Chapter 117: Hao Yue’s Evolution: Third Head! (II)
A gold-colored mantle slowly rose up, wrapping Long Hao Chen inside. With this dense light surrounding him, he could recover a bit of spiritual energy. More importantly, inside of this [Holy Mantle], those skeletons did not dare advance. As soon as they even touched [Holy Mantle], the black-colored sheen on their bodies would immediately melt.
Long Hao Chen took several deep breaths. Two hours had passed. He had been there for exactly two hours.
Both of his arms were too sore for him to lift at this point, so he had to constantly urge himself to muster up more internal spiritual energy. He had already consumed six Restoring Spiritual Pills, but in these kinds of prolonged battles, it was not just spiritual energy that was consumed. The burden on the body as well as the heart were all important factors.
Visibly, the burden on his arms had become greater and the skeleton’s attacks were becoming fiercer and fiercer. Long Hao Chen had no choice but to activate [Holy Mantle] from his Divine Wristband.
Ye Hua had given him a Divine Wristband that could activate [Holy Mantle] three times a day. Not only did the activation require no spiritual energy, it also partially restored his own spiritual energy and aided in the recovery of his body. Long Hao Chen’s body state suddenly improved. The purple air behind him grew more and more prominent; he could even faintly hear Hao Yue’s heavy breathing.
Hold on, I must hold on. Long Hao Chen secretly commanded himself. No matter what, he had to block these skeletons, for Hao Yue’s sake. Right before the effects of [Holy Mantle] dissipated, suddenly, a mournful bellow sounded. The unceasing skeleton army suddenly stopped and moved aside. A silhouette slowly appeared in the distance.
Humans, how did humans appear in our dark and fiery world. Do you know what kind of being you are protecting? An old voice brimming with confidence and oppressing force said. Under this oppressive force, Long Hao Chen immediately shivered. Once again, he activated [Holy Mantle], before taking another Restoring Spiritual Pill.
What appeared out of the silhouette was an elderly figure, tan in colour, in tattered clothing, wearing a withered complexion, but without even a sign of health, and disheveled yellow hair that had long lost their luster. His right hand was holding a staff made of bone, as he was walking on a black cloud. His eyes were not visible, because where they were supposed to be, there were instead two flames.
What a surprise, this creature knows human speech? Long Hao Chen surprisingly thought and tensed up further. “The one I am protecting is my friend and partner.”
The elderly figure coldly said, “No, what you are protecting is the reincarnation of the devil, the creator of our dark and fiery world. His existence is precisely the reason why our world is like this. Our world is broken down and magma is flowing through the Earth. Countless species became extinct all because of him. The strong have already escaped, the less fortunate all became undead, and now, only the undead can exist in this accursed world. I do not know how you came here, but your holy aura disgusts me and your actions anger me even more. I will give you one more chance to return to your world right now. Now that the devil, Austin Griffin, appeared in my territory, even if I am just a lich, I must kill him. Otherwise, who knows what other miseries his restoration will bring to our world?”
Long Hao Chen doubtfully looked at the elder lich; he did not quite understand what the lich implied. However, according to him, Hao Yue was very dangerous, to the extent that the main cause of the destruction of this world was him.
“Hao Yue is my friend, my partner. There is no one I trust more than him.” Long Hao Chen said. Why would he trust in a lich, a lich who leads a gigantic skeleton army? In his capacity as a holy knight, the undead was the most natural enemy.
The lich coldly said, “Since this is your answer, you shalt be buried here because of Austin Griffin.”
As the bone staff in hand pointed toward Long Hao Chen, suddenly, a sharp and deathly whistle sounded.
Long Hao Chen’s entire body trembled slightly, his blood boiling at the sound of the whistle as he suddenly felt very dizzy and almost started losing consciousness. Unable to conserve his spiritual energy, he rapidly lifted up his Radiant Shield, simultaneously using [Guardian Favor] and [Faith Halo] to cover his own body.
In this situation, Radiant Shield was also able to dispel the negative effects to some extent, especially effective against undead magic. [Guardian’s Favor] and [Faith Halo] were both support skills that used the light attribute to provide defense, and also had the effect of protecting him from various negative skill effects.
As a result, the effects of the deathly whistle were reduced. Long Hao Chen’s mind cleared up, as he lifted up his Light Sword decisively. Gold colored liquid spiritual energy poured out from his hands, and entered his Light Sword. Light Sword’s mild gold color was gradually being replaced by a sacred white color, it was [Holy Sword].
Looking at the resplendent holy light in the Light Sword, the elderly lich clearly showed fear in his ghastly eyes. Honestly, his plan was to bluff Long Hao Chen through his words, precisely because he was fearful of Long Hao Chen’s holy attribute.
A long string of incantations came out of his mouth, as he pointed his bone staff to the ground, from where countless skeletons broke down. Those black skeletons fused together at a breakneck pace and gradually took the shape of a much larger skeleton.
Skeleton King! A tyrannical undead summon, coming from the formidable fusion of several undead. With its height of 6.5m and a 3.3m bone blade in his right hand, it ferociously leapt straight for where Long Hao Chen was standing and hacked at the cave.
Not good.
Long Hao Chen no longer dared to guard the cave entrance: all the hacking the Skeleton King was doing to the cave entrance could cause a cave-in and bury him alive.
[Charge], stopping the charge, [Divine Obstruction]. Long Hao Chen acted extremely quickly, completely blocking the black bone blade with his Radiant Shield.
A loud explosion sounded. Long Hao Chen felt that in this instant, his entire body was about to shatter, his innards about to explode, as the tyrannical strike almost split the Radiant Shield.
A very powerful force.
Even under the effects of [Divine Obstruction], Long Hao Chen’s seven apertures had been injured; this was how tyrannical the force of this Skeleton King indeed was. The ground under him had been split. If not for the fact that he had reached the fifth step and Hao Yue’s evolution had brought a synchronized evolution to his own body, there was no way that he could possibly stand after this blow.
[Holy Mantle]. Long Hao Chen immediately activated the second use of the Divine Wristband’s [Holy Mantle], and consumed a Bursting Spiritual Pill at the same time. Jumping in the middle of air, as he put the Radiant Shield in his hand away, his Flame Sword appeared. He took the two swords in his hands, and used the force of [Divine Obstruction] combined with [Bright Vengeance] in a split second. After vaulting, he immediately arrived in front of this Skeleton King.
In regards to the [Holy Mantle] surrounding Long Hao Chen’s body, even this Skeleton King felt some fear. This attribute was his innate weak point, delaying even his movements.
In his left hand, the Flame Sword moved, and with a [Light Thorn], a flaming golden radiance ruthlessly struck the body of the Skeleton King.
“RAAAWR” The Skeleton King bellowed, raising his body. To him, the power of this [Light Thrust] in itself was no big deal, but the most frightening thing was the supplementary holy property it had, concentrated in its incandescent body, bringing him an intense pain.
The ghastly eyed lich suddenly leapt in the air, brandishing its bone staff, and a great army of skeletons suddenly headed towards the cave, aiming to go around Long Hao Chen, and it simultaneously released a dark wave of radiance from his staff, falling onto the Skeleton King. Immediately, the bones of the Skeleton King turned even darker, vaguely releasing a fluorescent layer of light. His tyrannical aura left Long Hao Chen at a standstill.
Bang–
A black bone blade ruthlessly hacked at the ground. Long Hao Chen used his Flame Sword, unleashing its power and sweeping this blade away, but he was pushed back on the side by the enormous power of this black bone sword. As his whole body was immediately sent rolling on the ground, before raising like a bullet, he shouted out loudly, “You and I shall stake everything!”
In midair, the withered undead face looked disdainfully at him. Although the supplementary attribute of this human’s body was extremely terrifying to him, he was in the end far from being powerful enough. He wasn’t even a threat to him.
The Skeleton King was really too powerful. Right before its attacks landed, Long Hao Chen could only think about how to dodge them: he did not dare try to clash head on with him once again. And when his attacks fell on the body of this Skeleton King, the holy attribute, the only thing that could possibly injure him to death, had a sure effect. But with the lich nursing him nearby, he had basically no way at all to bring substantial damage upon him.
More importantly, Long Hao Chen had just seen skeletons enter the cave, bringing huge changes to his complexion. Unceasingly being engaged by the Skeleton King, the huge power of his blows prevented him from stopping them.
The lich had already stopped looking at Long Hao Chen, it was only a matter of time before he would end up killed by this Skeleton King. His gaze was focused on the entrance of this cave. His ghastly eyes jumped up, revealing a nervous and somewhat restless state of mind. This was, after all, Austin Griffin! Would he really have the strength necessary to kill him? If I could really kill him and absorb his blood vessels, then, how powerful will I become? Could I become the next Austin Griffin? At that time, I will perhaps be able to rely on my willpower to overcome it.
As this lich was nervously pondering on whether he really wanted to enter this cave or not, suddenly, a violent attractive force pulled his body, which was in midair, making him fall directly down on the middle of the mountain.
What? How could that happen? The lich was greatly alarmed, unconsciously looking at its own body. Immediately, he discovered that, without prior notice, a white glow without the least bit of energy concentrated in it had entered his own body.
This white glow looked quite soft at first glance, but its attractive force was extremely great. The lich used its undead magic to command his army, but in the end, it was a creature relying on magic, and as such, its body was quite weak. Facing such attractive force, it could barely rely on the energy in his body, and it had no possibility to struggle free from it.