Abel thought that he was careless when he was trying to decelerate.
Both of the corpsefire's fists were thrown towards Abel's body. Abel raised his shield for defense. Next thing he knew, all he could hear was the loud "clunk" when he took the damage straight on.
He felt like he was being hit by a car. All his bones and muscles felt like they were being run over by a car. The shock impact was so strong that his vital organs were affected. Dark red blood poured out of his mouth. Then, a chilling air entered deep into his body.
Abel's shield had frost all over it. That was a spectral hit, which was a special attack that combined both an ice element attack and a regular physical attack. To neutralize its damage, he had to put his golden combat qi into overdrive to force out the chilling air from his body.
Two seconds was all Abel needed. If the corpse fire waited that long, he would have the time he needed to move his body.
As though excited by the smell of Abel's blood, the corpse fire let out a terrible shriek as it released its second attack. Abel couldn't move yet, obviously. He did have his shield in front of him, but he was still trying to recover from that initial hit.
Clang
Since Abel couldn't use his muscles, he was knocked away along with his shield. The corpsefire sent him flying away, which made him have a hard landing on the ground. His injury just got even worse.
There was nothing to separate Abel from the corpsefire now. Worse yet, the damned thing was already preparing for a third attack.
His power of the Will was already locked onto the super exploding ball in his private storage box. He didn't like giving up even if it was his final moment. If he was going to die, he thought that he might as well take the corpsefire with him.
And there it was. The corpsefire threw its third punch when Abel was still immobilized. Abel's golden combat qi was recovering very fast, but the consecutive damage was continuously breaking his body.
Suddenly, something rushed in front of Abel. It was holding a shield, and it was guarding him in a very standard knight's shield stance.
It was Rib Bone, the very first skeleton that Abel has ever summoned. Despite how small its body was, it was not afraid to use all of its strength to block the damage for its master. The odds were just too slim, though. Soon, after being knocked away by the corpsefire, its bones were shattered into scraps.
Rib Bone didn't get destroyed for anything, though. Because of its noble sacrifice, Abel's finally got the chance to take out a master's constitution potion from his portal bag. When the potion entered into his body, a part of his injuries were healed immediately. Some of his strength also came back.
"No!" Abel screamed when he saw Rib Bone being knocked away. The corpse fire must've changed its target when it saw Rib Bone getting in its way to finish him. It could've gone for him now, but instead, it was running towards Rib Bone to finish it off.
A white light appeared from Abel's body. He just activated the telekinesis ability on his magic staff. Before Rib Bone was getting completely destroyed, he managed to put it back into its original dimension.
Now that Rib Bone was recovered, Abel had no time to make himself look pretty. Since he couldn't move a lot, he had to roll on the ground to avoid the second spawns that were surrounding him. When he could get on the ground, he ran as far as he could away from the corpsefire.
Abel didn't have any gear that could protect himself from the chilling ice. If his guess was right, the blue glow on his shield was an ice enhancement effect. While the corpse was not as durable as the hell creatures, it was just as strong in terms of its special effect.
Abel left the battlefield as he scrambled away with his hands and feet. Luckily, the zombies were nowhere quick enough to catch onto him. That being said, they were also the reason that he had underestimated how strong the corpsefire was in the first place.
Since Abel was gone, the corpsefire no longer could see any enemies in its field of vision. Soon, it lost the intention to make pursuit.
Abel breathed hard as he sat on the ground. He almost died just then. This was not a game. If he lost his life due to some stupid mistakes, there was no reset button for him to press.
Abel searched for Rib Bone with his power of the Will. From what he could see in the dimension that was containing it, about half of its frame was completely shattered. One of its legs was even gone. Fortunately, the head was still intact, so he should be able to fix it if he had an entire day.
Abel felt really relieved when he realized that Rib Bone was not completely destroyed. It was one of his loyal companions, after all. Since he didn't have a lot of friends whom he could share his secrets with, he really appreciated having partners like Black Wind and White Cloud around.
Back to the current situation. Abel knew he couldn't kill the corpsefire in close range. If he decided to go for a melee attack, all his movements would be slower than a zombie by the time he got into its range.
Abel took out the Harry Bow from his portal bag. As weak as it was in its attack strength, it did have a very long range and high accuracy. Besides, after recovering the damage he took with the constitution potion and his golden combat qi, he could just continue the fight as long as he was keeping his distance.
Abel took the Harry Bow and shot at one of the spawns. When it flew straight into the thing's head, it took the arrow off and ran towards Abel's direction.
The other spawns and the corpsefire also noticed the arrow, but because of how far it was shot from (and because Abel put away his night pearl), none of them took the effort to look for the archer that shot it. The only one who bothered to do anything was the spawn that was being shot at.
Irritated and hurt, the spawn left the group to look for the one that attacked it. Just when it was about to give up, Abel shot another arrow at its head. It ran closer towards him this time, but it was still way too far to do anything back.
Now that the spawn was isolated, it didn't matter if it was an elite level zombie or anything. Once it got closer to Abel on its own, there was no way for it to win against his spells and the sword of Victory, which had a 300% attack bonus against undead creatures.
And just like that, one by one, the seven spawns were lured out and killed by Abel. Once that happened, the corpsefire started howling. It noticed that something was wrong, so it tried looking for the enemy that was hiding this entire time.
Abel stretched his arms for a bit. It was a battle of endurance from here. To start the battle, he decided to shoot an arrow that was fired from his fully extended Harry Bow.
Once the corpsefire was hit, it quickly ran towards where the arrow came from. Abel went full speed from there. He kept firing arrows with his Harry Bow, and when they hit the corpsefire, they kept making a clanging noise as they were deflected by its frozen shield.
From what it looked like, Abel had to break through the frozen shield first. If the corpsefire had it on its body, it could just ignore any one of Abel's arrows. Abel had to change his approach. With that in mind, he decided to go for a magic attack instead.
Abel retreated as the corpsefire kept closing in. While doing so, he fired about ten or more fireballs towards its front body. It was a very tense struggle, but he did break through its ice defense eventually.
Abel pulled his distance once more. This time, Harry Bow was starting to take effect. Instead of being bounced off, they actually went into its body.
Just a few more. Since Abel still had a lot of arrows in his kong kong spiritual beast bag, he could end this fight if this kept going on. When the corpsefire was far away, he would keep shooting arrows at it. When it went into his middle range, he would attack with his spells. Once it got too close, he would focus on running as far back as possible. After that, it was the same process all over again.
Eventually, the corpsefire became slower and slower. Abel didn't let his guard down, though. He's already learned his lessons after taking those two hits back then.
When the corpsefire was not moving at all, a few more arrows were shot in its head. After a loud, excruciating scream, its body exploded from the inside and spurted everywhere. It was like a rain of arrows, except that they were made with the dead body parts of this frightening creature.