Chapter 76

The amphitheater loomed over Dave, on all four sides of the fighting arena tiers of stone benches and VIP boxes lighted with torches stair-stepped up and away from him. The seats were filled with thousands of hoarse-voiced Undead roaring and screaming as they waved their arms and weapons in the air. Behind the ‘nosebleed’ sections an ornate wall enclosed the open-air structure. An iconic bone tower visible above the top of the high wall confirmed the location of the arena.

Dave had been transported to the King’s City in the Dead Realm.

Standing across from each other in the arena, Dave and the Battalion leader, Rioushak, eyed each other menacingly, measuring and weighing for strengths and weaknesses.

This was the next step in Deadra’s Quest. He had to win this fight, get promoted to Undead-Captain and take the Battalion leader’s position.

A voice thundered “FIGHT!”

Dave used [Immortal apparition] to shroud himself in shadows, then blinked out to appear directly in front of Rioushak with an eruption of Death energy. The rogue was thrown across the arena floor by the force of the shadowy explosion.

Fear Effect failed!

Before the rogue could recover, Dave used [Sword Lunge], extending into the classic fencing stance. The sword punched a hole in space, an eye-twisting spatial anomaly.

Passing through the distortion, the sword expanded rapidly to airplane-wing size, shooting toward the target like a bolt of lightning and striking with Skill-enhanced damage and area of effect.

The speed and sheer size of the sword made it impossible to escape the attack completely, even with the [Dodge] Skill the rogue used.

[-422]

Rioushak was struck in the side, staggered and pushed back, but he was spared the full brunt of the damage from the deadly Skill.

Without pause, Dave activated [Stampede], charging at the battalion leader, his sword cocked back to sweep forward. The rushing attack was preceded by a building wail that dopplered away as he sliced through the rogue’s chest and continued past him, like a runaway train.

[-1822]

[Stampede]’s high base Skill-damage amount, coupled with the ‘Stagger’ effect synergized to deal crippling damage.

The rogue clamped his jaw at the damage and turned to strike with his daggers. Dave evaded the double attack easily, counter-attacking with [Twin-Strike].

[-1223]

Debilitated by the stacked active effects, the battalion leader kept trying to center and regain his balance. But Dave never let up, he kept the pressure on the rogue. This was part of his strategy. A lot of Skills won’t work when specific debuffs or status effects are active. The Stagger effect makes most attack Skills inaccessible.

The rogue growled in irritation, unable to activate any of his Skills singly or in their supremely effective combination attacks, the bread and butter of his rogue class. Rogues are ultra-high damage dealers, but glass cannons, easily shattered.

Dave cast and detonated [Spectral Bomb] against the draugr’s chest. The exploding skull pushed the battalion leader away. Dave retreated in a chain of backflips, gaining more distance to set up his next attack.

He activated [Death’s Descent], leaping high enough to see the streets around the arena, then plunging toward the earth in a meteoric melee attack. The attack Skill ended with Dave in an iconic superhero pose, knee, foot, and fist shattering the cobblestones, sword pointed down and back, his opponent sprawled across the cratered floor.

[-1285]

The Battalion leader punched the ground in frustration before kipping up to lunge at Dave with daggers outstretched. His eyes gleamed with insanity and rage ignoring all incoming damage and attacking without regard for his lack of heavy armor and inherent rogue vulnerability.

Dave didn’t try to evade, he used [Block] and neutralized the dagger attacks, then followed up with [Counter], dealing mild damage but staggering the rogue yet again.

[-250]

Not wanting to give the rogue an opening to recover or attack.

His shield returned to inventory as he separated his longsword into two shortswords.

He slashed, twin swords in an X, and activated both sword Abilities, [Double Slash], and [Soul Burn] immediately after, gritting his teeth as the (-100 HP/sec) cost of the second Skill bit into him and started draining away his Health.

[Soul Burn] funneled waves of fire toward the rogue, the flames cycloning around the X AoE attack from [Double Slash]. The Abilities synergized, increasing and concentrating the damage. The combination struck the rogue causing an immediate ‘Immolate’ DPS and a longer DoT ‘Burn’ effect.

[-1662]

The rogue used [Vanish], disappearing into stealth.

Dave didn’t even bother looking for him. He stomped a black-steel booted foot into the stone floor and shouted a Word of Power, sending out a wave of energy. The air around him turned dark and murky. [Death Surge], a battlefield control skill; causing a ‘Slow’ effect and increased damage debuff.

Sure enough, in the act of sneaking up on Dave for a backstab the crafty rogue’s stealth cover was shredded away as [Death Surge] swept over him.

Dave attacked with [Concussive Blow], coupled with [Twin Strike], just off of cooldown.

[-6852]

[-4552]

“Sweet!”

Dave kept the momentum going, continuously assaulting the Rogue.

It only took a few minutes after that for Dave to defeat the rogue. Dave went for a dramatic finisher, crossing both short swords through the rogue’s neck and popping the head off. The headless body stood for long seconds before it collapsed like its strings were suddenly cut.

Dave had lost less than a quarter of his HP during the fight. Most of the loss due to the draining effect of [Soul Burn].

As soon as the rogue’s body slumped to the floor, Dave was transported back to the temple square in the first Raid-Zone.

Undead Ascension!

You have defeated the Battalion leader, the rogue Rioushak!

You are hereby elevated from Skeleton Elite to the rank of

Undead Captain.

You have been given command of Battalion 2,705.

You may select 10 low-tier Undead to promote to Elite rank.

The promoted Undead will command 10 soldiers of their own .

Just as you challenged your superior for advancement, so too, others can challenge you for your position.

+500 Contribution points.

Serve the Undead King faithfully.

Dave read the notification and looked at Bud, Sparky, and the rest of the Boyz. He opened his interface and leveled up their ranks.

The appearance of the ten newly ranked-up Undead changed.

Bud, the ghoul, grew much larger, his armor darker, and spikes sprouted from every metal plates.

Sparky’s robes had become ragged and old. Eerie animated sigils moving around on them. His staff grew taller, grander, and phantasmal flames flickered from the red and yellow gem.

The remaining eight Undead lost their bony physiques, becoming more compact and sturdy.

The ten newly ranked-up undead assembled at attention in a straight line. They seemed to shudder, and then lower tier undead started emerging from behind them every few seconds. The new Undead paced away from the Boyz and then turned and stood at attention behind them. This repeated until a formation made of ten columns of eleven Undead stood before Dave.

A total of 110 units and they were all Dave’s

You are now eligible to partake in the second challenge of the Legacy Quest.

Would you like to start?

Y/N?

So, the Legacy quest gives a challenge every time I rank up in the legion.

If I accept the challenge, will affect my mission of remaining here until the legion comes? fighting off the three super guilds four 4 hours might not be feasible after all…

Dave pressed Y.

Your Legacy quest challenge has been archived due to your current mission, please finish your current mission first.

“Damn,” Dave cursed.

“What is it?” asked Lone

“Nothing important. Do you know what is happening outside?”

Before Lone Arrow could answer, Delvina, the warden, emerged from within the temple and walked toward them.

Solemnly she said, “The army of the living is advancing through the cavern, they have been slowed by the archers positioned in the towers but it will not take much longer for them reach this location.”

“How long before they get here?” asked Dave.

“Two hours, at best.”

Dave turned to look at the temple. Checked the time remaining on the S ranked quest.

There’s less than two hours left on the quest timer, the guildies aren’t going to make it. I’m safe.

Dave shook his head, he’d been worried for nothing.

“Delvina, where can I find the unit under my command?

“Summon your Death Knight lieutenants, and they, in turn, will summon their minions.”

Dave nodded.

In his panel, he found the icons for twenty Death Knights. They were all in heavy black armor, indistinguishable from humans except for the green glow of their eyes shining through the visors.

The command panel showed the level of each Death Knight, all in the 400s. Each Death Knight had 1000 units under their command.

Dave summoned the twenty Death Knights for a closer look.

They were a grim looking lot. Bad mofos, every one. Probably they all had a wallet that said it in writing too.

He felt better having these powerful ‘pawns’ at his command. But they still gave him the creeps.

More than 80 Death Knights were sent to stop the incoming army of adventurers. With the 20,000 under his command as back-up, he was sure the guildies would fail the ‘S’ ranked system quest.

“Bad news!” interrupted Lone Arrow.

“What?”

“The guildies are using their Legacy Transformations. The Undead frontlines have fallen or are falling, the players will be here in an hour.”

“Son-of-a-bleeding-leech!”

Delvina was alarmed at the news and started snapping out orders to her seneschal, preparing her defenses.

“Delvina, If we wait for the adventurers to get here, they will roll over us in no time. The only place we might be able to hold them is the bridge that crosses the magma river.”

“Indeed. I’ve already ordered my advanced units to retreat to the bridge, they will make a stand at the magma river. It should slow the invaders down. But the Legacy users are going to be hard to stop.”

“We don’t need to kill them, just slow them down. Once the King’s Legion arrives, they will eradicate the Living invaders.”

Dave separated his forces, he planned to take ten Death Knights and their units to the bridge to hold the guildies. The other ten would stay behind to defend the temple, and act as a reserve force if he needed them.

Ordering ten of the Death Knights to follow, he set a fast pace to the tunnel that lead to the magma river and the bridge.

Lone rushed to catch up with Dave.

“Where are you going?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I want to get a closer look. ”

“You do know we are the lowest level players in this expansion, right?”

“Don’t worry Lone, if things get too hot we’ll retreat back here,” Dave smiled at her confidently.