Her servant reached out instinctively to wipe the sweat from Aisha’s brow. But before could touch her, an invisible force struck back violently. In mid-air, exploded into a cloud of blood.
“Stay sharp!” Nilou shouted, voice cutting through the tension like a blade.
Her delicate hands moved in fluid arcs, conjuring thirty-six azure lotus illusory shadows behind her. Each bloom glowed warmly, purifying the surrounding demonic aura.
Still, the weight in gaze betrayed the strain was under. The illusory shadows were already beginning to dim, slowly corroded by the oppressive black mist.
Roar!
From within the black mist came the sickening scrape of bones grinding together. In an instant, wave after wave of skeleton soldiers surged forward.
Each one had green ghostfire flickering in their eye sockets and sinister black runes etched Into their bones. Even when smashed apart, they rapidly reassembled, refusing to die.
“D*mn it! Why won’t these skeleton soldiers stay down?” Flaxseed roared, shattering three skulls with a single punch, only to watch the shattered bones float back together and stand again.
Jared’s eyes narrowed as slashed with the Dragonslayer Sword, taking down dozens at once. But just like Flaxseed, saw the bones snap right back into place.
“They’ve been cursed with the Undying Curse!” Then it hit him. “The only way to defeat them is to torch them with the internal flame!”
“Fire unicorn, now!” At his command, a brilliant red light erupted from his shoulder.
The fire unicorn leapt from Jared’s Storage Ring, scales blazing like molten lava. It reared back and let out a ground-shaking roar.
Roar!
In the blink of an eye, the fire unicorn grew into a thirty-meter-tall giant beast. Flames erupted wherever its hooves landed.
The skeleton soldiers that touched it shrieked, their runes sizzling and bones turning to ash.
“Good job!” Jemima shouted. She quickly directed nearby cultivators into a battle formation, luring the skeletons into the fire unicorn’s range.
Just when it seemed they were turning the tide, the black mist trembled again.
From deep within it, twelve towering skeleton giants emerged. Each one stood at three hundred meters tall, formed from the remains of thousands of cultivators. Their eyes blazed with ghostfire.
Wherever their feet touched the earth, It decayed. Blood mushrooms sprouted in their wake, dripping with a corrosive slime that melted through the ground.
“It’s Malgor’s elite skeleton army!” someone screamed.
Ashton bellowed and launched a slash with his battle axe, sending a golden arc hurtling toward one of the skeleton giants, only to leave a shallow scar.
More skeleton giants raised their massive bone swords. Dark purple venom shimmered on the edges, and even before the blades hit, cultivators in the front row began to rot and collapse.
The Caxton Continent’s defense lines broke into chaos. Once- organized formations scattered into disarray as fear spread like wildfire.
Jemima slashed with sword, summoning frost to freeze the legs of three skeleton giants. But in seconds, they shattered the ice, sprouting new spikes of bone to take its place.
“This is bad. We can’t keep this up!” Jared’s chest tightened as watched the defense line fall apart. Then something caught his eye, despite their size, the skeleton giants were moving in a coordinated pattern.
He focused for a moment, and his pupils shrank in alarm.
They’re forming an ancient demonic formation!
In the core of the shifting formation, the swirling black mist coalesced into a massive face, grotesque, with pus-filled boils and a leer of pure hatred.
It was Malgor!
“Pathetic Insects of the Caxton Continent, today is your end! Bone Devourer Array, activate!”
The twelve skeleton giants howled in unison, their bone swords locking in the sky, forming a net. Below them, the blood mushrooms exploded, one after another, spewing out a suffocating, toxic mist.
