Chương 67: Curse of the Locust

Victor seemed to have some kind of boosting spell for his creatures in his repertoire, because he sent out dark violet lightning bolts toward the Nightterror Hounds. Evan watched in horror as the hound he was fighting rapidly grew in size. Not just grew. It swelled. The limbs thickened, the head deformed into a bizarre balloon version of a dog skull, and its entire body started sprouting strange boils and bubbles. Around him, the same transformation happened to all the hounds.

They doubled in size, except for one, which nearly quadrupled. The largest one was so swollen it could barely move, but when it lashed out with its giant clawed paw, it hurled Evan halfway across the arena. He landed sideways and hit the tiled ground with a thud, sending a bolt of white-hot pain through his shoulder and left arm. His health bar dropped a whopping 22%, just from this one attack. Oliver immediately jumped between Evan, still on the ground, and the alpha hound.

He protected himself with [Stone Skin], then lunged forward to attack. The monster was too slow to avoid Oliver's sword. He pierced his blade right through the hound's front leg. One of the boils was lanced open and released a sickly yellow smoke. [Oliver Detreyo has been afflicted by Sporebloat] As soon as the spores touched Oliver, his hands started swelling until his fingers looked like sausages and the skin started to bubble. With a horrified scream, he dropped his sword and stumbled backward.

"Luca!" Evan yelled.

"Do something!"

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" Luca muttered as he dashed across the arena to get to Oliver. By the time he reached him, Oliver's forearms had started swelling too. Evan didn't have time to watch if their healer was capable of dealing with the [Sporebloat]. Two of the smaller hounds attacked him at once. Afraid to burst one of their boils and suffer the same fate as Oliver, Evan dodged instead of parrying the attack with his sword.

He turned on his heels and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, heading toward the edge of the arena. He jumped up to reach the first tier of seating and quickly climbed up the ranks until he'd reached Catriona. Luca was shortly behind him, dragging the still-screaming Oliver with him by the straps of his armor. Oliver's arms were little more than boil-covered flesh lumps, and the skin on his face was starting to bubble too.

"Can you fix this?" Catriona asked. She didn't sound panicked just yet, but more concerned than Evan had ever heard the level-headed archer sound before.

"I think so, but not with those disgusting things coming at me," Luca said.

"I need to focus. Keep them busy."

"I'd say ranged attacks are in order," Evan said, which earned him a nod from Catriona. The hounds tried to follow them up the ranks, but they were so bloated that they didn't manage to climb up the wall that separated the arena from the seating area. Working together, Evan and Catriona bombarded the monsters in the arena below. Evan threw out one [Comet Shot] after another, as fast as his mana regen rate allowed, while Catriona sent down arrows with breathtaking speed.

As soon as his arm was no longer looking like a balloon, Oliver supported them with his [Iron Root], the only ability he could use from a distance, to tie the hounds down, allowing Evan and Catriona to aim better. One by one, they killed the bloated Nightterror Hounds. They exploded into large clouds of the same spores that had infected Oliver, and when the massive alpha hound died, they all got drenched in the yellow mist. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Evan's skin immediately broke out in boils, and he could feel his flesh stretching painfully underneath his skin. After just a few seconds, he could understand why Oliver had caused such a ruckus. The [Sporebloat] affliction was absolute agony, and by the time Luca had healed himself and Catriona and was ready to take care of Evan, he was writhing on the floor.

Luca poured out his cleansing water over the afflicted areas, but before he was fully done, Victor, who'd watched their struggle with the [Sporebloat] with a snickering laugh from several ranks above them, had already prepared the next round of unpleasant surprises. He swallowed a mana potion, dropped the glass bottle to the ground carelessly, and raised his arms above his head.

It was another swarm, and at first Evan thought Victor had summoned the bats again, but when the swarm closed in on them with a very distinct and unnerving buzzing sound, Evan realized they were dealing with something else this time. He didn't get a good look, but what attacked them were hundreds, if not thousands, of insects that looked like a cross between a locust and a beetle. Catriona's arrows were completely useless against them, and striking them with a sword didn't do anything either.

Evan threw out [Comet Shots] as fast as he could, but they only took out a few insects at a time. The insects dealt only a little damage individually, but they did have stingers, and the way they buzzed into his face, crawled over his skin, and tried to slip into his armor was deeply unsettling. The stingers occasionally transmitted an affliction called [Curse of the Locust]. It didn't do much damage, but the stacks built up much faster than Luca, with his nearly drained mana pool, could clear.

Evan eyed his slowly draining health pool. The attack from the big Nightterror Hounds had already taken a big chunk of his health, and after being exposed to the [Sporebloat] the longest, his health bar had dropped dangerously low. Getting worried, he summoned the one health potion he had from his inventory. He uncorked it one-handed, protecting himself with [Starlight Shield] with the other, and downed the small bottle in three big gulps.

His health bar refilled, but the insects kept up their relentless barrage, and he caught several more instances of [Curse of the Locust]. He realized his team's skill set had one major weakness: area attacks. The only thing he could think of that might help was his [Super Nova].

"Stay away from me!" he yelled at his friends before he started running. A part of the swarm followed him, surrounding him and making it hard for him to see. He tried to follow the curvature of the circle-shaped rows of seating, but slipped and tumbled down several rows. The fall earned him a bump on his forehead, but at least he was a safe distance from the others now. He shot another [Comet Shot] toward the insects that were still buzzing around his friends to get the creatures' attention. It worked.

Most of them veered off to attack him instead. He waited until they were all around him, closing his eyes and pressing his lips together to prevent the creatures from crawling into his mouth. Then he focused his mana and shoved it all into the biggest [Super Nova] he could manage. It worked well enough. All around Evan, sizzling, crumbling insect corpses dropped to the ground. He wiped their dissolving remains off his face and body to take stock.

At least three-quarters of the swarm had vanished in the [Super Nova] blast. Evan looked around the colosseum until he spotted Victor Vason on the opposite side, at least a dozen ranks above him. Their eyes met, and this time there was no snickering. Victor looked pissed. Evan pointed his sword straight at him, holding his gaze.

"Have you finally run out of monster friends so we can fight it out like men?" He had collected at least a dozen instances of [Curse of the Locust], and he could feel the affliction sucking away his health. What was even worse was that the curse also seemed to drain mana. Evan hadn't noticed at first because his natural mana regen was keeping up with the drain, but now the balance had tipped, and he was actively losing a few points of mana every minute.

He risked a quick glance at his party screen and noticed his friends were all plagued by the same issue, only for them the effects were much more severe. Luca's and Catriona's mana pools were completely empty, and Oliver was dangerously low. He watched his friend down the one mana potion he had, but quickly realized this was only a very temporary fix. Without Luca's cleansing skill, [Curse of the Locust] would keep draining Oliver's mana. They had to end this fight. Now. Before Evan and Oliver were out of mana too.

Oliver seemed to share Evan's thoughts because he followed up his mana potion with a health potion and joined Evan's side.

"Let's go get this bastard," he growled. They started climbing up the ranks. Victor watched them for only a moment. Evan thought he saw a hint of concern on his face and remembered Benedict's words. Victor was a coward and not much of a fighter. If they could tie him up in a two-versus-one fight, he was certain they could beat Victor Vason. Unfortunately, Victor continued to avoid direct confrontation.

He moved up a couple more ranks, nearly reaching the top row of seating, and looked down on them with a stern expression.

"Enough of this. Look at the chaos you made. The Professor is going to be very upset you damaged his test chambers. This was fun, really. You delivered a better performance than I expected, but I'll have to put an end to it now." He flicked his hand casually, and all hell broke loose.