Northan twirled his guandao and slashed towards Gan. Immen slammed his shield into the swing and the guandao bounced back. Yet just as this slash finished the rust on his shield finally took ahold of it and it fell to pieces.
Iyh rolled between Immen and Gan and deflected a follow up attack from Northan. His shield was naturally of a higher quality considering it was a cursed weaponry. As the guandao landed on the shield it made a wound appear on Northan's steed. Now that the Territory wasn't regenerating the damage, they were finally making progress to defeating this general!
Yet the effect of [Truth Twofold: Rot] was heavily effecting these elite members! Being that of Second Stage they naturally held less of a resistance to such a powerful ability. The heavy armor Iyh normally wore was now becoming a light armor with how many pieces fell off due to the rot.
Quol casted another large AOE spell to defeat a number of undead. His staff crumbled to bits after this spell and his extended hand clenched. This staff was really expensive! He farmed quite the number of quests to afford it and now it was gone just like that!
Johan unfurled his scroll and several stone creatures stumbled forward and crashed into the wave of undead. They made a weird 'meep' sound before exploding into shards. Quol looked towards him, "Weren't you fighting a general?"
"They ran off, I don't have the stats to keep up with them anyway. Been a while since I've played."
"Then help me with the undead."
"Am I not?"
Pulling out an older staff Quol continued to cast powerful spells. Considering that the Rot was quickly going to destroy his equipment he decided to get as much value as he could out of their benefits. Now that the undead could be defeated the high damaging spells held a purpose!
The shattered stones quivered as they gathered again, making the small stone creatures form again with a happy 'meep'. They rolled towards another undead before exploding again, although the explosion held less power.
Meanwhile Carthino was struggling to keep up with her attackers. As the Rot was inflicting the weapons her whip was starting to unravel but at a noticeably slower pace. Ninn noticed her knives were falling apart shortly after she threw them, making it impossible to recover the weapons. Quickly adapting she opted to conserve them as much as possible, the knives were now expendables after all. Noen filled the gaps with his chronomagic, although his staff was quick to fall apart from the rot.
Looking at his palm he watched as the last pieces of his staff fell to the ground. With a smile he murmured, "Kan'na never used staves or wands, so why can't I do the same?"
The massive analog clock's minute hand completed a cycle and the hour hand snapped to the next hour.
< [Chrono Control: 1st Hour] is taking effect! >
< [Chrono Control: 1st Hour] increases all agility effects by 30%! >
Nime visibly increased the speed at which she placed traps. Rolling to dodge the whip she pointed her bow and shot and arrow, but after the arrow flew forward the bow snapped in half. She tossed aside the pieces without hesitation and fully focused on placing her traps.
Hairn flickered behind Carthino and stabbed his dagger into her side. Moving swiftly he retracted it and formed several more stabs onto Carthino's legs to further reduce her movement. The agility buff was affecting him the most out of everybody. Especially since his class was heavily agility based! As Carthino's knee bent he moved his neck to deal a heavy blow to her neck but the dagger shattered upon touched the rotted skin. The Rot had officially taken another's weapon!
This heavily affected his momentum and his hesitation allowed Carthino's whip to grab him by his ankle. With a furious cry she flung him into the Lich's tower, the impact causing heavy damage. A moment later several of Ninn's daggers flung through the air and impaled Carthino in several locations. She didn't need to remove them for they fell apart from the Rot. With a fury she whipped up a storm, Nime was forced to retreat back for she couldn't avoid the whip entirely.
Hairn recovered from his impact to the tower, his bullet time seemingly increased from the buff to agility. Watching the whip he noticed it unraveling and leapt towards it. Jumping over a low swing of the whip he rotated and snatched a part of the whip out of the air. Using the momentum he stomped at another part and pulled with all his might. This sudden force was enough to rip the whip apart, and eliminated Carthino's greatest strength!
Carthino rushed forward only for a trap to trigger at her feet, several mechanical nets shot up and entangled Carthino. Several daggers flew forward and implanted themselves into Carthino, but most noticeably was a few hit her face.
The net snapped apart as she howled with rage, "My beautiful face!"
Ninn winced, this wasn't something she saw coming. A weird condition, but Carthino had entered a Berserk mode! Although her whip was gone the increase in stats along with the buff from the Territory. . . this was troubling!
Back to Northan the group tackling this general was working better. The lack of weapons didn't bother the two fist-wielding pugilists, and one of their defenders had their shield standing against the effect of the rot. Immen was doing as he could with his hands, but his effect on the battle was taking a noticeable dive in effectiveness.
Tackling a leg of Northan's steed Immen attempted to knock it over, but the horse furiously kicked to shake him off. Gan flickered to the side and attacked from the opposite end further disrupting the steed's balance. Northan attempted to fend off the two attackers but Iyh's shield proved to always block his path. Additionally the reflected damage was hitting his steed, further worsening its state.
Igneel kicked the horse's jaw and caused it to stumble. Immen pulled with all his might and managed to topple the steed. As the horse and its rider began to fall Gan leapt upwards and delivered a hefty amount of Flow into his attack to finish off the horse. Now without his steed Northan should be weakened-
Northan's pained howl rang through the battlefield. Propping himself up with the guandao his voice carried a hateful venom to it, "I will ensure your head is taken!"
This was a Berserk state! Northan's unique gimmick was the steed! If he remained on the back of his horse until death he wouldn't ever use the Berserk state. However the moment his steed was taken from him he would trigger the Berserk state! Something no one knew about excluding the developers!
Spinning his guandao he rushed forward with a speed that outpaced his own horse. Cutting forward to split Gan in half. Iyh rushed forward and clashed his shield against the blow, but Northan's swing suddenly changed direction. Curving downwards it sliced Iyh's shin, causing him to fall to a knee. Before he could react Northan was about to impale his head with the guandao if it wasn't for Immen tackling the arm.
Igneel leapt forward and landed a drop kick on Northan's face, yet he didn't even step back from the blow. Gripping the leg of Igneel Northan threw him towards Iyh. Flinging off Immen he turned and stabbed his guandao into Immen's chest.
Gripping the guandao with both hands Immen prevented Northan from pulling it out for just a moment. Gan flickered above Northan and landed a devastating knee to Northan's face. The rotted skin rippled and pieces even flew off from the blow. Gritting his teeth Northan took a step back and leaned forward with his might to not fall. Ripping the guandao through Immen's chest he managed to not only deal even more damage to Immen but also freed his guandao.
Holding it up he used its long handle to block a blow from Igneel. Pushing the fist upwards the guandao flickered and formed a gash across Igneel's chest. Rolling back to avoid further damage Igneel watched as Iyh moved to block another attack only for Northan to avoid his shield again. The guandao scratched his cheek as Iyh just barely missed any fatal damage with his dodge.
Without his steed Northan was a serious threat! The pressure he was putting on them was immense, and very quickly the damage they were sustaining was going to prove too difficult. Which is why Yemm very rapidly healed their wounds, but this only made Northan aware of the Priest, and made him a target.
Yemm tried to retreat back but he would never be able to outpace an Berserk state Northan. The guandao aimed to pierce Yemm's chest, but two hands held back Northan from moving any further. Igneel and Gan pulled with all their might to throw Northan back.
As he slid back he swung his guandao to the side and Immen was hit, but this time the guandao did not carve through. Instead it acted more as a blunt weapon. Its edge dull from the rot. His guandao was clearly of high quality considering how long it was lasting against the rot's effects, but now it was starting to take hold!
With the sharp edge now dulled, they didn't have to worry about being cut to pieces!