บท 32: The Ambush
In the northern corner of the underground farm, nearly a hundred bodies were scattered all over the place.
During previous waves, Manco and the group had deliberately lured the puppets to spread out in a large area to have more room to maneuver. While they moved around on the pathways between planting sections to avoid damaging the maize plants, the puppets weren't so considerate. These things stomped and flailed around, knocking over and trampling a considerable number of plants.
"That's a lot of money down the shitter. They ain't gonna like this!" Bolt commented, surveying his surroundings.
"We'll deal with them later. Just focus on getting out of here alive!" Rust replied.
The next batch consisting of twenty flesh puppets was a lot more dangerous than the previous ones.
A far cry from the clumsily assembled messes of body parts, these things were created with deliberate intentions. Their proportions were similar to humans. Their whole bodies were covered with thick skin and several parts like the torso and forearms were armored in bone-like structures.
No longer the slumbering misshapen monstrosities, they were quick and agile. They had eyes and were no longer directly controlled by the puppet master. This autonomy allowed them to act and react much faster than before.
Regardless, they were still simple-minded creatures that had only been born. They only had instincts and no experience, which made them easy to deal with. Under Manco's command, the group swiftly dispatched most of the abominations. He noted, however, that some of them managed to score pretty solid hits on his group. Dan, Lug, and Rust all had nasty bites and gouges on them as Trix could no longer keep up with the healing.
When the last puppet was about to die, the ranged attackers began to move closer to the puppet master for a better shot.
Manco had closely watched the boss' health bar and estimated its number of hit points. He would try to score the killing blow with his gun, to see if it would unlock anything.
Before long, the last puppet fell and the spawn chamber opened.
Dan, Bolt and Manco opened fire on the core. Manco only used normal bolts without poison to control the damage output.
"Just a little bit more!" He thought as the health bar slowly shrank. Ignoring the boss' inhuman screams, he kept shooting at it until it only had a tiny sliver of health remained.
He switched to the gun. Letting Dan and Bolt shoot, he fired up Arcane Surge and began charging a Mana Blast.
"Now!" Gritting his teeth, he unleashed the blast. The shimmering projectile flew through the gap between the growing sacs and hit the core.
-52!
*Splash!*
The core burst open in a torrent of blood. The sacs immediately stopped growing, then shriveled and deflated. Nicholas's face convulsed and let out an agonized howl, then stopped moving.
〔Flesh Puppet Master - Newborn (level 30) slain〕
〔94300 XP gained〕(+215%)
〔Level up x 1! Your level is now 22!〕
〔Int +2; Wil +1〕
〔Free attributes points + 2 (Total 34)〕
"We did it!"
"Hell yeah!"
"Finally!"
While the group whooped and cheered, Manco held his breath, waiting for a specific notification.
〔Milestone unlocking requirement #1: Cleared〕
"Yes!" He shouted, the late celebration drawing curious looks from his companions.
A common requirement to unlock milestones for legacy weapons is either killing creatures or dealing the killing blow on specific enemies. It looked like the gun followed this same template, at least for this first milestone.
*Splort!*
Nicolas' face twitched, then the area around it opened up, releasing him from the boss' body. What's left of him fell to the ground with a wet thud. Rust's group tentatively approached the mangled remains.
"Gods! The smell!"
"Is he... still alive?"
"No! Half his body's missing! No one can survive that!"
"Should we... take 'im back? Give 'im a proper burial?"
Dismissing his notifications, Manco saw his companions standing around Nicholas' corpse.
"No! Stay back!" He could only say that much when he heard the familiar, dreadful sounds coming from all directions.
*Crack!* *Snap!*
*Pop!* *Pop!* *Pop!*...
Without warning, the bodies of nearly a hundred flesh puppets, along with the puppet master, burst into thousands upon thousands of fleshy chunks.
The crypt lice rolled around and grew at an unnaturally fast pace. In a few seconds, the insect bodies completely matured and began scurrying around looking for fresh meat.
"RUN! Get to the walkways!" He shouted while searching for the nearest ladder. He could have run straight to the entrance, but the quest wasn't over yet. From the safety of the walkways, he would be able to cover the group and help some of them.
Having spotted a ladder only a few meters away, he sprinted to it. With a series of popping sounds, the several dead bodies on his way were reduced to mangled piles of flesh and countless crypt lice spread from them like oil on water.
[Mana Blast]!
[Dark Implosion]!
Using his gun and his wand, Manco thinned out the swarm. Doing his best to avoid the scurrying insects, he rushed forward.
Earlier, because of how they fight, the puppets had been spread out over a large area. Consequently, when the crypt lice were released, they quickly infested the northern section of the farm. He only had a few moments to get to the walkway before the ground was completely covered with lice. Just a bite from them could lead to his death.
A few steps away from the ladder, he felt something grabbing his left leg and biting down, then his ankle joint froze up. One second later, the paralysis spread to his knee.
"Shit shit shit!" Cursing up a storm he hobbled forward like a madman. Ignoring the louse still clinging on his leg, he ascended the rope ladder. In a few seconds, the area around him was flooded with the crawling insects.
After making his way up, he used his dagger to pry off the insect, along with several more that fortunately had not managed to bite him yet, and flung them all away. The paralysis would wear off by itself after a few minutes. Letting out a relieved sigh, he looked down to take stock of the situation.
Rust and Trix were nearing the section of walkway a dozen meters away from him. As a body in front of them twitched and released a swarm of crypt lice, Manco used a Dark Implosion and a mana blast to clear a path for them. With a grateful nod, Rust got up to the walkway and helped Trix up.
Initially, he did not see Lug and Bolt anywhere. However, he soon heard the sound of footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw the two hightailing it toward the exit.
"Huh, those two are pretty fast. Good for 'em!" Shrugging, he turned back toward the north.
Dan and Van were rushing at the same section Rust and Trix were standing on. When they were only a few meters away, Dan tripped and fell face first onto the mass of crawling insect in front of him.
"Gaah! Heellp!" He let out a muffled shout and tried to get up.
Without missing a beat, Van stepped onto Dan's shoulder. Using it as a stepping stone, he launched himself toward the rope ladder.
"Vaaaannn! Youu... " Dan could only say two words before he was paralyzed. Rust and Trix could only stare in horror, unable to do anything. Manco had no spell to clear the lice off of Dan without hurting him. Firing the crossbow might kill several lice, which is a drop in the blood against the hundreds clamoring to get to him.
Grabbing onto the ladder, Van climbed up the walkway and stood near Rust and Trix. He glared at them, daring them to say anything.
"What in the Devil's name did you just do? Why did you do that?" Trix shouted at Van.
"Shut your whore up before I throw her down there too!" Van growled and glare at Rust, who wisely motioned for Trix to stay quiet. The walkway they were standing on was flimsy enough, just a light scuffle might topple the whole thing.
At that moment, something rose up between the swarm of crawling insects. It was Dan!
Letting out a blood-curdling roar, he charged at the support column where Van was standing. Fueled by rage, he had entered the 'Berserk' state and was temporarily immune to the paralysis status effect.
"No! Stop that!" Van shouted shot an arrow at Dan.
Ignoring Van's words and the arrow, Dan crashed into the support column and began punching at it with his bare hand. Despite him having been weakened by the crypt lice's bites, the section trembled with each blow.
"Stop!" Van shouted and kept shooting at his former associate.
After the fifth blow, the column began to sway and creak under the combined weights of Van, Trix, and Rust.
*Creak!* *Snap!* *Crash!*
The column toppled over, pulling down lengths of bamboo, planks, and ropes that formed the walkway.
Van lost his footing, fell on top of a large swarm, and was instantly buried under hundreds of squirming insects.
Rust and Trix were a little luckier. Just before the support column was toppled, each of them had moved toward a different direction. When the walkway collapsed, they could still hold on to the ropes that were used as handrails. However, their feet touched the ground and immediately the lice began crawling up their bodies.
"Ah!"
"Aaaaargh!"
Rust grunted and Trix screamed as the lice bit into their flesh. In just a few moments, they would be weakened enough and lose their grips.
Manco rushed toward the collapsed section. If he acted fast enough, he might be able to save at least one of them.
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ImBloo
ImBloo Ooh what a lovely day! My smartphone crapped out and refused to boot up. Then my trusty laptop had half of its keyboard paralyzed. Fun time.
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The first round of voting has ended. I've posted my favorite names for the second and final round. Head over to the chapter titled "Round 2" to vote for the name you would like our protagonist to pick for his avatar.
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Next week's will probably be the same as this one, so expect about 2-3 chapters.
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Thanks, guys.
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