Re: Evolution Online-Novel

"Is something wrong?" Caden, the Oracle, walked over and asked him. He looked as calm and composed as ever.

"I did not get as many experience points as I thought I would." Kouske clicked his tongue in response. "I only got a couple of thousands."

One of the special unit members walked forward and joined the discussion. 

"That is impossible, sir. For the Ison Generals, we received a lot of experience points. Both health and experience points should not be affected by our curse."

"To weaken the enemy, one must offer a sacrifice. The more formidable the enemy, the greater the sacrifice needed." The Oracle said some words without any care in the world.

Kouske's jaw ticked in anger. While he was very frustrated, this guy was talking in riddles. If there was someone whom he hated as much as Liam, then it was this man, the Oracle.

"Well, whatever. At least the mana core and the corpse is still intact." He exhaled loudly and turned to the corpse.

But to his surprise, all of a sudden, the damned corpse was missing!

What the heck? Kouske's eyes widened in shock and anger. What was this? Fucking amateur hour?

"WHO TOOK THE DAMN CORPSE? WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!"

All the men on the battlefield felt a shiver run down their spine as Kouske's loud and angry shout reverberated amidst the clicking and screeching noises from the isons.

However, no matter how much they were afraid, they couldn't give him an answer because no one had seen anything. There was simply too much happening around them.

The special troops were also busy chanting the curse. So they also hadn't seen anything.

"Are you freaking kidding me? How could anyone not notice a huge corpse disappearing right from the middle of the battlefield?" Kouske was livid.

To add more fuel to the fire, a familiar voice sounded somewhere near him, laughing at him and mocking him. "I don't think you have the time to worry about that."

Before Kouske could pay attention to this familiar voice, something else caught his attention. 

It was not that the voice was not important, but right this second, all of his gut instincts screamed at him. Danger was incoming!

In the distance, something flickered, and the next second, he could feel a tremendous force cruising toward him.

In the blink of an eye, another creature stood towering in front of them. This one was, in fact, identical to the monster they had just now slain. It was another Hive Queen!

Kouske stood dumbfounded. Just what was happening around him? There were two Queens? It did not make sense! 

In the hive hill, they had demolished when these insects had first shown up, there was only one queen. How could there be two now?

And not just another Queen, standing around this Queen was her own personal army, a row of high-leveled Ison Generals!

For the first time, Kouske's face changed. Both the elite troops and the special troops alike stood in shock as, this time, no one had expected this to happen.

The only person who did not seem to be perturbed by anything was the Oracle. 

The man calmly called for another golden cage that landed around the newly arrived Hive Queen, instantly imprisoning her before she could do any damage.

However, the problem was far from over. What about the other twenty or so isons? That too, these were not normal isons! They were level 150 plus Ison Generals!

Just when everyone thought that the whole war was won and victory was theirs, suddenly, these reinforcements had arrived out of nowhere, and now they were somehow back again on square one.

"What are you all waiting for? Attack! Fire! Do something, you idiots!" 

Kouske completely lost it. He pulled out his undead army and laid them in front of him, instantly putting a lot of distance between himself and the isons.

The Oracle had the ability to imprison two or three isons at most. There was no way they had the ability to deal with so many. Their only hope was the special troops.

More sacrifices were required, but Kouske did not care about that. Rather he was worried about the two seconds he needed to stall before the curse completely took effect.

These two were golden seconds. They could determine the difference between life and death and victory and defeat. More importantly, it was his life that was on the line!

"Damn it. Did that man not foresee this, or did he foresee and decide not to tell me?" Kouske gritted his teeth. However, there was no point in thinking about this right now.

"Useless! Useless!" He grumbled as he frantically started casting buffs on his undead. He had also mastered a few dark element skills that he immediately used.

2 seconds! 2 seconds was all he needed!

In the meantime, the special troops also did not dawdle and hurriedly started casting the curse skill. It was an A-Rank warlock class curse skill that had as much power as the cost needed.

To acquire such a high-rank skill for not one but thirty men at the same time was no simple task. Only because of the Oracle something like this was possible.

He had divined a treasure and exchanged the priceless item for simple skills. Everyone knew about this very well, and they all worshiped him all the more for this selfless sacrifice.

For the sake of the future of this world, he was doing everything that he could. 

They also knew that this skill was twisted, but sometimes there was no other way. Instead of the whole world becoming a wasteland and the entirety of humanity getting wiped out, the hard truth was that this was a better way out.

History might curse them and speak of them as traitors, but they did not care about it as long as there was still a world for history to exist!

The special troops, the group of warlocks, all personally groomed by Kouske, started activating the skill as fast as they could. 

They focussed all of their energy on the mana around them and channeled the skill, hoping and praying that this was the last time they had to do it.

The only thing was that they had to somehow hold on for 2 to 3 seconds, the casting time that was required for this skill.

From the corner of their eyes, they could see Kouske desperately trying to buy them these few seconds, so everyone strengthened their hearts and steeled their nerves, and activated the skill with everything they had.

One second passed.

The isons screeched loudly in anger and fury. Their metallic wings became invisible as they fluttered violently.

Half of the insects banged against the golden cage, trying to free their queen, while the other half unleashed hell on the undead army because only that could be seen everywhere.

Thankfully, the entire place was chaotic, and the spell was quick to take effect. So before there could be any casualties, the isons slowly started to fall into a disoriented state.

The black mist also started emerging.

Seeing this, Kouske finally heaved a sigh of relief. Things had taken an unexpected turn, but somehow they were back on track.

Moreover, he was calmer now, so he could even see the plus points of this situation. 

Since he inexplicably lost the experience points from the first Hive Queen, at least he could get everything he wanted from this one.

The guy seriously continued making plans in his mind and gave the orders to his undead army to take down all of the Ison Generals, not leaving a single one behind.

At the same time, in order to hog all the experience points and mana cores to himself, he gave the orders to other men to stand back and stay alert for any other surprises that might befall them.

Everything was progressing perfectly. The undead charged against the isons, and Kouske could almost taste the experience points that were about to level him up once or twice.

However, just as the two sides were going to clash, suddenly something else happened. A strong gale of wind appeared out of nowhere and disrupted the special troops, throwing the group of men off their rockers.

And the curse skill that they were working on became incomplete!