Chapter 217: The Vengeful Dead

Nonetheless, after the devil had a wing clipped by Gou Dan and lost its ability to fly, its repeated attempts to break through the Players’ encirclement failed as more Players were revived, and returned to the battle to keep it pinned at the same spot.

Unlike the Players who had the System plug-in and would remain the same as long as their HP bar wasn’t empty, most creatures would fall in power levels and mobility the more wounded they were. In fact, there weren’t any entity like Berserker Players who would become stronger the more wounded they were.

Even the barbarians of the cold highlands would gain fighting spirit when they were hurt early on, but as time moved on and blood loss became excessive, they would lose strength in their limbs. Then, when their life dwindled like a candle in the wind, they would basically be lying prone on the ground, close their eyes and wait to die if they didn’t have any godly technique which could turn the tables.

And the four earlier barrages had shredded a considerable portion of the devil’s HP, to the point that its strength had weakened far faster compared to the other Bosses they fought.

Naturally, that might be due to the fact that the devil did not have a second form.

Either way, as the massive body of the devil crashed heavily into the dirt, all the Players who were a part of the battle were cheering in delight.

“Have all humans become so powerful now?”

Meanwhile, Selene the elven girl had witnessed the entire battle from start to finish. She wanted to help a few times halfway through but simply couldn’t find a chance, and now she gaped at the curious humans having something like a party, handily grinding down the legendary devil to its death!

Selene could feel chills at that… if these humans who were coming in and out of Trinia freely had ulterior motives, they could lay waste to Trinia even if the other elves held them in disdain!

Therefore, she finally understood why the Silver Moon Goddess’s decreed an oracle of an alliance between wood elves and humans, even though she felt uncomfortable about it.

The standard of average humans outside Trinia was actually obvious with how adult elves could easily get rid of droves of slave hunters. In comparison, these humans calling themselves Players were definitely much more powerful!

Moreover, their powers were not like Chosen Ones who gained immense divine power through the favor of the gods, their very ability virtually being a miracle in itself. On the other hand, the Players had clearly gone through many a difficult battle—they would advance and retreat with measure even against a supernatural creature like the devil without any hint of manic.

They were truly formidable!

Indeed, Selene couldn’t help comparing the wood elves’ forest patrols to those cheering humans and what would happen if they clash.

And no matter how she thought about it, she had the lingering feeling that it was more likely that the forest patrol would lose… the skills that the Players could unleash were as weird as they were unique, with no lack of horrific devastation.

What was more frightening was that they could actually come back to life!

If not for an elite division like the Moon Keepers who barely protected the dignity of elves as the superior race to humans, Selene might lose her mind.

All of a sudden, however, she noticed that the cheering had died down, and every Player was staring in shock at the devil’s corpse.

“What happened?” She quietly asked the middle-aged man who was wearing golden-red armor even though she was feeling a little uncomfortable.

“That thing’s corpse is a little weird.” Marni, having been revived, was frowning tightly at the devil’s corpse.

“Oh, really?” Taken aback, Selene studied the devil’s corpse that was riddled with holes. “This is actually the first time I saw a devil’s corpse… but it doesn’t feel wrong to me.”

“This is the first time I’m seeing one too,” Marni replied distractedly.

Just when Selene was about to ask her why he could tell that the corpse was weird even though it was the first time he saw one, Marni’s face stiffened. “It’s not vanishing even now… that’s why it’s very weird!”

“No, isn’t that normal?” The elven girl pouted in retort. “It’s just a devil’s corpse and not an ice cube. Of course it wouldn’t vanish!”

“By the way, how did it escape from that arcanum that you said was sealed?” Marni asked.

“How should I know… but it seems to think that we freed it.” The elven girl replied almost by reflex.

“…I see. That thing doesn’t even know what happened.” Marni frowned even harder.

“So? What’s actually going on? What’s wrong with the corpse not vanishing?” Selene pressed, but Marni didn’t reply this time.

It was just wrong, of course.

Logically speaking, every monster that the Players killed would be delivered to Xi Wei, the God of Games who hadn’t shown up for quite some time. And yet, the devil had clearly died, its HP bar empty and showing no signs of life.

So why wasn’t it vanishing?

Just as the Players were left confused by the current situation, Edward suddenly sharply noticed that the name of the creature changed.

At first, the creature’s name is ‘The devil that broke out of its seal’—simple, direct and without any real sense of a name.

But just now, that named suddenly changed into Nightcry, the Vengeful Dead!

Then, the HP Bar which the Players had emptied became full of green life points once again.

And that was not all—Nightcry had gained a status just beneath its HP Bar called zombie blight!

“Be careful, it’s reviving!” Edward promptly shouted!

He didn’t have to give the warn the other Players, however—all of them had already noticed that something was wrong and were attacking the devil’s corpse again, ready to whip the corpse.

Even so, the devil’s corpse withstood their attack even as it staggered to its feet, and then attacked the Players around itself at lightning speed!

Its attacks were on par with the creature when it was alive too!

The first to die were the Warriors who tanked damage in the battle before and died in the process, after of which they were revived by the Clerics.

Unable to react in time, thirty percent of the Warriors were instakilled in the blink of an eye!

The remaining Warriors were not exactly in good health either.

“Wait a minute, your blood is red!” A Warrior suddenly told his partner beside him.

“Nonsense, my blood has always been red.” His partner replied. “What color would it be, green?”

“No, I mean your HP bar is red!”

The Player looked up to check at that, and realized that his green HP Bar had really turned red.

And his HP level was dropping without end.

“What’s going on? Am I Bleeding? No, what’s with that debuff… oh no, the zombie blight is an infection! Any wounds that thing inflicts would be infected and causes bleeding—everyone, be careful!”

Spirits swordsmen were quite weak in the first place (since 25% of their HP is transplanted to their spirit familiar). After being scratched by Nightcry and left with just a fraction of HP, the Player died immediately after bleeding for two seconds.

Even so, it was not over.

The corpse of the Players with the zombie blight debuff would not vanish as they usually did, but remained where they were. In moments, the corpses had turned into fearsome zombies and they started to attack other Players.

And their Player name that hovered over their heads became ‘Vengeful Dead: The Returned’.

All at once, the scene erupted into pandemonium…