Seeing his light magic take effect, Starlight felt a surge of joy. However, in the next second, the monster’s tail shattered the ice on the ground and lunged toward him like a spear.
“Bang!”
Just as Starlight instinctively raised his hands to block the imminent attack, Po Kong slammed into him with his shield, knocking the monster’s sharp tail aside.
Even after being deflected, the long tail retained its power, piercing a large hole into the nearby wall.
The two watched as the stone around the hole turned black and began to rot at a visible rate, as if eroded by some malevolent force.
“Hiss! This thing is incredibly toxic!” Seeing an entire section of the wall crumble into a pile of debris in mere seconds, Po Kong couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath. If an attack like that hit a person, the consequences would be unthinkable.
“Starlight, you silly boy! Don’t be fooled by its appearance! The monster’s weakness is right below its head!”
At that moment, Noah, who had been scanning the monster’s body with his soul power, finally finished his analysis and shouted a timely warning.
Following his guidance, the two looked just dozens of centimeters below the monster’s head. There was a slightly wider section there.
Looking closely, they saw that the area was pulsing slightly; it was likely the source of the monster’s life force.
“Is that... its heart!? Po Kong, help me distract it! I’ll deliver the killing blow!” After seeing the constantly pulsing ring, Starlight immediately understood Noah’s meaning and shouted to Po Kong.
Po Kong nodded steadily, then suddenly leapt up. He raised his grey shield and met the monster’s fierce attack head-on.
His heavy shield bash struck the monster directly on its severely burned head.
Augmented by his pale yellow battle qi, the strike was unstoppable. It smashed the monster’s slender mouthpart into several pieces, and even its body couldn't help but recoil backward, exposing the vital point beneath its neck.
In that split second, Starlight finished condensing the light cone in his hand. A brilliant white light, like the first rays of dawn, pierced straight through the monster’s neck.
The moment the light cone skewered the monster, a massive spray of black blood erupted from the wound. Accompanied by a foul stench, it diffused into the air.
Even more terrifying, the black blood seemed highly corrosive. As it splattered onto the walls, it made a sizzling sound and formed patches of black stains.
It took several seconds for the monster’s long body to lose all signs of life, collapsing onto the ground like a pile of sludge.
Before they could even catch their breath, three more identical monsters lunged out of the pipes ahead, staring at them hungrily. The already small room suddenly became cramped.
“There really are more! But as long as we know where the weakness is, there’s nothing to fear from these disgusting things!” Po Kong shouted as he watched the monsters slowly approach. “Little Star, give my weapon some extra kick!”
Starlight immediately understood. With a wave of his hand, a beam of white light shot from his palm and merged into the longsword in Po Kong’s hand.
In the next instant, the originally silver-white longsword became as bright as a lightbulb, flickering with a dazzling radiance.
This was a new move he had developed recently. Possessing the ability to control multiple elements, he could infuse Po Kong’s weapons with different elemental energies in specific situations to achieve maximum lethality.
In a mage’s repertoire, this would normally fall under the highly specialized category of enchantment magic. Starlight, who had never been formally taught such things, had discovered this method purely by chance.
However, his crude method of energy infusion could be said to have no technique at all. If it were an ordinary weapon, it likely would have shattered long ago from being unable to withstand the pressure.
Fortunately, Po Kong’s two weapons were excellently crafted and had an extremely high tolerance for magic. They could fully withstand Starlight’s powerful mana and even produce unexpected results.
Although this simple and crude weapon enchantment didn't last long, the two had finally mastered this joint attack method after practicing several times.
“You disgusting freaks! Take my Howling Moon Slash!”
With Po Kong’s thunderous roar, a crescent-shaped white light instantly illuminated the entire room. It was as if daylight had descended, completely swallowing the three charging monsters.
As the blinding light gradually faded, the upper bodies of the three monsters were revealed to have been cleanly severed in two. The cuts were smooth and dripping with blood.
“Phew! Fortunately, these things are only average in strength. Aside from being disgusting, they don’t have much else going for them.”
After slaying the three monsters with one strike, Po Kong let out a long breath and slowly lowered his sword, speaking calmly.
However, Starlight didn't agree. He frowned and countered, “That’s because they ran into the two of us. If it were any other team facing more than one of these things, it would probably be quite troublesome.”
Hearing this, the relaxation on Po Kong’s face vanished, replaced by a hint of gravity.
Indeed, the adventurers who had entered at the same time as them generally weren't high-level. Without the right attack methods, they might not even be able to break these monsters' defenses, let alone handle an ambush by several at once.
“So, where exactly did these monsters come from? They shouldn't be undead creatures, right?” Po Kong pondered for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the four monster carcasses on the floor as he spoke in confusion.
“From their appearance, they really don't seem like undead. After all, you can hardly find any undead characteristics on them.” Starlight shook his head and mused, “But it is strange; they actually look a bit like the human puppets we encountered before.”
“Your observation is sharp. They are indeed very similar! Go over there.” At this point, Noah suddenly spoke, expressing praise for Starlight’s insight and gesturing for him to move closer to the head of the monster on the far right.
The three monsters that had appeared later had been killed by Po Kong striking their vitals directly, so their heads were still perfectly intact. As Starlight approached, he could clearly distinguish their facial features.
“Hmm... as I thought...” After carefully examining the monster’s appearance, Noah called Po Kong over as well. “Po Kong, look at this fellow. Do you remember him?”
“I certainly don't remember seeing such a disgusting thing before...” Po Kong walked over casually, but he stopped mid-sentence. A flash of doubt crossed his eyes. “Wait... this face? Have we seen it somewhere?”
“It looks familiar, doesn't it? If that’s the case...” Floating in the air, Noah suddenly opened his pages and turned a blank sheet toward the two.
Under their gaze, text and images gradually appeared on the blank paper.
Starlight summoned his light orbs again. This allowed them to see that Noah was displaying a missing person notice from half a month ago.
The portrait in this missing person notice was almost identical to the head of the monster lying on the ground, making their skin crawl.
“It was this person! No wonder he looked familiar. Senior Noah... could it be...?”
Po Kong couldn't help but shiver after seeing the image. This was exactly one of the people they had seen among hundreds of missing person commissions, and now he had been horribly transformed into the alien monster lying on the ground.
“It seems certain. Those people were abducted into the tomb and then, by some unknown hand, were turned into these horrifying deformed monsters.”
Noah analyzed calmly, but every word was as sharp as a cold blade, making the two feel a chill in their bones.
“Then the others... couldn't they all be...?” After a long silence, Starlight finally gathered the courage to ask the terrifying question they were most unwilling to face.
“Yes. Barring any accidents, you will likely find no survivors.” Noah’s voice echoed in the empty underground space, seemingly tinged with a hint of helplessness and gravity by this cruel reality.
“Bang!” Po Kong slammed his fist into the stone wall beside him, a look of fury appearing on his face that Starlight had never seen before.
Unlike his usual casual and cheerful self, his emerald pupils seemed to harbor a raging fire that threatened to burst from his eyes.
Rate on N.U.
