Chapter 65 65: Grave Mistake
Adam reacted immediately.
The nearest puppet lunged, its clawed fingers streaking toward his chest.
He sidestepped the strike in a swift motion, his blade cutting through its shoulder.
But the creature didn't even flinch.
Its head twisted at an unnatural angle, body bending in ways that should've snapped bone, and it kept attacking as if nothing had happened.
Adam clicked his tongue.
Behind him, a panicked yell rang out.
One of the Hunters had failed to deflect a puppet's strike.
The creature's claws tore through his defenses, raking across his armor and sending him flying back.
His body skidded across the cracked stone, blood splattering onto the ground.
He groaned, struggling to push himself up.
Adam didn't even turn to look.
"I already informed you earlier!"
He yelled.
"Don't let them touch you! Stay in your assigned formation and make sure they don't break past Loraine!"
His voice was sharp, but he didn't waste time scolding them further.
This was the problem with fighting alongside an unfamiliar team...
There was no cohesion, no synergy.
Had he been with his previous party from the first floor, this fight would have been far easier....
But of course, in battle, a team's performance reflected its leader's capabilities.
And Adam would make sure they survived.
He activated [Body Blood Magic].
From his body, crimson spikes shot out in all directions, impaling the nearest puppets.
Their bodies shuddered as the force skewered through them—
—Only for them to move again, twisting away in impossible angles, dodging the fatal strikes at the last second.
Adam had expected this.
Just as they repositioned, another set of blood blades slashed at them from behind.
The first attack had been an illusion from [Surreal Creation]!
The moment the fake blood blades had struck, their movements had shifted just enough for the real attack to land.
One of the creatures screeched as its leg was sliced off, but even then, it showed no signs of pain, simply collapsing forward and using its clawed hands to crawl toward Adam.
The unnatural resilience of these things unsettled the others, but seeing Adam control the battlefield with such precision seemed to restore some confidence.
The team started retaliating.
Spells were cast, weapons slashed and stabbed, and the Hunters who had hesitated earlier regained their footing.
[Select Viewer Skill to Copy]
Woman of Specters
[Temporary Copy has been activated...]
[Due to low level and low rank, skill picking will be randomized...]
The system beeped again.
[Temporary Copy is successful!]
[Temporarily Copied: Spiritual Heights!]
[Reducing Spiritual Heights to its F-tier version...]
[Spiritual Heights has been reduced to Ghost Body.]
[Temporary Copy] : Ghost Body (30 Second Duration)
[Ghost Body] : Physical attacks will phase through you. However, you will be unable to attack while activated.
After dodging another attack from one of the corpses, Adam channeled mana into [Divine Edge] as holy power seeped in.
He slashed an attack towards one of the corpses as the holy energy flared it back.
However, the holy energy seemed to have no effect on it as the corpse simply stood back up.
'I see, so it's not like the undead that's being supplied with necrotic energy to be kept alive...'
After confirming this information, Adam activated [Surreal Creation].
Three illusionary copies of himself split off from his form, attacking the same puppet from multiple angles.
The puppet twitched, its head jerking side to side as it tried to process which attack was real. Before it could react, Adam cleaved through its body.
He didn't want to overcomplicate the battlefield with his illusion spells as he was working with a team that was not familiar with his abilities.
Hence, he restrained himself from making large scale illusions that could possibly distract his own teammates and get them killed as well.
The corpse that was being attacked was confused before Adam cut its body in half.
It was just about to regenerate itself when Adam suddenly pulled out a device.
It was a compact, metallic sphere with a small activation button on its side.
It was the pulse disruptor!
From what Adam knew of his previous experience on the first floor, the weakness of Celestia's puppets were distortions!
Adam pressed the activation switch.
A faint hum filled the air.
Suddenly, the corpse froze mid-repair. Its body shuddered violently before collapsing to the ground, unmoving.
[Trespassed Corpse has been slain.]
[+2030 Exp, +1 Basic Soul Core.]
[+100 Gold]
It didn't get up again.
Adam's eyes flicked toward the other puppets.
Some of them had started shaking, but not enough to fall apart.
'As I thought. The Pulse Disruptor weakens them, but they need to be critically damaged first for it to take effect.'
A sudden voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Bless."
A teammate, the caster of the group, finished his incantation.
A pulse of divine energy washed over Adam.
His senses sharpened instantly.
He could feel every movement around him, the shift of air before an attack landed, the weight of footsteps even behind him.
A sensory buff.
'Good.'
He mentally noted the caster's capabilities before diving back into combat.
From the center of the formation, Loraine let out a soft hum.
One of the front-line Hunters, bloodied and wounded, suddenly felt his injuries begin to heal.
Loraine's abilities were taking effect.
He gave her a quick nod of thanks before charging back into the fray.
Adam adjusted his stance.
'How many more of these things are left?'
He scanned the battlefield.
Then...
The ground erupted.
Numerous hands shot up from below.
It was a trap!
Adam didn't waste a second.
He activated [Ghost Body]!
The grasping hands phased through his form.
But the corpses weren't deterred.
Instead of him, they turned to his teammates immediately!
Without Adam guarding and holding carry of the team from the front, everyone else became vulnerable!
Not to mention, he could not attack while being in [Ghost Body] form!
Adam had made a mistake!
A Hunter screamed as clawed fingers wrapped around his ankle, dragging him downward.
Another barely managed to dodge as hands swiped at his waist.
One of the casters panicked, trying to cast another spell, but one of the puppets grabbed his arm before he could finish the incantation!
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