Chapter 150: Slaying the Cursed Knight

Thunder finally agreed to his proposal.

The decisive factor in persuading him was not Chu Cheng himself, but Fang Xi.

Fang Xi's talent, Arcane Supreme Level 2, granted a 50% enhancement to all spells. This meant her dispel magic effect was amplified by 50%, enabling her to remove the terror and confusion curses personally cast by the Cursed Knight.

The biggest problem that caused the previous team to collapse was that the terror and confusion personally cast by the Cursed Knight were extremely difficult to dispel. Purification potions and the Purify spell could only remove the terror and confusion generated by the curse aura, but were powerless against those cast directly by the Cursed Knight.

Once more than ten members of the team were struck by terror and mind-control, fighting any further was completely pointless.

The two quickly summoned their resting teammates in the warehouse via the channel and informed them of the plan one by one.

Though utterly shocked, the group surprisingly agreed to the plan.

Chu Cheng guessed that during their rest and chat just moments earlier, Feng Lingxing and the others must have shared his combat achievements with everyone, giving them a significant boost in confidence.

Moreover, with 11 people now available, if the four fallen members could be resurrected and the three mind-controlled by confusion could be cleansed, they would gain seven additional hands.

With the decision made, the team immediately began preparations.

Thunder first produced a disposable Divine Protection scroll. Once used, it immunized the user against the vast majority of negative states below the legendary tier, including curses, lasting for a full five minutes. This was an expensive item Thunder had purchased at a cost of hundreds of gold coins.

This belonged to Thunder's personal expenditure for slaying the Scourge Knight, not a team expense, and would not be deducted from the loot afterward.

In addition, Thunder gathered several buff scrolls and potions to boost attack, defense, speed, and attributes, along with Group Bull's Strength and Group Haste, maximizing all stats.

At the same time, he collected six advanced purification scrolls and a dozen normal purification scrolls from the team and handed them to Fang Xi. Her talent could enhance spell effects by 50%, allowing normal purification scrolls to be used as advanced ones, while the advanced purification scrolls became even more potent.

Her sole task moving forward was to dispel curses for everyone.

She only needed to remove confusion and terror; other curses could be ignored.

With all preparations complete and tactics properly arranged, Chu Cheng quickly consumed various potions.

Divine Protection (Transcendent): Grants immunity to transcendent and lower negative states for 5 minutes.
Group Bull's Strength LV5: Strength +75, duration 15 minutes. (PS: Modified just like Group Haste; it was originally a percentage bonus.)
Group Haste LV5: Speed +75, duration 15 minutes.
Heroic Courage Blessing (Advanced): Attack power +200, duration 15 minutes.
Heroic Defense Blessing (Advanced): Physical defense +10, duration 15 minutes.
Heroic Speed Blessing (Advanced): Movement speed +100, jump distance +100%, duration 15 minutes.

Potent Defense Potion: Defense +10, duration 30 minutes.
Potent Magic Blood Potion: +30 health regeneration, duration 30 minutes.
Advanced Vampire Potion: +5% physical lifesteal, duration 30 minutes.

After swallowing this battery of potions, his stats increased by: Attack +100, Strength +80, Defense +20, Speed +235, +5% lifesteal, and +30 health regeneration.

Combined, this array of scrolls and potions was worth at least two hundred gold coins or more.

The value of the Divine Protection alone accounted for the majority of it.

While scrolls and potions were undeniably powerful, the consumption was truly massive, and crucially, they were single-use items. Therefore, unless it was a vital, critical battle, no one could bear to use them.

At least previously, when ambushing the Plague Knight, Thunder had only used the Heroic Defense Blessing and a single speed potion, deeming the Heroic Speed Blessing scroll too expensive to use.

"I'm heading in."

Chu Cheng drew his dual swords, spun them in a dazzling flourish, crouched to gather strength, and a second later, a lightning-wrapped figure soared into the sky and plummeted toward the center of the town.

The Cursed Knight, currently in the middle of converting a corpse, raised its head, pulled out its bone spear, slammed it against the ground, and triggered its curse aura.

Pointing its spear, three Adventurers controlled by confusion charged toward him, one of whom—a female archer—pulled out a magic arrow, nocked it to her bow, and began channeling.

At that exact moment, Thunder also leaped over, raised what looked like a legendary sword to cast a spell, and an invisible beam of light struck the Cursed Knight, causing its aura to plummet rapidly.

Cursed Knight Offman (Lord): One of the Four Horsemen of the Scourge, Level 50, 490,000 HP (Sealed).

All attributes decreased by 50%. Chu Cheng raised a hand to apply a Spatial Mark, then charged in a berserk rush, colliding head-on with the Cursed Knight.

With a muffled "Bang!", the two matched each other blow for blow.

"Hmph!"
"Oh?"

Chu Cheng was first surprised, then his eyes lit up.

Group Bull's Strength added 75 to his strength. His strength was now as high as 315 points, and surprisingly, it was no longer inferior to the Cursed Knight.

"This makes things much easier."

Without hesitation, he surged forward, twisted his body to dodge the bone spear, and pressed close to the Cursed Knight for a flurry of close-range stabs.

An inch longer, an inch stronger.
An inch shorter, an inch more dangerous.

A long spear possessed immense lethality at a distance, but once closed in upon, it was far less handy than a one-handed weapon.

Right now, Chu Cheng was not only equal in strength to the Cursed Knight, but his speed and combat techniques were both superior. In close-quarters combat, he actually gained the upper hand.

Without even activating his damage-reduction skills, he was able to go toe-to-toe and hold his own.

After being cornered and slashed a dozen times without a chance to retaliate, the Cursed Knight decisively burst with death energy, blasting him away. It reached out a hand and pointed, sending an ash-gray aura exploding above his head, but a flash of golden light on his body immunized him against the curse.

With the curse ineffective, it had no choice but to rely purely on martial prowess and combat skills.

At the cost of deliberately taking a spear strike, Chu Cheng relied on his superior speed and agility to close in on the Cursed Knight once more, unleashing a frenzy of violent slashes.

Behind him, Fang Xi first used Dispel Magic and purification scrolls to quickly cleanse the three mind-controlled Adventurers of their confusion curses.

Then, she produced advanced purification scrolls to purge the necromantic spell effects from the bodies of the two fallen zombies, followed by an advanced resurrection scroll to bring them back to life.

The seven resurrected and cleansed members quickly figured out the situation and expressed their boundless gratitude.

Next, their task was very simple: stay on the fringes of the battlefield to provide support, occasionally using crowd-control skills or spells to lock down the Cursed Knight for a second or two, creating opportunities for Chu Cheng.

Fang Xi was guarded tightly in the very center, holding scrolls in hand, ready to cast Dispel Magic or use a scroll whenever anyone was struck by terror or confusion.

The Cursed Knight's greatest strength lay in its myriad curses. Its personal combat capability was at the bottom among the Four Horsemen of the Scourge, but relying on various curses combined with its controlled subordinates and death knight minions, as long as there was no countermeasure, the number of controlled units would steadily grow while the enemy dwindled.

As the tide shifted, it could easily reverse any hopeless situation.

Earlier, the team of over thirty people besieging the Cursed Knight had seen their formation thrown into absolute chaos in less than a minute, with a third of them losing combat capability.

Had it dragged on longer, the majority of the members would have become helpers to the Cursed Knight.

However, that tactic failed here. Relying on her Arcane Supreme talent bonus, Fang Xi could effortlessly dispel all curses.

Once the Cursed Knight's most powerful curse abilities failed to take effect and its personal combat strength fell short, its fate was sealed.

Surrounded by the group and subjected to a relentless beating, the Cursed Knight's health was rapidly depleted, reducing it to a near-death state in just about a minute.

Then, a single Time Dilation cast right where it stood locked the Cursed Knight in place, and the entire team unleashed a synchronized burst, directly completing the execution.