NOVEL NEXT Adventure 225 – Night of the Undead Monster Attack
As everyone in the building turned to look at the open door, Brodie, Don, and a few of the Adventurer’s Association employees were already making their way to it. Liam and a few others snapped out of their daze as they hurried past them.
Liam, Artem, Blair, and Roman hurried to see what was going on. As they stepped out from the building, they quickly scanned their surroundings, but didn’t see anything but confused people, who had stopped walking and looked at the same direction.
Liam followed their gazes and tried to think about what was in that direction. He felt like he knew what it was, but before he could remember a scream filled the area from the opposite direction. At this point more people made their way out of the building.
Everyone turned to see what was going on, only to find people had started running in a panic. Shouts and screams for help and get out of the way escaped out from the citizens that were now sprinting. Some had no clue why they were running, only going with the wave of panicked and scared people.
“Somethings going on over there,” a random adventurer stated.
“No shit,” another commented.
Before anyone else could make any comments, the sound of metal clanging together along with something sharp scrapping across the ground mixed with the screams. Seconds later, a wave of armored goblins dragging swords and daggers rounded the corner chasing after the sprinting people.
“Stop those goblins!” Brodie ordered.
Liam was about to run straight towards them but stopped as a few gurgled howls filled the night sky. He stopped to look in the direction they came from but couldn’t find anything. He then noticed something in the corner of his eye on the right from above. He looked up the building not too far away to see several wolves standing on the rooftops.
He stared at them and froze at what he saw. Each wolf had sickly greenish grey patches of fur mixed with their white or pure grey coats. Not only that, but some sported open wounds with bones sticking out or blackish red blood slowly pulsing out.
Liam turned to look at the goblin racing towards them and noticed almost the same thing in the areas they weren’t armored. Liam spun his head towards Brodie and shouted, “They’re zombified!”
Brodie and Don spun their heads to look at him. They then assessed each creature from both sides. The curses that flew out of their mouths confirmed he was right.
Without any hesitation, Brodie shouted out, “Kill these monsters! Defend the citizens and make sure you don’t get bitten! Anyone who receives a Rageful Rabies Debuff make sure you get that removed! If you don’t have any way to get it cleared call it out! Not get to work Adventurers!”
The adventurers who were standing outside didn’t respond. They stood there confused by what Brodie had just said. Liam couldn’t blame them. They must have been the ones who didn’t know anything about the Rageful Rabies Venom and the dangers they held. However, their hesitation only meant someone was getting hurt with no help on the way.
Four of the wolves on the roof of the building had jumped down and started running towards the closest person near it. Liam looked at Artem, Blair, and Roman. They each nodded, not needing any words.
A slim woman wearing a dress turned her head and grew fearful as she watched as a wolf suddenly jumped right towards her. She felt her body tense, causing her legs to not move as fast as she was previously moving. Her fear grew even more the closer it had gotten to her.
A child right next to her screamed causing the two men nearby to see the wolves almost upon them. The woman let out a shriek as the wolf that jumped at her was now inches away from landing on top of her, maw open wide.
However, before the wolf could attack her, a massive body had suddenly appeared, shield out in an angle. The person swung his shield as hard a she could, causing the wolf to fall to its side. Without any hesitation, Artem swung his mace down on the head of the creature and slammed it hard once, twice, three times.
The child’s eyes widened as a smooth bladed axe sliced through the neck of the wolf as Blair appeared from above. Her wings folding in as she landed in from of him in a protective stance.
The two men who stared wide eyed as Liam appeared on one side of one of the wolves and cleanly sliced the two legs off before sliding under it to get to the other wolf. Roman, close behind, slammed his fists against the first wolf. Sparks of Lightning exploded over the wolf’s body causing it to tense and yelp before succumbing to the fatal damage Roman caused with his next few punches.
Liam dug one of his daggers right into the side of the other wolf. He used it as a hand hold as he yanked as hard as he could to make the wolf fall to its side. Liam used the momentum he had to spin to look at the creature while landing on his feet. He didn’t waste any time as he plunged his daggers right into the neck skull of the creature. It didn’t last long as the creature let out one last whimper before falling limp.
Liam looked at the others. Their creatures were dead, but they each had a confused look on their faces. At first Liam didn’t understand why they looked like that, but as they looked at their weapons and back at the creatures, he understood. “I’ll explain later,” he told them before looking back at the building.
The adventurers still stood there, not moving. Liam clicked his tongue and was about to shout something, but stopped as no words were needed to come from him. The people blocking the door were suddenly shoved as the ones who were still inside decided they didn’t want to wait for the ones outside to move.
“What the fuck are you panzies waiting for?!” a tall Bear-folk male growled as he gripped a deadly looking morning star weapon. “The Branch Manager gave us an order! Get to it!”
Liam then watched as the confused adventurers who hadn’t move snap out of whatever daze or thoughts they were stuck in and ran with the others either towards the goblins heading their way or to the wolves that had decided to jump down.
Liam shook his head and was about to look for a target close by but stopped as the four people they had just protected suddenly rush towards them.
“Thank you so much!” the child shouted, snot and tears running down their face.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” the woman thanked Artem. Artem gave her a bashful look as he turned his face away.
“Holy shit you guys!” one of the men exclaimed. “If you hadn’t done that I don’t know what…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Artem jumped behind him with his shield up to block a wolf from attacking him.
As the wolf slid down from Artem’s shield, Roman appeared in time to land a few deciding blows.
“Its fine that you want to thank us, but it is dangerous out here,” Blair started. “I suggest you guys get somewhere safe. Maybe the Adventurers Association until this is all dealt with?”
The four didn’t need any coaxing after that. They each nodded and ran towards the building. Don and Broadie stood by the entrance, shouting to the citizens to come inside if they had no place to go.
As Liam watched the four people head in that direction he felt something strange in the air. He wasn’t entirely sure where it was coming from so he scanned the area. After looking up along the roof tops and own both ends of the street, he didn’t find anything that stuck out. That was until his eyes landed on the bodies of the Undead wolves they had killed.
The eyes on a couple of the wolves as well as the stomachs moved slightly. It was faint, but it was enough for Liam to notice it. His brows scrunched as he stared at them, but before he could think into it a text notification from Eri suddenly appeared.
“Burn the bodies!!!! – Eri.”
Realization bloomed on Liam. He was about to shout out to the other three, but realized he didn’t need to worry as Blair and Artem kicked the wolves that were spread out closer.
Roman was already chanting a fire spell as they did this. As soon as the bodies landed into a pile, Liam pulled out a medium vile of oil and dumped it over the bodies. Right as he stepped back, Roman formed a ball of fire on his hand. He threw it on the bodies and watched as they all lit up, burning.
As the fire spread over them, Liam and the others heard high pitch screams mix with the sound of popping as the flames burned hotter and hotter. Liam kept an eye on the burning bodies making sure nothing escaped from the fiery death trap they had made.
When it looked like nothing was going to make it out of it, Liam turned to see Brodie approaching them asking, “What the hell are you doing?”
“We need to burn the bodies after we kill them,” Liam stated. “They are full of Toxos that will escape once the host bodies can’t move anymore.”
Brodie gave him a disgusted look mixed with realization. “Fuck, I forgot about that. We need to tell the others.”
A sudden loud boom echoed in the air, causing the five people to look in the direction it came from. Screams and shouts mixed with it as smoke suddenly appeared in different areas of the city.
“Fuck,” Brodie cursed. “You guys go and see if anyone needs any help. I’ll start spreading the groups out after they finish off the goblins here.”
“Got it!” Liam responded as he Artem, Blair, and Roman raced off.
Brodie sprinted over to the group of people and started barking orders. Majority of the goblin were already dead by the time he arrived. The ones who had just finished killing their targets started grabbing the bodies and putting them into groups of small piles.
As they were burning the bodies a certain group of adventurers rejoined to discuss what they were going to do next. Knox looked at Waylon and asked, “What the hell is up with these goblins? They seemed a lot weaker than they should be.”
“Could have to do with that thing Brodie was talking about,” Waylon suggested as he looked around. “Speaking of…Have you seen where Liam went?”
“Forget that guy,” Chad scoffed as he looked at the two. “He probably ran off to hide somewhere. Gah, my clothes are ruined thanks to that asshole exploding a goblin head so close to me.” Chad looked off in the direction of the man he was complaining about and yelled out, “See if I send any heals your way asshole!” He then looked back down to the blood on his clothes and called out, “Bag boy, give me some cleaning wash in the bag.”
After a few seconds of no response, Chad looked up with an irritated expression, “For fuck sakes boy. I said…” He stopped as he noticed Gimmel wasn’t there. He narrowed his eyes while looking around. He didn’t see him anywhere. Instead he noticed the big bag full of their stuff by the open doors of the Adventurer’s Association unattended.
“Did he really leave our shit unattended like that?” Chad seethed.
“Cut him some slack,” Knox stated, feeling annoyed with the pompous elf. “He’s probably doing what Brodie ordered him to do. You can’t fault him for that.”
“He’s in charge of hauling our stuff,” Chad whirled on the man. “I could care two shits if a god told him to drop the bag and go swim in the ocean. If I tell him he has to carry our stuff then that’s his order!”
Knox and Waylon rolled their eyes at the man.
“Seriously though,” Chad huffed. “Where did that brat go?”
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Screams and shouts for help started filling the air around the city. In just a matter of moments all hell had broken loose without warning. The wail of a siren blared in and out mixing with the noises all around them.
As Liam and the others started running down the Roman swiftly asked, “So what’s up with those monsters? Why did they fall so easily to our attacks?”
“I’m still not entirely sure,” Liam replied. “From what I have gathered, the venom these Toxo creatures inject take a major toll on the body of the creature they infect. So much so that even after they turn Undead it still effects the bodies.”
“I guess that kind of makes sense,” Roman stated. “And here I thought I was getting stronger. After all that training I did and raising my sub-stats, I thought I was getting better.”
“Speaking of Sub-stats,” Artem asked as he tried his hardest to keep up with the other three.
Liam turned to look at him. He could tell the giant man had put in some work in his stamina and speed sub-stats. Back in the Tutorial Area he would have had a much harder time keeping up with them now; while still falling a bit behind, he was keeping some pace with them.
“Are you still affect by that…,” Blair continued for Artem who was starting to breath a bit heavier. “Debuff?”
“No,” Liam replied. “I got rid of it just the other day. I should be fine to go all out unless we come across a creature too strong for us.”
The three gave him a wide grin.
“Good,” Blair stated. “Not that having that thing would stop you or anything. I’m just glad we don’t have to worry about it now.”
Liam was about to make a comment but stopped as flashes of light caught their attention while coming up to a corner. They halted their movements to see sparks of lightning appeared in various places down the road. The four noticed the road and the buildings were full of monsters. As Liam took a look around, he realized he recognized majority of the monsters swarming and attacking the people.
Several snakes the size of medium dogs tried attacking while sparks flashed from their fangs. Spread out amongst these snakes were ones slightly bigger with pale yellow scales with tan markings throughout their bodies. Standing easily on the sides of the buildings were Praying Mantis creatures with burnt yellow bodies and tan mixed along their abdomens. Standing on top of some of the buildings were white hued with pink hued petals around their abdomens. They looked like they were ordering the other mantises as they stayed on top.
As Liam stared at each of these creatures he noticed the telling signs they were too had turned to Undead Zombified versions of themselves. Liam clicked his tongue after seeing that. However, to Liam’s surprise there were some people fighting back or protecting the others who couldn’t defend themselves. Scattered along the ground were bodies of the creatures they had already taken down.
Liam thought it over for a brief moment and concluded that they must have been adventurers who were probably out eating, at an inn resting, or just walking the town. He looked back at the others and instructed, “Let’s help them out. We need to burn those bodies that are already down before they…”
“We know what will happen if we leave the bodies alone,” Roman suddenly stated.
This took Liam by surprise. He knew he had told them to burn them earlier, but he didn’t remember explaining why they needed to. He didn’t need to wait long for an explanation as Artem clarified, “A Divine being already filled us in on everything we need to know about these creatures.” He then let out a strong shudder that shook his body before adding, “Seriously though, why does it have to be spiders.”
Liam stared at him for a moment as he let the words Divine Being sink in. he then thought about Eri. The first thought that came to mind was when she decided to change her clothes and her attitude shift. He let out a laugh that surprised the others.
“What’s so funny?” Roman questioned with a brow raised.
“Seriously? Divine Being? Her?” Liam muttered as he tried to calm his laughter, all the tension in his body lifted.
“Rude sir! – Eri.”
Liam dismissed the notification, trying even harder now not to laugh at her response. “If she informed you of everything that you need to know about these creatures then that saves us some time. Roman? Think you can handle the cremation while we help those people out?”
Roman gave him a wide grin as he gave him a thumbs up, “Leave it to me.”
“Good,” Liam said as he looked back at the scene before them. “Something to take note of with these creatures though, in case that…Divine Being,” Liam smirked at saying that. “Didn’t tell you. All the creatures here are from a Yellow Dungeon. Which means they are Lightning based creatures. The Mantises with the pink hues have a flash that can blind you so watch out for them. The giant snakes can shoot lightning from their mouths too so watch out for that as well.”
Liam’s eyes widened as he remembered something he hadn’t done in quite a while. He looked at the others, activated his Perception of the Control Tower, and mentally added the others to a group. What he saw surprised him.
“Artem. 1,325/1,325 HP. 995/995 MP. Level – 15.”
“Blair. 1,285/1,285 HP. 884/884 MP. Level – 14.”
“Roman. 1,235/1,235 HP. 1,125/1,125 MP. – 15.”
“What?” Roman asked. “Is there something on my face?”
“No…I just added you to my group with my Perception of the Control Tower skill and just saw how much you guys have grown,” Liam stated as he looked at them. “Damn Artem, you’re health is almost double mine. Your health is close to his as well Blair.”
Artem blushed and was about to say something, but was stopped as Blair commented, “You can praise us all you want later, but he need to focus right now.”
Blair was right. He was caught up in seeing how much they had grown when he wasn’t with them. However, Liam shook his head as he saw the small smile formed on Blair’s face as she turned away from him. “You’re right. Let’s get to it,” Liam stated as they sprinted forward.