Suddenly, the empty eye sockets ignited in a pale green flame, and a whispy soft voice echoed through the whole courtyard.
"Ahh, new challengers… hmm you are alone… Are you brave or a fool?" It asked, making him turn around and attempt to run back.
"No, no, no, there is no escape from here… only death." And with that, the gate slammed down in a loud bang, and the walls ignited in the same pale-green flames, surrounding the whole inner courtyard and creating a square-shaped arena for the quickly approaching fight.
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Trapped, John made a decision to lash out first, immediately sending his stiletto toward the overlord and his wisp to fire at the head of the Juvenile rotfiend.
Unlike its skeletal counterpart, the rotfiend reached only slightly above John's head, and instead of the massive bone club, its weapons of choice were foot-long sets of claws.
The lightning bolt hit first, making the monstrosity bellow in anger and slowly turn to face him on its three pairs of stubby raptor-like legs.
Observing the way it moved, John noted the perceived weakness before turning his eyes up.
Possible weak point, slow turn rate.
His vision fell on the stiletto, which rebounded roughly a meter away from the skeleton as if hitting an invisible wall.
Cursing, John quickly guided the blade to fly through the top, but after seeing the same outcome he immediately recalled the weapon back and to harass the rotfiend's face.
The beast meanwhile finished positioning and charged in a surprisingly quick burst of speed, giving John but a fraction of a second to react and dive head over heels to the left, barely evading the wide swipe as it ran by.
Coming out of the roll, he watched the beast slowly back away from the wall it collided with.
Huh, that's not so bad…
Before being allowed to celebrate the awful mobility of the creature inside the enclosed courtyard, he noticed the overlord's boney hand glow green and a second later a baseball-sized flaming sphere shot out, impacting the pile of bones and setting it aflame.
What is it trying to do?
Splitting his attention among all three dangers, he tried to position himself in the left corner and carefully watch for the next attack. That came in the form of another charge which he once again evaded.
Sparing a thought to the combat style of the Juvenile rotfiend, it kind of made sense if he factored a group of over a dozen people fighting here together. There, the challenge would be to stay spread out and pay extreme care to even a minuscule movement or they would be squashed. Being alone, he wouldn't call it exactly harmless, but with enough care, he could probably run around it in circles without any risk of retribution.
His observation was interrupted by another attempt to charge, but being ready he once again avoided both the lumbering steps and the attempt to cut through him, running around and keeping a safe distance.
A new complication arose from the—now burning—pile of bones in the form of two skeletons trailing a green glow behind them.
[Lost soul]
It was a common type of enemy, and John took three steps leading to the one closest to him and smashed his club to the side of its head. His biceps slightly ached from the impact, but the flimsy vertebrae of the skeleton gave way, and he successfully severed the magical connection holding it together.
Unfortunately, the dull flame keeping it animated flew out of its severed skull and rejoined the burning pile.
The other skeleton attempted to grab him but was repelled with a well-placed shield bash, followed by an overhead swing to the side of the skull. The same thing repeated itself and John was once again back in the status quo.
A quick glance at the rotfiend's face revealed a couple of stab wounds around its neck, leaking a similar tar-like substance to what the hounds bled, but otherwise, it seemed mostly unhurt.
A third bolt blasted on top of its head eliciting a slight twitch just as it was about to charge, making its aim half a meter off course.
After evading, John tried to smash the side of its back leg, but the limb was covered in rough scaly hide with thickness of a young tree's trunk, and the resulting blow only created an ineffective thunk.
It took another five seconds for it to back away from the wall and turn around, but it must have figured out that its previous tactic wasn't working, because it advanced forward in steady lumbering steps instead.
John slowly backed away, nearly stepping into the burning pile of bones behind him while splitting his attention between the rotfiend and the skeleton on the balcony. The Sector overlord seemed content to watch over his struggle, but John couldn't risk turning his back on it, so he tried to constantly keep the undead in his field of vision.
He was stepping around the edge of the burning pile when suddenly the monster rushed in. The change was so sudden and unexpected, he barely shifted his weight to the right, when the claw caught him above the waist. The blow was mostly stopped by his shield, but a little bit over an inch reaching over the edge the claw's tips tore through his clothes like through butter.
"Umpf…" being tossed two meters away and falling on the ground in a heap, he got lost for a moment, and the only thing that saved his life was a sudden spike of imminent and very lethal danger.
Some deep instinct told him to roll to his right, and because John trusted his gut, he rolled as if his life depended on it.
The rotfiend stomped over the place he was lying less than a second later, missing him by barely a foot, and giving him enough time to collect himself and carefully stand up.
His ribs were bruised, he was bleeding from an unknowingly deep cut to his side, and his head was still spinning from the impact, but he was alive and that was what mattered.
Going around the flaming pile, he once again noticed the rotfiend slowly navigating its way to him.
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Wait, could it be?
He very carefully leaned out the side of the burning pile's cover and just as he thought, the bastard charged out. Expecting it, he stepped back and his theory was proven right.
It will not charge in the direction of the pile.
The pile wasn't even that big. Roughly two meters in diameter and barely reaching a meter high, but the rotfiend never came close, always paying utmost attention to never step into the pale-green flames.
A sixth lighting bolt hit its head, making it stumble and give John a bit of hope. Unfortunately, a second wave of problems once again rose from the burning pile in the form of four burning skeletons, forcing him to quickly dispatch them or risk getting overwhelmed and trampled.
He smashed his club over the skull of the closest one, but the previous blow to his chest made him grunt in pain. He put his whole might behind the blow, and his bruised ribs let him know how stupid of an idea it was by a nasty spike of searing pain.
One skeleton fell apart, but the others advanced, forcing him to cover behind his shield and block the incoming clawed hands of the two Lost souls in melee range.
"Fuck," he blocked the clumsy strikes and willed for his stiletto to help out. It flew out of the monster's neck, opening another small hole in the rotten scales, and buried itself in the skull of the leftmost burning skeleton.
The golden lines started to spread out, quickly encompassing the skull and reaching down over its ribcage. What would on normal skeletons already turn into a killing blow only froze the Lost soul in the place, and kept spreading further. John watched this strange development until…
The rotfiend was now very close to gaining a line of sight, forcing John to repeat the previous trick and slightly lean out. This baited the charge, and John noticed the first troubles with its coordination. It didn't impact its movement yet, but John was now certain it was only a matter of time.
Turning back to the burning skeletons, the two remaining were slowly shuffling his way, and he circled around the pile to the other side just to see the last moments of the now brightly shining skeleton. It was bound in hundreds of brightly shining golden lines that were smothering the pale-green flames that were keeping it animated.
By now, the flames were pushed out from everywhere except a small core in the middle of the ribcage, but even there, it was getting crushed under the brilliant radiance.
It gave way a second later, and the whole skeleton crumbled into golden dust and unexpectedly created a translucent ball of… something… that shot into John's chest.
Unable to spare the time to check it out, he willed his stiletto to destroy one of the remaining two, and kept circling around the burning pile, keeping the last Lost soul at bay with his shield.
It took five seconds for the second skeleton to crumble and give him the same translucent reward, and then another five for the last.
The rotfiend impotently circled around the burning pile, unable to reach him, and kept being whittled down by the lightning bolts and new stabs of his dagger.
After another couple of seconds, a new wave of Lost souls rose from the pile, but this time only three skeletons came out.
Hmm, did the flames get duller?
He wasn't certain, but it felt like the moment the three skeletons rose up, the flames grew weaker.
Repeating the same tactic, he destroyed all three in the following fifteen seconds and kept circling the pile to keep himself outside the rotfiend's reach.
The next wave came roughly in another fifteen seconds, making it a half-minute occurrence, and paying close attention, he was now sure the flames were growing weaker. Another noticeable thing was the lack of numbers, as it spawned only a single pair.
Maybe they are supposed to increase by two on every wave, but my dagger is somehow killing them permanently.
Keeping the count in his head, a thirteenth bolt struck the top of the rotfiend's head, and by now the paralyzing electricity was starting to take effect. It was constantly struggling with movements and having a hard time keeping itself upward, becoming even slower and less dangerous.
Leaving his stiletto to dispatch the Lost souls, he continued kiting the monster around and waited for the opportunity to strike.
The fifth wave, which would have theoretically raised ten skeletons instead of only two, came up, but something new happened this time. The first one was the typical Lost soul, however, the second was being fed much more fire, until all of the remaining flames moved into its chest.
[Netherbound soul]
The blue name hinted at a larger threat, making John focus on it first. This one floated slightly above the ground, and as it reached out with its boney hand, the same pale-green flame billowed out as if shot from a flamethrower.
John, who was standing less than two meters away, barely raised his shield up and turned sideways when the cone washed over him.
It… didn't burn. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw the flames rushing around the shield and over his left leg, but not leaving behind any noticeable injuries. The flames stopped after another second, giving him time to move to a better position from the incoming dangers.
He took a step away and his left leg buckled under him, making him collapse.
Wha… he tried to stand up, but couldn't. His right leg felt tired and the left remained mostly unresponsive.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Using his hands and his other leg, he pushed himself away from the direction of the skeletons and the side the rotfiend was coming from. Funnily enough, the rotfiend seemed to be in a similar condition, barely dragging itself forward with its clawed hands. That, combined with the Netherbound soul which despite its blue rarity was already starting to show signs of the golden affinity made the single common skeleton the biggest threat.
John would not die to this skeleton. Pushing himself with all the willpower and strength he could muster, he stood up on one leg and as the skeleton reached out with its claws, he jumped and tackled it to the ground.
His side hurt, his right arm was injured, and his leg was messed up, but he didn't care. The skeleton tried to scratch him with the clawed hand, but couldn't pierce through the chainmail under his jacket, and John kept bashing it with the side of his shield. The ribs of the skeleton gave out first, allowing him to crush through its spine, making it collapse and a small pale flame return back into the bone pile.
Looking around, the Sector overlord was still motionless on the balcony, the Netherbound soul was now paralyzed, slowly getting overwhelmed, and the rotfiend was desperately attempting to push itself closer. It was now roughly four meters away but also mostly paralyzed. It was slumped over its massive bottom half, keeping itself upward with its claws, but no longer able to move forward.
It took another twenty seconds for the Netherbound soul to perish, giving him another slightly larger translucent ball, and then over five minutes of repeated bolts and slow carving and bleeding out for the Juvenile rotfiend to finally succumb to the dozens of wounds all over its vitals.
That one gave him a yellow ball of ash, and a moment later, the same whispy soft voice echoed out.
"Useless beast, you shall serve me for eternity!" Looking up, John watched, as the regal skeleton gestured with its staff, and the barely flickering flame jumped out of the bone pile and flew right between the deceased rotfiend's eyes.
Ignited, its flesh turned to mush and slouched down from its bones. It fell on the ground in wet disgusting splatters, creating a nasty puddle of liquified rotten flesh. The whole transformation took roughly a minute during which John tried to attack the overlord, but alas the protective field around it remained active, forcing him to only watch as the monster turned into a smaller version of the one he was well aware of.
Hmm, doesn't it look somehow shoddy though? He thought, comparing the yellowed-out and damaged bones of the newly raised creature to the pristine and unblemished skeleton of the Fatebreaker Deathfiend.
Looking above its head, he saw its new name and despite all his injuries, he had to laugh out loud.
[Defective juvenile Deathfiend]
It was written in white text, indicating an utter failure of the overlord's reanimation spell.