Chapter 650: Big Trouble
Without any mental defense spells, unless you have the willpower to abandon these negative emotions, it's impossible to break free on your own.
Some might even struggle in endless illusions until death.
But if your will is strong, and you don’t let negative emotions take hold, you can rely on sheer willpower—or a mental ward—to break free the moment you’re trapped in an illusion.
After a full minute of Anderson’s furious flames, the dozen Screamers finally dissipated for good.
Apart from Leon, no one else realized that a monster’s tentacle had just appeared.
Once Leon explained, Anderson’s expression grew grave.
“Leon, don’t you think this is way too much of a coincidence? The moment you cracked the Alchemical Gate, a dozen Screamers unleashed their Soul Wail on us, and while we were lost in illusions, a tentacle attacked…”
Everyone’s faces darkened. Hubert and Reina looked especially troubled—their time trapped in illusions had been long. Judging by Reina’s pain and anger, she’d clearly been thrown into some nightmare about her father.
And Hubert...
If Leon hadn’t saved him, Hubert would’ve been stuck in the illusion forever.
The appearance of the monster’s tentacle made Leon frown as well.
The real problem: only a single tentacle appeared—who knows where the monster itself is hiding?
If it could ambush us from behind the door, it must have our movements completely figured out. Whatever it’s using, it probably knows exactly where we are and what we’re doing.
Thinking back to when we were ambushed by undead, it’s starting to look like this monster’s been pulling the strings all along.
Now alert, every time we cracked an Alchemical Gate after that, we made sure our defenses were airtight.
Sure enough, when we broke through the twelfth Alchemical Gate, another ambush hit us.
A level thirty-seven Skeleton King, draped in a tattered cloak and standing over five meters tall, swung a massive Reaper’s Scythe at us.
At the same time, two more tentacles attacked from either side, and several thick, pitch-black tentacles lashed out from behind and the flanks.
The moment the ambush hit, everyone—already prepared—launched a counterattack without hesitation.
Anderson controlled the Arcane Wheel, unleashing a barrage of fire spells that swept across the left side of the corridor. Reina cast frost magic, attacking the right, while the Alchemical Golem bombarded the black tentacles surging from the opposite room with a flurry of instant-cast spells.
Up front, Hubert swung Slaughter and clashed with the Skeleton King, while Leon raised the Doombringer Staff, unleashing a torrent of single-target fire spells.
Flaming spears shot out first—Fire Spears were especially effective at restraining these tentacles. Once pinned, Leon immediately cast Detonation, and the powerful blast and fire damage, after three consecutive Detonations, severed both tentacles completely.
The severed black tentacles instantly dissolved into black smoke and vanished.
Without the aid of its tentacles, a level thirty-seven Skeleton King—especially one without skeletal warriors for support—stood no chance against Hubert and Leon attacking together. After its left leg was blasted off by a Detonation, Hubert smashed it with Slaughter, reducing it to a heap of shattered bones.
Elsewhere, it was the Alchemical Golem who finished first—its barrage of instant-cast fire spells shattered three black tentacles ten meters away.
Anderson’s side wasn’t far behind. The Arcane Wheel spun rapidly, sending out dozens of Fire Spears—five black tentacles were obliterated before they could even get close.
On Reina’s side, Frost Ray and Ice Lance alternated—when a black tentacle was frozen into an ice block by Frost Ray, three or four Ice Lances struck at once, shattering the tentacle into fragments of ice, leaving it no chance to escape as black smoke.
Though this time they weren’t forced onto the defensive, not a single face looked relieved.
Even Hubert, for once, could swear by the name of Theodosius: that monster knew their every move, and could easily launch an ambush at any moment.