Vol. 2 - Chapter 25 - The Necromancer Mallus

Stepping deeper inside the tunnel after defeating the Undead Kobolds, they started to feel around themselves the putrid smell of death encroaching closer and closer, and slowly entering a room carved in the mountain that was like a study room, similar in style to the one in the Fortress Ruins, Mathias explored.

The room was dark but in this eerie atmosphere, there was the fire of torches giving some light to this room.

Once entering inside the party entered fight mode, preparing themselves for the unexpected.

Nevertheless, in this eerie room, where silence and death ruled, a weak voice could be noticed, bringing forth the miasma of death as his voice entered the ears of the party.

It wasn’t an act of provocation, instead, his voice seemed surprised and even welcoming.

“Guests? How rare. Ever since those kobold rats entered my study room, my creation kept them busy without disturbing me. Who are you and what do you wish from me?”

Mathias gazed rapidly at the frail middle-aged man whose skin was white-pale, looking like a skeleton with flesh skin on his body, and immediately released his Red Energy, preparing to block any incoming attacks.

(ΨΨ)[Mallus - Lv. 45] (70.000 HP)

@MikeIron: We are dead, that is a level 45 boss.

@Anjo: It is what it is. It will suck that we will be logged out for 24 hours.

@Vivian: Wait, you guys don’t be so pessimistic. Mathias, do you have any plans for the fight?

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Mathias saw the party chat conversation between the four, and stepping forward toward the necromancer, without having any fear in his eyes, he asked him something simple before acting aggressively.

“You are the one who raised from the death those dead kobolds who I presume got killed by Iljnoks?”

“Ohh, so it was you who killed those failed puppets. Indeed, it is I who raised them from their pathetic fate and give them a new purpose. Why bother asking me something so insignificant, young man?

Could it be that you want to participate in my studies and be part of my final creation? This place doesn’t miss guinea pigs, so you better leave now while I feel content.”

Mathias who heard the pale man, mention so nonchalantly about his experiments and even courteously inviting him to participate as if he was just an ant in his eyes. It made Mathias ruby eyes shine a bit in this dark room, feeling disgusted by the experiments he saw around himself.

Taking out Ragnius and stabbing it vertically next to him, still gazing at Malus with his sharp eyes.

“The dark arts sure have their ways of corrupting the people, or you were evil by circumstances.”

“Yet, necromancer, before we start fighting you I have a simple question for you?”

The necromancer who was holding in his hand a dark staff studied Mathias, and to buy himself more time, he didn’t hesitate to let Mathias ask freely.

“Go ahead, young man.”

“What is the reason for doing all of this? Surrounding and embracing death and the dark arts in such a way? Is it really worthed? All the suffering, the risk of losing your life in the end for such madness?”

Malus got surprised by how calmly Mathias was speaking with him, since he was expecting some brazen adventurer full of hypocritical justice and enouncing all short of poems before attacking him, but with Mathias, it was a new change in approach even for him.

He remained quiet for a while and watched the party behind Mathias readying themselves to strike, but got stopped by Mathias who raised his hand, giving the perception he really wanted to hear his story.

“You wouldn’t understand even if I tell you what I pursue and what I suffered in this life. For Power, so I could get my revenge against a certain someone, Duke Moroiz to be specific, I’ve abandoned all my humanity to pursue the strongest path to power. He who killed my tribe, who I swore of taking revenge, I am who I am right now. Have I satisfied your curiosity, young man?”

Asked Mallus, who finished his preparations, starting channeling his dark powers, but in the same time, Mathias who heard this side story, could only laugh a bit sarcastically.

“Pathetic.” remarked Mathias, shattering all of Mallus preparations, who frowned and give Mathias a wicked expression, to which the crimson-haired man who wasn’t one bit scared of the necromancer, continued.

“Eternal life and revenge? The typical cliche ranges of motives for any villain. It is quite sad seeing how even here people would degenerate just because of those three aspects. Money gives you power, money gives you an extended life, money can give you revenge if you know how to use it. Hah, but I digress, let’s put an end to this since you are nothing more but one of the small pawns who suffered from a grand game. There are so many ways of getting revenge on one single person without dragging into mud others, but an insignificant person like you wouldn’t even contemplate it.”

Extending his right hand, a red sparrow exited his hand, illuminating the darkroom, revealing the necromancer's madness that was awakened after hearing Mathias’s mocking tone, along with his surrounding kobold ghouls who were like watchdogs.

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With the distraction created by his Red Energy manipulation which began attacking the necromancer, Mathias with his left hand opened released the ‘Arcane Barrage’ sending off three projectiles one after another, which collided head-on with the enemy, dealing a total damage of [3948] before activating ‘Raven’s Movement’ and appearing in front of the necromancer and ghouls with his untied crimson hair moving in the wind he created barely kept in check by his hat.

The necromancer gazed with his cold brown eyes at Mathias’s spear that was giving off black energy that was releasing raven’s feathers, a point where his face gestured an immediate change, trying to use his spells to protect himself, shouting his spell.

“Bone Shield”

Yet it was too late, Mathias’s [Nemphys Lament] pierced his chest dealing a critical hit thanks to his critical hit chance and the party members could see first hand how his skills looked if he was serious.

[Critical!]

[You have dealt 4962 damage to the target, and successfully caused the debuff ‘Weakened’ for one minute against Maluss]

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With Vivian getting ready since Mathias attacked, she checked the effects of the ‘Weakened’ debuff and was surprised about how strong it was, weakening the boss monster for 20% of its defense.

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The necromancer screamed in pain like it was the wail of a monster, before gazing with his cold eyes at Mathias who drew back his spear from the formed bone shield surrounding Mallus, and instantly bite his hand, spewing toward Mathias, calling out a spell.

“Curse of Agony”

As he retreated, hearing the necromancer cast his spell, he later noticed that blood spewed by Maluss in his direction morphed into a mist that was bound to him.

[You have been hit by ‘Curse of Agony’ and will suffer 138 magic damage each second for 24 seconds]

“Curse you, foolish man, even if your clothes are protected by mana runes, lowering the pain you would fear otherwise from my curse, you will die. All of you will die. Even if you know Crow’s technique, this will not save you at all.”

“Immolate”

Another spell cast by the necromancer, targeting Mathias sending off a blazing dark fire in his direction, which the later dodged at hair length, causing the ground to be burned continuously, while Mathias charged at the necromancer and attacked him with ‘Treachery’ which was mainly blocked by the necromancer ‘Bone Shield’.

Still, when Vivian sent one of her attacks while the bones were focusing on blocking Mathias’s spear attacks, she managed to hit Mallus right in his head, causing a ‘Headshot’ effect, dealing 3x critical damage.

[Party member ‘Vivian’ dealt 1884 damage to Mallus with ‘Skullpiercer Shot’]

The party member also entered in fight mode, with MikeIron and Anjo arriving in melee range to Mallus and starting attacking him, and seeing himself encircled the necromancer didn’t lose his calm, and with his body shining with a putrid green light, he sent a wail shout.

“Howl of Terror”

This skill of the necromancer sent a fear debuff to everyone in the range of his spell, with only Mathias resisting and continuing fighting the necromancer and kobold ghouls that numbered 15 while Paula kept healing him and also buffing him with nature blessings.

Paula looked with slight fear when seeing this gory fight, between Mathias and the Necromancer, and could only help from behind the lines with healings and supporting spells.

[The World Tree has listened to your prayer and blessed you with ‘Nature Power III’ granting you a boost to your stats by 30%]

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Viviana also helped Mathias with everything she could do gritting her teeth when seeing him tank all of the attacks of the monsters while Anjo and MikeIron were feared.

“[Spread Arrows]”

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[Spread Arrows]: For the next 15 seconds, your Ranged Auto Attacks fired additional shots at enemies near your targets.

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Starting to place more arrows on her string, she started shooting three arrows at once, dealing damage to Mallus and also focusing on the kobolds who attacked Mathias in a fierce manner, for 15 seconds, she was busy attacking at the fastest rate her body allowed before slowing down when MikeIron used his ‘Thundering Charge’ colliding head-on with the kobolds and Mallus, and stomping hard on the ground shaking the floor and taking the aggro from Mathias, who stepped back drinking two potions to recover his HP that was at 40% and MP that was 20%.

MikeIron immediately when the monsters started attacking him, asked like a bullied kid his parents.

“Paula! Please do some blessings or this meatblock will perish and I’ll say bye-bye to this juice EXP.”

“[Nature Growth]” “[Nature Resilience]”

With the new buffs to the Guardian, he roared like a beast and used his sword to attack the kobolds and Mallus, while Anjo came along and did a flurry of sword strikes, and like this, the fight kept on going until Maluss reached 50% HP, and with his staff raised up he screamed like a demon.

"Rain of Fire"

Instantly his surroundings started turning into a hellscape with the fire burning everywhere around Mallus, with fire that dropped like rain droplets, and instantly burning the players in the fight, such was Mathias who even when using 'Arcane Barrier' couldn't block the 'Burning' debuff which caused another dot attack on himself apart from the 'Curse of Agony' which eat at his HP.

'This fight I can feel the pressure. My stats and attack power finally have been balanced out by this strong enemy.' thought Mathias quickly reacting faster than his party members, throwing Anjo and MikeIron from the range of the fire, and using his Red Energy, he created another layer to the 'Arcane Barrier' which to his surprise worked as he intended, boosting the effects of the barrier to a 50% protection.

"Paula, do you best. I will enter a state where I will bother with potions since they will stall the momentum of my attacks. Do the Mana buff too since I will go all out." said Mathias to the young lady who was under heavy pressure right now, having to keep everyone alive and also herself.

She saw Anjo and MikeIron thrown back, affected by the burning which took 5% of their HP each second, but not shifting her attention on them, she gave Mathias a buff which boosted his Mana Resource, before giving another buff to Vivian who moved at the boundary of the 'Rain of Fire' to tell Mathias something.

"[Gift of Nature]" "[Nature's Focus]"

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Vivian, who was one who could be said to take some of the burden off Mathias's shoulders, told him that her class had a stage where she would enter a burning phase and her damage would skyrocket.

"Listen here, Black Spearman, I know you can hold your own 1vs1 against this high-level boss, so don't die. I will start focusing on generating more of my Hunter's Marks to enter my burning phase. But if you die, I will also die instantly because I lack defense."

"I see, but what makes you think I am not fighting at the best of my capabilities?" asked Mathias who was fighting Mallus one versus one, after all the kobolds died from the focus attacks of all the party and also Mallus, necromancy skills.

"Tell that to those who filmed you dismantling that 'Whale' in such a careless manner. Anyway, you better don't die, I've spent like twenty gold of arrows in this fight already."

When hearing the huntress, Mathias's serious expression gestured a slight smile, and when he noticed Maluss giving him a wicked expression, he sent a spinning kick pushing the necromancer who visible lacked physical defense, and asking in a rhetorical way.

"What are you looking at with that dead face at, bag of bones?"

"Hahaha, can't I stare at my future rats? I will turn your bodies into the strongest zombies that will rival even Iljnoks. Now, a payback for that kick you bastard! [Searing Pain]!"

Mathias, seeing another flame spell thrown in his direction, was deep down amazed by the plethora of spells this unknown necromancer had under his arsenal, and while he activated 'Raven's Movement' to dodge the attack, he heard Vivian call out her skills, where one even boosted him.

"[Tracker's Focus]"

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[Tracker's Focus - LV.1]

[Manifest your experience as both the hunter and the prey to track down a target.

-Increase your sensitivity and movement speed by 20% when tracking down a target.Up to 10 minutes.

-Enter the 'Muffle' state when you're within 50m radius of their location. up to 5 minutes.

When in a party the first effect is partially shared among party members but the effectiveness depends on your leadership stat, the default value is 10% and is capped at 20%.

Skill cooldown: half the duration of its use.

Skill mana consumption: 250 mana per minute

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“Damned rat, you think you can escape from my spells? Searing Pain”

Mathias who dodged the first spell, stepping closer to the necromancer, used his Red Energy morphing into a bird which collided with the fire, blocking the spell from hitting him, and when he reached in front of him, with a swift spear strike that followed the grandness of a celestial body, and the sharpness of the pure nature.

‘[Eclipsing Rose]’

[You have dealt 1924 damage to the target, causing the debuff ‘Bleeding’ for 20 seconds]

Following the success in executing another of Haycien’s techniques, he saw thorns being stuck inside the flesh of the necromancer made out of Red Energy, and continuing his assault while he too was hit by curses which kept him on half of his health constantly, he moved to attack with a basic ‘Sweep Thrust’ to see how his reactions was.

Mallus blocked the initial sweep attack using his ‘Bone Shield’ circling around him, along with the ‘Thrust’ he blocked the shield which cracked a bit, just like how his ‘Arcane Barrier’ was after being hit constantly by flaming spells. Not giving a chance to cast his spell, Mathias pushed by attacking him with ‘Piercing Rain’ which increased in level in the face of this high-level boss, turning level 3, and giving Mathias a boost to the attack power, still undetectable as of yet.

His pestering was successful because it made Mallus multitask, fighting against both Mathias’s and also Vivian who had a range advantage with her bow.

He also noticed Paula who was healing Mathias, and immediately formulated a game plan to take everyone out and leave out only Mathias who proved himself a challenge he shouldn’t scoff at, being constantly stopped by him.

The fight continued like this, with Mallus accumulating and channeling his power, and as a consequence of his new plan, he began suffering from Mathias’s and Vivian attacks which brought him closer to his demise, however, when he reached 35% HP, he released a ‘Howl of Terror’ which reached Vivian fearing her, MikeIron and even Mathias who for the first time felt a chill sensation, where his skin crawled up, later receiving the sensation someone straggled him up.

Looking at Mallus who shifted his focus from him, he saw the necromancer point his staff at Paula who was in the process of casting another supporting spell.

“I’ve got sick and tired of your magic, whore. Go preach about your Mother Tree all you want to Yatan because I will no longer allow you to pester me and block me from killing those rats.”