Chapter 182: Harlow’s Predicamen (1/2)

Having witnessed its power multiple times now, I still couldn’t help but marvel at Flametail’s destructive prowess. As an area-of-effect weapon, it truly had no equal. Unfortunately, those flames of hers immolated souls as well…in other words, the moment Numila slammed her spell into the crowd, not only were our opponents wiped out, a sizeable portion of our spoils were destroyed as well.

However, with the situation as it was right now, we really didn’t have a choice either. There were simply too many bone pillars to the point where brute physical force wasn’t an option.

Truly, life was an annoying experience. A lot of matters ended up coiling around us like a tireless tendril, just like what we were experiencing now. Thinking back on our experiences, the moment we stepped into this strange pocket dimension, we were set upon by a horde of skeletons. Thankfully, our warriors were significantly stronger than the skeletons.

After that initial tug of war with the skeletons, we managed to gain some minor reprieve and split our rations. Thanks to that, our energy was able to recover somewhat. Sending in a new batch of lizardmen to take over, I had the demonic werewolves and medusas gradually retreat to the backlines in order to feast and recover some strength.

Throughout all that, the sea of fire erected by Numila continued to roar in the background. Because it was so massive, it managed to cut off a sizeable portion of the skeletons. However, even these brainless undead knew not to jump mindlessly into the fire. Clearly, their fear of flames had instilled an instinctive reaction in them.

With that in mind, we hurriedly finished off the remaining skeletons on our side and rotated our troops between feasting and fighting. By now, the battle had gained a semblance of order unlike our initial foray.

With time to spare, I turned my attention onto the sea of fire. Originally, I wanted Numia and Eugenia to expand the sea of fire even more in hopes that it would wipe out all the skeletons, however, I soon found that it wasn’t an option because there was nothing flammable nearby. Given how massive the sea was, maintaining it with just magic alone wasn’t viable. At most, the both of them would only be able to maintain it for two minutes.

Since that was the case, I saw no point in having Numila continue like that so I had her stop channelling mana immediately. It wasn’t like those skeletons were an actual threat anyway. It was merely their numbers that gave us a headache; the pressure itself wasn’t much. Furthermore, my plan to rotate the troops seemed to be working out. The power of the lizardmen wasn’t something to scoff at after all. In a fair normal, the average skeleton found it extremely hard to breach their stalwart scales.

As long as they held out till Numila and Eugenia were done resting, the two harpy witches could easily roast these skeletons with another sea of fire.

Or so I thought. Once more, just as I thought that I held within my grasp, the greatest killing machine and that their numbers was no longer an issue, reality viciously slapped me in the face once more.

The moment the sea of fire calmed down, the bone pillars erupted once more. This time however, it wasn’t just skeletons, there was a sea of zombies as well.

That’s right, zombies. Those detestable undead with a sturdy body that moved sluggishly but possessed a titanic strength.

At the beginning, these zombies were hidden from view as they laid firmly within the core of these bone pillars. Now however, they were out in the open for us to see.

Being known for their formidable defenses even amongst the undead, these zombies were slightly higher levelled than the average skeleton. Not only that, they carried a corpse toxin within themselves that was able to convert any race with low resistance to it into zombies.

Truth be told, the appearance of zombies took me by surprise. Ever since we stepped into the Prison of the Dead, the only we undead we encountered were skeletons and more skeletons.

It seemed like I wasn’t the only one caught off guard either, judging by the looks on some of my devils’ faces. Even those who had lived in the Prison for so long, like Mo En, had never seen an undead other than a skeleton appear within the Prison. Thus, it had always been the assumption that only skeletons could appear, till now at least.

Honestly, the sudden intrusion of this new species was nothing but a headache for us.

Thankfully, devils had an innate resistance to being zombified. Unless they died, there was basically no way for them to turn into zombies while alive. Plus, these devils were all equipped with my masterfully crafted equipment. Under normal circumstances, they should be able to maintain some distance from the zombies.

What’s not so fortunate was that other than my devils, the other races didn’t possess a naturally high resistance to corpse toxins…in other words, the lizardmen, werewolves, medusas, demonic half-orcs, dogmen ,etc. , would mostly likely turn into zombies after being clawed by one. Thus, the bulk of our fighting force would have to come from the devils.

“To think there were actually zombies here…” Truly, their addition was like icing on the cake. Turning towards Harlow who had just finished his break, I couldn’t help but voice my growing headache. “Harlow, you guys need to be careful here, just leave the zombies to the devils to handle.”

“Don’t worry, us demonic werewolves have a sturdy constitution. The usual corpse toxin won’t affect us at all.” As he said that, he thumped his chest and grinned a broad lupine smile that was supposed to put me at ease. Honestly, looking at those fangs of his, it didn’t put me at ease in the least bit.

“Us medusas as well, in terms of poisons and toxins, we are the experts here.” Basically stuck onto Harlow like a shadow, Majosha nodded at me before continuing: “We are about done resting now, it’s time for us to take to the battlefield. I’ll leave the commanding to you.”

“Mhm, leave it to me.” Although I said that with a slight tinge of guilt in my heart, I knew not to show my unease right now. More than anything, I needed to put on a strong front now. Only by downplaying the gravity of the situation could I give everyone the sense of security they needed. Only then would they have the confidence to tackle this predicament. Without a doubt, should I falter now, the army morale would drop and even cause us issues in the battlefield.

Harlow himself had the strength of a three-star and shouldn’t fare badly against these undead. Even so, I couldn’t help but worry as the unexpected tended to creep up on you when you least expect it.

Time passed and an hour ticked by just like that. By now, the bone pillars were about done with their eruptions and had filled the battlefield with countless zombies. While there weren’t many variations in the undead they spat out, that didn’t mean that their levels remained static. A certain portion of the newly minted undead were four-stars.

Of those four-stars, one managed to leave a scratch on Harlow’s arm. Trying to fend it off with an attack of his own, Harlow swiped at the offending undead. However, instead of dodging the attack, the zombie leaped onto Harlow instead and gave him a bear hug. Jaws creaking wide open with a sickening crunch, it then bit down on his shoulders…