20: Mazen

The wall that blocked their path crumbled to the ground and became the entrance to the city of Mazen.

"Ah! you have got to be kidding me!"

"Sage do you know how many times you've said that today?"

"I don't care anymore Mark, we've got to get moving, I mean we only have a few minutes left anyway."

Sage explained while he began to move towards the entrance.

"But we could just stay here though! why do we have to stress ourselves by going through that unpredictable maze!?"

Sage understood Mark's statement but, there was something missing in tiny detail.

"Mark I get what you're trying to say but did you forget? that puffball said that they're monsters everywhere and that means here too, and who knows what else is around here? or how powerful those monsters are? So we can't stay in one place!"

Sage explained as he stood in place looking for the king of deathstalkers, to see if it was still alive. Unfortunately, he was too late, when he found it there was nothing but a shell left behind. They were both shocked by how quickly the deathstalker had perished.

With an awkward tone, Sage announced their departure.

"Well then, I guess it's time to head out."

And so they ventured into the city of Mazen.

>>>>>>>>>>>>

~Mazen~

"It really is a city! it's huge!"

They arrived at a city, one that would appear in a video game. It was empty, there was not a soul in sight. Their heads drifted from left to right observing their surroundings until Mark spotted something.

"Em... Sage, what are those things over there? they look like skeletons."

The first thing they encountered was a group of corpses dressed in armour and armed with spears. Their eyes glowed the colour blue, they were ready to charge towards Sage and Mark.

[*ping*]

[Spiece > The armed undead ]

[Level > 2 ]

"Mark run!"

"What!?"

"I said to start running! now!"

Sage and Mark started running away from the group that chased them from behind, they ran towards the central part of the city which housed a sculpture of the puffball.

"Seriously!? it made a statue of itself!? Isn't it suppose to be our guide!?"

Mark pointed out with a vexed tone.

"Not right now mark, we'll deal with that ball of fluff later, right now we are completely surrounded!"

They were surrounded by the hoard of undead from every corner of the central area, the skeletons stood in place, while some were hidden in the shadows, waiting to make their move at the perfect moment. They were stuck in a sticky situation, but that was when a green screen suddenly morphed into the air.

[*ping*]

[*Eliminate the armed undead to stay alive*]

'Well, thanks for saying the obvious Marco! Ah... I still can't get used to the system's name. Logia! you've got any idea of what we can do?'

'Well, you could try to activate domination on them, it seemed to work on the scorpion.'

'Yeah! that could work, thanks Logia.'

Sage activated his dominance to see if it could work on the undead.

[*ping*]

[Dominace activated]

An immense pressure fell upon the skeletons, so much so that the one's hidden in the darkness came out of concealment. The skill worked well, but it wasn't enough to make them obey Sage.

[*ping*]

[*Your dominance is too low to fight over the control of the undead.*]

"Sage, what are you doing!? the skeletons are approaching."

Mark shouted out as he summoned his blazing gauntlets, preparing for the battle.

"I know just wait for a second I'm thinking!"

'Okay! think Sage the system just told you that I'm unable to control the hoard, so that means someone else is manipulating them, but who or what?.'

Sage soon came to realise the answer to his own question, there was only one creature he could think of and that monster was a Lich.

[*ping*]

[Specie > Necromancer ]

[Level > 18 ]

[Ruler of the undead]

Sage could view its status but the necromancer was nowhere to be found. So Sage decided to draw it out by using Mark as a decoy.

He grabbed Mark by the collar and tossed him into the middle of the hoard. And Mark who was completely confused screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Sage! what in the world do you think you're doing!?"

"Sorry, Mark! I need you to keep them busy for a few seconds!"

Mark was now the centre of attention of the hoard, the undead was ready to eliminate him. While Mark tried to keep them at bay, Sage took it upon himself to look for the necromancer. He summoned Drac's legacy.

As he raced down the numerous pathways around the city seeking for the necromancer he talked to Logia and Drac about the current situation.

'Drac wake up! I need you, and you too Logia, do you sense any undead around the area?'

Drac woke up from his slumber only to find himself in the middle of a disturbing situation. With a tone filled with rage, he gave Sage a scolding.

'Boy are you telling me that you can't take care of this yourself!? are you kidding me!? you wake me up from snooze for this!? how did you ever turn out to be sir Logia's successor!?'

His yelling continued but it was completely ignored by Sage and Sage being unable to communicate with him at the moment, he turns to Logia for help.

'Well, Logia how many minutes do I have left in here and do you sense anything around the area?'

'You guys have 2hrs left and yeah I do sense something, but it's very faint, it's as if they're trying to conceal their aura so I can't pinpoint their exact location.'

'Only an hour has passed!? it feels like a year already!'

Sage moved swiftly from one pathway to another, but all of them had a dead end. he began to suspect that there was something up with the maze. Sage felt like he was going around in circles.

"Wait a minute, there's something funny going on, didn't I just pass by that place a few moments ago? now there's a wall. Wait! could it be that the walls are moving!?"

<End of chapter>