Chapter 149: The Attack of the Dark Creatures (2)

For a brief moment, it felt as if their very breath had stopped. When they snapped back to their senses, they immediately noticed a strange, repulsive stench filling the air.

Meck was clearly more familiar and sensitive to this odor than the others. The instant he detected it, he frowned, stood up from the bench, and made his way to the tall tower Su You had finished building that afternoon.

There were only three such towers near the city gates. The two on either side were for Meck and Doya to use during battle, while the third, set a bit farther away, was reserved by Su You for herself to observe the fight.

As for Lyle and Lake, they wouldn’t be fighting the dark creatures for now. If they wanted to join the battle, they’d have to go outside, but as always, the night was far too dangerous without the protection of the city’s heartfire.

Only if Doya and Meck, along with the nearby intermediate arrow towers, couldn’t hold the line, would they consider opening the stone gate to let the dark creatures inside the territory, so Lyle and Lake could help deal with or relieve some of the pressure from the attack.

“They’re here…” Doya seemed to sense something as well.

She, too, climbed up onto one of the towers, just like Meck.

“Do either of you know how to use an arrow tower? Or have any experience with bows?” Su You asked Lyle and Lake, who, though clearly nervous, seemed a bit bored with nothing to do.

Lyle and Lake shook their heads. “No.”

That was within Su You’s expectations. If they had such skills, it would have shown up on their information panels.

Still, Su You pointed to two of the intermediate arrow towers and said, “It’s fine if you don’t. If you want, you can give it a try.”

Their technique might not be great, but as long as they didn’t have negative talents related to archery—like Meck, who not only lacked any cooking talent but actually had a negative one—even basic participation could boost the arrow towers’ combat effectiveness.

Even if they just stood on the towers and did nothing, their presence would still provide some attribute bonuses to the towers.

“We’ll give it a try.” Lyle and Lake each climbed up onto the arrow towers Su You had indicated.

Once everyone was in position, the darkness outside seemed to grow even more oppressive, as if something unnatural was lurking within it. Standing atop her observation tower, Su You could clearly see that the area outside the city looked like a pot of boiling oil.

Though it was pitch black, she could somehow make out strange shapes churning in the darkness.

Suddenly—

A blob of “black sludge” slammed into the stone wall.

Su You frowned, but before she could say anything, Meck immediately cast a spell, wrapping the black sludge in magic and burning it to ashes.

“These are the dark creatures. Be careful, everyone.” Indeed, that blob of black sludge was a dark creature.

Dark creatures had no fixed form; they looked like lumps of black modeling clay—or perhaps slimes?

Call them what you will, these things were the dark creatures, the enemies they would face tonight.

They could change shape at will, only molding themselves into a more defined form when they needed to attack or defend.

Since they were still in their slime state, they couldn’t attack yet. But this wasn’t a turn-based game—if they didn’t attack, Su You would simply activate the arrow towers’ auto-attack, targeting the nearest slime.

[Dark Remnant]

HP: 300/300

Attack: 50

Defense: 10

…

“Dark Remnant” was the name for these dark creatures in their slime form. Before they shifted into a specific shape, they had high attack, low defense, and moderate HP.

As two arrows struck the nearest Dark Remnant, two large “-20”s floated up from above it. Its HP dropped from 300 to 260.

Even before Su You attacked, Meck—irritated from staying up late—had already begun chanting a fire spell that could deal area damage. He just wanted to get rid of these black things as quickly as possible and go back to sleep!

“Flame Rain—” As soon as the chant ended, a cluster of fiery red flames appeared, hovering above the area outside the city where the dark creatures were most densely gathered.

Before the creatures could react, the flames rained down like a storm.

Illuminated by the fire, everyone could clearly see the road outside was covered in blobs of black sludge.

Su You quickly counted—she could see about seventeen or eighteen of these black masses, meaning there were at least that many Dark Remnants in this wave. As for whether there were more hidden elsewhere, she couldn’t be sure for now.

As she finished counting, the searing flames fell onto the black sludge, igniting it like a barrel of oil. The sludge exploded, splattering sticky, disgusting black goo everywhere—

“Hiss—”

“Grrr—”

Though the Flame Rain was impressive, Meck was still only a novice mage and couldn’t unleash its full power. After the spell, the dark creatures had only lost about a tenth of their HP.

But that was already impressive—ten percent meant 30 HP, and at least seven or eight creatures were hit, so the Flame Rain had dealt over 200 points of damage!

This was exactly why Su You insisted on having a mage—area-of-effect spells were just too powerful.

As the fire burned the black sludge and the ground, the dark creatures outside let out wails and roars, some mournful, some furious. The sounds pierced the night, sending chills down everyone’s spines.

Su You was fine—she’d seen this kind of thing many times and wasn’t fazed in the slightest. She could even eat a bowl of rice with a straight face while watching.

Meck also had strong nerves. In fact, the more disgusting he found these things, the faster he chanted, eager to burn them all to ashes.

The others weren’t doing as well.

Doya, Lyle, and Lake—though none of them were exactly sheltered—had never seen dark creatures in person before. For a moment, they struggled to stomach the sight of the sticky, nauseating mess.

(End of chapter)"

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