Chapter 884: Ghost Behemoth
The battle ended just as fast as it came. After the last Skeletal Behemoth had been crushed into bone shards, the valley regained its deathly silence. Compared to the battle against the Whispering God, the casualties in this battle were negligible. After all, the only ones who had been seriously wounded were the few Warriors who didn’t know what was going on at the start of the battle.
After this battle, the team seemed more confident in continuing their expedition. Although the Skeletal Behemoths were powerful, they didn’t pose a threat given the expedition team’s level of abilities, and could be said to be even weaker than the Ghost Warriors on the second floor. If the enemies they would meet later were all of this kind of standard, the expedition later would be a breeze.
“Continue forward,” Lin Li instructed the Tower of Dusk’s team. As this was only a small skirmish, the Tower of Dusk didn’t even have anyone who was slightly injured. Thus, there was no need for them to rest.
Upon receiving Lin Li’s order, the Tower of Dusk’s mages put up their illumination spells, and continued into the depths of the valley while stepping through the bone shards those Skeletal Behemoths had left behind.
Seeing that the Tower of Dusk’s team had already started to move, the Glittergold Trade Union, Mithril Alliance and Caesar Family didn’t want to waste any more time, and ordered their teams to reorganize their formations. For these elites from the different factions, it was already part of their instincts to get into formations. In mere seconds, the teams had changed from attack formation to defense formation.
“Jenny, where are you going?” In the Mithril Alliance’s team, great shield Warrior Ronald suddenly realized that his comrade, shield-sword Warrior Jenny, didn’t keep up with the team. This was rather strange as Jenny wasn’t injured in the battle just now. During normal training, this lad would be faster than Ronald to get into formation. Why was he so slow this time?
At the same time, great axe Warrior Hanks from the Caesar Family suddenly glimpsed a shadow sliding past rapidly in the corner of his eye. When he turned around, all that was left at the position where his comrade was supposed to be standing was his long spear lying on the ground.
Although it hadn’t been long since the battle had ended, such strange happenings weren’t rare in the expedition team. After all, this wasn’t a large team of thousands, but a small elite team comprising hundreds. Everyone in the respective factions was very familiar with their teammates, so it was very abnormal for some members of the team to disappear suddenly.
“Enemy’s close by! Illumination, mages!” Upon knowing the situation, Joseph immediately ordered the mages to put up their illumination spells. He held up his magic staff and sent a Solar Sphere into the air.
The mages from the Mithril Alliance and Caesar Family cast illumination spells after hearing Joseph’s order. Solar Spheres shot towards the exterior of the team one after another. Although nobody was missing in the Glittergold Trade Union’s team, Hoffman still instructed the mages in the team to put up their illumination spells as a cautionary measure.
By then, the Tower of Dusk’s team hadn’t ventured far from the remaining teams, so Lin Li knew what had happened to the teams behind. He held up his Sun Scepter to signal to the team to stop, and then ordered, “Everyone, illuminate the surroundings!”
The mages from the four factions released illumination spells almost simultaneously. The part of the valley which the expedition team was in was instantly bright as day. That was when everyone realized that there were already a dozen fresh corpses not far from the Mithril Alliance’s and Caesar Family’s team.
The killers of these Warriors were numerous gigantic shadows surrounding the team. They might have realized that they couldn’t kill more people silently under illumination, and immediately held up sharp claws dripping with blood, pouncing towards the center of the expedition team ferociously.
“Ghost… Ghost Behemoths!” Lin Li yelled after seeing the appearance of these shadows.
The appearance of the Skeletal Behemoths had already taken Lin Li by surprise; he didn’t expect Ghost Behemoths to appear here too. How could the Behemoths, which were said to be lacking in soul and unable to even assemble soul fire, become Ghosts!
No wonder the Tower of Dusk’s team didn’t encounter any stealth attacks. After all, the team was completely made up of mages, and had lit up the surroundings brightly with illumination spells all the time. Once the Ghost Behemoths entered their domain, they would definitely expose themselves, let alone to launch a successful stealth attack. As for the Glittergold Trade Union, their team had closely followed after the Tower of Dusk, and also comprised many mages. Thus, they weren’t the best option for the Ghost Behemoths to attack.
The Mithril Alliance and Caesar Family were more unfortunate. A sole illumination spell couldn’t light up a big area, and was only a little better than a torch. Given that the number of mages in their teams couldn’t compare to that of the Tower of Dusk’s and Glittergold Trade Union’s at all, coupled with the fact that their formation during the battle was rather sparse, they had given the Ghost Behemoths a perfect chance to attack.
It hadn’t been long since the battle with the Skeletal Behemoths had ended, and these Ghost Behemoths had already attacked a dozen of members in the team. Although all those who were attacked were Warriors, any Warrior above level-15 was already a rare talent. In addition, the two factions had already suffered huge losses back when battling the Whispering God. It seemed that the two factions would pay a high price during this expedition.
Although the appearance of the Ghost Behemoths was shocking, Lin Li couldn’t just ignore the fact that they existed, since they were right in front of his eyes. These Ghost Behemoths might not be as powerful as the Skeletal Behemoths in terms of strength, but their characteristics as Ghosts made them a tougher opponent to deal with.
These Ghost Behemoths could shift their bodies between being tangible and intangible. They also possessed different abilities in different forms. When they were in their intangible form, they could attack the opponent’s soul directly, and were immune to all physical attacks just like Vengeful Spirits, but had almost no immunity to magic attacks. When they were in their tangible form, they gained powerful strength and sharp claws that could easily tear armor apart. They would also be immune to magic attacks, but boast little immunity to physical attacks.
Some might think that the Ghost Behemoths would be easy to deal with since one could easily strike them with magic attacks when they were intangible and use physical attacks when they were intangible. However, in reality, these Ghost Behemoths were so hard to deal with because they could change any part of their body to another form, not necessarily the whole body.
Soon, the expedition team’s Warriors and mages had all experienced how tough it was to deal with these Ghost Behemoths. When they stabbed their swords into the Ghost Behemoths’ bodies, all they pierced was a ball of mist. What was waiting for them, however, was the Ghost Behemoths’ sharp claws which gave people fatal attacks. While the magic attacks of the team couldn’t cause any real damage to the Ghost Behemoths, the Ghost Behemoths’ claws could easily slice through the Warriors’ thick shields and tear at their souls.
When facing these Ghost Behemoths that were immune to both magic and physical attacks in this battle, the expedition team had become very passive. All the confidence that they had gathered from the victory against the Skeletal Behemoths just now was crushed by the Ghost Behemoths.
The Tower of Dusk’s team was completely made up of mages. Usually, any team with only members of the same occupation would be more disadvantaged when facing the spirits. After all, the Ghost Behemoths didn’t need to shift their forms when facing these mages, and could avoid all their attacks with their immunity to magic in tangible form.
However, the truth was that the Tower of Dusk’s team was in a better situation than the other three factions. Although the magic they released couldn’t cause any real harm to the Ghost Behemoths, the shock from these magic attacks was at least able to keep the Ghost Behemoths away from the team.
As such, the following scene could be observed in the battlefield: a dozen Ghost Behemoths surrounding the Tower of Dusk’s team continuously released attacks, but were swept to their original positions by magic storms.
For the other three factions, it was a collaboration between the mages and Warriors. Usually, this arrangement would be very advantageous when facing opponents with disproportionate physical and magic defense. No matter how high the opponent’s physical or magic defense power was, they could target their weaknesses. Thus, the three factions could easily win against the Ghost Behemoths if they were immune only to physical attacks or magic attacks. Unfortunately, although the Ghost Behemoths wouldn’t exhibit both polar opposite properties simultaneously, the frequency and uncertainty of their transformations made it hard for the mages and Warriors to find the right chance to attack.
To make matters worse, the method that the Ghost Behemoths employed to attack totally didn’t match their gigantic size. They were like giant assassins. The dark valley made it necessary for the mages to light up the valley with their illumination spells at all times. However, the mages had to release their illumination spells during battle, and couldn’t sustain the brightness in the valley.
Thus, although the mages had all put up their illumination spells at the start, the brightness of the surroundings decreased drastically after the real battle with the Ghost Behemoths had started. Although it wasn’t completely dark, the surroundings had made it difficult for the team to spot these Ghost Behemoths, making it harder for the expedition teams to defend themselves.
All the Legendary powerhouses in each faction had joined the battle since it started. Although they didn’t expect the Ghost Behemoths to appear here, they could judge from experience that these Ghost Behemoths were harder to deal with than the Skeletal Behemoths just now. However, as the surroundings got darker, even Legendary powerhouses couldn’t spot the Ghost Behemoths easily, causing inevitable damage to the team again.
From the looks of this battle, it was certainly a good opportunity for Lin Li to deal a blow to the Mithril Alliance—he only had to watch its casualties increase. However, Lin Li didn’t do that. After all, this was only the fourth floor of the mausoleum. If other teams suffered too many casualties, it would definitely affect the progress of the expedition later on.
With that in mind, Lin Li released the debris of the stars Holy Light, hanging it over the team’s heads like a little sun that had suddenly appeared. Its pure, sacred light instantaneously outshone all the illumination spells around and lit up the entire area. Under such bright light, the Ghost Behemoths could no longer hide in the shadows, and became totally visible to the team.
However, Lin Li wasn’t altruistic enough to directly help the Mithril Alliance deal with these Ghost Behemoths. After all, there would be a battle between the Mithril Alliance and Tower of Dusk eventually. Hence, he restricted the power of Holy Light to make sure that it didn’t release its powerful ability of purification, and only acted as a light source. If not, these Ghost Behemoths would be dead right there.
However, the Holy Light was after all a piece of debris of the stars. Even though Lin Li had restricted its purification power, the light still influenced the Ghost Behemoths somewhat, and the Behemoths could no longer change their forms as freely as before. This created a good chance for the expedition.
“Kill!” Great axe Warrior Hanks smashed his two-bladed great axe into the Ghost Behemoth in front of him. This time, his axe didn’t strike thin air. Instead, he felt the real resistance caused by hitting physical matter. Next, the resistance was lifted, and he was overjoyed to find a muscular ghost arm on the ground.
“Boom!”
A fireball hit a Ghost Behemoth that was trying to change its form spot on. A low-level fireball spell was enough to ignite a Ghost Behemoth that looked like a plume of smoke. The gigantic Ghost Behemoth didn’t even manage to switch into its physical form before turning into a ball of fire, and burnt out in the blink of an eye.
After Lin Li had released Holy Light, the situation in the battlefield took a drastic turn. The initially helpless team suddenly became extraordinarily valorous, slashing and killing the Ghost Behemoths as if chopping vegetables.
When the battle had ended, nobody dared to relax. Everyone still observed the surroundings cautiously, and only started to care for the injured after orders were given to get into defensive formation. The Mithril Alliance and Caesar Family had both suffered much damage in this battle, while the Glittergold Trade Union also suffered some casualties. In contrast, the Tower of Dusk, aided by the divine-level magical equipment, didn’t even suffer from fatigue due to huge mana consumption.
Seeing that Lin Li had retrieved Holy Light, a tinge of jealousy flashed across Joseph’s eyes. He was also more cautious of Lin Li. Back in the battle with the Whispering God, Joseph had seen Lin Li summon out Demon Gordon and the alchemy puppets. He had thought that those were already the Tower of Dusk’s trump cards, but that seemed to be false from what he saw now.
As for Claus from the Caesar Family, he couldn’t help rejoicing secretly in his heart. After getting the Life Potions from the Tower of Dusk and seeing it display such powerful abilities now, he was glad that he hadn’t gone all hard on the Tower of Dusk like the Mithril Alliance. If not, his faction would have suffered the same consequence as Joseph’s team.