Hard-Skin Ghoul (1)

The carriage rolled along Landon City's flat roads. Inside, Green had taken everything from the thief's cloth bag and was examining it with keen interest.

The thief hesitated, apparently worried about the price Green would offer, but he did not dare ask. He could only endure in silence, though his gaze kept drifting over Green's neck and chest. Beneath his outward composure lurked a mad, bloodthirsty greed.

More than ten minutes later, the carriage stopped.

Green stuffed the objects back into the bag. They were all ordinary things, with no Psychic Energy in them.

During the ride, however, Green had quietly drawn all the Psychic Energy from the broken magical items he had bought from Old One-Eye into the Graveyard. Together with what he already had, that brought his total to [64] Psychic Energy. Pleased, he recruited the three Skeleton Soldiers recently produced in the graveyard, expanding his squad to eight. He had no use for the remaining [49] Psychic Energy, so he saved it for now.

As soon as they stepped out of the carriage, the thief grew wary. Something was wrong. He had not noticed it inside the carriage, but they had somehow left the crowded streets behind and arrived in a deserted lane. Two-story buildings stood on either side, and the road was only wide enough for one carriage.

The thief reacted swiftly. Sensing danger, he lunged at Green first, a dagger already in his hand.

But he was still a step too slow. Green had decided to catch him off guard. The moment he left the carriage, he swung his Magic Staff and cast Soul Summoning twice in succession. Two Skeleton Soldiers took position before him. He continued casting Soul Summoning as he retreated, putting as much distance between himself and the thief as possible.

Green cast Soul Summoning with remarkable speed. Chanting the incantation and forming the Spell Circle took him only one and a half seconds. In less than fifteen seconds, he had summoned all eight Skeleton Soldiers from the Graveyard and sent them to surround the thief.

Yet the thief did not fear the sight of the Skeleton Soldiers. Instead, he gave a vicious sneer. "Fool! You think you can use Skeleton Soldiers against me? Didn't your teacher tell you that higher Undead naturally suppress lower Undead?" Rather than retreat, he charged straight into their encirclement, intending to fight them all alone. As he did, the human skin on his face split apart. His body swelled suddenly, bursting through his leather armor to reveal a gray-skinned monster more than two meters tall, its mouth packed with sharp fangs. It whipped its unnaturally long, ape-like arms to either side. Three Bone Spikes over a foot long pierced the skin and sprang from the back of each hand, forming a pair of deadly weapons.

"A Hard-Skin Ghoul!"

Green recognized the monster the moment it revealed its true form. The Mages Association had an illustrated guide that classified it as a level-two Undead creature, far stronger than an ordinary Skeleton Soldier. The Graveyard, meanwhile, classified Ghouls as a type of Zombie. Those with hardened skin membranes and enhanced defenses were called Hard-Skin Ghouls, a level-two elite unit.

Unfortunately, the Ghoul had misjudged the situation. These were no ordinary Skeleton Soldiers. It knocked down only two before another caught up and drove it back with a shield bash. Working in perfect coordination, a second Skeleton Soldier leaped over the shield-bearer's head and stabbed down hard with its Short Sword.

Crack! The Hard-Skin Ghoul barely caught the Short Sword on its Bone Claw, but the force of the blow snapped one claw clean off. The other Skeleton Soldiers gave it no chance to recover. They swarmed in amid snarls and roars, and after a brief, chaotic struggle, forced it to its knees. They pinned it down and dragged it before Green.

Green studied the wretched-looking Ghoul with interest. Half of one arm had been severed, and seven or eight holes from Short Swords riddled its body. Foul-smelling black pus and blood kept oozing out. Unlike most Undead creatures, with their muddled minds and lack of fear, this Ghoul was highly intelligent. Now that it had been captured, its fear was plain.

"Great Necromancer, I am a servant of Lord Cristiano. Please spare me for my master's sake! I'm sure he will pay a ransom for me." The Ghoul had actually begun begging Green for mercy.

"Cristiano?" Green had seen the name not long ago in the information provided by the Mages Association. Cristiano was an Advanced Necromancer Apprentice who lived in Rhine City, next to Landon City. He was strong, forceful, and well known there; rumor had it that he possessed a Lineage Legacy. Green had not expected this intelligent Ghoul to belong to him.

"A Necromancer from the neighboring city has reached into Landon City too. Trouble really is coming from every direction lately!"

Green sighed, but he did not hesitate. The moment the fight broke out, the Graveyard's prompt had automatically selected battle. Now he was eager to see what reward killing this Ghoul would bring.

The cunning Ghoul's plea was a pretense. Even as it begged, its body began shaking violently, and a deeper, raspier growl rose from its throat.

Green went on alert at once. A piercing point of red light had appeared between the Ghoul's brows. An instant later, it erupted into a powerful shock wave that forced back the surrounding Skeleton Soldiers. The Ghoul broke free, sprang into the air, and lunged at Green again.

"Frenzied Bloodlust!"

Many elite Undead creatures possessed this skill. It unleashed an intense thirst for blood, sending their strength and speed soaring, but robbed them of reason and turned them into madmen who could no longer tell friend from foe.

The Ghoul moved too fast for the Skeleton Soldiers it had forced back to stop it. Its Bone Claw punched through the breastbone of the soldier guarding Green with a bang, sending the skeleton flying. Skeleton Soldiers were tall, but without flesh, they were light. Struck by the frenzied Ghoul, the soldier had been knocked off its feet as though hit by a small truck.

Roaring, the Ghoul broke through the encirclement and rushed straight at Green. After activating Frenzied Bloodlust, the last scrap of reason in its mind was fixed on venting all its rage on him.

It crossed its Bone Claws and raked at him through the air. Another second, and they would pierce Green's chest.

The Ghoul had lost its reason, but not its fighting instincts. It was certain that once it closed the distance, it could kill this hateful Necromancer Apprentice.

Green stood his ground. He was a little tense, but his gaze remained steady, and in the struggle between life and death, he was startlingly calm. The Ghoul's Sharp Claws drew closer. He could even smell the stench pouring from its mouth. At that hair's-breadth moment, he raised his Magic Staff, and a gray-blue Spell Circle appeared above its gem-studded head.

The Spell Circle formed in an instant. Green pointed his staff, and a rapid series of bangs sounded as a dozen sharp spikes, each around two meters long, shot up from the ground beneath the Ghoul.

The spikes sprang up with tremendous speed, covering an area two meters by two meters. Mid-leap, the Ghoul had no way to dodge.

Wet thuds followed one another as spikes pierced the Ghoul's left shoulder, left ribs, right chest, and left leg.

The Ghoul howled in pain, its pupils shrinking to pinpoints. Even through Frenzied Bloodlust, instinctive terror made its skin crawl. It had never imagined Green's Bone Spikes could be so powerful. Bone Spikes cast by an ordinary Novice Necromancer Apprentice would, at most, knock a Hard-Skin Ghoul aside; they could never pierce its hide. But the Ghoul did not know that Green had deliberately honed these stone spikes until they were several times sharper than Bone Spikes summoned on the spot.