Legacy of the Betelgeuse

Lothair is running at the back with his swords sheathed and his armor is placed inside his inventory.

"Okay, Kingstar. Your plan sucks..."

Kingstar is at the front and he looks back with nothing but his shirt since he also puts his armor inside his inventory.

"Hey, you agreed to it in the first place so don\'t blame me!"

Diamond is chuckling and looking at Kingstar.

"Your leadership sucks."

Everyone is snorting and holding their laughter but Kingstar looks at him and yells.

"Shut up! I thought there are only a few of them, but now we know how many of them lurking in this damn city!"

Liu looks back and chuckles with disbelief.

"Seriously though, isn\'t that just too much for us to handle?"

Ken is smiling while looking at him.

"But this looks fun to me because we can do nothing but use our survival instinct. This is quite thrilling and it feels almost the same as when I was doing the open quest to get my Amruchi."

Liu looks at him and scoffs.

"You\'re right."

A swarm of cursed souls is flying toward us and they look like a huge wave that\'s ready to swallow us all, and not to mention that they\'re slowly getting faster and faster. We still have 10 minutes before the first stage is complete, and if we keep running like this, they all will be dead in less than 5 minutes. I\'m at the further back and make sure that everyone is safe because Leo and the other spellcasters have no high movement speed and I have to give them a boost whenever they can\'t catch up with the others.

Kingstar looks at Ivonna.

"Got any idea?"

Ivonna shakes her head.

"No, I don\'t think anything can help us right now. We are too few to do this dungeon and we made a huge mistake by not killing them. We should have killed a lot of them before the timer reach 30 minutes so we can be at ease, and we don\'t have to run for our lives like this. We are too late to fight them since they should have become four to five times stronger than their original stats by now."

Francesca looks at Ivonna.

"Then what should we do? We can\'t keep running because Leo and the others who don\'t have a high movement speed will be touched by those monsters soon."

Ivonna looks around and then she sighs while shaking her head.

"I really don\'t have anything in my head because even if we are going to leave the dungeon, it\'s too far away from us, and even if we are close to the exit, we are 10 minutes away from clearing the first stage. All I can think of is to keep running until the time runs out and hope for the best, but we all know it\'s not going to happen since they\'re getting closer and closer to us."

Alessandro is looking back at the swarm of cursed souls.

"If only we have someone who can stop these monsters, then we will be able to clear this stage!"

Everyone keeps running and becomes quiet, Alessandro is confused and he thinks he said something wrong, but then Chelsea is tilting her head.

"Well, we actually do have that person and we all know who that person is."

Everyone looks back and stares at me, except for Kingstar and he shakes his head.

"I don\'t want him to be our savior because it makes me feel so powerless and useless. I\'m not trying to offend you Trevor, but you already gave us so many things and we owe you too much."

I look at him and smirk.

"Have I ever asked you to pay me back?"

Kingstar turns his head to look at me.

"What do you mean?"

I scoff and raise my eyebrows.

"We are all here to gather some information, and it\'s not about me helping you out, it\'s about us getting enough information to clear this dungeon, isn\'t that right? I\'m fine as long as we got the information to gather, just say the word."

Everyone looks at Kingstar, Queenstar is also looking at him and she nods. Kingstar becomes quiet and I think he\'s thinking about it, but then he nods while keep looking forward.

"You\'re right..."

Kingstar turns his head and looks at me.

"Please give us time and thank you."

I raise my eyebrow and smirk.

"No need to mention it."

I stop running and everyone is looking back at me. I turn around and unwrap my chained sickles from my arms, I swing them around and look at a massive swarm of cursed souls. My LUK stat and dodge stat are useless in here because they don\'t do damages and 3 gentle touches are enough to send me back outside the dungeon. I have 3 chances and I don\'t want to blow this up, I made it back then and I should be able to make it out alive now as well, but this is a bit too much to handle since there are too many of them.

Ivonna runs toward me and she gives me her [Blessing] skill. She smiles and nods.

"Good luck, Trev."

I nod and then she leaves.

[Divine Aura is activated]

[Frenzy is activated]

[Bloodbath is activated]

[Dominion is activated]

[Afterimages is activated]

[Shadow of Death\'s Wrath]

This is the right moment for me to try another new combination of extra skills that I got during the battle in the Eluna Empire, I look at the swarm of the cursed souls and without hesitation, I run toward them. Their screeches are very eerie to listen to and I can hear their pain and suffering just by listening to them. I swing my chained sickles at them and those who get hit by my shadow\'s scythes are immediately turning to ashes and disappear, I keep looking around me because they can sneak onto me so I need to keep my eyes wide open and to keep the focus on my surroundings.

I keep swinging and spinning my chained sickles while keep pressing forward, I don\'t want a single cursed soul to be near me. I order Azrael to keep on watch of my back and kill those who are getting closer to me, thanks to him I can feel a bit at ease. This [Shadow of Death\'s Wrath] skill only lasts for a minute, and I\'m going to try my new skill when the timer reaches 1 second so I\'m going to kill as many as possible and clutch every second of the duration I have left.

I\'m surrounded and there\'s nowhere for me to go and I\'m stuck in here, I look at the duration and it\'s 10 seconds left. I keep running forward and see if I can make it out alive from the swarm, but then I realize that it\'s impossible, and so I spin my chained sickles around then stabs them into the ground, it\'s time for me to use the new skill I got, it\'s called [Reign of Death].

[Reign of Death (Lv.1): Stab the chained sickle into the ground and create a new modified Circle of Death within 20 meters radius from the player. 24 Chained Sickles and Scythe are inside the circle and whoever enters the circle will immediately get attacked by them. Each of them deals 50% damage for every 0.8 seconds and applies stun for the first hit for 1.5 seconds and bleeding status, then immobilizes them for 0.5 seconds for every 3 seconds inside the circle. During the Reign of Death, the [Shadow of Death] or [Shadow of Death\'s Wrath] skill will be activated automatically (Works even if the skill is on cooldown). The Shadow of Death will be roaming around the circle to kill the enemies and are not attached to the player. The skill will last for 60 seconds and consume 200 stamina when used. The [Shadow of Death], [Circle of Death], and [Shadow of Death\'s Wrath] will be on cooldown when used. Cooldown: 600 seconds]

I can think about my next move since I have 30 seconds thanks to this skill. I look around and I don\'t know where I\'m at or which direction I\'m looking, but I believe if I keep moving forward, I can reach the other end of the swarm when I use my [Moonsteps] skill. I look at the Cursed Souls and none of them are able to get close to me and they all die a few seconds after they\'re entering the circle, and thanks to my shadow roaming around the circle, those who are above me are getting killed by it.

5 minutes left to clear the first stage, and I\'m starting to doubt myself if I can make it or not. I look at my skill duration and it\'s about to finish, I walk toward the edge of the circle in front of me and readying myself to make a run for it. I wrap my chained sickles and grab the scythe from my inventory. I take a deep breath and exhale deeply while stretching my arms, legs, and neck while waiting for the duration to go off.

As soon as the circle disappears, I throw my scythe as far as possible to the front and kill all of the Cursed Souls in front of me, I immediately use [Blink Strike] because those Cursed Souls around my scythe are stunned. I teleport to my scythe and grab it to start swinging it around, then I use [Moonsteps] to keep moving forward, but a notification screen appears in front of me.

[You have been touched!]

[1 chance remaining!]

"What?! I got touched twice?! How?!"

I use [Reawakening] and use [Shadow of Death\'s Wrath] skill again, I keep doing the same thing again and I still have 2 minutes left to try and survive the swarm. I\'m waiting for the circle to disappear again, and this time I need a new plan. I look at Azrael and order him to help me out during my escape using [Blink Strike] and [Moonsteps] by using his skill [Spectre] and freezing them all so I won\'t be touched by them.

The circle disappears and I immediately throw my scythe and Azrael turns into his spectre form and freezes all the monsters in front of me. I teleport to my scythe and Azrael is already ahead of me, I use [Moonsteps] and follows him from behind. I get out from the shadow and starts swinging my scythe at those frozen Cursed Souls, I make sure there are no enemies around me. I throw my scythe again and it\'s not a skill but just throw it to the front then I unwrap my chained sickles and start swinging them around. This feels a lot safer and comfortable than when I\'m using my scythe, then I can see light coming from in front of me and Azrael is leading me the way.

I\'m just swinging and spinning my chained sickles while breaking through them, but then Azrael flies toward me and he bits a hand that is almost touching my back. I almost failed back there, now I need to be a bit careful, but there are too many of them around me and I can\'t tell which of them is close to me. I don\'t know what else to do but if I keep doing this, I will get touched sooner or later, but then I have an idea and swing one of my chained sickles while grabbing a staff in my inventory. I\'m pointing my staff on my feet and closing my eyes.

"Fireball!"

That\'s my last effort and when I open my eyes, one of the Cursed Souls is about to touch my face but I manage to lean my face back and I know that I f*cked up, but I don\'t feel a touch on my face, then I open my eyes and I don\'t see them around me anymore. I look down and there\'s a notification.

[You successfully survived the first stage!]

[The first stage will be closed in: 120 minutes]

[Please enter the entrance to the second stage before the first stage is closed or you will be teleported outside the dungeon]

I get on my knees and sigh with relief.

"I survive...."