"It's... It's Calder!"
Ray stumbled back a half-step, his pointing finger trembling. He wasn't alone. A wave of collective dread washed over the other players, their faces paling in the gloom. The man before them was no longer just a player; he was a vision from a nightmare, an abomination clawed straight from the deepest pits of hell.
Vance swallowed hard, forcing the tremor from his voice. "Don't panic! Look at his health, he's barely standing! It's just a bluff!"
"Right! He's almost dead!" Ray echoed, clinging to the words like a lifeline.
But as the last syllable left his lips, a grotesque spectacle silenced them all. The charred, smoking flesh that clung to Calder's frame began to writhe. In a horrifying display of accelerated biology, the mangled tissue knitted itself back together. Within seconds, the blackened wounds scabbed over, and the scabs flaked away in thick sheets, revealing pristine, unblemished skin beneath. His health bar, once a sliver of critical red, surged back to a vibrant, healthy green in less than a minute.
"He can heal!" someone shrieked from the crowd.
It wasn't a healing spell, not in the traditional sense. But for all intents and purposes, it might as well have been. Calder's expression remained a mask of cold indifference, unchanged by the miracle his body had just performed. He had just activated the third core skill of his 【Blight】 Gift: 【Infinite Proliferation】.
The higher his Blighting value, the faster his cellular regeneration. It was, simply put, a hyper-regeneration ability. In the later stages of the game, it was arguably the most overpowered skill in the entire 【Blight】 arsenal. As long as a single one of his cells remained, no one could truly kill him. It was this very power that had been one of his greatest trump cards, allowing him to challenge and survive an encounter with The Undying Emperor himself.
Its only drawback… it was a little draining on his Blight Index.
That’s right. 【Infinite Proliferation】 didn't consume mana. It consumed the very essence of his power. That single burst of healing had cost Calder exactly 1 point of his Blight Index.
The Blight Index I lost… I’ll just have to replenish it from your corpses, Calder thought, his gaze sweeping over the distant crowd. "I'll take back what I lost from your bodies," he said, his voice a low, chilling promise.
Vance still tried to plead his case. "Look, friend, don't be hasty. It was a mistake! A total misunderstanding, we can—"
He never finished the sentence. With a sharp crack, Calder’s Warp Chains shot forward. The barbed tip detached from the main scourge, transforming into a deadly projectile that rocketed towards Vance’s face.
"Vance, move!" Cliff screamed, but as a support class, he was powerless to intervene. Vance, a ranged spellcaster, was equally helpless against such a swift, physical assault.
Just as the metal dart was about to pierce Vance's skull, a spear shaft blurred into view. CLANG! Caden’s weapon sent the projectile spinning harmlessly into the air. The force of the impact, the sheer Brock that traveled up the spear, sent a shockwave through Caden's arms, forcing him back two steps. His face was a mask of disbelief. He couldn't fathom how a casual flick of the wrist from Calder could possess such terrifying power.
This guy… he's ridiculously strong!
Shoving his shock aside, Caden raised his voice. "We've already apologized! Show some mercy and let it go!"
Vance, drenched in a cold sweat, quickly composed himself. "He's right, Calder! We're all in this together. There's no need for us to kill each other, is there?"
Even with the experience of two lifetimes, Calder was almost impressed by their shamelessness. A bitter, humorless laugh escaped his lips. "You ambush me, try to murder me, and now you have the nerve to preach about forgiveness?" He sneered. "If I were weaker, if I hadn't been strong enough to survive, would I be hearing your apologies from the underworld?"
His words struck them dumb. They had no retort, for he spoke the undeniable, ugly truth.
Ray was the first to recover. "So what? You're just one person. There are nearly three hundred of us. You really want to make an enemy of all of us? You should think this through."
The reminder of their overwhelming numbers seemed to put some steel back into their spines.
Calder just smiled. "I almost forgot to mention that. In fact, I should be thanking you for bringing so many people here."
Ray stared at him, bewildered by the look in Calder’s eyes—it was the look one gives a fool. "What are you talking about? Thanking us for what?"
Before Calder could answer, screams erupted from the back of their formation.
"Oh my god, what are all these bugs?!"
"So many white worms! Mommy, I'm scared!"
Startled, everyone whirled around. The sight that greeted them sent a jolt of pure horror through their ranks, making their scalps tingle with fear. Unseen until now, a writhing carpet of massive, fat, white worms had completely surrounded them.
The creatures crawled at a snail's pace, but their numbers were staggering. And while their movement was slow, their attacks were lightning-fast. A worm would coil back like a viper, revealing a long, sharp stinger extending from its maw, and then Lunge forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, aimed directly at a player's face.
Several unsuspecting players were impaled before they could even react. The moment one worm found its mark, dozens more would converge on the same target. In seconds, their bodies were swarmed, riddled with countless stingers until they resembled grotesque pin cushions. A handful of players were dead before their screams even faded.
"It's over! We're surrounded by monsters!"
To their utter terror, they realized the tide of worms had completely cut off their retreat. They were trapped.
"Vance, use 【Stormfire】! Burn us a path out of here!" Ray screamed, watching his people die.
"It's still on cooldown! It's not that fast!" Vance shot back, his own voice frayed with panic. "You and Caden, cover me! Just buy me some time until it's ready, and we can break through together!"
Ray spat. "Fuck you! You want me to be your meat shield? Dream on!"
Vance's face darkened. "If I die, you all die with me! Use your head! Do you really think for one second that Calder is going to let any of you walk away from this?"
The threat hit home. Ray, who had been about to order his own men to attempt a breakout, hesitated. The memory of Calder's terrifying power was still fresh. He couldn't risk abandoning Vance and his firepower.
"Damn it! I'm gonna regret this," Ray cursed, but he stayed put.
"Stop arguing!" Caden snapped, his brow furrowed. "We focus our strength and fight our way out. It's the only way."
As they frantically plotted, Calder's cold voice drifted over to them from a distance. "Heh, I don't want you to die quickly. In fact, I hope you all live for a very long time. Because..."
His voice dropped to a sinister whisper that seemed to echo in their minds.
"...hell is just beginning."
With that, Calder, who was already near the Array Core, moved. He weaved through the lunging 【Piercers】 with impossible grace and sprinted forward.
Vance stared, stunned for a second, before realization dawned. "Stop him! He's going for the boss! He's trying to kill the boss!"
The words sent a fresh wave of panic through the crowd. Their current crisis was far from over, and now Calder was trying to trigger the seventh wave of monsters? It was unthinkable!
The moment Vance’s warning registered, Ray, Caden, and the other two B-Tier Divinely Gifted in their group, Serena and Flint, burst into action. They had a single, desperate objective: stop Calder from killing the boss.
Don't you die on us, you big fat worm!
It was a silent, desperate prayer that echoed in the hearts of every player on the field. They never would have imagined that one day they would be fighting to protect a boss monster. But then, they had never met a man like Calder—a demon walking among them.
【Piercer】
【Level: 4】
【Skills: 1. Lunge; 2. Facehugger Strike】
These Level 4 worms were slow, but their attacks were deceptively fast. Once surrounded, the entire Surge Grounds would become their slaughterhouse. When the Piercers had the numerical advantage, they became a hailstorm of organic missiles, striking from all directions, making defense impossible.
But in Calder’s eyes, they were just clumsy, oversized grubs.
The four Chain Scourges on his arms danced and snapped, their tips easily sinking into the soft flesh of the Piercers. With every strike, they pulled back, unleashing sprays of milky white viscera.
Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!
As their brains were pureed, a cascade of system notifications chimed in Calder's mind.
【Ding! Time +20min】
【Ding! Time +20min】
【Ding! Time +20min...】
Compared to the Mummies and Ogres, these Level 4 worms were far easier to kill. The Piercers had invested all their evolutionary points into offense, leaving their defenses virtually non-existent. A Warp Chain could easily crack their skulls for a Vital Strike.
For true novices like Vance and his crew, however, it was a different story. Trying to pinpoint the brain or any weak spot on these constantly lunging abominations was a fool's errand. You'd have to kill a hundred of them just to learn where to aim. And even if you knew, getting close enough to land a precise hit amidst their relentless assault was next to impossible.
So they could only watch in a mixture of awe and horror as Calder glided effortlessly through the swarm that had them hopelessly trapped.
"Aaaargh!! Help me!"
"Somebody, save me!"
Desperate hands reached out from players being swarmed by the Piercers' Facehugger Strike. But their comrades didn't dare approach. It was useless anyway. Once a Piercer's stinger embedded itself in a player, thousands of microscopic barbs would anchor it to their flesh. Pulling it out would rip a massive, gaping wound, causing catastrophic bleeding. One was survivable. Three or four clinging to your body was a death sentence. For these low-level Divinely Gifted, removing the worms meant their health bar would instantly empty, sending them straight to The Death Judge.
"What do we do, Vance?!" Cliff cried out.
Vance, drenched in sweat, yelled, "Hold on! My Stormfire's cooldown is almost up! We'll be able to blast our way out soon! You have to protect me! I'm our only hope!"
"Shut the hell up!" Ray roared back. "You're in the safest spot in the whole damned formation!"
As the team's most powerful spellcaster, Vance was naturally huddled in the center, protected on all sides. But the melee players on the perimeter were not so lucky. They fell one by one, their screams of agony a constant chorus as fear spread like a contagion.
"Almost there, almost there! My Stormfire is almost ready! Everybody, hold on!" Vance shouted, trying to keep the collapsing formation from breaking completely.
Just as he spoke, a new, soul-crushing notification sounded in everyone's ears.
【Ding! Congratulations to Calder for successfully killing the Piercer Matriarch. Reward: Silver Cache x1】
【Ding! The Piercer Matriarch has been slain. The seventh Beast Surge is imminent. Please prepare.】
【10, 9, 8...】
It's over.
The single thought painted itself across every player's face. They watched as new monsters began crawling from the Summoning Nexus, turning to swarm their already beleaguered position.
"Stormfire!"
At that exact moment, Vance's skill came off cooldown. He unleashed the spell, blasting a path in front of them. A deafening crack of thunder rolled across the field, and roaring flames incinerated a line of monsters, giving them all a fleeting sliver of hope.
It was a false hope. The path they had just burned open was instantly filled by a new wave of creatures.
【Rustmaw】
【Level: 4】
【Skills: 1. Carapace (Passive); 2. Gnaw】
It was a creature that feasted on rusted iron, its body covered in a rippling, metallic Carapace. Just one look told them its defense was far superior to any monster they had faced. As they feared, the lingering flames of Stormfire barely seemed to singe them. Worse, standard melee attacks couldn't even scratch their armor, let alone deal damage.
We're dead. There's no way out. The thought resonated through the group.
"Let me!" Caden bellowed. His spear flashed like lightning, striking several of the charging Rustmaws. With a brutal, dominating display of force, he shattered their hardened carapaces, dealing massive damage. The nearby melee players seized the opportunity, rushing in to finish them off.
"All melee, on me! I'll break their defenses!" Caden roared. Having just reached Level 7 and possessing a B-Tier spearmanship Gift, he had the confidence to back up his words. The Level 5 Rustmaws were tough, but not invincible, not even in the Novice Zone. "Don't panic! Stay calm! There aren't that many of them. We can definitely get out of here!"
Caden’s formidable presence and raw power gave the terrified players a much-needed anchor of security. Sure enough, his words steadied the team's morale.
Vance, seeing this, let out a breath of relief. "That's right! We have five B-Tier Divinely Gifted in our group! There's no way we can't break through—"
【Ding! Congratulations to Calder for successfully killing the Rustmaw Hurler. Reward: Silver Cache x1】
【Ding! The Rustmaw Hurler has been slain. The eighth Beast Surge is imminent. Please prepare.】
【10, 9, 8...】
Shit!
Vance's heart plummeted. He whipped his head around and caught the scene in the distance. Calder's four Chain Scourges were wrapped around the largest of the Rustmaws, twisting and crushing it. Green blood sprayed everywhere, splashing across Calder's body, painting the cruel smile on his face in ghastly strokes.
Vance could almost hear his silent words echoing across the battlefield.
I told you. Hell is just beginning.
The terror in Vance’s eyes intensified.
"Waaaaah! I don't want to die!!" someone in the group finally broke, collapsing into shuddering sobs.
Nothing is more horrifying than a hopeless situation that only gets worse.
This time, even Caden, the stalwart pillar of their group, felt his composure crack.
How the hell are we supposed to fight this?!
From his vantage point, Calder watched their unraveling with a cold smirk. You love kill-stealing so much? Now you have more monsters than you could ever want.
He was keeping them alive for a reason. In The Surge Grounds, the number of monsters in each wave was determined by the number of players challenging it. More players meant more monsters. If this horde had just managed their numbers intelligently, they never would have been overrun. Nearly a thousand people, and not a single one had figured out that simple mechanic. They were hopelessly stupid.
But that wasn't the main reason for their failure.
Calder's gaze drifted over the crowd, landing on the despair-ridden face of Vance. In the world of The Eternal Dominion, only 'monsters' had the right to rise. As for the weak... they should have just stayed quietly in their corner.