Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1282: A surprise!

Ding! With a clear noise in the silence, the elevator proclaimed its arrival. As the doors slid open, an eerie whistle invaded the dark, silent room. It bypassed their focused minds and went straight to the bottom of their bowls, creating an uneasy feeling that gave them goosebumps.

Even the elder, a man of 137 years, felt his heart sink a little. It was like a sound heralding death itself. With rapt attention, he focused on the elevator even more. The opening of the doors revealed two figures in dark armor.

The light from the elevator, in contrast to the darkness of the room, made them look like martial warrior of manifested shadows. Their faces hidden in darkness, they exuded an inexplicable aura of danger. This was not what he was told.

“What are you doing? Attack!” he commanded the disciples. Although he was not confident in taking on the both of them alone, it was different with all of the disciples. If they could weaken the opponent and allow him to analyze them... Why was nobody moving?

Suddenly the male figure raised his hand, his finger pointing straight at the elder, as if sentencing him to death. “Thatʼs him!” the figure growled and a silver streak appeared from behind the figures, shooting at the disciples with terrifying speeds.

The projectile struck and shattered their life-saving talismans! Unable to react, they were flung through the room. Their stupor ended with the sound of ripping cloth and flesh, erupting in screams of pain and dying squeals.

Across the room, his subordinates and disciples had been impaled, injured, or severed by weapons which grew from the shadows themselves, was his intel wrong? Or was it the work from the female shadow..? Where had the female gone?

He was alerted by a fresh cry from the room. He barely managed to catch a glimpse of the shadowy figure finishing off one of the disciples! At another place, he caught sight of a short woman, happily beating the shit out of Fat Dong, who had miraculously survived the initial attacks.

All of this had happened in a matter of milliseconds, not giving him the time to properly react, but now he was enraged. Seething, he tried to make a step but was suddenly hit by a terrible weight pushing down on his whole body, and an intense baseless fear.

“You arenʼt going anywhere~” the dark figure that was still in the elevator spoke in a joyful singsong, devoid of any emotion.
...

Seth had left the cannon fodder to Mina and Fin, while he used to pin down their targets and control the mini-boss. This was the guy Seth saw when he used .

The scene of this disgusting bastard puking out a massive maggot or larvae and forcing the elven receptionist to swallow the phallic beast was seared into his memory. This guy had to suffer for what he made Seth watch!

Fortunately, the blacksmith didn’t intend to kill him, anyway. The consequences his sudden death could have for the elf downstairs were unpredictable, so the bard HAD to draw out this battle until he was able to subjugate the man.

The level was no joke, this was a powerhouse among cultivators. Seth was only able to see his level thanks to the constant influx of Power of Existence since the battle of Delta and the levels he gained then. Despite the difference in level, Seth was not worried.

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Although the levels past 100 could be deceiving and a legendary item was not necessarily as potent as one would expect, Seth didn’t trust in the fact that he had a legendary set, but in what it did for him. Although he didnʼt need to worry for himself, he had to make sure the boss couldnʼt use any large-scale skills. Antares on his arm and the Giant’s Rod in his hand, he rushed toward the cultivator.

He didn’t choose the hybrid spear staff just to slowly torture the man into submission. Seth intended to hit him with several debuffs before Minas would join him with some of her. Most importantly which could hold him in place with a power based on Seth’s strength, which was over 600 with all his items.

Apart from that were the various plagues he was able to Grand with Lesath, Petrification, and psychic damage from Antares’s Harrowing Light. In addition, he wanted to beat him up and give the man a chance to beat himself, too.

To Seth’s shock, Elder Bu’ge was actually a bug user! Not the bad kind, mind you, but the being suddenly swarmed by dozens of big fat beetles was low-key disgusting. The blacksmith was glad for the effects of Antares.

The shieldwarrior trait covered him in a full body shield. Although it was way weaker than his armor, it was more than enough to block the insects and even kill them. Thanks to Sargas’ “Tisiphone’s Revenge” part of the damage reflection was also extended to any and all shields and barriers he used.

Even more annoying was the fact that he had this kind of bug human power that allowed him to turn his body or part of it into a cloud of insects and evade his spear and earth spike strikes. The bard had to hit him with a single target attack to trigger the 50% chance of .

“Hoho, you are strong, but your attacks are simple! You can never strike me like this,” the elder taunted and went for his own attack. Emerging from his bugified arm, something like a dragonfly with wings like blades stabbed forward, striking his left pauldron.

The blacksmith stumbled back in surprise. He had attacked a living creature, accidentally circumventing the weapon damage negation. Although it was not enough to get through the 40% damage reflection, 80% Damage Negation, 25% damage reflection of the shield barrier, and his overall defense. It did not even leave a scratch on his armor, but it was a surprise.

Maybe the surprise was even a little bigger for the cultivator as the weird sword insect in his hand had suffered the reflected damage, with a tragic cry as the edges of its wings crumbled. Seeing his approach not fully working, Seth decided to go a step further. If single target didn’t do it, AOE would handle it.

“Desert Storm!” Seth cast the rod’s skill to summon a haboob which had a 20% chance to cause . He mixed in the advanced earth spell “Petrifying Winds”, which, together with the Desert Storm quickly thinned out the insect clouds.

This also ended his shapeshifter shenanigans. As the small bugs his body was made of, albeit strong, had a much lower resistance to the negative effects of diseases and petrification he was now spamming.

With the layers of debuffs, things finally worked out, but it still was no easy fight. The cultivator was a heavy-handed foe and Seth felt his punches through the armor, though much less than the man felt his own punches in his bones.

Yet, the cultivator was tough as a nail and still kept fighting, despite taking his own damage. He used various items and consumables to block attacks, but those were quickly used up. While his feet were fused to the ground, patches of stone and blood started growing across his body as more attacks hit and the petrification took effect. The diseases seemed the least effective, so far, but that didnʼt matter.

“Now Mina!”

With Elder Bu’Ge half covered in stone and his feet stuck to the ground by another trigger of , it was time for the shadow assassin to strike with her Shard of Biting Ice. She triggered the cursed frost effect and the half petrified elder was cryogenically frozen in one go.

Meanwhile, Fin had taken care of whoever survived Minaʼs shadow magic. The disciple lagged far behind their elder in power, all of them ranging in the 80s. Although cultivators were stronger than their level on average, they stood no chance against Fin.

Using the chance of Elder Gu frozen state, Sethʼs arm slid around his shoulder as a group of instruments appeared around them. Everything up to now was to create a chance for Seth to serenade the cultivator.

Seth had memorized the song a long while ago, since he had no items for this job. He used the time in the elevator to recall it. The problem was that the song needed some time to take proper effects and he couldnʼt have the target resist or run away in the process. it also didnʼt hurt if they were weakened and tired.

“You know that we will be mates forever~ Step in with my crew and the futureʼs bright...”