He had a few moments before the [Greater Ghoul] caught up with him and he intended to use them effectively. Now that he was on the other side of the undeads' formation he was within striking distance of the [Skeletal Mage] that was summoning the barriers and was his current greatest obstacle in gaining ground in this battle. He bated down upon it, intend on shattering its body when its signature defensive spell appeared before it. Unfortunately for it, he had a plan to deal with it.
With a wrench of his Merged Spirit, he redirected his blow, swinging to its side and then bringing the weapon back and behind him to spin himself around with his momentum. His left shoulder slammed into the barrier, creaking horribly even through his shield as the two forces clashed with each other. Both gave out, his own shield weakened from the constant corrosion it had been subjected to. He continued his spin as his shield partially restored itself, having gone up another Level, and brought his axe to bear against the Mage. He landed his attack right on its skull, blasting it into shrapnel from the force of its fully charged outburst. He had taken out the undeads' main defender.
No sooner than the bone shards of the skull hit the ground, something in the air changed. A weight settled on him as an aura filled the ritual hall, one that instilled a sense of primal fury that burned with the intensity of fire. The flames around the hall grew taller as they resonated with the aura and two words imprinted themselves on Liam's mind.
{Blazing Berserker}
"To the side!"
His Spirit of Death screamed in his mind, as loud as it could be when stuck in its permanent raspy whisper. He obeyed without question, an instinct telling him to follow the instruction with no hesitation. He was glad he had an instant later when the stone he had previously been standing on was fractured and turned to molten slag.
The [Unknown Greater Ghoul] had sped up to almost faster than he could follow. Flames rolled off its body, continuously spilled from within, not unlike the black mist of his Death Power. Its runes glowed with a blinding intensity at the presence of so much energy and every part of its physicality was improved.
He went to bring up its Named Title to see what he was dealing with but he didn't get the chance. In the fraction of a moment his thoughts had turned to inspecting the results from his [Analyze] Skill, the hulking behemoth had appeared in front of him, claws descending towards him. He attempted to defend himself, but his axe was too slow and wouldn't make it before he was skeward and skinned by his enemy so, in a moment of desperation, he projected the shield from his [Spirit of Protection] into a barrier mimicking the ones of the Mage he had just slain.
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The wall of Spiritual Energy held for only a moment, but it was enough for him to get his weapon between the claws and his body and deflect them off to his side. His axe traveled with them, making sure they stayed well away from his flesh now that it was unprotected. Then, since he had tied up both of his opponents arms while only loosing the use of one, he formed the mist of his Death Spirit into a spiked gauntlet and punch the undead in the chest. He felt a tug on his Lifeforce as he did so, having burned through all his free uses of the Power and now forced to rely on the precious Path Resource.
He parted flames with his strike, the almost solid gauntlet protecting his hand from most of the harm that should've come from sticking it into fire, and the spike sunk into the creature's chest. It didn't puncture the skin or leave a mark, but it was undeniable injured by the Spirit robbing it of some of what kept it animated. Then, with that as a conduit, he pushed as much of his Merged Spirit through it and into the Ghoul as he could, leaving only enough in his body to keep it standing and wrestling control of the undead's limbs away from it.
He had fought these types of undead a few times by now and he had a fairly good idea of how they worked. The magic that sustained them operated in much the same way that his Merged Spirit's did to move him and now, he was moving to replace that magic with his own energies. The Spirit spread through its body like wildfire, driven by its innate hatred of those that perverted death. Wherever it passed, it warred with the necromantic energies governing its unlife and sought to take their place. Between something disconnected from its owner and left to do its job or something actively being controlled by its connected owner, which would win? The answer was all too plain to see in the results.
Soon, the Ghoul's body stopped struggling against him and he had completely dominated its muscular and nervous systems. He had to tank a full wave of [Skeletal Mage] created flame attacks to buy the time to succeed, and they had depleted almost half of his HP, but he had done it. He detangled his weapon from the creature's claws and took a brief moment to gather himself. Then, in one surge of mental action, he ripped the Spirit out of the undead and back into his own body.
The flames winked out immediately, having been burning against his skin the whole time. Luckily, most of the heat had been absorbed by the creature's runes so he hadn't been too hurt by them but the scent of his burning flesh now hung in the air. The runes were next to dim, the red glow fading until it blinked out of existence and they were just carvings on a grey canvas. Then, the undead collapsed, everything supporting its body giving way at once as if it had just decided to give up.
He leapt back and away from it just in time to dodge another barrage of attacks and felt power stream into him. He had Leveled up from the being's return to the grave and now had 7 free attributes to quickly spend, as well as some boosted defensive stats already in place. He took stock of the situation before he made any decisions and saw something that made him very glad for the timely power up since he was going to need it. The Lich had abandoned its ritual and was now facing him.