Chapter 253: Ruthless Extermination
"Yes, I noticed it too."
Asagiri turned and looked at the Players who were still frozen in shock from what had just happened.
"Does anyone here have mental attribute attack abilities?"
At his question, four Players raised their hands, including the woman in the fox mask from the White Suit Team.
"That makes five, including you."
"Enough."
Iwanaga Kotoko smiled first, then looked at the four Players who had raised their hands. Her tone changed instantly. Unlike the sweet smile she wore when speaking to Asagiri, her voice now carried a flat, commanding chill.
"During the exploration ahead, if faces like the ones from just now appear again, attack them immediately with mental abilities. Understood?"
"Understood."
The fox masked woman had also realized what Iwanaga Kotoko meant by "weakness."
That strange existence could control humans and seize their bodies, souls, and abilities, yet the faces representing the people it had parasitized clearly still retained some degree of self awareness. They could even cry out for help.
And after the Player in the black trench coat had coldly reprimanded them, the thing had immediately hidden those faces away. It had reacted so quickly it almost looked panicked.
Why would it panic?
If the consciousness represented by those faces underwent an excessively violent emotional fluctuation, would that strange existence lose control over them? Or, to put it more seriously, would those humans split away from it entirely?
That was the "weakness."
Still, there was one thing the fox masked woman could not understand.
Since that petite girl had specifically said "mental attack," then that meant the Player in the black trench coat and dark gray mask had just used a mental attribute ability too, right?
But when everyone had entered this floor, he had walked at the very front, even ahead of his three teammates.
If he were a mage type profession, should he not have been protected in the back?
Then what was that huge black figure? A summon? A summoner with mental attack abilities who also used that strange chain linked weapon that looked absurdly difficult to control?
No matter how she thought about it, she could not make sense of him.
"Huh? Everyone..."
Just then, one of the Players suddenly spoke.
"Has anyone noticed the temperature on this floor seems to have gone back to normal?"
"Huh? You're right."
Only then did the others belatedly notice it.
When they had been in the stairwell, this floor had felt like a giant furnace. But now the temperature had dropped below thirty degrees Celsius. It was not exactly cool, but compared to the nearly eighty degree heat from before, it was far more bearable.
"Do not celebrate too soon. This is not good news."
The woman in the fox mask spoke softly, then exchanged a glance with Iwanaga Kotoko. The members of Asagiri's team and the White Suit Team all understood at once.
The temperature here returning to normal meant that the strange existence controlling the parasitic phenomenon possessed enough power to contend with a "God" on this floor.
In other words, this was its home ground.
...
After spending about half an hour, the Players finished exploring the floor layout.
It was exactly the same as the structural map Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and Iwanaga Kotoko had seen before. At the center was a massive banquet hall covering more than a thousand square meters. There was also a slightly raised second level with railings overlooking the banquet hall below. Around the main hall were the kitchen, changing rooms, lounges, cigar room, restrooms, and the staff preparation room at the outer edge of the floor.
"Bang."
The two heavy banquet hall doors, decorated with red velvet, slowly closed with a dull sound.
The White Suit Man glanced at the empty banquet hall, then looked at Asagiri.
"What do we do now? We've searched every corner of this floor and found no trace of the anomaly. Could it be deliberately stalling for time?"
"No."
Asagiri answered with a faint smile.
Then a dazzling Holy Cross condensed in his left hand. Under the astonished gazes of the surrounding Players, he slammed it straight into the banquet hall floor.
"Bang!"
The instant the Holy Cross collided with the floor and exploded, a miserable wail rang out at the same time.
In the next moment, the seemingly normal banquet hall changed completely.
The surrounding walls twisted into writhing masses of fleshy tendrils, and the floor became just as grotesque. Countless human mouths split open among the tangled flesh and began screaming without pause.
The wailing grew sharper and sharper, almost piercing through people's eardrums. Then, from the wriggling ground of flesh, dozens of humanoid shapes slowly rose.
"That is..."
"Holy Cross!"
"Bone Spear!"
At that moment, Asagiri and the White Suit Man displayed an unspoken coordination. While the other Player teams were still reeling from the shock and trying their best to resist the invasive wailing, the two had already attacked with their teammates, striking directly at the creatures formed from the flesh.
"Protection."
Yet the Holy Cross launched by Asagiri and the Bone Spear thrown by the White Suit Man were both blocked by a semi transparent gray shield.
"It's you again."
Seeing the parasitic Player who had cast the shield, Asagiri shook his head and let out a light laugh.
"What, did that three hour posturing session just count as watching ads for a revive?"
"Leader... it hurts so much..."
Seeing Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi clenching their teeth, their faces already showing pain, Asagiri and Iwanaga Kotoko immediately realized that the miserable wailing of those human mouths was a form of mental attack.
Asagiri and Iwanaga Kotoko both possessed extremely high mental strength. The former was even completely immune to mental interference, so to them the noise was merely irritating.
But Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi, whose mental strength was lower, were far more affected by it.
The moment she realized that, Iwanaga Kotoko moved.
Her deep purple eyes locked onto one of the human faces on the ground as she activated [Curse Gaze].
The face she targeted immediately stopped screaming, but the countless other faces around it were completely unaffected. Seeing this, the three Players behind her with mental attack abilities also activated their own skills, but compared to hundreds of human mouths, they could only interfere with a tiny fraction.
"Damn it..."
Yuuki Asuna endured the dizzying distortion clawing at her mind. She slowly gripped the blade of Gleaming Light with her left hand, intending to cut her own palm and use the pain to force herself back to full awareness.
Just then, the mask on the fox masked woman's face dissolved into a ray of light and transformed into a pure white three tailed fox. The woman herself knelt to the ground like someone praying to a god, her hands clasped together as she softly chanted,
"Spirit Protection Technique."
As her words fell, the fox's body turned into a shower of light that scattered over all the Players.
The moment that light merged into them, Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi felt their minds clear instantly. Although the other Player teams behind them still felt some lingering discomfort, they at least recovered from being unable to move to being able to fight, even if only with difficulty.
"She can't move while maintaining this ability."
Hearing the White Suit Man's words, Asagiri immediately understood what he meant and nodded.
"Fine. Your team provides support from the side."
Then he looked at the dozens of parasitic Players formed from flesh strips, excitement flickering in his eyes.
"As for the main attack..."
He smiled.
"Leave that to us."
"You bastard..."
The face of the parasitic Player with the shielding ability twisted with anger. Controlled by the bizarre existence, he roared,
"Do you really have to kill us all!?"
The surrounding Players were stunned.
Was that really something a bizarre entity was supposed to say?
Which side was the boss here?
"Yes."
As Asagiri spoke, he had already appeared directly in front of the gray barrier. The ice spear he condensed in his hand pierced straight through it. Before the surrounding parasitic Players could react, he had already thrown the Rope Dart in his right hand, skewering the head of the Player who was maintaining the shield.
Only after finishing that lightning fast kill did he speak coldly.
"Your ability is too annoying. Just obediently die."
The other Player teams were about to rush forward and assist, but nearly a hundred more parasites suddenly appeared around them, surrounding them from all sides.
"Oh?"
Asagiri glanced at the situation and gave a light chuckle.
"So you're committing all your strength to holding us back while using parasites made from ordinary people to stall the other Players and stop them from supporting us? Interesting."
"Flash."
An assassin type parasitic Player activated a skill. His body instantly crossed nearly ten meters and appeared directly in front of Asagiri, dagger stabbing at his chest.
But Asagiri looked as if he had anticipated it. He threw a punch before the other had even fully appeared.
"Bang!!"
With a dull impact, Asagiri's left fist punched straight through the other's chest. Then he immediately invoked Holy Cross, whose holy attribute had a restraining effect on cursed creatures, burning the opponent's body into ashes before casually shaking the dust from his hand.
"Saying the skill name before you use the ability is not a good habit."
.....
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