Chapter 390 - 331: Beating Around the Bush

Chapter 390: Chapter 331: Beating Around the Bush

"Fuck!"

The mockery on Gray’s face vanished as he stared at the Decayed rapidly swelling before him.

His expression instantly turned to one of terror.

Gray had never imagined that the Decaying Lich possessed such an insidious and vicious Magic!

’How can it detonate corpses? What happened to your camaraderie?’

What was worse, Gray had used a Thrust to finish off the Decayed.

Now, most of the blade was stuck through its neck, lodged in the vertebrae amidst a mix of rotting flesh and bone.

Pulling it out would take time.

Even if it was less than a second, at a moment of life and death, not even a fraction of an instant could be wasted.

Gray decisively let go of the hilt and stumbled backward.

The Decayed’s body had already swollen to its limit.

Then...

"BOOM!!!"

A massive explosion thundered.

A rapidly expanding mass of purple-black light erupted from within its body, completely engulfing the Decayed in an instant!

A surge of Magic Power, thick with intense Negative Energy, blasted outward!

On Zelir’s data panel, a new analysis task appeared for his Technique Celestial Calculation.

Corpse Explosion Skill, Analysis Progress—5%.

The Corpse Explosion Skill was more powerful than Zelir had imagined.

Its deadliest range had a radius of over three meters.

Thankfully, Gray was fast enough to escape the zone where he would have been critically or fatally injured.

But the dispersing Undead Magic Power still hit him.

Gray crossed his arms to shield himself, but he was still blown back several meters before slamming hard onto the sand.

"Cough...!"

Gray lay sprawled on the ground, coughing violently.

Each cough was accompanied by a tearing pain in his lungs.

Besides the damage from the Magic Power impact, a sinister aura was invading his body.

Gray felt as if he’d been thrown into an ice cellar; he began to shiver and tremble uncontrollably from the cold!

"Gray!"

Zelir rushed to his side and immediately began Casting.

A white light with a purifying aura appeared at the tip of his Night Peace Staff.

Dispel Skill!

A halo of pure white Magic Power, like sunlight, enveloped Gray’s entire body.

The cold Undead Magic Power rampaging through his body met the purifying light like snow under a blazing sun.

It let out a SIZZLE as it was rapidly neutralized, dispelled, and annihilated!

’Thankfully... this Witch Demon’s Undead Magic Power Strength isn’t particularly high. The Dispel Skill is enough to purify the corrosive effects on Gray.’

The bone-deep chill receded, and Gray’s eyes shot open.

He gasped for air, like a drowning man finally breaking the surface.

"Take this."

Zelir drew the Fine Steel Longsword from his waist and thrust it into Gray’s hand.

Gray’s Cloud Steel Sword had been blown somewhere by the Corpse Explosion Skill; in any case, there was no way to retrieve it now.

"Thanks..." Gray used the Longsword to prop himself up.

Gray was saved, but on the front line, the other six Decayed were still attacking.

The formation was on the verge of collapse.

They had already charged right up to the squad.

Through observation, Zelir realized that the Witch Demon’s Corpse Explosion Skill couldn’t detonate living Decayed.

But for that very reason, the Decayed’s attacks were completely reckless, a tactic of trading life for life!

They fought as if rushing to their deaths, forgoing all defense as they swung their weapons and charged head-on.

Faced with such a bizarre and shameless tactic, the squad members found their hands tied.

’These things are like suicide bombers.’

After the lesson learned from Gray, Marcus and Valles no longer dared to deal a killing blow to the Decayed.

Marcus could only grit his teeth and block the Decayed’s slashes with his Shield, not even daring to counterattack with his blade.

He was afraid of accidentally using too much force and killing one of them.

’Then I’d get blown up too.’

Meanwhile, Valles didn’t dare shoot his Thunder Arrows at their heads.

He didn’t dare infuse them with too much Fighting Qi, terrified of accidentally blowing a Decayed to pieces.

As a result, the only parts they could attack were the limbs, since even a blow to the chest could be fatal.

But hitting their limbs with precision while they were moving at high speed was easier said than done.

For a moment, the squad was forced onto the back foot.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

The Decayed’s blades hacked relentlessly against Marcus’s Shield.

He blocked several attacks in a row, then swung his Shield in a vicious bash, knocking the two Decayed in front of him aside.

He had just cleared his right side when another Decayed charged from the left, brandishing a Longsword.

But instead of attacking Marcus, it slashed the sword viciously across its own neck.

"Dammit!"

Marcus was horrified.

As the Decayed killed itself, the Witch Demon in the rear immediately seized the opportunity to activate its Corpse Explosion Skill!

The sinister, purple-black light bloomed once more!

Marcus scrambled to hide behind his Shield.

"BOOM!"

The Shield blocked the Magic Power blast, and since Marcus’s Fighting Qi defense Attributes were quite high, he didn’t take much damage.

However, that bone-chilling aura of Negative Energy still seeped into his body.

The glow of Marcus’s Fighting Qi dimmed slightly.

What made his skin crawl was that the remaining five Decayed were charging again.

And from the looks of it, they were trying to surround him!

Vine Entanglement!

The green light of Night Peace flashed.

The sandy ground of the arena suddenly split open, and dozens of vines shot out toward the charging Decayed, binding them in place.

His injuries somewhat eased, Gray charged forward, sword in hand.

He had learned his lesson this time.

With a flash of his blade, he lopped off the lower leg of one of the bound Decayed, severely hampering its mobility.