Chapter 452: Invasion [18]
"Sorry, Captain. It’s like there’s fire running through my veins."
Before Gobbo could say anything else, Dribb suddenly dashed forward, charging straight toward Raghul.
The goblins standing behind Raghul immediately reacted, raising their weapons as they prepared to intercept him. They spread out instinctively, trying to form a defensive line between their leader and the approaching attacker.
But Dribb suddenly accelerated.
His muscles tightened as he poured his strength into his legs, and the mana surrounding his body flared so violently that it looked as though his entire body had caught fire. The ground cracked beneath his feet from the force of his acceleration as he launched himself forward.
In the span of a heartbeat, he had already crossed the distance.
Dribb appeared directly in front of Raghul, his axe drawn back as he prepared to bring it down with enough force to split the goblin’s skull.
But before the axe could even complete its first half of the swing...
Something caught him.
An invisible tendril wrapped around his body with terrifying speed, locking around his torso before Dribb could react.
Then it pulled.
With tremendous force, Dribb was ripped away from Raghul and thrown sideways like a projectile.
His body soared through the air before crashing into a nearby building with the force of a cannonball, sending chunks of wood and stone flying as the structure shook from the impact.
Gobbo clicked his teeth.
He immediately tightened his grip on his weapon as he stared at Raghul.
So that’s the kind of power we’re dealing with...
Raghul then took a step forward, his gaze slowly moving across the battlefield before settling on the female archer.
"Veyra, where is Caius?"
Veyra clicked her teeth, keeping her eyes fixed on him as she nocked an arrow and pulled the string back.
"I don’t know. I’ve been too distracted fighting the orc you sent."
Raghul gave her a calm look, his expression showing little reaction to her answer.
"Is that so?"
Veyra didn’t respond.
Instead, she drew the bowstring farther, pouring mana into the arrow until the projectile began to radiate with concentrated energy.
"Indeed."
Raghul briefly looked around the battlefield, taking in the destroyed buildings, the fallen orcs, and the goblins still fighting in the distance.
Then his attention returned to Veyra.
"No matter. I’ll find him myself."
Slowly, Raghul lowered himself toward the ground, his movements calm and deliberate as though he had no reason to believe Veyra would attack him.
The moment he did, Veyra acted.
She released the arrow she had been charging, sending it streaking through the air before it struck Raghul with a violent explosion.
BOOM!
The blast swallowed his position, sending dust and debris outward as the force of the impact shook the surrounding area.
"What are you doing?!"
Gobbo stared at Veyra in disbelief. He hadn’t expected her to act so rashly, especially after Dribb had already rushed Raghul without thinking.
Veyra sharply turned toward him, her expression tense.
"We cannot allow him to use his ability. No matter what."
Gobbo looked at her in confusion.
He didn’t understand what she meant, nor did he know what ability she was referring to.
Veyra’s grip tightened around her bow as she looked back toward the smoke where Raghul had disappeared.
Then she repeated herself, this time with far more urgency.
"No matter what!!"
The smoke slowly cleared, revealing that Veyra’s arrow had struck Raghul’s [Mana Shield] rather than his body. The translucent barrier had absorbed most of the explosion, though several cracks had spread across its surface from the force of the impact.
But Raghul was already acting.
The corpses of the fallen orcs suddenly began to move.
One by one, their bodies twitched before slowly rising from the ground, their previously lifeless eyes glowing faintly as a strange, dark aura began to envelop them. Their wounds remained, but their bodies were moving again as though something else had taken control of them.
What the hell...
Gobbo, who was still confused by what Veyra had been saying, stared in shock as the orcs they had already killed began getting back onto their feet.
They had killed them.
He had watched some of them die himself.
Yet now, they were standing again.
"It’s too late," Veyra said.
There was a look of dread on her face as she stared at Raghul. Then she turned toward Gobbo.
"Gobbo... no matter what happens, none of us must die in front of him."
Gobbo frowned, still unable to understand what she was getting at.
"Why?"
"He’s a necromancer, you fool!" Veyra yelled, clearly frustrated by Gobbo’s confusion. "Once your soul gets captured and used by him, you’ll forever remain dead. Even worse, your soul gets trapped in the Abyss."
Gobbo frowned, still unsure of what exactly that meant.
The thought of having his soul trapped somewhere after death was difficult to comprehend, but he understood the important part.
They had to be extremely careful.
Even if that meant retreating.
Raghul slowly rose to his feet, brushing off the remaining dust from his robes as he surveyed the battlefield. He then raised one hand and casually gestured toward his goblins, silently ordering them to take over.
The undead immediately responded to his will.
The revived orcs moved forward alongside Raghul’s goblins, their bodies still surrounded by that strange dark aura as they advanced toward the remaining clan warriors. With their combined numbers and strength, they should have been more than enough to deal with the enemies standing in their way.
Meanwhile, Dribb had finally recovered from the blow that had sent him crashing through the building.
He emerged from the rubble and immediately spotted Raghul walking away.
"Wait, you bastard! You’re not going anywhere!!"
Raghul didn’t respond.
He didn’t even turn toward Dribb’s direction.
He simply continued walking, leaving the undead and the goblins behind him to deal with the remaining enemies.
For Raghul, they were more than enough.
Dribb tried to chase after Raghul, but he barely made it a few steps before...