Volume 3 Containment Operation Chapter 25: The old zombie is dead
When I entered the game again, an inexplicable feeling grew in my heart. This was something I had never experienced before. It was uneasiness, an uneasiness as if I had lost something. My heart had never been so anxious before, but I couldn't find the reason. I checked the status and everything was normal, nothing unusual. I contacted Afeng, but nothing happened in the alliance, and the system didn't issue any announcements. Even "Sky Media" didn't have any reports involving me. It's not a human problem, could it be the "Dead Soul Space"? Because of the connection of the "Soul Contract", even if I am in the human world, if something big happens, I can still sense it. Just like the last time Taotao suddenly evolved, I also had a similar feeling, but this time the mental power did not change, and the feeling was stronger. I don't know what happened?
As soon as I appeared in the "Dead Space", I immediately realized the root of the problem. Since I subdued the old zombie, I completely lost my sense of it for the first time. For the undead creatures that have signed a "soul contract" with me, this situation can only happen when I encounter a more powerful enemy. One possibility is that I was forcibly conquered by the opponent and forced to betray me, but because I also have the identity of the fifth corpse king, the old zombie as a zombie is doubly bound and it is impossible for him to betray me. The only possibility is that the old zombie is dead.
I hurriedly called Taotao and Phosphorus, maybe they could help me understand what happened. Taotao usually arrived first, but this time they arrived here, they were still trembling, until they saw me, they gradually calmed down, but still looked around from time to time, as if they were carefully on guard against something.
Taotao's ability was still limited, and he could only express some simple ideas. Fortunately, Phosphorus, the Skeleton King , had lived for a long time and had some experience. He managed to tell me what had happened. Although his words were vague and many parts were not clear enough, after my repeated questioning and comprehensive inference and analysis, I finally figured out what had happened.
The old zombie died at the hands of a powerful dark knight. It should be the result of my wandering around the high-level undead creature area. I might have been discovered by the dark knight on my way back. He took a fancy to Taotao and wanted to tame it and use it as his mount, so he followed me all the way. However, because I soon reached the time of resurrection and left the "Dead Space", I did not have time to discover the hidden danger, and the lone Taotao became the target of the demons.
The Dark Knight suddenly rushed out and attacked Taotao who was unprepared, using the "intimidation" ability unique to high-level undead, which can greatly weaken the opponent's consciousness of resistance and make the weak undead creatures succumb to the tyranny of the strong and allow themselves to be slaughtered. Taotao's strength is far inferior to that of the Dark Knight. Although he is not completely subdued due to the "pet contract", I, his master, am not around after all. The resistance of his own will is still too weak to get rid of the threat of the Dark Knight. Seeing the Dark Knight slowly approaching, Taotao, who will not betray me, will only end up being destroyed once he falls into his clutches. Although he can be resurrected again, the consumption of 3% of his mental power limit is a big loss for me.
At the critical moment, Lao Zhuang arrived at the scene first. Protecting Taotao was the duty I gave it the moment I tamed it. Although it was also affected by the "intimidation", the Dark Knight's target was Taotao, and he focused most of his energy on dealing with it, trying to crush its resistance in one fell swoop. He did not deliberately target other low-level undead creatures around him. The Millennium Corpse King, with whom I had signed a "Soul Contract", was not so weak either. He mustered up the courage to jump out and challenge the much more powerful Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight was in an area of low-level undead creatures, facing what he considered to be extremely weak undead. Perhaps he was careless for a moment and relaxed his vigilance towards his surroundings. In addition, most of his attention was focused on Taotao, so he was unexpectedly attacked by the old zombie. Although the huge gap in strength did not cause any damage, he could not help but relax his mental oppression in surprise, and Taotao seized the opportunity to break free from the control of "intimidation" and fled.
However, the old zombie who offended the dignity of the high-level undead did not have such good luck. He was attacked by the low-level undead. Seeing that the prey that was about to be caught escaped unexpectedly, the enraged Dark Knight swung his butcher knife without hesitation and cut the old zombie in half with one stroke. Another fragile soul was harvested under the shiny black saber.
The old zombie died just like that, completing the mission I gave it to protect Taotao at the cost of its own life. Its soul was completely destroyed. As a subordinate who signed a "soul contract", I don't have the ability to revive it like Taotao. Looking back, it was the first right-hand man I conquered. Although it was a little unwilling at first, it was loyal fought the three-headed flame wolf in the dark forest and resisted the black bear king in the black bear ridge... It had saved my life several times and helped me and my companions complete tasks one by one, making great contributions. Although its strength has been slightly weaker in recent times due to the improvement of the overall level of players, the opportunities to use it have become fewer and fewer. I originally planned to capture a higher-level undead creature and let it stay in the "dead space" to live out its old age, but I didn't expect a sudden disaster. Because of my carelessness, it sacrificed itself to save Taotao. Although it is just an NPC monster in a virtual game world, as a subordinate with independent consciousness, who can communicate with me in a simple way and get along with me for so long, its death still makes me feel very uncomfortable.
The Dark Knight who killed the old zombie did not want to give up Tao Tao and continued to pursue him. He might have remembered the information of Tao Tao's soul fluctuations . Although he was far behind, he could always know Tao Tao's position accurately. However, Tao Tao, who had learned his lesson, did not give it another chance and took it to circle around the low-level undead creatures. Although Phosphorus was not able to compete with the Dark Knight, it would occasionally arrange some skeleton archers to block its way forward. Although they did not dare to attack, lying on the ground could more or less form an obstacle, either bypassing or rushing past, which would always delay a little time and give Tao Tao more breathing space.
We have been chasing and escaping like this until now. The Dark Knight's strength has made Taotao unable to resist. Although the distance is far, the influence of "intimidation" still lingers on it. The longer the time, the deeper the fear in its heart. It was not until I appeared that the fear was gradually offset.
Concentrating my mind and distinguishing carefully, I also felt a powerful mental fluctuation, which did not belong to the other four corpse kings, and was even stronger than them. It came straight towards me. It seemed to be the evil dark knight. It was all my fault for my lack of experience and carelessness. I did not notice its existence earlier, otherwise the old zombie would not have died in vain.
No matter what, the revenge of Lao Zhuang must be taken, and the root of the trouble that threatens Tao Tao must be eradicated. The challenge rules stipulated in the "Law of the Undead" only apply to undead creatures of equal strength. The battles between undead creatures of different levels are not subject to any constraints. The survival of the fittest, the winner is the king, this is the only rule of the "Dead Space". Although I dare not bring a large group of low-level undead to the high-level undead creature area to provoke, but if one or two high-level undead break into my sphere of influence, I, the newly enthroned fifth corpse king, am still capable of fighting them.
I issued a general mobilization order, asking all the zombies and skeleton shooters under my command to gather in one place. Although my "pressure" is not as powerful as the "intimidation" of the Dark Knight, I believe it can still offset some of the impact. Coupled with the effect of "Soul Contract", under my personal command, even these low-level undead with much less strength should have the courage to resist such a powerful existence as the Dark Knight. If my guess is correct, the combination of more than 10,000 zombies and skeleton shooters should be able to kill the Dark Knight whose strength has been damaged.
According to what I learned from the "Encyclopedia of Undead Creatures", whether it is the Dark Knight or the more advanced Terror Knight, since they are called knights, they have formed their own mounts according to the strength of their respective powers at the beginning of their birth. Generally speaking, they will accompany their mounts for life and never leave them. If they have higher strength, they will reshape their image and form their own mounts through evolution, and they usually will not think of changing their mounts.
But there are always unexpected things. Fights among the same kind and killings by more powerful beings will also pose a threat to these undead knights. In addition to damage to their own bodies, their mounts can also be easily damaged or even killed in battle. Once they lose their mounts, they will lose the honor and dignity of being a knight. The only choice is to gamble with their lives, or plunder other of their kind, or enter the extremely dangerous "Dragon Bone Mountain" and rely on their strength to subdue the ownerless skeleton beasts. They may succeed, but it is more likely to usher in destruction.
As for this dark knight who had taken a fancy to Taotao, although he was riding a skeleton horse according to the description of Phosphorus, I judged that there must be something wrong with his mount, otherwise, even with Phosphorus messing around, it would be impossible for him to catch up with Taotao for so long under the influence of "intimidation". Besides, undead creatures are not as complicated and greedy as humans. Most of them act on intuition and will not be excited to seize something more valuable. The dark knight is certainly much more powerful than the black warrior, but a dark knight who has lost his mount is not much better than the black warrior.
When the Dark Knight appeared in front of me, its miserable appearance confirmed my guess. The entire body of the skeleton horse it was riding was in pieces. Except for a few main bones that were still intact, the other auxiliary bones had fallen off and there was not much left. The Dark Knight's huge body was swaying when running, and it seemed that it might fall apart at any time. It was also in a disheveled state. Although its helmet was intact, its armor had several large holes. Only one-third of the round shield in its left hand remained, and the blade of the saber in its right hand was also covered with countless large and small gaps. It seemed that had experienced a desperate battle.
The Dark Knight stopped in front of me and looked at me coldly, but I felt that it was more interested in Taotao, and most of the time its eyes stayed on it, and it was quite dismissive of me, not even opening up the most basic mental communication. Perhaps it had explored my strength and found that there was still a big gap between me and it, so it despised me so much and refused to communicate with me, but historical experience has already proved countless times that those who despise their opponents will not end up well.
The Dark Knight had already activated the ability of "Intimidation", and continued to attack me and Taotao. I used "Pressure" to fight back. Although it did not have any effect on it, it also offset the negative impact of "Intimidation" on Taotao. Under my control, Taotao was calm and relaxed. After a long stalemate, the Dark Knight saw that the mental attack was ineffective, and began to urge the skeleton horse to attack me.
The Dark Knight with a mount can fully exert his strength. Although the mount is injured, as long as it can still move, the Dark Knight's combat power cannot be underestimated. I will not fight it head-on before killing its skeleton horse. I waited for it here, firstly to see it in person to confirm my judgment, and secondly to delay time and wait for the Undead Army to be deployed. When I saw it rushing over, I turned my horse's head and quickly retreated to the rear.
Although he was still running, Taotao became much braver with me on his back and returned to normal. Compared with the Dark Knight's skeleton horse that was about to fall apart, his speed advantage was immediately apparent. He could run at any speed as he pleased and, according to my instructions, he would make some provocative moves towards the Dark Knight from time to time to arouse his anger and speed up the consumption of the skeleton horse.
However, I did not attack the skeleton horse directly. It was not because I was soft-hearted or because I did not have a chance. The key point was that the skeleton horse's shaky body really worried me. It looked like it was about to fall down without me attacking. What if it fell apart prematurely? The Dark Knight, who had lost his mount and was wearing heavy armor, would probably not be able to walk much faster. How long would it take for him to follow me into the encirclement of the Undead Legion?
I led the Dark Knight to run around for a while, and felt that the zombies and skeleton archers were in place, so I led it into a depression with earth slopes on all sides. This was the ambush site I had set. I no longer showed mercy here. Tao Tao's "Hellfire Bullet" and my "Death Cloud" were all shot at the Skeleton Horse, intending to defeat it first. The Dark Knight also sensed the crisis, and held up the broken shield to defend the Skeleton Horse from our attacks. The action was quite good, but it was a pity that two-thirds of the area was missing, and many attacks that could have been blocked still leaked through and hit the Skeleton Horse. After continuous injuries, several of the few bones on the Skeleton Horse's body were broken, and it was shaking while moving, and it seemed that it was about to collapse.
