Chapter 16

Chapter 16: This Strike is Called “Ten Years”

On the Suture Monster’s body, the Corpse Demon that had revealed its original form began to cast spells continuously.

Its casting speed was very fast.

The [cooldown period] between spells was also extremely short, perhaps due to some attribute bonuses provided by other super magic techniques.

The first wave of spells was all defense related.

Accompanied by the hasty chant, colorful lights rose up and fell on the Corpse Demon itself.

In the blink of an eye, in addition to the magical armor brought by the transformation process, it cast three more spells on himself: [The Mage’s Armor], [Air Shield] and [Circle of Frost].

The overlaying effect of these spells was very powerful.

With the current Corpse Demon, even if it had stood still and let Dorothy or Terry strike him, it would take more than ten seconds of striking to barely break his defense.

“This Corpse Demon is also a timid guy.”

Roger touched the tip of his nose, and he felt a sense of pleasure as if he had found his match.

…

Following this was a second wave of spells.

2nd Circle Spell – [Multiple Summon: Skeleton Soldier]!

The chanting time of this spell was longer than the previous three spells combined.

It was a pity that everyone stood a little far away, and there was no way for them to interrupt, so they could only watch as it summoned one skeleton soldier after another from the Reaper’s Realm!

These skeleton soldiers were slightly different from those previously destroyed.

Their bones were much stronger, and their level was higher.

But the number of these skeleton soldiers exceeded everyone’s imagination.

A simple 2nd circle spell unexpectedly summoned 48 skeleton soldiers!

This not only broke the knowledge of adventurers, but also subverted the rules of summoning spells!

As they all knew, there was a limit on the number of summons in a summoning spell, and they were generally multiples of 6: The number of summoned beings of a 1st circle mage could not exceed 6, 2nd circle was 12, and so on.

…

“So this is multi-casting? Four times the number of summons?”

Roger couldn’t help but feel a little stunned.

This super magic technique was way too abnormal. No wonder it was listed separately by the Qi Divination Technique!

The skeleton soldiers summoned did not attack the adventurers but instead surrounded the Corpse Demon in a total of three layers.

The latter did not talk any more nonsense with the adventurers, and threw the third spell directly.

2nd Circle Spell – [Pool of Decay]!

The originally cold and hard ground under everyone’s feet suddenly became muddy and soft.

Barely visible black mist came from nowhere and gradually became thicker.

Someone started coughing violently.

Some people had symptoms of itching, redness and swelling.

One after another, various non-serious but troublesome negative effects began to affect the adventurers.

…

[Pool of Decay (2nd Circle Spell)]

[Overview: Create a space that is constantly decayed, using air and land as the medium to gradually corrode all living or non-living things in this space.]

[Effect 1: Every 30 seconds, perform a negative effect check on the creatures in the Pool of Decay. If resistance fails, cough, fever, edema, itching, tearing, soreness and other symptoms will appear randomly.]

[Effect 2: Every 60 seconds, “Bone Imprisonment” is activated. Those who failed to resist will suffer the imprisonment effect of bone claws.]

…

The Qi Divination Technique investigated the characteristics of the Pool of Decay in detail.

It looked like Corpse Demon was very patient.

It did not act recklessly due to arrogance, but instead chose a strategy of slowly whittling them down.

Perhaps, this had been its decision from the beginning.

Skeleton soldiers were exactly the most suitable summons for exhausting the opponents’ strength.

During the whole process, what struck Roger the most was Corpse Demon’s smoothness in casting the spells.

He wondered how many times it had practiced on its own to have such a silky smooth casting technique.

Roger’s gaze focused on the Corpse Demon.

And the latter’s eyes seemed to focus only on Roger as well.

After a moment, facing the skeleton soldiers who were about to move, Dorothy covered her mouth and shouted dully, “Roger! What should we do now?”

Roger pulled out Red Moon, holding the handle of the saber with both hands, and his eyes gradually became sharp and clear. “Cover me!”

After saying this, he held Red Moon and walked in the direction of the Corpse Demon one step at a time.

Dorothy did not hesitate. She nodded at Terry, and then shouted sharply, “Everyone, cover Roger and move forward!”

“Don’t let the skeleton soldiers block him!”

“Beware of the bone claws sticking from the ground, just avoid them!”

Everyone in the crusade team called out in unison.

Their morale was ignited again, and they surrounded Roger’s side and launched an attack toward the skeleton army!

Soon, the two sides came into contact with each other, and another round of melee was started.

…

Roger’s footsteps were not fast, but he was unusually steady.

He believed that his teammates had the ability to create a space for himself to slay the Corpse Demon.

His eyes held only the Corpse Demon himself!

With each step forward, the aura around Roger also quietly changed.

A lot of magic crystals formed around him, and then quickly collapsed and disappeared.

This repeated several times.

If everyone hadn’t been in close combat with the skeleton soldiers, they might also have noticed this long ago.

But the Corpse Demon saw it clearly.

The ghost fire in its eyes throbbed quickly, seemingly puzzled and uneasy.

“I didn’t expect that there are adventurers who hide their strength like me!”

“Hehehe, you won’t succeed!”

The Corpse Demon sneered and pointed his claw at Roger.

Suddenly, the black mist became denser.

The black fog was thick as if it had condensed into substance, and everyone in the crusade team instantly lost their direction.

Not waiting for Dorothy to speak, Roger had made his move.

Every move by the Corpse Demon had been tracked by the Qi Divination Technique.

“You can’t escape.”

Just as Roger’s voice fell, a bright yellow shining mark fell from the sky, directly hitting the head of the Corpse Demon!

“Kill Order!”

This was the first time he used another special ability of the Hermit Ranger class.

…

[Kill Order: You can lock a Kill Order on a humanoid monster, and by killing the humanoid monster, you can gain unexpected extra bonuses.]

[Restrictions: Only applicable to elite monsters and above]

…

With the guidance of the Kill Order, the adventurers with a united will once again broke through the defense of the skeleton soldiers and escorted Roger in the direction of the Corpse Demon.

And Roger also adjusted his physical state to the best.

The most important aspect of the Hermit Ranger profession was to [accumulate energy]!

The longer he stored the energy, the stronger his outburst would be.

Now, Roger’s stored energy had reached its maximum!

He glanced at the data bar.

…

[Your level has been increased to LV9]

[Your attributes have improved]

…

[Your level has been increased to LV10]

[Your attributes have improved]

[You’ve received 1 attribute point]

…

[Your level has been increased to LV12]

[Your attributes have improved]

…

Through inputting all the experience points he had accumulated over the past ten years, Roger completed the striding upgrade from LV8 to LV12 in an instant!

What Roger needed the most was not the attribute bonuses that the upgrade brought.

What he needed was the extra layer of [Accumulated Energy] that the Hermit Ranger profession would get within 3 minutes of each upgrade.

Four levels in a row represented four layers of [Accumulated Energy].

Adding the four layers of [Accumulated Energy] brought by the specialty [Ten Years One Sword], now on the Red Moon Saber in Roger’s hand, there was an overlay of eight layers of [Accumulated Energy].

That meant a storage of 900% power!

…

“How can it be?!”

“Stop him!!”

The Ghost Mage felt intensely uneasy. The kind of fear that had not emerged in its heart for a long time surrounded it. It wanted to use tricks to hide itself, but the existence of the Kill Order gave it nowhere to hide!

It could only hope that the Skeleton Soldiers and the Pool of Decay would hinder Roger’s advance.

It needed to rest for a while before it could cast other spells.

After all, the spell combination in the previous rounds had exceeded the limit of a normal 2nd circle mage!

Except for using tricks, it now had no power to even activate the scrolls!

“Should I use the forbidden item?”

“This person is too dangerous.”

“But after I use the forbidden item, I will also be at a dead end…”

Because of hesitation, the ghost fire in the eyes of the Corpse Demon became more volatile.

On the side of the crusade team, everyone finally noticed Roger’s difference.

Their morale was boosted by Roger’s aura that was getting stronger with each passing moment.

Under Dorothy’s team’s fired-up assault, the Skeleton Soldiers suddenly retreated. Before the Skeleton Soldiers could notice, a big opening had been created through the Skeleton Soldiers!

“Now!” Roger shouted in a low voice, “Step aside!”

He did not wait for the people in front of him to react and jumped directly over them.

He dashed on the soft, muddy ground, breaking through the rigid defense of the Skeleton Soldiers in one go!

His figure was fast like lightning, and the Red Moon he held was like fire!

A layer of malicious intent ignited on the blade.

[Red Moon: Slash of the Eye] was activated!

In an instant, Roger’s body stretched out into pieces of afterimages while he crossed a distance of about thirty meters in the span of a single breath.

Without waiting for the Corpse Demon to make any effective response, the blood-red light of the saber sliced towards it like cutting tofu.

Magic Armor.

The Mage’s Armor.

Air Shield.

Circle of Frost.

All these defenses broke in one touch by the Red Moon, which now had 9 times the power!

After a trance, the Corpse Demon looked back at the Hermit Ranger, who had already withdrawn his sword, in a daze. With the ghost fire in its eyes slowly dissipating, it seemed that a century had passed before it heard the muttering that was so slow that it seemed to be lagging.

“For Tongma Town, for Kane.”

“This strike is called ‘Ten Years’.”

Whoosh!

The cool breeze blew past, and the ghost fire went out.

Far away from the pass, the final ray of the setting sun had completely fallen below the horizon.

Darkness swallowed up everything.

…