Bud ran to the teleportation gate, switching his ghoul form to shadow form to evade the royal guards' attacks. When he reached the gate, Bud swung a fist at the stone with the teleportation symbol, cracking it.

The crack spread all over the runic symbol. The light from the inscription dimmed and the teleportation gate was off. Now the fight against the royal guards was in an enclosed space. This was the best opportunity for Dave to fight against the puppet king without the interference of the royal guards stationed outside the temple.

Tiny had ejected all the undead from inside it. Dave's regiment positioned themselves in a battle formation. Melee units at the front, rangers, and casters at the back. Dunlords carrying his undead captains, and six undead manticores materialized all over the domed hall.

"Crush them!" Dave shouted.

The undead ranger units rained arrows and spells at the royal guards. While Dave's melee units held them off. Dave whirled his glaive as he rode on grumpy, charging at the frontlines like a crazed war god.

Swinging his glaive left and right, Dave brought payloads of devastating damage on any unit that got closer to him. Dave waved his hand, summoning eight larger than usual spectral skulls. The spectral skulls were the size of a wrecking ball, they floated around Dave and blew up, staggering any royal guard nearby.

-160,555

-180,668

-159,555

-160,555

-180,668

-159,555

…

Red damage numerals appeared all around Dave from the spectral skull explosions.

"Filthy undead!" The puppet king roared. He began screaming as his flesh bulged in various places accompanied by wet tearing sounds. His human face twisted and tore, the skin folded back revealing a skinless face. Lidless eyes and lipless mouth. The white robes burnt to ash and the remaining of the skin on his body receded back inside the flesh. Bones snapped and the puppet king grew two enormous wings made of his own skin. The puppet king became a hideous monster.

"That's one ugly motherfucker!" Dave said.

There were a few hundred more royal guards fighting with the undead. But the numerical was in Dave's favor. Especially with the manticores blasting through the royal guard ranks like they were nothing.

The puppet king, seeing his troops being decimated decided to join the fray. He pointed his palm forward, the middle of his palm tore open, revealing a small eye.

"Die!" shouted the puppet king Lakhbar.

A ray of purple light shot out from his palm like a laser beam. The light ray pierced through one of the manticore's chest and exited the other way.

[-555,000]

The manticore lost more than half of its hp in one hit.

"Shit!" Dave cursed, "Dunlords, basilisks! Make it rain!" Dave shouted.

The dunlords pointed their ballistae crossbows and shot their bolts at the floating puppet king. The basilisk inflated their hides and shot out the bone spikes on their backs toward Lakhbar.

Projectiles covered the space around Lakhbar like a steel and iron waterfall. The bolts penetrated Lakhbar's skin and flesh, boring through bones and sinew alike. Like a pincushion, Lakhbar fell to the ground motionless.

Dave's undead had killed all of the royal guards in the domed hall. Sadly, they didn't drop any loot. Their bodies dissipated into nothingness after they died.

Dave carefully approached the corpse.

All of the undead were converged on it, they were being careful.

Lakhbar's hand moved0

"Fuck, it isn't dead yet!" Dave swung down with his glaive at the boss's head.

But Lakhbar had other plans. His hand jerked up and grabbed at the glaive. Standing up, Lakhbar heaved a breath, popping out all of the bolts and bone spikes that were embedded into him.

Dave had a hard time removing the glaive from Lakhbar's hands so he let go and switched to his infernal gauntlets. Dave swung a direct punch into Lakhbar's face, a cone of flames blasted out from the point of impact, searing Lakhbar's hair. But the puppet king was unmoved.

Lakhbar let go of the glaive. The weapon dropped to the ground in a clang.

"I'm immortal! Draugr, you cannot kill me with those pitiful attacks."

Dave didn't care to listen to what the boss was saying. He kicked Lakhbar in between his legs.

Receiving no reaction, Dave tilted his head, "Really?"

Lakhbar didn't answer and rewarded Dave with the same treatment, kicking him in the crotch and sending him flying all over the room.

Dave fell to the ground, groaning. "Damn, that hurt." Clutching at his crotch, Dave was in agony. Even if Conquest reduced pain to mild numbing feeling, a kick to the crotch was always painful.

Lakhbar's size increased. Bones emerged from under his arms, they morphed into extra hands. His skinless face grew scales and his head grew two hornes.

"Yeah, multi-stage boss that dies and becomes stronger every time. Guess I'll have to kill it many, many times."

Dave inspected the boss's HP. It was now at 1,600,000 HP.

"Keep on attacking!" Dave ordered. His hands moved rapidly creating ninja seals. Fire gathered around Dave and was funneled up when Dave pointed a finger to the dome.

Two giant fireballs materialized above Dave, he pointed forward and the flames shot toward Lakhbar.

Lakhbar was blasted, staggering away. Dog's basilisk rammed into Lakhbar shaking him. Lakhbar swung down at the basilisk with his arms but Dog whirled his Bone Flail, fending off the attacks. The basilisk's eyes shone brightly. Due to the level difference between the boss and the basilisk, Lakhbar was not affected by the petrification effect. So Grumpy decided to add in his own [Petrifying Gaze]. When Grumpy's eyes shone bright, the boss, instead of being petrified or slowed, actually shook the skill like it was nothing.

He muttered, "I think… I got it."

Suddenly a notification appeared in front of Dave.

***

[Blessed one] passive has evolved. From now on skills can only work once on Lakhbar.

***

"What?!" Dave cried out. How was that fair?!

Dave ran up to Grumpy, climbing his on his tail he shouted. "Grumps, throw me!"

The basilisk threw Dave to Lakhbar's face. Dave wanted to redo the same stunt he pulled on the Manticores. But Lakhbar was no mere monster. He grabbed Dave mid-air and slammed him down on the ground.

Dave bounced on the ground, receiving enormous damage.

[-251,222]

"Fuck!" Dave cursed, he didn't expect the boss's reaction to increasing by this much.

[+80,000]

A green numerical value appeared over Dave, looking behind him, the unholy priests was healing him.

Dave nodded at the priestess and looked back at the boss.

"I'm gonna have to use all my cards in this fight. If he revives another time, he's going to have 3,200,000 HP."

Dave didn't even want to think about the possibility of the boss reviving two more times, otherwise, Lakhbar's HP pool will be utterly obscene and impossible to down for the current him.

Slamming both infernal gauntlets together, Dave shouted, "Boyz! Bring down the pain! Attack at will!"

Dave ran between his units and charged at the boss. Lakhbar was half as large as a Manticore but was much more dangerous.

Dave flared activating [Aura] and lunged at the boss with a [Dragon Kick]

The boss noticed Dave's incoming flying kick and crossed two of his hands in front of him. Dave's leg landed on the boss's guard. Lakhbar slammed down with his other four arms at Dave. Dave didn't hesitate in using [Vertical Slash] dodging away. While he was backflipping in mid-air, Dave used [Immortal Apparition] appearing in mid-air right behind the boss's head.

"I think…I got it."

A notification appeared in front of Dave.

***

Immortal Apparition has already been used against Lakhbar. Effects have been nullified!

***

Dave ignored the notification and punched with [Dragon Fist] at the boss's blackhead.

The boss's head jiggled form the impact. But before it could retaliate, the manticores shot their poisoned spikes at the boss. The poison ticked, removing huge chunks of the boss's HP. But once again, the boss muttered, "I think…I got this."

The poison's ticking was instantly rendered useless.

Dave cursed, at one point all the skills will be useless, and nothing but brute strength will be able to do any damage to this monster of a boss. Unless, god forbid he becomes immune to physical damage. That would spell utter and complete disaster to Dave.

Dave's regiment kept the assault on the boss, the basilisks smashed their spiked tails on it and bit at the beast, while the Dunlords shot their bolts continuously at the boss bleeding it out.

The boss's HP was decreasing rapidly and while it became more erratic in its retaliation. Roaring, the boss sucked in a black swirl of energy that materialized out of nothing. Opening its mouth, the boss shot a focused black ray of magic at the undead casters shooting spells in the backline.

Several death notifications appeared in front of Dave. A third of his casters were eradicated from that attack.

Dave waved away the notification. He was weighing his options, should he use the 'god mode' or wait out? His only concern was that if the boss was going to revive again after dying.

"Boyz! We can't let this demon scum walk out of here alive! We are of the legion! Show this filth our true might!" Dave roared at the top of his lungs.

***

Artisan of War* title has activated!

The troops under your command have +20% increased damage from all attacks and abilities.

The Undead troops under your command have a 3.5% chance to revive instantly after Death.

***

"Nice!"

Dave ran up to the boss opening his mouth wide, he used [Ray of Flames] a geyser of fire burst out from his inhumanly opened draugr mouth and shot at the boss pushing it away a few feet. The manticores grabbed at the boss from every side, keeping Dave's ray of flame focused on it until it finished.

The boss, enraged by the pesky leeches, forcefully grabbed back at them and slammed two manticores together as if they were made of paper. He then threw the monsters that were twice its size at Dave's regiment.

More casualties incurred in Dave's ranks, but the undead didn't fear or falter. Surprisingly, an undead caster revived instantly after it had died and rejoined the fight. This was thanks to the Artisan of War title.

Tiny decided to join the fight. It struck at the boss with its enormous bony hands, but Lakhbar shook tiny away with a kick.

Dave kept assaulting the boss with all he got, the undead fell at a more rapid pace, one manticore fell and now there were only five fightings.

"Tiny, bring out one of the spare Manticores!"

Tiny materialized a sarcophagus and ejected a manticore out from it. The fresh Scorpion-Bull chimera jumped into the fray the moment it set foot in the domed hall.

The Boss was finding it harder to keep fighting, wounds covered it from all the fighting. Dave's skills were almost all used up. Thankfully, the boss was down to a mere 100,000HP.

The boss made a final effort in struggling against the incoming attacks, but he was still brought down to the ground after a focused attack from the manticores.

The boss fell, for the fourth time now.

Dave's heart thumped. He was patiently waiting for the death notification that never appeared.

The felled boss shook and shuddered. It rose back up, roaring, its hideous appearance changed once again. The horns grew much larger, and its size became almost as large as the Ash King. It's skin wings changed to bony leather wings. It's six arms new held weapons and his body morphed. Bones grew on top of its flesh creating armored layers of bones that protected Lakhbar.

Dave's heart fell, the boss's HP pool increased to 3,200,00.

"Alright, fuck it. Do you really want to play it like this? So be it, time to go God Mode."