Deep within the underground ruins of the King's Campus, inside a dark and narrow corridor, Dorothy was running forward quickly, trying to avoid the swarm of bats searching from above.
"Huff… huff… To be able to create so many bats for an all-around search, to be able to discover my small Corpse Puppet so quickly, and to be able to rescue that Ci Rong from the Hunter's encirclement, this guy… is probably not as simple as a Black Earth Stage…"
While running, Dorothy analyzed and muttered. It was clear that the one currently using bats to hunt her was likely an Extraordinary above the Black Rank, a White Rank existence.
Although Dorothy could rely on Extraordinary items, system skills, and coordinated battle plans to defeat a Black Rank one level higher than her at the Apprentice level, she was absolutely not confident enough to challenge a White Rank two levels higher, especially one who had suddenly appeared, about whom she knew nothing, and for whom her intelligence preparation was almost zero.
Therefore, Dorothy could only try to escape now. Since the bats had already spread throughout the upper levels, she couldn't run back and could only escape deeper into the ruins.
But she quickly realized that running away like this wasn't a solution either.
'No… Based on the intervals at which the Corpse Puppets left above were eliminated, the search speed of these bats is truly astonishing. They can search one floor in no time. If this continues, it won't be long before they search this floor. I can't outrun them. I need to think of some other way. I can't just sit here and wait to die. At least I need to slightly hinder that guy!'
Thinking this, Dorothy began to look around for any usable environment. After scanning the area, she seemed to notice something.
'It seems… ever since I came down to this floor, I haven't encountered any other Fork in the Road (forks in the road). It's just one corridor all the way to the end. This means that if those bats want to chase me, they can only come from one direction… and that's from behind!'
Dorothy thought this and then stopped at a corner in the corridor ahead. She took out her magic box, opened it, adjusted the size of the entrance and exit, and then controlled three Corpse Puppets to come out from it. One of them was holding a large bottle containing a strange liquid; this was lamp oil Dorothy had stored for exploring the ruins.
Afterward, Dorothy controlled these three Corpse Puppets, plus the one holding the lamp beside her, a total of four Corpse Puppets, to walk back in the direction they had come from in the corridor. Her own body left the light and hid in the darkness at the corner.
Under Dorothy's control, the four Corpse Puppets blocked the center of the corridor, facing the direction from which the bats would soon arrive. Three were in front, while the other one, holding the lamp and lamp oil, lay down behind them.
Just like this, facing the dark corridor, Dorothy and her Corpse Puppets held their breath, their expressions focused, waiting for the arrival of the swarm of bloodthirsty bats.
After a short while, in the darkness of Dorothy's vision, a rustling sound appeared at the other end of the corridor. The sound grew closer and closer, becoming louder and denser. Dorothy could clearly feel that something was coming.
Finally, after searching all the floors above, the swarm of bloodthirsty bats finally arrived on the floor where Dorothy was. They swarmed down the stairs and flew at high speed in groups along the long and winding corridor.
'Here they come…'
Listening to the dense, noisy sound, Dorothy prepared herself. At the other end of the corridor she was facing, countless bats, after turning several corners along the one-way corridor, finally sensed the presence of a living person ahead and swarmed forward at high speed.
Soon, the Corpse Puppet Dorothy had placed at the very front was instantly surrounded and torn apart by the bats. It was dealt with with almost no resistance. After noticing the situation of the Corpse Puppet, Dorothy also determined the location of the front of the bat swarm from the darkness. So, while the bat swarm was tearing at the Corpse Puppet, she opened her mouth.
"-Fus·Ro-"
Ancient words were spoken from Dorothy's mouth, exploding like thunder in the darkness. The shockwave formed by the roar rushed forward at high speed, traveling along the one-way corridor towards the bats that were tearing at the Corpse Puppets.
Under this impact, Dorothy's Corpse Puppets and the bat swarm were blown away, slammed against the walls of the corridor and splattered into bloodstains. Large numbers of bats were slammed to the end of the corridor, smashed against the wall by the impact force. Cracks were also shaken into the wall by the impact of the Dragon roar. These cracks extended outwards radially, some extending all the way to the ceiling.
Compared to the shockwave, the sound produced by Dorothy's Dragon roar affected the bats even faster. Bats are animals that rely on echolocation to move and have highly developed sound-sensing organs. Stunned by the enormous sound of the Dragon roar, the bats that had not yet entered this corridor instantly lost their function and fell to the ground, convulsing. In an instant, more than half of the attacking bat swarm was incapacitated.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy was overjoyed. She then controlled the Corpse Puppet that had been lying down not far in front of her and had not been affected by the Dragon roar to stand up. Then, this Corpse Puppet, holding the lamp and oil, ran forward at high speed to clean up the battlefield.
Dorothy planned to eliminate the bats that had not yet entered this section of the corridor, had not been affected by the Dragon roar, had survived the disaster but were stunned, all at once, and by burning them.
Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppet holding the oil to run to the end of this section of the corridor. Turning its head, it saw a ground full of bats lying on the ground trembling in the other section of the corridor. Without hesitation, it poured the lamp oil on them. Just as Dorothy was controlling the Corpse Puppet to light the fire, another rustling sound came from the distance. Turning around, another group of bats was flying from the direction they had come from. This was clearly another group that had fallen behind.
'Damn… why are there still so many behind? Was that group not all of them?'
Looking at the new bat swarm approaching from the distance, Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppet to quickly light the fire, planning to burn as many of these bats as possible. However, at this moment, that new swarm of bats began to change rapidly.
As this group of bats flew, they began to quickly gather, then turned into a constantly expanding Shadow. Finally, this Shadow began to condense into a human form, taking on Claudius's appearance, but the surface of his skin had large, bloody wounds.
With just a small portion of the bats, Claudius reappeared and reformed, and flew rapidly to the Corpse Puppet that was about to light the fire. He extended his pale, clawed hand and thrust it out fiercely, plunging his claws into the Corpse Puppet's body. Afterward, the Corpse Puppet's body quickly shriveled up, and within two or three seconds, it was sucked dry into a mummy. The bloody wounds on Claudius's body also slightly eased and healed.
Claudius's bat transformation could instantly turn him into fifty bats. As long as one-fifth of these bats survived, Claudius would not be in mortal danger.
Therefore, no matter what Claudius did with his bat transformation, he would not invest too many bats at once. He would always leave a sufficient number of bats far away from the front line of exploration or combat, in a safe place to avoid being wiped out, just like now. The bats that flew in afterward were his safe reserve bats, and the wounds on his body now were the feedback on his main body from the bats he had lost due to the Dragon roar just now.
'Tsk… are these bats actually split from his own body? To be able to turn back into a person with just that little left, that's too outrageous!'
Seeing this scene, Dorothy thought anxiously in her heart. At this moment, Claudius, who had sucked the fire-lighting Corpse Puppet dry, flicked his hand and threw the mummy impaled on it away. Then, he glanced at the bats lying stunned on the ground around him. With a thought, these bats broke free from the shock, and in their struggle and howling, they flew up again, turning into streaks of Shadow and returning to Claudius's body.
As these bats returned, the terrifying wounds on Claudius's body quickly healed with the continuous return of the bats, but they did not fully heal in the end because the first batch of bats, as the vanguard, had been directly hit by Unloading Force and smashed into blood foam against the wall, making them unrecoverable.
"An Extraordinary who can manipulate the voice of tyranny? Interesting… I originally thought it was a "Cup", but now it seems it might be more than that…"
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Whispering softly, Claudius walked forward. He was preparing to personally confront the Extraordinary hidden in the darkness at the end of the corridor. Hearing the sound of his footsteps, Dorothy's heart tightened.
'Oh no… that guy's main body is coming over. The Dragon roar has already been used, and the cooldown for the second stage of the Dragon roar is at least half a day. This is not good…'
In the darkness, Dorothy thought with a serious expression. The Unloading Force just now did not defeat the opponent in one blow, putting her in a passive situation. Without the Dragon roar, winning against a Chalk is almost impossible!
Just as Dorothy was deciding whether to turn around and run immediately or take out all her assets and fight the opponent head-on, suddenly, a rumbling sound echoed in the space.
The cracks in the wall that had been shattered by the Dragon roar had begun to spread across the ceiling of this section of the corridor, and they were rapidly expanding. Finally, after the load-bearing structure was damaged, the ceiling of this ruin corridor could no longer support the weight and began to collapse.
"What…"
Hearing the unusual sound, Dorothy immediately ran away from the collapsing point, and Claudius, who was about to find the enemy in the darkness, also retreated rapidly when he saw the situation.
Then, with a roar, the corridor that had been heavily struck by the Dragon roar began to collapse. Large sections of the shattered ceiling fell, crashing onto the floor of the corridor.
Finally, the entire corridor was completely blocked by the collapse. Fortunately, this collapse was only partial and did not affect a large area. Only the corridor that the Dragon roar had passed through collapsed, and Dorothy, having moved quickly enough, fortunately escaped the disaster.
"Phew… that was close…"
Standing at the edge of the collapse, Dorothy took out a gas lamp from the magic box and lit it. Then, looking at the ruins that completely blocked the path ahead, she let out a sigh of relief and said.
'As expected… using the Dragon roar in a place like this is very dangerous. Fortunately, I didn't use the third stage, otherwise, I would definitely not have been able to escape the resulting collapse…'
Dorothy thought thankfully in her heart. If she had used the third stage of Unloading Force just now, it would not have been just one corridor collapsing; it is estimated that this entire floor would have collapsed.
'Now, with this entire corridor of ruins as an obstacle, that bat man should not be able to get through, right? If it were a "Cup" Chalk, he would probably be able to smash through all these ruins. If he were a Wall Walker, he could also walk through the walls. But judging by his appearance, he is neither of these… I hope he has no way to get through…'
Looking at the ruins in front of her, Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief. Although the collapse almost buried her, it now separated her from the bat man, and she had temporarily resolved the crisis.
'But the cost is that the exit of the ruins is on the other side of the ruins. I am now completely trapped in these lower ruins. Now I can only try to explore deeper and see if I can find an exit from somewhere else…'
"So now, I can only continue to go inside."
Whispering, Dorothy took out the magic box and took out two more Corpse Puppets and a gas lamp from it. She had one of them hold a gas lamp and guard the ruins blocking the path, to warn if the bat man suddenly came through using some method. Then she had the other one hold a lamp to scout the way for her, and she walked deeper into the ruins.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the blocking ruins, Claudius stood with his hands behind his back, looking coldly at the chaotic stone ruins in front of him, and said.
"Did that voice of tyranny actually cause a collapse? Hmph… it's quite powerful…"
Claudius snorted and said, then he transformed back into a group of bats and flew back, flying all the way back up the corridor to the previous floor, and then reassembled at the stairwell, returning to human form.
Dorothy and Claudius had clashed on the sixth floor of the ruins, and now Claudius had retreated to the stairwell leading down from the seventh floor to the fifth floor.
"However… if you think a pile of messy stones can stop me, then you are greatly mistaken."
Staring at the stairwell going down in front of him, Claudius muttered and said. Then, after fumbling in his pocket for a while, he took out a small blood bottle. After opening it and drinking it, the remaining injuries on his body immediately healed quickly.
Next, Claudius took out a papyrus talisman, on which were inscribed the double symbols of "Shadow" and "Cup".
"Poison Mist Talisman…"
Muttering, Claudius slapped the talisman onto his body. After the talisman burned and disappeared, he took a deep breath, then consumed the "Shadow" and "Cup" spirits in his body, and opened his mouth to spray a cloud of purplish-red mist down the stairwell.
This purplish-red gas seemed to be heavier than air. After being sprayed out by Claudius, it quickly sank down from the stairwell to the ground on the next floor.
Claudius's toxic gas spray volume was very large, and he sprayed it without stopping to breathe. These toxic gases, after sinking to the sixth floor, quickly spread out, rolling towards the direction the corridor extended.
Thus, Claudius used the talisman to create toxic gas with his spirits, filling the sixth floor where Dorothy was. The rolling purplish-red mist, when it reached the blocking ruins, seeped through the cracks between the stones of the ruins, gradually penetrating from this side of the ruins to the other side.
Since the ruins blocked the way, he would fill it with toxic gas. He would use toxic gas to completely fill the entire sixth floor. The gaps between the messy stone ruins could obstruct Claudius, but they could not obstruct the spread of the toxic gas!
Finally, when the entire sixth floor was filled with toxic gas, all the creatures hiding inside would be poisoned to death, and Claudius's goal would be achieved.
…