Tower Awakening: I Have Limitless Potential Trait

Chapter 8 – The Undead Warden, 1st Floor Boss

The executioner's sword descended with the force of a falling mountain. A dark shadow swallowed his vision. He gritted his teeth. He knew his cracked, rusty sword would shatter into pieces if he tried to block the monstrous guillotine head-on.

At the last microsecond, he twisted his wrists. He angled his fragile blade and used his enhanced agility to step out of the direct center of impact. He did not try to stop the blade. He only deflected the flat side of the giant weapon to save his life.

Clank!

The rusted sword groaned with a metallic screech. Even with the deflection, the kinetic force was overwhelming. A shockwave blasted through his forearms, traveling up his shoulders and straight into his chest.

He was thrown backward like a broken ragdoll. He flew through the cold air and rolled across the hard stone floor. The world spun in a blur until his back slammed against a pile of rubble. He coughed, spitting out a mouthful of warm blood. His whole body ached as if he had been run over by a truck. Every muscle fiber in his arms screamed in protest.

"Hey! Over here, you overgrown tin can!" Elian shouted from across the room.

The young man did not hesitate to cover for him. Elian thrust his short spear at the Undead Warden's helmet. The metal tip scraped against the rusted iron to draw its attention away.

He coughed again and wiped the dark blood from his lips. He forced his aching legs to stand up. In a death game like this, staying on the ground meant accepting death. His high vitality stat kept his bones from snapping and helped suppress the paralyzing shock of the blunt force trauma.

He tightened his grip on his cracked weapon, ignored the stinging pain in his palms, and charged back into the fray. He flanked the giant knight from the left side, keeping his footsteps light, while Elian distracted it from the right.

They attacked in tandem, trying their best to chip away at the towering monster. The chemistry they built while fighting the hounds showed its true value. Whenever the Warden swung its sword at Elian, he darted in and slashed at the exposed gaps behind the beast's knees. Whenever the giant turned its glowing crimson eyes toward him, Elian's spear poked at its rusted elbow joints.

But the Undead Warden was resilient. Its blackened plate armor was too thick for their beginner weapons. Every time his rusty sword hit the armor plates, it sent a numbing vibration up his arms. The fight turned into a grueling battle of endurance. The physical toll on his body accumulated fast. He bled from minor scrapes, his lungs burned for oxygen, and his movements lost their initial explosiveness.

As he dodged a heavy backhand from the Warden's armored gauntlet, a familiar transparent screen popped up in front of his face. It was accompanied by a glitching sound.

[Action-Based Growth triggered.]

[System Warning: Anomaly detected.]

[Growth efficiency exceeds standard challenger baseline.]

[You have endured life-threatening physical trauma and pushed your body beyond its current limits. Trait: Limitless Potential is abnormally forcing skeletal and muscular reinforcement.]

[Vitality +1]

[Strength +1]

He stared at the blue holographic text for a split second before it faded. An intense wave of heat rushed through his veins. The fog of pain in his mind lifted. His torn muscle fibers coiled with fresh energy, repairing the internal damage caused by the boss's blow. His arms felt lighter, and his grip on the sword became firm once again. The system adapted his body to survive the overwhelming pressure.

Before he could capitalize on his new strength, the rhythm of the battle shifted.

The Undead Warden stepped back, ignoring Elian's spear thrust. The crimson flames burning inside the knight's dark helmet flared and expanded until they spilled out of the metal visor. A suffocating aura exploded from the giant's body. The ambient temperature in the massive antechamber dropped below freezing. Every breath he took turned into white mist.

The boss raised its executioner's sword high above its head with both hands. The air around the rusted blade distorted and warped. Dark, dense, purple mana gathered around the weapon. It condensed into a pitch-black energy wave that crackled with destructive power.

"Move!" Elian screamed, his eyes widening in panic. "Get away from the front!"

The Warden swung the executioner's sword vertically with a speed that defied its massive size. A crescent-shaped black energy wave ripped through the cold air. It tore up the solid stone floor as it traveled, leaving a deep, shattered trench in its wake as it rushed toward him.

He did not think twice. Pushing his enhanced agility to the limit, he dug his boots into the stone and threw himself to the right side, abandoning his defensive posture.

Swoosh!

The sound of the black energy wave brushing past his left shoulder sounded like a screaming banshee. The wave obliterated the iron-reinforced stone pillar behind him, turning the massive structure into fine dust in an instant.

He did not take a direct hit. But for a split second, just from the residual energy grazing his aura, his vision went pitch black. A freezing cold grasped his mind, making his thoughts stop. His body froze mid-roll, paralyzed by the chill.

Daniel bit his own tongue, using the sharp pain to snap himself out of the daze. He finished his roll in time to avoid the Warden's heavy, armored boot stomping down on the exact spot where his head had been a second ago.

"That was its active skill, Severed Soul Strike!" Elian yelled, dodging a horizontal sweep from the boss as the fight resumed. "It doesn't just cut your flesh! The dark mana inside the wave interrupts your consciousness for two whole seconds! If that thing hits you, you won't even know you died! Don't try to block it, just run!"

"Got it!" he shouted back, his heart hammering against his ribs. He stepped back in and used a low stance to slash the Warden's calf, trying to stop its forward momentum.

But the boss was not done. The intelligence of the Undead Warden was higher than the mindless skeletons they fought earlier. Realizing its physical swings and energy waves were not catching its agile prey, the towering monster changed its strategy.

The Undead Warden stopped its pursuit. It lifted its executioner's sword with both hands, flipped the blade upside down, and plunged it straight down into the center of the stone floor.

Boom!

A pulse of dark purple mana exploded outward from the point of impact, washing over the circular antechamber like a tidal wave of decay.

[The Undead Warden has activated: Raise the Fallen.]

The ground beneath their feet began to tremble. From the dark corners, the shadows of the room, and the piles of scattered rubble, old bones began to rattle. He watched in horror as the scattered remains assembled themselves.

A dozen Awakened Skeletons, armed with rusted wooden clubs and chipped daggers, pulled themselves from the dirt. Worse yet, the low, gurgling growls of three decaying Grave Hounds echoed from the back of the room. Acid dripped from their jaws and sizzled against the cold stone.

His face paled, the color draining from his cheeks. They were already struggling to survive against the boss's power, and now they were surrounded by an army of undead minions. The despair of the situation threatened to crush his willpower.

"This is a race against time," Elian said, stepping back until the two of them were fighting back-to-back in the center of the room.

The young man's breathing was heavy, his chest heaving up and down. But his grip on his blood-stained spear remained firm and unwavering.

"If we get bogged down by these grunts," Elian continued, his voice tight with tension. "The Warden will crush us while we are distracted. The first one who drops from exhaustion in this room, dies."

"We can't fight them all at once," he replied, his eyes analyzing the chaotic, crowded room. The skeletons were slow and manageable, but the Grave Hounds were lethal and fast. Meanwhile, the towering boss in front of them was already preparing to pull its giant sword out of the ground for another strike. They were trapped in a pincer attack.

"I'll handle the mob," Elian declared, spinning his short spear in his hands to face the approaching wave of skeletons and hounds. "I'll keep them off your back. You take down the big guy."

He looked over his shoulder at Elian in surprise. Taking on a dozen skeletons and three Grave Hounds alone was suicide for a level five challenger. "Are you sure? You could die."

"Just don't die before I finish clearing this trash!" Elian grinned, a spark of determination in his eyes.

Before he could say another word to stop him, Elian charged straight into the swarm of undead with an echoing battle cry. He clashed with a leaping Grave Hound.

He took a deep, shaky breath. He turned his attention back to the colossal Undead Warden. The giant knight pulled its executioner's sword out from the shattered floor. The glowing crimson eyes inside the dark helmet locked onto him.

There was no one to cover his blind spots now. There was no one to distract the boss from the side, and no one to warn him of an incoming attack. It was a pure one-on-one deathmatch.

"Just you and me," he whispered into the cold air, gripping his cracked, rusty sword with both hands until his knuckles turned white.

With a burst of speed from his enhanced agility, pushing his [Limitless Potential] to the maximum, he launched himself at the towering monster.