Ash gazed up in front of him, a skeleton wearing a black robe and holding a long staff stood. He radiated a dark and mysterious aura, making Ash shiver in the safe zone.
"That's not a fair fight... You didn't even give me a weapon!"
Ash screamed as loud as he could; he gritted his teeth and clenched his hand as hard as he could.
Survive the Licht for 2 minutes.
Failure leads to...
"I don't need to kill it, only survive."
The statement given by the system seemed like an easy task, but for it to be transformed into a survival task instead of a slaying one shows that this beast is on a whole other level.
Ash understood the meaning of this statement and froze in place, 'They gave me something that I can't fight.' His eyes widened.
'Well, it's only two minutes, and I can plan for however long I want.'
Ash felt a bit relieved by his current findings, but this finding was shattered when the white font on the screen started changing.
Your Timer starts in
3... 2...
'Wh-what? You can't do this.' His face began to sweat as he saw the system.
1. Good Luck
Rattle-Rattle
The Licht moved his body, asking his undead troop to charge forward.
Ash stood in shock for a second, then instantly ran away from the skeletons, 'Just how cruel can you be!'
The Licht slammed his staff on the ground, forming a group of undead troops beside him, each having a weapon of its own.
One of the undead had a sword and was faster than his companion. He ran behind the pale man while gripping his weapon.
Ash looked back to see an undead running after him.
'He's leaving his troop?' His gaze then turned towards the undead's hand.
'He has a weapon.' His eyes shone in joy.
'If I could make him get further away from his troop, I might be able to kill it and get his sword.'
He decreased his speed, allowing the undead to slowly catch up to him.
Ash was too scared to stop. He thought that if he did, the Licht would cast a spell on him, killing him in an instant. He was also too scared to run faster and increase the gap between him and the undead, as he thought that the Licht would spawn stronger and faster undead after him.
So, Ash decreased his speed so that he would be moving for it to cast a spell, and he was slow enough that a normal undead could catch up to him.
He still felt a bit weary about the spells, so he started running in a zigzag motion to confuse the Licht.
And in a few seconds, the gap between him and the undead became that of two arm's lengths.
Ash took a deep breath, "Let's do this."
Ash twisted his body; his hand was already clenched and ready to strike. With all his might, he landed a satisfying punch on its head, making it fly back to a pillar.
Ash stood there smiling and flailing his hand, "That hurt... but it sure felt nice."
The Licht brought his hand forward in the direction where Ash stood. Its eyes were dark and hollow, but some mist fell out from them.
Below Ash, a large yellow spell circle formed within a second, covering both him and the undead in it. He slowly looked down, his face became pale. "Shit! The moment I stopped moving."
Ash ran as fast as he could, but it was for nothing. The spell was already casted, and many iron bars pierced from the ground at the circumference of the spell circle, and then all of them connected at the top of the spell, forming a huge birdcage-type prison.
Ash was stuck in the middle of the cage with the undead. His heart sank.
'I got caught.' Ash gritted his teeth, 'Ahhhh! I should have just kept running.'
Ash opened up the system, "It's only been twenty-three seconds."
He turned towards the dark skeleton mage. It had a twisted grin on its face as it saw its prey in worry.
Ash was shaken as he realised that the Licht was just playing with him. For the Licht, Ash was just an ant that could easily be killed.
Ash was fearful but furious at the damned skeleton. He ran towards the end of the cage and gripped the bars as hard as he could.
"Just keep laughing, I'll kill you when I get out." He punched one of the bars as hard as he could.
The Licht then snapped its finger, making the whole cage shake, and then it slowly began to move inwards. Decreasing the cage's size by one second, Ash was also getting pushed back against the bars.
His whole mind was in denial.
Swoosh
Ash tilted his head and was slightly scraped by the flying arrow. He ran his hand through his hair, 'I was almost going to get killed by that arrow.'
Ash calmed himself and regained his composure. He looked back at the cage and saw the undead stand back up and walk towards him.
Swoosh
Another flew through the air, but this time he dodged it without much effort; the other two undead spawned by the Licht stood outside the cage and in range for their crossbows.
'Well, let's look at my current situation right now,' he opened up his system and simultaneously dodged a stab from the undead with him.
'It's been 40 seconds since this trial started, not even halfway. I'm also stuck in a cage that keeps decreasing in size with a skeleton accompanying me, and finally, there are two more skeletons shooting arrows at me, too... Now, how do I escape this cage?'
He dodged two more arrows and another stab, but this time he didn't jump back for distance; rather, he twisted his body, his arm at chest level, and landed a strong hook on the undead, pushing him to the bars and also making him lose his grip on the hilt of his weapon.
Ash grabbed the sword.
You have picked up
An Undead's sword
Grade F Weapon
Would you like to take ownership of this weapon?
"Ownership? Is that even a needed question? Of course, I'll take ownership of this weapon."
The weapon glowed lightly, and Ash felt a part of him connect with the jade sword in front of him.
He didn't waste another second admiring the sword. He stabbed the undead trapped with him in the neck, killing it instantly.
You have slain an Undead soldier.
"That's one mess taken care of."
Swoosh swoosh
Ash's body moved on its own as if it were skilled in the way of the sword. He sliced both the arrows with ease.
'Now, how do I get out of here?'
The cage has become very small compared to its original size. It has decreased to the point where Ash can reach one end from the other just by taking five big steps.
Ash's grasp on the sword got tighter, and he struck an iron bar as hard as he could; the sound of the strike filled the room. He didn't stop and just kept striking the same iron bar as hard as he could with rapid speed.
His face did not react, and his mind was empty, his body moving instinctively, striking the bar and sometimes tilting his body left and right to dodge the usual arrows from the other two living undead.
...
The Licht was so excited as he saw his prey fight for life with everything he had; the cage had gotten so small that only one person could fit in it.
The Licht then told his troop to stop shooting and was just seeing Ash get crushed with a huge, menacing smile on his face. It then turned around, waiting to hear the crushing sounds of human bones.
After a few seconds, it heard nothing. Getting confused, it turned around, and its eyes twitched a bit after seeing what was in front of it. A pale young man with messy hair, half his body outside the cage, and his sharp eyes pierced the Licht.
"I didn't die yet." His face contorted, forming a terrifying smile on his face, "fucker."