55 Battle of the Labyrinth (1)

At the center of the labyrinth, Toba and the other barbarians immediately felt the change. Everything was calm until suddenly, a powerful ghastly aura appeared right at the corner of the corridor they were about to take.

Barbarians were people who relied a lot on their instincts. They spent most of their time in the wild and were very keen on estimating threats. When they felt that dark spectral aura, they immediately knew that something dangerous was coming; their instincts were screaming to them to avoid fighting.

Even though Toba did not feel completely overpowered by the aura, his instincts were telling him that the being that was coming could be as strong as himself. In this scenario, he was confident in his own strength, but what if his son was targeted! He could defend himself, but he could not protect his son at the same time.

"Zeke, you go back and warn the others about this."

"What? How can I go back now?" exclaimed Zeke. He was not stupid and knew something powerful was coming but wasn't he already strong? Wasn't he the strongest of the young generation?

Toba looked at his son. "Zeke, go now. If you go, next week I'll go to the Scarlet Crows Tribe to officially match you with that girl!"

Hearing that, Zeke froze. He clearly knew what his father was talking about but his behavior was strange. In the past few weeks, he had been completely against him marrying someone from the Scarlet Crows Tribe saying that it was an inferior tribe but now, he suddenly changed his mind?

"What is happening, what can this thing be to make you want me to leave so badly?" asked Zeke. It was the first time his father was actually behaving like this. Normally, apart from the marriage with the Scarlet Crows Tribe, his father would always side with him and back him up, even if he wanted to do something reckless like cliff diving from the waterfall or come to hunt with him.

Yet, as soon as he felt this aura, his father's attitude completely changed to the point that he even took out the marriage card to make him leave.

"Zeke! Leave quickly! It's an order!!!" angrily shouted Toba. He did not have any more time to look after his son. In front of him, a ghastly tall figure covered with a green glow suddenly appeared. A transparent mantle was covering its body but the skeleton behind it could clearly be seen. Its skull was ablaze while in his right hand, was a long gloomy scepter.

"Be careful! It's a lich!" shouted one of the barbarians on the side.

Without warning, the lich suddenly pointed its wand towards the barbarians and activated a skill, [Mortal Coil]

A green jet of light suddenly shot out of the wand and flew in a straight line. It looked like a living green skull ready to devourer anything on its path; as it was flying, it left behind a faint green light.

Although the lich's move was fast, the barbarians reacted accordingly. Toba violently swung his ax, slicing the flying skull in two but as soon as it shattered, the skull released a potent green gas towards the group of barbarians.

"Cough Cough! What the hell is that!?" exclaimed one of the barbarians.

As for Toba who took the brunt of the gas, he simply ignored it and instead asked, "Is Zeke gone?"

"I already pushed him away as soon as the lich appeared. I told him to inform the others! It looks like he is gone for now!"

Toba nodded gratefully. With his son gone, he could finally focus entirely on fighting this monster, "Good! Let's do our best then!"

Without a warning, he broke into a sprint and charged towards the lich. There was about 20m separating the two parties and no matter how fast Toba was, he could not cover that distance before the lich activated another skill:

[Rise of the Dead]

Instantly, 3 dark runes appeared between Dreidus and Toba and moments later, they disappeared as abruptly as they appeared only to be replaced by 3 tall skeletons. Compared to the other skeletons of the dungeon, these three were taller and were wearing a complete set of armor. Under their armor, their bones could be seen as they were shining with a deadly green glow.

"Tak"

As soon as the skeletons appeared, an arrow penetrated the skull of the middle one. But aside from forcing the skeleton to take a step back, the arrow had absolutely no effect. It instead turned its attention towards Toba who was charging forward.

The barbarian at the back cursed. His arrow was aimed at the lich but unexpectedly, that skeleton appeared in the middle of the trajectory and completely blocked it. The other two barbarians closely followed behind Toba.

The barbarian at the back, grabbed a second arrow as he observed the lich, looking for an opening. Suddenly, he felt a chill down his spine and turned, only to see a group of 3 skeletons making its way towards him.

"D*mnit!" He loudly cursed and could only focus his attention on the newly arrived skeletons.

Toba wildly swung his ax, pushing away the skeletons in front of him. Although he used all his strength, the skeleton managed to survive the attack and only fell down. The other two barbarians quickly engaged the rest of the skeletons to keep them away from Toba.

At that moment, they heard the archer's curses. With a quick look at each other, the two barbarians took a decision; one of them retreated to help the archer while the other continued to deal with the skeletons.

...

After pushing the skeleton out of his way, Toba quickly arrived in front of Dreidus who was still emotionlessly watching the scene.

Toba grinned and jumped while activating his own skill, [Hack of the Wild]

The giant ax seemed to become even bigger and start to shine with a yellow glow. It violently swung towards Dreidus' rib cage but the latter did not even try to dodge.

Dreidus kept floating where he was and waited for Toba to strike him. His lifeless eyes watched as the giant ax was rushing towards him.

At the very last moment, the Necromancer's Death Wand shone; a thin, almost undetectable line appeared between Dreidus and Toba.

[Primal Link]

At the same time as Toba's ax smashed through Dreidus' rib cage, the skill was activated and took effect.

"-225"

"-75"

Toba suddenly felt an unbearable pain on his side; it was so prominent that he could not help but close his eyes and weaken his grip on his ax which was still embedded in Dreidus' rib cage. When he looked at the lich, coincidentally, he was feeling an indescribable amount of pain coming from the same spot where he hit Dreidus.

[Primal Link]

Links the user to a target. The target shares the damage taken by the user in the ratio: user: 75%, Target: 25%

Duration: 1s

Mana Cost: 150 MP

Cooldown: 4 minutes

Without this skill, Dreidus would not have survived even one attack from Toba. Even with the skill, his HP dropped down significantly; he now only had 135 HP left.

As Toba was stunned and distracted by the sudden pain he received, Dreidus quickly activated yet another skill: [Death's Stare]

[Death's stare]

Stuns the target who meets the user's eyes for 10 seconds, apply "Terrified" status.

Duration: 10s

Mana Cost: 200 MP

Cooldown: 6 minutes

As soon as Toba recovered from the pain and opened his eyes to look at the situation, the first thing he saw was the deep green light swirling around the lich's eye sockets. As he saw them, he was unable to look away. As much as he tried, he simply could not move his sight or even just close his eyes.

He felt absorbed by the bright light and suddenly his surroundings completely changed; he found himself standing in the middle of a village on fire. In front of him, he saw his son and his wife screaming in fear. They were standing in the middle of a green fire, attached to some wooden pillar, as a group of fire imps was dancing around them. The scene looked like a sacrificial ceremony and obviously, his family was the sacrifice.

"Ahhh"

"Help me!! Father!!"

Toba heard his family scream for help as the scorching flames were slowly licking their lower body. He desperately tried to rush to their help but no matter how hard he tried, he could not move his body.

He wanted to shout and help his family. However, his body was completely immobile, not responding to his instructions. All he could do was stare at the scene as his wife and son screamed in pain and struggled to free themselves.

"Toba! Toba!"

"See what happens when you are so reckless!"

"Father! Help!"

Shouts rung in Toba's mind but no matter how he struggled, he still could do nothing but watch the scene in front of him unfold.