Deprived of its handhold, the monstrosity crashed heavily onto the cobblestones. Scrambling to its feet, it howled in blind rage, stomping the ground.
No ranged spellcasting ability? Damian thought, watching the creature vent its fury.
He flicked his wand at the rooftops, transfiguring a barrage of clay tiles into a massive, solid iron sphere. With a sweeping motion of his wand, he cast Wingardium Leviosa, hurling the heavy metal ball directly at the beast.
Suddenly, one of the human faces on the creature's chest split violently down the middle. The torn flesh peeled back to reveal a hollow cavity, teeming with wriggling horsehair worms.
A crimson flash erupted from the cavity. A jet of corrosive, dark red liquid shot out like a high-pressure geyser.
The liquid struck the iron sphere and instantly dissolved it, melting the transfigured metal into hissing slag. Unhindered, the red liquid continued straight for Damian.
Damian leapt backward, vaulting onto a neighboring roof. The monster twisted its torso, tracking him with the cavity. The red jet followed, melting the slate and stone of every rooftop it touched.
Damian's expression tightened. With a sharp crack, he Apparated, vanishing into twisted space and reappearing on a chimney several houses away.
Unable to find its target, the gash on the beast's body began to heal, and the cavity stopped shooting red liquid. Countless horsehair worms intertwined and writhed continuously. A moment later, the gash restored itself into a human face, but this face had become as withered and aged as a dried corpse, with eyes shut tightly.
That attack takes a heavy toll on it. No wonder it didn't use it immediately, Damian observed, sensing the monster's dark aura had significantly dimmed.
After releasing the red liquid once, the monster's control over its body worsened. Several of the visages grew lucid, their voices overlapping in a chorus of mockery and agony.
"Too stupid."
"Foolish."
"Exactly, why not hand the body over to me."
"You are not Father, you are just a monster."
"Ryan, it hurts so much."
"Let me out quickly."
ROAR!!! The monster covered in human faces let out an angry, frustrated roar. Although its body was Old White's corpse, it only possessed some of Old White's fragmented memories and the feral intellect of a rabid dog.
Suddenly, a massive fireball exploded against its back, swallowing the creature in a roaring inferno.
Link and Anna had arrived.
"Be careful, its magic resistance is very high, and it is fast and strong," Damian's voice came from the badge pinned to Link's chest.
Before the warning even faded, the monster rushed out from the unextinguished flames and attacked Link. Its charred skin was already being repaired.
Link quickly erected a translucent shield composed of polygons. After the monster hit the shield, Link was forced back a few steps by the monster's immense strength.
Link's expression changed. This monster's strength was indeed very high. He had undergone two bloodline modifications and was a melee-type Wizard; his strength was not something an ordinary wizard could compare to.
Anna cast a Vine Spell, and several thick vines wrapped around the monster.
"Wait, isn't that Ryan and his wife Trina?!" Anna cried out in horror, discovering the couple's faces among the human faces on the monster.
Link's expression turned grim. They had met at noon; the current situation was truly too bizarre. This was the first time he had seen such a monster.
The Vine Spell only hindered the monster for a very short time; it quickly tore apart the vines wrapped around its body.
Link quickly drew the longsword from his waist and wiped the blade across his palm. His blood merged into the sword, and the blade ignited with raging flames; the wound on his hand also healed quickly.
His first bloodline modification had fused the bloodline of a Ground Fire Giant Lizard. This bloodline modification had granted him extraordinary healing abilities and fire manipulation capabilities, allowing him to use magic to temporarily enchant his weapon using blood as material.
A flash of fiery red sword light flickered, and the flaming longsword severed the monster's neck, causing its head to roll onto the ground.
Link's longsword was incredibly sharp. This longsword was a second-tier magical artifact. Among Wizard Apprentices, only some of the wealthier ones would possess a second-tier magical artifact.
Link asked Damian using the badge, "It's done, where are you?"
"It's not dead," Damian's voice replied.
Link was shocked. A humanoid creature was fine even after its head was severed?
Countless horsehair worms extended from the monster's neck, connecting it to the head on the ground.
Link slashed again, cutting the monster in half at the waist. After being cut in half, the torso remained connected by the writhing threads.
"Try pulling on it," Damian advised over the badge.
"What is this thing? Its regenerative ability is too strong." After Link slashed it several times in a row, the monster could still heal its wounds.
Just in the gap while the monster was recovering, a dagger pierced into its heart from its back. The other end of the dagger was tied to a vine that extended into the distance.
After the dagger pierced the monster's heart, the threads inside its body snapped one after another. All the human faces on its body showed expressions of fear and let out a collective, miserable wail.
A moment later, the monster collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
Link heaved a sigh of relief. If this had dragged on, he wouldn't have been able to hold out for long; the consumption of a second-tier magical artifact for a Wizard Apprentice was enormous.
He looked at Damian walking over from a distance and asked, "How did you do it?"
Damian smiled and said, "I coated the dagger in a deadly poison."
He had used the Basilisk's poison. This monster's regenerative and recovery ability seemed to have no resistance to the Basilisk's deadly poison.
Several of them stepped forward to examine the monster's corpse.
"This face..." Link was somewhat surprised and suspicious, "Hasn't Old White been dead for several months?"
Old White's face was swollen; Link was not very familiar with him, so it took him a while of careful observation to recognize him.
Link rubbed his chin and pondered, "Does that mean the disappearances in White Stone Town during this period were caused by Old White? But how did he revive? Could it be that he faked his death?"
Damian sensed an energy fluctuation on the corpse that was different from the magic of ordinary Wizards. He remembered that this fluctuation was very similar to that of the wolf pack and the Phantom Demon he had encountered when he first arrived in this world.
He crouched down, pretending to check the condition of the corpse, and touched it with his hand.
The metal disc in his mind shimmered with a faint light. A burst of red light, visible only to Damian, was extracted from the corpse and absorbed by the metal disc.
It was indeed the same type of energy; he could sense that the energy in the crystal had become very full!
The red light absorbed this time was much more than what he had absorbed from the wolf pack and the Phantom Demon before.
He could sense that the crystal would not overflow when absorbing energy. After it was full, it would compress the energy inside to make more room. Now, the energy in the crystal was enough for him to travel across worlds a few times!
[75 STONES] - Unlock1 Bonus Chapter
[150 STONES] - Unlock 2 Bonus Chapters
[300 STONES] - Unlock 3 Bonus Chapters