### Chapter: 320
In a space thick with fog and smoke,
the World Eroders were in a brawl with the members of the Lagrain family.
Five World Eroders and about twenty of their kind had invaded this place. Most of them were recent recruits brought in by Igrit.
‘You could almost say they’re all subpar members,’
mused the one wielding a staff, who stomped it down in frustration.
Within the ranks of the World Eroders, levels clearly existed. Some were just lucky enough to escape their collapsing worlds.
Their abilities, in terms of refinement, were miserable at best.
That’s why the Black Witch didn’t bother to summon them for Igrit’s event beforehand.
‘The Glorious One was quite a formidable threat,’
the staff-wielder lamented.
The Glorious One was a formidable talent despite their reckless actions.
‘If he had operated at full strength this time, he could’ve shaken Lagrain quite significantly.’
To the Lagrains, the Glorious One was a nightmare.
Thus, he was the best candidate to sow chaos among them.
‘The Black Witch said he fell into the hands of the Necromancer.’
The elderly man in the gray suit shook his head with a sigh while clutching his staff.
As an early member of Igrit, he had seen more than enough elite members take hits.
And he knew well who they were falling to.
The very person obstructing Igrit at every turn.
‘Kraush Balheim.’
Just recently, even the prominent Black Crow had been taken down by him.
After regaining consciousness, she merely drooled and stood there motionless.
Though she managed to recover physically, she lost crucial memories due to the Memory Devourer.
This time, capturing Kraush Balheim would be ideal, but the main goal was to restrain him.
Igrit had deemed him a significant danger, prepping everything before mobilizing their final force to capture him.
Though the Black Witch didn’t clarify, it unnervingly seemed that keeping him in his current state would be advantageous for the future.
‘Honestly, it’s like they don’t trust us at all.’
The staff-wielder felt disappointment in the Black Witch’s choice.
Since the incident in her own world, she only viewed others as collaborators and didn’t trust anyone.
Perhaps it was for this reason that Igrit was beginning to creak from within.
Knowing it wouldn’t go unnoticed, the staff-wielder slammed his staff against the ground a couple more times.
He was trying to shake off the troubling thoughts in his mind.
“Refinement.”
At that moment, a voice rang in the staff-wielder’s ear.
As he slowly turned his head toward the source, he saw a man untying a muzzle from a dog.
His mouth was rather peculiar.
With a dog’s mouth attached to a human face, he had long black hair.
Through the strands, his red dog-like eyes sent a shiver down one’s spine.
The identity of this creature, with a collar jingling around his neck, was the Rabid Dog.
Once a regular being, he had been modified into a Chimera in his world and raised as a battle monster.
“Hmph, I’ve tied down the Poison King.”
Hearing the drooling words of the Rabid Dog, the staff-wielder nodded.
Among the new World Eroders, he was undoubtedly the strongest.
The illusions he wielded could even deceive the Poison King.
Especially with the refinement smoke enveloping the area, discerning the illusions would be challenging.
“Good job.”
“Hmph, but there’s a funny smell.”
The staff-wielder raised an eyebrow at that remark.
“A funny smell, you say?”
“It stinks. It’s somewhere irritating, hmph, it makes me feel rejected.”
Taking this in, the staff-wielder’s gaze sharpened.
Because he had a sudden realization.
“Kraush Balheim has arrived.”
This was the exact feeling he got when encountering Kraush Balheim.
The aura he wielded instilled a natural revulsion in the World Eroders.
This was precisely how humans in this world felt when confronted with a World Eroder.
‘It’s curious how the Necromancer and the Immortal are closely linked to him despite sensing that.’
The staff-wielder found it astonishing that those two were aiding Kraush.
“Looks like he managed to sneak in well, dodging my fog.”
Got to say, with how extensively the smoke was used, he could detect anything entering from outside but not everything inside.
“Let’s approach him. Can you gauge his condition?”
The Black Witch had advised to steer clear of conflict, but the staff-wielder had a past with him.
Naturally, he wanted to repay that favor.
A shiver ran through the staff-wielder as he felt something menacing.
Looking back at the Rabid Dog, he saw fury laced through the heat emanating from him.
“Rabid Dog?”
“Hmph, Kraush Balheim, this smell— finally found him.”
“What happened between you two?”
“My subordinate died at his hands.”
The staff-wielder recalled how the Rabid Dog seemed uncomfortably fond of those belonging to his faction.
Though those who joined his ranks had to undergo Chimera transformation.
Faces torn apart and fitted with dog heads— only those who paid that price could be recognized as part of the Rabid Dog’s pack.
And surprisingly, he cared for them deeply, enough to remember anyone who harmed them and take revenge.
“I’ll make him pay with his life.”
When the staff-wielder caught a glimpse of the glinting malice in the Rabid Dog’s eyes, he shook his head.
“We need him alive. Let’s avoid killing him. Instead,”
the staff-wielder said with a benevolent smile.
“As long as you don’t kill him, I don’t mind what you do.”
After all, they only needed his body and abilities.
Nothing more, nothing less.
“Sounds easy enough.”
Before long, the Rabid Dog charged out in a beast-like manner.
The staff-wielder followed right behind him.
Even with the Rabid Dog around, Kraush was not a foe to be underestimated.
Thus, he too planned to go all out.
They arrived in the corridor by Kraush’s presence.
Boom! Bang!
Suddenly, a wall made of bones erupted before them.
The Rabid Dog, seeing the bone wall shoot up, was already swinging a crimson axe.
Slash!
The swinging axe effectively destroyed the skeletal barrier in no time.
The staff-wielder used a fist made of smoke to shatter the wall as well.
In that instant, the staff-wielder’s eyes widened.
He knew who was capable of manipulating the bone walls this way.
“The Necromancer.”
The moment he uttered those words, a barrage of skeleton corpses poured down before them.
“Hmph!”
The Rabid Dog snorted, spinning the axe as he weaved through the skeletons, shredding them to bits.
He truly resembled a wild beast.
Instantly tearing through the skeletal corpses, he dashed forward just then.
Boom!
From between the skeletons, a lance shot out, knocking the Rabid Dog back.
The Rabid Dog, having deflected it with his axe, spun around and landed upside down on the ceiling.
Emerging between the Skeletons was a gigantic knight adorned with an ominous black crown shimmering atop his head.
This black crown had thorns jutting out in a menacing manner.
It was the elite member of Ebelasque’s skeleton army, Number One.
Inside the helmet of Number One, a red aura flickered.
At the same time, the staff-wielder noticed Butler Number Three standing before him, clad in gauntlets.
He dispelled the staff-wielder’s smoke punch with his gauntlets and readied himself.
The staff-wielder’s eyebrows twitched at the sight of him.
“Necromancer, do you really think you can take us on alone?”
Ebelasque’s forces were undeniably not to be dismissed lightly.
However, her strength focused on multi-faceted battles.
In contrast, the staff-wielder knew the Rabid Dog was optimized for one-on-one combat.
Boom!
Sure enough, Number One was at a disadvantage against the Rabid Dog’s dual axes.
And Number Three was no different.
While they tried to hold their ground against the staff-wielder, they couldn’t avoid taking damage, which accumulated.
New corpses appearing briefly distracted both of them, but it wasn’t enough to level the playing field.
Ebelasque wouldn’t stop sending more corpses, either.
The staff-wielder’s expression darkened as he figured out what she was after.
“She’s buying time.”
Although the skeletons feigned an aggressive posture, they were actually in defensive formations.
It was clearly an action to buy time.
“Rabid Dog! Is Kraush making his escape?”
The Rabid Dog hurled Number One away with another swing.
“He’s still there.”
The moment he heard this, the staff-wielder conjured dozens of smoke giants behind him.
With one mighty gesture, the smoke giants soared into the air, colliding with Ebelasque’s corpses.
Thud- Thud- Thud- Thud-
The staff-wielder’s staff rhythmically hit the ground.
With each slam, the smoke giants inflated, pressing against Ebelasque’s skeletons.
“Rabid Dog! I’ll clear the path!”
The staff-wielder figured out what Ebelasque’s intention was.
She was trying to buy time.
He didn’t know exactly what she was planning, but he was sure it was linked to Kraush.
“Get to Kraush!”
The smoke giants charged at the skeletons, while the Rabid Dog aggressively cleared the path ahead.
Though the skeletons struggled to break through, they couldn’t hold back the Rabid Dog.
The Rabid Dog crashed through the corridor and smashed open the door to the workshop.
As the staff-wielder grinned at this victory, he suddenly felt a thunk!
He looked down to see a dagger embedded deep in his side.
When had it gotten there? The dagger was covered in extreme poison.
‘This—’
The staff-wielder recalled the information he had heard before attacking Lagrain.
The daughter of the Lagrain family, Haring Lagrain, supposedly had similar invisible skills.
“Cough!”
He hadn’t expected to be caught off guard while focused on clearing the corpses.
How sly of her.
‘If it had been aimed at my throat, I would’ve sensed it.’
The staff-wielder had a smoke defense concealing critical areas.
Whether she sensed it or not, she must have targeted his exposed side.
With poison swiftly spreading through his body, he realized he had to stabilize quickly.
This was poison meant to kill.
Moreover, it wasn’t just any regular poison.
It was a cursed poison from who-knows-where.
Haring’s original toxin.
“Cough, argh.”
The staff-wielder sank down, concentrating to fortify his smoke defense.
Completely blindsided by an unexpected attack, he needed time to recover.
For now, he was forced to focus on healing.
Thanks to this, Ebelasque’s grasp over the skeletons loosened.
When the Rabid Dog stepped into the workshop, it had morphed into the battlefield of Ebelasque.
Bones and skeletal structures filled the space, and countless skeletal soldiers aimed their weapons.
The Rabid Dog’s eyebrows twitched as his long hair fell across his face.
“Such bold pups.”
At that moment, Ebelasque’s voice reverberated around the workshop alluringly.
“Stepping into the Necromancer’s fully-set battlefield is akin to walking straight into death.”
She was about to show the dirtiest methods of combat that the Necromancer could employ.
