Chapter 43 (2/2)

All four of them turned their heads around and saw Viktor on his feet again. His body had become significantly bigger and taller and the exposed skin on his face looked a greyish green, a complex web of magic runes scattered across its now metallic-like surface. His eyes were emitting a blinding red light. Anyone unfortunate enough to look into those eyes would be consumed by a sense of chaos, murder, crazed bloodthirst and all kinds of negative emotions. The emotions inspired were so violent that it might drive a weak-willed person to mentally breakdown, or in other words, be scared witless.

This was the kind of dreadful mental influence that creatures with demonic powers could exert!

Jacker, Lucy, and Gildern all had courage, but facing such a bloodcurdling sight, they’d be scared out of their senses too.

That thing will surely kill us!

There’s no way we can ever defeat that monster! It’s too strong!

In the name of the Lord of Light, is that a demon?

A mixture of negative emotions emerged in the three mercenaries’ minds. They had no willpower left to do anything else except retreat and run for their lives.

Jacker was in a slightly better state than the other two, his face was stony, betraying no emotion. But Lucy was now deathly pale, and Gildern had started to shiver.

The only one who managed to keep his wits and composure was Link.

His soul was fortified by the God of Light, so he was much stronger than normal people, but his own personal character was naturally calm and composed in the first place. Even when Viktor flooded them with a fierce torrent of murderous aura, Link remained as calm as a millpond, unmoved in the face of a wild raging surge.

He saw that the three were stunned motionless, so Link calmly assured them, “The Occultic Runes can only double the strength of the body’s owner! Jacker, Viktor was only a Level-3 Assassin, even with his strength doubled, he won’t be able to defeat you!”

Assassins prioritized on the agility of their limbs; their physical strength was mediocre at best. Jacker, on the other hand, was a Warrior—brutish strength was his greatest forte!

Realizing this, Jacker eased up a little. He believed that what Link said was true, as Link had proven to be knowledgeable many times before.

Then Link turned to Lucy, “His skin was enforced by magic, but I will cast a spell on your sword that will increase its sharpness, you can definitely pierce through him!”

Link had 19 Omni Points and 80 Mana points left. But without hesitation, he spent 10 of his Omni Points to purchase a Level-1 spell.

Mid-Level Sharpness Spell

Level-1 Spell

Effects: Enhance a weapon’s sharpness to a high degree. A normal iron sword will be able to cut through steel like butter. Effect lasts for ten minutes.

The Sharpness spell was a normal spell—there was not much potential to modify and improve it. It was a higher-level equivalent of the Level-0 Sharpness Spell, so it was already sufficiently powerful.

After the purchase, Link pointed his wand at Lucy’s sword. At once, a sheath of bright white light enveloped the sword. When the light dimmed down, Lucy’s sword emitted a clear blue aura—a sign that the effects of the mid-level Sharpness spell had started to work.

Then, Link pointed his wand at Gildern’s quiver and cast the same spell. When the light dimmed and scattered, the 15 arrows in the quiver all shone in an icy blue light.

Link worked at a quick speed. When he was done, barely a second had passed. Occult Viktor was still 60 feet away; he had not begun his attacks yet.

Right now, Link’s Mana was down to 68, and the Cat’s Agility effects on all of them had waned down. Still, without any hesitation, he waved the wand and re-cast Cat’s Agility on everyone. That used up 24 Mana points, so he now had only 44 left.

Forty-four Mana points were not much, but it was still enough to release 44 Glass Orbs!

Occult Viktor saw his opponents make their moves, and his blood-red eyes stared fixedly at Link. “You pansy Magician, you destroyed everything I built! I will catch you and cut out your flesh bit by bit! I’ll savor your slow painful death!” Viktor’s voice was filled with vengeance.

He slowly strode towards the four, and as he strode pass Collins, he raised his foot and stomped on Collins’ neck.

Crack! It was the sound of Collins’s spine snapping. He died while he was still unconscious.

Viktor burst out in a bone-chilling laugh, “Everyone in this cave must die today!”

Link ignored Occult Viktor’s show of cruelty, and instead, focused his eyesight to make it as sharp and piercing as ice. He was now, once again, in his focused spellcasting state!

“Are you all ready?” he asked.

Jacker inhaled deeply and held on to his shield tightly. “I’m ready.”

“I’m good too.” Lucy said as she pursed her deep red lips.

“Might as well get it over with.” Gildern gripped at the longbow in his hands; he was soaking in a cold sweat.

“Very good.” Link kept his eyes peeled on the approaching Occult Viktor, “Everyone, remember, if we kill him, everything in the Cove of Echoes will belong to us!”

That sentence perked the three mercenaries up. Their eyes lit up brightly thinking about it. All this while, they had seen so many valuable treasures, but because of pressing circumstances, they had to leave it all undisturbed. But now, all they had to do was push through this last hurdle and everything will be theirs. It would be foolish to run away now.

They were mercenaries after all! Who knew better than mercenaries that in life, you either kill or be killed?

Once they thought of it that way, bold courage returned to the three mercenaries. They were now ready for battle!