A cursed corpse. A full of resentment victim and someone who decided to continue to cling to their remaining life. It's not the same way as reanimation from the Necromancer's spells but it is pretty close to that.
"When did this happen? It seems to look like it's pretty recent," I asked as the wife seems to look like it didn't rot at all.
"It's been 50 years since she rose up from the dead and decided to guard her husband's corpse. I tried to defeat her but it didn't work as it turns out, she is immune to ice and she is pretty defensive. She covers a little bit of the area I once controlled before making it harder for me to even deal with. Since you hunt monsters, I can tell you will be capable of getting rid of that monster quickly?" Yuki-Onna looked at me with an expectation that I will deliver on that.
"I can certainly try but don't expect too much from my abilities to immediately kill the monster."
"No problem. And if you succeed, a reward will be given to you so you don't have to worry about wasting your time. In fact, I will make sure the reward is worth your time."
Since Yuki-Onna promises a good reward, I decided to accept this quest. And since this is an informal request, it's not registered as a quest in the system. Heck, I doubt I got any kind of quest in this continent. I bet the continent villagers and townsfolk would only issue them once they are now out to the whole other continents and other people can visit freely.
Anyways, time to deal with the Ice Haunt. As I get close, I can finally get a close look at the monster this time around. She has remained like a normal human with only a pale complexion on her skin. Her upper half is very similar to a woman wearing a bridal gown but the only difference is that she looks terrible in it and with her disheveled looks, she is more of a corpse bride decoration to a haunted house attraction rather than an actual bride, but my first impression changed when she showed the bottom half of her body. I thought she would be like a normal ghost but this time, her lower half body has been distorted to the point where her spine has extended towards her legs and instead of just two, she gained more legs, now attached to her extended spine, making her somewhat similar to a human centipede.
Still, I don't know why she was called Ice Haunt. She doesn't look like a ghost except for her incorporeal human form. The bottom half is a corporeal part. Haunts are more of a ghostly apparition that can cause curse attacks and debuffs and can be a very easy thing to deal with or a pain to eliminate.
Readying my Versatile Weapon, I slowly step into the perimeter of what the Ice Haunt claimed as her territory. The moment I stepped into the perimeter, her attention that was only on the dead husband, turned to me. It's clear she is not liking that I stepped into her territory.
She screamed like a White Howler, the only difference is that the scream is creepy and blood-curdling kind of scream. She didn't stay on the big tree and observe my actions as she immediately lunges herself in my direction. I immediately changed my Versatile Weapon into a Spear and Shield and activated [Shield Bash] to counter her lunge.
BANG!
The [Shield Bash] won and she toppled over into a little bit of distance but she didn't give up and started to circle around. The way she walks is now walking with all her limbs attached to the ground. If she still has two legs she is like walking in all fours. The way she walks now though just looks creepy and disgusting plus the sloshy sounds every time she walks makes it more disgusting.
While she was still in the distance, I immediately fired a [Fireball] on her to see how she reacts and the first thing she did is swipe it away...great.
"Guess she is immune to all elements seeing how she easily nullified my [Fireball] and the ice power of Yuki-Onna seems to be nothing for her at all. That means I have to deal with this by force alone.
As she was getting ready to lunge again, I throw the spear in her direction and she easily dodged it, proving how fast she is despite her current looks which looks like she will not be capable of moving fast.
Changing my weapon into a bow and arrow, I started circling around her while generating mana arrows in my hands so that I can rapidly fire. After training with a bow and arrow for quite some time, I developed the technique of doing rapid-fire using the bow and arrow.
She started attacking me again and this time, I started dodging while releasing the rapid fire of arrows at the target. Since she has a big hitbox, even without aiming properly, the arrows still land and cause damage. I want to avoid using a gun though. Not only does it generates noise but it may attract unnecessary attention and that is not something I wanted to do.
I continue to circle around her while releasing multiple arrows at the same time in her direction. She might not be damaged that much by the arrows but she is getting annoyed and she does not like what I am doing.
She stopped moving and I took my time releasing rapid fire of arrows while remaining calm and seeing her movements. Just as I thought I wouldn't be surprised enough, I was caught off guard when she tear off a few of the bones attached to her spine and attached them together like it had some glue or it was nailed on the other bones. Then, she slowly turned it into a bladed flail and started to attack me using it. It was quick and it moves in a very irregular way as it does not move like a regular flail.
Usually, a flail works if you properly control your momentum with it. Without proper handling of it, the weapon can backfire and instead of hurting the enemy, it will hurt you instead.
Its movements are similar to a chainlink flail, just extended a little bit in length but very similar. The only difference is that even the "chains" of this flail are bladed and can possibly tear flesh if got hit by it.
I have no choice but to get farther from her and avoid the flail but I underestimated the length as it almost got me one time and it just graze right through me. Her control seems to guide the blade of the flail towards my direction without seeing it used with momentum in hand. It was like she was just throwing the flail, and retrieving it before doing it again.
"Ha, and here I thought you would be easy. Turns out you got some gimmicks with you."
I changed my weapon into a gauntlet. The other weapons will do fine but with the gauntlet, I can defend myself against the flail by punching it back while continuously going offensive.
Also, I should try using that skill here. It will be useful to weaken this f*cker up.
15. Mammon's Curse: (Greed's Exclusive Skill): Absorb the enemy's permanent stats and convert them as temporary buffs to the user. The stronger the enemy, the bigger stats can be devoured. Some of the devoured stats will be permanently lost to the enemy and the user will gain the devoured stats permanently. You can gain the devoured stats once every month. The other effect will remain the same. Additionally, every kill will now double the bronze, silver, and gold gained from killing enemies.
I get closer to her and like usual, she used the flail. However, she didn't expect me to lunge at her and grab her upper body, reaching out to her neck and gripping it hard.
"I am not in a great mood today so just die."
Activating the [Mammon's Curse].
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