Apocalypse: King of Zombies

After dealing with the other Stage SS Outland Beasts, everyone turned to watch the wraith fight the Blazehawk.

In terms of raw strength, the peak Tier 39 wraith was no match for the Blazehawk.

The problem was, the wraith was practically impossible to kill.

Worse, its attacks targeted the soul. Even opponents stronger than it couldn’t shrug off that kind of damage.

The Blazehawk was having a miserable time.

Fortunately, its flames countered the black chains to some extent, allowing it to keep them at bay. Even so, maintaining enough firepower to block them completely required an enormous amount of mental energy.

The Blazehawk still didn’t retreat.

Its opponent was weaker, which meant its mental energy reserves should also be smaller. If the Blazehawk could hold out until the wraith ran dry, it might finally be able to kill the thing.

Now it was a battle of endurance.

”Skinny Pete, does this wraith only have one skill?” someone asked. All it had done so far was create black chains.

”How should I know?” Skinny Pete said helplessly. ”It’s an independent being. I don’t know exactly what skills it has.”

The wraith seemed to hear them. It glanced their way, then waved a hand.

Black raindrops began falling from the sky.

But as soon as the droplets approached the Blazehawk’s flames, they evaporated.

Next, black spheres appeared around the wraith and shot toward the Blazehawk.

Those dispersed as soon as they struck the flames too.

The wraith spread its hands, looked back at the group, and gave them a distinctly contemptuous look.

”Holy shit! This thing’s that intelligent?” Everyone stared in surprise.

”I told you, it’s a living being, not some mindless construct.” Skinny Pete rolled his eyes.

”…”

The others looked awkward.

They had just been looked down on by a wraith.

”So what do we do?” Sean asked. ”It can keep the Blazehawk busy, but it doesn’t look like it can actually kill it. The summon only lasts half an hour. If the Blazehawk is still alive when time runs out, we’re in trouble.”

”We’ll help.” Sean tightened his grip on his club and stood.

”Are you sure you can survive one of its attacks?” Garrick asked quietly.

”Uh… not really,” Sean admitted.

His defense might be formidable, but he had only just reached Stage SS. The Blazehawk was four tiers above him. He had no confidence he could withstand its attacks.

”Then why the hell would you charge in?”

”We can’t just stand here and watch.”

”Who says helping means running up there?” Henry smiled and waved a hand.

A beam of light fell over the Blazehawk.

Its presence weakened slightly, but only by about five percent.

”Yeah, the gap between us is too large. Enfeebling Radiance isn’t nearly as effective,” Henry said helplessly.

The Blazehawk glanced at him, murder in its eyes.

But it was too busy dealing with the damned wraith to attack him.

The five-percent reduction affected it, but not enough to change much.

”Well, if Henry’s Enfeebling Radiance barely works, the rest of our support abilities probably won’t do much either,” Sean muttered. ”Looks like we’ll have to get in there and fight it ourselves.”

”Not necessarily,” Garrick said. ”The wraith’s abilities are void-type. I have a skill I haven’t used since I got it. This is the perfect time to test it.”

”That skill that blinds everyone?” The others immediately knew which one he meant.

”It’s called Void Shroud, not the blind-everyone skill!”

”You’d better not use it recklessly,” Sean warned. ”Once you activate it, we’ll all be blind. If something goes wrong, we won’t even see it coming.”

”It could work,” Chris said. ”We just need to stay together and not move around. Void Shroud weakens every ability except void-type ones. If Garrick uses it, the Blazehawk’s flames might not be able to stop the wraith’s chains.”

Void Shroud weakened abilities rather than the people using them, so the difference in tier didn’t matter.

”Right. It’s worth trying.”

Garrick nodded and activated Void Shroud.

He had never used the skill before.

For one thing, it blinded everyone inside its range, which made it extremely inconvenient. It also weakened every non-void ability in the area, and the squad didn’t possess many void-type abilities. Most of the time, its effect hurt them as much as anyone else.

But right now, it was exactly what they needed.

The entire area plunged into darkness.

It wasn’t ordinary darkness. It was pure, absolute black, so dense that no one could see their own hand in front of their face.

Every Stage S fighter and Outland Beast within the affected area froze in confusion.

”What happened? Why did everything go dark?”

”I don’t know! I can’t see anything. How are we supposed to fight like this?”

”Everyone, stay alert! Protect yourselves and don’t move around!”

Yet within the absolute darkness, the Blazehawk’s flaming body stood out like a beacon.

Everyone was delighted.

They had worried the wraith might lose track of its target once the area went dark. Instead, the Blazehawk had become impossible to miss.

The Blazehawk finally panicked.

It could feel its flames weakening by at least thirty percent. The black chains were already breaking through the reduced field of fire and wrapping around its body.

”Screech!”

The Blazehawk tried to flee, only to discover that the chains had already bound its wings. It couldn’t even flap them.

More chains closed around it as time passed, tightening relentlessly.

Agonizing pain soon tore through the Blazehawk’s head. The chains were continuously draining its soul energy.

It struggled desperately, but nothing worked.

After several minutes, its resistance weakened. Its body plummeted from the sky.

The Blazehawk struck the ground with its eyes rolled back, its body still twitching.

It took several more minutes before it finally stopped moving.

Garrick deactivated Void Shroud, and everyone hurried over to the Blazehawk’s corpse.

There wasn’t a single visible wound on its body, yet every trace of life was gone.

They couldn’t help swallowing nervously.

Soul-targeting attacks were terrifying.

And the wraith’s ability was even worse than an ordinary soul attack. It directly drained the target’s soul until nothing remained.

The Aurelians stared in stunned silence.

They had actually killed a Tier 39 Blazehawk.

These humans’ abilities were horrifying.

The remaining Outland Beasts looked terrified and began retreating.

”We still don’t have enough crystal cores for Big Mike and Emily,” Chris said quickly. ”There were plenty of Tier 35 beasts among that last group. Don’t let them escape.”

”Don’t worry! My dream of reaching Stage SS is riding on this. No way am I letting them get away!”

Big Mike activated Gale Wings and shot after them first.

Now that all the Stage SS Outland Beasts were dead, it was finally his turn to run wild.

The others quickly followed, targeting the Tier 35 Outland Beasts.

The Aurelians joined the pursuit, eager to strike while their enemies were fleeing.

Every one of those beasts was a crystal core on legs.

After this battle, the Aurelians’ strength was certain to skyrocket.