“Use it now!” Red gave Rog the signal.
The hunter already completed the chanting of his talisman and was waiting for the ghouls to be in range. As soon as the youth gave him the signal, he waved the talisman towards the two approaching creatures.
A convergence of crackling electric arcs gathered in Rog’s hand, before shooting towards the ghouls. The bolts of lightning closed the distance between them in an instant, scorching every tree in their way before making contact with the undead.
The ghouls froze in their tracks. Their bodies started to convulse from the electric arcs passing through them, and soon enough, almost their entire bodies were charred. A few seconds later, the lightning was gone just as suddenly as it had arrived.
Both ghouls roared in pain, falling to their knees as they tried to recover. There was no fanfare in this chain lightning talisman, and it was arguably weaker than the one Red used back in the trial, but it was still enough to do damage to his opponents and afford him an opportunity.
As soon as he was sure the effects of Rog’s talisman were gone, Red charged towards his opponent. His body, imbued with lightning energy, shot towards the ghouls with such quickness that the youth was able to cover dozens of meters in two steps. He could feel his special acupoints from the Storm’s Blessing technique synergizing with the Spiritual Bestowing talisman he used, making the effects of both abilities even stronger.
Lightning and wind were both elements known for their speed. However, there were key differences between them. For one, lightning was all about explosive speed, while wind was more about consistent and controllable speed. Lighting might have faster burst of speed, but it was almost impossible to sustain or control them to the same degree one would be able to achieve with wind. Which one was better all depended on the situation.
This was something Red learned on the Storm’s Blessing manual, and he was now putting into effect. A Wind Bestowment talisman might have allowed him to dodge and survive for longer, but that would avail him naught in this situation other than buying him a few minutes. Instead, Red chose a lightning talisman so he could rely on its explosive power to finish his enemies before there was even a fight at all.
By the time the ghouls noticed his approach, he was already upon them. He attacked the ghoul on the right, another man wearing just rags, and swung his sword at it. The creature tried to jump out of the way, but it was too dazed by the chain lightning.
Red managed to lop its left arm off at the elbow. The ghoul roared in pain and turned to glare at him.
Red stopped his movements a few dozen meters behind it and turned around. He watched the results with a frown.
The youth was actually going for the creature’s head. However, even with his improved speed and its dazed state, the ghoul was still able to respond in time and lose just an arm instead. This already told him how strong this opponent would be.
‘At least it is one arm short.’
The ghoul seemed to not even notice the absence of its arm, and charge at Red with blood in its eyes. Its companion, a female ghoul, ignored the youth and charged towards Rog uphill.
‘I can’t let it get to Rog.’
The hunter was already shooting at the ghoul charging at him, but his arrows either bounced off its surprisingly sturdy skin or just stuck to the creature with no effect.
Red looked back at his own ghoul. The creature leaped at him, clawing at the youth with its remaining hand.
From this distance, Red could feel the foul stench coming from these undead, far stronger than any zombie he came across before. Its claws also seemed to radiate with a dark light that made everything around it dim slightly.
The electric energy around his body flared again, and Red sidestepped the ghoul’s attack. The claws clashed against a tree behind him, causing it to explode into splinters and the area where the claw made contact even seemed to rot and die.
The ghoul turned around with a roar, but before it could follow up with its attack, Red was already charging at its companion uphill, who seemed unaware of his approach. That was, before Red’s ghoul let out a strange loud noise.
Suddenly, the other ghoul stopped and turned around to face Red. It sent a claw swinging at his face.
‘Crap.’
Red couldn’t change his trajectory in time, so he just gave up on attacking and dove beneath the blow instead. Thankfully, his speed and reaction time was enough to dodge the claw attack, as it passed over his head, but just barely.
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He ended up on the other side of the female ghoul. The creature tried to follow up on its attack, but an arrow suddenly hit it on the side of the head, allowing Red to distance himself away from melee range.
The female ghoul looked at Rog with an angry gaze. It ignored Red and charged at the hunter instead. The youth was about to stop it, but the other ghoul was already upon him.
He dove out of the way, once more dodging its claw attack. The ghoul wasn’t dissuaded, though. It followed up with another few swipes, crushing and killing trees all around them. Red was just barely able to keep himself alive with the help of the bestowment talisman, so he knew for certain Rog wouldn’t fare well in his position.
Sure enough, Red saw a light on the other side of the battlefield.
‘Shield Talisman.’
A few minutes earlier, the youth told the hunter not to use the shielding talisman unless absolutely necessary. This was, of course, because it would make them a sitting duck even if it protected them from the ghouls for a bit. Rog was a smart person, so the fact he used one so soon meant the situation was already dire.
The youth was able to catch a glimpse, and he saw the female ghoul striking with both of its claws at the shield covering the hunter. Rog, for his part, was trying to run away, to no avail.
‘I need to help him.’
Red grabbed the insectoid core from his pocket while dodging the ghoul’s attacks.
Aurelia called out to him with horror. “What are you doing?!”
Red ignored her. He distanced himself from the two ghouls and held the core up.
“Here, you two, come get me!”
As soon as the male ghoul spotted the crystal in his hand, it froze. It let out a strange sound from its mouth, and this also seemed to attract its companion’s attention. They both looked at the core in Red’s hand with fervent gazes and soon enough were charging at him with renewed energy.
The youth didn’t hesitate to turn around and run. He knew that these ghouls were being controlled, but it seemed that even this control wasn’t enough to overpower the allure of the Moonstone core.
“You’re a suicidal idiot!” Aurelia continued to berate him while he ran.
The youth couldn’t focus on her now, though. His Spirit Bestowment talisman wouldn’t last forever, and there were still two living ghouls chasing after him. His lightning imbued steps could only carry him so far against the ghouls, and even now he wasn’t gaining on them as much as keeping a constant distance with his sudden bursts of speed. Things were looking bleak.
He looked down at the core in his hands and had a sudden idea.
“If they catch the core, they will eat it!” Aurelia seemed to be able to read his mind.
Red frowned. “I won’t let them!”
“You can’t stop them!”
“Then give me another idea!”
There was only silence. If the core was eaten, he might be as good as dead when the curse came, but if he didn’t use it as a distraction to kill one of the ghouls, he would die right now, so what other choice did he have?
Just as Red was getting ready to enact his plan, he felt something behind him.
Aurelia warned him. “It’s spewing something!”
Red looked back and saw the male ghoul’s throat bulge before it spewed a torrent of blackish bile like a jet at the youth’s back. This stream was overflowing with undead energy, and even Red could feel it.
He tried to jump out of the way at the last moment, but even then, he still felt his left upper back be hit by part of the bile. The force of the blow was enough to send him sprawling to the ground, but that wasn’t the worst part.
Red felt the residual bile eating away at his clothes gradually, some of it even reaching his flesh and causing a burning pain like nothing the youth ever felt before.
Aurelia shouted at him. “Throw away your clothes!”
Red immediately threw off his cloak and tore away at his shirt, but even then he could feel an unbearable pain eating away at his skin and flesh. It was too late, and the acid was already doing its damage.
He gritted his teeth, but he didn’t even have time to gather himself.
The female ghoul suddenly leapt at him while its companion lagged behind after spewing its bile. Red rolled out of the way, dodging her claw by a breadth. Still, before he could get up, the ghoul struck with her other claw, and the youth was forced to bring his sword up to block it.
His weapon was pushed back against his chest, but the youth managed to redirect the ghoul’s claw attack and roll away. He made to get up and dash away, but he felt something suddenly grab his right leg. Before Red could even look back, his body was flung like a rag doll before being thrown against a tree.
A cracking sound echoed through the forest as both the wooden trunk and a few of Red’s bones shattered upon impact. The youth fell down to the floor a few meters away from the crash site.
This pain, added to the acid burning his upper back, made it hard for Red to even breath. However, he could still feel through his crimson sense that the ghoul was still approaching him, eager to finish the job, so he tried to force himself.
“Damn it all!” Aurelia’s urgent voice sounded right by his ear. “Grab the core, quickly! It’s our only chance!”
Red wanted to do as much, but after the crash, the core had fallen out of his hand and onto the ground a few meters away. The youth rolled over and tried to grab the core, but at almost the same time, he saw the ghoul jump at him.
There was not enough time.
Suddenly, something crashed into the ghoul midair, throwing it down the hill. Red looked over and saw Rog, whose shield was on the verge of breaking apart after smashing into the ghoul with all of its strength.
“Turns out you can use this to attack too!” the hunter said with a smile. “Come on, get up and run!”
Red did as he was told, but before he even had time to breathe, he felt something with his crimson sense.
“Rog, watch out!” Red rushed ahead to push the hunter out of the way.
However, the shield which protected Rog also kept its allies from barging in. From the other side, the male ghoul jumped at the hunter, its claw shattering the weak remains of the shield before following through unabated towards the man.
Rog tried to jump out of the way, but even then he was too slow.
The ghoul’s claws slashed his right arm clean off.