Chapter 457 (2/2)

Hissing, the Red Death Cultists rushed forward, throwing their bodies in the way, leaping to protect their leaders, and then the arrows arrived, cutting through into the bodies. For a second, the whole battlefield seemed to still, even the Dintan behind them, even Gemma and Rhaidon, just listening to the thwack of arrows into bodies.

Annie fell to the ground, panting, and hopped backward a bunch, heading back towards the group. Because although there appeared to be about 200 Death Cultists that were now dead, laying on the ground, three Grey Death Cultists shoved aside the bodies of Grey and Red Death Cultists alike, looking at the Raid Party with angry eyes. And behind them, a wave of monsters came, roaring.

Chrysanthemum had made it back to Ptolemy, who dispelled the Wither and Slow cast on her. She snorted in thanks and looked at Thea in askance. Thea looked at Rose. Rose was biting her lip.

“They are doing wither and slow again. We need to stop them if we are gonna have a chance of this.” Rose said, her eyes bright as they flicked to and fro, searching for a way out. “Clarissa, how much Mana do you have?”

It was a strange question because Clarissa was throwing back Mana potions at the moment. In answer, she just held out her hand and wiggled it back and forth in a somewhat ambivalent gesture. Rose’s eyes darkened.

“On it,” Lucifer grunted out, and he produced a small knife from his spatial ring. Waving the knife up and down, he seemed to… cut the world. There was suddenly a jagged gash there, where there hadn’t been one before. Without fanfare, hefting his huge blade, he stepped through the hole-

-and appeared behind the Grey Death Cultists, his sword silent, despite its large size, beheading all three at once. Then he stepped back through, appearing next to the rest of the group. Deftly, he used his fingers to close up the hole in the air.

Everyone was gaping at him.

“That wasn’t a Skill,” Rose said, admiring the small knife in Lucifer’s hands.

He grunted. “Reward for defeating the first Tier III Raid Boss. I prefer bigger swords, however.”

Even Thea winced at that. Truly, this guy was someone who had nothing on his mind but hard, hard steel.

“FUCK!” Gemma screamed. “Just die already, will you! Once we end you, we are all finally free! We can enter eternal rest. Why won’t you die?”

“A lifetime isn’t long enough to explain why my life is worth so much more than yours,” Ace said casually, running towards Gemma, low to the ground. With a screech, the woman warped by time moved to meet him. Thea glanced at Rose, in askance. Better to find out information now, while she still had a thread of clarity, and could keep back the red from her vision.

Drake lumbered forward, his huge bone armor making him look more like the monsters that were rushing towards them than a member of the Raid Party. “Anything else?”

“Nothing unusual,” Rose said, glancing around. The Death Cultists, the remaining thousand or so, were forming up into a column and rushing towards them with the monsters. “ But this is gonna be a slog.”

Lucifer stored his knife away and produced another large sword, the insect scythe he had found earlier in the Raid Dungeon. Annie knocked an arrow.

“No time to waste, then,” She commented, and then everyone exploded out in different directions.

Clarissa finished what must have been her 20th potion and raised her hands over her head. “Maelstrom.”