Chapter 505 - When the Draugr Smiles

Dave jerked Durandal out of the Skin Walker's chest. No blood came out. The creature's chest was made of meat and muscle, no visible heart, no lungs nothing, just pure flesh. The meat visibly reformed, fusing back together, recreating the relatively healthy appearance of a gorilla.

Dave inspected the Skin Walker.

***

Name: Naandlous.h.i.+

Level: 1

Tier: Lesser Calamity of Fear

Danger level: Calamitous!

Damage: 1000

HP: ∞

PD: 0

MD: 0

Skills: [You Are What You Eat]: The Naandlous.h.i.+ consumes the flesh and souls of its victims. Stealing their abilities and powers. And using them at 80% of their potency.

[Fear the Name!] (Partially Blocked by the s.p.a.ce Lord Rule) Once called upon by using its true name, the Naandlous.h.i.+ can manifest anywhere in the world. It knows not to retreat or defeat, for as long as a Naandlous.h.i.+ is still alive, all of its foes have died. As they usually fight to the death.

[Calamity] As a calamitous Creature, the Naandlous.h.i.+ gains power and longevity from the fear of mortals. Even the s.p.a.ce Lord couldn't stop the reeking fear of people-kind from penetrating the sealed dominion of the FU Temple, If fought against, and shown an ounce of fear, the Naandlous.h.i.+ will have the ability to instantly execute any foe.

Lore:

The Skin Walker, also known by its true name the Naandlous.h.i.+. Roughly translates to, "By means of it, it goes on all four". It is the embodiment of fear. Fear of everything, anything, fear of the dark, or fear of death, or fear of being harmed. Whenever one fears, the Naandlous.h.i.+ gains power and longevity. A creature that none know its origin, but all know one thing. Never speak its name. For it can appear to you, in the form of your closest, a friend, a spouse, or even a parent. And you'll never be able to know the difference, until it is close up in your face, with its jaw opened to rip you to shreds, and consume you, adding another to its endless collection. There doesn't exist many of them in the world, by mercy, or by the world's fortune. As they are immortal beings, death to the Naandlous.h.i.+ is rare. And if you face one, do know, and do believe, that if you are alone, you shall die. But if you are with a companion, the one to die, is the slowest, the slowest to run away.

Fear the name!

***

Dave looked at the Skinwalker and grinned back. Causing the smiling gorilla to frown. It had never in its life met something or someone capable of smile in its presence, it irked it.

For this Naandlous.h.i.+, it had never met an undead, so what is in front of it is different, new, and unknown. The Naandlous.h.i.+ had lived its entire eternal life, unfazed by anything, even dragons avoided them. These things were a ha.s.sle to deal with, and none survived their encounter, but for a dragon to shake off the Naandlous.h.i.+ is nothing too complex or hard to do, so the Skinwalkers rarely if ever had the chance to feast upon the flesh of one that rules the skies.

But this draugr, this bipedal creature, is facing it, unworried for its life. Why? The question formed in the mind of the Naandlous.h.i.+, creating a paradox with its own nature. Something is not afraid of it, while it, itself I the embodiment of fear. This caused the Naandlous.h.i.+ to be worried, a feeling it never had before, and its worry soon turned to rage.

The gorilla shaped creature grimaced, then roared, once again, in the sound of the death throes of all the creatures it had killed. It lunged at Dave who dodged to the side.

"Ralph, get back a little, this thing is a b.i.t.c.h to deal with when facing groups."

"You don't need my help?" Ralph asked.

"For now, I need to know its patterns, it has infinite HP, we can't down it even if we attack it for days, there must be something else I can do. Also, it feeds on fear, you're currently human, even if you didn't want to, you're feeding it fear. I'm Undead, I don't fear anything."

Dave grinned and charged the Naandlous.h.i.+. He swung Durandal down at the gorilla's head who dodged to the side, but thanks to Dave's inhuman strength, he was capable of changing the sword's trajectory mid-swing, slas.h.i.+ng it at the beast's side, and ripped its ribs open.

The Naandlous.h.i.+ jerked and began spasming, changing its form to that of a lion, yet this lion was so big that Dave barely reached up to its mane. The red-eyed Naandlous.h.i.+ swiped a paw at Dave, it was too fast for him to dodge.

-2600

Dave grinned, "You tickle," He said and slammed Ajax into the lion's face. He then followed up with a swing at its front legs, ripping one off in the processes. The lion didn't seem bothered or in pain, the severed paw dissipated and another one grew in its former spot.

The Skinwalker decided that Dave was not going to go down this way, the mere animalistic creatures he had consumed and is now mimicking were not powerful enough to take down the draugr. He needed to become something else.

The Skinwalker shuddered and from within its lion-shaped body came out a more humanoid-shaped creature. It had the face of a man with no nose and no ears, on its head were two great horns with jagged fang-like protrusions on the side. Dave remembered seeing those horns on a horned beetle. It's back was like that of a ladybug, with an exoskeleton, its arms were muscular, but not well proportioned, it's right side had a clawed hand, while its right had a reaper's scythe made of exoskeleton and chitin.

The man bug charged Dave with more speed than it was possible for any human, it blurred, as it swiped with its blade-like arm at Dave's head attempting to decapitate him. Dave didn't have the time to dodge as the claw lodged itself in between the small s.p.a.ce of his armor and helmet.

-22,556

The sharp claw didn't find any purchase, besides the negligible amount of Damage, Dave's head remained where it was.

"It took two G.o.ds combined strength to decapitate me. You're nothing," Dave said while dropping both Durandal and Ajax, immediately fast equipped the Sworn Stalwart's claws and grabbed at the Skinwalker's arm, he ripped it from its socket with a powerful jerk resulting in a sound of wet tearing of flesh and a screech.

Dave elbowed the Skinwalker and smashed it down on its back. He jumped on its chest and began pummeling it in the face. One strike after the other. Dave smashed down, hit after hit, crus.h.i.+ng the face of the beetle into a bloodied green pulp. He punched down so many times that the gauntlets activated the Ramp Up pa.s.sive ability of the gloves, as they turned white-hot. Then the shock and poison effect from the socketed runes applied to the Skin Walker, yet the creature didn't die, it reconstructed its face every time Dave smashed it to nothingness.

Dave wished if Tiny was here, he could have consumed the Skinwalker and made this fight much easier. Yet the s.p.a.ce rule denied him of his familiars.

Dave had it with the creature, he stuck down with the tip of his fingers into the Skinwalker's chest, then pulled with both hands to the side, ripping its torso right in the middle.

He jumped back, waiting for the Skinwalker to regenerate itself, but before it could completely do so, Dave used [Ray of Flames] frying the creature into a scorching crisp of ash and cinders.

The skill blinded Ralph, it was powerful, hot, and loud, and it made a large magmatic crater under the burning howling creature.

Soon, all sounds were off and the Skinwalker didn't voice a squirm anymore.

"That should do it," Dave said.

"Don't go, Flanker man, it won't die that easy, I killed it twenty-two times and it still didn't die," Ralph said.

"Oh, you're right," Dave said as he saw the cinders regenerating, recreating its former form of the chitinous creature.

"Do we have to kill it to get to the door?" Dave asked.

"I don't know, but when I was alone it didn't let me get anyway near the door."

The Skinwalker shuddered and began morphing again, this time it began taking the shape of something Dave had a really hard time facing when he first met it. A Werewolf.

"You're not going there, f.u.c.ker!" Dave used Immortal Apparition and appeared right behind the still transforming werewolf. He shoved he punched using [Herculean Strength] And [Dragon Fist] right at the creature's spine, breaking it and causing the still halfway transforming werewolf to lose his footing, and be burnt by the ethereal dragon that projected out of the Stalwarts Gauntlet.

Dave followed up with Dragon Kick, smas.h.i.+ng the creature into a nearby wall then an elbow charge that cratered the wall even further.

"You're nothing more than a punching bag!" Dave shouted. His fear of werewolf was a bit too much compared to a normal person. All thanks to Ralph, and he didn't want the Skinwalker to know it. Thus, he acted immediately before the creature took form, breaking it and forcing it to change to a stronger creature.

The Skinwalker gave up the werewolf transformation. He grew more muscle, two bull-like horns, became thrice a werewolf's size that was already at least twice as tall as Dave.

A minotaur.

The minotaur slammed down with two fists at Dave, the latter opened both his arms, used [Herculean Strength] for the third time. He took the slam and stopped it where it was, the power from the minotaur shook the ground under Dave until his feet dug in, cracking it, "I TOLD YOU! NEVER PIT STRENGTH AGAINST AN UNDEAD!" with a loud howl, Dave jerked the minotaur from its footing, and threw it to the side tumbling on the ground.

"There's no way we'll kill it, man, it's immortal, hold it off, I'll open the door, and we can get inside after that. The more damage it takes the more powerful it becomes."

Dave thought for a moment and said, "Even if you open the door, this a.s.shole is going to be stuck to our a.s.sess. I'll kill it first."

"You can't kill immortals, man."

"I did before, I'll do it again." Dave grinned.

"How?" Ralph asked.

"I have a certain skill, I haven't used it in a long, long time. Basically, because there was no opponent that met the conditions of the skill usage. They all were too high level for it." Dave said.

He raised his hand and said, "Your infinite vitality is gained from the fear that is constantly feeding you. And with the Calamities, your race soon to come to this world, fear has grown constant making you even more powerful. What will happen to you if I cut off that infinite flow of fear from you, I wonder?" Dave said.

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?" Ralph said.

"A trump card," Dave grinned and the Ring of True Undeath shone brightly.

One skill, the only one that he retained from his first S cla.s.s legacy. Death Legacy was still there. It couldn't grow stronger because it is no longer linked to Death, but it was still there. In his ring.

"Life Cleaver," Dave muttered.

A large black Scythe appeared above the Skinwalker and also above Dave's head.

The quality of light changed, everything became red-hued and there was a sense of compression as if the room had suddenly been isolated from the rest of reality. Ralph was outside the separated domain where Dave was, he could see him, but he was blurred. The two of them were on two different realities.

***

Life Cleaver has been activated!

The challenge ground has been temporarily banished to a separate reality.

No player or monster can interfere with this challenge.

Your attacks do -20% less Damage, and attacks against you do +20% more damage.

***

"Now, we're in the playgrounds of Death. There is nothing here for you to feed on. No fear, no life, nothing. It is only you, me, and death. And non of us have an ounce of fear for you to feed on. Now tell me. Naandlous.h.i.+, what can you do to save your skin?"

Once the Naandlous.h.i.+ was called upon using its true name, its red eyes turned orange, and a loud screech echoed from its howling mouth. It despised people that called it with its true name, it wanted to tear away at Dave, but something was frightening it, it was cut off from the world, no fear for it to feed on, even the creature in front of it, it didn't generate an ounce of fear. It was defiant, and it wanted to kill the Skinwalker, and thus, the Skinwalker, unbeknownst to it, had manifested a new emotion. It was dreading the being in front of it. As this being, facing what all man should fear, it faced it with a wide grin…

**** Please Make sure to read this story on .com, if you are reading Rise of the Undead legion anywhere else then you are on a pirating website, do not accept to offer any kinds of payment to such people as they are non-repsecting of author's right and I, as the writer am not benefiting from their schemes in any way possible.****