A Path of Bone and Poison 70 Survive 2

[Ice Ghoul]

These abominations were created when the Necromancer King failed in one of his many experiments on becoming immortal. The Ice Ghouls were born in a desolate island in the furthest corners of the Forgotten sea.

Over time as the the Necromancers spells grew more out of control the area around the island became frozen by the abundant yin energy in the air. This frozen Land became the hunting grounds of the newly born Ice Ghouls.

They do not hunt for flesh, rather for the warmth of their victims. This warmth can only at the center of the desolate island, where the ritual that created the ice ghouls still remains active.

The process of extracting the warmth only serves to create more of these abominations.

Species: Ice ghoul

Rank: B

Hp: 50,000 Mp:5000

Immune to poison. Immune to Ice. Weak against Fire.

I stared at the creatures. They were the first creatures I had met who were B rank. I grew excited as I looked at their stats. Their HP was really high, But I felt like it was not high enough. I decided to test my theory as I entered stealth and used shadow step to appear behind the closest one. I summoned by bone sword as I swung my arm, cleaning removing the enemies head.

Large red numbers appeared over the ghouls head 53,280. I was in shock when I saw those numbers. It was the first time I had seen them, as they only appeared due to my new inspect skill.

My damage was insane, but this was only due to my overwhelming bonuses. All together for this strike they had multiplied the damage by 144 times. (Sneak attack x2, vital strike and vital senses x4, novice necromancer core lvl 3 x3, short sword mastery x3, necromancers gloves x2. base damage =2x intellegence. Intelligence = 185. 185x2x2x4x3x3x2=53,280).

Not only that, but thanks the my [War's Mistress] Title my mana instantly recovered. I could keep this up all day, unfortunately the members of my group were not as lucky. Their damage was rather good, but unfortunately it wa not at the level of these B rated monsters.

Even if it was, with the massive amount of ghouls around there was no way we could defeat them all. This would not prevent us from trying however. We were not going to stand uselessly while we were led to our deaths.

Fireballs shot fourth from Sierra's staff. The resulting explosions caused screams of agony from the ghouls. Their bodies began to burn and the fire damage continued to rack up.

Hylia had moved to Sierra's shoulder, she was shooting her Hair arrows as fast as she could. Surprisingly she did not end up bald. as her mana regeneration was managing to regenerate her lost hair at a steady pace. Still, you could notice the hair on her body getting gradually thinner.

Leisha had the hardest time. She could not travel far from Sierra, as the healing she recieved from Sierra's aura and fireballs were the only thing keeping her alive with the massive damage she was receiving from the ghouls.

I was not standing idly either. I stayed with the group, using my bullets in place of the short sword. The damage I dealt was not nearly as high. but I could still take down a ghoul with three consecutive shots to the head. With my casting speed and Dual casting I was able to take down ghouls much faster.

I would occasionally cast grenades, but their damage was much lower than my bullets, as they did not get the bonus from [Vital Strike]. But when combined with Sierra's fireballs they were still pretty lethal.

Seconds drug onto minutes. The longer the battle drug on the more exhausted my team felt. I was the only one who was managing to keep up, and this was mainly due to my mana being recovered as I killed the enemy. Still my body was growing exhausted from the constant work.

Thousands of bodies lay before us. But we had yet to even make a dent into the massive horde that surrounded us. The horde seemed unfazed as they stepped over the bodies of their comrades. The ghouls did not even view the bodies as an obstacle, much less as fallen friend.

We needed to move, but the only free path was the one that would lead to our demise. I saw no other choice but to slowly retreat on the given path.

As we retreated the attacks of the ghouls began to lesson, but this did not mean that we did nothing. I allowed the girls to rest as I continued to harass the ghouls with my bullets. They fell much slower than we attacked in a group, but they still managed to fall.

Eventually the horde stopped moving at all, they did not attack as they stared at us. Waiting for us to approach our inevitable doom.

We walked in a V shaped formation, each of us in charge of watching a direction. Hylia stood on my shoulder watching our rear as I acted as the vanguard.

At last our destination came into view, It was a large castle made out of bone. The area around it was completely barren, save for the literal millions of ghouls that surrounded it. They seemed to view the castle with a religious zeal, unwilling to take their eyes off of it even as we approached.

Chapter end