Chapter 42: Entomorphosis

The situation in the village was chaotic.

The screams and roars of the monsters were all that could be heard, as the army of parasitic worms and the undead engaged in a battle to the death.

*Xiu...Xiu...Xiu...Xiu...*.

Dozens of black arrows, shot by the skeleton archers, flew from the rooftops of the houses every second tracing curved arcs in the air before hitting the parasitic worms. Although the damage caused by the arrows was not too severe, it was still a problem for the worms as the arrows were poisoned with necrotic energy which weakened the living creatures.

*Slash Slash Slash*

The skeleton soldiers and skeleton warriors swung their swords, slashing and piercing the huge bodies of their enemies. With swift and agile movements, the undead severed the limbs and the worm-heads from the necks of their opponents.

*Shik Shik Shik*

"Griiaaaah!"

The heads of a Naragor parasite worm roared in pain as its body was pierced by the blades of three black-armored skeleton warriors. A second later, a fourth skeleton warrior appeared from behind the creature, piercing it through its back and destroying its core.

On the other side, the zombie centipede, the corpse beasts, and the other giant zombie insects pounced on Aylinor's army of parasitic worms, dismembering them or tearing their bodies in half with their powerful jaws.

Originally the skin of the Naragor parasitic worms was tough as steel, but thanks to the skill [Fear Aura] both the defense and strength of the worms dropped significantly, making them vulnerable to the attacks of the undead.

*Whoosh*

In the middle of the battlefield, Marcus ignored the enemies in front of him, running at full speed while dodging the attacks of the parasitic worms controlled by the priest.

"Grrrooaaah!"

The parasite worm's heads roared as the creature's massive black scale-covered fist approached Marcus' face with a force capable of destroying a grown man's skull with a single blow.

*Bam*

But before the creature's fist struck Marcus, a large skeleton stepped between the two, parrying the parasitic worm's attack. Immediately, the large skeleton clenched its fists and unloaded a barrage of blows at the creature, each with the force of a cannon.

*Bum Bum Bum Bum*

In the face of the great skeleton's powerful attacks, the Naragor parasitic worm could only raise its arms to defend itself, but it wasn't long before the skeleton's blows finally broke through the creature's defense and struck its body, causing it to stagger and fall backward.

At that instant, the large skeleton lunged at its opponent and quickly grabbed all the worm heads that protruded from the creature's neck. Then, the large skeleton used all its strength and ripped off all the heads of the parasitic worm, decapitating it with a single movement.

The now decapitated parasitic worm began to writhe, spilling its dark green blood emanating from its severed neck onto the ground until it finally stopped moving.

Marcus did not stay to delight in the creature's death and immediately ran to where Aylinor was, as fast as he could.

The battle between the two sides had only begun a minute ago and more than 15 worms had already been killed in combat. On the other side, of the nearly 30 undead controlled by Marcus only 2 had been destroyed and some had lost a couple of limbs or suffered injuries.

Although Marcus wanted to join the battle and slaughter all the parasitic worms, he mustered all his willpower to control his bloodlust and refrained from joining the fight.

Instead, Marcus was more focused on killing Aylinor who, seeing that his monsters seemed to be at a disadvantage, had taken the magic item he used to control the horde of insects besieging the city and began his escape.

Although the parasitic worms were weakened by the [Fear Aura] they still outnumbered the undead. However, the undead had been strengthened by Marcus' necromancy which together with their infinite stamina and immunity to pain gave them a great advantage over their opponents.

Unfortunately, the [Reinforce Undead] spell would only last for a few more minutes; moreover, Marcus' MP was constantly being drained by the [Fear Aura].

If the undead were not able to annihilate all the parasitic worms or if he was unable to slay Aylinor before both the spell's effect and his MP were exhausted, then Marcus would lose his chance to kill the priest and all his efforts would be in vain.

'That damned bastard! To force me to use my subordinates and make me run away like this... Once those three dies I'll show you what real pain is!' Thought Aylinor as he headed for the outskirts of town.

At first, Aylinor believed that his parasitic worms really could take care of Marcus and the undead under his control. But after all his attempts to kill him failed, the priest had decided not to take any more risks and opted to retreat anyway.

Besides, even if the worms could not destroy the undead, they would still be able to buy enough time for him to escape.

Currently, Aylinor's mission was almost complete. As long as he could hold out a little longer, the Sanacran Scorpion would kill the rest of his targets and then he could focus on annihilating Marcus.

'That's okay, even if I don't manage to kill that woman, I can still have the Black Lions take care of her. I'll have to give them a few more options, but that's an acceptable pri...'

Just then, Aylinor felt a powerful bloodlust that forced him out of his thoughts. The bloodlust was behind him and with each passing second, it was getting closer.

Knowing that his enemy was much faster than him and that he would not be able to escape, Aylinor quickly turned around and conjured a protection spell to deal with his opponent's attack. Immediately a red, lobster-like exoskeleton began to cover the priest's body.

*Bam!*

But before the protection spell finished activating, Marcus' fist impacted against the priest's solar plexus.

"Kuuaaaagh!" Aylinor screamed as a blunt pain spread throughout his body, damaging his internal organs and causing him to spit blue-green blood.

Aylinor's body flew several meters in the air until it finally slammed into the wall of a house so hard that it ended up smashing through it.

Marcus wasted no time and immediately unsheathed his sword and approached the house where the priest was. But just when he was only a few steps away from the house...

*Whoosh*

A black shadow came out from the hole in the wall and with a swift and fast movement hit Marcus. Fortunately, he managed to react in time and raised his sword to block the attack.

*Clang*

A loud metallic clang sounded as the shadow hit the Uroboros blade, generating sparks in the process.

Although he managed to block the shadow's attack, the power of the blow was so strong that it staggered Marcus and forced him back several steps. If he had been a normal human his arms would probably have been numb or broken from the impact.

'What the hell...' When he recovered from the blow, Marcus was finally able to see the shadow that had attacked him.

The shadow in question turned out to be a large scorpion tail fifty centimeters (19.68 inches) wide and over six meters (19.5ft) long. The tail had a brownish tint and at the end of it was a poisonous stinger as thick as a pencil.

Quickly the scorpion tail retreated to where it had come out and a few moments later Aylinor emerged from the hole in the wall of the house. The scorpion tail that emerged from his lower back had reduced in length and was now less than two meters (6.5 ft) long.

At that moment, the priest began to pull several handfuls of insects out of his clothes and quickly began to gobble them up.

*Crunch Crunch*

Locusts, scorpions, cockroaches, spiders, and dozens of other insects were devoured by Aylinor in seconds. When he finished, the priest exhaled greenish-brown vapor and his eyes turned black.

A few seconds later his body began to make creaking and crackling sounds that sounded as if all the joints and bones in his body were rearranging and breaking.

Aylinor's face twisted, and his body muscles began to swell causing his clothes to rip and tear. In the blink of an eye, the priest became a three meters (10 ft) tall giant.

'What the f**k!' Seeing this, Marcus instinctively widened the distance between him and the priest, standing on guard and preparing an offensive spell at the same time he activated his armor's defensive spell.

"Uuugh... WUUAAAAGH!" Aylinor shouted and in that instant four huge insectoid-looking arms grew from his body. Then all his skin began to fall off his body as well as his nails, hair, nose, and ears.

When the metamorphosis was over the creature in front of Marcus was very different from how it originally looked.

Aylinor was three meters (10ft) tall, its body was covered by a blue-green exoskeleton similar to that of insects, it had a scorpion tail and two extra pairs of arms. It also possessed a pair of cockroach-like antennae protruding from its head which looked just like a spider.

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"I see. So you decided to abandon your humanity for power... I mean, I know I'm not one to talk... but my situation is justified!"

"You... Bastard..."The creature's horrible voice sounded very thick and distorted as if it had come out of the deepest part of hell."LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"

"Yes you are very ugly, I can see that."

"YOU'RE COURTING DEATH!!!" Aylinor roared as he prepared to lunge at Marcus.

'Negative lightning!' Marcus raised his left arm and half-meter-wide black lightning shot out from the palm of his hand.

*Boom*

The black lightning traveled the distance between Marcus and the priest in the blink of an eye and hit his huge body with an explosive sound. In an instant, Aylinor's body was covered in electric arcs and black sparks.

But what happened next stunned Marcus completely.

"AAAAH... Aha...Hahahahahaha, I feel tingly."

[Negative Lightning] was a 2nd level spell that contained a large amount of pure necrotic energy. The corrupted power of the spell was so powerful that it was capable of destroying the Moonlight Reflector Pendant's defense in one hit. But Aylinor received the spell's impact directly and only felt tickled.

'...F**k.'

"YOU ARE DEAD!"

*Bam*

Aylinor kicked the ground with his insect legs and jumped more than ten meters (32.8 ft) in the air. Marcus reacted quickly and jumped backward to distance himself from the priest.

*BOOM*

Almost a second later, Aylinor descended from the sky and his six huge arms struck the ground, raising a curtain of dust and causing the whole town to tremble.

When the curtain of dust dissipated, Marcus was finally able to see Aylinor's silhouette and despite being undead a cold sensation ran up and down his spine.

At the place where the priest had landed there was only a huge crater almost four meters (13.12 ft) wide. The ground around the crater was cracked and the few trees and bushes that were near the impact zone were destroyed.

*Whoosh*

At that instant, Aylinor's scorpion tail increased its length again and with a swift movement struck Marcus.

He reacted quickly; he raised his sword again to block the attack while jumping backward to distance himself. But Aylinor didn't stop and continued attacking.

*Clang Clang Clang*

The priest swung its tail in a series of quick, fleeting movements in an attempt to pierce Marcus with its poisonous sting.

*Clang Clang Clang*

Marcus could only use his sword to block and deflect Aylinor's attacks, but every time he managed to fend off a stinging blow, he was forced to retreat a couple of steps. In just ten seconds, the sword and the poisonous stinger had collided more than fifty times.

Finally, Marcus deflected the poisonous sting once again and charged straight towards Aylinor. But when he was only about five meters (4.37 yards) away, the priest opened its hideous maw and vomited a stream of green fluid.

'That's not poison! Energy barrier!'

Before the green fluid could hit him, Marcus activated a defensive spell and his entire body was covered by a transparent energy barrier.

A second later the stream of green fluid hit the energy barrier with such force that it caused Marcus to stagger.

Although the green fluid did not affect the [Energy Barrier] all the other objects or places where Aylinor's vomit had landed began to emanate a white vapor as they burned and melted.

'Acid vomit?! But what kind of bugs did this guy eat?'

After almost a month of reading and studying the books in the mansion's library, Marcus' understanding of the magic of this world had increased significantly. However, there was still much he didn't know.

This was especially true for any evil arts spells. Since the information about these spells was very limited.

A couple of seconds later, the power of the acid vomit stream was slowing down to a stop. When Marcus was sure that Aylinor would not attack him again, he deactivated the [Energy Barrier] and stepped back several meters to move away in the areas where there were puddles of acid.

[MP: 401/3,735]

Ding!

....

{The conditions have been met}

....

{The effect of the title [Adversity Overcomer] has been activated}

....

'Sh*t, this doesn't look good.'

Currently, Marcus had already consumed too much energy and if things continued like this his MP could run out in a few minutes. The situation was such that he had been forced to deactivate the [Fear Aura] to reduce his MP consumption.

In fact, the situation was so bad that the title effect [Adversity Overcomer] had been activated, increasing all of Marcus' stats increased by 5%, which actually gave him a bit more MP.

'Now what do I do?'

Marcus had no idea about how the shape-shifting spells worked or how long the effect would last. He had no way of knowing if the spell Aylinor used to increase his physical power and gain various superhuman skills had a short effect time, if his transformation was permanent or if it required some compound to nullify it.

He also didn't know if the transformation spell would cancel once the priest's MP reached 0 or not.

'F**k it, at this point, it's all or nothing... Negative Edge, Enhanced Edge...' At that moment, the Uroboros runes began to glow and a layer of sharp purple energy wrapped around the blade of the sword. '... Necrotic Mantle, Physical Power Enhancement, Agility Enhancement.'

In a normal situation, Marcus would have chosen to retreat. But at this moment Aylinor had used his [Entomorphosis] and was bursting with power. With everything that had happened, it was unlikely that the priest would let him escape.

Therefore Marcus decided to activate all his reinforcement spells and risk everything in a last desperate attack.

Once Marcus finished his preparations, he gathered momentum and charged at the priest.

Ding!

....

{The [Monarch of the eternal garden] has re-entered the chat}.

....

{Monarch of the Eternal Garden: What did I miss?}

.....

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