Noid was thrown backward, the left blade on his arm plunging into the floor, carving a one-meter-long crack before he could stabilize himself.
In front of him was a complete cultist with a third of his head cleaved off, his chest armor severely damaged, and a hole in his abdomen.
The battle paused for just a second before continuing. Ten paralysis bombs were thrown out, freezing the complete cultists for a brief moment. Noid flew close to a cultist, his two blades making a cross-cut across the chest, followed by a stab. The cultist let out a miserable scream as Noid relentlessly slashed at his chest.
Noid was hit hard three times in the back, and he struggled to hold on, even though the pressure from the attacks was crushing his lungs and making it hard for him to breathe. After a brief struggle, he successfully penetrated the cultist's armor, activated his lightning-blast ability, and then stabbed the blade straight through the heart.
"Eighteen left..."
He muttered, getting thrown back once more. He had killed two cultists, but it came at the cost of his body being in pain from the continuous attacks. The A.T.A. Power Armor only reduced damage; his body still had to take a certain amount of damage. With a value of 1.3, he could withstand one or ten attacks, but a hundred would be enough to make him suffer, and a thousand would be enough to bring him down.
While the battle was intense, the manager leisurely watched from a distance, even filming the scene and broadcasting it throughout the stronghold. It was for all the cultists to see the fate of someone who dared to interrupt the ritual to their Doom Lord.
Noid struggled to stand up. From the looks of it, his chances of winning were slim to none, but his fighting spirit didn't waver at all. Bombs and swords were deployed, but this time the cultists were prepared for this move and quickly dodged. Only two of the eighteen remaining cultists were hit by the bombs. Noid immediately charged forward, switching from slashing to stabbing the blade straight into the neck of one of the cultists hit by the paralysis bomb.
Immediately, all the remaining cultists swarmed him. But if they could predict his moves, he also had a trick up his sleeve. A transparent, seemingly fragile crystal layer appeared next to Noid, but it was incredibly hard, neutralizing all the attacks around him.
It was the modified energy shield. Once activated, even a first-generation armored cultist couldn't break it.
Taking advantage of the precious minute, Noid charged left and right, fighting bravely like a war god. His two swords swung, piercing the head of one cultist. He fought back against more than ten cultists at the same time.
But the energy shield only worked for one minute. If he didn't quickly find a way to turn the tide, he would soon be back to square one.
BANG!
The blade shattered the face armor, pierced the skull, and destroyed the cultist's brain. Another one was killed, bringing the number of fallen cultists to five.
In exchange, the modified energy shield's time was up. Noid was knocked down, and the cultists swarmed him, beating him to a pulp. Pain, shortness of breath, dizziness—but he held on tightly.
While the manager was enjoying the sight of Noid being ganged up on, a gun was pressed against his head.
"Everyone, stop!"
The commissioner, with one hand pressing the gun to the manager's head, shouted. All the complete cultists stopped and looked in the direction where the commissioner and the manager were standing. With the gun pointed at his head, the manager remained smug, even turning around to taunt her.
"Oh, the heroes have caught me. What are we going to do now? Go to the jail?"
"No, you're going to hell."
Noid stood up. To everyone's shock, he pulled a heavy shotgun out of thin air. A cultist turned his head and was hit by a shot that shattered his chest armor, followed by a blade piercing his heart.
It was the KWS19 - Wolf Shotgun.
A specialized weapon for hunting werewolves. It had a blast radius of 20 centimeters, a range of 50 meters, and a maximum physical damage of 2.0. It had seven rounds and took 10 seconds to reload each one. Its passive abilities were armor penetration and shattering.
Selling price: 122 points.
For a long time, Noid had been thinking about how to quickly kill a complete cultist. Although these guys' combat power was only an average of 1.5, the armor covering their bodies was too hard, estimated to be 2.0, because it came from an elite doom.
Therefore, in a one-on-one fight, it took him a lot of time to break through the armor. In a group fight, it was even more fatal. So, from the beginning, Noid had been looking for an item that could shatter the cultists' shells as quickly as possible.
There were many items, but many of them had certain requirements. For example, a saber with a lightning attribute. But to use it, one had to practice a martial art, and not just that, it also had to be at a certain level. There were many other things that were similar.
Fortunately, he found this shotgun. Although it required him to get close to achieve the highest damage, he didn't mind. Noid didn't need the shotgun to kill the opponent; he just needed it to break the cultist's armor. The blade would take care of the rest.
The situation instantly turned around. The sound of the shotgun and the blade piercing flesh rang out incessantly. The cultists, even when being killed, showed no fear. Instead, they became more frenzied. They fought, bit, and tore like wild animals.
And Noid, with the shotgun in his hand, looked even more like a hunter fighting against a group of ferocious predators. Even with the extra help, his situation was still extremely dangerous.
"Ten... left..."
Noid pulled a bone spike out of his abdomen. The A.T.A. Power Armor, with its defense of 1.7, was finally breached. This was something he had foreseen, even though he tried to prevent it from happening. It was similar to how he broke the cultists' armor.
Noid was knocked into the wall, shattering all the artworks around him. The armor on his body was shattered, and a large chunk of his helmet fell off, revealing his right eye. His right eye, which had been blind for a long time, had been replaced with a prosthetic eye that had been implanted. It was now in pieces, revealing an empty eye socket.
A bone spike lunged at him, and he used his left hand to block it. His gauntlet also fell off, and his prosthetic arm was cut, falling heavily to the floor.
The commissioner kept screaming for them to stop, pointing the gun at the manager as a threat. But the manager was not afraid, and the cultists wouldn't stop. They relentlessly trampled on a worn-out Noid.
"Alright, let's offer this guy to the Doom Lord and continue the ritual."
BANG!
The sound of a gun rang out. The commissioner had shot the manager in the head, but he didn't fall down, nor did he seem to be in pain. Instead, he twisted his neck 180 degrees in a grotesque manner, giving the commissioner his maniacal smile.
"Just kidding, old lady."
As one of the most fanatical cultists of the doom, how could the manager not be a complete cultist himself?
His arm became deformed and he flung the commissioner away. She fell and hit the hard tile floor, only able to watch as Noid was thrown in front of the elite doom.