Salvos (A Monster Evolution LitRPG) - Chapter 755.Three

755. Embracing Death Part Three

“[The King Of The Wild: The Joker].”

I heard Chordus’s voice echoing all around me as her figure shifted. I blinked a few times and slowed to a halt. I was prepared for whatever came next from this Skill. After all, every new Skill she used was much stronger than the last.

However, Naro wasn’t wary of this. He continued flying straight for the [Queen Of Diamonds] as she stood there stiffly, unmoving. He swung down at her with a blade of expanding ice—

And her form practically melted down into the spade beneath her feet.

“...did I get her?”

The [Hellprince] asked as he stared down at the spade. For a moment, nothing happened. And I narrowed my eyes too. But then I felt a strange shiver wash over my skin. Like [Angelic Premonition] was warning me that something dangerous was coming.

And then a laughter echoed all around us. A creepy laughter. First, it resounded like the giggling of a child. But slowly, it devolved into the maniacal cackle of a madman. Certainly, it sounded nothing like Chordus’s tinny and emotionless voice after she first transformed into the [Queen Of Diamonds].

Instead, it sounded much deeper, even if it was still somewhat feminine.

My eyes darted all around me at the floating spades that hovered in the air without moving. I remained wary, unsure of what was to happen next.

“Be careful, Naro! We don’t know what this Skill does!”

I called out to the [Hellprince] as he landed onto the spade where Chordus had disappeared. He waved a hand dismissively at me, responding casually.

“Right, right. I’m sure we’ll be fine—”

But then he froze when the spade beneath him shifted. A face began to form at his feet— a magical but creepy smile was reflected on the crystalline surface. It looked up at Naro as it laughed.

And the [Hellprince] leapt back as he cursed.

“What is that…?”

He stared down at the strange laughing face on the spade. But it didn’t do anything except continue to laugh. I blinked as I watched this reflection of a face appear all around us, projected onto the spades that were floating in the air.

And then, the laughter stopped.

I braced myself as I watched a figure begin to emerge from the spade that was closest to Naro. But instead of rising up like a forming crystal, it pooled up like a liquid, taking on a different shape compared to before.

A much smaller form.

While she was still made out of diamonds, with her heart visible through her chest, she was no longer a giant that dwarfed me in size. Furthermore, she was now wearing a mask that made her grin uncontrollably.

But the biggest change was the fact that she now had many different hands poking out of her back, each one carrying a different weapon. One hand, a sickle, another a sword, another a hammer, and another, an axe. She stood there for a long moment, unmoving as both Naro and I stared at her.

“What is she—”

I started. But then, the spades all around us resumed moving all of a sudden. They rapidly zipped around us, drawing our attention for a moment. Naro recoiled as one of the spades shot right over his head.

“Fuck—”

And then he froze as he saw the grinning face of Chordus there. She swung down at him with a hammer as he brought up his sword to block the attack. But his weapon shattered, and he was sent flying down to the ground in a blur.

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“Naro!”

I exclaimed as I reached out for him, watching the spade that carried Chordus fly off. But my eyes flickered as I felt something approaching me from behind. I spun around just in time to duck under a sickle aimed for my head.

Chordus was now on another spade, zipping by me as she laughed. I narrowed my eyes at that. But before I could even process where she was going, I sensed another attack coming at me from behind. This time, I didn’t even turn around. I just dove straight down, avoiding another strike for my head from a scythe.

The [Queen Of Diamonds] was moving between spades much faster than before. It was almost instantaneous. She was practically teleporting all around me in an instant. I didn’t have time to react.

All around me, the spades came my way. They flanked me, shooting by at such a rapid pace, they were just blurs in the corner of my eye. I dodged hammer swings, sword stabs, and the thrusts of spears too as I tried to time her attacks for a counter attack.

Until I finally was able to fight back, casting [Sacred Hellfire] at the smiling face of Chordus as she missed me with a broadsword.

I thought I got her. I watched as her face erupted into flames as she briefly recoiled. And in that moment of my distraction, my [Angelic Premonition] warned me of a blade coming for me from behind. But it wasn’t aimed for my head, so the alarm in my mind didn’t blare as loudly as it should have, and I wasn’t able to fly away in time.

An axe struck me on my back as I recoiled. The attack pierced through my flaming armor as a searing pain erupted from my spine. I cursed and spun around, seeing Chordus floating there right before me, staring at me with her grinning face. She just laughed as she raised her weapon to take another swing at me, and I took a moment longer than I should have to react.

Because… wasn’t her face supposed to be on fire?

I flew back as her attack missed, before I produced a healing potion on my hand and quickly downed it, letting the wound on my back heal up. I stared at Chordus in disbelief as she flew off, trying to understand what was happening. But then she appeared behind me once again, a sadistic smile on her face as she struck out with a hammer.

The attack caught me off-guard and sent me flying down towards Naro as my arm shattered upon impact. I tumbled through the air and looked up at my corrupted sky in confusion. And as I watched her various spades zip around up above, her figure blurring between them like she was in multiple places at once, the realization settled in.

She is in multiple places at once.

Chordus wasn’t just teleporting around her spades. No— she was everywhere because there were multiple of her.

Specifically, there were four of her. Exact copies of herself. Clones that were indistinguishable from one another, just as powerful as she had been. Each of them wielded different weapons. Similar weapons, sure. Like one had a broadsword, while another had a longsword. However, none of them had the exact same weapon in their hands.

I crashed into the ground as I groaned, before picking myself up. I produced another healing potion and downed it quickly as the four [Queens Of Diamonds] came shooting straight down at me. But my sea of corruption distracted them long enough for me to finish healing from my potion, before I looked towards Naro.

The [Hellprince] was groaning and getting to his feet after me, his body broken, moving with a limp. I produced another healing potion— making it flash into existence in the palm of my hand— before I tossed it to him.

“Take it—”

I started. But as the vial flew through the air, one of the spades slipped through a crack in my corruption and crashed right between Naro and I. She swung down with her hammer, shattering the potion as she glared at me with one eye.

I cursed as she swung out at me with a halberd with her other hand, while thrusting at the [Hellprince] with a dagger to keep him back. I leapt back, just in time to see a second Chordus emerge from the very same spade that had just crashed into the ground. She melted out of the crystalline surface, her gaze fixed towards me.

She charged straight for me, walking on both her legs and hands, moving like a rabid dog. But her arms on her back struck out at me with her weapons— a crazed onslaught of attacks. I just created my own fiery limbs and blades, parrying her swings as I moved back.

All the while, I watched a third of her clone emerge from the same spade as before, while the first one that had landed turned her gaze towards Naro who was stumbling away. At this rate, we would both die. Even before my plan could come into fruition.

That meant I had no other choice. I had to resort to getting Manos’s help. But right as the thought crossed my mind, I felt something cold sink into my back. I blinked as I felt a searing paint erupt a moment later, all the while a warning blared in my head.

“What a peculiar Skill…”

A cold voice whispered from behind me. Almost muffled. I looked down as I stared at the spear that had impaled me through my abdomen, before I craned my neck back to look into the burning face of Chordus.

“As long as I don’t target your vitals, you won’t be able to react as quickly to my attacks.”

And I coughed out a mouthful of blood as she ripped the spear out of my stomach.