CHAPTER 54: OLD SOULS

I definitely believe that we’ll have a lot of killing to do here based on the environment alone. I appreciate you pointing that out though I guess.

Looking straight ahead I could see a bunch of figures standing there... Lifeless. They had a variety of clothing on from what appears to be a different era for each of them.

Some wearing clothing from some sort of steampunk era, medieval era, and even some normal clothes before everything got more involved with technology.

"A graveyard for those who couldn’t make it through the floors." Mira says quietly.

I don’t know how many there really are here so this is going to be a real trial by fire kind of floor. I should’ve guessed that it would be like this with the kind of warning Mira gave us.

It would’ve been nice to have Lilly and Ghost here for these kinds of floors but I don’t know how they would’ve done against Lazarus or that other guy.

Those fights took a lot out of me just to try and beat them in the first place.

Crack. Snap! I can hear one of their bodies crack as it shifts to face us while another steps on a branch. They were well aware of our presence here so the fight was about to begin.

"Better we end this as quickly as we can." Velia suggests as she prepares to run.

She runs past me while preparing to swing her sword up towards the first enemy she gets close to. The sword cuts through with ease as the others all twist their bodies to face her.

"Seems it’s my turn to help out." I say quietly before rushing out towards them.

The power wasn’t as strong this time around, I could definitely feel the difference compared to before. There were no clear signs that anything was active for me so I don’t know what to expect yet.

Focus on what you want to use. You already know how to activate it, just don’t let it overtake you.

My anger about the past could definitely help with activating it each time but I don’t know how to keep it under control just yet. Practicing like this might be the only way I can improve.

I could see Velia slashing through them with ease as some of them start to swing their old weapons towards her. Old souls remind me a lot of the husks with how weak their bodies seem to be.

The biggest advantage they have on us is numbers so this might not be so bad after all.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! The ground begins to shake as I finally make it towards the large crowd of undead. In the distance behind them I can see a rather large being starting to form out of bones.

There’s no reason to waste any time, send them back to their graves.

That’s exactly what I’m going to do.

All the voices from the past are what I start to think about as I begin to swing my fists towards one after another. Feeling the power starting to surge throughout my body once again.

It was a power that I needed to reinforce with my rage if I wanted it to get stronger and stronger. Eventually I hope that I won’t need to rely on this rage.

SMASH!!! I bring my fists down onto the ground and send a couple of them flying away from the graveyard. Their speed is nowhere near fast enough to get a hit on me so I won’t need excessive power to kill them.

Slash! Slash!! Slice!! The sound of Velia’s blade is all I can hear from behind me as she’s fighting against a few of them herself.

The two of us definitely make a pretty good combo when it comes to fighting up close like this. I guess everyone I’ve met so far has been capable of up close and personal combat.

Finding people capable of using range attacks would probably be pretty beneficial in the long run. At least until I can figure out how to do some long range attacks of my own.

"Rokuro we have a problem! Look!" Velia shouts with a bit of concern in her voice.

I kick the last one away from me as I notice behind it is a giant undead dragon. It was completely made out of bones which makes sense for the undead aspect...

Black eyes with a bit of green stared directly at me. "ROARRRRR!!!" It’s shout was loud enough to echo throughout the floor.

A dragon against a dragon, how great is that. Can the pervy dragon beat the undead one?

I’m not that much of a pervert Rika, plus this is a pretty serious enemy for us to be facing. Lazarus was strong as a legendary demon and so was that weirdo with the gun, but this is a damn dragon.

An undead dragon to be exact.

You are capable of beating it.

A lot of my power is pretty depleted for the most part so how am I supposed to beat it? I didn’t fully rest for it to recover enough, unless I’m missing something here.

Trust yourself. You know your limits better than anyone else, including me.

I took a few steps back while starting to focus on my breathing a bit. My heartbeat was rather calm for this whole scenario to be the way it is.

My blood was definitely heating up, a strange effect from this power but I could feel everything coming together. Even the feeling of the scales retracting on my face was a good sign.

Suddenly it felt as if a burst of energy shot throughout my whole body in an instant, my vision took on a little bit of a red haze but it wasn’t too bad.

"Just handle whatever small guys are around, I’ll focus on the dragon!" I shout to her while staring back at the dragon.

I trust myself enough to handle this.