Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 24 I have good news for you
Among all the zombies that have been mutated due to toxin infection that we have come into contact with, the three-headed polluter Merril is undoubtedly the most perfect and the most powerful one. Its movements are fast, flexible and elastic, as if it still has active and complete muscle tissue in its rotten body. It is completely different from those stiff zombies, and can almost be compared with those naturally formed, naturally decayed ones with unique souls. I believe it is definitely a killing machine carefully created by our enemies. Even for those genius magic masters, it is not a simple matter to create such a delicate undead monster.
However, its strength was only relative to other slow-moving zombies, and its ferocity was only measured by the standards of a level 55 monster. In front of five well-equipped, experienced, and meticulously divided professional adventurers, the threat posed by the beast's dangerous fangs and claws was not enough to kill them, and the remaining wild instincts and wisdom in its body had been replaced by an endless desire for flesh and blood - this might make it more ferocious, but it also made it more stupid and easier to deal with.
After the half-orc warlock Tintin Littlego inflicted fatal damage to the monster at the cost of his own life (although these words are very touching, we all know that it was just an accident, and Tintin Littlego probably had no subjective awareness of "paying the price of his own life"), the terrifying destructive power of the Three-Headed Polluter had become a spent force.
Presumably, in its empty and bloody soul, there still remains the attachment of those beasts to "life". I'm afraid that this three-headed monster that has come back from the dead has also witnessed the terrible eternal silence of death. Although it has become a walking corpse without thoughts and consciousness, Merrill seems to have an instinctive and fierce resistance to its own demise. Before the traces of life completely disappeared, the attack of the three-headed polluter became particularly crazy. The pair of claws flashing with dark blue poisonous light are like a pair of sharp planes, scraping large pieces of fresh flesh and blood from our bodies, and then injecting the deadly toxins into our bodies, causing our vitality to be dangerously eroded from time to time.
Its dying struggle and counterattack caused us a lot of trouble. Due to a negligence, we almost became another victim of its claws.
In the end, it was my long sword that ended this difficult battle. In the last encounter, I took a heavy grab on my chest and pierced its wolf head with my sword. The last trace of life in the monster's body was also wiped out by this dangerous iron weapon. It probably realized this, and its three heads howled in fear, but the ugly body had lost its support and weakened irreversibly.
Finally, the three-headed polluter Merril's four claws softened, and he fell heavily to the ground. This evil creature that violated the laws of nature - a beast that was a fusion of toxins and magic, organs and desires - finally returned completely to the incomparably broad embrace of the goddess of death.
After killing Merrill, I hurried to Baron Bink's side. The young noble clenched his teeth and looked pale, looking like he was in great pain, but thankfully, the wound on his leg, though it looked serious, was not fatal. I guess he was probably bitten by the sharp wolf fangs of the Three-Headed Polluter, and two huge blood holes penetrated his muscles, but fortunately, the bones and ligaments were not damaged. What was a little disturbing was that dark green blood was gushing out of his wound, and the edges of the wound had begun to show signs of decay - we all knew that this was the result of Merrill's poisonous attack. However, the Baron must have carried enough antidotes with him, and there was a priest among his subordinates, so he and his soldiers would not be in any danger.
"Thank you, respected warriors. If it weren't for you, I really can't imagine what terrible things would have happened..." The count smiled bitterly and said to us with gratitude, "...If I'm not mistaken, you must have come here from the mountain gorge in the northeast. I would like to ask, on your way here, did you pass by a simple little manor? Is my beautiful sister Lemore safe and sound?"
"We have come here from your beautiful manor, and I am honored to convey to you the news about Miss Lemoir. Your manor is still as beautiful as ever, and Miss Lemoir is doing well. She and your servants miss you very much and look forward to your safe return soon." I half-knelt beside him and whispered to him.
To them, I was just a passerby who happened to deliver the news. Whether their relatives were alive or dead had nothing to do with me. But at this moment, I was very happy to tell the baron the good news. A sense of solid satisfaction filled my chest, and I was happy from the bottom of my heart for the survival of the brave brother and sister, as if the happiness of the safety of their relatives belonged not only to them, but also to myself.
Your loved ones are still alive, this is really good news. What was the last good news I heard? I don't know. I can't remember how long it has been since I heard good news. You know, since the war against the Doomsday Empire two hundred years ago, people have never been so eager to hear good news as they are now, and good news has never been as rare as it is now. In this era of war and suffering, a piece of good news, no matter how small, is more precious than rare jewelry, because for people living in panic and despair, no matter how expensive the jewelry is, it is just a pile of cold dead things, but a piece of good news can warm people's hearts and bring hope to those who need it most.
I am proud and happy to be able to deliver the good news in person.
At the same time, I feel ashamed and helpless for not being able to bring good news to more people...
"...Praise the omniscient and omnipotent God, may your glory shine forever..." Upon learning that his relatives were safe, the young baron's eyes revealed a gentle smile, and his face became much rosier, "...Thank you for bringing me this good news, you don't know how important it is to me. I hope you can accept this small gift, I think it can help you a little in your adventure ahead."
After a flash of light, each of us gained 3,700 soul power points and received three bottles of "Dead Poison Immunity Potion". Each bottle of potion we take can make us immune to all poison damage for fifteen minutes. This gift really came at the right time for us. It is not like what the baron said, that it can only help us "a little". We can fully imagine that in this fortress full of corpse poison, we are very likely to encounter powerful enemies with strong poison. Once we have to fight them, three more bottles of such potions are equivalent to three more lives.
"…Although you may already know this, fearless warriors, I still want to tell you that the great evil hidden in this castle has the power to destroy the entire continent. The enemies you are about to face are cunning and powerful, and they are not fighting alone…" The deadly poison immunity potion was not the only help the Baron gave us. After handing us the reward for completing the mission, the Baron told us a lot of information about the enemy.
It turned out that when the Baron's expeditionary force arrived here, they accidentally discovered a Continental Alliance soldier. He was originally a soldier guarding this fortress, and now he has been infected with the mutant toxin, but the poison has not yet taken effect, and he has not yet turned into a cannibalistic zombie.
Before he died, the soldier provided a lot of very useful information: Just as Major Gutierrez had speculated long ago, the Stone Fortress was indeed the secret base of the Doomsday Empire, and the evil toxin that turned living beings into zombies was developed and manufactured here. It was not an ordinary poison, but a tiny poisonous insect with its own life that could parasitize animals.
This unprecedented vicious toxin is a perfect combination of the evil wisdom of the three races of the Undead, Vampires and Trolls in the Doomsday Empire. The terrifying Undead Lich A. Vesalius has endowed these poisonous insects with the ability and desire to devour flesh and blood, while the troll shaman Tekken, who is proficient in the essence of soul magic, has given these poisonous insects the instinct to obliterate souls and control bodies.
The most difficult part of completing this toxin is to make it produce endless and powerful infectious ability - this is also the most terrifying part of this toxin - the knowledgeable vampire Marquis Dobbs tried to give these poisonous insects the infectious ability of the descendants of the blood clan - fortunately, his research was not very successful, and these poisonous insects can only infect once for the time being.
It must be admitted that although this poisonous little bug is extremely evil, it is also a great creation that is epoch-making. The evil geniuses of these apocalyptic empires have successfully created a new kind of life. This great creation ability has even surpassed the limit that this world can bear, and has almost entered the forbidden area closed by the gods.
According to the soldier's report, the undead lich A. Vesalius is in the dungeon of the fortress - the dark and moldy underground world is always loved by those who decay and decay; the tent of the troll shaman Taiken is set up next to the cemetery of the fortress; as for the vampire marquis Dobbs, his residence is in the temple of the Supreme God in the northeast of the fortress. And these three notorious imperial butchers are far from the final enemies we have to face on this trip. Behind them, there is a more terrifying figure hidden, that is, the supreme commander of this fortress, the most loyal servant and one of the most valued minions of the last king Darendil, the fallen demon lord who swore to be forever loyal to the fire of destruction, the black knight Arthur Denggot.
After receiving the news, Baron Bink originally planned to lead his army to march straight in and eliminate the evil sources hidden in the dark of the castle, but he did not expect that the enemies entrenched in the fortress were unexpectedly strong. More than half of them were killed or injured just by arriving here, and they were unlucky to encounter the three-headed polluter Merril. If we had not arrived by chance, I am afraid that they would have been annihilated and become a corrupt and cruel part of this evil camp.
"...Warriors, you must stop them as soon as possible..." After briefly introducing the enemy's situation, the Baron showed a worried expression and said to us anxiously, "...The power displayed by the three-headed monster makes me feel uneasy. I guess their research may have made significant progress . We can't wait any longer, you must hurry up. It's a pity that my strength is too weak to go with you..." The Baron looked at his injured left leg in shame and annoyance, looking both ashamed and regretful.
After saying this, the young baron coughed lightly and stopped talking. Perhaps the pain made it difficult for him to move, so he could only sit there, holding his curled right leg with both hands, barely supporting his body from falling over. I was still hoping to get some more detailed information from him, but when I talked to him again, he would only smile sadly and say to me:
"...We will wait here for your triumphant return. May the glory of the Most High God always shine upon the blades of the warriors favored by Him..."
This is a typical behavior of a native: when he thinks there is nothing more to tell you, he will not say even a trivial word to you. In this respect, our friends who are involved in space are undoubtedly much easier to get along with.
Before leaving, we did not forget to plunder the body of the three-headed polluter Merril. In my opinion, many of the items left by this rotten three-headed monster are somewhat incredible. For example, I personally found six pieces of "fresh ham" in his body. This rare trophy brought me unprecedented confusion: I have always wanted to understand how to find six pieces of ham on a monster that has only four legs in total; and who can tell me, in the body of the monster that is full of rot and full of poisonous pus, where exactly do these so-called "fresh" pieces of meat grow?
Compared with the two puzzling facts above, how could "ham", a patented product that only belongs to pigs, appear on the monster made up of the remains of wolves, bears and wild horses? This question has been ignored by me as if it is nothing strange.
Ham is not the only product of the three-headed polluter. In fact, the three-headed monster left us a rich loot. From its corpse, we dug out four "tough furs", a pile of saltpeter and several pieces of rock salt, and a roll of "coarse hemp thread" - they are obviously effective tools for sewing the limbs of different animals on Merrill's body. A skilled leatherworker would probably feel very familiar when seeing these things: he can easily process them into a large leather bag. But who could have imagined that putting these things together would turn into a ferocious monster that kills people?
The only explanation I can find for this is that magic is just too amazing...
In addition to these, the three polluters also left us more than 20 gold coins with a soft luster, a "broken helmet", a "rusty dagger" and a "sturdy belt" - we can understand them as the relics carried by those who were unfortunately swallowed. Seeing these things, I suddenly saw the terrible scene of the monster biting off half of a human body and then swallowing it together with the heavy armor and clothes. Two famous sayings describing the ugly eating suddenly appeared in my mind, one is "eat people without spitting out bones", and the other is "eat grapes without spitting out grape skins"...
Obviously, compared to those real living beasts, the biggest advantage of this decayed monster in terms of diet is that no matter how much hard food it eats, it doesn't have to worry about indigestion. So when Niu Baiwan took out a "Spirit Bone Crossbow" from Merrill's body, my friends and I were not too shocked. It's just that I looked at the three heads of the three-headed polluter for a long time, and I couldn't determine from which mouth this large long-range attack weapon, about one and a half arms long and more than one arm wide, was swallowed whole.
The design of this "spiritual bone crossbow" is similar to that of the "corpse poison dagger" in the Yangtze River Delta. The whole body of the crossbow is also made of various bone materials, which makes its skeleton more flexible and lighter. At the front end of the crossbow, there is a skull from an unknown animal. The lower jaw of the skull is open, and the crossbow arrow is shot out from the mouth of the skull. This unique design is not only to make the shape of the crossbow more deterrent, but when you hold the crossbow horizontally, the open jaw is simply a light and compact sight, which allows you to aim at the target more accurately and greatly improve the hit rate of the crossbow arrow.
Among the numerous long-range weapons, the crossbow is in an awkward position. Compared with bows and arrows, the crossbow is slightly more powerful, but its attack speed is much slower; compared with muskets, the crossbow is very limited in speed, and its lethality is far less. For those close combat professionals who are proficient in fighting skills and only use long-range attacks as an auxiliary means to attract enemies, although they can also equip long-range attack weapons such as bows and arrows and crossbows, they prefer to use darts, javelins or hand axes that can be used with one hand as auxiliary means, so that they can more conveniently change weapons when the enemy approaches.
As a result, there are only a handful of people in the entire continent who use crossbows to fight. You may not encounter one even if you guard the gate of a big city for three days and three nights.
However, the unique material and shape gave this crossbow extraordinary additional properties: its attack power was as high as more than 210 points, and because of the skull sight, its chance of critical hits increased by 30%. The bone material gave its attack effect a certain corrosive property. Although its lethality was not as fierce as the "corpse poison" of the corpse poison dagger, it had no backlash effect. It was safe and simple to use, and would never produce any adverse side effects. Similarly, the lightweight bone material also made this crossbow lighter and more agile in practical use, and its attack speed was much higher than that of ordinary heavy crossbows.
This is definitely an exciting surprise: powerful attack power, practical additional poison damage, astonishingly high critical strike chance, flexible and efficient attack methods... This is simply a perfect long-range killing weapon, and all its attributes are so satisfactory and impeccable.
Well... except for one small problem, really just one small problem.
"Well...does anyone of you bring a crossbow?" Niu Baiwan glanced at the crossbow in his hand, touched the long horns on his head helplessly, and asked us very awkwardly...
