Translator: HunterW3
Editor: RED
“Whoa!”
“This has to be the perfect debuff!”
“Look at all these effects! Mr. Lee, this will provide us with a great advantage!”
I never really cared much about the debuff at first, as I didn’t really notice the difference even when the King-Emperor’s Dignity was upgraded. That changed recently at the Pharos dungeon when I saw for myself what the six percent difference between the two debuffs made.
The Dignity I had in India was more than enough to throw the enemy off guard, but when it doubled in power, it shocked even my allies. Attacks that would normally bounce off would go all the way through, and they could deal far more easily with their enemies’ attacks. The Dignity’s ability to kill enemies faster made it a powerful weapon for me and my allies, just like the exclusive skills of the Blood Prince, the Predator Duke, and other deities.
The important part here was that this was all possible when I got my King-Emperor’s Commitment. There were no other King-Emperor equips out there; I had them all.
The video on the Predator Duke continued while everyone else was in awe of the Dignity’s effect and Aaron continued speaking. “The Duke has two fight styles. The first, as you see here, is when he charges in with a small force of his own.”
The video showed the Duke surrounded by about 500 soldiers, marching ahead together. “The Duke consumes everything, including damage. Instead of taking damage, he consumes all damage in his surrounding area as part of his exclusive skill.”
The video showed exactly how the Duke was absorbing incoming damage. “It isn’t to say that the Duke is completely immune to damage. Whatever he consumes turns to fat. As you can see now, there are several droplets falling from his body.”
Sure enough, the video also showed black liquid oozing from his body, which sizzled into smoke as it fell to the ground. “The Duke is unable to retain any of his stolen HP and must continue to absorb to maintain his HP, or in this case, his size.”
Kylie continued the explanation, “This tactic lasts about twenty minutes at most. The Duke doesn’t stay out longer than that, but the fact remains that he moves with his four deity guards and 500 soldiers together…it’s hellish to say the least.”
Kylie wasn’t kidding. Hundreds of Werewolves threw themselves at the Duke and his army, all aiming for only the Duke but none of their attacks ever hit their mark. All of their spells and skills were just absorbed by the Duke as more and more black liquid poured out from his pores. Even if the Duke was damaged after all that, the most he lost was probably a couple of pounds of fat.
In the entire twenty minutes, the Werewolves were just about wiped out. I could only sigh at what I just watched, but the video continued.
“This is the Duke’s second tactic. Here, he employs his Predator Curse and participates in the battle the most.” The Duke was standing out in front, grabbing and throwing blobs of fat from his body which exploded like grenades.
“Those fat bombs are problems, but in this next scene…”
I focused on the video. Soon, something rose from the ground where the Duke was standing. They were blobs of flesh in the shape of humans.
“They are Flesh Dolls, which explode.” The one-meter tall Flesh Dolls charged in at the Werewolves and as soon as they were close enough, they exploded.
-Was it always like this?-
I know I only heard rumors about the Duke in the past, but I at least knew that he relied more on his defensive abilities. His trademark tactic was to just stand in the middle of the battlefield and eat while ignoring whatever attacks came his way.
“The explosive and Doll Summoning abilities were stolen from other deities, as we have confirmed.”
“Ah…” That made sense. That was what made the Duke that much more overpowered than other deities.
“We managed to learn how to deal with both tactics, but the biggest problem we have to deal with is his defensive abilities.”
Again, another group of Werewolves charged in at the Duke. They were the strongest of the Clan. The Duke retaliated by summoning Dolls with one hand and throwing flesh grenades with the other. The vanguard elites managed to break through the four deities and the thousands of devas, allowing a direct chance at the Duke.
At that moment, the Werewolves continued their attacks, solely focused on the Duke, no matter how many of them fell. More and more liquid dripped from the Duke’s body, so much so that the ground around him constantly oozed steam. However, that was it. Nothing else happened, no matter how hard the Werewolves fought. They were practically just throwing themselves to feed him.
I watched as the Duke grab a Werewolf and bring him towards his mouth, smiling.
It was hopeless for the Werewolves from the beginning. It wasn’t because the Werewolves were weak; the Duke was just too strong. No matter how hard they fought, they just ended up becoming another source of the Duke’s power.
“He’s not the type to accept defeat so easily. The size of his body is proof of that.” The Duke shifted his focus to the elite Clan warriors and picked them up one by one. The battle was lost.
“We can’t forget the most important thing!” Lod exclaimed after listening quietly. “You must not let yourself get captured by the Duke. He will extract all of your abilities if you get consumed by him,” Lod said to me in a serious tone. “We’re showing everything we have on the Duke to give you another chance to think about this. The Duke is especially intent on preying on you right now. If you decide to leave now, we won’t ever hold it against you. We’re already grateful that you at least agreed to help us.”
“…” I wanted to do that if I could. It wasn’t like anyone besides the Clan would celebrate if I took care of a problem that would only surface in the future. But I still had to do it and this was my only chance.
“He’s a coward, isn’t he?”
“Excuse me?”
“What does that mean?”
“The Duke, I mean. He doesn’t take any chances whatsoever. It’s almost as if he’s so afraid of taking any damage that he’s actually running away.” I understood why he would be that afraid. His abilities were overpowered, yes, but the risk was that much greater. If he ended up dying, he could lose this Predation skill along with the normal penalties for deities.
However, from what I saw in the video, he was being too cautious. He could definitely do more and defeat the Werewolves in an instant. It was pushing it, but he seemed a coward to me.
Besides, it wasn’t like I could say that he was being rightly cautious and wouldn’t be long until he grew to full strength here. I had to make him out as a coward for now, since he was the enemy.
-I accepted their request because I was confident.-
I was. I wasn’t boasting when I said that I was the strongest in the entire world. I had all of these overpowered skills and item effects, especially Absolute Destruction. The Duke then and now was a being who boasted the highest DEF. That was why no one could ever touch him but that didn’t matter to me. DEF didn’t matter as long as I could get one point of damage off but as I listened to what the Clan had on the Duke, I was starting to worry about one thing.
-If he actually absorbs all incoming damage, will Absolute Destruction even activate?-
From what I could tell, the Duke had two bodies. One body was the blob of flesh that acted as an armor of fat that surrounded the Duke’s true body. If I could do away with the blobby armor with Absolute Destruction, dealing with the Duke’s undefended body will be a cinch. But, if the blobby armor ended up stopping Absolute Destruction…
-This is going to be a tough battle.-
But there was no way I could back down now, which was why I called the Duke a coward.
“Thank you.”
“Thank you so much.”
As soon as I said that, they started to thank me. To them, calling the Duke a coward was the same thing as saying that I would fight until the end.
“Not being able to receive help from anyone had been more painful than the Duke so far,” I heard someone say calmly.
“This is all we can to repay you for deciding to stay with us to the end. We hope that you would accept this humble gift from us.”
“It…it’s not a big deal.”
“Please, don’t say that. You don’t have to feel burdened about anything. We’re not asking that you win this war for us; just that you stay as our ally to the end.”
“That’s right.”
“We’re just happy that we finally got at least one person to stand by our side,” Lod said.
I only said no, but I really wanted it. The item they were handing me was…purple. A Rank 10 item.
