mocked the Tower of Dusk’s all-mage team because after their Archmages had exhausted all their mana, the team would be like cows and sheep waiting to be slaughtered. However, Joseph was extremely envious of the Tower of Dusk’s all-mage team now. A Warrior above level-15 couldn’t even cause more damage than a mage apprentice when facing the giant Undead beasts.
Compared to the Mithril Alliance and Caesar Family, the situation of the Glittergold Trade Union’s team which also wasn’t an all-mage team was much better. One of the reasons for it was that they had quite a number of mages in their team, and were only second to the Tower of Dusk out of the four factions. The other reason was that Glittergold Trade Union’s team had followed after the Tower of Dusk’s team very closely.
Since the very start of the battle, the mage team of the Tower of Dusk had unleashed extraordinary battle strength as if they were venting all the frustration they had experienced fighting the Whispering God on these giant Undead beasts. Countless high-level magical spells were cast and merged to form a massive magic storm, sweeping towards the giant Undead beasts and engulfing them. After the magic storm was over, the gigantic bodies of the giant Undead beasts had disappeared, only leaving bone shards all over the ground.
Upon being surrounded by numerous giant Undead beasts, the Legendary powerhouses from the other three factions had all joined in the battle. However, for the Tower of Dusk, the only Legendary-mage on the battlefield was Alan, who was in charge of leading the mage team. As for Lin Li and the other leaders of the Tower of Dusk, they didn’t even need to cast a single magic spell. Only Ujfalusi collected some of the bones from the battlefield on and off.
However, Lin Li wasn’t just doing nothing. He frowned slightly and started to think about the origins of these giant Undead beasts. Lin Li had seen many Undead creatures before, including Ujfalusi, who experted in Death Magic. He had also stayed at the Darkness Shrine for a considerable period of time. However, these giant Undead beasts were creatures he had neither seen nor heard of before.
Without any ideas or answers, Lin Li called Ujfalusi to his side, and asked, “Ujfalusi, do you recognize these Undead creatures?”
Ujfalusi politely replied, “I’m very sorry, Master. I’ve never seen such Undead creatures before. Even when I used the Tide of Death, I’ve never summoned these creatures. However, I’ve just examined their bones, and discovered that their bones seem to be even stronger than those of wyrms.”
“Stronger than the bones of wyrms… Could they be made via Alchemy?” Lin Li could see that the giant Undead beasts’ bones were extremely hard from the battle between these creatures and the three factions. However, it was rather unbelievable that their bones would be stronger than those of wyrms. He thought that since Osric could use Alchemy to make modifications to Death Knights, it wasn’t impossible that Brahere had used Alchemy to create these giant Undead beasts.
Ujfalusi didn’t have any expertise on Alchemy, so he couldn’t answer Lin Li. He took out a piece of bone he had picked up, and said to Lin Li, “Master, here’s a piece of bone I’ve picked up. As for whether it had been modified via Alchemy, I can’t make a judgment about that.”
After receiving the piece of bone, Lin Li flipped it around to examine it closely, and his frown deepened. According to his current knowledge about Alchemy, it was obvious that the piece of bone didn’t have any traces of alchemy strengthening. Its hardness seemed to be innate. However, what other magical beast could possess such strong bones in this world other than the powerful wyrms?
Enormous bodies, strong bones, powerful strength… One could easily imagine how powerful these magical beasts were when they were still alive! Looking at the giant Undead beasts on the battlefield, a thought flashed across Lin Li’s mind. Could these giant Undead beasts be… Skeletal Behemoths?
Other than Behemoth Beasts, Lin Li couldn’t think of any other magical beast that had such strong bones in Anril. However, he also couldn’t believe that Behemoth Beasts would turn into Undead creatures.
Behemoth Beasts were said to be powerful beasts from the Kingdom of Orcs. Although they didn’t have any affinity spells or special abilities like other magical beasts, they possessed extremely strong bodies. Even a newborn Behemoth could easily rip a lion into halves. Some even said that they were the most powerful creatures that had ever roamed Anril after the wyrms.
Behemoth Beasts were like gods to the orcs, just like the Unicorn and Moonsaber Panther to the elves. What was different was that the orcs considered Behemoth Beasts to be the messengers of the Orc God to test their bravery. Thus, every orc chief successor needed to kill a Behemoth Beast single-handedly on the day he reached adulthood to prove his bravery to the Orc God.
It was said that Great Chief Sol, who now controlled all 49 tribes of the Kingdom of Orcs, had single-handedly killed 10 Behemoth Beasts on his coming-of-age ceremony. However, other than that, the Behemoth Beasts enjoyed the treatment of sacred beasts. Anyone else who killed Behemoth Beasts would be considered an enemy of the orcs.
With their powerful bodies, the skeletons of Behemoth Beasts were definitely much sought after by Necromancers. However, strangely, it was unheard of that any Necromancer had ever successfully converted a Behemoth Beast skeleton into an Undead creature in history. Even Sendros, who possessed the peak of Legendary abilities, didn’t manage to do that.
There were many explanations about the reason for that. The orcs believed that the Behemoth Beasts were blessed by the great Orc God, so their bodies wouldn’t be used by those dirty Necromancers. The Necromancers had a different explanation. They said that when the gods had first created the Behemoth Beasts, they didn’t see a need to give them powerful souls, since they already had powerful bodies. Thus, Behemoth Beasts didn’t have soul fire after they died, so they couldn’t be converted into Undead creatures.
There hadn’t been any conclusion regarding this matter. Perhaps both of them were somewhat right; perhaps both were far from the truth. If there was anything that could be confirmed, it would be how impossible it was to convert these Behemoth Beasts into Undead creatures.
Because of this, Lin Li couldn’t believe that the giant Undead beasts were actually Behemoths. However, thinking about the Whispering God that Prince Brahere had cultivated and turned into a mana source, it wasn’t so unbelievable that a madman like Brahere would create these Skeletal Behemoths.
Lin Li didn’t spend much time thinking about these questions. However, it was already towards the end of the battle when he finished thinking about them. Although the other three factions weren’t as powerful as the Tower of Dusk’s team, it wasn’t difficult for their Legendary powerhouses to deal with these Skeletal Behemoths.
Through this battle, the other three factions gained a better understanding of the Tower of Dusk’s mage team’s abilities. Although the Legendary powerhouses from the three factions had joined the battle, half of the 100-odd Skeletal Behemoths were killed by the Tower of Dusk’s mage team.