Chapter 162. Facing the Butcher
The voice was terrifying to the point where Michael felt his blood freeze. It wasn't the voice itself that was scary but the bloodthirsty intent behind it.
He could clearly feel the murderous intent reaching him before seeing the creature.
Without thinking about it, the Golem positioned itself between its master and the incoming enemy. The Reapers stood on its sides while the Cold Mages already cast their freezing ranged attacks at whatever came their way.
The Necromancer instinctively knew that he would face a life-threatening situation in the following moments as he listened to the footsteps approaching.
'The Butcher!? Wasn't this fucker a monster belonging to Diablo I!? What the fuck is it doing still alive in the Sanctuary!?'
Sure enough, the demonic creature entered the room from the western pathway, sporting a disgusting grin on its face.
It wasn't tall. Maybe a little under three meters. However, the deadly intent its body involuntarily emitted would tell anyone with a working neuron of the danger level it posed.
The Butcher's skin was a pale red and had at least an 80% resemblance to a normal human. Its humanoid body wasn't at a Hulk level, but incredible power was undoubtedly stored in its muscles.
Two long goat-like horns adorned its head while its eyes burned a bright yellow. On the right hand, it had a cleaver, which earned the creature's nickname, while its left held onto a sharp hook connected to its waist by a long chain.
An old and dusty apron made of unknown skin covered the front of its body as the Butcher moved closer to its prey.
Michael knew instinctively that there was no way he could win in a fair one-on-one fight.
'I'll just repeat the same process I did with the Woodsman. Create as many Corpses as possible and detonate them. First, I'll use the Golem to...'
Just as he was planning the fight, a hook appeared less than a meter before his eyes, pausing his thoughts. With barely any time to react, the Necromancer leaned his head to the left, avoiding getting his head turned into mush.
Before he could breathe in relief, he saw the Butcher's grin grow wider as it pulled on the chain and yanked Michael's body forward against its will.
Scared at the sudden development, he first wanted to use Blood Mist directly to avoid getting dragged into melee range, but he stopped himself from impulsively using his only life-saving measure except for the safety bubble.
Ordering his Golem to get out of the way and follow behind its dragged master, Michael pushed his feet onto the ground when he was about five meters away, prompting his body to stumble forward and out of the hook's grip.
Then, with his shield held high, he charged at the Butcher. Without any hesitation, the demonic creature launched an overhead chop, which he avoided using Evade, and performed an attack of his own aimed at the Butcher's left wrist.
Before he could even rejoice at the successful counterattack, a kick found its way into his solar plexus, almost caving his chest in. The expected flying away didn't happen as a large hand devoid of the hook grabbed hold of his head, and the face of the monster closed in on its own.
Gritting his teeth, Michael used Blood Mist to become invulnerable, as he preferred getting this intimate only with women of the opposite sex rather than male demons. Getting headbutted by the large head sporting those large goat-like horns might break his little watermelon open.
'Shit! I need time to recover! Let's taunt it first and see how my lovely Quarterback can tank.'
Retreating and using his Golem to draw the Butcher's attention, Michael immediately cast a Decrepify on the enemy, lowering its movement speed by 40% and general damage by 20%.
This way, he could have time to control his minions like puppets and sacrifice them to gain enough time to recover and devise a plan.
The experiment wasn't a success, but it wasn't a failure either. The Reapers couldn't handle more than a blow, while his Golem was in bad shape after taking one swing of the cleaver.
The poor minion had its left shoulder almost cleanly separated from its body as the cleaver cut in through its left clavicle all the way down to his abdomen. Fortunately, the Golem could still attack, and Michael would instantly use Corpse Explosion for every Corpse it generated by its attacks or by losing Life Points.
'Motherfucker! How is that normal? I can barely deal 350-400 damage after stacking Corpse Explosion six times!? What sort of modifiers does this ridiculous fucker have?'
Seeing his Golem fall and needing to earn a couple more seconds, Michael ordered his Cold Mages to block the way as he ran into the next room. He quickly glanced from the corner of his eyes to where the saved villagers were hiding, gritted his teeth, and used another Corpse Explosion to provoke the Butcher's anger.
Using the hook in a rotating motion and snapping it at the three Accountants, the poor fragile Mages fell without being able to put up much of a fight.
Michael expected it and directly renewed the Decrepify debuff on his enemy as he rabidly ran into the Ice Clan goatmen staring murderously at him from the next room.
Setting up some Corpses on the way while dealing with Ice Clan Impalers and Maraurders, Michael activated Corpse Tendrils, grouping up the goatmen around the Butcher when he was five meters behind him.
"Hehe! You probably can easily get out of the tendrils by yourself, but what if you're surrounded by over ten monsters of the same size or bigger than you, you fucker!?"
Casting another Decrepify that would cover all the grouped-up creatures, Michael immediately used his Corpse Explosion to demolish all the Corpses in the vicinity.
Unfortunately, even after all of them were turned into Damage Over Time, the Butcher barely lost 10% of its total Life Points.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance and sighing, Michael immediately cast another Decrepify to renew the debuff and started running into the next room.
The Butcher roared indignantly and threw its hook at the prey, only to see it use Evade to move out of its range entirely.
After preparing another similar trap in the next room and waiting for the demonic creature to come, Michael was stunned by what he saw.
'Is this fucker insane!? It kills the goatmen to avoid being trapped by them?'
Fortunately, the dead Ice Clan members would still generate Corpses upon their fall, so Michael used them well.
What surprised the Necromancer was that from time to time, the Butcher would become stunned while inside his Corpse Explosion area of effect.
'Crippling Darkness!? Right! There's still the passive effect of it!'
Seeing that this passive skill worked even on a retardedly strong enemy such as the Butcher, Michael quickly opened his Skill Tree and maxed it out. Furthermore, he added one more point in Reaper's Pursuit.
[ Crippling Darkness (3/3)
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Lucky Hit: Darkness skills have a 15% chance to Stun the enemies for [3] seconds. ]
[ Reaper's Pursuit (2/3)
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Damaging enemies with Darkness skills increases your Movement Speed by +[10%] for 3 seconds. ]
The first passive went from 1 second stun to 3, while the second skill doubled the Movement Speed buff from 5% to 10%.
Gritting his teeth, the Necromancer advanced in front of the Butcher and fought it in melee range, using Corpse Explosion on everything in his field of view.
Using another Decrepify to renew the debuff, Michael added Corpse Tendrils as well, hoping to hold down the damned demon enough to inflict more damage.
Probably because of the stacked debuffs, the tendrils successfully held the Butcher back, much to its annoyance. Enraged, it roared at the ceiling of the Dungeon, and a red aura emitted outward from its body.
"Shit! The debuffs are gone!"
Before he could use Blood Mist to distance himself from the demon, a fist as big as his head made contact with the Necromancer's face.
He first heard the disgusting crunching sound of his nose breaking before the pain set in, and his body was catapulted through the air. Landing heavily on the Dungeon's floor, the pain interrupted his concentration, making him unable to form coherent thoughts.
Obviously, the enemy wouldn't give him time to catch his breath, and the cleaver descended. Almost instinctively, Michael raised the shield to block.
*CRUNCH*
With another disgusting sound, the Necromancer's left arm was broken from the strong impact and popped out of its socket. Fortunately, the pain was so great that it granted him enough clarity to use Blood Mist and get out of dodge before the hook cracked his head open.
Swiftly retreating and drinking a Healing Potion, Michael stored his shield and added Decrepify onto the Butcher before grabbing his left arm with his right and brutally pushing it back into its socket.
"AAAAAAAARGH!"
The painful feeling almost made him faint as he staggered a few steps before gritting his teeth and running again into the next room.
He saw that the Corpses in this room were used up, and he couldn't fight this monster without them. As for using Reap and Blood Mist to create them instead, he couldn't.
First off, Reap would put him in too much danger, as the Butcher's attributes and reaction speed were way above his own, while Blood Mist would instantly explode the Corpses it created.
Unfortunately, now that he was injured and recovering, his movement speed was much less than even the Butcher's after getting debuffed by Decrepify. Left without another alternative, Michael saw his Golem being revived for the fourth time, so he quickly used Bone Storm on himself and it.
Using the 15% Damage Reduction, he barely earned sufficient time to get into the next room and repeat the process, as the Quarterback got slaughtered.
The process repeated, and Michael realized that the four darkness passive skills were much stronger than he initially thought. After being affected by them and Decrepify, the Corpse Tendrils could stun the Butcher.
Unfortunately, every time the stun would exceed four seconds, the same red aura would cleanse the negative statuses from the demon, and the chase would continue.
Michael stood in front of the Boss Room twenty minutes later, dipping his whole body into the Healing Well.
There was a deep cut that almost severed his left foot as the cleaver met raw flesh, a large portion of his waist was missing after the hook sank into it, and his right arm was fractured in multiple places. Even his face was 'restructured' by multiple hits he took from the damned creature.
Probably the most challenging situation he was in was when the Butcher accelerated suddenly and closed the distance between the two parties in less than a second. Then, the demon madly attacked with both weapons simultaneously, almost sending the Necromancer to the afterlife in the process.
In the end, after seeing that he reached the Boss Room, Michael took a last stand and faced the demon in the sea of Corpses he created through the death of the Ice Clan members, as well as his Golem hitting and dying multiple times.
From charging to double attacks to headbutting his face in, using his hook to grab and pull the Necromancer back in melee range, to cleansing itself from debuffs... this was by far the most unreasonable enemy he had fought to date.
"Furthermore, when the bastard was less than 10% Life Points, he even entered a berserk state. His attack speed and damage increased considerably. I'm a fucking mess!"
Looking at his battered body, Michael could only soak in the Healing Well for a while. After resummoning his minions, he had them bring the villagers over.
Seeing him in such a horrible state, most of them paled and started crying in fear. Comforting them for a while, he had no choice but to bathe in the red liquid until his body recovered enough.
'If these guys react this strongly, I don't want to imagine how Helen would. Let's not worry her too much...'
After an hour of dipping and using up the healing liquid in the well, Michael finally recovered enough to walk. He took out sandwiches from his inventory and shared them with the villagers as he tried to replenish his energy before the Boss fight.
'As expected, healing uses up the body's energy reserves. This sluggish feeling is pretty severe. I can barely use around 50% of my normal strength. Let's hope the Boss is not as disgusting as the Butcher.'
Unfortunately, the Khazra Abomination, which kept throwing poison around, was just as disgusting, but in a different way.
It took Michael another half an hour to kill it, after which he collected his spoils and led everyone back to Kyovashad.
Briefly explaining the situation to the City Guards and handing the rescued people to them to handle, the Necromancer headed to the Inn. It was already 9 PM by the time he returned to the Kyovashad.
Sighing, he stopped and sat on one of the benches.
'Fuck... with the tension leaving my mind, my entire body is trembling. Sweet baby Jesus! That was absolutely terrifying! How the fuck am I still alive!?'
Shaking like a leaf in the wind for almost half an hour, Michael recovered mentally enough to get a grip. He didn't want to show such a side to Helen and worry her.
With a deep breath, he stood up and felt his knees almost buckle. Smiling wryly, he walked inside the Inn.