Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1218: Man’s Big Stick

Natina gasped in shock when she registered the damage Kalzemir suffered despite her legion buff. How could that happen? Kalzemir was immune to weapon damage and his bones negated 85% of any incoming damage!

Unless… the image of the weapon the golem used flashed in her mind. It was gigantic, but barely more than a crude piece of wood, that grew kind of straight. In that case, even if it was grown from high-quality material, could it be the system did not recognize it as a weapon?!

To think there was this kind of workaround, apart from focusing on magic or hand-to-hand combat with a dragon. Even if it avoided being negated, there was still so much damage despite being 85% negated. She couldn’t let Kalzemir suffer like that!--

“To the sky! Quickly! Then we only have to deal with the horseman,” she commanded the skeleton dragon, who followed her order in silence, or at least tried to, when a bolt of purple lightning hit his horn, turning the surface to brittle, dull metal. What was the horseman of Conquest doing here?!

Ignoring the damage on the rear, she spurred the dragon on to get higher, to escape the golden man’s big stick. Feeling the change on the ground, Natina looked back to realize that she had made the wrong decision.

…

While Hellion, Bazalith, and Wolfram had turned to the skeleton dragon, the sea serpent and the elder lich got teamed up on by Puffles, Haa’Skon, Strix, and Tatzel. The Death Knight and the Ivicer were ravaging the weakened elder lich who had suffered from the sneak attack of the hungry automaton.

The horseman in question had lost interest in the lich after sucking him dry for the most part and changed his target to Diromold, who had been fighting Wolfram so far. In addition to Strix, Tatzel had also joined in bullying the koor worm.

Their strategy was simple but didn’t need much communication between the two. Tatzel kept his distance, using his smaller size and agility to distract the Koor Worm and pepper it with magic attacks. Strix, riding the black stag, would go for the cheap shots, ripping into the beast with his scale staff.

With the only reason the sea serpent was able to fly in the first place, being magical augmentations to the undead body, Diromold was much more ponderous and clumsy in the sky, compared to the nightmare centipede and the small rider. Seth felt almost sorry for the beast, being bullied like this. But only almost. As for the Lich Strix left behind…
…

~Go away, gloomwart. The rat king is mine.~ Puffles snarled at HaaʼSkon, the horseman of death when he attempted to get close to the stunned Piotr. The ivicer still had a debt to settle with the weakened foe, and he wouldnʼt let someone else get their hands on him.

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A massive pillar of light descended from the clouds above. It was the same skill that had wiped out two bone dragons and a battalion of undead during the earlier siege. The pillar of power descended onto the dilapidated-looking lich.

“Aren’t you all looking down on this old man a little too much!? !” Piotr Sokolov hollered, activating a skill and exploding with purple energy, that kept spreading across the ghostly cityscape. A shield of the same color blocked Puffles’ attack with ease. It seemed that Sokolov had been driven to become serious, or desperate.

His skill no longer differentiated friend and foe. Lower ranking undead started falling over, dead, the fire of their life and the power of their buff absorbed by the legendary skill. The same happened to those stolen by Haa’Skon.

Even the zombies of Urth fell to the ground, unable to move as any mana and life force they had and regenerated was whisked away by the elder lich. In turn, the ruins and buildings of his skill grew more and more corporeal.

The elder Lich stood proudly, his staff pointed to the sky, as he blocked the Ivicer’s attack with his shield. Yes, he stood. He was no longer the floating upper body of a skeleton, but the purple glow of the Chosen of Kali had taken the shape of a body. ṟ

While the massive skeleton dragon and the sea serpent only seemed to be engulfed by purple flames with rough shapes, Sokolov’s body had a defined outline. He had become a semi-transparent young man in his prime. Although his body was not rippling with muscles, it was trained and far from the decrepit old manʼs body one would have expected from the skeleton.

~This changes nothing, rat king!~ Puffles exclaimed, shooting a concentrated ray of golden light from his mandibles. It broke through the large shield but was ultimately blocked by the dense sphere of power surrounding the city lord.

“Hahaha! It is time to repay the humiliation I suffered earlier. Now that I reached my prime, I will squash you under my feet, like the bug you are!” Sokolov exclaimed, as huge amounts of mana gathered around him and a flood of senseless syllables left his mouth.

“Annihilation!” he exclaimed after it looked like he went crazy for a moment. All of the mana surrounding him had condensed into a black mass, which now burned away, as he fired a pure white matrix of energy toward Puffles. As it flew, it quickly grew in size, leaving the nightmare centipede little chance to dodge.

The ivicer tried to attack it, but his light magic and sun energy were disintegrated the moment they hit the matrix. It seemed like a magic that would not just destroy but eradicate anything in its path. Puffles, for the first time in his life, the ivicer felt a hint of fear.

Seth: “Now the Worldʼs calling us-”

A figure appeared in the path of the matrix. Seated on a pale, predatory horse, the black knight appeared between Piotr and Puffles, and a nova of darkness exploded from his body and steed. The pale annihilation matrix and the pure energy of death met only inches away from the horseman.

Seth: “Immortal!”

The spell that eradicated energy and matter fell short when facing the power of death which demanded the end of everything. Energy and matter would find their end, but this end was always death itself. It was impossible to annihilate the essence of death, as it would only end in death.

Unable to even get close to the ivicer or touch the rider, the mighty spell waned away in contact with Haa’Skon’s nova of death, the horseman of Death had deathinated. Puffles stared at the frightening magic fizzle away in a momentʼs time.

The great being had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he not only felt true fear but that he also felt relief and a smidgen of gratitude for the golem he had sent away earlier. There was no way he could show this. A great being felt no fear, no.

~ D-Didn’t this one tell you to leave, gloomwart?~ the nightmare centipede snarled to play over the awkwardness he felt.

“Your wishes hold no meaning to me,” Haa’Skon said emotionless and proceeded to ignore Puffles. His Night Mare charged at Piotr, who had already recovered from the shock of seeing his magic dispelled and prepared for the next attack.

~Just you wait! This one will definitely kill the rat king first!~ the Ivicer exclaimed, but did not follow after Kaa’Skon. For the ivicer, there was no need to close the distance. Considering the Lich’s current power, Puffles decided to use the situation and let the knight buy him some time.