Crack!
As two swords cut through the air and divided it, a group of undead soldiersâ bodies ripped apart as if ravaged by a sword-shaped dragon. If this sword skill, Heaven and Earth Dual Dragon Sword, were trained to its fullest potential, it could flip heaven and earth.
Ting!
An undead soldier took the sword strike head-on as it activated shield charge, but it was flung five meters into the air. Without much delay, it collided with another undead soldier, sending both tumbling to the floor.Â
âHurry up and climb! These guys are low-level, but there are too many of them!â
âTheyâre Level 2 on average! Level 2! If we donât use up all our stamina, weâll be able to compete against them, so donât be nervous and continue onward!â
As the party members shouted and encouraged each other, they started slowly making their way up the castleâs walls. Other than Jeros with his atrocious physical ability stats, everyone else was able to swiftly head up onto the castle walls. And so, within a short period, everyone was on the walls.
Bam!
During all of this, Merlin took advantage of the commotion and continued to snipe the relatively defenseless squad-level undead leaders. He couldnât miss, and they were only Level 3 at best, so they were no match against his arrows.
âGood job, everyone. As for you guys, go back down!â
Whoosh!
The user who spoke had been one of the first to scale the wall, and heâd also assisted those that came after him in their climbing efforts. Now, he turned his attention to the group of undead that was trying to stack up on each other to reach the top of the wall. With a few swipes of his sword, the user had sliced toward the top layer, causing a chain reaction that nearly collapsed the entire ladder-like structure, sending many undead soldiers back to the ground.
âMy magic power is dwindling⌠but one more.â
Bam!
With a wave of his hand, Jeros sent another fireball toward where many undead soldiers were gathered, resulting in significant casualties to the enemy side.
âW-who the hell are these guys?â
âTheyâre so strong.â
All the party members had experienced the Siege Quest missions during the beta test, so they knew what to expect and do in this battle. Their attacks were so efficient that the situation seemed like a one-sided massacre.
âHey, how many died just now?â
âAbout 120!â
âOkay. Things are going smoothly. Hardcore mode isnât that bad!â
Hanma whistled as he saw the tide of battle turn against the undead army. However, like always, his words signaled the start of another catastrophe.
Roar!
âEh?â
âHuh?â
âWait, what the hell is that!â
The users couldnât help but gasp as thousands of undead soldiers amassed to form a giant being. And if the users with this surprised, one could easily imagine how shocked the castle soldiers were.
âScorpion! Are undead soldiers able to bond together like that to create a giant entity?â
âOf course not! I donât think those guys are normal undead.â
As a necromancer, Scorpion couldnât help but feel that the undead they were facing felt foreign. Typically, they wouldnât be able to form a Flesh Golem, as the undeadâs operating power wasnât suited or compatible with combination-type entities. Yet, the undead before him were doing just that. Scorpion had heard of low and mid-rank demons combining to form a new monster, but heâd never heard of undead doing it as well.
âJeros!â
âI donât have enough magic power, so youâll need to wait!â
âDamn it; weâre in trouble! That thing is too big. Unless Jeros attacks it, thereâs no other way we can fight it!â
Indifferent to the screaming, the new 20-meter-tall Flesh Golem raised its right arm into the air, freezing the castle soldiers as they saw this frightening scene.
Bam!
When the arm smashed down, it destroyed a portion of the castle wall and immediately killed an unknown number of soldiers stationed there. When the Flesh Golem lifted its arm again, Raul was in its grasp, as heâd froze from fright and was snatched by the golem.Â
âAck! Damn it! Itâs the guy we need to guard!â
âMy precious experience points!â
âSave him!â
As the party members shouted amongst themselves, two users ran up the golemâs arm. One was Ohje with his twin swords, and the other was the bow-wielding Merlin.
âArgh!â
Raul was screaming as he was held by the various undead beings that comprised the Flesh Golem, but Merlin and Ohje were calm.
âWe should cut off his wrist.â
âCan the two of us do it? Itâs pretty thick.â
âIâll use all my power and strike first. You should follow up on the same spot.â
âI thought you were an archer⌠alright, Iâll trust you!â
As Ohje darted up the constantly-moving Flesh Golemâs arm, Merlin started circulating his internal energy, four years, to be exact. This was almost his entire reserve of internal energy. Of course, this meager amount couldnât accomplish much, but once those four years went through Mercury, Venus, and Earth, they would grow to 32 years. And the martial arts skill Merlin decided to deploy wasâŚ
âFormless Blade!â
This skill allowed users to form an invisible blade at the end of their hands and use it for slash attacks.
Crunch!
Though the Flesh Golemâs wrist was thick, it was made up of various undead components, so it wasnât exactly solid. Merlinâs Formless Blade strike cut through just over half of the golemâs wrist.
Roar!
As if in pain, the Flesh Golem roared in anguish and swung its other hand in a swatting motion towards Merlin and Ohje. It looked as if the Flesh Golem was trying to squish a few annoying mosquitos, and although this attack was frightening, Ohje had already started his follow-up strike.
âGood job!â
Slice!
When Ohjeâs sword strike landed on the Flesh Golem, the hand holding Raul fell to the ground along with Ohje. In that brief moment, Ohje and Merlinâs eyes met.
Bam!
Immediately, Ohje grabbed Raul, used what remained of the golemâs hand to jump off, and safely landed on top of the castle wall. At the same time, Merlin ran up the golemâs arm.
Whoosh!
While sprinting, Merlin grabbed the external Gold Core that was above his left shoulder and absorbed the internal energy within. The external Gold Core had 45 years of internal energy, so it was an incredible storage device for emergencies.
âIt has an operating center!â
Obviously, a monster like this that was made up of so many smaller entities needed an operational core. There was no other way such an immense number of undead could combine and move in sync. The operating core seemed to be the initial undead that had rallied and gathered all the other monsters around it to create the original ten-meter-tall Flesh Golem. After being defeated by Jerosâ spell, the undead soldier seemed to have decided to gather more undead for this second Flesh Golem.Â
âItâs located at the head!â
As Merlin shouted, he continued to head up the golemâs long arms, his hand starting to emanate a golden glow all the while. This showed that Merlin was planning on striking with Shaolinâs strongest hand skill strike, the Great Strength Vajra Hand.
Sss!
Suddenly, when Merlin was about to launch his attack, the Flesh Golemâs head opened, revealing a monster shorter than Merlin as it spat a bone fragment at him. The bone fragment flew quicker than a bullet, so Merlin didnât have a chance to react.
Crack!
However, Merlin blocked the bone fragment. Actually, this wasnât exactly true. His spirit had automatically executed the order that it was given, which stated: [Defend against any attack that approaches me at a pace greater than 200 meters per second. However, I donât want you to confront the attack head-on, just hit it to make it veer away.]
â⌠Huh?â
Merlin didnât have time to be happy at the successful execution of his order.
Crack.
The spirit that acted was the one tasked with holding his egg.
Crack. Crack.
At a total loss, Merlin helplessly looked up at the egg, which had been tossed into the air. Cracks started appearing across the eggâs surface. Many thoughts crossed his mind. Most of them centered around, âI shouldnât have come here,â or âNo! Iâve carried that around for so long!â Generally, they were all full of regret. Since he probably lost his egg, Merlin decided to make the best out of the situation by continuing towards the Flesh Golem and landing his attack. Thus, he passed the egg that was suspended in the air and rushed forward toward the golemâs head, butâŚ
Swoosh.
The egg flew towards the golemâs head andâŚ
Bam!
⌠created a tremendous explosion equal to one of Jerosâ spells.Â
âW-what?â
Soon, the enormous Flesh Golemâs body started to collapse. Seeing the individual undead detach and fall to the ground, Merlin assumed that the blast had killed the monster in the golemâs head, the one controlling it.Â
âNice!â
âGreat! What kind of attack was that?â
âHe didnât seem like a mage at first, but he sure proved himself in the end!â
âGood job, everyone!â
The other users were overjoyed at having completed the quest. However, for MerlinâŚ
âWhat the hell happened?â
He couldnât help but feel dumbfounded.