Chapter 42: Fission Entity
Boom, boom, boom...
A series of explosions rang out, lasting at least half a minute before the blasts subsided.
Blood mist exploded, shattering the surrounding trees and vegetation into debris.
If it were just 109 points of True Strength and 115 points of True Stamina, Su Xiao could have slaughtered these undead in no time.
Even if these undead possessed various specialized abilities, Su Xiao would only find them troublesome at most. What truly made them difficult to deal with was their immortality.
Most Fifth Rank contractors might not even have attributes as high as these undead, and coupled with their infection and immortality abilities, they became even harder to handle.
Moreover, these undead operated in groups. When over a hundred undead swarmed in, even Su Xiao had to temporarily avoid their edge, as one misstep could lead to him being focused down by over a hundred undead wielding spears.
Not only that, Su Xiao also had a feeling that there seemed to be some connection among these undead.
The blood mist dispersed, revealing countless black threadworms writhing on the ground. These black threadworms were pitch-black all over, with slippery, tough outer skins. Once they burrowed into an enemy's body, the enemy would feel their immense strength, along with the excruciating pain, despair, and helplessness of a foreign object squirming inside.
A dense mass of black threadworms covered the ground, looking extremely eerie.
Crack~
A sound of crystal breaking came, followed by a violent explosion that blasted away a large patch of black threadworms.
Su Xiao stood on an area not yet occupied by the black threadworms, as the surrounding worms surged toward him.
Blood dripped from Su Xiao's chin. He turned his head and spat out a mouthful of blood, which was immediately devoured as it fell into the nearby black threadworms.
Su Xiao scanned his surroundings. He was badly injured. The self-destruction of 48 undead earlier might have seemed limited in range, but its power was immense.
Under normal circumstances, an undead's self-destruction could deal around 1000 points of shock damage plus viral erosion damage. Su Xiao didn't suffer the viral erosion damage, and after the shock damage was reduced by his layered abilities, combined with his already strong physique, the actual shock damage he endured was only 425 points.
425 points of self-destruction damage might seem insignificant, but what about 48 undead detonating in succession?
At the start, 10 undead self-destructed simultaneously. This wave had the strongest impact, but Su Xiao used his Dragon Shadow Flash ability to penetrate space at zero distance, entering a penetrating state to avoid this peak blast.
Then, Su Xiao consumed nearly a third of his mana to generate a crystal layer around himself, barely withstanding the subsequent 38 self-destructions.
Not only could the undead self-destruct, but after 100 seconds, their shattered bodies could reassemble, leaving them in a weakened state afterward.
The surrounding black threadworms surged toward Su Xiao. He stomped his foot, sending Cyan Steel Shadow energy surging outward, forcing back tens of thousands of black threadworms.
A forest breeze blew past, and a few green leaves fell, only to be instantly devoured by the black threadworms. These things were clearly capable of decomposing organic matter.
What was puzzling was that the remaining 70-plus undead didn't take the opportunity to attack Su Xiao with their spears. Instead, they surrounded him in a circle, watching coldly.
Su Xiao wiped the blood from his chin. He had already figured out what these undead intended to do: assimilate him. Through the black threadworms, they wanted to turn him into one of them.
But compared to that possibility, Su Xiao felt that these undead seemed to be on guard against something, which was why they hadn't launched a full assault.
"Mogoro..."
Su Xiao looked around. His large-scale perception ability wasn't strong, but he vaguely sensed a presence. This presence was very similar to Mogoro's, yet somewhat different. Compared to Mogoro, this presence was more corrosive.
Su Xiao temporarily ignored that presence and focused on the battle at hand. Conventional attacks were highly ineffective against these undead because they had two types of health.
First, there was regular health, or life force. Any attack could reduce the undead's regular health. Once their regular health was depleted, they would "die." However, this death didn't mean they lost mobility; instead, they would continue acting while dropping a treasure chest.
The second type of health was true health. To completely eliminate an undead, one had to kill the black threadworms inside them—the undead worms—which were the key. It was these undead worms that allowed the undead to move freely even after losing vital parts like their heads.
The true damage from Cyan Steel Shadow was highly effective against undead worms. The problem was that Su Xiao didn't know where the undead worms were located inside the undead.
The area where the undead worms concentrated was the undead's vital point.
Su Xiao scanned his surroundings. If he could find the undead's vital points, he wouldn't be unable to deal with them.
The undead's attack capabilities were extremely strong, but Su Xiao was even stronger.
The first strike severed whatever it hit, and the second strike was fatal. After that, the undead's movements were entirely driven by the undead worms inside them—that was the real trouble.
Su Xiao's strength far surpassed that of an individual undead, but aside from the Eclipse period, the undead's attack power was explosive. The triple combination of throwing techniques, infection, and undead worms parasitic inside their spears was something most people couldn't withstand.
The situation fell into a stalemate. Around Su Xiao, writhing undead worms and large chunks of flesh churned, while further out stood the undead.
Su Xiao's mind raced. This situation likely meant there was a leader among the undead, but since all the undead looked identical, finding the leader was extremely difficult.
"Umasu, babaluka (unknown language)."
A shout with a primitive flair rang out. The moment it sounded, Su Xiao felt a sense of crisis.
The massive swarm of undead worms suddenly stopped writhing. Moments later, they began gathering in one direction, eventually converging to form a huge monster.
In an instant, the undead worms assembled into a towering humanoid creature. It stood at least 10 meters tall, headless, with a massive eye in its chest. Its two arms were abnormally thick—the left arm entirely made of flesh, and the right arm composed of undead worms.
[Warning: The undead have formed a "Fission Entity Type II."]
[Hint: Fission Entity Type II is a leader-level unit.]
[Hint: Fission Entity Type II can evolve to overlord-level.]
...
Seeing the Fission Entity Type II before him, Su Xiao finally understood why he had been feeling a constant sense of crisis, with his hair standing on end. Compared to being surrounded by the undead, their fusion made them even stronger.
The Fission Entity Type II's neck opened, revealing a gaping maw. Pale red viscous fluid formed strands between its jaws, looking utterly disgusting.
"Roar!!"
The Fission Entity Type II let out a roar, sending a pale red shockwave spreading outward, enveloping Su Xiao.
[Warning: The concentration of plant virus in the air has significantly increased.]
[Warning: The hunter has a 23.5% chance of being infected.]
[The hunter is about to be infected. Judging...]
[The "plant virus" inside the hunter has been cleared by Cyan Steel Shadow energy.]
...
Su Xiao raised an arm to shield his face as a sharp pain pierced his eardrums. Soon, the Fission Entity Type II's roar subsided.
Clang.
A blade aura slashed across the Fission Entity Type II's torso, sending blood splattering everywhere. The massive eye, about two meters in diameter, was slashed and burst, quickly deflating.
"Huh?"
The Fission Entity Type II was visibly stunned. It reached a hand toward its chest, seemingly realizing that the eye there had been destroyed, and it was furious.
To make matters worse, the loud sounds of battle here attracted other undead from the surrounding area. According to what Bubu Wang had seen, in its direction alone, over 200 undead were charging over, and other directions might have even more.