Too Stubborn to Die

As Aaron got closer to the undead giant, clouds of vampiric bats swooped at him, while ghouls and mummies tanked his hits. The undead horde clearly had many punches yet to throw.

The bats were weak, but they had a siphoning Skill. Even when his fists blew them apart as they descended upon him, he could feel some of his aether being drained.

Making things more difficult, the mummies that threw themselves against his fists were particularly tanky. And while they provided little direct threat, it was annoying having to hit them several times to take them down.

And his problems didn’t end there. When the mummies finally did expire, they exploded outward with some kind of leeches that, when landing upon him, tried to drill their way into his skin.

The only relief came when he realized that the regular skeletons and zombies weren’t attacking him. It seemed there was a mix of both sentient and minion-like undead, similar to the ant drones. The minions didn’t seem intelligent enough to recognize the difference between Aaron and the other undead. But the rest more than made up for it.

Stand down and serve me. You can have a place amongst my deathly realm. Came the Death God’s voice echoing through his head again.

“Nope. Don’t think I will!”

Bursting through a row of mummies with an explosive attack, Aaron came face-to-face with a six-armed undead monstrosity. Immediately, it started swinging at him, and it was fast. And strong; several attacks that missed blasted the ground around him, and it didn’t seem to care about taking out other undead.

“Is that a–”

Aaron phased just in time to dodge a deadly attack, stepped through the six-armed undead, and turned around and blasted a hole through its back.

“What do you know, an asura. He was no Mo’han, though.”

Aaron was starting to get a little curious as to where the Death God’s army had come from. There were clearly restrictions involved. They were a god, after all. They no doubt could have swarmed him with A-grade undead if not for the admins, he assumed.

As he had that thought, his core pulsed, and it felt like the corrupted aether was seeping deeper into it.

Ahh yes, there we go. Soon you will be mine.

“Not a chance!”

Aaron could shout all he wanted, but the Death God’s voice in his head was undoubtedly getting louder. Not to mention more undead slugs landing on him, which he quickly swatted away.

“Quit it, you gross little things!” Aaron muttered as he smacked the little creatures, making them explode into thick, dark blood and corrupted aether.

I can’t let them get to the boss. But I also need to do something about this corrupted aether, and quickly.

Interrupting his thoughts, he spotted many skeletons and zombies starting to rush back into the dungeon. Since they didn’t recognize him as an enemy, they had no reason to stick around, and were no doubt headed to the boss.

“Get back here!”

Aaron started shooting [ Bombardier Fist ] toward the rear flanks, trying to disrupt the fleeing undead even as he kept moving toward the giant and the obelisk. His fists exploded when they reached them, taking out dozens with every attack, but they hardly seemed to care.

Even if only the weakest of the undead managed to flee him, they were a serious risk to the others. They were essentially walking bombs filled with corrupted aether, and he had a feeling the boss was likely hard enough as they were.

“I’m over here, you dumb bloody undead!” Aaron shouted and kept firing at them, but it was like pissing in the ocean. For every undead he took out, several managed to escape.

But he couldn’t turn from his objective. His core pulsed again as more corrupted aether seeped into it. The reality was, the Death God had changed him, and he couldn’t allow it to get any worse. He desperately needed that obelisk, and he desperately needed to pray that the aether within it would actually help him.

Aaron threw himself harder against the waves. His best chance was to bet a path through them as quickly as possible. It was getting annoying, though, since the undead seemed to have resistance against his [ Spectral Bullet Punch ]. In fact, it wasn’t just that attack. Any spiritual attacks that relied on aether seemed to pack less punch against the undead.

Furthermore, his gut didn’t work the same. He quickly discovered he wasn’t recovering energy when he tried to eat something. It was the same for his adipose reserves. Although his [ Reap ] seemed empowered, and he was gaining considerable aether every time he killed an undead.

There. Closer. Come to me.

“Fuck off!”

Aaron shook the Death God’s invasive words from his head and focused. But he had no intention of staying letting that bastard god stick around.

Sending a haymaker through the black, deathly armor of an undead knight, he crashed through the final wave of undead, pushing himself within range of the giant. But the moment he stepped forward to attack it, he sensed something.

It was hard to focus his senses with so many undead around, and likely impossible for anybody else. But he was as much one with the aether as the army was, and so when several shadowy spectres guarding the giant appeared from thin air, he was already dodging their cold, ghastly claws.

He countered with his own strikes, but instead of finding their target, the spectres exploded into shadows, and then reappeared elsewhere.

“So, that’s what it feels like.”

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Shadowy smoke exploded back and forth as the spectres rushed in and out of combat, making them annoyingly difficult to hit. But Aaron had supreme timing, and bet their phasing with his own.

Claws cold, deathly power passed through him, and lightning-fast punches were returned. After a short back and forth, he struck one, but before he could land another decisive strike, it was gone.

This is taking too long!

The skill difference between him and the spectres was obvious, and if the fight dragged on, he would deal with them all in time. But more and more undead were leaving the horde to run back through the dungeon, and time was not on his side.

He felt his core pulse again.

“Need to hurry!”

Desperate, Aaron tested several other attacks as he dueled back and forth with the spectres, but nothing was particularly effective. Not until he used his [ Soul Shattering Strike ].

He had been avoiding using aether-empowered attacks since most of the undead were resistant. But he realized that [ Soul Shattering Strike ] could hit the spectres as they phased out into clouds of black smoke.

Once hit, they weren’t damaged, but stunned. But that was all he needed, and several quick punches blasted them apart before they could recover.

Within seconds, half the spectres were destroyed, and the other half looked like they had no answer for his attacks.

Still, the shadowy ghosts didn’t seem to fear anything, and they attacked all the same.

You’ve fought well, but you’re almost mine.

Aaron entered a defiant rage, throwing [ Soul Shattering Strike ] several more times, disabling the remainder, and destroying them even as some annoyingly fast ghouls entered the fray, forcing him to phase around the battle to prevent taking hits.

More undead filled the gaps as he was pressed back, creating a new line between him and the giant. And Aaron decided to let them for a second.

He had to be quick, but he also needed some kills. He was burning through aether quickly, and without his normal means of regeneration, he needed to use [ Reap ] a lot more often to keep himself topped up.

Methodically, he worked his way through the reinforcements, aiming for weaker undead, and using the aether he stole to beat down the stronger ones as he broke through another row, only to find more of the persistent monsters charging into position.

“When will you give up?” Aaron shouted without losing a step, blasting through several ghouls and destroying a cloud of incoming bats with a [ Bombardier Fist ].

Taking the bats out while they were still at some distance away had provided a nice boost of aether, and they hadn’t been close enough to drain him; he immediately used that energy to push himself through the final ranks of undead, a haymaker or two used to bash through the annoyingly hardy undead knights.

And the moment he stood before it, the undead giant launched into combat, swinging the obelisk it held over its shoulder like a massive club.

Aaron easily dodged the laborious attack, but the shockwave that blasted out from it was pure aether, and it shook his body to the core, making it pulse louder than ever before.

Almost. Just a bit further.

Dazed and struggling against a new wave of dominating mental control attacks from the Death God, he was a sitting duck. Worst still, the surrounding undead did not wait for him to recover. They swarmed in an instant, and he took several direct hits, ripping chunks of flesh from his body before he got a chance to phase out.

Struggling to draw aether into his wounds and heal, he was forced into temporary retreat, phasing around the battlefield to leech off weaker undead, killing them as he gradually recovered.

The attack was way too close. Aaron did not want to die against these foes. He might have held the Death God back so far, but he had a very bad feeling about dying again, even if he could resurrect. It was the Death God, after all, and he didn’t want to gamble with dying whilst his presence was still in his head.

And it didn’t help that fate reading was behaving strangely. He couldn’t think of a reason why his corrupted form wouldn’t be able to fate read, as he doubted the Trait was related to either life or death. If he had to guess, it was more interference from the Death God, and directly related to the corrupted aether.

Still, perhaps it was for the best. He didn’t need such things to best these unskilled undead. Besides, he still had his accuracy overlay, and what felt like a lifetime of receiving beatings from Yendal. What were some second-rate undead compared to that?

He dodged, phased, and feinted, working his way back through the horde. Most of his wounds were already healed, and every step he took, he reaped more of the undead.

It’s useless. Give up. My corruption has almost taken over your entire core.

Aaron didn’t care what the god said. He would fight to the end, and cutting a line of destruction through their ranks, he reached the giant again. But he knew he had to be careful this time. He couldn’t let that obelisk get anywhere near him.

The moment he got close, it swung again, and Aaron dodged, but this time he made sure to shoot far away from it, bursting mana from his anchors.

Despite the array of disadvantages he had, there were some positives. He found himself closer to the aether than ever before, and felt like he could sense everything, if only he tried.

He could feel the giant’s intention before it even attempted to strike, and when he honed in on the sensation, he picked up on the fast-moving ghouls that were becoming a serious pain in his backside.

The next time they tried to attack, instead of facing, he met them. Even the ghouls seemed surprised, attacking him as he was dodging the giant with incredible speed. But when they reached him, Aaron had already turned to face them, and their expressions went wide as fists barreled through their faces, destroying them instantly.

Seeing the battle turning against them, the giant did something with the obelisk, and aether pulsed up through it and burst outward, sending a massive shockwave that travelled through the entire army.

Aaron couldn’t dodge that, and his phasing didn’t help at all against the aether.

He felt backward; his legs weren’t working, and the energy shook his entire body, but then something unexpected happened when it struck his core. It was like a cord had been struck, and his core reacted with delight.

There. Now I shall claim you. Wait… what’s this?

Gritting his teeth, Aaron tried to grasp the aether within him and force it through his core, and he felt his core react. It pulsed wildly, burning up the familiar energy that fought back the corruption, and lit his veins on fire.

It felt amazing. And more importantly, like it was supposed to. And then, it was gone.

His enemy had thought him dazed, and a half dozen ghouls descended upon him all at once, hoping to reenact their attack from earlier. But what they met was a furious rain of fists.

“I feel better than ever!”

Aaron roared and burst back into action, slaying dozens of the undead in seconds, and for the first time, he saw what he believed to be fear in their eyes.

What is this? You should be mine already!

“You dare defy the master!” The giant roared and swung the obelisk again.

But this time, when it struck the ground and sent the shockwave of aether out, Aaron embraced it. And for a second, he saw the deathly pallor that had infected his skin retreat, and a healthy glow appeared for a second or two before fading away.

His core hummed with energy, the natural aether pulsing through him. He felt like he was drinking a health mix after a heavy night out, and it was delightful.

“Hit me with that again!” Aaron shouted back as his fists found the faces of two more ghouls.

“You what?” The giant grunted.

“I said, again! And harder this time!”

“Err,” the giant looked to the sky. “Death God? Help?”

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