Chapter 300 The slaughter (1)
"Is that a…?!!!" The other woman in Yang Haoran's platoon asked, her voice marred in fear because the entity before her wasn't just anything. Ever seen before only once. A closely guarded secret of the world, not just the Huanan empire, but the world's secret.
The harbinger of death, the Lich. A monster so well versed in magic that even Archmages, the seventh circle magicians, would shy away from its presence. It's casting speed, its destruction element, and most of all, it's near infinite mana pool were something no one could stand against.
Especially to them, who were weak against magic because not only if it penetrated them once, it would reach their heart and directly damage them, but it would also be harder to pierce the Lich's defenses or defend against its attacks.
"It's not the same!" Yang Haoran yelled. While it was a Lich, it wasn't the same level of Lich that humanity had faced before. It was different. It was weaker than the one recorded.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
'If only I knew what happened to Xaolan,' Yang Haoran thought inwardly.
He didn't know that his spirit, the tiny woman was dead. All he knew was that his connection to her was cut off. If she was here, she could have helped greatly against the Lich.
'It's all because of him,' Yang Haoran remembered a certain black-haired man who had been a headache for quite some time now.
"Get into formation. Round everyone up! Until reinforcements arrive, kill the lower-level monsters while I stall the Lich." Yang Haoran said. Even with all of his confidence, he wasn't confident in winning against the Lich. But if it was keeping it busy, then that was a different story.
But before they could put their plan into motion, the Lich began to rise up in the sky and began to chant something. Seeing it busy with chanting, Yang Haoran thought it was the best opportunity to attack it but as soon as he moved to attack it, his sword was blocked by another heavy sword of nowhere.
As the tremor of the impact passed through his body, he was flung back quite a distance. The same, however, couldn't be said for his enemy. As Yang Haoran raised his head to see the powerful foe, his eyes widened to see none other than a figure in black heavy armor. The knight of legends.
The Death Knight.
An opponent with a strong defense but unlike other knights, who didn't have a strong offense, this knight had the offense of the century. Even a grandmaster wouldn't be able to win against it. Yang Haoran was sure of one thing, even if the military top brass or the higher-ups of the CSF arrived, they wouldn't be able to beat this duo.
The best option was to retreat. However, soon enough, that option became unavailable as well when the Lich finally finished its casting, and something dark enveloped the entire space.
"No…" Hopelessness dived in when Yang Haoran saw what it was. The infamous barrier that was the authority of every dungeon boss. One that would only be destroyed upon their death or with their authorization.
Other than that, there was no way to get out of that barrier. In simpler words, this entire place had become a dungeon, and the only way to get out of there was by killing the Lich, the owner of the barrier.
"Get ready to fight!" Yang Haoran yelled.
"TO DEATH!!!!"
Upon his shout, everyone stopped and clenched their fists. They closed their eyes and with a yell, began to fight without any reservation of their strengths.
As for Yang Haoran himself, as he was distracted by the barrier, the death knight jumped at him with his sword drawn.
"CAPTAIN!!!!" Lin yelled, not addressing Yang Haoran by his appropriate title but by the title he was used to being called.
Yang Haoran turned too late. The sword was just inches away from him. In the slowed time frame, Yang Haoran's focus went on a figure close to him, just next to him. The figure's foot collided with the death knight's left side, throwing him off trajectory, and saving Yang Haoran's life by an inch.
"Get up," Yang Haoran registered the voice of the figure that had saved his life and it was none other than the young man he was cursing just moments ago.
"I brought reinforcements." Wei Jun said as he turned to the red-haired man behind him, a distasteful expression on the red-haired man's face.
"It had to be a Lich of all things," The red-haired man said as he turned to the pristine bony skeletal figure.
"Stall it just for a few minutes. I got a plan," Wei Jun said to the red-haired man before he turned to Yang Haoran and said, "For now, let's call it a truce. You want to defeat that thing, right?"
Yang Haoran turned to the death knight who was getting up, turning to the person who had attacked him and most of all, cracked its armor.
While it was impossible for even a grandmaster to get through that defense, Wei Jun still managed to do that.
"You're an evil cultivator…?" Lin was speechless when she saw the dark strands of Qi around Wei Jun. The others noticed that too once they saw Lin pointing it out.
"You wanna worry about that? Or do you want to defeat that thing right now?" Upon Wei Jun's asking, they all turned their heads to the death knight, who was just standing there without doing anything.
"I'm the only one who can injure it. But I'm weaker than it. You can keep it busy while I attack it. How about it?" Wei Jun asked, making the plan as clear as he could.
Seeing as it was the best option, Yang Haoran nodded and said, "I will defend against its attacks. You deal damage to it. The rest of you spread throughout the base and kill as many monsters as you can."
With the plan set, everyone moved in motion but not before giving Wei Jun a hateful eye. Wei Jun ignored them as always and kept his eyes focused on the death knight. The death knight also kept his head turned towards him because, at the moment, Wei Jun was the only danger to him.
Boom!!
Boom!!!
In the distance, the Lich and the wyverns had already begun to exchange attacks. It wouldn't be long before the wyvern was defeated. According to the system, wyverns were physical fighters while Lichs were magical ones. Their casting speed was also ten times the normal of a magician of their level so it was almost impossible for someone at the same level, not to mention if it was a physical fighter who would be at a disadvantage at a range, to defeat them in a head-on battle.
Someone higher ranked than the Lich was needed to defeat it and even then the chances were slim.
Leaving it all to the wyvern was nothing but to buy some time. Once Wei Jun and Yang Haoran were done dealing with the death knight, he would then execute the second part of his plan.
As Wei Jun and Yang Haoran stood side by side, the death knight also prepared himself, ready for an attack that was executed the very next moment.
The death knight stepped forward, instantly crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Wei Jun couldn't react to that speed but Yang Haoran could. He moved before Wei Jun could be harmed and attacked the death knight.
The death knight hadn't faltered in the least but his attack stopped. Wei Jun hurriedly executed the death whips and struck the death knight which dented its armor from many places but…
[Death Qi -100]
The amount of Qi consumed from that attack was massive. Wei Jun still had a lot of time before he could consume another Qi pill. Another problem was that he had already run out of the unconditional ones so he had to wait for the cooldown to run out. There was another option, but that had to come with the phase 2 of his plan.
For now, he had to make do with what he had. The death knight, although damaged, raised his sword and brought it down. The heavy sword was slow enough for both of them to dodge but it wasn't the blunt strike they had to defend against.
It was the aftershock.
As the sword fell to the ground, a massive shockwave struck both of them, pushing them in opposite directions from one another. The death knight ignored the one who could defend against him and jumped at the one who couldn't.
Seeing the death knight's obvious intentions, Wei Jun hurriedly activated his Qi skills but used Yang Qi this time. That momentary burst allowed him to dodge that attack and as the death knight missed the attack and was unguarded for that short while, Yang Haoran gathered as much of his Qi as he could in one spot and struck it from behind.
Alas…
[HP -12]
There was barely a dent in the death knight's health. As for the death knight, it turned to look at Yang Haoran and even though there were no eyes of the death knight, Yang Haoran could understand what it seemed to portray…
'That's it?'