The Katoblepas beast, upon seeing the two odd skeletons approaching one after another, didn't pay much attention. In its mind, skeletons were always extremely weak beings that could be dissolved entirely with just a casual spray of its acidic saliva. Marcus, who had first received Emma's protective Stone Skin magic, removed his bone shield from his back and slowly approached the Katoblepas. It didn't have thoughts, but it strictly executed Rody's will, regardless of whether it was right or wrong.
Emma walked behind Marcus, holding a staff prepared by Rody for her earth magic. After casting 'Protective Stone Skin,' she swung her staff to launch a 'Stone Shard Dart' at the beast. She couldn't chant spells, so her casting power was half as weak as a chanted spell. But the advantage was that Rody could make her cast spells whenever he wanted, as long as there was enough magical power, without worrying about the consequences of mental exhaustion.
"Roar..." The Katoblepas beast was hit in the forehead by a stone shard dart. It wasn't injured but was successfully enraged. It sprayed a stream of acid at Marcus, who raised his shield to block it, causing green smoke to sizzle on the bone shield. Marcus and Emma then turned and fled towards Rody's hiding spot, with the infuriated Katoblepas in hot pursuit.
Its speed wasn't fast, but Marcus and Emma didn't let it completely lose hope, just staying a bit faster than it. Emma occasionally turned back to hit it with another stone shard dart.
If the Katoblepas beast were intelligent, it would have become wary, as the running and dodging movements of Marcus and Emma weren't like those of ordinary skeletons. They were nearly as agile as normal humans, and their running, dodging, and counterattacking showed an intelligence that skeletons shouldn't possess.
However, the swamp's king obviously had very limited intelligence. In its fury, it only thought of extinguishing the souls of the two skeletons with its soul-seizing gaze.
"Haw haw haw..." Suddenly, a strange rabbit leaped out from somewhere, spitting a ball of acid that hit the forehead of the swamp king. Although the Katoblepas was also a poison-type beast, its eyes were still pained when attacked. In retaliation, it glared at the little rabbit with its tearful eyes.
Its soul-seizing magic instantly took effect, a natural instinct and one of the most feared magics among all creatures. Hands like the claws of death, flashing in the black mist, reached out to grab. But the rabbit safely landed and then fled. The death-like hands grabbed at nothing, failing to capture any soul or cause any harm to the odd little rabbit.
Did this rabbit have no soul?
The Katoblepas beast was almost dumbfounded... But before it could react, a human scream came from the swamp's bushes. A human man, holding his head, jumped out, shouting, "Damn it, why should I suffer the pain? Marcus, what are you standing there for, hurry up and kill it!"
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At the moment the Katoblepas's soul-seizing claws targeted the rabbit's soul, Rody felt in the depths of his mind a few small flames of soul.
Three larger and three smaller soul fires had never been sensed by Rody before. Now, he felt one of the smaller soul fires being viciously grabbed, causing his entire head to ache. Only now did he realize that his servants of darkness had souls, which were deeply hidden in his own mind, not in their bodies.
Rody had previously sought the location of souls without success, but now, under attack, he was able to sense them.
Marcus's battle energy flared up faintly as he took up an iron sword and furiously slashed at the Katoblepas's long neck. The two mantises in the sky also swiftly descended, their four mantis arms working in unison with the scythe-like wind, causing the Katoblepas's neck to be cut open, spewing blood. The enraged beast retaliated with its soul-seizing eyes at Marcus, but Marcus didn't care and continued to slash wildly. Meanwhile, Rody, as the master, screamed in agony, feeling as though his head would split open.
"Nicholas, cast the blinding magic!" Rody roared, despite being in excruciating pain, still managing to cast a curse that intensified the damage. If the Katoblepas's neck broke and it fell to the ground, the battle would end immediately.
However, the blinding magic proved ineffective against this king of the swamp, which naturally resisted it. Cursing his luck, Rody cast another curse, 'Weaken,' on the Katoblepas. Nicholas, in turn, summoned a mud golem made of rotten mud to block in front of Rody.
The Katoblepas glanced at Marcus, Emma, and the two mantises with its big eyes, but none of them fell. It suddenly rushed towards Rody, preparing to give this screaming human its soul-seizing gaze.
Rody was about to cast 'Pain Transfer' to let the rabbit bear some of his pain when he saw the giant creature charging at him. He immediately forgot about his headache and ran for his life.
The Katoblepas, although strong, had its slender neck already severely wounded and showing white bones from the relentless magic-enhanced attacks of Marcus and the two mantises. It now understood that the only one who truly feared its eyes and poison gas was that human. If it didn't kill him quickly, it would be the one to perish.
Relying on instinct, the Katoblepas ignored the attacks of Nicholas, Marcus, Emma, and the two mantises, relentlessly pursuing Rody.
The mud golem stone demon, standing in front, was corroded by its venomous spit. Unlike Marcus, who had battle energy for protection and could dodge, it was just a low-level mud golem, easily crushed under the foot of the Katoblepas.
"Ha, just what I was waiting for! Taste the Corpse Explosion!" Rody suddenly turned around, took one of Nicholas's bone arms, and emitted a burst of black light, casting it onto the corpse of the mud golem. Instantly, with a loud boom, the mud exploded into the air. The explosion of the mud golem made a great noise but did little damage. However, it delayed the Katoblepas just enough for Marcus's iron sword to come crashing down again.
A dark man-eating vine emerged from the ground, tightly entangling the Katoblepas's ankles.
Nicholas continuously summoned bone spears, furiously shooting them. After breaking five or six, finally, two spears pierced the Katoblepas's abdomen.
The king of the swamp, dragging its heavily wounded body, chased for a while, but realizing it couldn't catch the cunning human ahead and was only wasting its energy, hurriedly tried to escape back to its own pool. But it was too late. After hundreds of attacks, its neck finally hung limp uncontrollably.
It exerted its last strength to spray acid poison at Marcus, but the skeleton surprisingly had battle energy for protection. Despite its bone frame being corroded with green smoke, it still attacked ferociously.
The Katoblepas could only let out a mournful cry as its body collapsed into the mud, dying with its eyes wide open.
"That was close. Magic that attacks the soul is indeed terrifying," Rody reflected, still shaken. However, this also enlightened him – if he could research magic that used psychic power to attack the souls of living creatures, wouldn't that greatly increase his strength?