Rise of the Undead Legion

Chapter 354 Rune Golem

Dave and Dortha moved through the Drow Kingdom. As they walked Dortha broke the silence and said, "You have reached ample Strength for me to teach you a bit of what I know about true power."

"What is that?" Dave asked.

"It’s the first step into becoming more proficient in controlling your might, give me your hand." Dortha said.

Dave stretched his hand out to Dortha, the Beast grabbed it and a surge of power ran up to Dave’s forearm. Every fiber, muscle and tissue cringed and tightened for a moment. Dave’s dead muscles surged with immense power, he felt like he could turn a rock to dust if he tightened his grip on it.

"I’ve unlocked your limits as an Undead. We don’t tire, and at the same time, we can tap into the full potential of one’s body." Dortha said.

A notification appeared in front of Dave

***

Herculean Strength.

Removes the limits on your body, increasing one’s Strength and physical attack power by 100% up to three times. Lasting for 10 seconds.

Every increase will cost the user 20% of their total HP.

No cooldown required.

Side-Effects.

Every use of Herculean Strength will cause the base Strength of the user to drop by 30% for 5 minutes.

***

"Holy smokes, this is way too OP!"

"OP? I never heard of this term."

"Means overpowered," Dave casually explained.

"Ah, good choice of words, yes overpowered. But be careful the extended use of this ability will wear out your muscles and put you in a feeble condition. Do not abuse the limits of your body," Dortha said.

"Right, thanks a lot." Dave said to the man.

"No need to thank me. Sadly, you were a human before you turned to Undeath. If you had the bloodline of a beast, I could have strengthened you even more. I’m not like the wise Dagla. I only know about power." Dortha said.

"Don’t worry man, this is more than enough. By the way we’ve been moving for a while, shouldn’t it be about time something attack us? I mean those guys have been following us for a while now," Dave said with a smile.

"Oh, so you did notice them. I thought I would have to warn you myself," Dortha said, his smile once more revealing his shiny fangs.

"Yeah, saw them the moment we stepped into this area, but why aren’t they attacking?" Dave asked. His eyes were locked onto three dark skinned elves that only wore enough leather armor to cover their privates.

"Simple, these creatures know and recognize danger. And I have plenty of that. As long as we don’t show weakness, fear or weariness, they will keep their distance." Dortha said.

"Welp, that’s great and all," Dave said, then he added, "But I need to level up."

"If you wish to gain strength, do not seek it in the death of others. Find strength within, as the power that comes from unfair carnage is nothing but a fleeting sense of power and a key for madness to encroach upon your mind. It happened to me and I fear that it might happen to you," Dortha said. His words spoken out of experience.

"Right, I will make sure to keep that in mind," Dave said.

"I don’t mean for you not to slay what attacks you. Defend yourself if you have to and slay what stands in your way. But don’t find fault with those who mean you no harm and kill them for your own vanity, that is the way of demons. We may be Undead, but chivalry and knighthood are ingrained in our essence, respect that and you shall find greatness." Dortha spoke these words of wisdom to Dave.

"Understood," Dave nodded to Dortha.

"Kis’Shtiengbrah, be wary. We are approaching a dangerous foe," Dortha said.

"Alright," Dave said. His shield and sword at the ready.

He then hopped off Grumpy and stomped his right foot on the ground. Five shadowy shrouds materialized around Dave. Spark, Bud, Dog, Singund and Tengu. These were his strongest Undead, and was the limit of the Undead he could summon in the Drow Kingdom.

When the Undead saw Dortha, they bowed to him and he nodded back. They respected the strong, and as an Abyssal Knight, Dortha held a lot of strength.

"Your Undead are powerful and exquisite to say the least," Dortha said smiling toothily.

"Yeah, they are the best of the best," Dave said, grinning.

"Very well, now be careful. I feel that something believes that we are prey," Dortha said and pointed at one of the largest rock formations in the distance. This rock looked like a jagged pillar that supported the sky. If it was any wider at the base, it would be no different than a small mountain.

Suddenly, the massive rock broke apart and shattered.

"Wow, how did you do that?" Dave asked.

"I didn’t do anything," Dortha shook his head, "I only pointed at where the danger is, and it started heading towards us. Be ready!"

Dortha’s hand became rigid and grew claws instead of nails. His scrawny body under the robes buffed up in a second. He looked like a heavyweight champion dressed in a tight robe. Dave could even hear the sound of the fabric tearing from the muscles on Dortha.

The standing rocks burst apart as something massive charged towards Dave’s party.

As it closed the distance between them, Dave was able to make out what it was, a gigantic stone golem that had no feet. It looked like a triangle of stone that had two arms and a triangular head. In the golem’s chest was a bright glowing circle that was made up of thousands of small runic glyphs.

"That’s the Rune Golem," Dave said.

"This golem has a lot of magical energy around it, I can feel it. Be careful," Dortha said and pounced at the incoming golem.

Dortha’s legs were strong enough that, when he jumped, the ground caved in creating a small crater. The force behind his legs made him fly like a lightning bolt toward the incoming golem.

The two made contact and Dortha came out ahead, as the golem was sent staggering back and it crashed down, destroying dozens of trees and crumbling pillars of rocks upon itself.

"Boyz, let’s go!" Dave called and the five Undead followed after him.

He guided Grumpy to the fallen golem as the rest of the Death Knight kept up with the Onyx Basilisk’s pace.

After a few seconds, Dave had arrived to the battle scene. Dortha was on top of the golem’s chest, his claws smashing down on the glyph, and with every hit, the golem’s body cracked and the thing roared in pain.

Dave found it absurd that a stone could feel pain, but the sheer strength behind every swing of Dortha’s claws made the ground tremble as if it was an earthquake.

Dave inspected the struggling golem.

***

Level: 550

Tier: Unique

Base damage: 180,000-200,000

Danger Level: ???

HP: 23,222,000/ 25,000,000

PD: 999,999

MD: 1

Skills:

[Stone Throw] Hurls a rock at a target dealing 200% base damage.

[Seismic Strike] smashes down with his arms at the ground, creating a wave of mudstone and debris to assault its enemies. Causes 150% base damage and slowing targets by 30% and creates a [Disorientation] debuff lasting for 10 seconds.

[Collapsing Mountain] calls upon the power of the earth and brings down a mountain on its target. Dealing 200% base damage in a 200-meter area around the point of impact.

Lore: The Rune Golem is one of the guardians of the Drow kingdom. It holds the Node of Durability and serves as a protector to the inhabitants of the area.

***

"Whoa," Dave’s words escaped his mouth. The creature’s physical defense was out of this world. If Dave tried to attack it with his sword, he would deal no more than a measly 0 points of damage.

Thankfully this thing’s magical defense was pretty much non-existent. Dave’s magic abilities would do decent damage to it, and killing it wouldn’t be an impossibility.

Yet this wasn’t the reason why Dave was shocked. It was the fact that Dortha was using his empty hands to smash down on this golem, and had already ripped him out of almost 2 million points of HP, in just a few seconds.

"No wonder he is the strongest under the undead king. But, if he is this strong, then that means that Deadra was only stronger. Man, the Legion has only monsters in its ranks, ha!" Dave laughed and waved a hand.

"Can’t get out done!" he summoned eighteen Infernal Skulls. The fusion of [Spectral Skulls], [Dragon Ball], and [Twin Strike].

The fireballs flowed toward the downed golem and smashed into it from the side. The explosions shook the golem to its core and shaved another 2 million HP off of it.

"Yeah, Dave can still bring the heat!" Dave said to himself.

The rest of Dave’s Death Knights moved toward the suppressed golem.

"This is gonna be easy," Dave said in a grin.

His undead and the Abyssal Knight were more than enough to destroy this creature. The Exp he would gain should bump him up two or three levels.

But just at the happy thought crossed Dave’s mind, he saw several of the black skinned elves running toward him.

He had forgotten about them with Dortha’s presence, but now it seemed that they had grown some courage.

The dark-skinned elves didn’t seem like they were going to attack Dave and his Undead, they were running toward the golem.

In their hands were dozens of small crystal orbs. These orbs had a swirling darkness that was trapped inside them. Dave frowned, he had a bad feeling about the objects in their hands.

The dark skinned elves threw the orbs against the golem’s body. Whenever one of these orbs smashed into its body black fumes surged out and penetrated into the rocks.

One, two, then dozens of these crystals smashed against the rock. At first there was no visible change, but a few seconds later, the runic glyphs changed color from golden to black.

Dortha who was busy pinning down the golem stopped. Then, he stood up and took a couple of reluctant steppes back.

Dave shouted, "Dortha, something is not right!" Dave roared.

But Dortha didn’t answer him, his body convulsed and began shaking, the smoke that seeped into the stone golem for what Dave believed was empowering it was forcefully extracted out of the golem and sucked into Dortha.

"Lord! The Abyssal Knight’s Spirit has been tainted!" The Tengu shouted. He was the only one that knew about the spirit, and when Dave heard his words. He understood what was going on almost immediately, and probably all too late.

"FALL BACK!" Dave roared.

But his command was overpowered by an even louder roar, a beastial, old and wrathful growl that came from the depths of Dortha’s inner beast.

Dortha turned to face Dave, his blue ethereal eyes turned crimson red. His gentle grandpa features changed to stiff, vindictive and vicious expressions.

Black as the night hair grew on Dortha’s body, his nose grew into a wolf’s muzzle and his hands elongated. His legs cracked, and from his boots clawed feet emerged. Dortha’s arms grew wider and his claws larger. And finally, his name-tag changed from green to dark red.

"Yeah, fucking perfect." Dave cursed. He felt that someone was playing a very dirty prank on him. But at the same time, he had a nagging feeling telling him that if he didn’t asked Dortha if he could transform into a Were-Wolf, Dortha would have probably changed into something other than Dave’s childhood nightmare.