Rise Of The Undead King

Chapter 7

"Fine, die then, I already warned you and your blood is no longer on my hands!" Elena glared, taking her eyes away from the fight and pressing her back against the dead tree behind her.

In her eyes, Marcus was as good as dead already cause he definitely didn't hold a candle to that monster. 

She had seen what that two headed hound could do to a B ranked archer with full mana and proper equipment

 She had the bleeding ribs and torn combat gear to prove it. This E ranked Mortician had just walked right into the attack range of a zone boss with nothing but arrogance and delusion. There was no other way this could end except with his bones being crushed and his flesh being burned to ash.

She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to watch what she was sure would be a massacre. Frustration burned through her chest as she thought about his stubborn refusal to listen. She had tried to warn him. She had told him to run while he could. His death was completely on his own head.

Marcus ignored her completely.

He didn't spare a single glance at the bleeding girl hiding behind the tree. His eyes were locked on the massive zone boss charging toward him, its four red eyes glowing with murderous intent, dark flames rolling off its body in waves that scorched the air around them.

The ground shook under the beast's weight as it launched itself forward, both heads opening wide to swallow him whole. Marcus stood there with that impossible calm, his hands relaxed at his sides like death itself was just another inconvenience.

"Come out," Marcus muttered, his voice flat and cold.

The darkness behind him erupted.

The massive shadow bear materialized first, stepping between Marcus and the charging hound like an impenetrable wall. It rose on its hind legs and swung its enormous paw forward, meeting the zone boss head on. The impact sounded like thunder, shaking the trees around the clearing and cracking the scorched earth beneath their feet.

The two headed hound roared in shock, its charge stopped completely. Before it could recover, Marcus's three shadow wolves darted from the darkness, their glowing fangs sinking deep into the beast's hind legs. The hound thrashed wildly, dark flames flaring up to burn them away, but the wolves held on, tearing at shadow flesh until black blood dripped onto the ground.

Then came the lion.

It leaped over Marcus's head, landing squarely on the hound's back with crushing force. The zone boss was driven to its knees as the lion's jaws clamped down around one of its thick necks, pinning it to the dirt while acidic saliva burned holes in the earth around them.

Marcus watched the entire scene without moving a single step, his hands still at his sides, that smirk forming on his lips as he saw his beasts completely overwhelm a creature that had nearly killed a B ranked hunter.

If he could add this beast to his collections, then he would be unstoppable.

Anticipation coursed through his body as he thought about walking back into the Cave estate with a two headed zone boss following behind him.

 Henry with his A ranked swordsmanship, soaking himself in guild master attention, wouldn't look so special anymore.

 His father who told him they would be better off if he were dead would have to swallow those words. 

Jessica who shifted away from him, not wanting to be associated with the trash of the Cave family, would see exactly what she had thrown away.

The two headed hound struggled violently under the combined weight of his shadow army, unleashing desperate blasts of dark fire from its free head. 

But the bear simply grabbed the beast's snout with both massive paws and slammed its head into the mud, burying the flames in dirt and ash.

Within a few moments, he had subdued it completely.

The massive zone boss lay pinned to the ground, whining with a deep rattling sound of defeat, its four glowing eyes flickering weakly as it realized it had been completely overpowered.

Marcus walked forward slowly, his boots crunching over the scorched earth. He stopped right in front of the beast's massive heads and placed his hand directly on its trembling snout.

As soon as possible, he tried to take the beast in, pushing his will forward and activating his Mortician class.

Mortician class activated. Attempting subjugation.

Marcus waited for the familiar jolt of electricity to roll throughout all of his body and for the heavy mental chains to wrap around his mind as he forced the beast into submission.

Instead, a sharp red warning flashed across his vision, accompanied by a harsh mechanical sound that stabbed into his thoughts.

‘Subjugation Failed. Beast level too high for current class.’

Marcus pushed his will forward again, refusing to accept the rejection. His infinite evolution meant there was no ceiling, no limit to what he could become.

Subjugation Failed. Beast level too high for current class.

He growled, stepping back from the beast. Raw irritation flooded his chest as he stared at the subdued hound.

He realized that he could not take in some beasts at his current level. His endless evolution was real, but it had rules.

 He was still F tier, and his mental capacity wasn't wide enough yet to cage the soul of a zone boss. He needed to tame more regular shadow beasts to push his class higher before he could claim something this powerful.

Disappointment settled heavy in his bones. He had come here specifically for this creature and now he was walking away with nothing to show for it except the knowledge that he wasn't strong enough yet.

"Snap its necks," Marcus commanded, his voice cold and flat.

His beasts didn't hesitate. The lion and bear twisted simultaneously, and a sickening crunch echoed through the clearing. The two headed hound went completely limp, its dark flames dying out instantly, turning into thick black smoke that slowly dissolved into the air.

Marcus dismissed his shadow army with a single thought, sending them back into the darkness. The clearing fell silent except for the sound of wind blowing through dead branches.

Meanwhile, Elena was still pressed against the tree behind her, her hands covering her ears. She had heard the explosive impacts, the terrifying roars, the sound of bones snapping, and the heavy thuds that shook the ground beneath her. She hadn't dared to look, completely convinced that the E ranked Mortician was being torn apart piece by piece.

When the noise died down, she let out a shaky breath.

Elena glared, turning around with the words on her lips that he's dead now, I warned him.

She pushed herself away from the tree slowly, preparing to see the gruesome remains of the boy who had been too stubborn to listen to her warnings. The words were already forming in her mouth, dripping with exhaustion and irritation.

"He's dead now, I warned him," she muttered, her voice dragging from the pain in her ribs. "I told him to run but he wouldn't listen to me."

Marcus's brows furrowed as he looked at her bleeding form struggling to stand.

"Who's dead?" he asked, his voice perfectly calm and unbothered.

Elena's words died in her throat. She snapped her head up, her eyes going wide as they locked onto the scene before her.

With her eyes on the scene, Elena was shocked.

The massive two headed zone boss, the terrifying creature that had nearly ended her life despite all her B ranked skills and expensive gear, was lying dead on the scorched earth. Its necks were broken, its dark flames completely extinguished, its body still and lifeless.

And Marcus stood without even a scratch on his body.

He was dusting off his hands casually, his clothes were intact, and his breathing steady. 

He didn't have a single tear in his shirt, no blood on his skin, not even exhaustion on his face. He looked exactly the same as he had when he first walked into the clearing with that impossible calm.

Even an A class would have had a few bruises fighting something like this.

But this E ranked Mortician that she had called useless trash had just killed a creature that nearly destroyed her without taking a single point of damage.

Elena staggered to her feet, her system flickering weakly as it tried to process what it was reading.

She stammered, shocked. "How is this possible?"

Her words broke off into stutters as she looked from the collapsed zone boss to Marcus's calm face, then back to the beast, then back to him. Disbelief crashed through her mind as she tried to reconcile what her system had told her with what she was seeing with her own eyes.

It was simply impossible.