Chapter 324: The big bad is here
Miasmic Dominion (Rank B): Unleashes a poisonous domain centered on the user, saturating the area in corrosive miasma that seeps into air, ground, and living flesh. Within the domain, enemy regeneration is reduced by 30%, poison damage bypasses basic resistances, and afflicted targets suffer progressive stat decay the longer they remain inside.
The domain absorbs lingering toxins in the environment and converts them into mana or blood energy for the user. Killing a poisoned target inside the domain causes a burst of contagion, infecting nearby enemies. Duration: 60 seconds per activation, extendable with sustained mana or blood energy.
Cooldown: 3 minutes.
Damon’s lips curved in satisfaction as the details appeared. Domain skills were always overpowered. This was why C-ranked players could never be touched by even elite D-ranked players. Developing a powerful domain skill meant half the victory was already achieved.
And this skill was pretty powerful. It would let him suffocate groups, cripple bosses, and even replenish himself mid-fight if the situation dragged on. With this, he would now be able to finish the swarm around him even faster. Obtaining such a skill before even stepping into C rank was insane!
However, Damon did not have the mood to celebrate. He looked at the fallen, bloodless corpse, and something about it was off. It seemed weak? Too weak to be the big boss of this place? Did he miscalculate?
Damon’s eyes narrowed as he crouched beside the body, brushing a clawed fingertip over the charred scales. The flesh beneath crumbled too easily. This thing had been strong, yes, but not that strong. It wasn’t the apex predator he had been expecting.
Just as he was mulling over this, a ripple in the miasma made him glance up. All of a sudden, powerful surges appeared in the distance, revealing ten other opponents. They were so powerful that their mere presence created a tornado of miasma around them, and these tornadoes were directly headed for him.
In the blink of an eye, ten other C-rank scale fiends were standing in front of him. Their scaled hides shimmered with different hues, slate grey, moss green, volcanic red, each variant exuding a unique poisonous aura. Miasma whipped into spiraling columns around them, laced with streaks of venomous light, as if the very atmosphere had bent to their will.
His gaze slid across the formation, noting the subtle differences. Two of them bore jagged greatblades that seemed to drip molten venom, another clutched a polearm grown from petrified bone, and one in the back carried no weapon at all, but its miasma was so thick that the sludge beneath its feet dissolved into a bubbling pit.
One stepped forward, its tail slamming into the ground with enough force to split the earth. Its voice was a low rumble. "You killed our brother. For that, we will strip your flesh and drink your heart’s blood." The others hissed in unison.
Damon’s blood spheres began to vibrate, swirling tighter around him. His crimson eyes burned like fresh embers as his mana core throbbed with anticipation.
"Ten at once, huh?" he muttered with an excited gleam in his eyes. "Guess it’s time to see how well my new domain works under... extreme testing conditions." This was the most dangerous situation he had faced in a while, and he wanted to push himself to see how far he could go.
The ten scale fiends moved as one, their combined auras crushing down on the battlefield until the very air felt toxic enough to burn through lungs.
Lesser abominations simply withered where they stood, collapsing into pools of sludge before they could even crawl away. Each step the fiends took stirred the miasma into violent eddies, as if the battlefield itself had become their weapon.
Damon laughed inwardly. Everything they were doing was only making him stronger!
"Come on! Give me more! Give me more!" He patiently waited for them to buff up the miasma even more, but the scale fiends quickly took matters into their own hands. Four of them charged forward while the other four started casting some sort of skill.
Damon did not want to take any chances while fighting against C-rank monsters. He instantly activated his strongest and newly acquired skill. [Miasmic Domain]
The next second, a crimson-tinged poison mist erupted from Damon’s body, spreading outward like a tidal wave, swallowing the area around him in moments. It was heavier, denser, and far more insidious than the fiends’ miasma.
The creatures looked shocked. Their regeneration faltered instantly, their scales dulling as the toxic decay began gnawing at them from within. Every breath they took now siphoned mana and vitality away. Their speed reduced, their movements became weak, and they were even unable to think clearly.
What was happening? How could this weak bloodsucker in front of them affect their superior corruption-forge bodies? Impossible!
The first of the four charging fiends reached Damon, swinging its venom-dripping great blade in a murderous arc. But the motion was sluggish now, weighed down by the creeping rot of his domain. Damon dissolved into a blur of shadows with [Shadowstep], reappearing at the creature’s flank.
Three blood spheres shot forward in an instant, piercing through the gaps in its neck armor like red-hot nails. The fiend choked, clutching at its throat as the poison in its blood mixed with the decay of the domain.
The second it toppled, [Miasmic Dominion] triggered its contagion effect, an invisible shockwave of venom blasted outward, latching onto the nearest two fiends and instantly deepening their toxic decay.
"Beautiful," Damon murmured, already weaving fire mana into the tip of a forming [Blood Lance]. He spun, hurling it at the moss-green fiend behind the front line. The spear detonated inside its chest in a burst of molten crimson, the heat boiling its miasma into nothing and leaving the creature writhing.
At the same time, Damon used [Poison Burst] successively followed by [Poison Explode], extending the effect of his domain even further.
The four in the back, still in mid-cast, faltered as their concentration wavered. Damon could feel their willpower eroding, their mental clarity slipping beneath the combined influence of his poison generation skills and the suffocating domain.
The battlefield had now successfully become his hunting ground! This was his domain now!
One by one, he took down the scale fiends, the beasts standing no chance after being affected by his poison. It was as if they were no longer even C rank. The battle became completely one-sided, and Damon won in no time.
But just as the last one fell, Damon froze as a powerful aura swept past him the next moment. The stench of decay was swept aside in an instant, replaced by something far heavier, an oppressive, primal killing intent that made him stop in his tracks.
Whatever was sleeping in the tall mountains was finally awake, and it was about to fuck him up!
Damon mentally prepared himself as he drained the last bit of blood essence from the fallen scale fiends in a hurry.
He had wanted to evolve first before he fought this thing. He had wanted to level up his poison body and his poison generation further. Heck, he would have preferred if all of his skills had been upgraded once more.
And now he was out of time.
The big boss was about to show up any moment now!
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Not many of you might have noticed it but I did a small fck up and uploaded this Chapter before the last Chapter. Now its all edited and good but if someone read it in the wrong order, you can refresh and try again, it should be fixed. I fixed it immediately so most of you should only be seeing the correct order of Chapters. Sorry about that.