Silver Blade took a few steps towards the compass when a whispering voice suddenly echoed through the room:
“What a pleasssant ssurprisse…
Did you bring a blesssing? Did you kill… Kelsssnim?”
“Show yourself when speaking to us!”, commanded Silver Blade calmly.
“Oh? You want to order me? Jussst like that overconfident devil?
Amusssing… But my shackless have been lifted! I have you to thank for that!”
Silver Blade rolled her eyes. Without continuing to talk she walked straight towards the compass. Just before she reached the wall, a violet figure suddenly broke out of a cloud of void energy, blocking the tank’s way.
Hit with a dangerous aura, Silver Blade looked the figure up and down. They were a ghostly being with the face of a devil but hair similar to dryads. Their purple body appeared to be stitched together from different races. Human legs, orc arms, thin elven waist.
Everyone looking at this weird violet-skinned ghost couldn’t help but get a feeling of disgust.
“Look at this faccce of yoursss. You reject my excissstencce… But you will sssoon become part of me! When I’m done with you!”
Towards the end the ghost’s voice turned raspy with a hint of craziness. A forked tongue came out of its mouth, almost licking Silver Blade’s face. The tank had to use all her will not to step back.
Then, without any warning, the ghost’s rough hand transformed into a claw which aimed for Silver Blade.
Met with the sudden attack Silver Blade wasn’t surprised. Since the distance between her and the ghost was too close, she didn’t use her shield but jumped back to evade the claw.
[Stance -22]
However, Silver Blade didn’t expect the wave of void energy following the attack. It directly crashed into her chest, putting the new armor to the test.
[-157!]
“Hey, it’s playing tricks!”
Cyclone stared at the monster in surprise, using [Inspect].
[Experimental Ghost of the void
Rank: Hidden Boss
Level: 24
HP: 8500/8500
Passive Skill: Deal an extra 10% void damage with every attack.]
Since the enemy initiated the fight, it would be unkind not to retaliate. All the party members had such a thought, immediately taking positions. As always, the ranged attackers struck first.
[-110!]
[-57!]
[-69!]
The melee classes dashed forward, encircling the ghost. But the enemy didn’t wait for them to arrive. Its body suddenly fell apart, taking on ten different forms, each flying towards a party member.
Suddenly the room was filled with violet creatures. A tall, violet orc appeared before Liam, slamming his balled fist towards the warrior’s head.
Not surprised at all, the veteran reacted calmly. He activated his ultimate while simultaneously taking a step back.
[Stance -12]
The fist powerlessly hit empty air. The orc stared at Liam with indifferent eyes, a forked tongue coming out of its mouth and producing a hissing sound.
“Time to cut this ugly tongue of yours.”
Liam spoke calmly while his swords flashed with a [Double Slash].
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[-13!]
[-8!]
[-6!]
The creatures formed from the ghost’s body had high resistance to damage, but their HP were correspondingly low. The orc shook heavily as a fifth of its HP were gone, scrunching its face.
Liam detected a twitch in the enemy’s shoulders. Before the orc moved, he already lowered his body and dodged to the right. A thick arm passed above his head.
[Stance -10]
The orc finished its predetermined attack, the second arm moving with the might of a storm but only finding empty air. Liam already stood next to his opponent. His swords crossed, engulfed by a white sheen, cutting deeply into the orc’s ghostly body.
[-14!]
Letting out a painful hiss the orc’s head jolted towards the side. It was an eerie sight as the head turned more than 90 degrees.
But Liam wasn’t intimidated this easily. He continued attacking and applying holy marks.
[-9!]
[-5!]
Violet energy came out of the orc’s nostrils as it became enraged. Its arms morphed into sharp blades. It was just about to spin around and cut the pesky fly’s head off, when it was interrupted by a [Brutal Strike.] With a brilliant explosion four holy marks exploded above its head.
[-12!]
[-45!]
Trembling from the explosion, the orc looked down on its body. Cracks slowly formed on the surface of its skin. A moment later it broke apart, turning into violet smoke, and gathering before the compass.
While Liam effortlessly dealt with his opponent, the others were met with some troubles.
Silver Blade showed incredibly quick thinking. Noticing how every party member was assigned one opponent she didn’t care for her own, but instead slammed her shield into the bear pouncing on Watchful Eye.
Radiant Shield didn’t forget his role as well. He used his [A Paladin’s Challenge] skill to protect the three mages from harm. But this also put him in a tough spot surrounded by four enemies.
In one wave of attacks, he almost lost a quarter of his stance. Meanwhile, the mages, having already started their casts, weren’t in any position to help. Radiant Shield looked indignant, doing his best to fight off the attacking creatures.
Balm attacked anxiously but her damage was too low, barely moving the enemies’ HP bars. The helplessness made her doubt her choice of being a healer.
Eventually Cyclone and Fortune looked at each other, deciding to interrupt their casting. Now freed up, they could assist Radiant Shield, focusing their attacks to quickly eliminated one creature.
The exact opposite situation could be observed at Silent Acacia’s side. When a tall, violet, wolf arrived next to him, it was suddenly faced with two enemies.
Silent Acacia took the time to leisurely dodge attacks while Zorn bit at the opponent. Although she didn’t deal too much damage, it was only a matter of time until the wolf fell.
A few seconds later Silent Acacia’s opponent turned into smoke, which gathered in front of the compass, where Liam’s opponent appeared just a few moments ago.
“Good job, Acacia! Can you help Radiant Shield while I free up Quickstep and Bloody Edge?”
“Sure.”
Silent Acacia had no reason to reject Liam’s suggestion. He brought Zorn with him and attacked a slim elf swinging its daggers at Radiant Shield.
With the first two enemies falling a chain reaction ensued. Soon the ghostly creatures were defeated, reforming before the compass.
However, this first move already cost the party quite a bit. Silver Blade had lost a lot of stance and Radiant Shield even had a dent in his HP bar.
“Let’s retaliate in kind, my friends!”, said the tank with gritted teeth. He and the other melee combatants formed a circle around the churning void energy, which quickly took on the form of a ghost.
Silver Blade took a look at the boss, informing her friends:
“At least our efforts weren’t wasted. The boss lost a thousand HP.”
“As it should be…”, commented Radiant Shield.
Meanwhile the others instantly brought out their skills. For a moment the ghost was devoured by a wave of attacks. Swords, daggers, magic, everything sought to take its life.
An uncomfortable feeling traveled through the ghost’s body. It hissed angrily, slashing its claws at Silver Blade.
This time the tank wasn’t surprised by the void damage, blocking it all professionally. But another claw arrived in quick succession.
Silver Blade sighed, knowing that her stance was about to be used up.
Shield and claw collided heavily. The impact traveled through Silver Blade’s body, shaking her bones. A weak feeling hit her arm as her stance dropped to zero, allowing some damage through.
[-716!]
[-157!]
“Damn, let’s vanquish this ghost immediately!”
Bloody Edge urged his friends as he appeared from stealth, sending out four daggers formed from blinding holy light.
[-217!]
[-86!]
[-43!]
“And here I thought ghosts should be weak to holy damage…”
“You’re not wrong. But void corrupted enemies usually don’t have such obvious weaknesses.”, explained Liam calmly while four holy marks exploded above the boss’s head.”
[-373!]
Besieged by so many enemies, the ghost swiped his eyes over the players. A mocking look was in its gaze.
“Litte adventurersss, I am a ssuperior lifeform! Obediently be assimilated by me!”
“Superior? You can’t even talk properly.”
“You!!!”
Mocked by Cyclone the ghost stared at her intently. Its head swelled as if the anger was gathering in its brain. Cyclone looked at its silly appearance and couldn’t hold back her laughter.
Obviously, this enraged the ghost even further. Without warnings it lunged at the mage at an incredible pace.
Radiant Shield could barely follow the ghost with his eyes.
“Is this a natural taunting ability?”
“I feel like Cyclone would’ve made a great tank.”
Cyclone wanted to curse at her friends, but she didn’t have the ability to do so. She was once again looking down on everyone from the sky, helplessly watching her own body caught withing the ghost’s.
“Great! Your power ssshal be mine!”
The ghost had an excited expression, swinging its claw through the air. Surprisingly a violet sphere formed, shooting towards Silver Blade.