"Shit!" Adder jumped back as the metal blade moved past his face.
He lunged back at the saintess.
Slash!
-5
He barely managed to scratch her.
The saintess swung both swords at him.
He barely sidestepped the first and blocked the second just before his chest.
The saintess just looked up and smiled at him. "Got you." The very moment her sword went ablaze in golden holy fire.
"Fck!" Adder pushed her away, but in doing that, his chest had already caught fire.
[14 health]
Adder glanced at the saintess's blood, then at his own health. 'I have to risk it.'
He swiped the saintess's blood onto his left palm.
At this, the saintess paused. "What are you planning?"
Ignoring her, the information regarding the first cursed entity flashed through his head as he snapped his fingers.
Tak!
The glove on his palm shook as the first side projection of the card flashed in front of him.
He saw the saintess's intrigued face through the transparent card. He just smiled at her and smeared her blood on the white center of the card.
Ding!
[Manifestation condition met.]
The card projection started shaking as he said in a low tone, "Manifest Crimson Vile."
The very moment the projection absorbed all the color around him, leaving his space greying.
The projection card expanded to half his size.
Suddenly, the card split from the middle, ripping the fabric of space along with it.
The air around him got sucked into the torn space gap.
Even the saintess jumped back now, her mouth wide open.
A massive hand-sized blob of red flesh rolled through the ripped space. It dropped just beside his feet as the card projection started fading.
Before he could react, two familiar flesh tendrils lashed out from the flesh blob, drilling into the back of his neck.
An unfamiliar red energy invaded his body, turning his eyes red.
The flesh blob latched onto his back.
Ding!
[Manifestation time: 30 seconds.]
An empty vertical blood counter, along with a 30-second timer, appeared in the left corner of his vision.
[A bit of your mana gets corrupted into blood energy.]
[-10 mana]
[You have gained 10 blood energy.
Warning: Reach 50 blood energy to avoid the cursed backlash.]
'No time to waste.' Adder rushed toward the saintess.
Already wary, the saintess threw a fireball at him.
He rolled diagonally.
Bang!
The blast was so big that a large hole formed on the cave floor.
He failed to dodge completely. Part of his foot was engulfed in flame.
[10 health]
Enduring the pain, he mumbled, "Flesh parasite… Flesh parasite."
A squishy flesh ball formed in his left palm as the blood energy pulsed.
Not giving him a moment, the saintess swung at him. "Die, you leech!"
Wide-eyed, Adder threw the flesh ball at her.
The saintess paused mid-swing. She smirked as the blade in her off hand was engulfed in holy flame. She swung at the flesh ball while staring at him.
In response, Adder just winked. "Split."
At that instant, the flesh parasite split into two, going above and below the saintess's sword.
For the first time, panic appeared on her face.
She was far too committed to shift as the first parasite latched onto her cheek while the other stuck to her stomach.
"Ahhhh!"
He heard her yelping in pain as the blood bar started to fill.
The saintess stared at him as the ball of pus-filled flesh dangled off her face.
It took her a moment as all her confidence turned into panic. Instantly, she reached to cut off the parasite latched onto her face. "Euuu, what is this?"
But with just a small cut on the parasite, she dropped her sword while screaming. "Aahh!"
Adder tilted his head as she jumped. 'What the hell?'
He didn't get the chance to read the full power of the flesh parasite, but the way she crouched down, wiping her tears, had to do with the pain.
He didn't even rush in as a stream of damage continued to flash above the saintess's head.
-1, -2, -1, -1, -2…
In this short time, both flesh parasites grew three times their size.
The almost empty blood counter had already reached above 30 points. It hadn't even been ten seconds yet.
Suddenly, the saintess screamed in horror. "No, it's leaking!"
Adder stared wide-eyed as black, pus-like blood started leaking from the parasites on her face.
He averted his eyes. This was far too graphic.
Just then, a loud shout came from the side. "Leave her, you psycho!"
Fully alert, Adder sidestepped, dodging the longsword. He was about to slash back, but the saintess's partner just ran past him.
'What about the others?' Frowning, he looked back, only for his mouth to go dry. Only three players were left standing.
'No, wait… where are the dead bodies?' He frantically scanned the cave, but there were only two corpses.
He knew from his past life that until this task ended, none of the players' dead bodies would disappear.
That left him with the worst-case scenario. 'Shit… the worst case.'
He was fully aware that if those guys called their guildmates, it would be over for him.
He glanced at the back corridor and considered running when another bizarre sight stunned him.
Instead of helping the saintess, the guy stabbed his sword into her heart.
From how she dropped her weapon, it looked like her decision.
'Don't tell me she did this to stop the pain.' This absurd theory didn't last as the guy suddenly waved toward the sacrificial pit.
At that very moment, a black gem pendant flew from the pit where the witch had lit the green fire.
Dumbfounded, Adder said aloud, "That's the trigger!"
To his shock, the guy actually nodded and pointed at the dead saintess. "Hope you don't mind it."
Adder tilted his head, but then he noticed the guy was actually pointing at the flesh parasites.
He glanced at the timer.
10 seconds.
'Should I cancel it? No.' He wasn't sure if canceling would trigger backlash, nor was he ready to risk it. Thankfully, the blood counter was already in the 60s.
The guy didn't wait and stabbed the pendant into the flesh parasite on the saintess's stomach.
He then turned to Adder. "Can you move out?"
Adder looked down, and to his shock, the rune beneath his feet had already started flashing.
Even the frozen witch started muttering as if possessed.
The moment he saw that, he gulped in realization. Without saying anything, he jumped out of the circle and sprinted away from the unfolding madness.