The pain from his wounds made itself known as he rested, having previously been pushed aside in favour of action. There was still no time for it though so Liam grabbed it tight and threw it to the back of his mind with everything else he was ignoring for the moment. Then, keeping one eye on the passageway, he read through his notifications.

[Spirit of Death I had Levelled Up!

It has reached Level 2.

10% bonus damage has increased to 20%]

[Level Up!

You have reached Level 5.

You have 0 Free Attributes to assign.]

[For slaying an enemy 10 or more Levels above you, you have earned the Title: Titan Slayer]

He focused on the Title to bring up what it did, and was satisfied when it turned out to be an upgraded version of the Giant Slayer one he had seen earlier.

[Titan Slayer

Uncommon Title

+5 damage on all attacks]

Finally, he opened his Status to check his new stats.

[

Name: Liam Karr

Race: Human (Earth)

Path: Path of the Spirits

Class: None

Titles: Spirit Progenitor, Natural Shaman, Titan Slayer

Level: 5

HP: 47/200

Stamina: 14/130

Lifeforce: 8/10

Strength: 24

Dexterity: 14

Vitality: 20

Endurance: 13

Intelligence: 15

Willpower: 17

Free Attributes: 0

Traits:

None

Skills:

Analyse II

Spirit Lore I (II)

Undead Lore I

Hafted I

Powers:

Spirit of Death I, Level 2/10

]

Happy with what he saw, Liam set off at a slow walk down the passageway. He couldn't afford to not be moving since the other undead would not be far behind the first and his experiments had shown that he could still regenerate his Stamina even whilst moving if he stayed slow enough.

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He forged onwards through the darkness, ears alert for any sound. He watched as his Stamina rose up out of the danger zone and relaxed a little. He didn't know how the System was doing it, but he didn't feel anywhere near as tired as his Status indicated. Maybe it had changed him on some fundamental Level like stats points seemed to be doing. Still, he didn't want to find out what hitting 0 Stamina did in the middle of a fight and he needed every prescious point he could grab if he was to survive so none could be wasted on testing.

His pace let him go for 15 minutes before he heard the first signs of his pursuers. His worries had been unfounded in that he'd not run into anything during his walk. Still, he made sure to look around the upcoming bend to make sure there was nothing around it before he turned to face the undead. The first rounded the corner and stopped dead to stare at him, the clacking of skeletal feet echoing down the passageway giving away that it was waiting for its ally. In the dim light, he could now make out that it was a brute of a man before it was turned, with a broad frame decked out in scraps of rotting leather armour. It carried no weapon but it's fingers ended in long claws that dripped with the paralytic venom of [Ghouls]. He had time before it would make it's move so he [Analyzed] it again.

[Richard Montague, Unknown Ghoul, Level 12

Path of the Spirits (Corrupted)

Natural Shaman]

[320/320]

He focused in on the Corrupted part of it's status and got a prompt as to what it was.

[Corrupted

The walker of this Path has entered a state where they cannot walk it anymore. As such, they still have access to their Powers but this Path provides no bonuses per Level.]

He read it and came to the conclusion that the [Unknown Ghoul] would only have Lifeforce from it's Title and would miss out on the extra 12 that it's Path was meant to bring it. This meant it would only have 5 Lifeforce versus his 8, though he couldn't be sure what Powers it had access to. At that thought, he noticed a sheen around the undead's body and attempted to [Analyzed] that as well. To his suprise, it worked and he was given a message by the System.

[Spirit of Protection I (Partially Corrupted)

Path Power

Level 1/10

Continuous: Imbue your body with your bound [Spirit of Protection] to receive a shield equal to 10% of your HP that regenerates at 10% of the speed your HP does. This shield does not have any damage resistance.

Cost: 5 Lifeforce per day

Tier I: Grants Sleep and Fatigue Immunity

Partially Corrupted: On activation or refresh, inflict a stack of [Fatigue] on you that ignores immunities]

The good news was that Liam now knew where it's Lifeforce was being spent and could worry less about any suprise Powers that it may use. The bad news was that it was even tougher than it's HP indicated. He had just finished his assessment when the second undead rounded the corner, a short red skeleton holding a bone bow that had what looked to be a tendon as the bowstring. The blue light from within it's skull flashed brightly when it spotted him and an arrow appeared at its fingertips and was out on the bow.

Reacting fast, Liam stepped around the bend before it could even knock it's arrow and crouched. He readied his weapon to ambush whichever of them followed after him first. He had turned to face them instead of continuing on for this very reason as the bends were much narrower and he could isolate each of the undead instead of battling them 2 on 1. The fact that one of his enemies was an archer made this tactic all the better as it would not be able to enter line of sight of him to even attempt to fire at him because of the position he was in. The sharp bend meant that they would only be able to see him when then stepped around it themselves.

He called upon his [Spirit of Death], feeding another 2 Lifeforce to it and watching the black smoke spill out from within him and cling close to his skin. His shirt, that had already been shredded by a multitude of attacks since this all began, had been taken off and wrapped around his hand and the axe grip so that it would be harder to knock from his hand. He waited in anticipation and, as soon as he saw the grey of [Ghoul] flesh, he swung his axe to meet his foe.

His axe head collided with the Spirit shield around the undead and ignited, sending cracks along it that covered it in its entirety. A second later the shield broke with the sound of smashing glass and his axe continued onwards to graze Richard Montague. It had been robbed of its momentum by the shield, but it's additional property still remained and it lit up again and burnt away 3 of the corrupted shaman's HP. He then quickly stepped back to avoid a counterattack from the [Ghoul] and ignored the notification that appeared when he did so.

He swung again as more black smoke spilled from his arm and rolled down to cover the axe head, replenishing what had been lost in the clash against the shield. There was no Spirit to protect the undead this time and his axe tasted putrid flesh.

"Aim for the green veins in along it's arms. That should disable them."

The voice of the [Spirit of Death] whispered into Liam's mind, distracting him with, admittedly useful, information. Still, a moment of intention could be the difference between victory or defeat in a battle and the Montague took advantage of it. Claws raked along his arm where the zombies claws had been not long ago. They split his skin easily and injected their venom into him as they went. His HP didn't drop much due to the none vital area of his wound but, much worse was when, he lost most of the feeling in his right arm.

Liam now regretted tying his hand to his weapon as it meant he couldn't easily switch which hand he wielded it with, so instead he had to put his left hand over his right and pull with both to rip it free from the creature's flesh. He stumbled back and blocked the undead's follow up lunge, claws scraping along the bone of his axe. Richard let out a scream as the axe set it's venom on fire, stepping back and slamming it's claws against the wall until it went out. Liam took this time to rip away the cloth binding him to his weapon and switch hands. He got ready to fight again at the same time it was done putting out the fire. It was time for Round 2.