Chapter 45: Occult Viktor (4)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Occult Victor had an insurmountable strength. His speed was too fast to keep up with, and his Instant Flash battle skill was top-notch. Put simply, Viktor had the decisive upper hand in this battle.
No one could stop him from attacking whoever he wanted!
At least, that was what it seemed like.
Moments before, the three mercenaries were driving Viktor into a corner. They could almost finish him off in one move, but in the next moment, the situation reversed. Now, it was Link, their leader, who was in a situation of grave danger.
Jacker and Lucy were the first to turn back to help Link, but they were not able to do anything with such brief warning.
The speed of Jacker's Charge required at least half a second to reach Link, but by then, Viktor would have enough time to kill Link three times. And while Lucy might have very nimble limbs, her speed was still behind even Jacker's, so it was impossible for her to make it anywhere near fast enough.
"Protect him!" shouted Jacker to Gildern.
The battle just now had clearly proven that Occult Viktor was well beyond what the three mercenaries could fight against. If Link got killed, it would mean that their deaths were guaranteed as well.
The Archer Gildern understood Link's importance well. He was ready to use his bow as a wooden stick to hit Viktor with. He knew it wouldn't kill or even seriously hurt Viktor, but he hoped it would buy them some time before Jacker and Lucy could reach them.
"I'll kill you first!" cried Viktor.
Viktor was completely unimpeded by the longbow's hit. His dagger went straight at Gildern, who was an Archer, so close combat was not his forte at all. Viktor didn't even bother to dodge Gildern's futile attack as he was too consumed by the urge to kill everyone.
Gildern knew he had no chance of dodging Viktor's attacks, he thought he was about to be dealt a finishing blow, but then bang! It was Link's glass orbs. One struck Viktor's arm while the other struck his face. Viktor's attack was, once more, thwarted by the Magician!
Gildern instinctively backed away. Now there was no one left to protect Link.
"Ah! You're still trying to rescue other people? Let's see who's going to rescue you! It's time for you to die!" said Viktor, with a malicious grin on his face.
He lunged forward with his dagger and it struck Link in his heart—not the actual Link, but rather, his Physical Avatar.
But how could it be the avatar?
That's because, in the moment when Viktor launched his Instant Flash in Link's direction, his instincts flared up. As a weak-bodied Magician, he was extremely sensitive to these kinds of sudden attacks. So, he intuitively stepped backwards, making the Physical Avatar just slightly closer to Viktor.
In any fierce battle, it would be a natural instinct to attack a target that was nearest to you.
In Viktor's eyes, these were just a pair of twin Magicians, they should both be killed and it didn't matter which one died first. So naturally, he attacked the one closest to him first!
But as soon as the dagger pierced through, Viktor realized something was wrong.
He had killed many people before, he knew precisely how it should feel when his dagger pierced through flesh and bone, but now, the feeling was off. It didn't feel like he was stabbing a body—it was rough as if he had planted his dagger into the ground.
What's going on? Viktor was in shock.
Then, Link gave up his control over the Physical Avatar and the spell began to collapse. The avatar turned into a clump of dirt and sand. Viktor knew immediately that he had committed a grave error!
"Glass Orb!" Link chanted in a low steady voice. With a slight movement of his wand, small orbs appeared in the air one after another. This time, Link really concentrated all his attention on the spellcasting, and in less than half a second, a total of 9 light blue orbs appeared out of thin air.
They moved in two groups: the first flew towards Viktor's face and the others were aimed at the stab wound on Viktor's arm.
Like Gildern, Link wasn't expecting to seriously hurt Viktor; he only wanted to slow down his attacks, giving Jacker and the rest time to catch up.
To maximize his spellcasting speed, Link stood as still as stone. But Gildern thought that was a bad idea, he was focused on one thing—Link must not die. He swung his bow over his back, then with both hands carried Link's body away, and bolted from Occult Viktor as fast as he could.
Link was unaffected by all this. He focused completely on the spellcasting.
Even though the flames could not hurt him, Viktor dared not underestimate the impact of these explosions. The other parts of his body could stand it just fine, but his eyes couldn't bear it at all; he had to shut his eyes. But in the battle against joint attacks, shutting his eyes even for a moment meant certain death and or defeat. The wound on his arm couldn't bear the attacks either, so when faced with the explosive attacks he had no choice but to dodge and evade them.
Still, he underestimated Link's spell. The Glass Orbs were nothing like the arrows; their trajectory could change at any time. When the distance was short enough, there was no chance of dodging these attacks!
Bang bang bang bang bang! Viktor could only feel the skin on his face going numb, but he didn't dare to open his eyes. The only thing his nose could smell was the heated air around him and this made him hesitate even to breathe because the air might burn his lungs.
The stab wound on his right arm stung with a fierce burning pain; it felt as if his whole arm had been burned to crisp.
Under these circumstances, he had no more power to use Instant Flash to chase after Link.
By this time, Jacker had made it to Link—he had used his Charge!
Thud! After Link's prior attack, Jacker, with all his might, used his shield to hit the motionless Viktor squarely on his back.
Ahhh! Viktor's body shook and he spat out dark, thick blood. His wounds were serious and he was now truly incapacitated.
A perfect opening!
Lucy was close at Jacker's heels. Her sword pierced into Viktor's chest from his back. The sword had penetrated his body about an inch deep, but she wasn't sure if that was enough. The sword didn't cut through his heart, but the attack did stun him, so his reaction slowed down considerably.
She was aware of the vast disparity in skill level between her and this monster, so after stabbing him once, she pulled back the sword and hid behind Jacker's shield, waiting for another opening.
But Jacker had no such reservations. He knew that he was his comrades' shield. The only thing he focused on was to stop or delay this monster's attacks, even if it meant receiving blows to himself, and at the same time create openings for his comrades to attack.
He swung his shield towards Viktor, then rapidly pulled back the shield to protect himself. Then with his right hand, he swung the war hammer down onto Viktor's skull.
Faced with the looming war hammer attack, all he could do was lean his head to the side.
Thud! As the war hammer crushed onto Occult Viktor's left shoulder, it made a gruesome sound.
The war hammer was about 170 pounds, and Jacker swung it down with all his might. A dent appeared on Viktor's shoulder; the bones inside had been smashed!
Viktor's two arms were both limp and useless. The strength of occult bodies was, however, that they had enhanced recovery speed. A black vapor swirled over each of Viktor's wounds and the wound was noticeably healing at an impeccable speed.
If Viktor could just have some rest, he could definitely fight back and regain the battle!
But would Link ever allow that to happen? Absolutely not!
"Attack with all your might!" yelled Link.
This was their best opportunity!
Lucy stormed up to Viktor again. Gildern put Link down, nocked his arrow and shot multiple arrows at Viktor. Jacker kept hitting Viktor with his war hammer in a crazed fury. Link himself kept casting spells, and successions of little orbs kept shooting straight towards the wounds on Viktor's body.
In less than a second, Viktor was completely wrecked under a barrage of attacks!
The occult body might be strong and resilient, but under such an intense wave of attacks, he was finally beaten into a tattered rag doll.
Crunch! Viktor's skull was smashed under Jacker's war hammer. As he was rolling on the ground, his body scattered with wounds seemingly from a thousand cuts, there was no good piece of meat left on Viktor's body.
But even for a wound that serious, this monster still wasn't dead—it was still breathing and struggling. The black vapor still swirled around his body, trying to heal the wounds.
This horrified the three mercenaries. They didn't care how smashed Viktor's body already was, they just kept attacking him in a shocking frenzy.
Over ten seconds later, Jacker slumped down on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Lucy leaned on the cave wall, soaking in sweat. Gildern was massaging his cramped arm.
Between the three was a pile of smashed flesh that used to be Viktor.
"Is he really dead now?" Jacker was still skeptical and worried, so he wanted to make sure of it with Link. The Occult Viktor was just so monstrous and bizarre that it reminded him of the demons in the legends.
In the legends, demons did not die. The three mercenaries didn't dare to risk it with Viktor. If they must, they would burn Viktor's corpse to ash, then keep that ash sealed in nine different urns and bury those urns separately. They would also make sure that each urn was at least 20 miles away from the others. According to legends, that was the only way you could make sure demons don't come back to life.
Link silently nodded, then said, "He's dead."
He was only transformed by occult magic, his life force still differed from that of a true demon by thousands of miles. There was no way Occult Viktor could survive getting beaten up that badly.
Something was flashing on the interface. Link checked it and discovered it was a notification for a completed mission. He had killed Occult Viktor and completed the mission of eliminating demon magic. He was then rewarded with 30 Omni Points.
And now he had 39 Omni Points in total.
"Now, everything in the Cove of Echoes is ours to take. It's time to pack up," Link reminded them.
That sentence revived the tired and exhausted mercenaries. Their eyes suddenly shone like light bulbs, and immediately, they began to collect their loot.