During the overlord's casting, the same repulsive barrier also formed around the rotfiend, preventing John from any attempts to interrupt the ongoing ritual.
Using that time to at least create some space, he crawled to the far corner of the courtyard, gaining roughly thirty meters of distance between them.
After the reanimation was completed, the new monster once again became vulnerable, but before John could even send his stiletto to engage, the defective deathfiend took its first step toward his supposed prey.
Its damaged leg bone couldn't handle the sudden shift in weight and fractured, making the whole monster lose its balance. It tried to fix its position by moving one of the remaining two legs on the left to the side, which sealed its fate as a similar cracking sound echoed out.
Now, having lost two legs on the same side, the monster was unable to stay upright and tipped over. That fall became its undoing. Dozens of other bones cracked all over its skeletal body, turning the imposing creature into a second pile of bones.
His stiletto was already closing the distance and ready to put the failed undead out of its misery but just as it was about to reach…
Stop!
John got a sudden idea and barely made it halt in time. He figured that maybe by leaving it alive, he would buy himself more time for his body to heal. The living heap of broken bones was mostly harmless so it seemed as significantly less dangerous than getting rid of it and risking a face-off against the overlord.
As the minutes passed, John regained some feeling in his left leg and his side stopped bleeding. Sadly, somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes later, he started to feel the telltale signs of oncoming danger.
Looking around, he couldn't spot anything out of place—the overlord seemed content to only watch—but as the feeling became more and more urgent, he did the only thing he could think of.
His stiletto hit the skull like an arrow, shattering it and continuing down through its thick spine until the devastating damage became fatal, causing the whole creature to crumble and make a shining white ball of ash. The moment it did, his feeling of imminent danger winked out.
"Impossible!" The whisper was much harsher this time. The Sector overlord flew down from the balcony, knelt down in front of the bone pile, and another insidious whisper echoed out.
"Arise my minions, and protect your liege!"
The pale-green flames surrounding the courtyard all poured inside and into the bone pile, opening the way out and giving John an opportunity to escape.
He, unsure of what to do, sent out his stiletto to test the overlord's defenses and to his surprise watched it cut through the dusty robe and sink all the way up to the hilt between its shoulder blades.
His wisp was unfortunately ineffective because fleshless monsters were nearly immune to lightning attacks, but nonetheless, it kept blasting the overlord with bolt after bolt, burning its regal robes and revealing the swirling pale-green core on the other side of where normally the heart would be.
It remained kneeling until all the flames were absorbed into the pile, and the bones started to form a new army.
[Skeleton]
The first one stepped out of the pile, turned to face his direction, and advanced forward, a second was already taking form behind it.
With the flames out, John stepped into a small alcove with a hole through which he could see the whole western side of the city. Ignoring the sight, he leaned into the wall to his left, lessening the weight on his damaged leg, pulled the club out of his storage, lifted up his shield, and prepared for the last stand.
With his stiletto firmly lodged deep into the overlord's ribcage and with the first signs of golden lines forming around it, it was now only a matter of who falls first, and the spot he chose filled him with confidence.
It was less than a meter wide, giving him protection from all sides, and would force the skeletons to engage him one by one.
The first one was just about to arrive. Taking a wide swipe with its claws, it attempted to go for his gut, but John blocked with his shield and stabbed forward with the end of his club.
The strike smashed into the left side of the skeleton's ribcage, shattered the front ribs, and pushed it back. This block, shove, and defend combat continued for the next three minutes, with John slowly getting overwhelmed.
The skeletons kept piling up and a minute in, he was barely able to keep them away. After the second minute, there were already too many, all trying to press into the small alcove and he was forced to accept light injuries in exchange for protecting his vitals.
The third minute was where this whole encounter would be decided. The wounds kept piling up, his right hand was filled with light scratches and two deep cuts running parallel from his forearm all the way to his palm, and his right leg was now starting to buckle, unable to hold his weight and making him lean further into the back wall.
Frankly, he was extremely glad that he bought the chainmail, because that and his shield were the only reasons he was still alive. The skeletons used no other weapons except their clawed hands, but they lacked the penetrative power to pierce through his armor.
Even then, he was beginning to get woozy from blood loss, but out of nowhere, a yellow ball suddenly flew through the skeletons, through his shield, and hit the middle of his chest.
Wha…
The whole world lost color and froze up.
[Congratulations! You are the second in this world to overcome the Sector overlord.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Rewards: Two single-use cards offering a free building upgrade for any bastion, Fate is increased by 4.
Note: Promote shelter card is guaranteed to drop from every Sector overlord killed, but can be only used inside the sector it was obtained in.]
The world unfroze for a fraction of a second and then froze again.
[Congratulations! You are the first in this world to kill a Sector overlord in perfect condition, alone, and with no outside interference.
Reward: First choice of two out of five extremely precious rewards, Fate is increased by 6.
Note: And the strongest get even stronger, the luckiest get even luckier.]
[Make a choice!
1: A random ability of epic rarity with a specified tag.
2: An enchanted javelin of epic rarity, which could be teleported back to the wielder's hand on command.
3: A single-use charm protecting the wearer from one instance of immediately-lethal injury.
4: An epic rarity protector for a chosen shelter or its promotions.
5: A random epic body modification card with a strong self-healing property.
Note: Having the first pick sure comes in handy.]
This was something entirely different from the rewards for the first solo kill of the Zone guardian, and John stared in amazement at the five listed in front of him.
He now had the difficult job of cutting the three least useful items from the list, but with the exception of number four, they all seemed very useful.
Hmm, the single-use charm might seem great, but what if I just bleed out… or get slowly torn to shreds… or get killed by the follow-up strike right after. No, that one is not as good as the remaining three.
After that, he planned on taking the ability, making a third minion card, and pairing it with the epic self-healing card, but the javelin… it felt like a terrible mistake to give up on. So far the only useful equipment he found was from the Zagratix's hoard, but that felt like a collection of trash piles in comparison. He had no idea how rarity worked with items, but epic surely assured a guarantee the rest of the items lacked.
I need it, which leaves me the choice between a minion or self-heal.
In this strange place in between worlds, he had an uncountable amount of time to decide, so he did just that and thought about the pros and cons of every choice.
In the end, it boiled down to simple risk management. Epic rarity promised a certain quality, but what if the minion turned out unfitting in his style of combat? It could be a slow tank, or worse yet a supporting minion that would provide not-that-useful buffs.
On the other hand, he was hurt. He believed that his current self-healing would pull him through, but what if not? Would he just bleed out after his triumph, earning a pyrrhic victory? Also, whatever the card did, it specified a strong self-healing property, there isn't much to go wrong there, right?
With that, his decision was made and it was time to earn the rewards.
I choose number two and number five!
[Excellent! Your rewards will be waiting in your deck.
Note: Your deck's size is getting massive, keep this up and soon new additions won't fit inside.]
The world unfroze, but John was ready and lifted his shaky right hand with his palm facing the pressing skeletons.
Wave of force!
He was saving it for the most critical moment, and now was the perfect time to use it.
The translucent wave collided with the flimsy skeletons, tossing the whole bunch backward and making the sound of dozens breaking bones.
John immediately followed up by willing his stiletto to help, and thirty seconds later everything but him was truly dead.
He collapsed to the floor with a heavy sigh and opened up the deck. His first priority was to equip the new healing card.
Where did it… ahh, there it is.
[Black heart of Sac'ratash (E)
Can be linked with your body card to temporarily change your heart to produce black blood of Sac'ratash. Gaining near immunity to bleeding, faster mending of broken bones and passive regeneration, and making your blood toxic to other living beings]
"Well, that is sure something," he gawked at the description. It absolutely wasn't what he was expecting, but after re-reading it for the second time, he could see the appeal.
Here goes nothing…
He slotted the card into his deck, and his whole body shuddered. This was the first time he felt the body modification card actually taking effect, and he watched in morbid curiosity as the blood trickling down his right arm slowly started turning black and more viscous, almost similar to the substance the Rothounds bled.
As the changes continued taking effect, his veins turned from blue to dark grey, and all his wounds—even the open gashes on his forearm—stopped bleeding.
Storing his club and shield into the storage bag, he used his left hand to pinch the opened gashes closed, and stayed still, taking a short rest.
Waking up with a jerk, he looked around in panic, but everything stayed the same. Likely due to his exhausting battle and all the lost blood, he got so tired that he fell asleep. For how long he wasn't sure, but his right hand felt much better.
Looking more closely, the light scratches were already mostly healed, leaving behind only lightly colored lines on healthy skin, and the two deeper gashes held firmly closed with two long scabs running through his whole forearm.
Hmm…
Moving his legs, both were completely fine, making him wonder what actually the pale-green flames did, but that wasn't currently important so he stood up and lightly stretched. His ribs still ached, but it was far from the time he got caught by that nasty blow.
Well, it's time to see the remaining rewards.
The first new card he noticed was a common single-use card used to store item rewards from the System, and after pulling it out, he unpacked his new javelin.
The moment he put his hands on the cool shaft, a new pop-up appeared in front of him.
[Warning!
This item requires soulbinding for the enchantment to work.
Do you want to bind this weapon to yourself?
Yes/No
Note: Once an item becomes soulbound, it can never be bound to anyone else]
Selecting Yes, he felt an intuitive link take form, and could easily feel the required action for the javelin to return back to him.
It was an amazing piece of artwork, carved from grey rock-like material and filled with unknown blue engravings all over the whole shaft. The last third—the tip—was made from a thin, very sharp piece of red metal reaching roughly two and a half meters high. It was surprisingly heavy for a throwing weapon, maybe five kilos, but it kind of made sense if he counted in the next tiers of Attributes.
Looking around, he decided to put his new weapon to test. Grabbing it in the middle, he started lifting it up, and one of the scabs on his forearm tore open.
"Fuck!" Cursing at the sudden sting of pain and his stupidity, he stored the weapon in the third slot of his bag and moved his focus to the next reward.
[Promote shelter
A single-use card used to promote any shelter into a bastion, unlocking new upgrades for its available buildings, unlocking new buildings, and increasing its size]
That's more like it!
Smiling, he summoned the archway leading into his shelter and stepped through.