Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 733
Chapter 733: Clown (2)
As soon as the battle began, Abed Necrapeto moved to the relative safety of the backline.
While his attention-seeking nature had pushed him to march in at the front during the recent District 9 invasion, he didn’t plan on making the same mistake twice. He was pretty confident in his close-combat skills, but…
How can I stand at the front when we’re fighting a monster like that?
His close-combat abilities were, at best, self-defense level, and he knew that self-defense wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to work on the people opposite him.
His proficiency in those skills was a factor, of course, but it was mainly due to a difference in class—
“Don’t hide and come out here! You son of a bitch!” shouted that former ally of his as he tried to move to the rear.
Of course, her insults didn’t even come close to hurting him. For those of his particular variety, it was honestly closer to high praise.
“Pshe! That’s an odd way to put it! How am I hiding when I’m just a necromancer moving to the backline?”
It was the obvious move to make, but considering that she had been captured because he hadn’t done that oh-so-very obvious thing in the past, his former ally couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Then why the hell did you do that back then?! If you hadn’t done that, then I…! I…!”
“Pshehe. Still, didn’t you get in good with someone thanks to that?”
“A-are you even hearing what you’re saying?!”
Their bickering had the potential to go on for a few days, but unfortunately for them both, current circumstances wouldn’t allow such indulging. For one, they were both situated at the rear of their respective camps and so were a good distance away from each other.
“Shut up and start casting!”
“G-got it,” the woman stuttered.
“Necrapeto!”
“Pshe…” the man giggled.
Since both of them had to support their fellow troops, their conversation came to an end. That came as a great relief to him.
[Lyranne Vivian has cast the rank four black magic Curse of Rotten Earth. The defense stat of all enemies in the area is greatly decreased.]
That moron of a woman was nothing more than a curse machine. He, however, was different.
“Pshe… How quaint.”
[Abed Necrapeto has cast Blessing of Armies. All allies in the area negate 50% of all negative effects applied to them, and their highest stat is increased by 20%.]
He had obtained a new rank two area-of-effect buff skill somewhat recently too.
“Damn it! Leyton is dead! Necrapeto!”
“Pshehe, leave it to me!”
And unlike a dark wizard who couldn’t really do much other than dish out curse after curse, necromancers had a skill that was practically a cheat in small-scale conflicts.
[Abed Necrapeto has cast Puppeteer.]
The necromancer could raise the dead expendables and make them fight again. They weren’t as strong as when they were alive, but with a few buffs, they were decent enough as fodder.
[Abed Necrapeto has cast Bloodline. The caster’s passives are granted to their kin.]
Making poison run through their veins, strengthening their bones, and making their attacks apply debuffs-and that wasn’t even the end of it.
[Abed Necrapeto has cast Remodel. One of your kind is randomly remodeled.]
They were all elites of Orcules who were skilled enough to earn a spot for themselves here. As soon as they died, they would be revived with a random trait too.
[Great success. Your kin Koral Leyton has obtained the trait Large Monster.]
Koral Leyton went from fulfilling the physical warrior position when he was alive to becoming a huge monster upon revival, big enough to not be dwarfed by that barbarian over there.
“Pshehe… Starting off with a great success. I’m lucky.”
Boom!
The new summon (previously known as Koral Leyton) fought against the huge barbarian with strength greater than what it possessed back when it was alive.
“Pshehe… It’s strong enough to stop that moronic barbarian!”
Necrapeto truly wished that the summon he had just created would survive. With that level of strength, it was more than worthy of becoming one among the collection that he kept within his sub-space—
Slash!
“Huh…?”
He rubbed his eyes from where he stood watching the battle from the rear.
Boom!
That thing… It just died in just one slash?
I-it was a great success, though? With the best base material I could use too!
He couldn’t understand it.
Yes, the barbarian had a damage dealer next to him. Yes, he had heard that DPS was decently strong. Abed even got the feeling from seeing him cut down Leyton in a single strike that he should never get close to the knight.
But still!
“Wh-wh-what’s with that knight?!”
He was just the one who ended up saying it aloud. Every member of Orcules present was thinking the same thing.
And how could they not? If a necromancer with slow reflexes and no skill in close-quarters combat could sense it from where he was standing, everyone fighting in melee distance had surely already felt it deep within their soul.
Slash!
That nameless knight was dangerous. Not just in one capacity, but in every way imaginable.
Boom!
Even more so than that barbarian who was called the Giant.
Splash!
Every swing of the knight’s sword was followed by a fountain of blood.
The twenty elite members and the hundreds of reinforcements stationed nearby—every single one of them had begun to instinctively retreat, no longer able to fight as brazenly as they had before. They were all too busy trying to save themselves.
It was a familiar scene, one often seen when the outcome of the battle was already decided. They were all just pretending to fight and waiting for the retreat order to be given.
I-I’ll need to get ready.
Abed Necrapeto, who had lived his entire life bullying the weak and groveling before the strong, could feel the shift in the air quicker than anyone else. He quickly drafted a plan of escape in his mind.
However, he couldn’t retreat, not yet. He hadn’t been given the necessary permission.
I’ll just act like I’m helping out and…
He’d run away as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
Just in case, he moved a little closer to the rear.
[Abed Necrapeto has cast Puppeteer.]
He wasn’t holding back his support either. After all, he at least needed to pull his own weight so that he would have some excuse after running away, and he could tell that the frontline would collapse if he didn’t do this much.
Huh?
However, though his decision was logical, it was also a grave mistake.
The moment he raised a new body with Puppeteer, he found himself the center of the knight’s focus. The man’s eyes were as blank as a machine and soulless, yet shining like a hunter’s.
“Wh-why are you looking at me?!” he wanted to shout, but he knew why without having to ask. That look in his eyes left no room for interpretation.
Ah, so I need to kill that guy first.
There was neither hostility nor annoyance in that midnight gaze.
It only made Abed shiver with fright. He ended up taking a step back without realizing it.
As if he’d been waiting for that very signal, the knight leaped into the sky.
“What?”
“I’ll be borrowing this for a second.”
After jumping high into the air, the knight stepped lightly on the shoulder of the gigantic barbarian, and he used the giant as a launch point to dash in the necromancer’s direction.
How strange a feeling it was.
It felt as if time had slowed down.
As he looked at the knight flying toward him, his brain processed information much faster than it had ever before. Thinking, searching for a way out of this, for a way to survive.
Momentary immortality.
It couldn’t possibly be a good idea. He would be guaranteed to survive for one minute if he used it, sure, but would he be able to survive after that?
I-I shouldn’t have come here! This always happens whenever I meet that barbarian!
Anger and frustration welled fast and impulsive within his heart, but he quickly stamped the emotions back down. That kind of thinking would do nothing to help him survive.
Damn it!
Using the instant he had to think, Abed Necrapeto proceeded to do what he deemed would best raise his chances of survival.
[Abed Necrapeto has used Staff of the Netherworld.]
The Staff of the Netherworld. As one of the highest-ranking treasures at No. 17, the double-digit numbered item was considered the graduation equipment for all necromancers.
Call of the Netherworld.
It was a treasure whose wielding carried many risks, but Necrapeto didn’t hesitate and used the effect of the staff to cast Call of the Netherworld.
Needless to say, among the four he was facing, he targeted the one that seemed the easiest and most fun to bully.
Lyranne Vivian!
When he scowled and selected his target, the aura that was approaching him disappeared as the green light swirled around him.
[You and the target are called to the Netherworld.]
The world of the dead, where no outsider could interrupt them.
Pshehe… That was pretty smart if I say so myself.
Now, he just needed to survive and endure in this place. The process could get pretty boring, but that could be solved by harassing and tormenting Lyranne Vivian without killing her.
Or so he thought.
“Whoa… This place looks pretty cool.”
Until he saw a barbarian taking a leisurely look around.
***
[You have used Wall of Aegis. It is affected by the selected effect in place of the target.]
***
Three green moons were floating high in the sky.
They looked so vivid and close as if I were standing in the middle of space. However, when I looked at them closely, I could tell that the moons were created from writhing corpses.
“Graaaaah…”
All around me, the growling of what sounded like zombies echoed through the air.
And that was just what was going on in the air and space above me. The ground was just a spookily endless plain with nothing on it.
Boom!
Like erupting magma, green liquid burst up from the gaps in the ground.
So this is how it feels. It’ll probably apply a debuff if I get hit, so I’ll need to be careful.
It was definitely different from what I saw in the game. The fact that the light from the sky was green also made it feel like I had come to a completely different world.
Anyway, that’s enough sightseeing.
There was an order to these things, and I wasn’t planning on taking a casual stroll through the place when I had things I had to do.
I turned my eyes back to the front, matching gazes with a guy who flinched.
“B-Bjorn Yandel! How are y-you here…?!”
Well, by using the active skill of Wall of Aegis, I could even take the effects of instant-cast targeted abilities that were normally impossible to redirect, though this was my first time using the effect.
“Who knows?”
But I had no reason to explain that to him.
“I-I definitely targeted that Vivian girl…!”
Oh. So he wasn’t aiming for Raven? I just assumed he was and used my shield without even considering otherwise.
I mean, the two of them were standing pretty close to each other.
Although the incident was born from a misunderstanding, I didn’t mind it at all.
The Corpse Collector, Abed Necrapeto.
I’d been wanting to kill this guy for a while now.
I grinned wide and raised my hammer.
English