New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

By the time Geminae had reached out to Alex, and the latter woke up from his dreams, the demon had already taken complete control of the body, and an all-out fight had devolved between him and the army of undead surrounding him.

David controlled his army like a general from the back line, where he felt the least threatened.

He wasn't scared of dying, but he knew one thing for sure. If his life became in immediate danger, he would no longer hesitate to kill the demon.

That meant killing Alexander.

And that was the last thing he wanted.

'Come on, man. I won't be able to hold back for long. If you don't wake up, I'll have to kill you. Don't make me do this…' David thought.

Meanwhile, the demon was having the time of his life.

Up to now, everything he had attacked or fought barely posed him a threat. And these undead were no different at first.

But after a few seconds of fighting, he realized they weren't just a random undead mob. Their attacks were coordinated and precise.

When he took his first strike, he expected it to bounce off his resistant skin, like any other weak attack would have done.

But instead, a minuscule cut appeared on his back, where a claw had slashed. It wasn't even deep enough to draw blood, but something else happened that worried him.

The skin started drying and cracking as if the life had been sucked out of it.

Turning to see what had hit him, he saw a retreating undead, almost as fast as him, with rotting flesh and limber limbs.

'A ghoul,' he understood.

Ghouls were famous for the rot they applied when striking directly on a living being's skin or flesh.

This was only minor, for now. But he quickly realized that one of these ghouls made every attack that slipped through his defence.

This was much too precise to be random.

The demon hadn't bothered to expand his mana senses until now, thinking nothing could stop him.

But he could see the coordination in the small army around him now that he focused.

He also kept getting passed through by ghosts and wraiths, which slowed him down or sapped his strength.

They only needed to hit a small portion of him to apply this effect and would attack his legs before sinking into the ground at every chance they got.

If this went on, he could end up at a severe disadvantage.

"Rhakhakha! This is good! This is fun!" he shouted, pulsing out with mana.

The surrounding undead froze briefly, and he pounced on them.

Zombies and skeletons were torn asunder and shattered, freeing a zone around him instantly.

Using the few seconds this bought him, the demon expanded his mana outward, looking for a signature that contained life.

He almost immediately found it, much closer than he had expected, and his head snapped in its direction.

David felt the bloodlust crash into him, and he cursed.

"Shit! He found out!"

David had been suppressing his mana as best he could, trying to blend in with the undead around him so he could keep using his tactics. But now that he had been discovered, this wouldn't work anymore.

Luckily for him, suppressing himself this way had also allowed him to refill a large part of his expended mana. And he could pull another card from his sleeve.

Kneeling to the ground, David slapped the earth under him.

"Come out, Death Knight! Your master calls!"

In a ten-foot radius, the ground turned grey around him, as all energy was sapped from it before another hand burst from the dirt.

But this time, it wasn't just a skeleton hand or a rotting, fleshy zombie hand.

It was armoured, and the purple hues of its armour gleamed under the moonlight.

As the Death Knight pulled itself from the ground, the demon felt the surge in mana from it and grinned maniacally.

"Yes. Yes! A worthy opponent! Come, servant of death! Fight me to my heart's content!"

A halberd appeared in the Death Knight's hand, and he swirled it around before locking his gaze on the demon.

It already knew who his opponent was and couldn't afford to rush in rashly.

But the demon was the embodiment of rashness, and when it saw the undead standing guard next to the human controlling the undead, he lost his cool.

"If you don't come to me, I'll come to you! RARGH!" it howled, dashing through the waves of undead.

It no longer cared about getting hit. It only wanted one thing, and that was to fight.

They clashed almost immediately, as the Death Knight wouldn't let it get too close to its master, and the shock wave alone blew the other undead away, pushing even David back a few inches.

He regained his balance quickly and commanded his ghouls, wraiths, and ghosts to chip into the fight—anything to reduce the demon's power.

But it was like the demon was an entirely different beast, suddenly. No attack went past its guard anymore; even the ghosts and wraiths couldn't seem to touch it.

'How much combat instinct was it still holding back?' David wondered.

But he quickly recognized the moves the demon was performing.

It was not unsimilar to Astaroth's way of fighting when he was in constant motion. It made it hard for anything to land a hit on him, as he was so unpredictable.

The demon was pulling into Alex's mind, gathering his combat experience since it lacked some itself, and his danger factor shot up instantly.

David had to join in.

Dashing into the fight, David's bident rapidly collided with a clawed hand as the demon kicked away the Death Knight, turning his head toward the human.

"You finally decided to join the party, huh?! But I'm busy, piss off!"

The demon swung his arm with might, sending David barrelling away like a meteor before he crashed into a tree, uprooting it.

Coughing up blood, David quickly understood he was no match, not in his current state.

'If only I had unlocked my mana lobe… I could muster up much more power then…'