Chapter 25: The Nightmare
The group arrived at a clearing in the forest.
In the center of the clearing, a small open-air altar was built with stone pillars, on which mysterious and profound secret texts were engraved. Eleanor glanced around and said in the channel:
“No enemies found…”
Her tone was a bit surprised, because Asker had said that they would encounter the first boss here, and his predictions had never been wrong before.
“No, the boss is already here.” Asker said.
Following his gaze, everyone saw two identical Nuos standing behind the team. They looked at each other warily, their eyes full of uncertainty.
“Disguise?” Medea frowned and said, “Is it an ability of the Illusion Sequence?”
“I don’t know! She…” The two Nuos exclaimed in the mental communication channel at the same time, but before they could finish speaking, Medea stopped them:
“Don’t talk! No matter which one of you is the real Nuo, the other fake, although disguised by the enemy, cannot have enough understanding of your personality, it can only temporarily disguise as your appearance. The more you say, the more information you reveal to it! Stay calm first, and then wait for us to come up with a way to identify it. Before we see through its true face, it cannot actively expose itself to harm you!”
Immediately, both Nuos fell silent. She was not stupid, but she was just a little overwhelmed by the supernatural phenomenon.
Since Medea was right, the two Nuos calmed down at the same time, only frowning and staring at each other coldly. The others also stared at the two girls intently, for fear that one of them would suddenly attack.
“That’s right.” Asker walked over. “You will face many supernatural phenomena in the future, such as being suddenly teleported to a certain place, your companions or yourself undergoing mutations, being sucked into the world of mirrors, or your shadows being distorted into enemies. Just remember one thing: no matter how strange the phenomenon you encounter, the first thing to do is to keep calm.”
The two Nuos both showed a tearful expression upon hearing this, their resentful eyes seemed to say, “Captain! Is this the time for you to teach us a lesson? Can you get rid of the fake on the other side first?”
“As Medea said, this first boss, the Nightmare, can only disguise its appearance for the time being, and its memory is still flawed. However, every mature Nightmare has the ability of the Mind Sequence and can continuously read the memories of the surrounding mental bodies, so once the time drags on long enough, it will become completely indistinguishable from Nuo.” Asker put one hand on his sword and came to the two Nuos. “As for the method of identification, it’s actually very simple, just use the characteristics of the Mind Sequence in reverse.”
His expression suddenly turned cold, and he said to the two Nuos in a chilling voice:
“Now! Nuo, repeat what I say immediately! ‘Eat grapes without spitting out the grape skins, eat grapes without spitting out the grape skins!’”
The Nuo on the left opened her mouth halfway, but couldn’t utter the strange pronunciation, her face full of a bewildered ??? expression. The Nuo on the right subconsciously said:
“Eat grapes without spitting out the grape skins…”
“You can even speak Chinese!” Asker suddenly drew his sword, a flash of cold light, and the fake Nuo was slashed across the chest. Her figure immediately dissipated, leaving only a pool of blue blood on the ground.
“It’s not dead, everyone be careful!” Medea warned in the mental communication.
“Nuo, stand in the middle, everyone else form a circle around her, with your backs to her!” Asker also quickly gave the order.
So everyone quickly gathered together, surrounding Nuo in a circle, each facing outwards and on guard.
Judging from the appearance of this boss, it was obviously proficient in illusion and invisibility abilities. It wouldn’t be fun if it came behind someone and backstabbed them. The solution was of course to form a circle back to back, so that the other party couldn’t get in even if they wanted to backstab.
Sure enough, after probably circling around invisibly and failing to find a suitable place to strike, the Nightmare appeared in front of everyone at a distance of more than twenty steps.
It was a humanoid monster with blue skin all over its body, its limbs were slender and strangely thin, and its nerve bundle-like hair was draped behind its head, fluttering as if in the wind. Its feet were suspended in the air more than ten centimeters above the ground, and it stretched out its six-fingered palms towards everyone, invisible mental waves rippling in the air like faint ripples.
Is that the hypnotic ability of the Dream Sequence? Medea’s pupils shrank. No, the target of its ability is me!
A huge drowsiness surged from her chest to her head, her entire mind began to numb, and her consciousness was rapidly falling into a coma. Medea, who was about to fall asleep, finally understood why the Dream Sequence was the natural enemy of the Succubus – the stronger the mental ability, the more sensitive the perception of the mental body, the easier it was to be hit by the abilities of the Dream Sequence…
Her eyelids drooped, and she fell into a deep sleep, her spirituality also becoming dim and introverted. The others almost immediately noticed something was wrong, because the mental communication that had been maintained was cut off!
Asker quickly aimed at the Nightmare and pulled the trigger, firing three shots in a row. The Nightmare stretched out a finger and calmly drew a circle in the air. The bullets shot into the circle it drew disappeared as if stones had fallen into a lake, only ripples rippling in the air.
Dream materialization! This was an advanced ability of the Dream Sequence, opening a portal between the collective unconscious and reality. The bullets shot into this portal, turning from reality to illusion, and were teleported to the collective unconscious.
Then the Nightmare closed its six fingers and lightly clenched its fist. Medea, who was in a deep sleep, groaned, and her body suddenly convulsed as if in severe pain.
Under the control of the Nightmare’s ability, the bullets that had entered the collective unconscious pierced through her mental body, causing her spirituality to suffer damage equivalent to being shot!
“Heal!” Asker shouted a reminder, and charged towards the boss with the others, drawing their swords.
Nuo hurriedly helped her up and activated the healing touch ability of Life I. She found that three of her internal organs had undergone mutations, two in the lungs and one in the stomach. The tissue cells seemed to have been damaged and began to spontaneously atrophy and die. Through her extraordinary ability to heal, Nuo finally stabilized the deterioration of her injuries, and then she realized that she was covered in cold sweat, her whole body so nervous that she almost fainted.
Suddenly, Medea groaned and woke up weakly. The Nightmare in front of her had already turned around gracefully, its palm aimed at Peggy, who was approaching first at high speed, and activated its hypnotic ability again.
Peggy, who was running, immediately fell into a deep sleep uncontrollably, her whole body falling to the ground and sliding for several meters. The Nightmare sat back, its buttocks lightly against Peggy’s back, and snapped its fingers at Asker and Eleanor, who were rushing behind.
Dream Puppet!
Between the two and the Nightmare, a translucent tall figure emerged as if from thin air. He was wearing angular powered armor, his whole body two meters tall. He held a huge kite shield in his left hand and a steel spear in his right hand. A triangular flag was nailed to the tip of the spear, on which a white swan was painted. A thick iron chain was tied to the end of the spear, the other end of the chain connected to the arm armor of his right hand.
“Is this, Father?” Eleanor, who was sprinting, exclaimed in shock, but her pace did not slow down. She almost instantly judged that this was an illusion created by the other party. Combined with what Asker had said before, it should be a fake spirit created by reading her memory!
She lowered her center of gravity during the charge and swung her shield at the illusion of her father. The tall illusion also lowered its body and raised its shield at the same time. The two shields collided, and the force from it was unshakable. The two almost simultaneously tilted their bodies and thrust their spears again. The real and the illusory spears collided, making a dull sound like a bell.
It’s actually using my memory, Father’s martial arts, to deal with me! The anger deep in Eleanor’s heart was ignited. She roared and rotated her forearm, her waist twisting with all her might to swing the spear. This was the Weiss family’s special spear technique “Iron Cutter,” swinging the spear like a warhammer to smash the enemy. Because it used the power of the waist and abdomen, it could be launched quickly at a very close distance.
The two were extremely close at this time. The tall illusion did not have time to turn its shield, but only put the spear in its hand on the shield surface, barely blocking this Iron Cutter. Its body suddenly leaned forward, its right foot kicked back against the ground, and its whole body was actually pushed back half a step. Eleanor had already retracted her spear, bent her right leg, half-kneeled, and then bounced up with all her might, thrusting her spear violently with the help of the upward momentum.
Bavarian Lion Spear Technique: Cloud Piercer (Durchlochern Wolkendecke)!
This Cloud Piercer came even faster, so fast that the tall illusion had no time to block, and could only twist the spear in its hand and counterattack with the same Iron Cutter. Eleanor’s spear pierced through the weak jaw of its armor, and the spear pierced through its head from bottom to top. If it were a normal living being, this blow would be enough to be fatal.
However, the other party was just an illusion made of spirits, and it did not follow the rule that living beings would die if they were injured. Facing the enemy’s counterattack with the Iron Cutter spear technique, Eleanor could only move the end of her spear to block in a hurry.
Iron Cutter hit the end of her spear and her chest, sending her flying with the spear. She vomited blood directly in the air, landed on the ground and rolled a few times, her face almost deformed due to the intense pain.
The meteorite armor perfectly withstood this blow, saving her from the fate of being cut in half on the spot. However, the force that was only dispersed and weakened by the chest armor almost took half her life.
The whole process on her side seemed to be a flurry of activity, full of danger, but it actually only took six or seven seconds. Asker had already crossed the two who were fighting and rushed towards the Nightmare boss with his sword.
Drawing Slash! The single-edged curved sword (which could also be considered a knife because it was single-edged) that was violently drawn from its scabbard drew a shimmering cold light in the air, slashing straight at the enemy’s neck. The Nightmare, on the other hand, tapped lightly in the air with a solemn expression, silently activating its dream materialization ability.
In front of the invisibly distorted space was the mental body of Peggy, who was sleeping in the collective unconscious. If Asker really slashed down, he would only hit Peggy.
Therefore, the momentum of the fierce charge suddenly stopped. Asker had already taken three steps in a row, using short and skillful steps, he actually stuck to the Nightmare and walked in a C-shape, instantly circling behind it.
The Nightmare hurriedly turned around, and another flash of sword light came towards it. In a panic, the Nightmare could only focus its gaze and activate its life-saving innate extraordinary ability.
Nightmare Plunge!
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