Damn Necromancer - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Wastrel Necromancer (40)
Occupation
Each time a massive boulder flew through the air, the black mages’ faces twisted in death.
They were holding their defense through magic, but the Mana consumption was considerable.
Belitas’s face contorted viciously.
“Filthy vermin……!”
Venturing outside the fortress was suicide.
But they weren’t without means of counterattack.
“The magic circle?”
“It’s ready!”
“Begin!”
Mana rushed toward the magic circle.
The black mages could perform Summoning as well. And by fortunate timing, they had just the summon to deploy for this moment.
A massive creature rose from beneath the earth.
―Shriek! The ground trembles!
―Shriek?
The orcs standing guard near the siege engines felt the vibration beneath their feet.
In that instant.
The earth caved in like a sinkhole. Two siege engines and a cluster of orcs plummeted helplessly into the depths.
Crunch!
The colossal creature split its jaws wide and pulped the siege engines between its teeth.
A Sandworm.
A monster that burrows and dwells beneath the ground.
‘The black mage must have summoned it.’
A troublesome card from the outset. Just as the creature, its massive head protruding, gulped down a siege engine and attempted to flee by digging a tunnel back underground——
‘This won’t end nicely.’
I reached out toward it.
[Curse of Aging (D)+9 activates!]
[Failed…….]
[Curse of Aging (D)+9 activates!]
[Failed…….]
[Curse of Aging (D)+9 activates!]
[The Sandworm is cursed!]
[Its size is enormous! The curse’s effectiveness and duration are halved……]
A ten percent speed reduction.
Its movements instantly slowed to a crawl.
“Urkan!”
―Shriek! Kill the beast!
―Shriek! I, Dekum, am coming too!
Both chieftains plunged without hesitation toward the underground tunnel.
Massive axe blades drove deep into the creature’s body as it failed to escape into the burrow in time thanks to its reduced speed.
―Eeeeeeeek!
The Sandworm shrieked in agony.
In the meantime, two more siege engines were sucked down into the earth.
‘Two summons.’
Each Sandworm possessed formidable power, making them ravenous consumers of Mana. Having devoured the enemy’s reserves so thoroughly from the start, losing every siege engine would still be a net gain.
I cursed this one as it too tried to burrow, then rushed in alongside Cedric.
[Rend (D) activates.]
A skill that activates on rare-grade weapons. I drove the blade down hard upon the creature’s head.
Splurch!
Savage force tore through the Sandworm’s carapace and shattered its skull.
―Ghhhhhh!
Cedric delivered a strike upon the screaming creature’s torso.
[Dragon’s Strike (S) activates!]
Combining the acceleration and weight of the downward thrust, the skill’s sevenfold damage multiplier erupted forth.
Boom!
The Sandworm’s flesh was pulverized.
Cedric had reached Level 101, and his spear mastery had ascended from S to SS rank.
The Sandworm writhed in pain from the wounds inflicted by the sharpened thrusts.
A swarm of skeletons was summoned into its exposed entrails.
The moment they materialized, skeletons punctured and crushed their way through organs. When the assault rained down, the Sandworm collapsed without putting up much resistance.
He looked toward the ground.
He tensed his legs and launched himself upward with all his strength.
An enormous force yanked his body back to the surface in a single breath.
Cedric did the same.
“Hiss! Got the monster!”
Urkan and Dekum’s bodies were likewise drenched in green bodily fluid.
One trebuchet remained.
A single one was worth far more than anything else for gnawing away at the enemy’s fighting strength.
“Fire!”
Whoosh!
As stone boulders flew several times over, the defensive magic shattered to pieces.
Part of the fortress wall came crashing down. As if they’d just recovered enough Mana to summon again, another Sandworm erupted and destroyed the trebuchet.
The price was death.
‘Good start.’
Unless they carried top-grade potions like he did in abundance, their Mana reserves would be stretched thin.
“Forward!”
The orcs charged without hesitation. The regiment of equipped skeletons followed suit.
At the point where the fortress wall had collapsed.
The elves’ arrows arrived first. Phantom Knights with dizzying speed, and swarms of Chimeras.
Kim Min-woo and Cedric rushed toward them.
The Curse of Aging spread, and the enemies’ movements visibly slowed.
“Hiss! Follow the big one!”
Three clan chiefs and the orc regiment surged forward behind them.
The advance wasn’t over yet.
Where the wall still stood intact, hundreds of ladders were propped against it.
Stabbing.
Slashing.
Cleaving.
Killing.
The clash of weapons erupted from every direction.
It was outright war.
* * *
The Apostles held on with grim determination.
They thrashed desperately to keep the wall from falling, throwing endless waves of Undead to the fore.
Belitas fought back with equal brutality. He drained Mana potion after Mana potion, extending his hands again and again.
Corpses burst forth as hundreds of orcs advancing on them fell dead.
Against thirty thousand troops, Belitas held the line remarkably well.
The battle dragged on for nearly two days.
But there was no answer to the difference in numbers.
One by one, orcs began to seize the wall.
The encirclement drew tighter and tighter.
Those who had withdrawn from the outer fortress to the inner sanctum made a final desperate stand.
“Hold! Just a little longer and the reinforcements will arrive!”
Their only hope, the sole thing sustaining them.
They waited for the Command Knight Order with their hearts in their throats.
Then.
Kim Min-woo stepped forward.
“Sorry to say, but they’re not coming.”
“Lies! Don’t let anyone be swayed by this man’s nonsense!”
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd? If we’ve held this long, they should’ve arrived by now.”
……
The mood among Belitas’s forces crumbled. This cunning human had been shaking their resolve for hours.
At first, they’d denied it outright.
But as time wore on, doubt—that demon of despair—had burrowed deep into their hearts.
Belitas himself was no exception.
He knew it.
The Command Knight Order should have arrived long ago.
They should have reached here before the outer fortress was completely breached.
But they hadn’t come.
But there was nothing capable of standing in the Command Knight Order’s path. There were no obstacles.
“You’ve been abandoned.”
“……No, this can’t be happening.”
One of the dark mages collapsed to the ground.
Even if the outer wall fell, there was the inner fortress.
The Command Knight Order would arrive soon enough.
There were comrades.
But things were different now.
Once the inner fortress fell, there was nothing.
The comrades were all dead and gone.
The Command Knight Order would not come.
Outside the small inner fortress.
The perimeter was already surrounded entirely by orcs.
No matter how strong the Apostles were, they couldn’t break through such a horde.
Death awaited.
The humans felt fear.
The Chimeras and phantom knights felt it too. They were thinking creatures, after all.
The orcs would tear them limb from limb. The will to fight grew dimmer by the moment.
Then.
Belitas leapt down from the fortress wall.
With eyes black as coal, he fixed his gaze upon Kim Min-woo and spoke.
“Cunning human! If you’re not just all talk, come down! Let us settle this with a Champion Duel!”
[Apostle Belitas challenges you to a Champion Duel!]
[If you refuse, the morale of all forces will decrease by 20%!]
“Hm.”
Kim Min-woo looked impressed.
He’d thought the creature nothing more than a bat-like fiend, yet there was a certain mettle to him after all.
And the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
As things stood, they’d only be swept away by the orc horde.
A Champion Duel might at least rally their spirits and stem the tide.
―Shriek! Though he be an enemy, he has courage!
―The big boss should take this one!
Orcs, incidentally, were a race obsessed with such things.
‘Well, this works out fine.’
He’d meant to kill Belitas himself anyway. The boss’s rewards had to go to them.
Win this and he could seize the inner fortress as easily as cutting cake.
Drawing his blade, he stepped forward alongside the skeletal horde.
A wide, circular arena formed.
“I will kill you without fail.”
“Try it, if you can.”
In that moment, Belitas’s body warped grotesquely.
His frame swelled to nearly three meters tall.
His entire body transformed like a Chimera, malevolent energy pouring from his form in streams. At first glance he appeared several times more formidable than an ordinary Chimera. So he could only summon Undead — or so he’d thought.
‘He was a physical fighter after all?’
[The boss of the Northern Fortress, Apostle Belitas, reveals his true form!]
―Die!
Belitas’s massive pincer hand swung in a wide arc.
Rolling across the ground to evade, Cedric’s spear hammered against the creature’s carapace.
Bang! Bang!
The outer shell dented slightly but didn’t shatter easily. Kim Min-woo drove his blade upward against the pincer itself.
Clang!
‘It’s hard.’
The Strong Hunter effect was active. Even with a ten percent damage boost, his sword wouldn’t penetrate.
Clearly this was no ordinary boss monster.
He cast a curse.
After twenty failed attempts, the creature’s movements finally slugged.
[Apostle Belitas is cursed!]
[The target possesses strong magical resistance! The curse’s effect is greatly reduced!]
The reduction in speed and defense came to roughly seven percent.
Still, not bad.
Skeletal creatures swarmed in from all sides, pounding against Belitas’s body.
“Get lost, maggots!”
As the claw hand swept through, more than fifty skulls crumbled to dust. The mages’ magic, too, bounced off his outer shell entirely.
Even so.
[Maile uses Static Cloud (E)!]
Crack!
Only Maile’s magic, wielding a reasonably serviceable staff, managed to leave scorch marks at all.
There was always a set strategy for enemies with high defense.
Strike the same spot repeatedly. Damage would layer and accumulate until the shell broke.
‘But not now……’
No need to circle back.
He turned his gaze to Cedric.
The creature nodded as if he understood. Skeletal masses—useless except in sheer numbers—clung to him from every direction.
Though they dealt no real damage, they were enough to hinder his movements.
Soon Cedric closed the distance and opened his jaws wide.
[Cedric uses Mini Breath!]
A dark crimson flame gathered at his mouth.
Belitas’s eyes went wide in shock at the overwhelming heat.
“What the—!”
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted.
Belitas staggered, reeling.
One arm struck by the breath blast tore clean off, and the damage didn’t stop there—his flank melted away in streams.
‘That’s incredible.’
Power enough to obliterate a B-Grade Gate boss.
A gaping hole where the arm had been. A melted flank.
Critical weaknesses.
Kim Min-woo was not a swordsman who’d miss such an opening.
The mages’ magic homed in on the flank. The skeletal creatures clung to his remaining arm with stubborn ferocity.
Cedric harried him further, striking his body with the spear.
[Rend (D) activates!]
The Sword of Judgment drove deep into the flank.
“Ghhh!”
Black blood dripped from Belitas’s lips.
He thrashed his remaining arm desperately, but Kim Min-woo was already gone.
‘One more.’
He drew another sword from his inventory and thrust again.
“No… this can’t…”
Was his strength finally draining away?
His form began reverting to human shape.
From a monster of unmatched power to nothing more than a frail old man.
Thud!
Belitas collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
“Guh… agh!”
“Rest easy.”
He’d make it painless.
He severed the creature’s neck with a single stroke.
[Victory in Champion Duel!]
[The Gate’s boss, Apostle Belitas, has fallen!]
[The morale of enemy forces within the fortress decreases by 50%!]
[The morale of the resistance forces increases by 50%!]
[Level increased by 5!]
[Title ‘Strong Hunter’ has evolved into ‘Slayer of the Strong’!]
[Skeleton Unit combat experience……]
[One of the Gate clear conditions has been achieved! (1/2)]
[Winter Fragment remains!]
Messages scrolled across his vision in cascade.
One final step to clearing the Gate.
All that remained was to destroy the fragment—the source of this bitter cold.
‘It’ll be in the fortress.’
He gazed upon the orcs.
A horde of them stared back at him, eyes bloodshot and wild with fury.
He pointed toward the inner fortress.
“Go.”
—Shriek! Kill them!
The frenzied mass of orcs descended upon the fortress personnel, drowning in despair.
In that moment.
He turned his attention to the items scattered at Belitas’s feet.
A single Ring.
And one Bound Skill Book.
Time to claim the spoils.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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