Volume 3 Containment Operation Chapter 11: We Have to Fight
Damn it, there are more than 10,000 zombies here. You give up just like that. Do you think it's easy for me? They are all counted one by one. It takes a long time to count them! I have to accept the additional punishment of permanent deportation. My retreat is cut off. I have only skeleton archers left. If the enemy gets close to me, who will resist me? This will cost me my life!
"What will happen if I accept the challenge but concede defeat in the fight?" The question must be asked as thoroughly as possible, leaving out any possibility to see if there is anything that can be exploited.
"Once the war starts, it will be a fight to the death. Either you die or I die!" A murderous and iron-blooded declaration.
"I reached the limit of your challenge accidentally, and I didn't intend to usurp your throne intentionally. Can you give me a chance? I will cede five to seven thousand zombies to you for free. This way you can kill two birds with one stone. Not only will your power be strengthened, saving you the trouble, but my subordinates will be less than ten thousand, and I won't have to accept your challenge again." It is better to lose half of them than to be defeated and have no one left. What's more, the mental power limit will be reduced by 5%. The Ten Thousand Year Corpse King is not an easy person to deal with. The risk of accepting the challenge is too great.
"Impossible, you only have two choices, fight or flee."
How old-fashioned, not taking advantage of the opportunity, it seems that he intends to handle things impartially. Since it is a humanoid intelligent NPC, why not set up the mindset of accepting bribes? Wouldn't it be more humane this way?
I can be expelled permanently, but I can't give up the old zombie, let alone too many younger brothers. The world is vast, and only with strength can I roam freely. Without them, it will be difficult to rely on phosphorescence and skeleton archers alone. It will be difficult to make much progress in a short period of time. Without the support of powerful means, how can I realize the dream of revenge and wealth in the game? It seems that the battle with the corpse king is inevitable, and I have to fight.
"Can I choose the mode of battle, one on one or in a group?" I remembered that there were two modes for the leader-level undead challenge: one on one or in a group. The time I fought against the old zombie, all his subordinates were zombies, so I had no choice but to choose the one on one mode. This time it is different, with the presence of Phosphorus and 15,000 skeleton archers. The Corpse King Carbon has only 15,000 direct subordinates. Leave it to the old zombie and the zombies to deal with, and then send out 10,000 skeleton archers for support. Even if they are the most elite, they cannot win. Phosphorus and the remaining 5,000 skeleton archers help me deal with the fifth Corpse King. As long as I can hold it back, my "Touch of Death" will have a chance to succeed.
"Those are the rules for the leader-level challenge. The top challenge between emperor-level warriors can only be one-on-one, and the fight continues until one is dead." Carbon rejected my proposal outright, shattering my last bit of fantasy.
"Is there any location restriction for the fight?" If it can roam around and fight freely, I will take the risk of leading it to the area of high-level undead creatures. It is much stronger than me and will definitely attract the attention of more powerful people. If I meet a few people who don't like it, they might take care of it for me.
"It can only be carried out within the zombies' territory. Once the challenge begins, both parties will be bound by the rules and cannot leave midway."
"Then is there a time limit?" If there is, that would be ideal. I have Taotao to get around, and my speed should be faster than it. If I just run away, it will have no way to do anything to me. As long as I can drag it out past the deadline, it can be considered a draw. I don't have much interest in the position of the fifth corpse king, and I don't have the ambition to usurp the throne.
"No, it's a fight to the death."
It won't stop until death, it won't stop until death, will it say something else? Isn't it deliberately increasing my psychological pressure? I didn't expect that with the Fifth Corpse King's noble status, I asked so many questions, and it still answered all my questions, very patiently, without any hesitation. I don't know if it is its nature or a mandatory requirement of the law of the dead.
All roads are blocked by it, and there is no possibility of taking shortcuts. It seems that I have no choice but to accept this life-and-death challenge. This is what I least want to see, but it is the only choice at the moment.
Taotao had already arrived here, but the situation was unclear at the time, so I didn't call it over and let it hide far away. Since I couldn't avoid the decisive battle, I could only try my best to get favorable conditions and summoned it to my side, "This is my pet, not my subordinate, so it should be able to participate in the battle between us, right?" Although according to my understanding, it shouldn't be a problem , but the initiative is in the hands of the other party after all. It's more reassuring to ask clearly, and don't give me another explanation of how an emperor-level strongman should be, otherwise I will really cry.
Carbon looked Taotao up and down and said, "It doesn't violate the rules, so you can join the battle."
This is probably the only good news it expressed. Even so, the gap in strength is still very huge. The Ten Thousand Year Corpse King is unfathomable and far beyond the reach of the Thousand Year Corpse King. Even the disabled black warrior, I feel, may not be able to match the Fifth Corpse King Kaben.
"Okay, I accept your challenge!" Although I was extremely reluctant, I still gave an affirmative answer. So many little brothers are watching me, I can't leave them behind to escape alone. The cost of retreating without a fight is too high, I really can't bear to do that. Forget it, if we are to die, we will die together. I have to fight anyway. With Taotao's help and the magic weapon in my hand, don't I still have a chance?
We stood opposite each other. I consciously kept a distance from the zombie king because I didn't know its speed. Seeing that it ignored all these things and acted as if it didn't care, I simply stepped back a long way to ensure that I wouldn't be caught off guard by it. No matter how much it evolved, it couldn't get rid of the nature of zombies. It couldn't run as fast as the wind. Taotao was a pet. As long as I, the owner, was fine, it wouldn't be affected by Carbon's mental oppression. It stood not far behind me. If the situation was not right, I could turn around and ride it to escape quickly.
Each of them sent a message indicating that they were ready, and the duel officially began. Old Zhuang and the zombies under my command could only stay in the territory obediently. According to the rules, they could not move freely until the two of us decided the winner. Only the winner could have the right to control them.
Perhaps because he was confident of his status as the current corpse king, Carbon stood still, as if waiting for me to take the initiative to attack. But I was not in a hurry. If the enemy did not move, I would not move. Before I knew its details, I would never risk approaching it. After all, it was a monster that had become a spirit. Who knows what tricks it would have. It was a pity that the difference in power was too great and the distance between us was a little far. Otherwise, using the skill of "observing words and expressions" might have revealed some clues.
In all previous battles, once a stalemate had begun, the first party to lose patience was often the party that thought they had won. This battle was no exception. Seeing that I had not taken any action, Carbon became a little impatient. He roared, as if to greet me and to show that he had no intention of launching a sneak attack, and then he strode towards me.
The speed was not slow, about the same as my normal movement speed, which was an anomaly for the slow-moving zombies. I didn't spend any effort to use attack skills such as "Rotten Bone Arrow", which had little effect on old zombies, not to mention the Ten Thousand Years Zombie King. I just added a "Dead Shield" to protect myself, told Taotao to hide a little further away, and turned around to play a cat-and-mouse game with Carbon. Of course, I definitely wouldn't play the cat, but with "One Ride Away", at the speed it showed, it couldn't catch me before I ran out of energy.
One pounce, two grab, three spray poison. After many twists and turns and repeated attempts, I finally figured out Carbon's methods. The pounce and grab were within my expectations, but the spray of poison scared me. It opened its big mouth and sprayed a cloud of dark green mist with a "hiss". It quickly spread and exuded a fishy smell that made people dizzy. "Undead Shield" had no effect on it and could not stop its attack. If I hadn't seen the opportunity quickly, I would have felt something was wrong when I saw it open its big mouth towards me. I reacted immediately and used "One Ride Away" to avoid it. I was almost ambushed. I was dizzy for a long time before I recovered. It was also my fault that I was a little careless when I saw that it could only pounce and grab. When I was dodging, it got too close to me and suddenly used the spray of poison, which scared me into a cold sweat.
Fortunately, the attack range of this poison sprayer is limited. I can estimate its threat range, keep my distance, and be careful so there won't be any problems. Of course, the most important thing is that the attack range of my "Touch of Death" is farther than it, so I won't be affected too much.
After a series of struggles, I found out the opponent's strength and exhausted my energy. I called Taotao to ride on it, and ran away with it, leaving Kaben far behind, waiting for my energy to recover. Seeing that it was still calm and composed, I couldn't help but secretly admire the strength of the Ten Thousand Year Corpse King. It was indeed not something that a little wizard like me could match. If it weren't for the artifact that gave me a glimmer of hope, I might as well give up early.
Relying on spiritual induction, Carbon kept following me. I couldn't catch up with him, nor could I get rid of him. Because I was not so flexible riding on Taotao's back, I didn't dare to take the risk to get close to it. We chased and fled, and slowly endured until my strength recovered.
I jumped off the horse, still letting Taotao stay far away, waiting for Carbon to approach. When I saw that he was almost there, I raised my left hand and used the "Absorbing Essence and Devouring Marrow" skill. A black mist shot out like a snake and quickly wrapped around Carbon's body.
Strong, this is my first impression. It is too strong, this is the conclusion I came to. Carbon's mental resistance is unexpectedly strong. Almost at the same time when "Absorbing Essence and Devouring Marrow" touched his body, waves of mental shock waves followed one after another, fiercely colliding with the black fog band around his body, vowing to smash it. In an instant, my whole body was shaking violently, and my left hand wearing "Touch of Death" was trembling even more. The swing amplitude was getting bigger and bigger, and it was possible to be thrown off at any time. I sucked hard, but I only felt a trace of mental power flowing extremely slowly, even slower than a snail. At this speed, even if I was not shaken off, it would take a long time to suck Carbon into a corpse. It was fine, but I must have been exhausted in reality.
Carbon felt the threat of "Death Touch" and instinctively strengthened his mental resistance, quickly shattering the black belt and getting rid of the entanglement of "Sperm Absorption and Marrow Devouring". I had no other choice but to continue to activate it, absorbing its mental power bit by bit, slowly accumulating damage to it. Fortunately, this is in the "Dead Spirit Space", and "Death Touch" can exert its maximum power, without me having to use my health points to activate it, otherwise it really wouldn't last long.
I had to maintain the normal operation of the artifact, and dodge Carbon's attacks. I was distracted and either lost control of "Sperm Absorption|Marrow Devouring" by accident, or I was almost injured by it. This battle was really hard. If it weren't for Taotao who could take me on a journey and restore my strength, I would have died at its hands long ago.
The pursuit has never stopped. Through this period of contact, I have roughly understood the strength of the Ten Thousand Year Corpse King. It is definitely stronger than the disabled Black Warrior of Skynet. Under normal circumstances, even with the power of the artifact, I can't absorb much mental power. There is no way I can be its opponent, unless it is unstable like the Black Warrior, then I have a chance to take advantage of it and speed up the absorption of mental power. I don't have the ability to injure it. The only attribute that can compete with it is probably physical strength.
Compared to me alone, its stamina is definitely much better than mine. I can't even let it breathe even if I'm dead tired. But with Taotao, it's different. It's a mount, so it has plenty of stamina. It can take turns with me to rest. Two of us dragging one, we can only fight to see who can't stand it first. No matter how strong the Corpse King is, there must be a limit. It's impossible for all attributes to be so high. Among them, stamina should not be the zombie's strong point. If you can exhaust its stamina, you can attack and defend freely.
When Taotao was tired, he hid aside to rest. I coaxed Carbon to continue running long distances and making a big circle. When he was exhausted, he ran back and rode on Taotao and continued to drag him. I kept using the "Touch of Death". Even if the effect was not obvious now, I couldn't let it be too relaxed. It might be good to scare it.
During the decisive battle, I was not restricted by the offline time set by the system. I would be judged as a loser until the end of the decisive battle if I forcibly quit. I don't know how many times I rotated, dragging Carbon at full speed. When I felt a little tired mentally, Carbon's speed gradually slowed down, and his body began to shake while running, so I had to slow down to accommodate him, so as not to leave the range of "sucking essence and devouring marrow".
The intense marathon-style long-distance running does not seem to be suitable for the pampered emperor-level figures. Carbon finally seemed to be unable to hold on. I also felt a little uncomfortable. This time I have been online for too long, and I may not be able to bear it mentally. But now it has come to the critical moment, I have to grit my teeth and persevere. Once I relax, all my efforts will be wasted.
