Chapter 753: Besieging Horus

Chapter 753 Besieging Horus 

“Fire!”

Both Riche and Terraflame issued out the order at the same time through their respective guild channels.

The first barrage of attacks consisted of spirit-type ammunition.

Before the outer shell of the statue could fully fall off, countless rain-like bullets struck it.

Horus released a pained cry before leaping to fly up into the sky. At the same time, a faint halo of light appeared around his body to act as a shield. 

“Myriad Baiter!”

By the time Riche shouted, Myriad Baiter had finished the preparations for his spell.

During their second phase, their preparations were insufficient. Thus, Anubis had managed to escape their pre-emptive encirclement, thereby gaining the opportunity to summon out an army of monsters. Having learned their lesson, they were not about to repeat that same mistake.

A hurricane appeared from beneath Horus and its powerful suction force stopped his ascent.

Horus struggled as he continued his attempt to fly upwards. However, the speed at which he was escaping had greatly decreased.

Two of Terraflame’s companions who were standing behind him pulled out the pins of the hand grenade in their hands. After two seconds, they hurled it forcefully.

Gravity Grenade! [A] class technological weapon.

With an explosion radius of less than three metres, it was the smallest amongst all [A] class weapons. However, it could contort gravity to suck everything nearby into the centre of its explosion and compress all into a high-density dot.

This instance dungeon BOSS was a God. However, this God was occupying a human body. Spirit-type weapons could harm him more, but it did not mean that he was impervious to physical harm. 

The two Gravity Grenades exploded within the eye of the hurricane at the same time. Although the explosions ended up dispersing the hurricane, they also immediately pulled Horus’ body down by several metres.

At the same time, the shield that Horus summoned was shattered by the formidable might of the explosions.

Despite having destroyed the shield, the power from the Gravity Grenades did not dissipate away. A series of snapping sounds rang out as both of Horus’ legs were twisted into dough twist.

With a wretched cry, Horus, who had only managed to rise 10 metres into the sky, fell heavily upon the ground.

“It is effective!”

Riche and Terraflame cheered out simultaneously.

Horus’ strength was completely different compared to the previous BOSS, Anubis.

During their earlier offensive, the two of them noticed that there were clear signs of old age on Horus’ body. He was just like the sacrificial royal member that they had placed into the sarcophagus, witheringly thin and filled with wrinkles.

“Foolish mortals! Your sacrificial offering is wrong!”

Facing the constant barrage, Horus summoned out a protective barrier to defend himself from the offensive while screaming.

After the first barrage of spirit-type bullets came a high number of heavy artillery fire. Although its offensive capabilities were far inferior compared to the expensive spirit-type bullets, these bullets are cheap and aplenty. Additionally, it was better in terms of providing suppressive fire.

“Are all Egyptian Gods fools?!” Riche howled gleefully as he raised up a quad rocket launcher and aimed at the besieged Horus before firing rocket after rocket at him. “Offer you a perfect sacrifice and wait for you to kill us? You fool! Eat this!”

After shooting out all four of the rockets, Riche tossed the rocket launcher at the fellow behind him. Picking up a heavy machine gun, he continued firing at Horus.

Seeing the greatly weakened Horus, Riche seemingly forgot the ridiculing words he said to Terraflame. Instead, he wore a pleased expression on his face, as though he was the one who had come up with the idea.

Terraflame had also retreated back to his own guild’s position. He had a Gauss sniper rifle aimed at Horus’ fatal points as he fired bullet after bullet at him.

Even though he was dressed like a melee warrior, he displayed proficiency in his use of long-ranged weaponry.

The magi from the two guilds focused their efforts on restricting spells. Ice cones and snow storms ravaged Horus’ surroundings while vines and mud spells, meant for crowd control, kept hitting the ground beneath him.

Horus had been attempting to take off into the sky. However, the sudden and fierce suppressive fire obstructed his attempts to do so. Every time he left the ground, a sky-encompassing explosion and spells sent him back to the ground.

The protective barrier he summoned out was clearly a high-grade skill. However, due to the fact that his host body was an extremely aged fellow, he was incapable of unleashing the skill’s full power. Although the barrier was capable of blocking off most of the damage caused by the explosions, a few of them managed to make their way past the barrier to wound him, leaving scars on his body.

Additionally, the barrage of attacks was too intense. His barrier could only last for ten plus seconds before breaking down and he had to re-summon another barrier.

“Keep it up! Fire! Just like that! Everyone, don’t stop firing!” Riche waved the weapon in his hand as he shouted loudly.

At present, Horus could not even afford to mount a counter offensive. By maintaining their present rate of fire and exhaust him, they can easily finish off this BOSS.

“Ghostfox, Aliosha, get ready.”

Terraflame, who was firing with the Gauss sniper rifle, gave orders to his guild members through their guild channel. “There is no way the BOSS cannot counter attack at all. Everyone, be careful. Don’t be like that stupid Riche, going all arrogant like that.”

“Understood.”

“Affirmative, Manager.”

“Got it!”

All of his guild members replied quickly through the guild channel. Next, they quietly gathered up while maintaining their rate of fire. This would enable them to react properly to any possible counter attacks.

When Horus was summoned out, Chen Xiaolian had yet to walk too far away. In order to avoid suspicion, he had to stop moving and turn around. 

The participants for this instance dungeon had captured a total of six members of the Egyptian royal family for the first phase. After making a sacrificial offering to Anubis, they had five of them left.

After they accelerated the sacrifice’s aging process earlier, the system had not given them any prompts to say that the quest objective was no longer qualified as a sacrifice. However, in order to avoid any mishaps, Terraflame and the others had placed the four remaining metal boxes nearby.

Coincidentally, Chen Xiaolian had made it to the spot where the four metal boxes were placed. Thus, he sat down on one of them. Putting on a calm and composed façade, he then turned to observe the ongoing battle.

Despite having lost all his skills and attributes, his ability to judge things cannot disappear. Just like Terraflame, Chen Xiaolian too, quickly noticed something amiss.

Even if his old host had weakened him, Horus was still an exalted God. For him to fall to a state where he can only allow himself to be beaten up without fighting back was abnormal.

He also noticed the Awakened ones gathering up.

It seems the Starfall Guild Manager, Terraflame, is also a smart fellow.

There was, however, an issue. Even though Chen Xiaolian had noticed the issue, there was nothing he could do about it.

If his abilities had not been strangely wiped clear, he could easily kill off this Horus with the help of the Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu.

At that moment, however, all Chen Xiaolian could do was to stay still and watch. He could neither attack nor run.

Either one of those two actions would immediately destroy the image of an exalted personage that he was putting on.

I can only hope that nothing unexpected will happen and that Horus can be killed off just like that. Or perhaps, even if something unexpected does happen, hopefully it won’t affect me.

And yet, events rarely unfold the way we wished it to. The thought had only just crossed Chen Xiaolian’s mind when he heard an eagle-like cry.

The countless artillery blasts and spells were enveloping Horus when a green light suddenly flashed across his body.

The green light did not possess any defensive properties. The spells and artillery fire bombarding him was not hindered in the slightest. At the same time, however, the green light was also not dispersed by the attacks. Rather, it continued to envelop Horus’ body.

After the green light appeared, the protective barrier that Horus kept summoning out disappeared without a trace.

His body also lost its original resilience and was immediately bombarded into pieces.

“We finished him!”

“Ghostfox!”

Riche shouted out jubilantly. At the same time, however, Terraflame shouted out, a trace of panic in his voice.

Ghostfox had put aside the firearms in his hands some time ago. Instead, he was wielding his katana. The instant Terraflame shouted out, he unsheathed the blade and his figure dashed towards the green light, his body sticking close to the ground as he did.

Purple-coloured flames raged across the surface of the narrow blade.

Ghostfox’s katana was the Dojigiri Yasutsuna. According to Japanese legends, it was a famed demon slaying sword, capable of dealing bonus damage towards spirit-type entities.

The moment Horus’ body was blown up, the green light suddenly converged to reform Horus’ body, but the body appeared translucent.

After unleashing the first barrage, everyone had switched the expensive spirit-type bullets with ordinary ammunition. Ordinary ammunition was incapable of harming Horus’ spirit-type body at all. On the other hand, their spells and skills were all focused on restricting and hold Horus in place. Thus, the lethality of those spells and skills was not high.

After taking on several spells, Horus dashed out of the radius of bombardment. 

However, Ghostfox, who was one step faster, caught Horus as he was about to escape.

The edge of his katana drew a purple arc as it slashed down heavily upon the chest portion of Horus’ spirit body.

It was a seemingly illusory spirit body. And yet, when the Dojigiri Yasutsuna katana made contact with Horus, Ghostfox felt an intense tremor running through both his hands. It did not feel as though he was slashing down at thin air. Instead, it felt as though he had slashed at a firm tree. The backlash from the attack was such that he was nearly incapable of gripping the hilt of the katana properly. 

Horus let out an ear-piercing hiss as his body tumbled in mid-air, the green light dimming noticeably. However, after shocking Ghostfox away, he was able to put some distance between him and Ghostfox. Next, he dashed furiously to escape the encirclement.

“Damn it! Change ammunition!”

Riche was quick to shout out. At the same time, he summoned out two fire dragons, one from each hand. The two dragons surged towards Horus. Unfortunately, Horus’ speed was far greater than he had imagined. The fire dragons charged towards the incoming Horus, but Horus merely flashed to the side twice to leave the two fire dragons in the dust.

Several magi had quickly unleashed offensive skills at Horus as well. However, Horus chose to take the lesser spells head on while avoiding the stronger spells which require longer casting times.

In but a flash, Horus had arrived at the edge of the encirclement.

A Thorned Flower Guild member cried out miserably as Horus’ spirit body flew right through him. Next, his head exploded, causing his body to tumble to the ground.

After that, like a water balloon, his body began expanding at a noticeable rate. Signs of squirming objects could be seen on the surface of his body. In but moments, countless gold-coloured beetles the size of a fist bit their way out through his skin.

After emerging from the corpse, the beetles raised the hard shells on their backs to reveal wings. Next, they swarmed at the surrounding participants.

The few Players nearby were quick to raise their firearms to aim and fire at the nearest beetles. However, those beetles were too small. Additionally, their flight patterns were deviously intelligent. The Players’ bullets whizzed through the air haphazardly, failing to strike a single beetle and ended up harming their companions by accident instead.

One of the beetles arrived before a Player. The Player quickly tossed away his firearms and punched the beetle.

Both his hands were equipped with gloves. The gloves were filled with spikes and they shone with a silvery white light. His swinging fist brought forth an air-piercing sound.

Clearly, he was a physical enhancement and melee type who had purchased combat skills. His fist successfully struck the beetle.

The beetle was crushed by the punch. However, it suddenly exploded to release a blast of freezing energy outwards. As a result, the Player’s right arm and even his glove was instantly turned into a block of ice.

More beetles pounced upon the crowd of participants. The moment they made contact with someone, they would explode. The result of their explosions varied from cold freeze, fiery flames to corrosive poison. There was also lightning.

“Move aside! Do not make contact! Use ranged attacks to kill it! Be aware of friendly fire!”

Riche shouted as he ordered them to spread out to avoid getting swarmed by the self-destructing beetles. Naturally, this action also quickly led to the collapse of their encirclement. A large gap appeared as a result.

After flying right through the Player earlier, the light on Horus’ body grew noticeably dimmer. Even though the spell he used earlier was able to instantly kill off an enemy while creating a vast number of self-destructing beetles to cover his escape, it also consumed a great deal of energy. Given his current spirit body state, he could not continue to do battle.

Still, Horus had succeeded.

Horus’ body quickly flashed out through the gap in the participant’s encirclement. After escaping the encirclement, Horus made a mad dash to flee.

Coincidentally, the direction he took in order to escape… … was leading him to Chen Xiaolian!

[TL: Ninja edit Ghostfox’s Junior Slicer samurai sword to Dojigiri Yasutsuna katana. That's what happens when I don’t know it’s supposed to be Japanese. =P ]