Chapter 494 Reclamation (3)
Chapter 494 Reclamation (3)
While Ashton was planning to invade the city alone, a black figure awaited his return. Ashton's little battle with the undead had not gone unnoticed.
"How many days has it been since I last saw you," The figure snarled, revealing his rotten teeth, "Do not disappoint me, Ashton Fenrir."
However, the man wasn't alone. Surrounding him were the deadliest mutated beings that had been turned into undead footsoldiers to do the man's bidding.
If all of them stayed together, even if Ashton managed to reach them, he would only meet his end. But where was the fun in that?
Being the only sentient being in the city was quite bland. So much so that the man was planning on invading kingdoms under vampire rule just for the sake of it. Fortunately enough, a source of entertainment had come knocking on his door.
Killing Ashton wasn't a difficult task. However, the man, also known as King, wasn't going to cut his entertainment short.
"Spread out, and find his companions." He barked, "As for the wolf, feel free to toy with him as much as you want but make sure he reaches me alive. Torturing his loved ones right before his eyes... just the thought gives me chills!"
The undead creature acknowledged King's words with nods before rushing to fulfil his wishes. They were weak in their previous lives, but King gave them an unimaginable power to rule over the city they once lived in.
Blinded by King's greatness, his soldiers lived for him and his entertainment, and now that an opportunity to repay their beloved King had appeared, they weren't going to sit idly.
"Huhu, don't disappoint me, my children..."
***
Entering Contingency was more challenging than Ashton had hoped. Not only had the undead consumed local fauna into their ranks, but it also seemed someone had helped them gain technology that should have been out of their reach.
Ashton immediately knew it had to be those bastards from Nirvana. Thinking about them made his blood boil, but it wasn't the time to let his emotions take over.
"So much for not being involved." Ashton murmured, "If someone told my 15-year-old self I'd be fighting space zombies in a few years, I'd have kicked their balls."
[What if they didn't have balls?]
"You don't have them, but I still kick them, don't I?"
[...ignore balls, just tell me how you plan to handle them?]
"Wouldn't it be better to show you instead?"
With that, Ashton snapped his fingers, and within seconds, all the undead in front of him returned to the world of the dead. A moment later, Raven and his unit of Assassin skeletons appeared by his side.
It had been a while since Raven got a unit of his own, much like Skeleton knight and Skeleton mages under Sven's and Celeste's command. But it was the first time they were allowed to show the fruits of their rigorous training.
Ashton patted Raven's back to acknowledge his efforts, "You have coloured me impressed, Raven. Good work training these runts into useful additions to our forces."
"I'm not competent enough to receive your praises, my lord," Raven replied, his eyes focused on the ground.
Having left Celeste, Dolos and Gokung behind to guard Anna and the rest, Raven was Ashton's only option for getting inside the city unnoticed. However, selectively assassinating took more time than Ashton wanted to spend handling a trivial matter.
"How comes the difficult part," He mumbled, but before he could finish speaking his mind, [Perception] notified him about the hostile presence around him.
Raven immediately instructed the skeletons to strike. Unfortunately, they were too slow. The enemy descended upon them like heavenly fire; before they knew it, the skeletons had turned to dust.
A similar fate followed Raven as he only managed to take down half a dozen mutants before getting destroyed. The undead soldiers proved to be more formidable than Ashton had anticipated.
Everything happened so quickly Ashton was thrown off-guard. But what followed next was equally strange. Despite his attempts to fight back, the undead slowly overwhelmed him.
It took one minute for the undead to force Ashton onto his knees. A feat no one had achieved in a long time. The undead was attacking him, but strangely enough, none of their attacks was aimed at being deadly.
The aim behind their attacks was as straightforward as it could have been. The undead wanted to capture him, and the question was... why?
It was for that reason Ashton did not fight back and allowed the undead to capture him. Ultimately, being hit by the undead wasn't dealing much damage to him, so he saw no harm in getting 'captured' by them.
Not to mention, it was the easiest way inside the city. And if he got lucky, he could also come face to face with the one pulling strings from the safety of anonymity.
However, if things got out of hand, Ashton could readily summon Sven and Atlas for help. But before that, he could use [Corpse Parade] to take over the strings and get rid of the undead.
In the end, As long as he was careful, the undead were only planning their funeral.
[You and your masochistic tendencies. When will you grow up and stop putting yourself in these situations?]
'Think about the bright side! If I die, you might be able to control my body! What else could you possibly want more than this?'
[Now that you put it like that... Hm... it's not a bad deal at all! I'll get your body and a hot girlfriend-]
'Hey, you want me to kill you now? If I hear about it ever again, I'll get you a body and then kill you myself. Is that clear?'
[Damn, chill out! I was joking~]
'I know, I was just messing with you till these brutes carry me to their boss.'
While he was chatting with Astaroth, one of the undead hit him in the head with a heavy object. Realising their intention, Ashton immediately fell to the ground, 'unconscious'.