Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A muscular figure walked towards the two with a large odachi-like sword that rested on its shoulders. The weapon was so long that its rusty blade could barely fit within the narrow corridor.

The creature wore nothing on its torso, revealing grey skin that looked decayed, worms and thick ooze pouring from several orifices that had opened up in its flesh.

On its face was a old looking cloth that wrapped around it, making sure no detail of its head was shown to Denille or Skullius.

Its feet produced no sound as it moved, drawing closer to the two terrified souls.

Denille swallowed a lump of saliva and almost forgot to breathe. A drop of sweat trickled down from her temple, as with her greater sensitivity to mana, she felt even more than Skullius just how much of a monster this thing was.

A blue core with wisps of purple!

For Skullius, this was different from what he felt from the fleshlings he had been travelling with. The thing before him seemed to be on a whole other level.

What's more, he had almost thought it to be an undead from its appearance, but it gave off the feeling of a living creature!

Well, sort of.

'This...'

Skullius didn't even bother to try and check its status. If it was stronger than Benzard and company, he wouldn't be able to check anyway.

While this was the extent to which Skullius could see, Denille noticed something else that made feel her relieved and terrified at the same time.

'There's no such thing as partial awakening of cores. A blue core will always be a blue core while a purple one will always be purple. This means this creature was actually stronger, but its core has been losing strength over time! That would explain the mix of colour...' the thought made Denille shudder.

This was how it was with cores. Even when one was ready to power up to the next core level (the next color), there was never signs like strange discoloration that would appear, but the same couldn't be said about devolving. It was rare occurence.

The creature before them took its time, but the movement of its feet showed that it was experienced.

Denille suddenly grabbed an arrow from her quiver and jabbed it into Skullius' stomach before the Discount Human could react!

Skullius was shocked by the sudden action, thinking that Denille had made the split second decision to kill him as he would only be a burden, but...

"I won't be princess-carrying your useless ass just so you mooch off my mana. That's a special arrow. It'll insert my mana into you," she said as she stepped in front of Skullius.

She gnashed her teeth as Benzard's words about making sure Skullius was kept alive resounded in her mind.

'Annoying!'

Skullius felt a surge of mana continuously flow into him.

'She could have done this before, though,' he thought.

The creature in front of them suddenly stopped and remained motionless for a few seconds, creating a deadly suspense.

Denille who had nocked an arrow in a flash and aimed it at the creature, gathering her mana as she took a deep breath to calm herself.

She had an Advanced Class called the Trinity Archer which allowed her to give arrows one of three abilities.

[Arrow to the Heart] which gave the arrows access to her mana or skills.

[Spade Arrow] which granted them additional attributes like speed based on her own stats.

Last but not least, there was [Union Arrow] which gave her a once-in-a-day chance once to combine three arrows with separate abilities into one, making for a ridiculously powerful attack.

This was all on top of all her other loosely related skills.

At this moment, she had decided to use [Spade Arrow] to test just how powerful this creature was.

She loosened the arrow which released a low boom as the air was unable to hinder its flight!

It pierced through the air and arrived at the creature's head in a flash!

SHIIIIING!

...!

Skullius saw blood flying in his vision and as he took in the scene, the sequence of events that had just happened didn't line up.

Denille screamed in pain as blood sprayed from her shoulder!

She forced herself to remain conscious as even though her wound wasn't too deep, the amount of pain that rang through her body from it was too sudden and too immense!

She leaned against the wall and looked at the figure that was now behind her.

Skullius gaped!

A light blue overlay was just dying down from the creature's body like an after image. It still had its sword on top of its shoulder, the blade dripping of blood.

'What...?' Skullius turned to see the creature, whose movements he had been unable to follow just now.

It seemed that Denille was the same. She had shot an arrow at the monster, but right before it could impale its head, she found herself with excruciating pain on her shoulder.

The entity grunted as it once again stood without making a single move and waited.

Denille was both terrified and enraged.

What was this?

This difference was huge despite this thing being rotten like a corpse. It smelled so. It sounded so.

Her mana surged as she poured it into another arrow and nocked it on her bow.

'There's something strange about this. I won't be able to beat this thing if I don't find out if that movement was just its speed or a special technique,' she thought before she leaped backwards, her arrow shining brightly.

It then went on to blast towards the target in the next instant!

The arrow flew with more than double the speed of the first arrow, arriving before the creature's chest in an instant!

But...

BAAM!

Denille found herself flying!

For a second she thought she had been split in half, as this time, she noticed that she had been hit with the blunt side of the creature's blade, the force carrying her into the darkness of the corridor ahead while she coughed blood!

Skullius didn't see anything!

He only later heard a body colliding with the floor a distance away while the creature's body which was surrounded by a dying light blue overlay stood imposingly!

He froze.

What on earth was happening?

Was this creature just flexing its strength?

Why did it only counter attacks that it received instead of actively attacking... and doing so to kill?!

Right then, a flurry of glimmering arrows shot through the air with an immense amount of mana!

They sped swiftly and purposely, aiming at separate parts of the creature's body!

Right before the arrows could penetrate it, an overlay of light blue enveloped the creature and it suddenly swung down its sword!

The air in the narrow corridor blew outwards from the sheer force that was exerted by the creature as it swung down!

Skullius was swept against the wall!

The corridor shook as a horrifying force travelled towards Denille in an instant, carrying a staggering momentum that threatened to rip her apart!

Surprisingly, Denille's figure appeared bolting with a thick film of mana around her body while her eyes flashed with white!

She held a dagger in her hand, and raced forth with her body hunched, a frightening frenzy drawn on her face!

She leaped and stabbed tens of times in a second, but the enemy brought forward its sword with its face directed at Denille!

Denille's rapid attacks bounced off the sword and she angrily backed away, shooting three more arrows backed by the great augments of [Spade Arrow] after a quick weapon switch!

The moment the arrows reached the creature, Denille's heart almost stopped as fractions of a second later, she felt the air pulse with movement, the large odachi-like sword cleaving through the dusty air as it aimed at her neck!

Denille pushed all her mana into her body to enhance her agility!

She then expelled mana from her back like a rocket which pushed her down, saving her from being beheaded!

She tore herself from the prospect of how she could have died just now and launched a straight punch towards the creature that caused the corridor to tremble from the rippling force!

She had finally managed to land a hit!

Yet... there was barely any damage!

A bright flash of light blue crossed her eyes and before Denille knew it, she was slammed against the hard ground, digging into it like a plough!

'What is this?! There's something wrong! I can't land any decisive blows. It just counters, attacking with something I can barely avoid!' Denille thought before she rolled and backed away.

Once again, the creature stood, its sword on its shoulders as it waited for Denille.

The woman steadily herself and frustratedly looked ahead, panting.

This was merely the beginning of the Labyrinth, right?

Or did she somehow stumble upon the final boss?

Unlikely.

For the Labyrinth of someone who valued strength so much, it didn't seem too far fetched to think that this would be the first challenge they would find, but still...

"Hmm?"

Denille noticed that something was amiss.

Rather, something was missing.

She turned and looked from side to side.

Where was Skullius?!