Chapter 223. New Card (3)
Chapter 223. New Card (3)
The enemy died after getting hit by the Spirit Wave.
'He ended up dying after all.'
Almond glanced at the enemy's fading body and returned to farming minions.
— Woaaaaah!
— Almond! Almond! Almond!
— So cool!
Fans were thrilled when he took down the enemy using Spirit Wave without even looking.
Almond would’ve loved to respond to the enthusiastic crowd, but he had no time to spare because this character was a shop pick. He went over what he just learned while using the Spiritmaster skill.
'I'm weak at Level 1.'
This character was clearly weak at Level 1.
The Spirit Wave’s basic damage wasn't much different from Raina's arrows. However, Raina's damage increased along with combos (yet she was still unpopular).
Spirit Wave wasn’t even a basic attack, so it had a 1.5 second cooldown and its damage didn’t incrementally increase.
'How many hits did I land?'
It felt like he landed around 15-20 hits. Considering he could shoot every 1.5 seconds, that meant he was attacking for a maximum of 30 seconds. It wouldn't be strange for all five summoners to die in LIL in just thirty seconds.
He had to keep hitting the enemy all the time to kill them. It would have been tough against a skilled opponent like ForeverAlone instead of a gold player.
'This skill has its advantages.'
It had one irreplaceable advantage, which was that he could control the projectile.
'It felt like having two or three more opportunities.'
If an arrow missed once, that was it. However, this projectile could change direction until it disappeared.
Players could use it like a guided missile if their control was good enough. Very few could actually do that though.
Maybe that was why Melly had such a reaction.
[Woah! You're really good!]
Melly's spirit attached itself to Almond. Normally, avatars didn't expose their souls like this. Whether or not it was because of the Spiritmaster’s concept or her personality, Melly frequently popped out.
[Why did you only play with me now?! Let's play together more often, okay?]
Melly didn't cling to just anyone. Although childlike, she was blunt and wouldn’t hesitate to speak her mind. Many summoners gave up because of her words.
Melly reacted like this because Almond easily overcame the barrier of multitasking. She perceived such people as soul-friendly contractors.
[You're really talented at being a Spiritmaster!]
In short, she thought he had talent to be a Spiritmaster.
'The avatar's personality is a bit of a drawback...'
On the other hand, Almond found Melly's pestering to be a drawback in picking this champion. Melly was unaware of this and excitedly suggested the next skill.
[Quickly, summon your spirit bodies! You've gathered a lot, haven't you?]
"Now? There aren’t any enemies."
[Why are there no enemies?]
Melly laughed and pointed forward. An enemy tower stood in the direction where she pointed.
[That's there, see.]
‘A tower?’ Almond was puzzled. 'Destroying the tower at Level 2?'
Taking down a tower at Level 2 was almost unimaginable.
'The champions are usually not wrong.'
Almond decided after some thought.
‘Whatever, the opponent is just gold.'
With contempt for the Gold-ranked enemy, he decided to try the summoning.
"Alright, let's do it.”
[Get into position and have the dead bodies around you come into your line of sight one by one.]
He decided to give it a try, as she said.
After performing the incantation for summoning spirit bodies, he quickly scanned the spots where the minions had died.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
A clear sound rang out, and the minions’ bodies dimly shone in purple.
[Purple glowing corpses can be revived!]
Even without this explanation, the design was intuitive enough to understand.
But...
'There's not enough corpses!'
The number of gathered souls didn’t match the number of corpses.
'Let's just do what we can for now.'
There would be more corpses when more minions arrived later.
Almond didn't particularly care and started the incantation for the summoning.
[Spirit Body Summon]
Koo-woong—
A heavy sound could be heard, and purple mist filled the ground. Black shadows in the mist began rising one by one.
[Spirit Body]
[Spirit Body]
[Spirit Body]
A total of 41 spirit bodies appeared. They held swords and bows that blazed in purple. Their eyes gleamed as they waited for the Spiritmaster's command.
'The lane is packed.'
The scale of the skill was larger than he expected. The spirit bodies overcrowded the middle lane. At this scale, even destroying the tower seemed possible.
[Now, move those adorable spirit bodies! That's the only way to have fun!]
Almond did as Melly suggested. He had to exert a different level of concentration than controlling a single Spirit Wave.
He had raised as many as 41 spirit bodies at once.
[It's too many, so one at a time...]
Spark...!
Flames lit up in the eyes of all 41 spirit bodies.
[Gasp! All at once!? Wow!]
Melly's pestering went in one ear and out the other as Almond concentrated on commanding the summons.
'Forward.'
The spirit bodies at the very front holding blazing purple swords glided forward. They didn’t make contact with the ground and floated in a semi-spiritual state.
— Poooong!
One of the leading spirit bodies dispersed into smoke after being hit by the tower's attack. It was killed in a single shot.
'One is weak, but...'
The tower's attack speed was too slow. The lead spirit body died, but the other spirits had already surrounded the tower in that time.
'Attack.'
Chuk!
They raised their purple mana swords all at once.
Kwaagwagwang!!!
Almost twenty swords struck the tower. It sounded like a bombardment.
The tower had to defend, but it would take a long time to eliminate all the clinging spirits with its slow attacks. There were still more spirit bodies too.
[Haha! It's fun! Destroy everything! Now, pull the bows too!]
Almond concentrated on the spirit bodies holding bows.
'Draw.'
Creak…
Nearly twenty bows were drawn back, and their stances weren’t sloppy either.
'Holding.'
Nocking, drawing, holding...
They released without giving away any signs of shooting.
— Paaang!!!
Numerous arrows imbued with purple mana flew up like a swarm of bees. And they hit the center of the tower all at once.
Purburbung!
The tower's health was instantly reduced by more than 30%.
[Whaaaat?! Why are you so good at shooting?! What is this!]
Melly enthusiastically praised Almond as she bounced around.
***
"Whew… Whew… Ah, no!"
Onion finally revived. He frantically ran with his hands full of electricity, ready to cast his magic.
The turret came into view.
'What the hell is that…?'
It looked like hell. The place was filled with numerous spirits emitting purple mist and the burning turret had lost almost half of its HP.
'Almost half of the turret's health is gone?'
What was going on?
Onion was inwardly dissatisfied but was actually in luck. Almond had fumbled the Spiritmaster spell, so the turret still had half of its health. If Almond had attacked immediately, it would have been destroyed by now.
“Hey! Jungler! Where are you!” Onion quickly called for his jungler.
It seemed more disadvantageous to defend alone.
“Sigh. Our mid sucks. I'm coming. How could you give him forty stacks!?”
“Haha…”
The jungler said he was coming, so Onion immediately unleashed his AOE magic on the spirits.
Sizzle!
Boom!
Many of them instantly disappeared. Onion’s elemental advantage certainly worked.
'These guys disappear with a single hit, but there are so many...'
A single hit from a summoner would kill the spirits because summoners had a stronger soul by lore. In addition, it was simply because the spirits had low HP. A basic attack was enough to kill one, and a magic skill wiped away multiple at once.
'I can clean them up quickly.'
Onion had nearly cleared all the spirits attached to the turret when—
"Huh...?"
Almond's spirits suddenly started retreating. Onion should've been satisfied with defending his turret. However…
"Leaving them be will be annoying later."
He wanted to chase and kill some more after seeing the spirits retreat. It wasn't a difficult task. The enemy was running away, and the jungler was also coming.
Onion impulsively dashed forward. That was his mistake.
"Where are you running... Huh?"
He forgot all about his positioning.
Thump.
The moment he stepped on a certain point in the mid-lane…
'What is this?'
A chilly feeling brushed past him from behind.
Whoosh!
Purple flames surged up, and new spirits rose from behind him.
'Wait.'
Onion was surprised and looked back at Almond. Clearly, Almond was casting the summoning. They made eye contact, and Almond smirked.
Onion had fallen into the trap.
'It was a trap...?'
Almond had intentionally lured and surrounded him, but something was strange. Souls were required to summon spirits.
"How does he have more souls? And so many?"
Seeing forty spirits, anyone would think that was all there was. Onion was no exception. He didn’t expect that Almond actually collected sixty-three souls.
'How many times was I hit!?'
He realized too late as the close-range spirits swooped in one by one.
Whoosh!
Purple swords whirled in front of his eyes. Onion quickly unleashed his electric magic.
[Burst]
This spell enveloped him in a storm of electricity.
Boom!
A spirit close to him vanished in smoke. If he was lucky, he could blow up ten in one go. However, only one disappeared.
'He's purposefully sending them one by one in small intervals.'
Boom! Boom!
No matter how much magic Onion used, catching more than two at a time was difficult. The spirits were just impeding his path.
'What's he trying to do?'
The spirits also couldn't deal much damage to Onion this way. Everything seemed fine.
"!?"
Then he finally noticed.
Creak—
Many long-range spirits were targeting him from a distance.
'When did they come back?'
They strategically attacked and backed off like a living army.
The archers released all their bows at once.
Paaang!
More than twenty arrows nailed Onion in the head.
Pubububuk!
"Shit...!"
[HP 50%]
Half of his HP disappeared.
A single attack from an astral form wasn't a big deal, but it was a different story if twenty of them shot arrows that all hit.
'Absurd...'
Their damage output wasn’t originally designed for all twenty arrows to hit. Naturally, the damage was absurd.
Almond’s control was actually absurd for all twenty arrows to hit.
'How on earth did they all hit!?'
Onion thought he would die again at this rate.
“I'm here!” the jungler appeared.
"Ah, you’re here...!"
Almond reacted even faster than Onion.
Whoosh!
All the ranged spirits suddenly aimed at the jungler. Arrows originally meant for Onion all flew toward the jungler. Hives formed on the jungler’s face, who was running energetically.
Ratatatat!
"What the!"
The jungler blocked his face with both arms and screamed.
"Ouch!"
"S-Should we run?" Onion asked in a tone that had lost all confidence.
The jungler shouted angrily, "What? Are you crazy?! He can't control all this anyway! Just charge in! We’ve come this far!"
The jungler wanted to charge in, so the time he invested in coming so far wouldn’t be wasted.
Honestly, Onion wasn't confident.
'Almond can't control all this... really?'
The jungler hadn’t seen Almond's spirit control for himself.
Chuck.
The jungler firmly gripped his axe and shouted, "Aim for the main body!"
Whoosh!
The axe flew precisely toward Almond with a ferocious sound.
Almond could have dodged, but he didn't move an inch.
Crash!
A spirit intervened and deflected the axe with a sword. Of course, that spirit dispersed into smoke upon receiving the attack. There was no need for Almond to counterattack.
Puff!
A spirit behind the jungler leaped forward and stabbed him in the back.
"What the!?"
The jungler turned and swung his axe.
Whoosh!
The spirit nimbly bent its waist and dodged.
The jungler’s mouth widened at the absurd spectacle.
Then he looked at Onion and asked, "Are these things alive?"
Those were his last words.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Multiple arrows pierced his side, and not a single one missed.
"Eeeek…!"
Onion desperately ran afterward, but fell as arrows pierced his back.
[LazySoldier double kill!]