Chapter 323 Final Phantasm.
The atmosphere turned eerie dark, and Leonard froze mid-flight. The trees stopped moving, and the howling of the wind quieted down. Dave was stuck in position. He didn't know what was happening.
Thunder struck, and the sky tore open, revealing a black object that came crashing down into the ground right next to Dave.
This object was quite familiar to Dave. It was Nick's Skull-Themed electric guitar. One of the guitar strings strung a high note. And from the guitar, an enormous wave of death magic burst out and surged across the Wilds.
The area of 100-meter radius around the guitar began decaying. The trees withered and died, and the grass became dry then turned to dust. From all around Dave, death energy infested the forest, killing anything that had life in it.
***
You have used Final Phantasm.
You have twisted reality and changed space into that of the Undeath God's domain.
While in the Undeath God's Domain, you receive the blessing of the Undeath God Nicholas.
All of your Undead-Related abilities have been enhanced and improved for the duration of Final Phantasm.
You have gained a new skill {Phantasmal Edge} usable only when [Final Phantasm] is activated.
[Phantasmal Edge] Summons the special forces of The Undeath God Nicholas to charge at the target dealing 50% of targets' current HP in true damage.
Conditions of Use:
Target Must not be more than 200 levels of the user.
Target Must not be a member of the Undead Legion.
Target Must have more than 65% of his max HP.
Using [Phantasmal Edge] will end the skill [Final Phantasm].
***
Dave immediately regained his mobility, and so did Leonard. The dagger was a few inches away from Dave, so he used [Immortal Apparition] to teleport away from the massive were-lion.
But instead of the usual teleportation, now Dave's body was imbued with a black shroud of shadows. He didn't teleport, but rather, he became ethereal. Leonard had dove right through Dave and out the other side.
Dave's whole armor became shrouded in shadows. It was like a lit black flame continuously spewing out from his avatar.
Dave turned to Leonard, ready to attack, but he became surprised the moment he saw the beast.
Leonard's eyes were wide open. His hand began shaking uncontrollably. Shuddering, the werelion's hairs all stood up.
Dave smiled and said, "Do you fear?" his voice became much more profound and reverberating. It was like thousands of souls were all talking at once.
Dave ignored the frightened kitten and raised his hand, looking at it, Dave smirked saying, "Interesting."
Leonard bit on his lip, the pain shook him out of his frightened state.
"Petty tricks!" roared Leonard then threw a bola at Dave.
The bola went right past Dave's body.
"Guess I'm immune to physical damage," Dave muttered.
Dave stepped forward. He wanted to retaliate from the recent attack. But just as he took the first step, Dave found himself right next to Leonard. The beast in question was utterly unaware of Dave's current location.
Dave didn't hesitate and attacked with his Doom Knight's Bastard Sword to the were-lion's flank.
Leonard was caught entirely off-guard, he was sent sprawling on the ground. Dave then took another step; the shadows merged within him and teleported him right next to Leonard again.
'This is dope!'
Dave struck once again, sending the lion sprawling on the ground again.
The were-lion was shuddering, shaking and afraid. It seemed that every attack from Dave was causing Horror effect to the lion. Leonard was growling. He could not locate Dave for the life of him. His ears were perked up, and his eyes were focused, but he couldn't see the undead that was right now threatening his life.
In all of Leonard's life, this hunt must have been the most dangerous. He never suffered as much as he is doing today. The opponent had grown stronger every time he had fought him, and now regret began overcoming the proud lion. He regretted the day he didn't end the life of this person when he first met him. He regretted his lack of strength, and he regretted the most that his bones were feeling a fear he never believed he could ever feel.
"Let's see the other skills," Dave waved his hand summoning [Spectral Skulls] yet this time, instead of eight spectral skulls, they were eight spectral skeletons. Only they were massive in size, and they shone bright blood red.
The ethereal skeletons charged at Leonard, swords, and shields in hand and sliced at him at once. Leonard raised his curved knife to block the attack, but the skeleton's swords were ethereal and went past the curved blade.
However, when the ethereal swords touched Leonard, it was as if his very soul was ripped apart. A loud resonating howl of pain was forced out from the depth of his lungs.
Then, the skeletons gathered around Leonard, their eyes shining bright, the spectral skeletons exploded. Sending a battered Leonard tumbling across the ash-filled ground.
Dave switched to his infernal gauntlets then took a step forward. He appeared in the direction where Leonard was tumbling and smashed down with a fist empowered by [Dragon Fist].
Instead of the red-infernal serpent dragon that used to be summoned whenever Dave struck in [Dragon Fist], the fist summoned a bone-dragon that smashed into Leonard.
The bone dragon was almost physical, it caused the were-lion a massive amount of damage and at the same time applied Horror and Poison.
Leonard sliced at Dave's chest. This time, the effect of the empowered [Immortal Apparition] had dissipated and the black flames no longer covered him, so he took some damage.
Yet, due to being damaged, Dave's passive [Vigorous] activated to restore 10% of his HP. Only this time, this passive was a bit too overbearing. A green value appeared on top of Dave, yet at the same time, the same amount of HP Dave had healed was deducted of Leonard's HP.
Dave's vigorous passive turned to a life-siphoning passive.
Leonard's HP was decreasing rapidly. It had already dropped to 80%
"Okay, let's see this one, Defile!" Dave raised both his hands forward.
The ground under Leonard shook and shuddered, then bones the shape of tree roots rose from underground. They wrapped around the werelion and pierced through his thick hide as if it was made of paper. Leonard's black fur turned to the color of blood. Continuous screams of pain escaped through his bloodied mouth. But that was not over. The bones coiled even further on Leonard then began smashing him on the ground.
Leonard's blood sprayed all over the ground dying it a crimson red. It was like the created had unlimited supplies of blood, and every one of Dave's attacks demanded tolls paid in it.
The root then finally released Leonard to what seemed to him a small release from a torturous pain. The giant were-lion dropped to the ground. He was wheezing and bleeding all over. He still had more than 3,000,000HP, but his current state didn't look like it at all.
"Shit man, now I'm kinda feeling sorry for you…Not! [Phantasmal Edge!]"
Dave summoned the ultimate ability of [Final Phantasma].
Space behind Dave tore like a gateway to hell, a purple gate opened, and hordes of riders surged out from it. They were undead covered in black flames. They looked like Dave when he was in [Immortal Apparition]. The riders rode on red undead horses that had manes made of a purple flame, and their hooves shuddered the earth and left a fiery trail with every step.
The riders charged at Leonard all at once, slicing and cutting at him as they passed him by then went to disappear. The charge continued on and on and on. Until Leonard looked like a bloodied rag. Yet, the pesky were-lion was still breathing.
"Quite persistent," Dave smirked.
Dave's skill [Final Phantasm] had come to an end due to him using [Phantasmal Edge] yet thanks to this broken skill, Leonard was left with a little less than 1,500,000HP.
Dave wasn't about to let the Lion escape. He had suffered long under him. He used [Advancing Dragon] and charged at the barely standing Leonard.
The were-lion raised his dagger and struck down at Dave, but Dave easily dodged to the side thanks to the AI-Guided [Advancing Dragon] right as he dodged, Dave slammed his right leg into Leonard's Stomach and twirled into [Infernal Tornado]. The lion was sent tumbling again.
Dave jumped up and came down at Leonard in a leg-chop. But the lion was not going to be Dave's punching bag for long, he side-stepped the attack and slashed down with his own claws at Dave tearing a good chunk of his HP.
Dave and Leonard started a slug-fest. Taking damage and dealing damage to each other. Blood spewed out from the lion, while black ichor poured out of Dave's wounds.
Leonard took advantage on a misstep Dave committed and dug his dagger deep into Dave's neck, yet the undead don't bleed.
Dave grabbed onto Leonard's large arm and smiled, "Have you ever seen the Devil?" Dave said in a snark.
The were-lion was in too much pain to care for Dave's words, but he still felt a tinge of fear as to why the lich was grabbing tightly at him.
Yet before he could understand the reason behind it, he saw the glowing blue hue of Dave's eyes turning to a crimson red. Yellow cat-like irises emerged into his eye sockets and two horns grew on his forehead.
Dave's body began growing. He had already activated [Zealot] and [Chaos Imbalance] coupled with [Demonic Ascension]
Leonard's body started shaking uncontrollably. His veins pumped more and more blood out of his wounds. It was as if Dave's current state was demanding Leonard's very blood to pay homage to it.
Demonic Ascension called the blood inside Leonard's body. It called his soul and life.
Dave's avatar began growing at a noticeable rate. He who was several feet smaller than Leonard began growing larger to match Leonard's size. Dave forcefully pulled Leonard's arm away from his neck. Leonard then swung with his other hand at Dave, but the demonic transformed lich easily grabbed it. Dave twisted both his hands causing Leonard's arm-joints to snap.
Then he headbutted him with the enormous horns growing out of his forehead stunning the were-lion.
Dave hurled Leonard in the sky and flapped his wings following after. He grabbed at the were-lion in mid-air and continued flying into the air. Dave kept going up for a while, when he noticed that the lion had regained mobility, he changed direction and began descending face first.
'I always wanted to do this!'
Dave began barrel rolling along with Leonard to cause him to lose balance. At a certain point Dave was feeling dizzy with all the spinning, but he still kept going. Only a few meters away from the ground, Dave released the lion and sent him smashing into the ground, cratering it.
But he, on the other hand, decided to flap open his wings and fly away. Only this ended in tragic failure. The laws of Physics denied Dave of his dream to do a cargo-drop, his speed was too fast for his wings to support him and he also was smashed into the ground just a few feet away from Leonard.
But Dave had the time to react and activated [Bastion] canceling all the damage.
Dave stood up and went looking for the were-lion. Checking the crater, Dave frowned. There was nothing there.
"Fuck, did he escape?" Dave wondered.
Suddenly, something heavy dropped right next to his leg, looking at the object, it was the decapitated head of Leonard. Looking to the left, Dave saw the giant praying mantis standing there. Kurukuru was just a few meters away from the [Demonic Ascension] area of effect, and his claws were raised up and fully covered in blood.
A string of notification began appearing in front of Dave.