Labyrinth [2] - Undead Drake

"We're gonna kill a dragon." Lloyd grinned.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Silence befell the group as they all waited for someone else to move first. Of course, Fatima was the leader of the group, and therefore everyone was waiting for her to do something, yet after seeing that she had been frozen in place too, Lloyd could not help but let out a small sigh before turning around to face the creature standing a few meters behind him.

"Hmph... You humans and your obsession with ending lives." A raspy and old voice breathed out, yet despite the hint of ancientness in his voice, Lloyd looked at him with an unamused expression.

"Dragon?" Lloyd asked to confirm.

"Incorrect. I am a drake. I hate it when humans mess those two up." The creature growled, its piercing amber eyes sparkling in the darkness like two stars shining in the deep abyss.

"My bad. Never seen a drake before." Lloyd explained before shrugging and walking forward. However, before taking the third step, he was quickly stopped by the same raspy voice as it announced.

"I, an earth drake, shall supervise this section of the trial."

"You're wasting our oxygen." Lloyd muttered with dissatisfaction clear in his voice.

"I am simply a spiritual projection. I am not actually there. Us creatures of higher races can do that." It explained.

"Last time I checked, drakes were not listed as 'higher races'." Fatima finally spoke after gaining back her courage.

"And last time I checked, you are nothing but a bunch of small insignificant tiny humans who would not even be classed as town-level threats on any planet considered a level 5 or above." The drake retorted before immediately disappearing from sight.

"Did it just... Run away from an argument?" Jack couldn't help but ask.

"I think it did..." Jenna muttered, surprise evident on her face and tone of voice.

"Did Fatima just send a dragon running?" John almost screamed like a 14-year-old girl.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Lloyd cut them off before they could say anything else, and despite John wanting to argue due to the sudden interruption, when he looked towards what Lloyd was looking at, he could not help but feel a shiver go down his spine.

"That wasn't a spiritual projection, was it." Fatima asked as she took a step back while forcing the team to group behind her. Well, everyone did except Lloyd.

"Nope." Lloyd muttered before picking up a rock and throwing it towards the only exit they could see.

However, the rock simply fell to the floor as it bounced off a pile of bones.

"What did you do that for!" Jenna whispered angrily.

Yet before Lloyd could articulate a reply, they all heard it.

The sound of bones grinding on one another as the skeletal structure slowly formed into something more dragon-like.

"Alright, guys, the goal is to drop that thing, not defeat it. Understood?!" Lloyd roared, yet instead of waiting for an answer to come, he covered his hands in a pair of claw-like shadow gauntlets before allowing the rest of his shadow to trickle up his arms and legs and reinforce them as he shot forward without any care for his own safety.

*Boom*

The ground cracked under his feet, and before anyone could understand what had happened, Lloyd threw a devastating uppercut toward the bottom jaw of the reanimated skeletal structure.

The head flung back so quickly that Lloyd thought that it would have suffered from whiplash, yet instead of standing around and waiting for his suspicions to be confirmed, Lloyd spun mid-air before transferring all his shadows into his right foot and slammed it into the skeleton drake's side.

The kick was so powerful that the drake went airborne for a few seconds before regaining its balance and landing on all 4 of its feet, yet despite the seemingly useless use of his power, Lloyd got exactly what he wanted.

"Everyone! Go now!" He roared while standing before the skeletal drake, a smug grin on his face as his group got closer and closer to the exit.

However...

*ROAR*

Lloyd felt the hair at the back of his neck stand up, and before he knew what was happening, his legs were moving on their own, throwing him out of the way as a torrent of purple flame shot toward him while simultaneously blocking off the exit.

Rolling to the side, Lloyd looked at the exit before glancing at his team and then turning back to the skeletal lizard.

"It's probably been designed to stop anyone from leaving..." Lloyd sighed.

While he had fire resistance, he was certain that none of his teammates did. Also, he wasn't about to take the chance against literal purple flames. For all he knew, they could be flames that afflict damage on the soul itself.

'If only I could move people around in my shadow too...' Lloyd frowned while forming a plan in his mind that would be successful in taking the drake down.

"Why don't we just try to take it down?" Fatima suggested.

"Well, that's the only thing we can do for now. But you have to remember that not only are we wasting oxygen here, but that the flames are using an exorbitant amount of oxygen." Lloyd explained before his frown deepened.

"Also, the flames are cold. It doesn't make any sense scientifically, but the flames are created through an endothermic reaction rather than the usual exothermic one." Lloyd continued, causing everyone on the team to also frown at the revelation.

"No worries. You have the people who scored second and third on your team. We're going to do better than everyone else. You don't have to worry." Fatima smiled, and as if her smile was contagious, everyone's frown suddenly disappeared before being replaced by a large grin.

Well, everyone except Lloyd since the ability didn't seem to work on him.

He didn't really know why that was the case, but his theory was that he was either desensitized to aura-like abilities the same way he is desensitized against killing intent and bloodlust, or that his monarch's aura ability nullifies Fatima's ability, therefore not allowing it to work the intended way.

Glancing back, despite knowing that Fatima was the appointed leader, Lloyd chose to take charge temporarily.

"Fatima, I need you to get to the back with the oracle. Okay?"

"Since when were you in charge?" She asked with a dissatisfied expression that spread to everyone she was affecting.

"Since the moment I saved your life." Lloyd replied.

"You didn't-" Before Fatima could finish her sentence, she felt every hair on her body suddenly rise, yet before she could even comprehend what was happening, she felt a foot-shaped object slam into her right torso and throw her out of the flame's range.

The other saw it coming long before Fatima and had enough time to dodge due to being further away, yet that single moment had cemented Lloyd as their leader, not because they all thought he was a good one, but because Fatima's gratitude spread to the rest of them.

'I see...' Lloyd thought to himself with a grin as he finally understood how her power worked, but he knew that there was no time to gloat about his newfound knowledge since he could see 3 fireballs coming towards him from his peripheral vision.

Without thinking, Lloyd quickly performed 5 tumbles before ending it with a backward somersault.

When Lloyd finally reached the wall, he simply sprung off it and flipped over one of the fireballs to eventually appear above the skeletal drake.

Covering his leg in his shadow, Lloyd descended and performed a devastating axe kick upon it that sent a web of cracks over its skull before slamming it into the ground.

"Serpent Style..." A low whisper entered Lloyd's ears before a glint of blue energy within the dust cloud caught his eyes.

Lloyd simply smiled before flipping himself off the skull and watching the rest.

[King Cobra]

The image of an illusory cobra appeared above Jake's silhouette before attacking the skeletal drake.

"Nice one J-... What's his name again?" Lloyd rubbed the back of his neck with an embarrassed expression as he landed on the floor, but after looking around for a bit, he saw that no one was near him.

*Swoosh*

Lloyd's eyes widened as several arrows passed by him. His eyes widened, even more when he saw the elements surrounding the arrows.

'3 different elements... Impressive.' Lloyd smirked.

Fire, Air, and Water. Those were the ree elements surrounding the arrows, and what made the feat even more impressive was the fact that the three elements she was using was using were primary elements, not secondary.

Primary elements were a bit like primary colors, despite the fact that there were four rather than three of them.

Yet, even then, the surprises didn't end.

"I shall slay this beast in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit!" The boy wearing knight armor roared at the top of his lungs as light beamed out of his sword and illuminated most of the dungeon that was visible to them.

*Tap*

[BOOST]

As the boy launched forward, a small ball of milky white energy shot toward his back before enveloping him and increasing all his attributes by 30%. Well, all the attributes were visible at the time. Lloyd had yet to learn if his intelligence had increased or if his mana pool had followed suit.

For all he knew, this boost was only physical.

*Boom*

*Swoosh*

Lloyd simply watched with an agape mouth as Jack flew out of the dust cloud, yet right before he could retain his balance, he threw two cobras at John that didn't waste a second as they quickly wrapped themselves around John's blade and gave him even more strength.

At that same moment, Lloyd witnessed the arrows explode upon contact while elemental energies viciously attacked the creature.

Within a second of the arrows reaching its target, John appeared above the skeletal drake with his blade held high, and without wasting another second, John put his entire weight behind his sword and sliced down with all the power he could muster.

*BOOOOOOOM*

In a spectacular performance of bright and sparkling blue and white lights, an enormous dust cloud rose and spread across the small room they were in.

Yet, throughout this entire performance, only one thought went through Lloyd's mind.

'I've never felt so useless in my entire life...' Lloyd thought with an agape mouth that forced him to cough as the dust cloud neared him.

{Author's note: For those who don't know what tumbles are, they are basically those gymnastic backflips where the person strings off their hand to perform a vertical cartwheel of sorts. You can google it if you want.}