Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Skullius’ first thought while facing the piling anxiety and tension was to turn to the thing that had saved him the last time he had been in such a situation..

The Fruit of World Myths!

He had made the decision to not use it often because it usually left him paralysed from exhaustion but this was a do or die situation that demanded that he make the tough decision against the many odds!

A burst of energy surged from his centre as what was merely a consciousness staring up against the silvery outline of a Mountain Sage Monkey, became a dark humanoid being that brimmed with dark power!

The familiar image manifested on Skullius as he took up the figure of a human shaped body with ever rising wisps of darkness!

He felt his consciousness and skill get empowered as he glared at his opponent, rejoicing that his strategy was working and also at the prospect that his enemy, was now wearing a bewildered frown!

The silver image up ahead didn’t look so arrogant anymore and Skullius wasn’t being pushed back like before!

He advanced and spread his arms wide while feeling the will of [Basic Evil Invasion] which sought to invade the privacy of all living things with consciousness and he freely let it loose!

Thick swaths of darkness flooded the entire mulit-colouded space and hid the image of the terrified monkey under the blanket of black before it could resist. Not that it could.

Skullius felt himself dissolve, losing individuality for but a few moments before his vision changed!

His eyes focused on his hand that was close to slapping a rather ‘handsome’ face whose eyes were rolled with the body falling!

…!

Skullius didn’t need more than a moment to recognise what was happening!

He had succeeded!_.

He had successfully commandeered the body of a Tier 3 Mountain Sage Monkey!

‘Kek!’

Joy gushed into him as he grabbed his original body instead of slapping it.

His eyes perused over his body and he saw the white coat of fur that covered him, the rough hands and long fingers that attached to his arms along with the conspicuous, toned muscles that he owned.

It was glorious!

Several quick steps resounded around him and Skullius knew that it was about to go down.

The instance of when he took over Eldris’ body was seared into his mind permanently and he remembered it all quite vividly.

This detail was important because Skullius noted that this skill wasn’t as convenient as it seemed in the Labyrinth of the Yoke, just like [Pseudo Evil Veneration]!

For one, Skullius could see a timer from his guidance field depicting the amount of mana he had along with the estimated time he had left according to the skill’s mana expenditure.

He had five minutes that correlated directly to his 565 points of mana!

Also, unlike with the whole ‘preexisting conditions’ thing that Fulgardt had fabricated, Skullius had to fight off the consciousnesses of opponents whenever he used this skill, which proved to not be the easiest thing to do.

This was the real world!

Time was ticking and he had to make full use of this chance well.

Luckily for him though, all the memories and techniques of the monkey he inhabited flooded into him as he had claimed its body and surprise after surprise overwhelmed Skullius for a full three seconds!

Knowledge, secrets, secrets and knowledge!

He closed his eyes while taking it all in.

“Brother! Why are you caring for that hideous pagan of the outside world? Rebuke him and prepare him for the elder!” a voice reached Skullius’ ears, disturbing his peace.

Skullius turned and found one of the Sage Monkeys speaking to him.

He now understood their language!

However, as soon as the monkeys saw Skullius’ face, they all backed away vigilantly before he could answer.

The invader scoffed.

He already knew the reason why.

This was exactly how he had been discovered the first time.

His eyes.

Instead of the blue that could be seen within the whites of all the Sage Monkeys, Skullius’ were different.

Soft wisps of darkness coiled from the socketholes and blazed outwards, giving a rather creepy image that led the Sage Monkeys to immediate call out, “Evil has befallen our brother! Put him to rest!”

Skullius tossed his body a vast distance away after flooding his arm with the abundant mana coursed through him, the cosmetic flesh body flying over the trees to land somewhere Skullius had learned from his memories, was a sacred place.

It was also a place where certain revered items grew and was quite the distance away!

The Monkeys looked at Skullius’ act with incredulity before they split up, half of them followed after the body while the rest stayed in order to put Skullius to rest (kill)!

The Discount Human was not afraid at this moment.

He now knew how these beasts fought and also knew their skills.

The first monkey reached him and threw against him not a slap, but a chop that was aimed at slicing him in two!

The hand had almost half of the Sage Monkey’s mana within it for the maximum effect!

The sheer force it radiated was daunting!

The Discount Human in monkey clothing grinned and clasped his hands together as if in prayer!

Pat!

The opponent monkey’s chop did nothing but pat away the fur on Skullius’ forehead lightly, which made the Sage Monkey grimace and back away, quickly bringing both its hands together.

Skullius didn’t waste any more of his limited time and countered with his newfound knowledge!

He used both his hands to grab the other monkey’s hands and parted them in one quick motion!

The opponent Sage Monkey was caught off guard and before it could bring its hands together once more, Skullius had already thrown a vicious straight punch into its face after gathering quite the amount of mana into his hand!

With a crisp crack, the skull of the monkey fractured after eating the attack and right afterwards, the invader bashed the dazed monkey’s head on the ground ruthlessly which immediately killed it!

The other monkeys were displeased upon seeing their own get killed by a fellow Sage Monkey.

The others backed away a bit, overwhelmed by the savagery and the fact that this tainted brother of theirs still had recollection of their weaknesses and was using it against them!

Preposterous!

Skullius immediately dashed away, chasing after the other monkeys that sought to harm his body.

The body he inhabited had quite the large amount of mana sitting at almost 700 points and Skullius used this amount to augmented his body, increasing his speed while layering himself with mana!

The monkeys he had left behind immediately followed, roaring in rage while yelling saintly expletives!

Unfortunately, they would find that catching up to Skullius would be near impossible as the Discount Human knew the most basic thing about these monkeys now.

They lacked proper endurance and strength!

They had frail bodies that barely held strength befitting of their tiers which made them extremely vulnerable to physical attacks!

This also made them weak when it came to combat which was why Skullius augmented his earlier punch with mana to deal the most damage he could.

The Tier 3 monkeys were enlightened, learning how to improve their physical strengths by abusing the vast amounts of mana they had!

What truly made these monkeys a problem was the fact that they had skills that naturally covered their weaknesses; racial skills that made them seem invincible and dangerous.

Three of these skills relied on the user to constantly have their palms clasped together as if in prayer.

[Hidden Saint], which allowed the Sage Monkeys to hide in the literal plain white sight of the white vegetation while masking their presences.

[Unbroken Saint’s Will], which redirected portions of any attack to the user while only letting the monkeys receive only the insignificant portions of the insignificant portions of the damage.

[Indomitable Sage’s Will], which completely negated attacks below a certain level and retaliated by trying to break them when the attacks passed a certain threshold beyond its negation.

The last skill that was common among the monkeys was the [Sage’s Rebuke], a skill that allowed the user to pass on the profound message of peace to any target with a mind weak enough to not be able to resist.

Knowing these things, Skullius was thrilled as he doubted that he would be defeated easily. He also had partners he could rely on for everything else after he had gotten out of this situation anyway.

As he ran, two extremely oppressive forces thrashed the ground and caused the mountain to quake as if it was the end of the world!

Two powerful combatants had decisively unleashed their true strength…!

…

[Author’s Note]

Please support my book ‘Cursed Child: Eater with the Odd Eye’. It’s a WSA entry and a dark fantasy novel. If you like the genre please give it a try and support. Its not a conventional fantasy but a more traditional one with deep lore and archaic beings. I hope I can see your following as I write the book and I ensure you that I won’t neglect Skullius while writing it. Thanks!