The Devil's Cage

The hot sensation on his chest made Kieran turn on his [Tracking].

He knew why the [Knitted Talisman] was emitting heat.

[Attributes: When a ghost type enemy appears within a 5-meter radius, it will give you a warning!]

The description on the item window had stated as much clearly.

Kieran’s vision had turned to revealing mode following the activation of his [Tracking], but he could not see any white tracks, red blood or black gun residue. All he could see was a shadow.

It was blurry and only partially visible, but it was heading straight for Kieran.

Lines of sparks appeared around Kieran’s [Lightning Tiger’s Finger]. Without holding back, Kieran punched the monster hard.

Bang!

Kieran’s punch landed accurately on the black shadow. The feeling was like hitting a gunny sack, and the sound was similar too.

The shadow that rushed towards Kieran shivered with high speed after it was attacked .

A scream of agony was heard before the shadow was shredded to pieces and disappeared into thin air like dust.

[Lightning Punch: Inflicts 50 Damage to Target HP (25 Hand-to-Hand Combat (Pro) X2), Target is a formless wandering soul, Double Damage Inflicted, 100 Damage to Target HP, Target dies...]

The battlelog notification popped up in front of him, but Kieran did not pay any attention to it.

There were more shadows... Formless wandering souls had appeared, heading for him.

Through his [Tracking] vision, the formless souls looked like shadows overlapping one another like a thousand locusts. The buzzing sounds they made made it hard to tell them apart.

Ice-cold, pitch-black darkness surrounded Kieran in an instant. He felt like he had fallen into an abandoned underground cave.

Despite his Pro Level [Evading] Skill, it was still hard for Kieran to evade the dense, concentrated attack of the formless souls.

[Negative Corrosion: Ignores Defense, Inflicts 5 Damage to HP...]

[Negative Corrosion: Ignores Defense, Inflicts 5 Damage to HP...]

[Negative Corrosion: Ignores Defense, Inflicts 5 Damage to HP...]

…

A shadowy figure passed through Kieran’s arm and five battlelog notifications suddenly popped up. It seemed that the formless souls had a special attacking attribute, a cumulative attack.

It was not an attack by a single soul. Instead, when the formless souls overlaid each other, there was a cumulative attack from the whole bunch of them.

The effect of the attack could be felt directly on Kieran's body, but there was no pain. It was actually far worse that pain.

An ice-cold feeling came from the area where the formless souls had touched him. The coldness was merciless. It did not just aim to freeze Kieran’s body, but his soul as well.

Kieran could not feel his arm. It was as if it did not belong to him anymore.

A couple more of those attacks and his left arm could be permanently damaged.

His intuition told him not to risk it.

When the next formless soul appeared and attacked him with negative corrosion, he was not able to evade the attack in time. He clenched his teeth and turned around, allowing the formless soul to pass through his chest. At the same time, he unleashed the [Lightning Tiger’s Finger] punch.

[Negative Corrosion: Ignores Defense, Inflicts 20 Damage to HP...]

[Lightning Punch: Inflicts 50 Damage to Target HP (25 Hand-to-Hand Combat (Pro) X2), Target is a formless wandering soul, Double Damage Inflicted, 100 Damage to Target HP, Target dies...]

The lightning element attack was lethal to the formless soul, but the combined formless-soul attack was far more powerful than a single-soul attack. Kieran had received four times the damage, and had also been notified that, depending on where the formless souls hit him, they could cause a different extent of damage to him.

The cumulative attack damage was not something to be underestimated. Despite his D- [Constitution] and his 350 HP, Kieran could not ignore the constant 20 damage to his HP, especially when it was made by the combined power of formless souls. He needed to be more careful if he wanted to evade those attacks.

Truth be told, if that last attack had been from the whole group of formless souls, Kieran would never have used his body to fight it. He would have just allowed them to continue to pass through his left arm.

Sacrificing his left arm was better than losing his life, right? After all, he could still get healed at the end of the dungeon.

"That was close! What the...?"

Kieran was relieved for a while, but before he could savour the relief of protecting his left arm, he had to take another deep breath.

More formless souls had appeared and combined themselves with the previous ones that had passed through Kieran's body. They were as thick as a bombing airplane as they headed right for Kieran.

The cold and darkness became even denser. It was like a pitch-black beast opening its huge mouth, wanting to devour Kieran in one bite.

Without a second thought, Kieran quickly rolled over, avoiding the first wave of attacks by the formless souls. As the formless souls passed over Kieran’s head, Kieran jumped up and started to unleash a barrage of punches.

Lines of lightning enveloped Kieran’s right hand, making him look he was like holding a thunderbolt. The lightning dispersed the cold and darkness around him,

[Lightning Punch: Inflicts 50 Damage to Target HP (25 Hand-to-Hand Combat (Pro) X2), Target is a formless wandering soul, Double Damage Inflicted, 100 Damage to Target HP, Target dies...]

[Lightning Punch: Inflicts 50 Damage to Target HP (25 Hand-to-Hand Combat (Pro) X2), Target is a formless wandering soul, Double Damage Inflicted, 100 Damage to Target HP, Target dies...]

...

Four notifications popped up one after the other.

It seemed like the formless souls' advantage had been their cumulative attack, but their lack of a respective defense had turned their advantage into a disadvantage when they received damage.

However, Kieran had only managed to kill four of them. Their massive numbers and the fact that they were stacked together like locusts had allowed them to get away with a mere scratch.

Through his [Tracking] vision, Kieran saw the formless souls turn around again and fly towards him.

"No, this won’t do. I can kill some of them, but compared to their numbers, it’s only a drop in the ocean! Plus maintaining [Tracking] to see them drains my stamina. If you add the fact that I'm also fighting, my stamina is depleting twice as fast! Once my stamina reaches its limits and I can no longer maintain my [Tracking], I’ll be as good as blind!"

Kieran rolled over again on the floor, dodging the incoming attack of the formless souls. His HP was dropping rapidly from 350 to less than 100. He quickly scanned his surroundings, looking for a way to escape.

As he scanned over the staircase, his eyes lit up.