Chapter 426 Grave Situation (1/2)

”Hmph!” the Necromancer let out a distasteful snarl and returned the Spirit Bird's attack with a swing of his right fist!

Shing! The Necromancer's forceful retort split the powerful whirlwind into two! Then, he twitched his fingers slightly to summon a translucent hand coalescing with dark energy to choke the Spirit Bird by its neck. The Spirit Bird wailed in pain, flapping its wings to break free from the torment. However, its efforts were useless as the glaring radiance on its body dimmed in a matter of seconds. It lowered its neck and lost its breathing. The Necromancer tossed the Spirit Bird's carcass to the side as it dissipated into a speckle of dust after crashing to the ground.

This went to show the difference in strength between Darke and Rhode.

Rhode took in the whole scene at once, but he had no other choice as the Spirit Bird was just a shield to temporarily protect himself from Darke's attack. As an experienced player, Rhode knew how terrifying a Necromancer could be. These creatures were experts in various debuffs and instant-kill techniques. They could use a combination of curses to lower their target's attributes and strength before dispatching of them in a split second. Furthermore, their specialized negative energy was so deadly that they could leave humans awfully battered. Rhode realized that the situation wasn't favorable for him when he lost his balance after failing to ambush. In response, he summoned the Spirit Bird as a cover to avoid getting killed by the Necromancer. Although the Necromancer eliminated the Spirit Bird, this awarded Rhode some time to catch his breath.

”Phew…” Crashing into the ground, Rhode rolled and jumped to his feet. He lifted his head to the sky and extended his arm, summoning a red, glaring card on his palm. However, the card shook violently and disappeared into the air.

At the same time, Rhode's vision blurred and a strong wave of dizziness struck him to his knees. The ice-cold negative energy that remained in his chest nauseated him. He sucked in a deep, full breath to force the vomit down. As he raised his head once again, everything before his eyes were overlapping. A shapeless exhaustion engulfed his body swiftly, causing him to loosen his grip on the sword hilt. Rhode had difficulty standing and every time he attempted to rise, the dizziness would force him back on his knees.

”Damn it!” Rhode knew that this situation would happen sooner or later.

He was totally drained.

This was to be expected because Rhode had been on the run ever since he defeated Vulture with the Legion Horn and there wasn't any time for him to recharge. Rhode's physique and recovery rate were stronger and faster than most humans, which was why he could continue to push on while Natasha and Grendy were more dead than alive.

However, physical strength and spiritual energies were two different matters… Spiritual energy was the source of life for humans and it wasn't as simple as that blue mana bar in all RPG games where the players couldn't cast spells after it touched zero. In the Dragon Soul Continent, one would perish thoroughly without spiritual energy. This didn't apply only to humans, but also monsters, undead creatures, demons, and devils.

No matter how odd their attributes were or how powerful their strength was, all of it came from spiritual energy. It was the same in the game where if one fully drained one's mana and didn't replenish it, one's attribute would be crippled. Furthermore, if one chose not to rest, one would eventually die. This configuration caused an uproar amongst several players and some complaints that the gaming company wasn't realistic enough and their game would fail if they went ahead with such an in-game configuration. However, the gaming company didn't take heed to the advice of the players. Since this was the only one-of-a-kind virtual reality game back on Earth, players could only suck it up and adapt to it.

Now, Rhode had met the crisis of exhausting all his spiritual energy. He was clear that the constant rushing about had depleted his spiritual energy to less than one-fiftieth of his usual. Rhode didn't dare to summon spirits that required too much spiritual energy and this was why he hadn't summoned Celia and Celestina at this critical juncture: he didn't have the energy to summon these two helpers anymore.

”Eh?” Gillian stood on the wagon, sensing that Rhode was in bad shape. The fox-eared young lady gazed at the Necromancer's back and twitched her brows slightly before pointing towards the sky with her right hand. The fireballs hovering above her spiraled and aimed at the Necromancer who was floating in midair. The glaring balls of flames exploded.

Bam! Five to six light beams ripped the veil of the pitch-black sky in an instant. The light beams emerging from the exploding flames were like a ginormous whip flinging towards the Necromancer, sealing off his surroundings entirely.