Versatile Mage c1-2021, page 258
Chapter 591 - Undead, Endless of Them
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Not only did the wind wall protect them, it also swept the packs of zombies lunging at them into the air.
The faster the wind was spinning, the greater the tearing force it produced. With so many Servant-class zombies jumping at the wind wall, it simply crushed the undead into paste like a giant meat mincer. Soon, pieces of flesh and bodies were scattered on the outside of the wall...
"Let's go, we can't stay any longer!" Mo Fan quickly retrieved the Soul Remnants of the zombies and urged his team along.
The Wind Disc gradually dispersed, leaving fresh blood and pulped flesh scattered across the land. It had cleared a spacious path ahead, yet when the team had run less than fifty meters, they quickly found themselves surrounded by new packs of zombies!
Each of the packs consisted of more than twenty zombies. Their speed was two to three times that of an ordinary human. Some of their kinds with different traits could run even faster, flickering like black shadows!
"Damn it, there are too many of them!" cursed Shorty.
"We can't stop! The zombies are rolling toward us like a surging tide. Once they roll over the path between us and the army, there's no way we can regroup with them anymore. After all, the army is clearing the zombies faster than us four!" Mo Fan said urgently.
Because of how grave the situation was, Mo Fan did not dare to preserve his strength further.
He glanced in the three different directions there zombies were charging at them from and roughly estimated there to be sixty to seventy zombies attacking them simultaneously. Within a few more seconds, more than a hundred other zombies would arrive too...
"Stand closer to me, I'll destroy them all in one go!" said Mo Fan furiously.
"I'll cover you!" said Shorty immediately.
The Star Pattern appeared under Mo Fan's feet. Its blazing red color easily captured everyone's attention as usual, as if he were standing on a fiery ring that was burning fiercely...
"Fiery Fist! Nine Halls!" Mo Fan slammed his fist into the ground, inserting the rolling heat into the black soil.
The team was surrounded by pitch-black darkness, yet at this very moment, , nine fiery pillars burst out from the land covered by zombies and darkness in the shape of the Nine Halls.
Raging flames danced between the pillars, as explosions, heat waves, and tongues of fire covered everything within a hundred meters!
Basically, as soon as the packs of zombies stepped into the area of the spell, they were welcomed by blazing fire pillars that instantly evaporated the zombies, not even their ashes were left behind!
The fiery pillars were utterly astonishing. Seeing the whole area was covered in violent flames, and Mo Fan, whose figure had turned bright red after he erupted in flames, Scar Face and Yu Qingsu understood the reason why Yao Nan had appointed him as the Vice Captain...
Violent!
Extremely violent!
Scar Face's Sky Snare had only killed twenty zombies before, while Mo Fan's single Fiery Fist: Nine Halls had killed over fifty zombies in one go. It quickly resolved the difficulty they were at from being surrounded by the zombies. The remaining zombies had only survived because they were moving at a relatively slower pace, and so were not within the coverage of the spell.
"Let's go!" uttered Mo Fan, in high spirits as he glanced at the scorched land in his surroundings.
The Little Loach Pendant acted fairly quickly too. The zombies that Mo Fan had eliminated had all turned into blue-green light dots floating into its Nether River.
Around eighty Soul Remnants of the undead would be enough to refine a Soul Essence. Basically, the undead that Scar Face and Mo Fan had eliminated were enough to refine another Soul Essence!
Collecting Soul Remnants this way was extremely efficient, yet Mo Fan did not want to be too greedy, as it was only a matter of time until his energy was depleted. Besides, the number of undead were still increasing, thus resulting in denser packs of zombies lunging at them endlessly. If they made a mistake when casting their Intermediate Spells , it was only a matter of seconds until the zombies brought them to the ground and stacked ten layers of zombies on top of them!
With no time to strengthen the Star, Mo Fan led the team and continued sprinting forwards.
"Little Flame Belle, spit fire!"
Little Flame Belle puffed her cheeks again, spitting a bright red burning carpet across the path ahead more than a hundred meters long.
The zombies in a straight line ahead of her melted instantly in the flames once again, before turning into blue-green light dots flying toward Mo Fan's Little Loach Pendant.
"Thunderbolt: Wild Strikes!" Yu Qingsu's eyes emitted a purple glint of light.
She pointed her finger at the path behind them, producing a huge stormy cloud up high from which thick Lightning Strikes descended. The zombies chasing after them had no choice but to cross the lightning zone. Fortunately, the zombies had little to no intelligence. They were completely clueless about dodging or avoiding the dangerous zone. As they stepped into the area, the Lightning Strikes striking them immediately blew them into a bloody mist in the air.
"I can see them, I can see them… hurry up!" blurted out Shorty. He finally saw the army around three hundred meters away.
It looked like Zhou Ming and Mu Bai were assigned to the back of the army to annihilate the zombies pursuing the army. When Mu Bai, Shorty, Yu Qingsu and Scar Face were clearing a path toward them, they suddenly felt the pressure being lifted from their shoulders, as the zombies had instead gone to surround the group of four instead.
"They are back, clear the path for them, clear the path!" Zhou Ming yelled at the other Magicians when she discovered them catching up.
One of the Hunters opened his mouth and eyes wide when he saw the zombies being murdered en masse behind the army. It took him some time to collect his thoughts and said, "Those four are fierce as tigers; their firepower is basically the same as a huge troop!"
"Yeah, if I was left behind like that, I would be eaten by the undead without leaving any bones behind in just a matter of seconds."
"Enough with the bullshit, let's clear a path for them!"
"Not a problem, watch this, Rolling Wave!"
"Blood-lined Beast, go get them," said a Summoner, casting Contract Summoning.
A five-meter-tall muscular beast soon dashed ahead. As soon as the creature appeared, the undead nearby simply turned into midgets. A single grab would crush a zombie to death, a single swing of its limbs would knock a zombie flying, and a single bite would swallow one...
The Blood-lined Beast charged into the pile of zombies. The creature was extremely effective against them. After all, Magicians preferred to stay in groups instead of being split up into smaller groups and finding themselves surrounded by the zombies, but a Warrior-level creature like the Blood-lined Beast was a completely different story. Its flesh was sturdy and its limbs were powerful. It would probably take the zombies half a day to kill the creature, even if it were standing in one spot.
"Mission accomplished, everyone, full speed ahead!" Yao Nan's voice came from the sky.
They'd been out here exactly twenty minutes. When Yao Nan saw Mo Fan's team approaching the army, he smiled too. It seemed like the people he had chosen did have some tricks up their sleeves. It was not easy to kill a Corpse General and regroup with the army after only twenty minutes. Besides, they even had to fight their way out to regroup with the army a kilometer away!
Chapter 592 - Black Sandstorm, Corpse Official
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Yao Nan was spiraling in the air above the army's perimeter. His gaze was fixed ahead, as he finally saw a group of phantom-like creatures in white among the dense army of undead!
The creatures in white clothes had pale faces. Their half-illusionary figures were able to move past anything. On top of that, they were not walking along but hovering in the air...
"I see you!" Yao Nan grinned coldly.
The army was advancing at full speed. The Fire Magicians had become the main firepower for the whole army. As Fiery Fists with wide coverage were thrown forward, there was burning blood and flesh scattering everywhere in the air. The fiery explosions left the scorched land with countless blast craters.
"The group of Light Magicians is in front of us regrouping with other troops!" called down Heavenly Eagle Battlemage who was spiraling in the air above the army.
They could see troops of Magicians in various directions among the black tide of zombies. The colorful glow when spells were cast served as the brightest flags to identify the friendlies, telling the other troops that they were moving toward their assigned destination!
At the Intermediate Level, Fire Magicians still played an important role, since the Fire Element was not as difficult to Awaken as the Lightning Element. On top of that, the Fire Element was the most effective in a wide-scale war like this due to its wide area of effect. The blazing red fire carpet laid out as the troops began to merge with one another was like a path towards hope for the humans.
The undead's greatest weakness was Light, followed by Fire. As flames erupted and burned the land, the brain-dead Servant-class zombies would simply walk into the flames and set themselves on fire.
The magical flames could last for some time. A zombie on fire would eventually be turned into a scorched corpse, no longer posing any threat to the living.
The bright flames were the only comfort the human army could find when they were right in the middle of the undead army. Everyone was searching for the light produced by the spells, the righteous flames that countless Intermediate Magicians had summoned, just so they would not lose their direction on the path toward death!
"The other troops have arrived at their positions. Take a look at how slow your men are..." said Yao Nan.
"The other troops consisted of well-trained Battlemages. They are a lot better compared to us that were put together at the very last second!" replied Jiang Li unpleasantly.
Yao Nan ignored Jiang Li's grumble. His eyes were suddenly fixed on a huge black mist rising from the undead army.
The black mist was rolling toward the humans like a sandstorm. Its target was the Magicians that had yet to arrive at their positions. Yao Nan discovered that the undead were actually clearing a path for the black sandstorm!
"Something big is coming!" screamed the Heavenly Eagle Battlemage in the sky.
As soon as the Heavenly Eagle Battlemage gave the heads up, a flesh-colored tentacle sprang out from the black sandstorm into the air!
It looked like a tongue, or an arm, or more like a lump of meat able to extend infinitely. The weird thing was incredibly fast. Before anyone could react, it stabbed right through the Heavenly Eagle that the Battlemage was riding on.
The Heavenly Eagle did not even have time to cry out in pain. Its body stiffened after suffering the deadly blow, and started twitching out of nowhere soon after.
The fleshy tentacle suddenly pulsed like a huge straw. It was obvious that something was being transferred to the black sandstorm. At the same time, the Heavenly Eagle withered and dried out.
Its feathers had also lost their color, as if there was simply a layer of skin covered in feathers that had rotted for many years on a corpse with only its skeleton left. The Heavenly Eagle's life force was completely s.u.c.k.e.d dry within a few seconds, now looking like it was air-dried after hanging for many years at a certain spot!
The Heavenly Eagle Battlemage fell from his mount with a pale face full of terror. "It's...it's a Corpse Official!"
The Heavenly Eagle Battlemage was lucky to survive the attack, but his Heavenly Eagle was thoroughly dead. If the tentacle had punctured any of his body parts, he would have been turned into a dried corpse too!
"A Commander-level undead? Are you serious? We actually stumbled into a Commander-level undead?" a retired Battlemage bleated out.
They were not afraid of Corpse Generals, since as long as they all cast Intermediate Spells focusing on the same target, they would instantly eliminate the Corpse General without leaving its bones behind. After all, their team consisted of over forty talented Intermediate Magicians, and more than ten of them possessed the Fire Element!
However, a Corpse Official was a completely different story. Even if they had twice the number of Intermediate Magicians, a single Commander-level undead would crush the seemingly unbeatable group of Intermediate Magicians within a few minutes.
Once a group lost its formation, the undead army would surround the Magicians. It would not be long until the Magicians died under the filthy, disgusting fangs of the undead!
"We're only a few steps away from regrouping with the other squads, but we happened to stumble into a Corpse Official here! What do we do now? We only have an Advanced Magician in our group. Even though we might stand a chance if we all focus on killing the Corpse Official, there are still several hundreds or even thousands of zombies flanking us from all directions. If all our firepower is used to handle the Commander-level undead, the zombies will eventually drag us away..." one of the Magicians from the Magic Association blurted out in fear.
Commander-level undead were a nightmare to them. Just a single one was enough to bring death upon the whole team.
"What should we do now? Are we going to die here? I don't want to die!"
"Send a signal, quick, let's ask the other squads for help. They have lots of Advanced Magicians!"
"Captain, send a signal to ask for help quickly. The black sandstorm is getting closer. I don't want my life force being s.u.c.k.e.d dry like that..."
The Magicians were already panicking. The death of the Heavenly Eagle haunted every single one of them. They could not help but shiver when they imagined their blood, flesh, and organs being s.u.c.k.e.d dry by the tentacle like a straw!
"Humph, useless pricks, not only are you all slow when advancing, you're also cowardly compared to the regular army. If I knew how useless you all were since the beginning, I wouldn't have bothered firing the Assembling Signal… continue to press forward!" mocked Yao Nan while flapping his wings.
"Captain, that is easy for you to say..."
"If you have the time to speak nonsense there, why don't you draw a few more Star Patterns instead! I'll deal with the Corpse Official in the black sandstorm. Just focus on advancing forward!" Yao Nan said in a cold voice instead of his usual feminine manner. He glanced across the crowd. When he saw Mo Fan's group regrouping with the troop, he immediately said, "Vice Captain, come with me, let's go kill that Corpse Official!"
"F**k you, I just came back!" yelled Mo Fan like an enraged lion, still panting heavily.
Chapter 593 - You Corpse Generals, I Corpse Official
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Yao Nan did not waste time talking to Mo Fan. He glided over to Mo Fan with a flap of his wings and lifted him into the air by grabbing the back of his coat.
"All you need to do is to charge forward, forward, forward!" Yao Nan said to the squad.
Yao Nan flew higher into the sky, bringing Mo Fan along with him. Black corpse aura covered the whole area. Everyone could only see the two flying away above the densely-packed undead army and taking the initiative to attack the Corpse Official in the black sandstorm!
"Those two... I bet they don't even know how they are going to die?" swore Jiang Li.
"Yeah, that's a Commander-level undead, one that even a team of Advanced Magicians would have trouble killing, let alone a single Advanced Magician, and an Intermediate Magician," said Zhou Ming, extremely worried.
"Someone has to sacrifice their lives in a war like this. It's reasonable for them as Captain and Vice Captain to step forward under the circ.u.mstances. We shall not put their effort in vain. Let's regroup with the army!"
"That's right, we shall not let our two captains down!"
"Charge, kill those filthy creatures!"
"If I survive this, I might even make it to the Undead Ranking, HAHAHA!"
Obviously, Yao Nan and Mo Fan's action of taking the initiative to attack had eliminated their fear of the Commander-level creature. It had helped to raise the troop's morale significantly.
On the other hand, Mo Fan was feeling extremely unpleasant. He was forced into the dragon's swamp and lion's den even though he had just accomplished a difficult mission!
Yao Nan had dragged him away before he could even catch his breath. He felt the urge to ask Yao Nan whether his previous statement of leaving the Commander-level creature to him was pure bullshit!
When Mo Fan was forced to join the war, he already mentioned that he would only handle Servant-class and Warrior-level undead. If there were Commander-level undead that no one could handle, he would be the first one to fly back to the walls with his Fleeing Shadow...
In the end, he was flying above the undead army consisting of thousands of zombies. His miniscule figure was approaching the black sandstorm, which loomed over them like a mountain. He could barely see some black tentacle-like objects twisting around inside the sandstorm!
"Yao Nan, we aren't even close to begin with. Let me go, and I'll still treat you as my friend. Otherwise, if I ended up turning into an undead, I will f**king r.a.p.e all your boyfriends!" cursed Mo Fan.
"Even though I look feminine, my s.e.x.u.a.l orientation is still normal," said Yao Nan with a smile, one that was no different than the smile of a cunning fox.
"What are you actually thinking of doing? I'm just an Intermediate Magician! Don't treat me like an expert like you who can fly, jump and kill hundreds of undead with a single spell!" Mo Fan was infuriated.
"Enough with the acting! Four Elements, and two Summoned Creatures, I know you don't want to use all you have when there are people around. I've brought you along on purpose so you can fully utilize all you have… look, there are so many Corpse Generals down there. I'm still keeping my promise, I'll handle the Corpse Official myself, but I need you to keep the Corpse Generals busy," said Yao Nan.
