Standing by the huge door, I stared at it breathing heavily. It was a straight entrance to hell.

I need to devise a better strategy. None of the previous ones will come to play upon entering the boss room ahead.

I took my sweet time coming up with a better strategy to deal with, which I knew would ultimately fail upon entering and seeing the sheer number of undead ghouls.

Ok, a lightning spear or two won’t do. Neither can I slice them continuously, nor the arrows. I need something quick and better. Dark magic….? Hmmm, if it’s not black flame or dark ignition; nothing else can pierce them.

I looked at the fenrir, even though I knew he couldn’t contribute to it.

“Ah-haa!” It was an incredible plan I had hit upon, but that was certainly not enough.

“What else? What else?....” I was anxiously pacing in front of the huge gate as if I was running out of time, to cook up a better and better way to completely demolish the floor in one fell swoop. However, there was really no way.

If it was the same as the previous boss room, the crap-dead will keep pouring in until… until what?

Is there some condition in place? I speculated why those boneheads kept swarming up in the first place and why did they stop after some time. Was that dungeon mechanics, or… were they protecting something?

OH! That sphere? No, I am probably going wrong here. It’s highly possible that Orcus designed it this way. Also, this was my first dungeon exploration. I didn’t know how dungeons usually were.

I distinctly explained the formation to the little dog and gave him some of the stones to store.

“Ok! Don’t let them catch you. No failure would be tolerated.” I instructed him sensibly so that he doesn’t get wounded by the undead.

It was time to open the door. Ordinary lightning attacks wouldn’t have worked, so I had another spell casted, other than lightning spear, which could cause widespread damage.

I chanted a lightning magic spell, preparing for a grandeur entry to the 20^th floor boss room. An omnidirectional lightning wave dispersed everywhere, shocking the undead pawns into paralysis. “This might not be much but it can probably hold them for a few seconds.” That was enough time to prepare expanding electricity bolts.

I compressed mana and launched a bolt of electricity at one of the muscleheads ahead. These bolts expanded upon contact, instantly leaving it half-dead half-paralyzed.

Not good enough! It didn’t penetrate its skin. I need it to be thinner.

I leaped a step back to prepare for an incoming attack. I had failed the first time and the army had already started its attack upon me.

I signaled the fenrir to go and execute the plan I had devised without fighting the ghouls. He jumped out from behind and thankfully, avoiding the sights of these brainless monsters.

I, from my end, also started executing the plan and taking on all the ghouls alone. Sure, y’all are fast. But not faster than me…. I augmented myself in lighting and just drilled through the crowd. And agreeably, that was a bad idea as it had no end to reach. I had ended right in the middle of the ghoul mob and was constantly thrown at their mercy. Attacking with their filthy sharp claws, they were trying to give me no chance to back up.

I manifested a mana cushion under my feet to give me an extra boost and jumped towards the ceiling. It was good experience as a first timer, and as I accelerated falling towards the ground another idea struck my mind.

While charging my sword with lightning, I struck the ghouls beneath me, landing on their cries.

I noticed blood running down my cheek. I swift weapon had cut my face.

Huhu! Haha! So you’re attacking my face? It’s nothing. Nothing.

I had cleared several floor before and had been injured several times, even before entering. This type of attack had absolutely no effect on me.  

It didn’t infuriate me. It didn’t infuriate me in the slightest.

Instantaneously, whilst calming myself, another such swift attack had hit me. It was a trigger point.

“In a battle…” I pulled its tongue out by hand and stabbed the neck, “You don’t cut the face.” I slashed my sword upward slicing the ghoul’s head in half while he eyed me wide open till the end of its undead life. “Fwaaanh! What if that leaves a scar, you bitch?” I asked the dead ghoul, whilst grabbing the other ghoul be neck and gouging its eyes out.

Although, I did have C-rank regeneration skill – one of the two skills I had been born with - I wasn’t aware of upto what extent it could heal. A person can only be so much informed. So I tried not to take any chances.

My mother had told me to keep my beautiful face safe. Though I don’t know what she calls beautiful, but scars on the face certainly do make me look barbaric. And that’s no good to a noble. Well, I’m not a noble anymore so… I shouldn’t lose my temper.

I wiped the blood off my right cheek and resumed the attack in a rickety manner. Augmenting my feet, I jumped from bodies to ceilings to ghouls again while trying to gain higher speed and momentum.

Deflecting all the attacks wasn’t possible so I just tried to avoid attacks to my vitals. But with their numbers, even getting multiple hits everywhere on my body would’ve killed me.

After doing a few ghouls in, I retracted to a relatively empty area. A little distant from the monsters, I began preparing to take another shot with expanding electricity bolts. “Thin, thinner, even more…. as thin as it could be…” I fired the bolt at the ghouls coming at me.

At just contact, the bolt entered the through the skin and blew it from inside out. Seeing at its success, I let the wave loose. Blowing up one ghoul after another, the magic was almost too good but was also extremely hard to control. The ghouls were no longer coming at me. Worse, they were running away. “No, you can’t do that.” I feared they might catch on to the fenrir; I blasted of the running ones and that was it. I had run out of the capacity to hold the magic anymore. Really was nerve-wracking. I could control it for just a couple of seconds for now.

Afraid to let the ghouls run about on their own, I went back to fighting melee. That was when I saw the dog scuffling with a bunch of ghouls. “Hey, you’re not allowed to fight before you complete your mission.” I dashed to him, taking on his opponents. “Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” I directed him to finish to what I had instructed him to. Little did I know that a whole company of ghouls was onto me.  

A ghoul tried to take me from behind; it jumped at me with its fifth limb while I was surrounded by the crowd. Intending to slash it, I cloaked my sword in lightning and swiftly moved my blade. “A bluff?!” The ghoul had retreated it while the one behind me scratched my calves and thighs with its sharp claws. It wasn’t too deep but it did halt my movement for a few seconds. That seemed probably enough for them to overthrow the sheer power that I was in front of them.

I resisted while they tried to push me to the ground, while others simultaneously attacked my arms and body.

“Ughhh! How many times do I have to go at it again?” I screamed while laying on the ground, being constantly injured by the whips and claws and fangs thrown at me. “Aren’t you done yet?”

“….” There was no reply. I guess he still might be onto it.

I put a barrier on three directions; letting the crowd to attack from the fourth. It was an easy trick to not let them divert their attention while also protecting my back. But of course, without preparations, I can only hold on to it for a few seconds. I wasn’t accustomed to mana reign yet.

Again, I manifested mana under my feet to take a high jump, away from the mob whilst checking on the formations.

“Aaalriiighht!” I screamed flying in the air; examining the locations of the magic stones. The fenrir had flawlessly placed the magic stones, shoving the ground.

“Woof!” And that was the call of confirmation.

I had already drawn the magic circle while moving around and was ready to scribble some inscriptions to start it up.

Within moments, the room had lit up and a magic wall had formed all over the fiends. A vast intricate magic marrier had been formed; right from the monster entrance of the dungeon to the rear middle of the room; leaving the ghouls with just one exit – their death.

Walking solemn, with a devious smile on my face I had just one though running through my head. As I caught up to entrance, I noticed ghouls scratching and attacking the magic barrier in frustration. “Hehe! It’s the time to end it all.”

They were struggling to get out one by one, and by the moment one them was out, I had spontaneously closed the exit. The ghoul looked back as it saw its kin trapped in some foreign boy’s shenanigan. I gestured it to come at me.

Attacking with full force, must’ve thought that it could make a difference. But just one sword slash imbued with lightning magic was enough to obliterate it.

Them wriggling to make it out of it, not even having the space to land a full blow on the barrier, their frustration, their agony, all made my heart throb. It was exciting………… “Hup!” Calm down, calm down.

I opened the barrier for a second and closed it behind my back. “Now, the Bloodbath shall begin.”

I had prepared dark ignition spell beforehand; I activated it as soon as got in, burning all the ghouls in the eternal fire to a crisp, I could hear their angst. It was funny watching them trying to run with nowhere to escape.

I moved through the barrier with all the ghouls laying dead behind me. It didn’t take much time to clear the arena as the flame went in through like a circuit, exterminating all of them in a few minutes.

I chanted a spell cancel barrier magic, as I noticed the few ghouls who just entered the room clashing with the fenrir. Getting them under the barrier would’ve put me under a disadvantage. So, I decided to take them head on in the relatively open environment.

I aimed dark arrows to get their attention to me. A fierce battle took place with me getting some minor injuries and blood dripping from my head. But it was the same struggle since entering the fifteenth floor. I still hadn’t figured out a way to take them out swiftly without a tactical advantage like the barrier. I dashed at them with my sword in full swing and stabbed the forehead of the ghoul just before me. But there was another attack it had received from behind. It wasn’t me who had taken out this one, but one its own kind.

The ghoul had shoved its hand in the stomach of the ghoul and taken out an organ, feeding on it. As I looked around, there were several of those; running about, feeding on the organs of the dead. It wasn’t like last floor; I couldn’t take them on in a swift. There were a lot of them, and even more continuing to rise. A few of them exploded afar while others showed considerable signs of mutation.

A mutated ghoul fled straight at me. It was fast, faster than it had ever been, almost matching my speed and in lightning cloak. Ceaselessly barraging me with its long-sharp claws and an extra athath.

Giving me no time to attack, it was keeping me on the defensive side for quite a while. So, it ate other one’s predatory organ. This is gonna be tough.

The skin was harder than steel, making it impossible to damage it without elemental armament.

It was inflicting damage faster than I could heal. I feared that it would leave a permanent scar. It was hell ’a annoying, getting severely beaten by these trash undead. Soon, the rest of them joined too.

As the battle progressed, it became harder and harder to maintain lightning armament. I looked over to the fenrir, and he too was having a decisive battle with the mutated ghouls.

“Ugh!” A ghoul had kicked me in the stomach, throwing me against the wall. While I was in the air, I wished it would just end quickly. I was the same in both the lives I had lived. Coughing blood, I was already having second thoughts. If they want to kill me, they should’ve done it already. Were they… playing with me? I though back, retrospecting my both lives, how many mistakes I had made. “That’s it I was and forever will be…..”

I fired a lightning arrow above my head to the icicle ceiling above whilst chanting a spell.

The fenrir was by me within seconds, with several of ghouls chasing him. I was exhausted, about to faint as I applauded the fenrir for its good work.

“A genius.” I activated the barrier as I saw all the ghouls being trapped inside the formation. “Huhu! HAAHAAHAHA! You really thought you mindless mons can take me down. It was already over but I still checked if any more of the ghouls were yet to come.

“Now, onto you.” The ghouls were constantly attacking the barrier but it was beyond their capabilities even make a dent. I had double layered it, just in case.

Going in and fighting them head on would put me in a disadvantageous situation. I need to straight away dominate them.

I holed the barrier and shot dark flame arrow inside; engulfing the brave one standing in front in eternal flame. The one next one wasn’t so stupid. After taking an arrow to the arm, it severed it and grew back another one.

I was mad, “How the fuck can he think that? Do they grow an extra brain too?”

It was high-time, the magic stones were draining up faster because of the double layer, so it was unknown as to how much longer it could last. The ghouls at the back were quite persistent in breaking down the barrier.

I rummaged through the bracelet to check for any ranged weapon in it, but in the end, I took out two magic stones from the bracelet; inscribing it, using it as a bow. Although it could function as a bow, I knew it wouldn’t even be one tenth as strong as a regular bow. But just that was enough for me, as I only needed it for aiming. I enchanted my sword with dark flame arrow and homing inscriptions.

I made a hole in the barrier just right in front of my eye and shot it; as the arrow went down, it bashed through the heads of the ghouls, flaming them with darkness. Within seconds, five of the ghouls had already gotten down. I called back the sword inscribing it with different inscriptions and fired it again.

The second layer was fading while the inner one was looking flawless from my end; I meant to end it quickly as I knew it would last long.

The arrow was moving the hastiest as it could, with lightning magic in use. Just the moment when all of them were about to meet their doom, the barrier cracked. I sped the arrow up even more with homing property to kill those last ones. But…

The barrier shattered; I had killed almost all of them, with the sword seeping through the head of the ghoul and a hand though its back. The sword was stuck in its head. I guess the magic stone I attached ran out of power. Elemental magic sure sucks up mana fast.

But the bigger problem, the ghoul who had broken the barrier and eaten organs of another ghoul, was still remaining.

The fenrir whipped his tail and shot it with wind magic to inviting the ghoul towards it. I took that time to get pull out my sword from the fallen ghoul, and think up a plan to quickly take out this ghoul.

I took the dried up magic stone out, and put the jewel back to the hilt of the sword.

I attacked the ghoul at its blindspot but it instinctively used athath, throwing me off guard, it attacked me without even looking at me. The ghoul’s focus had turned towards me now. And it was constantly attacking me faster than I could react.

My mana was draining up; I hadn’t gotten a single chance to relax. I couldn’t keep lightning cloak for much longer. All my energy was being used to defend myself from the gatling of attacks by the monster. A mere pawn of an undead was overpowering me.

“Aaargh!” Although it was throbbing from quite a while, it was never as serious. Though I was covered in blood, I had been enduring it since. But this sore discomfort, this excruciating pain…. I wasn’t even able to speak.

I moved my left hand over the sore spot; stunned, I noticed a big hole in the left side of my stomach. I couldn’t move, I stood paralyzed in the face of the hideous monstrosity that the ghoul was. I doubt if my C-Rank regeneration could ever heal this. It kicked me in the same spot, crushing my hand which was covering it, and sent me flying. I crashed against the icicle, one inch away from penetrating my head.

I was laying there, coughing blood, as I felt powerless, drained out, and even unable to stand up. Atleast, now I can rest. I felt my eyelids getting heavier as I was getting attracted to the darkness upon closing my eyes.