Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Reunion
The hunter drew a V with a horizontal line in the air with his left hand. The sigil <Vertigo> was activated.
Even though the ghoul was an undead, its body was still operated under the central nervous system. And Vertigo would have no problem in messing with its motor skill.
The ghoul wobbled intensely and fell to the ground. Its limbs were flailing randomly, trying to get a grasp of reality while its head was spinning.
Because of the nature of the undead, their mind fractured and their mental fortification was much weaker than their human counterpart. This allowed Vertigo to be extra effective against them.
Siderius stepped on the ghoul. One of his legs stomped on its bicep. His two hands held the half-sword with conviction and thrusted it straight into the left eye socket of the creature.
Its limb went limp and they dropped to the floor heavily.
Siderius didn’t stop there. He withdrew the half-sword and thrusted it in a few more times, making sure its brain would become a mess of flesh of blood.
This wouldn’t kill the beast entirely.
Giving it enough time to mutate or maybe a bit of Dark Aether, the creature could rise up again. The only way to finish it off for good was fire and decapitation.
Even the Dead Rite that Siderius had used with Pax was useless against a ghoul. Dead Rite was for living beings with a soul. The ghoul no longer had any soul in it.
On Quinlan’s side, the ghoul lunged forward and shoved the bandaged man backward a few steps.
He hurled the wooden stick around, keeping the ghoul out of arm reach and protecting himself. The creature reached out its arm to try and scratched him a few times.
Suddenly, the ghoul darted at Quinlan without any hesitation.
Quinlan retreated backward with panic in his eyes. His feet shuffled without a good rhythm and entangled.
The bandaged man fell on his butt.
At that moment, Quinlan knew it was the end. His face lost all of his color and he stared at the ghoul fearfully.
Siderius was still busy with his ghoul at the time, having no free eye to look at Quinlan.
The bandaged man was so afraid he didn’t even open his mouth to shout for his life.
The ghoul jumped forward. Its jaw opened wide, thin and sharp teeth roared at the fearful man. The bloody needle-like teeth were probably the last thing Quinlan was going to see if it wasn’t for Bas.
Bas arrived at the dorm just in time to see Quinlan sitting on his butt with the ghoul at his throat. Without hesitation, Bas channeled the power of his spirit into the iron torch in his hand.
The torch lit up a faint white color. It had received a unique attribute that exceeded the realm of mortal.
Bas rushed in front of Quinlan and swung the torch horizontally, smashing the ghoul’s jaw into pieces. Its uncountable teeth flew out into the air.
The hit was so strong, it sent the ghoul rolling a few times on the ground, landing right next to Siderius.
Siderius had just finished off his ghoul also. He wasted no time to thrust the half-sword through the creature’s neck and decapitated its head.
A brittle sound of iron rang out. The half-sword broke in half again, now became even shorter than Siderius’ knife. But he did decapitate the ghoul successfully.
"Useless steel." Siderius threw the half-sword away. Weak Steel was still Weak Steel.
It was a miracle that this guard sword survived as long as it did.
Siderius pulled out his assassin’s knife with a serrated edge. There were still incapacitated ghouls that were laying on the ground. They were neutralized temporarily but not killed yet. Siderius wasn’t going to let them have a chance to recover, he decapitated each of them.
Bas pulled Quinlan up from the floor.
"You’re good?" The bodyguard patted the bandaged man on the shoulder.
Quinlan took a deep breath and swirled his head around. He tried to collect himself but it was clear that he was spooked by the situation.
"Not really. I’ve never been happier to meet you, Bas."
"Hah! It’s my job."
Then Bas looked over to Siderius and the bloody mess on the ground. Quinlan couldn’t kill the ghouls so the one who was responsible was obvious in Bas’ eyes.
There were six ghouls on the ground, counting the mid-transformed Jonah would be seven.
Most of them were neutralized with very precise arrow shots. One was burned to death. One was chopped to death. The others were laying on the floor.
"Who is that?" Bas nodded his head toward Siderius.
"I don’t know much, Bas. His name is Siderius and he might be a witch." Quinlan said.
"He isn’t a witch." Bas shook his head.
"How do you know?"
"His spirit is clean."
Siderius decapitated the rest of the ghouls and also harvested their most valuable organs, the stomach. He drained all the spirit of salt inside them then ditched the bloody stomach.
The skin of these ghouls would also be useful but it would take Siderius quite a bit of time. So he refrained from skinning them and returned to the pair of travelers.
"Well met. I am Siderius. You must be Bas." Siderius said.
Bas nodded. "I am. I must thank you for protecting my client while I’m gone."
"Where did you go, Bas? Did you see Nora and Mother Reverend?"
Bas’ face crumbled like an old man. He definitely had experienced some horrible things. The man ignored Quinlan’s first question.
"I didn’t see the woman nor the old hag. Actually, I didn’t see anyone at all. I came from the dormitory and that place is abandoned."
Siderius smirked under his scarf. A physical illusion could fool a man but that spell needed to at least reflect real life to be believable. By examining Bas’ bulge veins on his neck and the obvious sexual heat, the guy must have had a fun time recently.
Siderius could only imagine what kind of horrible thing the witch prepared for him while keeping him thinking he was having the best time of his life.
"Everyone here is dead." Quinlan explained the situation to Bas. "Before you, we came to the refectory. All the nuns and priests hung themselves.
They are all dead.
Jonah is trapped here with us but he began to turn into one of those monsters. So Siderius killed him.
Wait a minute... Why did he turn into one of them?"
Quinlan raised his hand. There was a small bite on it. The wound had a dark color with the veins bubbling up like boiling water.
"Ah shit..." Quinlan dropped on the ground.