437 Necromancer Vs. Capo 2
'What a nuisance,' thought Aldrich, sizing Nico up. Volantis outlined a see-through view of the capo's body, highlighting in faint red the heart and the tissue surrounding it. Nico had taken damage to his heart, but it had not been crushed.
At best, it caused some internal damage which, though it must have been excruciatingly painful, and indeed, more than enough to knock out the ordinary man, did not put down a superhuman Alter of Nico's caliber.
'That curse was infallible,' said Volantis. 'And it succeeded. I sense its dark energies had held a tight grasp around this warrior's heart.'
'I felt the spell go through as well.' Aldrich felt his mana dip down a bit. In gaining so many levels, he had distributed his stats heavily towards magic, giving him a much, much larger mana pool. Even then, [Heart Hold] was a considerably costly spell whose cost actually scaled with how strong the unit afflicted by it was.
For an A-rank Alter like Nico, it ate up around 20% of Aldrich's total mana.
Mana, though, was not too much of an issue here. He had a myriad of ways to recover it on the go. The biggest problem to tackle was Nico's supposed resistance to [Heart Hold].
It must have been a function of Nico's power. At first glance, it seemed like an Augmenter main, Object secondary type power. Alters under this power classification could infuse external objects with additional powers, and in Nico's case, that seemed like extreme acceleration, durability boosting to keep the coin from destroying itself, and explosive energy output.
But there was something else to Nico's power that had allowed him to survive [Heart Hold].
"No sarcastic response this time?" said Nico. "Good. I hate sarcasm." He rushed ahead, clenching his gloved fists tight.
'Damn, he's fast. Way faster than before.' Aldrich saw Nico charge in as a golden blur. The way the capo moved with his shoulder squared and his fists out in tight, compact guard made it obvious that he was a seasoned martial artist.
Aldrich pushed backward, his cloak of souls wailing as he flew into the air to make vertical distance.
Nico skidded to a halt where Aldrich was, his boots sizzling hot as they scorched the forest floor with sheer friction. He craned his neck up, flashy silver eyes narrowing in analysis.
"Serve." Aldrich raised his hands, and his mist finished restoring a dozen variants in the area. One of them, a massive Grandtusk the size of a heavy tank, squealed with newly infused, green-eyed rage.
Others included sloth-like creatures three meters tall with scythe-shaped claws called Ripper Sloths, Brute Strikers that took the average wolf-like Striker and juiced them up to the size of cars, and huge snakes capable of swallowing a man whole.
They all converged around Nico.
But Nico did not know that. He would be focused on threats in front of him, assuming the worst that Aldrich could keep this up infinitely.
"[Mass Create Undead: 2nd Ring]" chanted Aldrich.
In response, ten Ivory Knights - the upgraded version of Skeletal Warriors - materialized on the ground. Like how Aldrich's [Corpse Nova] had upgraded itself from him reaching level 70, so too did his [Create Undead].
Skeletal Warriors maxed out at level 20, but Ivory Knights maxed out at 40. They were, as their names suggested, regal knights clad from head to toe in thick plate armor of ivory bone. They were each just as big as Aldrich and wielded heavy black greatswords as long as they were tall.
"Tch." Nico clicked in annoyance as he snapped his fingers, recalling his coin. On top of these sudden knights, he noted that the variants he had shredded to fine pieces were reforming too, this strange green mist, a mist that seemed to drain away at his very life seemingly giving them what it was taking from him.
As if that was not bad enough, the flag seemed to produce foul night creatures of its own, raising skeletons and zombies nearby.
"[Rite of Adamantine Bone]," chanted Aldrich.
A steely grey flash flickered over the Ivory Knights and variants, indicating that they had been buffed, their bones turning into powerful, metallic bone that was a direct upgrade from the [Rite of Bone Binding] Aldrich used before.
And now, instead of [Burning Agony], he chanted, "[Immolation Deathcharge]".
The knights and variants all lit on bloody red flames, the same as it had been with [Burning Agony]. But now, when they moved, jet propulsion-like flaming bursts rippled behind them, causing them to surge forward much, much faster in a targeted charge against Nico.
Nico's coin knelt down, placing his palm face-up on the forest floor. The half-formed variants, their exposed muscles and organs lit up in flames, and the flame-wreathed Ivory Knights all crashed against Nico, clawing and slamming down with their weapons.
Bloody red flames roared all around Nico from the immolating undead, but even then, he just sat there, unfazed.
'Interesting'. The attacks hit Nico but did no damage, bouncing off his skin, no, his golden aura. It was as if he was literally invincible.
The coin then returned to Nico's waiting palm, this time landing with a mighty golden explosion that sent pieces of variants and chunks of burning armor from the knights flying.
It was as if the coin had turned into a miniature meteorite. The explosion was sizable enough to cover the entirety of the [Death Zone], probably affecting every single unit within.
The [Death Zone's] walls kept things in, but they did not keep things out. A weakness that Aldrich waited to see if it would cost him.