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1145. Super Ebola
🕑 Added 2024-08-03 18:21:00 +0000 UTCMina knew what she had to do. She had seen the power of the Saintess in the arena. The extreme adaptability of Gatris that was supposed to drive the opponent into despair, to crush their spirit until they accepted her mercy.
What was needed in this case was not overwhelming power, but a single quick and powerful attack that could end everything in one go. Mina had just the perfect weapons for that. The cat girl appeared from the shadows behind the praying Saintess and struck down with Asclepius’ Needle, using the assassin skills <Back Stab> and <Lethal Strike>, in addition to <Shadow Blade> from her shadow assassin class.
Her strike was accompanied by the shattering of a barrier. Of course, the Saintess of Gatris was not chanting on her knees, without any defense at all. However, the bubble of divine power shattered under the power of the attack.
The saint's defense was broken, but Mina's attack had also lost a lot of its force. Half expecting it, Mina only used the dagger's <Plague Strike> and <Down with the Sickness> after the shield was broken. The first casting a deadly disease on the Saintess, the second casting a normal disease onto her.
<Ding! Target has been inflicted with Dead Disease=> Super Ebola-Urth Strain!>
<Ding! Target has been inflicted with random Disease =>Galloping Leprosy!>
<Ding! Elufsiv the Esurient is feasting. Target can't use magic or active skills for 10 seconds>
“Duoh! What have you done? My innards-!” the Saintess turned to her, tears of blood flowing from her eyes. The stabbing wound in her back seemed like the smallest problem when her lower robes became tainted with blood and...worse. Disgusted and fascinated, Mina took several quick steps back.
“Goddess! Help-” she thrashed around on the ground, tortured by whatever Super Ebola to her. Galloping Leprosy only just started to appear, as her skin dissolved at a visible speed. She was covered in growing lesions, turning her whole body into a big, infected wound.
“Yeah, no. We can't have that,” Mina shook her head. She couldn't allow her to somehow plea for divine help, so she swung the Shard of Biting Ice, casting <Cursed Frost> on the Saintess. Before she could speak any further, she was encased in a shell of cursed ice, that slowly absorbed her life force, in addition to the damage the diseases dealt. She probably wouldn't last the full 5 minutes of the <Cursed Frost>.
Although this was why she was sent here, Mina was surprised about how easy it went. Well, she was also quite lucky with the RNG on the disease. Super Ebola? What even was that? It totally destroyed the Saintess in moments.
With the Saintess of Gatris stuck in the coffin of ice, slowly nearing her demise, the Beastman had time to pay attention to the statue, she was praying to. The weird, demonic effigy, which was probably the true face of Gatris, only shown to her dearest followers, was slowly losing its glow after the prayers stopped. The runic formation in the area did the same.
Despite that, the people floating in the air wearing the crowns of thorns were not released from their curse. Despite the ritual being interrupted, they kept floating around with their mindless expressions.
She stopped her ears from twitching when she heard an almost unperceivable sound from behind her. It was followed by the sound of a blade cutting the air. A crude rapier passed through her shoulder but didn’t cause any damage or pain.
Having used the power of the Ring of Gyges to face the surprise attack, she used this chance to counterattack, slashing the demon across his chest, leaving a cut and a deep gash in his flesh. The pig-faced creature grunted deeply in surprise and pain.
<Ding! Elufsiv the Esurient is feasting. Target can't use magic or active skills for 10 seconds>
“Intangibility? Interesting,” the attacker commented as he dashed away to gain distance from the cat girl. Mina pursued him both daggers drawn, ready for a melee fight, while his skills were sealed. However, he managed to stay alive for the duration of 10 seconds, after which he turned into smoke. The cloud of demon smoke then charged back to the encased priestess.
“You are Mina, right? I didn’t think I would be lucky enough to actually meet the Tower Master’s woman alone out here,” the demon said with a crooked smile. “Just anyone from Minas Amr would have done the trick, but to lure out someone of special interest…What a great day! You will be the perfect hostage.”
<Porco Bello (Elite) lv.99>
Hearing the demon’s talk, Mina inadvertently used <Target Gauge>, the assassin version of <Observe> to check his level. It had not changed from the time of the tournament, but she decided to stay vigilant. There were enough cases of people exceeding the level limit using various techniques.
“Don’t you think you overestimate yourself, if you think you can capture me?” Mina asked honestly, with a slight intention to taunt him. Maybe he would blurt something out when he was agitated?
“Oh, right, right, right, I forgot,” he said and pulled a ring from his finger. It was a crude black iron ring and it turned to dust, the moment it was unequipped. The moment it was gone, his aura exploded.
<Porco Bello (Elite) lv.100>
<Porco Bello (Elite) lv.103>
<Porco Bello (Elite) lv.108>…
Mina didn’t need a skill to tell her that he was rapidly growing stronger, but it helped her quantify the difference in power. His level kept jumping higher and higher with bigger and bigger steps and despite looking incremental, the power he exuded rose exponentially.
By the time the power stopped rising, Minas couldn't even see the level anymore. he had managed to reach lv. 118 herself. For her skill to stop working, the beast had to be at least 50 levels above her, so probably in the 170s...
The visual change was tremendous, too, as the demon had grown more and more bestial with every jump in power, turning him into a 4-meter-tall hairy hog, walking on its hind legs and a snake tail. When Porco Bello was finished with his transformation, he kicked the ice sarcophagus, breaking the curse and sending the Saintess flying across the ground.
“Get up, you stupid wench! I don’t care if you are on your dying breaths, finish the ritual!” he barked at the sainted, who was crawling on the ground, puking and sweating blood. She looked like a decomposing corpse, but only 2/3 of her HP were depleted so far.
She whined and cried. Unable to speak, she only nodded at the demon’s words and scurried over to the effigy, to continue her prayer. Then the beats turned to her, cracking his neck and knuckles.
“Still doubting my power?” the asked brashly. Mina couldn’t say that she wasn’t intimidated. Her instinct told her to run away. Even with her legendary equipment, she was not confident about defeating this kind of monster.
In the moment of silence that ensued as Porci Bello waited for her answer, his expression suddenly changed. His smug smile vanished as his eyes turned big.
<Ding! Ally of Target has been inflicted with Deadly Disease=> Super Ebola-Urth Strain!>
<Ding! Ally of Target has been inflicted with random Disease =>Galloping Leprosy!>
“Urgh?! What is-?” he suddenly choked, holding his stomach, “Bitch! What is this? There is no way I would contract a mortal disease...” he mumbled. Mina was just as shocked as the demon. She never heard that demons could get sick, but she had also never heard of Super Ebola...
There were things on Urth that couldn't be explained by system standards, like a “zombie virus” able to infect even the undead. She was reminded of the “experimentation” in Beta and the Immortal Serum of the Scene. Was this another danger still asleep somewhere on Urth?
“Dohhh!” the giant pig shouted as a fountain of brown sludge erupted from its rear. As the stream of waste flowed, it shot Mina a hateful glance that made her heart shiver. Even Super Ebola couldn't do much more than give this transcendent the shits.
Enraged by the rapid evacuation of his bowels, the beast charged at the cat girl. Mina wasn't a masochist, and she had no wish to fight a beast spraying liquid manure everywhere. She knew what to do in the face of overwhelming power.
