Chapter 55: The Rampaging Catwoman

Nina brandished her greatsword furiously, cleaving through the relentless wave of skeletons scrabbling to the surface. But the onslaught had completely disrupted the wolfmen’s formation, rendering their shield wall impossible to maintain.

Before they knew it, the wolfmen warriors found themselves scattered, crossing weapons with skeletons that had grown considerably stronger under their eerie, ghastly glow. Those wielding heavy weapons like mauls had an easier time, but conventional blades scarcely made an impact on these skeletal foes. Some warriors were even forced to lift their wooden shields, using them as improvised weapons to fend off the relentless undead.

Soon enough, a wolf warrior found himself swamped. Tiny, rat-like skeletons clamped onto his legs, their bony spurs piercing his calves. A moment’s distraction was all a towering skeleton needed. It wielded a large thigh bone as a club, smashing it down on the warrior’s arm and dislodging his shield. Almost immediately, a swarm of four or five skeletons pinned him to the ground.

Anguished howls erupted from the wolfman.

Wu Qingsong acted without hesitation, kicking away a squirrel skeleton and then placing his hand on Liuli’s chest.

However, Liuli’s heartbeat was erratic, its rhythm more like a chaotic drumbeat, making it difficult for him to synchronize.

“Liuli!” Wu Qingsong yelled. “Don’t look at them. Look at me. Trust me, trust in yourself.”

Liuli shut her eyes tightly, a move that proved somewhat effective. After a few tense seconds, Wu Qingsong finally sensed the familiar energy they had honed through months of practice.

A “Meow~” resonated.

A cat’s paw abruptly caught a humanoid skeleton lunging at them, its skull seized and hurled into a heap of other skeletons, scattering them like bowling pins.

“Meow~ This is infuriating,” roared Liuli, who had grown gigantic.

She swiftly seized another skeleton and used it as an impromptu weapon, swirling around with frenzied might. In mere moments, she cleared out a large safe zone around her.

“Regroup over here,” Wu Qingsong yelled.

He quickly grabbed a stray femur bone lying on the ground and sprinted toward Matthew, who was swarmed by diminutive skeletons that poked him relentlessly with their bone spurs. Letting out a painful howl, Matthew flailed his arms. Wu Qingsong swung the bone with wild abandon, shattering the skeletons that blocked Matthew’s way and giving him a chance to fall back to Liuli’s protective radius. Then, still covered in clinging skeletons, Wu Qingsong theatrically hurled himself to the ground.

“Die!”

Mimicking a wrestling move he’d once seen on TV, Wu Qingsong crushed several hapless skeletons beneath him. Although he lacked the body weight and wasn’t armored, rendering the impact less crushing than he had hoped, he succeeded in shaking off the skeletal nuisances.

Regrettably, the surrounding wolfmen were too engrossed in their struggles to take note of his daring maneuver.

By now, Liuli had picked up a discarded shield from the ground, brandishing it like a gargantuan cleaver. The enormous force she exerted, when paired with such a cumbersome weapon, was an ideal combination. No skeleton standing in her way could escape being reduced to smithereens.

The catwoman seemed particularly taken with this fighting style and plunged headlong into the most densely packed group of skeletons, leaving utter devastation in her path, much like a bulldozer.

“Don’t get entangled with them,” Wu Qingsong urgently cried out.

Her stamina for battle wouldn’t last more than fifteen minutes at best, and as little as ten at worst. However, the valley was swarming with at least a hundred, if not two hundred, undead. How much longer could this battle possibly last?

“Go after the mage,” he shouted frantically.

A sharp pain pricked his back. Swinging the femur bone in his hand with all his might, he spun around and sent the skull of the skeleton that was jabbing at his lower back soaring through the air. A swift kick sent another skeleton tumbling backward, only for even more to rush toward him.

Liuli hesitated for a brief moment before finally hurling her cracked and warped wooden shield into the thickest concentration of skeletons. She then charged toward the wolfman warriors, rallying them back together.

Yet in those mere moments, a minute or two, three warriors had already fallen, and nearly everyone else was sporting some injury.

Wu Qingsong was pinned to the ground under the weight of seven or eight skeletons, his struggles futile. Liuli rushed over, effortlessly tossing the skeletons aside, and pulled him free.

“Forget me! Help Nina take down that mage,” Wu Qingsong said.

Nina had broken away from the group earlier and had now closed in dangerously close to the necromancer. She was fully encircled. Though the skeletons posed no real challenge to her–each meeting with them ended in them being sliced into pieces–six or seven zombies mingled amongst the bony foes, relentlessly attacking her. The wolfmen could not support her with their firebottles.

Nina was starting to feel overwhelmed.

Her armor was stained with fluids seeping from the zombies. Her silver hair was a mess, but her eyes remained firmly fixed on the necromancer, who stood smirking triumphantly on a boulder.

“Meow~ So annoying! I know what I’m doing, I don’t need your useless instructions,” Liuli said, clearly annoyed. With a swift move, she grabbed a nearby zombie and shattered all surrounding skeletons into pieces.

Wu Qingsong was momentarily stunned. Meanwhile, Liuli hoisted a stone as large as a millstone, twirled it twice in place, and viciously hurled it at the mage.

A translucent magical barrier appeared around the necromancer, repelling the massive stone. Nevertheless, the thunderous impact clearly startled him, causing him to hastily descend from his elevated perch.

Liuli let out a satisfied “Meow,” picked up another large stone, took a few quick strides forward, and launched it with full force.

The magical shield activated once more but showed visible signs of wear and tear this time.

Emboldened, Liuli continuously picked up nearby undead and hurled them toward the necromancer. Translucent ripples kept forming in the air around him, deflecting the incoming skeletons and zombies. Sweat began to bead on the necromancer’s forehead. Clearly, maintaining his protective shield under such a relentless onslaught was becoming increasingly taxing for him.

“What the hell kind of oddity are you?” he yelled out in frustration. “Where did you even come from?”

“Meow~ You’re the one who’s an oddity,” Liuli shot back disdainfully. “Just drop dead!”

“Use my sword,” Nina yelled, as she also hurled zombies next to her at the necromancer, finally managing to take a breather.

However, Liuli had already been in her transformed state for seven or eight minutes, and no one knew how much longer she could sustain it.

Clutching the massive two-handed sword similar to the one she had been training with for some time, Liuli let out a satisfied meow. Dragging the heavy blade behind her, she swung it wildly as she charged toward the necromancer.

Skeletons and zombies crumbled into pieces before her unstoppable advance. In her hands, the same sword that Nina wielded was like a different weapon altogether.

While zombies under the necromancer’s command could barely hold off Nina’s attacks, in the presence of the transformed catwoman, they didn’t stand a chance. They were either sent flying in one piece or shattered into smithereens.

In just a few seconds, Liuli and her sword had cleared a pathway four to five meters wide through the sea of skeletons.

Amidst the necromancer’s cries of disbelief, her enormous sword came crashing down with tremendous force. It shattered one magical shield in mid-air but was stopped by another, emitting a deafening boom that reverberated in everyone’s ears. The finely forged steel blade even bent slightly upon impact, while the necromancer coughed up blood, his energy visibly sapped.

“Die!” Liuli roared, raising her sword again for a merciless strike at the necromancer. This time, his magical barrier offered only token resistance before crumbling to pieces. The massive sword landed with a crash beside him, nearly cleaving him in two.

“So you dare call me an ‘oddity’?” Liuli sneered, grabbing him by the neck and hoisting him into the air. “Clear these abominations away, or I’ll snuff out your miserable life!”