Kaius’ entire undead army charged forward towards Antonio. Calydon took the lead, with Dio following closely behind. Cenos disappeared into a nearby shadow.

Facing the incoming undead army, Antonio’s expression turned grave.

“Don’t think I’ll go down that easily!”

Whoosh!

Antonio slashed his broadsword horizontally and unleashed a powerful shockwave.

Earthen Wall! Earthen Wall!

Boom! Boom!

The shockwave shattered both walls of earth and continued forward, but its destructive power had lessened considerably.

Whee!

Stone Armor!

Calydon let out an angry squeal and took the weakened shockwave head on.

Bam!

Calydon was sent flying back a few meters by the shockwave. Minor cracks had appeared on his stone armor, but he seemed fine otherwise and managed to reduce the remaining force of the shockwave by over 90%. What’s left of the shockwave simply swept over the rest of the undead army like a slightly strong wind.

“That overgrown pig actually tanked my shockwave!” Antonio exclaimed inwardly with shock. “I need to kill it first.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Antonio swung his sword twice in succession with some difficulty. Two consecutive shockwaves were sent towards the undead army.

Skree!

Dio, who was now at the forefront of the undead army, screeched in fright at the incoming shockwaves. Without hesitation, he sprayed out some spider silk. Unexpectedly, his target was Calydon, who was just about to get up from the ground.

Whee?

Calydon noticed the spider silk attached to him and became puzzled.

Whee!

Calydon was swung into the air by Dio and got sent straight into the shockwaves to tank them head on.

Whee!!!

As Calydon flew by Dio, he stared daggers at the pesky spider, as though saying “you asshole!”

Kekeke…

Dio let out a gleeful laugh and saluted appreciatively at Calydon for his sacrifice.

Boom!

Poor Calydon was engulfed by both shockwaves. His stone armor got disintegrated under the destructive force.

Thankfully, Calydon’s stone armor absorbed most of the damage. In addition, his stats were enhanced while Antonio’s were weakened. Hence, even though Calydon was left very disoriented by the shockwaves, he only suffered some light injuries.

The weakened shockwaves swept over the rest of the undead army and blasted dozens of zombies and skeleton warriors into pieces. The Skeleton Soldiers got knocked back a few meters as well. The Bone Lords barely managed to hold their ground.

Dio, on the other hand, was strong enough to push forward against the weakened shockwaves and moved closer to Antonio. He launched himself high up into the air and unleashed the new abilities he acquired after evolving.

Weakening Breath!

“HAAAAA!!!”

Dio spewed out a massive cloud of toxic gas. The gas had a yellowish-brown color and gave off a nauseating smell.

Curse of the Spider Lord!

“Kapui!”

Dio spat out a glob of dark brown spit. It looked highly viscous and emitted a foul smell as well.

Antonio reacted promptly and dodged backwards; however, Weakening Breath covered too large of an area, so he still ended up getting caught in it. Antonio felt his stats weaken even more but could only accept his fate. He held up his sword in front of him to block Dio’s spit.

“This damned spider! Are you trying to nauseate me to death!” Antonio couldn’t believe Dio just breathed out bad breath and then spat on him. Both of Dio’s skills emitted such a vile smell that Antonio almost wanted to puke.

Antonio finally recovered from using two consecutive shockwaves and swung his sword again, sending out another shockwave towards airborne Dio.

Eek!

Dio panicked upon seeing the incoming shockwave and sprayed out spider silk to pull himself out of the way.

Whoosh!

The shockwave brushed by Dio by a hair’s breadth, but still sent him flying dozens of meters through the air.

Advanced Scan!

Antonio scanned Dio one more time to find out the affects of these two disgusting skills.

Skill (active)

???

Weakening Breath (20MP): unleashes a breath of toxic gas with a (100+ level*5) radius. All living beings hit by the toxic gas will have all their attributes weakened by (5% + level/5). Debuff duration: 15 minutes.

Curse of the Spider Lord (35MP): shoot out a glob of vile spit. If target is hit by the spit, inflict a Curse Mark upon the target. Targets inflicted with a Curse Mark take increased damage from all sources by (4% + level/5). Curse Mark duration: 10 minutes.

Antonio barely had time to finish reading before all his hair suddenly stood on their ends. He instinctively turned around and shielded himself with his broadsword.

Clank!

Cenos’ lithe figure seemingly appeared out of nowhere and attacked Antonio from behind. Her sharp claw clashed with the broadsword and got deflected.

Two more Cenoses appeared and rushed at Antonio from both sides.

Knowing there was no way he could get out of his unscathed, Antonio gritted his teeth and turned his back to one side while still holding his broadsword at his front.

Clank! Clank!

Slash!

The Cenoses at the front and left side got both of their attacks deflected by the broadsword, but the Cenos from the right side managed to leave a deep long gash in Antonio’s back.

“Ack! These damned zombies!” Antonio cursed out loud. However, his cursing was cut short by the sudden tremors from the ground.

A dozen stone spikes emerged from beneath where Antonio was standing. Antonio quickly jumped back while placing his broadsword below to shield himself.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Most of the stone spikes struck the broadsword, causing Antonio’s hands to turn numb from the forceful impacts. A couple of the stone spikes managed to slice open deep wounds on Antonio’s arms. Before he even got a chance to catch his breath, he heard heavy footsteps coming from his left.

Whee!

Calydon, who had just cast Stone Spikes earlier, activated his innate ability and charged at Antonio with a ferocious momentum.

“Die, you overgrown pig!”

Antonio roared out in anger and swung his broadsword. A shockwave was sent out towards incoming Calydon.

Whee!

Calydon let out a determined battle cry and cast several spells mid-charge.

Stone Armor!

Earthen Wall!

Earthen Wall!

Calydon encased himself in a full suit of stone armor and continued forward to meet the shockwave head on. A wall of earth emerged in front of him but got blasted apart almost immediate; however, it helped soften the force of the shockwave.

The other wall of earth had unexpectedly appeared behind Antonio.

Bam!

Calydon was blown away by the shockwave. His stone armor had been broken in several different places. A trail of blood flowed out of his mouth. Since he had activated his innate ability, his defence had been lowered. Hence, he finally suffered some serious injury.

Thud!

Calydon’s heavy body hit the ground hard, causing dirt and debris to fly up.

“Know your place, you dumb pig!”

Antonio only had a short moment to celebrate before he felt a great sense of danger from behind him. However, it was too late.

Puchi!

Cenos, who had appeared from the shadow cast by the Earthen Wall that was behind Antonio, struck out with her claw and swiped off a large chuck of flesh from Antonio’s side.

“Ack! Damn you!”

Antonio coughed up a mouthful of blood. He swung his broadsword with great difficult and sent a shockwave towards Cenos.

With no time to dodge, Cenos could only retreat and hide inside the Earthen Wall’s shadow once again.

Bam!

The shockwave easily shattered the wall of earth, removing the only object that can cast a shadow near Antonio.

Taking advantage of this opening, Dio sprayed out massive amounts of spider silk at Antonio.

Antonio flailed around with his broadsword, cutting up many strands of the spider silk with his great strength. However, this brief moment of entanglement bought enough time for the rest of the undead army to finally collapse upon him.

The Bone Lords led the charge and activated all their body enhancement skills.

Intermediate Strength Enhance!

Intermediate Vitality Enhance!

Intermediate Dexterity Enhance!

Bone Lord McDonald attacked Antonio head on with his sword.

Charged Blow!

Chain Strike!

Battle Stance!

With his strength raised to the max, Bone Lord McDonald unleashed a flurry of quick attacks against Antonio.

Still entangled by Dio’s spider silk, Antonio could only passively defend with his broadsword, while he used his other hand to rip off the remaining spider silk.

While Antonio was distracted by the frontal attacks, Bone Lord Elroy circled around from behind and struck out with a lightning-fast stab.

Quick Strike!

Flash Step!

Steel Cutter!

Backstab!

“Shit!”

Antonio roared out in anger and swung his broadsword with all his might, sending Bone Lord McDonald flying a few dozen meters away. He then quickly twisted his body and used the handle of his broadsword to defend against the Backstab at the last moment.

Clank!

The sound of metal colliding rang out loudly across the battlefield.

The impact from the Backstab was so strong that Antonio’s hands became numb and he almost lost his grip on the broadsword.

“Get lost, you useless trash!”

Antonio sent a powerful sweeping kick at Bone Lord Elroy, forcing him to jump back temporarily.

Just when Antonio was about to swing his broadsword again, he suddenly felt numerous pairs of hands grab at him from behind. Turning his head, he saw dozens of zombies, skeletons warriors, and Skeleton Soldiers had caught up to him while he was distracted and wrapped their arms around his body.

Due to the Corrosive Nether Domain, all undead creatures gained the Vital Break passive skill, allowing them to inflict Vital Break stacks. When these dozens of undead creatures landed a hit on Antonio, his Vital Break stacks rose through the roof, making him vulnerable to attacks from even the weakest undead creatures.

The zombies sunk their teeth into Antonio’s body and bit off pieces of his flesh. The skeleton warriors and Skeleton Soldiers dug their bony fingers deep into his skin and tried to rip him apart.

More and more undead gathered and piled on top of Antonio, forming a small undead mound.

“AHHHHHH!”

Underneath the pile of undead, Antonio screamed out in great pain as he was being eaten alive. He felt like his body was being ripped into a thousand pieces.

Gritting his teeth, Antonio tightened his grip on his broadsword, raised it an inch off the ground with what little strength he had left, and smashed down as hard as he could against the ground.

“YOU FUCKING CORPSES!”

Boom!

A violent shockwave exploded outwards from underneath the pile of undead, reducing them into a pile of ash.

Amidst the falling ash and debris, Antonio used his broadsword as a clutch and pulled himself up with great difficulty. His breathing was haggard, and he looked dishevelled with his messy hair. His dirty and tattered suit gave him the appearance of a beggar. He had missing chunks of flesh and was bleeding from every inch of his body.

“Necromancer! Don’t go overboard!” Antonio shouted at Kaius using the last bits of his strength. “You can still walk away now, and I’ll pretend this never happened. Otherwise, I’ll take you down with me!”

“Didn’t I already tell you to refer to me as Mr. Nether Lord?” Kaius replied in a lazy voice. “Also, you’ve been bitten by so many zombies that you’re going to turn any minute now. I’m going to enjoy making you part of my undead army.”

“You!” The vein on Antonio’s forehead was on the verge of popping. “You forced my hand, you little shit!”

“Alonzo! I need help!” Antonio shouted into his military radio and then retrieved two vials of liquid from his inventory, one green and one orange.

Seeing the appearance of the green vial, Kaius was inwardly shocked.

“He has an antiviral!”

The green vial was the G3972 Antiviral capable of curing someone from the zombie virus.

Kaius then turned his gaze to the other vial of orange liquid.

Eye of Truth!

Name

Diluted Rage Virus

Category

Consumable Item

Use Restriction

None

Description

Upon use, loses sense of oneself and becomes consumed with rage. Gain hyper-regeneration, dispel all timed debuffs, increase all base attributes by 25%, and increase all attributes by an additional 10 points. Cannot use innate abilities while affected by Rage Virus. After the effect wears off, enter into a weakened state for 240 hours.

Duration: 120 minutes.

“Not good!”

Before Kaius could give commands to his undead army, Antonio quickly gulped down the liquid from both vials.

Within seconds, the wounds on Antonio’s body began to heal up at a rapid rate. His pupils lost focus while the rest of his eyes turned crimson. His breathing became stable, and he stood upright once more.

“AHHHHHHHH!!!”

Antonio roared towards the sky like a wild beast. His mind was rendered incapable of all complex thoughts, leaving him with only his primal instincts. He pulled his broadsword out of the ground and swung it towards the undead army.

Boom!

A shockwave even more powerful than before shot towards the undead army.

Earthen Wall!

Earthen Wall!

Earthen Wall!

Calydon erected three walls in the path of the shockwave.

Bam!

Bam!

Bam!

The shockwave broke through each wall of earth as though they were a thin sheet of paper. It continued onwards and swept through the rest of the undead army.

The torrential force completely disintegrated the bodies of all the zombies, skeleton warriors, and Skeleton Soldiers. Now there were only rank 1 zombies left.

Skree!

Dio let out an angry screech and shot out spider silk towards Antonio.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

Antonio grabbed onto all the spider silk and easily tore them in half.

Rumble!

Calydon stomped on the ground from a short distance away, causing a dozen earth spikes to shoot out from the ground underneath Antonio.

Antonio sidestepped with lightning-fast reflexes and dodged all the earth spikes that shot out. He locked his gaze onto Calydon and took off running.

Stone Armor!

Calydon encased himself in stone armor once more and charged towards Antonio as well. His eyes turned red as he activated his innate ability, further enhancing his speed and strength.

Bam!

The two forces collided.

Whee!

Calydon let out a painful cry as he got knocked back by Antonio’s brutal strength. Chunks of his stone armor had been broken as well.

Cenos and the two Bone Lords were about to join in on the fight, but Kaius commanded them to pull back as he reassessed the situation.

Eye of Truth!

Name

Antonio Valentino

Class

Warrior

Level

40

Health

Normal

Mana

7/400

Strength

170 (+69)

Vitality

104 (+35)

Dexterity

101 (+46)

Intelligence

35 (+23)

“All his stats have skyrocketed, especially his Strength,” Kaius frowned. “Luckily, he’s out of mana, so he can’t use any more skills.”

Kaius looked at Antonio chasing his rank 1 zombies around like some kind of mindless beast.

“Having more power means nothing if you lose the intellect to use it properly,” Kaius snorted coldly.

Kaius commanded Cenos to take charge of the battle while the other rank 1 zombies supported her from the side.

Using her superior speed, Cenos danced around Antonio while keeping a short distance.

Antonio’s primal instincts made him tunnel vision on Cenos as he chased her around the battlefield.

Whenever things got too close for comfort, Cenos would use her Sudden Burst skill to widen the distance, or another rank 1 zombie would cast a spell from the side to interfere with Antonio.

For the next little while, Antonio unsuccessfully chased Cenos around like a headless chicken.

By the thirty-minute mark, auras started to disappear from Antonio’s body one after the other. With only the Fighting Aura skill still active, Antonio’s attributes had fallen drastically.

Finally sensing that something was wrong, Antonio no longer chased after Cenos. Instead, he went after the slowest Bone Lord McDonald.

“Did you just notice I was waiting for your enhancement skills to run out?” Kaius sneered from afar. “It’s too late. Kill him!”

All five rank 1 zombies pounced on the weakened Antonio simultaneously.

Weakening Breath!

Curse of the Spider Lord!

Dio breathed out bad breath and then spat on Antonio.

Antonio wanted to dodge to his left, but a wall of earth suddenly rose up in that direction.

Earthen Wall!

With his path sealed by Calydon’s skill, Antonio had no more time left to dodge; he took the Weakening Breath head on and used his broadsword to block the vile spit.

Earthen Wall! Earthen Wall! Earthen Wall!

Three additional walls of earth rose up around Antonio’s other sides. The four walls towered over him and sealed him inside like a prison.

Stone Spikes!

Sharp stone spikes shot out from underneath Antonio. He jumped back and help up his broadsword in front to shield himself.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

The broadsword bore the full blunt of the stone spikes. Due to being afflicted by Curse of the Spider Lord all this time, the accumulated extra damage on the broadsword finally caused it to have a small crack.

Shadow Meld!

Cenos appeared from a shadow cast by one of the walls and struck out with her claws.

Sensing danger, Antonio instinctively turned towards Cenos and tried to block with his broadsword; however, he was half a second too late.

“Ahhhhh!”

A deep, long gash had been left behind on Antonio’s back. He roared out in pain and tried to counterattack, but Cenos had already disappeared into a shadow once more.

Due to the hyper-regeneration granted by the Diluted Rage Virus, the gash wound on Antonio’s back had already started to heal.

Seeing this, Kaius couldn’t help but frown, “We need to burst him down quickly or else he’ll just heal up again.”

Kaius sent out new commands to his rank 1 zombies.

Stone Spikes! Stone Spikes! Stone Spikes!

Sharp stone spikes continuously shot out from underneath Antonio, causing him to have no choice but to keep using his broadsword to block. Under the constant barrage of the stone spikes, the tiny crack on the broadsword started to spread out like a spiderweb.

Shadow Meld!

Cenos had once again appeared behind Antonio. Bone Lord Elroy leaped down from the top of the wall and aimed for Antonio’s back as well.

Backstab!

Sudden Burst!

The duo attacked simultaneously and struck at Antonio’s right shoulder.

Antonio sensed the danger coming and wanted to dodge, but Dio sprayed out massive amounts of spider silk and caused him to become entangled in place.

Slash!

“AHHHHHHHH!!!” Antonio let out an anguished cry.

A human arm flew into the air, spilling fresh blood onto the ground.

Cenos and Bone Lord Elroy had managed to rip off Antonio’s right arm with their highest damage single target attack.

Antonio roared out in pain and stumbled around like a mad beast. He swung his broadsword desperately and managed to send out a shockwave towards one of the walls of earth.

Bam!

The weak shockwave shattered the wall of earth but also used up all of its force in the process.

Just when Antonio was about to charge out from the opening, a shadowy sphere filled his vision.

A fully charged Shadow Bomb was only a few meters away from hitting him.

Antonio’s eyes widened in horror as he held up his broadsword in front to shield himself.

BOOM!!!

A massive shadowy explosion engulfed Antonio. The overwhelming force even shattered the remaining three walls of earth around him.

Dirt and debris flew everywhere, clouding everyone’s vision.

Kaius waited with bated breath for the dust to settle.

A charred body finally appeared in everyone’s vision. Shattered pieces of the broadsword could be seen all around the body.

Kaius examined the charred body with Eye of Truth and breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Finally dead.”

“ANTONIO!” An anguished cry sounded from inside the city.

After hearing Antonio’s desperate cry for help, Alonzo did not hesitate to abandon the west defense line and rushed east with the 200 soldiers that still remained. He was only defending Milton so that Antonio would have a base of operations to execute his plan. Without Antonio, Alonzo couldn’t care less what happened to Milton.

Just when Alonzo and his soldiers arrived at the east city entrance, they witnessed the sight of Antonio getting blown up by the Shadow Bomb.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!” Alonzo screamed at Kaius in a furious tone.

“Oh, nothing much. I simply put down a rabid beast,” Kaius casually replied. “Don’t get too excited yet, you’re just in time to witness the epilogue.”

Kaius sent a command to Dio, Cenos, and Calydon. The trio pounced on Antonio’s corpse and ripped it into pieces, before devouring it within seconds.

“YOU BASTARD!” Alonzo seethed with rage. “Shoot him!”

Earthen Wall!

Calydon stomped on the ground and created a wall of earth to protect Kaius and all the rank 1 zombies.

Kaius used Eye of Truth to examine Alonzo and chuckled leisurely, “A bunch of soldiers below level 20 led by a mage that’s almost out of mana. Isn’t this simply delivering fresh meat to the mouth of a lion?”

Kaius was just about to command his rank 1 zombies to take care of Alonzo’s forces, but Dio, Cenos, and Calydon suddenly started to undergo their next stage of evolution and got themselves wrapped up in a cocoon.

“Why’re they evolving now? Is it because they ate Antonio’s corpse?” Kaius frowned and dismissed the three cocoons back to the Netherworld. He then surveyed the battlefield and said, “I guess you guys will have to do for now.”

Lesser Reanimation!

Three Ash Spider Lords, whose corpses were still intact, and around 300 Ash Spiders came back to life.

Nether Lord’s Aura!

The new undead army received a 6% boost to all their attributes.

“Kill every soldier except for the mage. I don’t have a mage in my Bone Lord collection yet,” Kaius’ eyes glowed with excitement.