Volume 3 Takeoff Chapter 292: Followers of Velsharoon
But soon when another inspector, Yakong, brought new news, he felt that the problem seemed a little more serious.
In addition to leading a large number of zombies, skeletons, dire wolves, ghouls, grave wraiths and grave guards, these undead also brought more than a dozen corpse transporters with them.
Some of them burn with ominous gray corpse fire, which can enhance the power of the surrounding undead and slow down the recovery rate of magic of all non-undead in a large range.
Others carry lodestone bells that boost the defenses of the undead and slowly heal them with the power of death.
With the two working together, the strength of all the surrounding undead will be greatly enhanced.
Since the Corpse Cart increases a fixed value rather than a proportion, the lower the tier of the troops, the greater the increase.
In addition, the Necromancers themselves have the ability to strengthen the undead. Even the strength of the level 1 skeleton soldiers will be greatly improved, and it is not impossible to double their attributes.
Of course, if that were all, Levi might just pay attention to the other party, but would not think that the problem was serious. After all, the basic attributes of the skeleton soldiers were too low, and even if they were doubled, they would not pose any threat to them.
Moreover, he already knew that once he entered the Underdark, he would likely come into contact with the legendary necromancer, Hermann Gost, and his unique corpse transporter.
However, there were more than forty necromancers in front, behind, and around the corpse cart. More importantly, there were some special emblems on their wizard robes and pale bone staffs.
Against a black hexagonal background, there is a grinning skull wearing a crown. It is the holy emblem of the Lich God, Velsharoon.
If the chosen heroes wore this holy emblem, it would not be a big problem. They just believed in the Lich God on the surface and used it to gain power. The chosen heroes would not really be pious to the gods.
But if so many indigenous people are wearing it collectively, it can only mean one thing, they are all believers of the Lich God!
Although the Lich God Velsharoon is only a weak god, he is vain, selfish, and narrow-minded, and is definitely not a god to be messed with.
In fact, any god who is involved in magic, war, death, killing, destruction, etc. will have exceptionally strong combat power. And Velsharoon, who is involved in two aspects at the same time, can completely defeat most other weaker divine powers.
And his background is also very strong.
He was originally an ordinary lich, and was promoted to a subordinate god by Talos, the god of storm and destruction. However, as Talos was of the chaotic evil camp, he would certainly not be so generous. He just wanted to fatten the pig and then kill it for meat.
Velsharoon was keenly aware of this, so he immediately turned to Azuth, the god of mages of mankind, and indirectly received the protection of Mystra, the main god of Azuth.
Mystra is known as the "Mother of Magic". In this world where magic is king, she is very likely the most powerful god.
She even has the ability to stop other gods from casting spells. It is said that this is because most magic needs to mobilize energy through a special network called the "Magic Web" before it can be released, and she is the true embodiment of the Magic Web.
Of course, most of them, but not all of them.
Things like Cindy's psychic power, the greenskins' Gogo and Maogo magic, the shaman's natural power, Zhendan's yin and yang power, etc., are not completely magic and can be unrestricted.
In addition, after spending a certain amount of money, you can also use the "Shadow Net" of the Dark Night Goddess Shar to cast spells;
A very small number of gifted mages can directly penetrate the secrets of the elements and cast spells beyond the magic web;
A race that possesses a god of magic can grant magic to its believers, etc.
But despite this, it is still not enough to change the fact that Mystra is the most powerful magic god. The only ones who can compare with her are probably the Elf God King Corellon and the Zhendan Haotian Dragon Emperor.
In addition to these, there is another point that deserves Levi's attention.
Under normal circumstances, the undead cannot generate any power of faith, but the Lich God's believers include high-level undead creatures such as necromancers and liches. He is also the only god who can recruit undead creatures as believers.
You have to know that even the powerful God of Death, Klemvor, has believers who are basically dying people, undead hunters, undertakers and other people related to death, rather than undead creatures. This shows the peculiarity of this Lich God.
Of course, by recruiting undead creatures as believers, he also incurred the hatred of the God of Death.
Although he is the god of death, Klemvor is of lawful neutral camp and believes in "from dust to dust, from ashes to ashes". What he hates most is the desecration of the bodies and souls of the dead.
It is worth mentioning that the Mother of Magic and the God of Death were once a couple, but the Mother of Magic, who was in the neutral good camp, finally chose to protect the Lich God, who was in the neutral evil camp.
This has caused the relationship between the former lovers to be very tense. This can be regarded as a side view of the wisdom and skill of the Lich God. He must have convinced the Mother of Magic with a special reason that she could not refuse.
Now that Velsharoon's followers have appeared in the Underdark on a large scale, Levi cannot help but make an association: This time, Dracula, a vampire who is also an undead creature, is trying to become a god, so is he also involved?
He felt that the probability would be very high. Otherwise, even if Dracula was successfully deified, he would not be able to gain any believers among the undead, unless he could obtain the secret from Velsharoon that could make the undead creatures generate the power of faith for him.
This would be a serious problem, as it involved real gods. Even if Teclis and the shepherd god Paine came together, they might not be able to handle it, let alone a young wizard like himself who had just been promoted to the paragon level!
Donna, Wange, Cindy, Caijin, Suifeng and others all looked at Levi, whose expression changed a little. Although they didn't know what had happened, it was obvious that Levi seemed to have encountered difficulties.
However, after a brief consideration, Levi finally made a decision. Even though the price would be extremely high if he offended the sect of the Lich God, the other party was almost at his doorstep.
There are more than forty necromancers, almost every one of them brings two to three hundred undead. If they manage to successfully reach Blood Glory, even if there are Nar and Rowan, many defenders, and celestial creatures cooperating in the defense, they probably won't be able to hold out for long.
Velsharoon himself is a neutral evil camp, but his followers are mostly chaotic evil undead wizards and liches. When they see the living, there is only one possibility, and that is to start a war immediately until one side is completely killed!
As a hero chosen by God, how could you let the opponent beat you up without fighting back?
Even if the other party is a follower of Visharoon, so what? He has the two goddesses Moonbow and Lilith behind him, and even the entire elven pantheon!
"Everyone, prepare to attack. Kill the necromancers first. Also notify Blood Glory, Sun Knight, Thousand Thieves, and others. After leaving behind the necessary defensive forces, try to launch attacks from other directions and encircle us."
"Since these guys have bad intentions, let them all die here!"
Following Levi's order, everyone began to prepare for battle. The magic troops cast various magic spells to enhance their powers. Cai Jin and her sisters also prepared to command the harpies to charge at the necromancers among the enemies.
Most low- and mid-level magic units will subconsciously try to distance themselves from the enemy when the enemy gets close to them. This will give their own ranged units more attack opportunities.
Although Cai Jin also understood that based on the strength of the harpies themselves, once they launched a charge, they would probably never return, but if they could really save the lives of some necromancers, she would definitely make a huge profit.
But after confirming the approximate identity of the enemy, Levi reminded her again not to be careless.
Wild necromancers might be easy to deal with, but these guys who worship the Lich God are organized and disciplined in their evil deeds. They know more magic and control more undead creatures, which are definitely stronger.
Cai Jin listened to his warning, so she sent more cat people to conduct reconnaissance and tried to analyze the composition of the enemy's troops to avoid any unexpected situations.
You know what, she soon reaped the rewards.
These undead are not just resting there, or rather, the undead have no physical strength to speak of, so they don't need to rest.
The reason why the other party stayed there was because there seemed to be a large ancient cemetery in that abandoned village. At this moment, the undead were digging up corpses on a large scale, probably intending to use the corpses as backup troops and resources.
In addition to the regular undead troops, there are two special types in the enemy's army.
The first type is dozens of Boda corpses, humanoid creatures with gray bodies and elongated heads.
They are a more powerful version of ordinary zombies. In addition to greatly improved attack and defense, they have a certain resistance to fire and lightning, and have a very scary special skill - the death gaze.
Once they stare at a target, if the opponent's physique, level and other attributes are not up to standard, they will be killed instantly on the spot and transformed into a new Boda corpse in a very short time.
This will repeat several times. If you fail to deal with them immediately at the beginning, you will probably have to face an undead army of Boda corpses in a quarter of an hour.
This really scared Cai Jin and she broke out in a cold sweat, because she knew that if she wasn't careful and let the harpies hang around in front of the Boda corpse, they would probably all become helpers of the enemy.
Cai Jin's sisters were also a little scared. They had originally planned to send out their own heroic units, or even fight in person, but now it seems that they should give up.
Death Stare is an instant-kill skill. Even if one is much stronger than the Boda Corpse, he or she may still be hit if he or she is unlucky. If it is not necessary, don't gamble on that probability.
The only consolation is that there are not many of them, and the release distance of the Death Gaze is also short, less than 10 meters. If necessary, Donna can kill them all with a round of arrows.
The second type is some disgusting skeletons that seem to have retained their internal organs and tongues. They are called Demon Soul Corpses, and their strength is slightly stronger than that of Boda Corpses.
Enemies killed by them will quickly turn into ordinary zombies. At the same time, their several-foot-long tongues have the skill of paralyzing touch, which can be said to be the nemesis of melee units.
Overall, their average strength should be at least level 3. If there are elites among them, their strength may be even stronger.
At the moment, they were surrounding many undead wizards, with a total number of four to five hundred. If Cai Jin rashly sent troops to kill them, he would probably suffer heavy losses.
At the same time, the appearance of these several evil and disgusting undead races made Levi and his companions more and more certain that these necromancers definitely had a high status in Visharoon's sect.
Because these two special undead races were all researched and created by Velsharoon himself under the guidance of his liches and necromancers.
The Lich God and his followers love to research and create new undead creatures. After the research is successful, they often release them into the wild to do evil and test their various abilities.
When they are in the mood, they will even personally take them to participate in actual combat.
And when necessary, they would even steal funerary objects from tombs to use as funds, dig up corpses for materials, or openly spread magical knowledge on how to create and transform the undead.
Because of this, the Lich God Velsharoon has attracted the hatred of almost all kind and most neutral gods. If he had not clung to the support of Azuth and Mystra, he would probably have been beaten to death.
Originally Levi had only heard about it, but now he has truly witnessed the other party's bad behavior.
At the same time, Levi also developed some resistance and resentment towards the two gods. They knew that Visharon was an evil person, but still chose to protect him. They could be regarded as guilty of harboring a criminal!
Despite his complicated mood, Levi still quickly cast many summoning magic spells and assigned tasks to his subordinates.
If you want to fight, fight beautifully and don't give the other party a chance to fight back!
Soon many troops quickly approached the enemy and began to move into the most suitable positions to launch an attack.
It’s no wonder that the opponent’s position is very suitable for launching a large-scale battle.
In many places in the Underdark, the thick rock walls often become obstacles, resulting in the distance to the top being very low, and ranged units cannot perform well.
But at this moment, the enemy's main force was about fifty or sixty meters away from the top of the cave. Not only would Donna's shooting not be affected, but Cai Jin and her flying troops also had enough space to maneuver.
I don't know if they were busy digging up corpses or if they didn't have many scouts, but they didn't react at first.
But as they got closer, some of the zombies finally started to become slightly agitated, seemingly because of the undead's special sensitivity to life.
Even though it was still some distance from their best shooting range, in order to avoid any accidents, Levi made a prompt decision and ordered everyone to launch an attack.
As a mage, he understands best that the threats posed to the enemy by a mage who is attacked by surprise and a mage who is prepared are completely different!
Following his order, Donna gave a delicate shout first, and her and Avalon's magic arrows took the lead as the guide. Then hundreds of arrows from the Sky Eagle Archer and others flew over together, killing dozens of undead wizards on the spot.
At the same time, Levi was also chanting something and using the 5th-level magic that he had finally mastered after several days of study - the Skull of Flame!
A huge skeleton several meters high and made entirely of flames appeared out of thin air. Then, like a galloping buffalo, it wreaked havoc in the camp of the Demon Soul Corpses, plowing out a flaming road about two meters wide and dozens of meters long.
Then came the various magics of Suifeng and others. The lightning arrows, wind blades and the like of the druids, harpy wind wizards and lightning wizards flew over together and cleared out a small area of Boda corpses in an instant.
In just one sneak attack, more than half of the three enemies that posed the greatest threat to them were killed.
At the same time, the Red Flame War Eagles, Dapeng, and Harpies under Cai Jin and others, the Griffins and Giant Eagles under Levi, and Suifeng and their flying troops also descended from the sky and launched a surprise attack on the Undead Wizards.
Although the enemy's army is large in number, several times larger than ours, if we can kill the most intelligent undead wizards among them first, the threat posed by the remaining undead will be greatly reduced.
But the enemies they encountered this time were not ordinary monsters, but well-trained elites who had engaged in many large-scale killings.
Faced with the sudden attack, the necromancers reacted very quickly. After a few "bangs", a large cloud of black fog instantly spread out, completely covering their location.
Although Donna still shot the second wave of arrows according to her previous impression, the black fog seemed to have a certain protective effect, and the damage they caused this time was obviously reduced a lot.
The harpies still insisted on diving down, but in the blink of an eye, accompanied by a series of screams, there was no movement in the black fog.
Then the Undead Mages began to fight back, first with several ice explosions, acid balls, death waves, and a series of bone fangs, bone arrows and bone spears that shot into the sky, instantly beating the Harpy into pieces.
Although they are necromancers, it is certainly impossible for them to only know dark magic. Most necromancers have some backup methods.
The undead who had been standing still also let out low roars. The dire wolves, ghouls and tomb wraiths pounced on Levi and his men first, and then the graveyard guards also began to march in neat formation.
Levi originally thought that some undead creatures would become weak and out of control because of losing their masters, but now it seems that under the cover of the black fog, other necromancers have immediately received the relics of those who died in the battle and controlled all the ownerless undead.
At the same time, several gray-yellow clouds that looked not very clean appeared out of thin air in the formation of the Silver Guards and Cindy's ogres.
Levi's face changed slightly immediately, because he was very familiar with this move, it was the Stinking Cloud Technique in the third-level magic.
It's okay for ogres, they can basically ignore this move, but it's different for the Silver Guards. Even if they have a certain degree of magic resistance and good physical strength, it's hard for them to hold on for too long!
"Follow the wind, use the wind spell immediately to offset the effect of the stinking cloud spell. Priests, hurry up and purify!"
Suifeng immediately responded quickly, and with the howling wind, the gray-yellow clouds were blown away in an instant, but at the same time, two mages groaned, they suffered backlash from the magic.
Levi was a little surprised. Wind Creation Spell was just a level 2 magic, and they were not affected by Stinking Cloud Spell. Why would there be a backlash of magic?
Before he could ask, the two wizards quickly told him the truth.
"Boss Levi, there's something wrong with the other party's corpse transport vehicle!"
"Yes, the system reminded me that it was the corpse cart that affected my magic. Since I don't have the expertise to focus on casting spells, there is a chance that I will be backfired every time I cast a spell!"
The Corpse Carrier has this effect? Is it a new type developed by Gost?
But before he could think it through, the melee troops of both sides collided with each other soon. For a moment, the roars of the greenskins, the cries of the catwomen, and the roars of the ogres rang out, forming a sharp contrast with the calm elves and the dead silent undead.
Donna's rain of arrows continued to pour down, but soon she had to shift her target, because under the cover of the black fog, the necromancers did leave behind more corpses, but it didn't take long before they successfully moved to a place beyond their range.
Caijin's harpies also suffered a setback. Since the counterattacks from the necromancers were too fierce, hundreds of them died in vain, but they failed to achieve any results.
After waiting for a long time for the black fog to dissipate, they were able to find their target again, but hundreds of giant bats appeared from nowhere and started a melee with them.
Although the harpies had the advantage in numbers, the giant bats had the assistance of the necromancers, so they soon suffered heavy losses.
This made Cai Jin and the others feel very distressed, but they still did not order them to retreat, because if they lost their interference and the Undead Mages were able to free up their hands, the threat to their other troops would only be greater!
At the same time, the corpse fires on the dozen or so corpse transporters burned fiercely, the magnetic clock kept flashing, and lines of magic that were almost invisible to the naked eye but actually existed began to take effect, covering the undead in the front row.
As a result, their abilities in all aspects have been slightly improved.
As soon as they came into contact, Cai Jin and her greenskins began to suffer casualties. After all, greenskins have never been good at defense, and some of the attacks of tomb demons have poisonous properties, which obviously may have been specially modified by the necromancers.
In comparison, the situation of Levi, Suifeng and their Silver Guards, as well as the ogres, was much better.
The former has strong enough defense thanks to many bonuses, while the latter has thick skin and flesh, and is more resistant to toxins.
But despite this, Levi also felt the opponent's strength. They were worthy of being believers of Visharoon. These necromancers not only knew many types of magic, but the undead under their command were also very powerful.
He even suspected that there was more than one heroic unit among them, because the opponent's counterattack was quite methodical, and it was obvious at a glance that someone was in command. If they were not heroic units, the other necromancers might not obey the opponent's command so easily.
But just like that, it is still impossible to defeat our own side, not to mention that the Sun Knights have already set out and reinforcements will arrive soon!
Unexpectedly, before Levi could open his mouth, a certain necromancer started to laugh strangely: "A mixed force of elves, ogres and beastmen? It's really rare. But if you think you can challenge Velsharoon's followers with this, you are wrong!"
Levi casually sent out an ice storm to weaken the remaining Boda corpses . Then he turned his mind and pretended to be very confused: "You are followers of Velsharon, but why do you work for Gorst?"
After taking a closer look at the opponent, Levi discovered that he was actually a dark-skinned Negro. Compared with those pale necromancers next to him, he seemed to be more suitable for fighting in the Underdark. After all, his race has the talent of invisibility.
As soon as the words came out, the other party seemed a little surprised: "Herman Gost? We have heard of this legendary hero, but we don't work for him. We are just embarking on a journey of destruction and testing our new pet by the way!"
