Chapter 64 - The Ghost Hunt - III

The rose wight shrieked in what Merlin could only assume was pain. It pulled the sliced tentacle away from Merlin's reach and buried it into the ground behind it. Several of the tentacles that were distracting other groups were now starting to get reeled back in. Loud scratching noises could be heard from the surroundings as the thorned tentacles scraped against and tore up the surrounding vegetation.

Not wanting to lose his current momentum, Merlin rushed forward and sliced at the wight. The spare tentacle was thrust in his way, but this time Merlin's blade didn't cleave through it.

The rose wight whipped Merlin away, forcing him to take a few steps back or risk tripping over, and two more tentacles had finally returned to defend her.

Wondering why he couldn't slice it, Merlin took a look at his blade, the holy water coating was completely gone after only one strike. Fortunately he only used a small amount each time he coated his blade, so the vial still had enough for maybe three or four more coats, depending on how much he poured.

Merlin splashed his blade with another coat of holy water, he was awkwardly holding the open vial in the same hand as the lantern, so his current grip was rather uncomfortable. It was also the arm that had his shield strapped to it, weighing him down further and making any detailed movements like pouring exact amounts cumbersome. He placed his thumb over the vial's opening as he rushed in for another attack, making sure that the contents didn't spill out and get wasted if he flailed his arms around.

Two thorned tentacles went to counter his strike this time around. His blade cleaved cleanly through the first, but it barely left a mark in the second. Instead of pushing him away this time around, the tendril that had been cut lunged itself at Merlin's lantern in an attempt to shatter his light source, while the one that was still intact attempted to pierce through his chest.

Merlin barely parried the intact tendril away, but the other one had successfully destroyed the lantern. Merlin jumped backwards while throwing the lantern away, getting enough distance away from the rose wight, he began chanting while pouring the remainder of the holy water on his blade.

「Skill ⟪Light⟫ Activated.」

As soon as the spell triggered, Merlin touched his sword, causing it to suddenly emit a faint glow that illuminated the nearby forest around him with the five meters around his blade being the brightest.

"Good luck extinguishing this one." Merlin taunted as he threw the empty vial into his storage before pulling another vial out, getting it ready for his next attack. Before charging at the wight again, he filled his mouth with almost a third of the holy water before placing his thumb over the vial once more.

He knew the rose wight hated fire, but he wasn't sure if it hated light in general. Most wights did, but this one was a mutation with the theme of roses, for all he knew it could work against him. This was the first time he had seen such a creature, so he wasn't well versed in its weaknesses, but he did know of similar creatures. Both undead that had a merged with plants, forming some kind of symbiotic relationship with them, and undead that had been created and/or controlled by parasitic plants, usually some kind of magical or demonic fungus.

Merlin rushed forward once more, but instead of blocking his next attack and risking more damage, the rose wight swiped at Merlin's feet with one of the remaining tentacles, hoping to trip him up. Merlin saw the attack coming and leapt over it, using it as a springboard to get a little boost of height, allowing him to add extra momentum from his fall as he slashed down at the creature.

With only two undamaged tentacles in the fight currently, the rose wight instead chose to sacrifice one that had already been wounded, Merlin cleaved through the tentacle, his blade was now caked up with the black tar-like substance the creature had in place of blood. Unfortunately his blade failed to reach the wight, but Merlin had already planned for this, and upon getting a good angle, released the contents of his mouth in a fine vapour, directly at the wight's face.

The wight shrieked in pain as its face began bubbling and sizzling, trails of smoke coming off of its now boil covered face. Its tendrils began flailing around, sending Merlin flying into the treeline.

Merlin slid along the forest floor, his clothes being progressively more stained by the slightly damp dirt and decomposing leaves. He stood back up and spat the remaining holy water out of his mouth, his face began cringing at the taste. A light metal tang remained on his tongue, which he struggled to scrape away at with his teeth.

He began chanting as he ran towards where he was just fighting. He could see various individuals peaking their heads out from around the trees. They had finally caught up after being held back by the tentacles for so long, and were given the position of the monster by its angered flailing.

「Skill ⟪Cleanse⟫ Activated.」

The filth sticking to Merlin's blade and back was stripped away, floating into the air before vanishing into nothing. He pulled his goblin dagger out of his inventory and coated it with holy water before using the remainder of the vial to coat the gladius, he threw the empty vial of holy water in his inventory and held the dagger in his offhand before approaching the rose wight once more.

The monster was still flailing around in pain, its tentacles were snapping small trees on impact, sending them flying. A few bystanders were almost hit by a flying log, and they took that as their hint to stand behind cover. A tentacle swiped at Merlin's face as he approached, which he barely ducked in time, his back was still scratched by a sharp thorn, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Merlin closed the distance while chanting the words "heavy strike", barely avoiding yet another random sweep from a second tentacle.

「Skill ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ Activated, your next attack will do an extra 5% damage, and has a 10% chance to trigger the stagger effect.」

Merlin made the motion of slashing at the wight once more, and as he expected, a tentacle attempted to sweep him away. This time however, Merlin intentionally wanted to bait the tentacle out. Instead of continuing the swing of his blade, which would have collided with the tentacle, cleaving it in half, he pulled his blade back and threw his dagger at the wight instead.

The dagger flew straight towards the wight's chest, but its path was ultimately blocked by a tentacle. The dagger's blade sunk into the tentacle like it wasn't even there, stopping as it reached the hilt. While the tentacle was distracted, Merlin swung his blade at the wight once more, he didn't hear a jingle from his skill being used yet, but it played as soon as his gladius pierced the wight's neck.

Merlin's blade sliced through the creature's neck, continuing on down its torso, only stopping once it had successfully cleaved the wight's left arm and leg off.

"Interesting, a thrown dagger doesn't trigger heavy strike." Merlin mumbled out loud as he pulled another vial of holy water out of his inventory, coating his blade once more.

The wight attempted to claw at Merlin with her remaining arm, but that too was neatly cleaved off moments after.

"This just goes to show how easy combat can be when someone comes prepared." Merlin taunted the creature, coating his weapon before splashing the remainder on the wight's incoming tentacle, causing it to essentially melt before reaching him. "And to think you were once a threat."

A single swipe was all it took for the wight's head to be sent flying, and the creature was finally dead, or so the observers thought. Merlin however knew that this body wasn't all of it, and if he wanted the creature's death to be permanent, he had to purify it at the source.

So amongst the cheering and shouts of victory from the expedition members, Merlin pulled his dagger out of the tentacle now motionless on the floor and marched in the direction of the gravestone.

It took a few minutes, but he was now near to where it all started. It was at this moment when the wind picked up, carrying the scent of roses that Merlin's body had now started attributing to danger.

He now stood a few steps away from a small clearing in the middle of the forest. Under a dim moonlight, illuminated by nothing more than Merlin's glowing sword, stood a single monolith headstone that appeared to be in relatively good condition, although there were signs of wear from the elements and overgrowth. The words written on the headstone were nothing more than a strange foreign text, written in a language Merlin was yet to acquire the knowledge of.

A withered bundle of roses was resting in front of the headstone. Merlin kicked the roses aside and began digging up the soil with his dagger where they once were.. Fortunately it didn't take too long for Merlin to find anything, but instead of a skeleton, all Merlin found was a drawstring bag covered in runes.