The Chairman pressed forward, driving the Immortal King back step by step.

Vex protected his flanks, making sure no undead approached. Draven's fists crashed into the ground repeatedly, each impact sending shockwaves that disrupted the Immortal King's footing.

Orion's sword blurred as he carved through any opening in the Immortal King's defense.

The tide had turned completely. With the full squad assembled, the undead horde that had nearly overwhelmed the Chairman earlier was being suppressed by the other awakeners. Without the constant pressure of countless corpses, the four elites could focus entirely on the Immortal King himself.

The Chairman surged forward, space warping around his hands. The Immortal King raised his arms to defend, but Vex used his control over shadows to wrap around his legs, holding him in place. Draven's fist slammed into his side, cracking his exposed ribs and forcing him to stagger.

Orion appeared behind him in a flash, his sword slicing across the Immortal King's back.

The Immortal King roared, trying to summon more undead, but they were instantly knocked back by Vex's shadows and instantly engaged by the other awakeners.

The Chairman didn't waste the opening. He raised his hands, forming a huge space blade. He then swung vertically. The blade passed through the Immortal King's skeleton with almost no resistance.

For a moment, nothing seemed to have happened. Then the Immortal King's skeleton body split cleanly in two. Both parts collapsed to the ground before crumbling into a pile of bones. Vex waved his hand, creating a dark flame that burned the bone remains to dust.

Immediately, the undead across the battlefield began to falter. Their movements became sluggish, uncoordinated.

"Finish them quickly!" the Chairman ordered, already moving to engage the nearest group of undead.

Vex, Draven, and Orion joined him without hesitation. With their coordination and the undead's weakened state, it was barely a fight anymore. In just a few minutes, the last corpse fell, crumbling to dust.

The Chairman straightened, finally allowing himself to relax. We finally destroyed that goddamn cultist, he thought.

"Good work, everyone," he said aloud, looking at his team. "I'll go check on Elaine and the others. You guys can rest here."

"I'll follow you," Vex said. "I want to see if any of my captured squad members are among the captives. I didn't see them in any of the undead"

"I'll follow too, to kill your squad members if they've turned into undead and you're unable to bear it," Draven said, placing his hand on Vex's shoulder and laughing.

Orion sighed. "I guess I have no choice."

The four of them walked into the cave together.

…

"Cipher, Elaine, what are you guys doing? You still haven't rescued the captives?" the Chairman asked as he approached.

Elaine looked at Cipher with a pleading expression. Cipher sighed. "We encountered a girl who's been turned to stone through a curse. We were trying to rescue her first," he explained.

At that moment, Orion swung his sword, cutting through all the cages containing the captives in one swift motion.

"I see. Well, if you can't break the curse, just take her back. We'll find a way to break it later," the Chairman said.

"Sorry, but she's an important specimen, so I can't let you do that," the Immortal King's voice echoed through the cave.

"What? No way. But the system…" Before he could complete the thought, dark shadowy tentacles erupted from the ground behind the Chairman and stabbed straight through his back to his chest.

Cipher instantly retrieved his sword and charged toward Elara.

"Nooooo!" Elaine screamed.

"With Demonic Qi's 6 times multiplier, combined with Aura's 4 times multiplier and Assassinate's 3 times multiplier, I should be able to deliver an attack with 13,680 damage," Cipher calculated as he moved. "And that's just using Assassinate's capped 190 damage. If I also account for my other 410 damage, multiply by 6 from Demonic Qi and then by 4 from my now C-rank Aura, I should be able to deal an additional 9,840 damage. That's a total of 23,520 damage."

"An average B-rank has 16,000 health. An average A-rank has 32,000 health. The Immortal King wasn't focused on health but rather mana. Still, his defense is quite high since he can use related spells. But with this damage…"

Cipher grabbed the hanging Elara with one hand and swung his sword with the other. His blade clashed with something invisible, sending it flying into the cave wall with tremendous force. The invisibility shattered, revealing the Immortal King's body crumpling against the stone.

"Hold her," Cipher said, handing Elara to Elaine, who was still in shock - she'd thought Cipher was about to kill her sister.

"Umm, yeah," she nodded awkwardly, taking Elara from Cipher's arms.

Cipher now faced the Immortal King directly. "Let go of the Chairman," he demanded.

After knocking back the Immortal King, the necromancer had dragged the Chairman who was still held by his tentacles along with him.

The Immortal King rose slowly, coughing.

"Hehe... to think that there was someone like you here. I'll retreat this time. Take care of the kid's body for me. I'll come back for it," he said.

Although I planned to use the kid's body to become a god, there's no way I can get away from here with it. Especially not with that guy here. My other status effects haven't cleared, and I'm still low on mana and stamina. He looked at the Chairman held in his tentacles. Besides, I've gotten quite the valuable treasure. Once I refine the strongest human into an undead, I'll become unstoppable. Then it won't be too late to come back for the kid.

"I told you to let go of the Chairman!" Cipher shouted, charging at the Immortal King.

"As much as I'd like to stay and have fun with you guys, you'll have to excuse me. I have some places to be," the Immortal King said with a mocking smile. "Well, adios." He bowed theatrically and sank into the ground.

Cipher arrived at the spot and smashed his sword into the earth, but the Immortal King was long gone. Even his ESP didn't detect him anymore.

Fuck, Cipher cursed internally. The Immortal King had used the Earth Escape skill. This was a trait of his Necromancer class - he could use the abilities of those he'd turned into undead. Dammit. Even if the Chairman was dead, he needed to recover the body. He couldn't let the Immortal King gain space magic abilities.

He was about to give chase when Victoria came rushing in.

"Chairman! Chairman! We received news that HQ is under attack!"

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