‘Over,’ Leo muttered as he fired a wind blade and cleanly beheaded the last orc. With a low thud, the orc’s body fell in the middle of the sea of corpses that decorated the ground. With Celia’s help, it only took him a little less than five minutes to clean the entire orc’s army and turn the settlements into a hellish landscape. There were corpses everywhere, blood was flowing on the ground almost like a river, and the air, filled with the disgusting stench of death and blood, seemed to have gained a reddish glow.
At that moment, the name Redwater couldn’t be more suitable for this place.
Though, Leo couldn’t care about all that as he knew the true threat was still not taken care of. And he was right to think so.
When the last orc’s body touched the ground, it was as if a switch was flipped. Violent energy was stirred around the corpses and Leo felt a strong threat coming from them.
'RUN,’ he shouted at the other four and grabbed Celia before swiftly dashing away.
BOOOOOM.
He barely moved a few meters away before all the corpses that were strewn on the battlefield exploded. While he could escape the center of the explosion; he was quickly caught by the remaining shockwaves.
BANG. With a loud bang, the shockwave that caught up clashed with a wind wall he erected in haste.
‘It held?’ Leo let out a sigh as he felt the shockwave being stopped by the wind wall. However, the next instant, the blast broke that wall, scattering his wind away. Still, he was able to greatly weaken it and bought some time for the villagers to escape.
Even so, his defenses were shattered one after one and only his earth armor remained standing. He could even feel some of his bones being cracked. That was how powerful an explosion created by a hundred of rank D corpses was.
‘Fuck, I hope this is over now,’ he muttered as he landed and looked at the devastated settlement around. He was already getting tired of all this shit. Literally and figuratively.
Unfortunately, the shaman wasn’t done with him. After the hundred corpses exploded, the settlement was covered in a disgusting red mist. As soon as the blast created by the explosion disappeared, the red mist started to move. It rushed toward the orc’s chief quickly seeping into his body while a dark and ominous chain appeared out of nowhere and rushed toward Leo.
At the sight of that chain, Leo's heart went cold as he felt a threat even greater than the one caused by the explosion. Without hesitation, he turned around and tried to run from that chain. However, nothing he did could help him get rid of it. It even followed him when he tried to hide within the shadow.
‘What is this thing?’ he mumbled warily as the dark chain caught him and snaked around his body. Then that cold chain seeped inside his body, freezing him, and filling him with a horrifying sensation of weakness.
[Ding... You have absorbed a large quantity of dark energy. You have received the curse, Spirit’s resentment. All your attributes have been reduced by 50%.]
[You resisted the curse. All attributes reduced by 30%.]
[You have received the curse, Confusion, Magic shackle. Mana circulation and control are reduced. All skills cost and cast time increased by 100%.]
[You resisted the curse. All skills cost and cast time increased by 50%]
[You have received the curse, Mana depletion. You lose 0.5% of mana every second.]
[You resisted the curse. You lose 0.5% of mana every 5 seconds]
[You have received the curse, Ghost touch. You lose 1% of health points every 5 seconds]
[You resisted the curse. You lose 1% of HP every 10 seconds]
‘This is bullshit. So, this was his plan all along.’ Leo completely freaked out as he read through the notifications that appeared in front of him. He felt lucky that he was able to somehow resist the curses. Still, each of those was terrible news. Especially the last one, that one was close to a death penalty. At least the first three only weakened him and he could still find a way around it. But with the last one, if he didn’t find a solution soon, he was doomed to die in a quarter of an hour.
Anyway, even without the death curse, he was in a bad spot, an unbelievably bad one. He was already not at his peak after fighting against the orc’s army. So, things would only be worse now that he was weakened.
Though the worst was yet to come. While he was getting weaker, he could feel the orc’s chief aura soaring to high heaven. It only took a few seconds for it to reach the same level as his aura a while ago.
‘He got us good this time. Really good,’ Leo thought, his heart going cold as he understood the viciousness of the shaman’s plan and the seriousness of his situation. Using his subordinate as a sacrifice, he cast a curse that greatly weakened Leo while strengthening the orc’s chief. With this move, he completely shifted the balance of power in his favor. If Leo fought the orc’s chief right now, it was almost sure that he would be the one to lose.
‘Damn, would things have been different if I had listened to Celia’s advice,’ Leo thought as his heart was filled with regret.
[Are you sure it is time to blame yourself? You are dying if you haven’t noticed,] Luxia said coldly.
‘Sorry,’ Leo said as he took a deep breath.
[Focus, the curses are messing with your mind too. If you let yourself have bad thoughts now, it will be game over.]
“Leo, are you alright?” Celia, who noticed Leo’s state, asked worriedly.
“Do I look like someone who is alright?” Leo snapped as he heard Celia’s questions.
“This,” Celia muttered, a little surprised by Leo’s reaction. Till now, he was always calm and collected. It was the first time she saw him lose control over his emotions in such a way. Well, it wasn't surprising considering the situation they were in.
[Calm down, Leo.]
‘Hum,’ he muttered as he glanced at the silent Celia.
‘Look like I was the only one affected by the curses. That is good,’ he thought as he noticed that Celia was fine. It would have been troublesome if someone else was as he wasn’t sure if they could have resisted it like him.
‘Luxia, is there any way for me to get rid of those curses or weaken them even more? I mean, without having to kill the shaman,’ Leo asked.
[No, there isn’t. I already looked. There are some purification potions in the store, but they won’t be able to affect something of this level. The only solution is killing the shaman.]
‘That’s going to be hard,’ he muttered as he knew he wouldn’t be able to touch the shaman without fighting the orc’s chief. ‘Well, I can find a way around it.’
“Leo is there anything I can help with?” Celia asked, interrupting Leo’s thoughts.
“Hum, you can if you have any way to help me get rid of a curse,” Leo said. Though he didn’t have much hope to begin with. Celia was a fire witch after all. She wasn’t a priest or anything like that.
“So, it was a curse. I can.” Celia muttered.
“Sigh, it doesn’t matter, I will find a way,” Leo said with a small sigh.
“Leo, I said I can help,” Celia insisted.
“Yes, I heard you the first time,” Leo said. But the next moment he noticed something was wrong.
“Wait, you say that you can,” he asked, surprise and hope filling his face.
“Yes, I can feel that it is a curse related to spirit. My fire can affect anything that is. I think I should be able to help you,” Celia explained calmly.
“Great, can you do it immediately?” he asked excitedly.
“No, I need some time. I have to recover my mana first and then prepare the spell.”
“How long?” he asked, hoping that she wouldn’t need too much time
“Five minutes at least. Ten minutes at most,” she said apologetically.
When he heard those words, Leo frowned a little and immediately started to plan his course of action. If he didn’t fight the orc’s chief, he would have a little over fifteen minutes to live, considering that he didn’t use health potion. So, he should be able to hold five minutes against him, hoping that Celia’s spell would work.
‘I can also try to kill the shaman in that time frame. As long as I play it smart,’ he thought as he looked toward the shaman. However, what he saw next made it clear that he couldn’t go with that plan. After all, it was impossible to kill someone who was already dead.
Thanks for the chapter
The shaman is died??
Thank you for the chapter.