Chapter 94: Dark Veil

Thanks to Derug’s shout, Ghosts began appearing and attacking us. We had already defeated two of them, but two more had taken the place of their fallen companions, standing between us and the dungeon Boss’s right hand.

And the worst part was that I could hear the groans of those monsters echoing through the cave. More of them were coming.

“Drain Sword!” Sarah used her skill to replenish her mana after the last strike. Then it was my turn to finish our foe.

“Thunderblade!” I shouted, striking the Ghost in front of me and defeating it.

On my other side, Justine cast a bolt of lightning towards the other Ghost, destroying it instantly.

“Well, we eliminated the two—” My lips barely had time to form a smile when I looked ahead.

Indeed, we had defeated the Ghosts, but in front of me there were already—not two—but three standing where they had fallen.

“Is this shit ever going to end?”

“Hahahahahaha!” Derug laughed again, his shrill voice ringing through the cave. “That’s what you get for joking about my height, you brats. Lord Zalrorg gave me the authority to call the spirits of this dungeon whenever I need to.”

The best thing we could do in this fight was to kill Derug. However, it wasn’t that simple. It might not look like it, but this demon was quite hard to kill according to the SCRL book.

And even if we tried to do that now, there were three Ghosts protecting this son of a bitch. If we got close to him and the Ghosts caught us, they could drain our life force.

“Holy Light!” I called the skill that I had gotten from Alicia. A ray of light shone through the cave, dissolving the Ghosts next to me.

“Aaaaah! Hot, hot, hot! I’m burning!” Derug screamed in pain, rolling his body on the ground as if he were trying to put out flames covering him.

However, to my misfortune, after the Holy Light faded, Derug was still there. Alone, I wasn’t enough.

“Alicia, help me with Holy Light!” I called her, but she didn’t answer. When I looked back, I understood why.

Alicia was standing behind us, her hands pressed against her chest. Her face was frozen as she stared at the creatures in front of us, her mouth trembling with fear as she tried to form a word.

During the fight we had against the Wolf Lord, she hadn’t had to face the creature directly. But now, confronted by these horrendous, cadaverous beings, she was staring death in the face. Even though she was the perfect counter to those creatures, fear had completely paralyzed her.

After the holy light faded, the Ghosts returned from the shadows, and Derug was standing there again. I couldn’t tell if his eye was red because of the Holy Light or from pure rage.

“You’ll pay for that, you brat. Dark Veil!”

As Derug cast his skill, a mass of dark sludge appeared above him and then fell, covering him and the Ghosts. The thick black liquid drenched them and merged with their bodies until it looked as if nothing had changed.

’This is bad,’ I thought inwardly.

“Rick, use the Holy Light again,” Sarah said to me in a nervous tone.

Derug laughed devilishly. “Come on, try it. Use your holy skills.”

I gritted my teeth, staring with contempt at the demon mocking me. Dark Veil was a skill that made undead and other creatures of darkness immune to holy abilities.

“Damn you, you rat!” I cursed the small demon.

“You just won’t stop offending me, huh? No problem. I’ll have all the satisfaction I want after stripping the life from your bodies!”

I hated to say it, but at this rate it was very possible that he would end up taking our heads. Sarah could keep her mana up, but the same couldn’t be said for the rest of us—including me.

The only way would be to level up after killing more Ghosts, but it was already difficult to grind in the middle of this fight. Add Dark Veil and the groans of the dead approaching, and only one option remained.

“Let’s get out of here!” I ordered the party.

“Alicia, get away from that wall!” Sarah shouted as she turned her face towards the Saintess.

“Eh?” Alicia was startled by her voice, and when she looked at the wall, she was terrified. “Waaaaah!”

From the wall she had been standing near, a Ghost was emerging from the solid rock, barely a meter away from her.

Sarah rushed towards Alicia. There was no time to use her skill, so she shoved the blonde girl aside and took her place.

“Sarah!” Justine cried out when she saw what happened.

The Ghost, which looked like a cadaverous old man, brought its face close to Sarah’s. With its mouth wide open, the creature began sucking something ethereal out of her. Even without touching Sarah, the Ghost was draining her life energy.

“Sarah, noooooooo!!” Alicia screamed in terror. I ran to help them.

“Thunderblade!” With a single furious strike, the ghostly creature dissolved into thin air.

When Sarah broke free from the monster’s draining ability, her body dropped to its knees on the ground.

“Sarah, are you all right?” I asked, nervousness clear in my voice when I saw Sarah’s face looking paler than usual.

“I’m all right,” she said in a tired voice. “But if this keeps happening…”

She didn’t need to finish the sentence. Being grabbed by a single Ghost could already be fatal—let alone a whole crowd of them.

When I looked back at our enemies, my worst fear had materialized before me. Five, seven—probably more than ten Ghosts were coming towards us, their disgusting figures closing in.

“In the name of Lord Zalrorg, I will eliminate the intruders!” Derug shouted.

Justine, who had been laughing earlier, no longer had a smile on her face. She was helping Sarah stay on her feet so we could escape.

“You won’t escape! Attack them!!”

With that final order, the Ghosts began rushing toward us even faster. I wasn’t in a position to cast anything, and when I looked at the Ghost rushing straight at me, I swore it was the end for me.

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