For a moment, Xen worried he had angered the Living Armor enough by destroying its home. However, as the Living Armor slowly turned to face the destroyed corridor, those worries faded. Its focus seemed to be on Aria, who had just shot the arrow.

  "What?" Aria seemed to mutter in disbelief. "Why is it aggroing from that?"

  A question even Xen didn't know the answer to, but he mentally thanked his [Undeath Resonance] passive once again as he lay there, unable to move due to the powerful [Stun] inflicted by Aria's attack. He was mobilizing his mana and burning biomass to combat it faster. Unfortunately, the spell targeted the mana channels in his body, and his human form was only level 4, while Aria was level 19. It was an uphill battle that would take a while to overcome, and if the Living Armor hadn't come to his rescue, he would have been easily captured.

  The Living Armor drifted toward the collapsed corridor and came to a halt a few meters away. Mana writhed around it, twisting the air into a haze of corruption. Yet Xen knew this wasn't a skill being cast—this was the raw, oppressive aura of a monster whose command over death-aspected mana was so high it could bend the surroundings to its will.

  Xen watched in stunned awe from behind as he saw the Living Armor's chest plate slowly open up like a maw wanting to devour the world.

  Aria's eyes widened, and she pulled back her bow from the gap and jumped out of view.

  "Chains of the Damned," the Living Armor said, its voice hollow yet powerful. Three spectral chains crafted from necrotic mana shot out with immense speed, punching through the collapsed rock like it was nothing and coiling around the three warriors. Brandon's tower shield bent in half from the coiling force, and he unleashed a soul-wrenching scream as he collapsed to his knees and was slowly pulled toward the Living Armor.

  Brandon's inability to resist was expected, as the man was only a level 16 Juggernaut, which might as well be a toothpick to a level 52 floor boss. Surprisingly, Eric, who was a level 26 Paladin, managed to remain standing, but he was also yelling out in pain as the necrotic chain squeezed him and seared through his armor. Only Devon, the level 30 Warrior, seemed able to barely withstand being crushed and burned by the chains' necrotic energies as he appeared to activate another defensive skill.

  Xen shuddered at the thought of what would happen to his level 4 human form if he were the target of that skill. It had traveled so fast that he wouldn't have been able to dodge it, and it had so much force that it could punch through walls.

  I'd likely have exploded from the impact alone.

  Yet for some reason, that realization just made him hungrier. As he lay here on the floor, unable to move from a single skill shot by a mere level 19, he looked at the back of the Living Armor and foresaw his future potential. While these humans were limited by the hand they were dealt, he could become anything. All he had to do was survive, devour, level, and the world would be his. One day, he could even surpass this Living Armor.

  "Jill!" Devon shouted through gritted teeth.

  "I'm working on it!" the fire mage shouted back.

  Xen had been so focused on the Living Armor that he hadn't noticed the fire runes slowly materializing above the mage. They layered upon one another like rotating circles. He hadn't caught the name of the skill, so he was left guessing.

  Is this some kind of skill layering? It doesn't look like a single skill would be capable of emitting this much mana, even though she is a level 27 Infernal Mage. Xen paused. What was skill layering? Where had he gotten that idea from?

  Having a soup of people's memories mixed with the knowledge and instincts he had stolen from monsters could be confusing at times.

  Jill's eyes were glowing with crimson light as fire mana crackled all around her and into the rotating circles. Xen counted one, two, three... nine? There were nine circles in total stacked on top of one another like a funnel, with the top one rotating the slowest.

  Wait, shouldn't I get out of the way? Xen thought, and panic set in. He was on the other side of the room, near the far exit. But with the amount of mana being poured into Jill's skill, he began to think it might engulf the entire room. The problem? He was still [Stunned] and only about halfway to breaking free.

  "Okay, duck if you can!" Jill shouted, bringing her arms slowly downward as if worried she would lose control of the spell. The stack of runic rings that were now rotating horizontally clicked into place, aligning like the barrel of a cannon pointed straight at the Living Armor. A spark ignited—and then a white flame, compact and dense like a newborn star, bloomed at the center.

  The Living Armor didn't move. It simply stared at Jill, unfazed like a statue.

  The little white star detonated outward, straining against the nine encircling rings before erupting in a concentrated blast of fire mana. Xen's human eyes, peering through the helmet, were blinded by the white explosion. He had to switch to purely relying on his Mystic Perception to keep up with what was happening.

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  The Living Armor didn't flinch in the face of such raw power. Its shield, cloaked in black mana, met the fire beam with effortless grace—reflecting it as if the shield were a dark mirror. The redirected blaze slammed into the wall beside Xen, scorching stone and blasting debris across the room, some large chunks impacting his back and legs like burning meteors. His armor dented inwards, snapping his spine and skewering his organs.

  Pain like no other flooded his mind like a torrent, making his vision blur.

  [Use biomass to repair the body?]

  [Use biomass to repair the body?]

  [Use biomass to repair the body?]

  The system kept prompting him to save his dying body by expending biomass, but he couldn't focus. His world was spinning from the pain of his armor turning into a skewering prison. Left with no choice, he retreated his Necrovore slime body from the dying human form he had been puppeting. While this would kill the human form as he wasn't manually pumping its heart or working its lungs, it was basically already dead. No amount of biomass would save him here. He needed to break free from this armor and create a new form.

  However, he was still out in the open. If he crawled out of the helmet right now as a Necrovore Slime, he would be exposed, and there was a chance Aria would cast appraisal on him.

  Then it would all be over.

  So he waited, hiding in the helmet as the recreation of Joe bled out and turned into a cold corpse. Thankfully, nobody was paying him much attention. While the Living Armor had succeeded in deflecting the fire, it had destroyed the spectral chains, freeing the two warriors. Eric managed to retreat to Devon's side while chugging a potion, but Brandon was in a far worse position. Having been dragged far from the others, he was alone before the Living Armor—defenseless. His tower shield, which had pulverized wolves like they were nothing earlier, was now bent in half and lying uselessly on the ground. His armor had been cut through, and Xen could see his blackened flesh below from the necrotic mana. His howling screams still echoed through the room as he clutched his sides with trembling hands.

  "Brandon, get back!" Aria shouted to him.

  "I—I can't move," he yelled between the screams. "The chain dug into my spine." His eyes were wide with fear. "I'm paralyzed."

  A fate Xen could relate to, having been stunned. The difference was that Brandon didn't possess [Undeath Resonance], meaning the level 52 Living Armor floating ominously before him saw his existence as an eyesore that needed removal.

  The Living Armor raised its sword as if it were going to decapitate the human, but instead, it pointed the sword's tip at Brandon. "Hexband," it said with the same hollowness as before. A black sigil appeared on Brandon's forehead, and it pulsed as if it were alive under his skin. The Living Armor then lowered its sword as if it had lost interest and floated backward.

  Brandon was understandably terrified.

  "Help me, guys! Someone, drag me out of here!"

  He was met with silence.

  "Aria, are you there? What did it do to me? My forehead feels strangely cold," Brandon hissed through clenched teeth. "Hey? Why are you guys ignoring me?"

  Jill cleared her throat and said in a strained voice, "We can't save you, Brandon."

  "The fuck you mean?" he snapped back, unable to turn his head to see them. His body was paralyzed in a kneeling position before the Living Armor. "It's retreated! Just come and drag me back. I know I'm paralyzed, but the Iron Legion has skilled healers. I can bounce back from this—"

  "It's marked you for death," Jill replied resolutely.

  The statement hung in the air for a drawn-out moment.

  "What do you mean?" Brandon said after a while, desperation creeping into his tone.

  "Hexband is a delayed curse spell that can be remotely activated—turning you into a necrotic mana bomb. It's... toying with you," Jill explained, her head hanging low. "We can't save you, Brandon. Not without a priest to dispel it."

  "It's toying with me?" Brandon said as his eyes widened even more, and he stared at the Living Armor that had returned to the center of the room. "How long until the priests get here?"

  Sarah was the one to answer. "A few hours. The strike team is being organized right now."

  The two remaining warriors had their shields raised, and the group of Hunters was slowly backing up.

  "This can't be... I don't want to die," Brandon said, his eyes flickering around the room, eventually landing on Xen. "Joe, you bastard! Call the Living Armor off!"

  Xen didn't reply. Even if he could call the Living Armor off, he wouldn't. He had allowed these Hunters to walk, and they hadn't listened. It wasn't until their lives were threatened that they would listen. He understood and even empathized with Brandon's situation.

  But he still wanted him to die.

  "Joe! Are you listening to me? I curse you, everyone you know. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why did you become a Reaper and make us chase you down here?" he ranted, spittle flying from his mouth.

  I made you chase me down here? Xen was baffled by this twisted logic. Did he have a taunt skill he was unaware of? The last he checked, he simply wanted to live. Maybe Brandon's brain was being rotted away by the necrotic mana spreading through his body?

  Yeah, that had to be it.

  A tear rolled down Brandon's cheek. "Dammit," he cursed, "dammit all. Why did this happen to me?"

  "Sorry, Brandon," Aria called out as the group of Hunters rounded the corner, and Xen could hear them still retreating. "There's really nothing we can do to save you."

  "You're all no better than the monsters, leaving me like this to die," Brandon hissed, his head dropping as he stared wide-eyed at the floor.

  All Xen could think about was the irony of that statement. Hadn't he done the same to Gerald by leaving the mage to the wolves?

  Humans truly were contradictory creatures.

  Brandon kept his head hung, staring at the floor. Through his Mystic Perception, Xen confirmed that the Hunters had entirely left the corridor, and by their steps, they seemed to have retreated into the main room of the crypt.

  Leaving him alone with Brandon.

  He waited a while longer until he was sure they were gone.

  Why isn't the Living Armor killing him yet? Xen wondered. Was it really toying with the human? Either way, I've got to get out of here. With those priests on the way, I need to find a way out of this crypt and get as far away as possible.

  So, he squeezed out of the helmet in his slime form and rolled away from the body.

  Brandon stared at him.

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