'Oh? The little imp evolved! Way to go, Nookie!'
Shye was ready to step in if the little imp needed help. He hadn't anticipated that his Necrollin Puppeteer would evolve into a Necrollin Master Puppeteer—a hidden blessing within the danger little Nookie faced.
However, Nookie wasn't so little anymore; it had grown to the size of a child, standing about four and a half feet tall, though it didn't resemble one at all.
Its limbs were now disturbingly long and thin, and its face resembled that of a sinister demon as if it had crawled straight out of a horror story.
It looked like sothing that would haunt one's nightmares, appearing if they went to sleep without praying for a guardian angel's protection.
"You'll all pay for destroying my precious Bambee! Even if you try to escape now, I'll hunt each and every one of you to the edges of the world!"
Nookie roared, its voice resembling that of ancient, unholy witches. The sound sent chills down the adventurers' spines, made their hearts tremble, and caused their skin to crawl.
At that mont, only a few of them didn't regret their choice to embark on this random purge mission posted by multiple guilds.
There were initially twenty-five of them. Now, only ten of them remain. The operation was an absolute disaster.
Yet, they couldn't retreat even if they wanted to due to multiple reasons.
First, there was no way they could back out now after suffering such losses, or they would be the butt of jokes amongst the adventurers of Roddentrodge City.
Secondly, they knew that Necrollins were intensely vengeful creatures; thus, even if they chose to retreat now, this one would likely hunt them to all corners of the world, just as it had vowed.
They didn't dare take the risk, as they preferred a peaceful daily life, facing danger only occasionally during quests, rather than living in constant fear of a sudden attack by the vengeful Necrollin.
They knew they had to kill it now, or they would be forced to live in fear forever—especially since the cursed Necrollin seed to have evolved into so kind of variant.
Unfortunately, they didn't have Shye's appraisal skill, and they couldn't be certain about what had happened to their monstrous foe.
They could only fight on.
"Everyone, don't worry about its evolution! It still needs its puppets to pose a threat to us! If we destroy the remaining three puppets, its evolution will be aningless!" The operation leader nad Abel exclaid in an attempt to rally his teammates and give them a small morale boost.
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He didn't lie.
Necrollin Puppeteers would always need puppets to be a threat, so as long as they destroy the remaining three puppets, they would prevail.
Unfortunately, they were unfamiliar with the Necrollin Master Puppeteer, as it was an exceedingly rare creature.
Probably only one in ten thousand Necrollin Puppeteers would awaken their talents and evolve, leaving most people unaware of their abilities.
Unbeknownst to the purge party, the corpses of their comrades, located about a kiloter away, were starting to twitch uncontrollably, as if responding to a dark, unholy summons.
Even Shye and Zeth weren't aware.
At first, the only noticeable change was that the remaining puppets moved more fluidly, making them slightly more powerful.
This naturally gave the purge party the confidence to prevail, allowing them to make riskier maneuvers that, in turn, resulted in greater chances to destroy Nookie's puppets.
In their minds, if this was the only change brought about by evolution, then as long as they stick to their plan and work a little harder, they would be able to eventually bring down the necrollin.
Minutes passed one after the other as the remaining puppets engaged in a fierce skirmish against the ten fairly high-ranked adventurers, swinging their horrifying claws and opening their gigantic maws as they lunged, clawed, and chomped at their adversaries.
In contrast, the adventurers masterfully dodged, sidestepping, dashing, and blinking away from the attacks, followed by diocre retaliation from their comrades that slowly but surely destroyed the bodies of Nookie's puppets.
The adventurers believed that ti was on their side as there were ten of them and only one necrollin puppeteer.
The scrawny monster was bound to tire out faster, a huge blunder as a few dozen of ters away, the corpses of their forr comrades dashed towards their location, as fast as when they were alive, if not faster.
Their best bet would've been to go all out right from the start and take Nookie out before his reinforcents arrived.
Unfortunately, they weren't even aware that they made the worst decision, horribly failing in strategy due to their lack of information against their opponent.
After a few more minutes of intense combat, footsteps sounded, those of humans, causing Shye to feel alard as he was worried for Nookie.
He decided to intercept the adventurers' reinforcents, thinking that it would be too much for the recently evolved Necrollin.
However, before he could even stand up, Zeth stopped him.
'Master, there's no need to help the little imp. I sense no life from the bodies of the reinforcents.' The duchess said, montarily confusing Shye.
Then, a few more milliseconds later, he realized what was happening.
'The reinforcents were Nookie's!' He inwardly exclaid, finally seeing one of them up close sprinting at full speed.
They were indeed the corpses of the fallen adventurers they saw on the way.
However, what puzzled Shye, or at least made him doubt what was happening, was that so of the corpses were found more than a kiloter away from their current location.
'Can Nookie now sense the locations of corpses more than a kiloter away and control them?' He pondered.
If so, then his Necrollin should at least be…
'Appraisal!'
[Na]: Necrollin Master Puppeteer
[Creature Rank]: S
[Creature Type]: Dark/Void
Shye didn't focus much on its attributes as the Necrollin Master Puppeteer's strengths lie in its ability to control multiple high-ranked corpses and how smoothly they could do it. The ability to sense corpses was rely a rather imbalanced bonus.
'Hoh, as I thought, it is now an S-ranked creature…'
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