Chapter 961: Undead Demons
However, if one were to treat a Vampire as a Warrior and an Assassin, they would soon face their doom. Vampires had the speed of Assassins and the power of Warriors. At the same time, they were also extremely proficient in some Dark Magic. Hence, despite being on the same level, Vampires were still terrifying opponents of humans.
The black clouds which were formed by the black bats soon flew above the expedition, after which the black bats turned into humanoid form, screaming as they pounced onto the members of the expedition like bolts of black lightning.
The Skeletal Warriors were only surrounding the expedition in a single ring. The Alchemy Colossuses of the Rotterdam Kingdom, the Holy Light Knights of the Brilliance Shrine, and the Death Knights of the Tower of Dusk were blocking and resisting them. No matter how strong and powerful the modified Skeletal Warriors were, they would not be able to break through the defense of the expedition.
However, Vampires were different. They flew directly above the expedition, and plunged straight into the inner circle of the group. The center of the team was full of people from professions like Priests and Mages. If the Vampires rushed in, the expedition would probably be in serious trouble.
At the sight of this, Archbishop Martin, Donald, and the others began to panic. There were tens of thousands of Vampires, and they were falling down like rain. Even though they were Legendary powerhouses who were at the pinnacle of the realm, they could not quite block the Vampires and keep them away.
“President Felic, hurry and use that magical weapon of yours. You can’t let those Vampires rush in!” Donald was a little anxious, and he remembered the magical weapon that Lin Li had used back then to instantaneously kill a High Elf at the peak of the Legendary-level. However, he did not want to probe Lin Li this time. Instead, he really hoped that Lin Li could use that magical weapon to resolve the crisis before them.
However, Lin Li did not take out that mysterious and powerful magical weapon again as Donald had hoped. Without even looking at the sky, he instead calmly said, “Ujfalusi, Norfeller, handle these Vampires.”
Donald panicked when he heard Lin Li’s words. There were tens of thousands of Vampires above them! Even if they were not high-level ones, the vast number was no longer something that could be stopped by one or two powerhouses. If Ujfalusi and Norfeller were Sanctuary powerhouses, Donald naturally would not be worried. However, the problem was that they were only powerhouses at the peak of level-24.
Besides, the Undead creatures in this world were rather peculiar, and God knew what kind of special abilities those Vampires had. Donald was a Legendary-mage himself. He knew that even if there were 10 of himself, he would not even be able to block the Vampires seamlessly.
There were tens of thousands of Vampires, not Skeletal Warriors. Even if the latter became extremely flexible, they would be about the same as ordinary people. A large magic spell would be able to destroy a large number of them. However, the Vampires were as quick as lightning, and a single magic spell that a mage like him cast would be the same as throwing a stone into a pile of flies. The flies would merely disperse, and only a few would be killed.
Donald felt that there were two possible reasons that Lin Li refused to use the magical weapon. One would be that it really could not be used for the time being, and the other was that Lin Li wanted to keep it as his trump card, and could not bear to use it now.
Of the two possibilities, Donald undoubtedly believed the second one more. Hence, when he saw that Lin Li was not sparing a thought for everyone and looking at the bigger picture, he immediately anxiously said, “President Felic, we’re already at this juncture. Yet, you’re still—”
However, a bloody rain suddenly began to fall from the sky before Donald could finish speaking, followed by countless corpses. The people from the Tower of Dusk were long prepared, and thus did not get stained by the blood at all. Meanwhile, the people from the Brilliance Shrine were shrouded in the light of purification which purified all the blood and corpses that touched them, turning them into ashes. Only most of the members of the Rotterdam Kingdom’s team were caught off guard and drenched in that rain of blood, while broken pieces of flesh hung from their bodies.
Donald was having it better. After all, he was a mage at the peak of the Legendary-realm. He gave himself a layer of magic shield to protect himself in time, shielding himself from the rain of blood and corpses falling from the sky. Afterward, he had no mind to pay to Lin Li. He looked up at the sky, only to get a great shock which caused his eyes to widen and his jaws to drop.
In the sky, he saw that Norfeller was wielding a pair of daggers which emitted two rays of red light that were nearly two meters long as he moved at high speed. It looked like the Sword Sage’s Storm. However, it was clearly several times larger in scale. It almost covered the sky above the expedition.
Tens of thousands of Vampires were falling from the sky like a black funnel. However, Norfeller’s Bloody Storm seemed to have become a meat grinder that blocked the bottom of the funnel, leaving the Vampires that were rushing downwards with no chance to exhibit their special abilities bestowed by the Immortal King at all. As soon as the Vampires touched the lights, they were instantly ground into pieces. None of them could dash through the Bloody Storm.
Ujfalusi, who was riding the Humerus Wyrm and flying together with Norfeller, actually seemed to have nothing to do at the beginning.
Of course, there were too many Vampires, and despite having peak-Legendary-level strength, Norfeller could not continue killing them. However, by the time Norfeller’s Blood Storm was about to stop, Ujfalusi pointed his Skeleton Staff towards the sky. Thick corrosive and gloomy clouds immediately replaced the Blood Storm, and covered the sky above the expedition.
When the effects of the corrosive clouds weakened, Norfeller wielded his daggers again to create a Bloody Storm. Lin Li’s Undead servants took turns to attack, thus shielding the sky above. In fact, they even seemed rather relaxed.
Oh God, that’s too terrifying! Looking at the bloody massacre in the sky, Donald and the others could not help but feel a chill down their spines. Although powerhouses at the peak of the Legendary-level could also cast powerful attacks like the Bloody Storm and the Corrosive Cloud, it would be painstaking to cast them continuously.
In fact, although it was true that Ujfalusi and Norfeller were much stronger than ordinary Legendary powerhouses at the pinnacle of the realm, the reason they could do that was undeniably also because of the environment there. Both of them were Undead creatures, and their power sources were the power of death and soul fire, which were precisely what this world lacked the least.
Norfeller and Ujfalusi would indeed consume a rather huge amount of their own power by casting the Bloody Storm and the Corrosive Cloud, but they could obtain plenty of soul fire to replenish the energy that they had lost at the same time that they were killing the Undead creatures. They could also obtain a large surplus of soul fire and enjoy the replenishment of power of death that was everywhere in this world. Although the consumption was not negligible, it was still within an acceptable range for them.
“Don’t stop, keep going,” Lin Li said in a tone that was as calm as ever. He seemed to be unaffected by the bloody massacre in the sky.
Faced with such a situation, everyone was speechless. The expedition continued to slowly advance towards their target despite the immense pressure. Norfeller and Ujfalusi were flying in the sky above the expedition and adjusting their positions while moving together with the team.
Of course, not all of the Vampires were bent on breaking through their defense from Norfeller and Ujfalusi’s side. There were also plenty of them who were avoiding the two of them, landing on the periphery of the expedition and mixing in with the Skeletal Warriors. However, the damage they could do to the expedition was far inferior to what landing in the middle of the team would accomplish.
Even though the Vampires were much stronger than the Skeletal Warriors, there were far too many of them, and it was similarly almost impossible for them to break in through the periphery.
The only thing that made the members of the expedition rather uncomfortable was the continuous blood rain and the broken bits of corpses that would hit their bodies every now and then. Although they had all been through harsh training, and were no strangers to bloodbaths, they were still uncomfortable.
Accompanied by the bloodbath, the expedition advanced towards their goal again. However, the area that was covered by the shadows in the distance seemed to be extremely distant. Despite Norfeller’s and Ujfalusi’s massacre, the Vampires did not decrease in number, and the clouds made up of Vampires could still be seen swarming in from the periphery.
So far, the expedition might be in a tough and dangerous predicament where they were advancing slowly, but it seemed that as long as they advanced continuously, it would only be a matter of time before they reached the destination.
However, the optimism in the hearts of the members of the expedition vanished like a bubble soon after it arose because of the appearance of a strange group of Undead creatures.
The new Undead creatures were very tall, almost on par with the Alchemy Colossuses. They walked upright, with dagger-like fangs in their mouths, a pair of curved, pointed horns on their foreheads, a pair of bony wings on their backs, and a stubby tail that was wagging incessantly.
“T-these are the skeletons of Greater Demons from the Endless Abyss. How did they end up here!?” Archbishop Martin immediately shrieked in disbelief after seeing the bunch of tall and large skeletons.
Greater Demon was not a universal term for Abyssal Demons, but rather a specific race of Abyssal Demons. Although they mainly lived in the deepest part of the abyss, they often appeared in the top few floors too. Besides, they often appeared as Demon Lords that ruled all Abyssal Demons of the same floor.
In the legends of Anril, there were often stories of demons tempting humans to sell their souls, and those things were actually the doings of the Greater Demons. Hence, ever since the Brilliance Shrine was established, they had dealt with Greater Demons several times before. Most of the purification tasks completed by the Court of Heresy had to do with Greater Demons.
The reason that Archbishop Martin was actually surprised was not just because of the appearance of the Greater Demon skeletons, as the skeleton of any other Abyssal Demon would be unimaginable. It was because the souls of the Abyssal Demons all belonged to the Endless Abyss and the ancient demon deities that had created the Endless Abyss. There was no Necromancer in history who could turn Abyssal Demons into Undead creatures, as that would be tantamount to challenging the might and authority of the ancient demon deities.
Archbishop Martin was not the only one who knew about that. In fact, almost everyone in the expedition did. The ancient demon deities were evil existences that could rival gods in myths. Based on the Endless Abyss that they had created, one could see how terrifying the power they possessed was. Fighting even an Abyssal Demon that was of the lowest level would be akin to fighting against the entire Endless Abyss, a price that no necromancer could afford.
However, Lin Li knew that even Osric, who was a disciple of the Immortal King, had been able to delve deep into the Endless Abyss to kill Balak, the most powerful tyrant of the ancient demon deities. With the Immortal King’s powerful abilities, he even killed the Dragon of Destruction, and dared to blaspheme even the true gods. How could he take the ancient demon deities seriously?
No matter where those Undead Greater Demon came from, they had to face them since they were enemies. The Undead Greater Demons were about level-17 and level-18, and a few of them had reached the Legendary-level. Among the Undead creatures, they should be considered Undead Lords.
Fortunately, this batch was small in number. There were probably only about a few hundred of them. Hence, they would not pose too much of a threat to the expedition yet.
However, although the size of this batch wasn’t large, a few more groups of Undead Greater Demons could be seen in the distance. They were moving quickly towards the team. If the expedition were to be surrounded by the Undead Greater Demons, it would be difficult to continue advancing, though they would not be destroyed. However, once the expedition stopped moving, they would eventually be overwhelmed by the Undead creatures. There was no other possible outcome.
“President Felic…”
“Master Felic…”
Donald and Archbishop Martin unanimously pinned their hopes on Lin Li again. It had already become a habit for them. If not for the Tower of Dusk’s team, the expedition made up of the two forces’ teams would not even have been able to pass the obstacle of the Undead Elemental Dragon. If they had been lucky, perhaps they would have been able to escape as ashes. If they had been out of luck, let alone making it this far, they would have been annihilated completely.
However, even at such a moment, Lin Li still did not take out the magical weapon that he had once used to kill the High Elf at the peak of the Legendary-level like Donald had hoped. That made Donald suspect whether that magical weapon could be used again.