Duke Starlight was caught completely off guard. He had been so engrossed in the spectacle. Very confident in his untouchable position.
He reacted too late. The [Chains of Vengeance] struck him with the force of a battering ram. Ripping through his arcane defenses as if they were tissue paper.
He cried out. A sharp, choked gasp of pain and surprise. The chains coiled around him. Tightening. Blazing.
The [Rat King Heart] and [Crystal Lich Skull] fell from his grasp. Clattering onto the ruin's stone floor. Their malevolent glows dimmed slightly as they were out of his hands. The spatial crack flickered. Its edges appeared less stable.
The Duke struggled. His face was contorted in agony. He was injured. Dark, bruised mark were formed where the chains had struck.
With a desperate cry and trembling hands, he drew a scroll from inside his robes. He tore it open. Uttering a guttural incantation. A blinding flash of light erupted. Warping the air around him.
Before Jack could do anything... before the [Chains of Vengeance] could fully seize him, Duke Starlight was gone. His distinctive cackle echoed mockingly through the ruin. He had decisively escaped from there.
Jack snarled. Swinging his [Chains of Vengeance] to lash at the nearby undead to unleash his rage. He had underestimated the duke's danger. That guy was completely insane. He would definitely have to strike with full power the next time they met.
But it wasn't the time for that. The artifacts still lay on the ground. Still radiating dangerous energy. And the ruin was still being overwhelmed by the undead. He had to solve the problem.
The chaos was far from over.
A loud scream made Jack turned his head quickly. It came out of Scorpion, the other dangerous element he had detected. The pirate affiliated with the Glorious Pirates. The one who had a demon seed inside his body.
He had been fighting against the were-rats, and now the undead monsters, without much trouble. His pair of scimitars and scorpion tails had dispatched nearby opponents easily. He had been a formidable opponent with unnatural speed and strength.
But he now faced a terrifying foe. The gigantic were-rat Jack had slain had been resurrected as an undead being. And as Jack was dealing with Duke Starlight, it had somehow left the center of the ruin hall and attacked Scorpion, who were practically outside the hall.
The gigantic undead were-rat had completely ignored Jack, the ruin guardian, and the other still-living giant were-rat. It ignored everything else to target Scorpion. As if being lured by something irresistible.
The shambling, reanimated giant were-rat had unexpectedly bitten Scorpion. Its fangs were dripping with necrotic ichor. Clamping down on the pirate's neck with a sickening crunch.
Scorpion screamed. A sound full of agony and raw, animalistic fear. He thrashed. Trying to tear the undead creature off. But it was too strong for him.
Reina suddenly appeared nearby in a puff of smoke. Her twin handguns barked as several holy bullets struck the gigantic undead creature. Leaving smoking holes on its body.
Jack had also charged and even threw his heavy [Judgement Warhammer] to the were-rat.
They were trying to save Scorpion. Not because they pitied him. But because his death would make the situation even worse.
The huge hammer landed on the undead were-rat's huge body. Breaking its necrotic flesh and bone. It was so strong that it even launched the enormous body a few meters away. But the monster didn't release its bite.
Scorpion's movements quickly grew weaker. His body convulsed for a fraction of second. Then, it stopped moving. The pirate was dead.
And... his death brought a new problem.
The demon seed within him wasn't just the source of his power. It was a festering curse. It reacted violently to his death. His dead body began to swell. His muscles ripped through his clothes. Growing to grotesque proportions.
His skin turned into a sickly white... then pure, bone-chilling alabaster. His bones cracked and shifted with horrifying sounds. His form elongated. Growing much thicker and heavier.
An explosive sound reverberated. The dead human Scorpion was completely unrecognizable now.
His head had completely changed. His jaw was unhinged. His teeth grew into massive, serrated blades. His arms transformed into powerful, clawed limbs. And his legs became thick, muscular hindquarters.
This text was taken from Freewebnovel. Help the author by reading the original version there.
His scorpion tail split and grew thick. Becoming a massive, reptilian spiky tail. Scales, hard and white, pushed through his skin.
In a matter of seconds, the pirate Scorpion was gone. Replaced by something truly monstrous. A huge demon that was standing on its two powerful legs. A terrifying fusion of a Tyrannosaurus Rex's bulk and a crocodile's savage, elongated snout.
Its entire body was a dirty white in color. Its grey eyes were glowing with an eerie, cold malice. It was gigantic. Even slightly bigger than the giant undead were-rat that previously killed its host.
Its new form was radiating an aura of raw, untamed demonic power. A primal, guttural roar ripped from its massive jaws. Shaking the very foundations of the ruin.
"Crap!" Jack swore helplessly.
The beast was a grotesque synthesis of reptilian muscles and demonic malice. It turned its cold, grey gaze toward the undead giant were-rat. The one that had been the instrument of its birth.
The undead were-rat had been thrown back during the demon transformation. Now, the towering mass of rotting fur and necrotic muscle hissed and lunged back at the demon. A terrible mistake.
In a display of raw, brutal violence, the white-scaled demon moved. Its massive tail swept the ground. Then, it surged forward and clamped its elongated, crocodile-like snout onto the were-rat's neck.
With a sickening crunch of bone and a wet tear of decaying flesh, the demon whipped its head side-to-side. The were-rat was reduced to a spray of gore and shredded fur. In just a few seconds. The demon spat the remains out. Its glowing eyes were now locked onto Jack.
"What an ironic end..." Jack muttered and sighed.
He had to battle a demon... again. He recovered the thrown [Judgement Warhammer] and gripped it tightly in one hand. The heavy head of the weapon vibrated with a low-frequency pulse.
He manipulated his [Chains of Vengeance] in the bracers of both forearm. Moving and focusing them to coil around his left arm. The metallic scales clinking was surprisingly loud in the chaotic sound of the hall.
"Love!" Jack shouted. "Handle the artifacts! Stop the source!"
Without waiting for the response, Jack charged toward the crocodile tyrannosaur demon. Fearless. He had already dealt with other demons before. This one was just another foe to crush.
Reina also didn't waste breath on an answer. She had already disappeared into a puff of grey smoke. Almost instantly, she reappeared near the spot where Duke Starlight had vanished.
The [Rat King Heart] and the [Crystal Lich Skull] lay on the stone floor. Both were still pulsing with a hideous, rhythmic light.
She aimed his twin handguns and pulled the trigger. Bang! Bang! Holy bullets struck both artifacts. Resulting in sparks of white light. The artifacts were unscathed. But their glow grew dimmer.
Reina shot them again several times. Using the same holy bullets. Again they were unaffected. This time, even the glow didn't change.
She hesitantly grabbed them both. The moment her skin touched the artifacts, a wave of cold, necrotic energy tried to invade her psyche.
She immediately activated his power of illusion and fog. Resisting the necrotic energy. As she couldn't think of anything else to restrain those cursed artifacts, she decisively slammed them into her [Spatial Bag].
The bag's dimensions groaned under the power of the dark magic. But it held.
It somehow... worked. The effect was instantaneous.
The necrotic energy that had been fueling the resurrection of the dead began to thin. The twitching corpses that had about to turn into undead creatures suddenly slumped. The unnatural vitality that were resurrecting them was severed.
The spatial crack that was vomiting were-rats into the hall was also affected. It flickered like a dying candle and finally snapped shut. Leaving a jagged mark on the air that slowly sealed itself.
"The source is contained!" Reina called out. Her voice was calm despite the carnage surrounding them. "But the were-rats and the living corpses that are left... they’re still here."
The living were-rats and the undead creatures had sensed the loss of their magical anchor. Both turned even more feral. They descended upon each other. Driven by their survival instincts.
The human survivors, the living were-rats, the undead creatures, and the ruin guardian... The interior and exterior of the hall descended into a chaotic, four-way slaughter.
Jack didn't have the luxury of watching though. The white demon had identified him as the primary threat. It lunged at him.
Its massive bulk was moving with terrifying speed for something so large. Jack focused his battle instinct. Shifting into the rhythm of his unpredictable combat style, the Savage Rampage.
He ducked beneath a snapping jaw that would have decapitated a man and swung the [Judgement Warhammer]. Making it connected with the creature's dense ribcage. The impact sent a shockwave through the floor.
The demon staggered. The scales and flesh in the impact part were mangled. Black ichor sprayed from the wound. But the blow only seemed to enrage it further.
It countered with a rapid swipe of its claw. Forcing Jack to block and retreat. His feet skidded across the stone.
Jack observed the demon. Noticing that its injury seemed to instantly recover by itself. The monster had [Hyper Regeneration], just like him. Every demon seemed to have the same trait.
"Man! I hate fighting demon." Jack complained bitterly. Prepared for a long drawn fight.
He channeled his primordial energy toward his weapons. The [Chains of Vengeance] snapped outward like vipers. They wrapped around the demon's snout. Pulling tight.
The demon shook its head. Dragging Jack forward with the sheer force of its momentum.
Jack didn't resist. Instead, he used the momentum. Leaping into the air, somersaulting, and driving his heels into the creature's head. And then, he flipped backward to avoid being crushed by its counter attack.
It was an unbelievable acrobatic action for a being of his size and build. A heavy muscle-bound rakshasa wasn't suppose to act like a lean, athletic being. But he managed to do that.
As he moved, Jack's [Eyes of Judgement] flickered. Trying to detect the demon's fatal weakness. But he found none. It seemed that he did have to clash a long battle against the demon.
"Let's see if I can divert the battle all over the place." Jack muttered.
He casually evaded a snap of the demon's huge crocodile tail with his hammer. His mind worked in overdrive. If he couldn't finish the demon in a short time, he needed to use it. He needed to use the power of their clash to reduce the threat... from the living were-rats and the undead creatures.
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