Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Your attacks are slowing down, and they're dropping in intensity too...your flames were much hotter just a moment ago!" Exclaimed the Undead King, swerving across as Raven unleashed a blast of flames from his jaws, easily evading the attack.

Raven then leapt towards him, extending out the claws on his right hand and concentrating his lightning around them before slashing at the Undead King's neck.

The Undead King swiftly ducked under the slash of his claws before driving his right fist up and slamming it onto Raven's stomach, knocking the wind out of him as he let out a wheezing gasp, before gritting his teeth and grabbing the Undead King's arm, his claws digging in as he injected an immense amount of venom into the Undead King's body, his eyes starting to glow as he charged up his beams.

"Hm, is this some kind of poison? Don't bother, that's a waste of effort...it won't affect me in the slightest," He chuckled, before tearing off his right arm around the elbow to break free of Raven's grasp, before rapidly swinging his foot up and slamming it onto Raven's chin, knocking his head up right as he fired out his beams.

The beams shot up and hit the ceiling, drilling a couple of small holes through, before the Undead King zipped forward and unleashed a fierce flurry of strikes against Raven, faster than he could react, eliciting sharp gasps of pain as the scales on Raven's body around the points of impact cracked and fell off, streaks of blood trickling out through the cracks.

The Undead King then grabbed Raven's head and slammed his forehead against Raven's, dazing him as a trail of blood ran down from the middle of his forehead, before the Undead King let go of Raven, who shakily stumbled back.

The Undead King swiftly reached out and grabbed Raven's wrists, before he lifted his foot up and drove it forward with immense force, an agonized wheeze of pain ringing out as he slammed his foot onto Raven's stomach while simultaneously letting go of his wrists.

Blood poured out of Raven's mouth as he got sent hurting back through the air at a breakneck speed, a deafening crash ringing out as his body slammed onto a rundown building, which broke apart and collapsed upon impact, a thick cloud of dust rising up as a weak groan rang out from the rubble.

"Yeah, looks like your little power boost has completely worn off now, and I've weakened you even further...there's no point in dragging this out any longer, it seems we've reached the limit of how much you can entertain me. Time to die, little Homunculus!" Declared the Undead King, starting to charge in towards Raven as he unsteadily emerged from the rubble, coughing out blood.

As the Undead King shot towards him, he suddenly halted and turned his gaze to the left as a rapid projectile came shooting towards him.

He quickly raised his left arm up defensively, the projectile exploding fiercely as it struck his forearm, blasting his arm to bits upon impact, before it rapidly regenerated.

"What, did you forget about me, you bastard!?" Snapped Celia, as she began to charge up another Explosion Spell.

"N-no, you...you need to get away, n-now!" Exclaimed Raven shakily, stumbling as blood poured out of his mouth.

"Not going to lie, I actually did forget about you for a moment there...fine, if you insist, I'll kill you first," Chuckled the Undead King, before he shot towards her with immense speed.

She fired the charged up Spell as he began to close in, he swiftly got low to evade it, a deafening explosion erupting behind him before he leapt forward and drove his fist towards her stomach at full power.

She reacted as fast as she could, lowering her hands in front of his fist, which slammed onto her palms, the sickening crunch of bones breaking echoing out as his fist struck her hands with a crushing impact, before the back of her hands collided against her stomach and got driven in with immense, excruciating force.

Celia coughed out blood with a sharp gasp, stumbling back in agony, her hands severely broken and some of her internal organs badly damaged.

"Not bad, that was meant to kill you, but you managed to blunt my strike just enough to avoid fatal damage...but can you survive another blow?" Inquired the Undead King maliciously, before glancing to his left as Raven came charging towards him, his fist coated in lightning as he closed in on the Undead King and drove his fist forward with a roar of exertion.

As his fist closed in on the side of the Undead King's head, he swiftly raised his hand, Raven's fist slamming against his palm. The Undead King's feet slid across a few centimeters from the force of Raven's strike, the bones in his hand and wrist breaking upon impact, before he swiftly clamped his hand around Raven's fist as it healed in an instant, sharply tightening his grip.

"D-damn it...!" Uttered Raven through gritted teeth, wincing as the bones in his hand got fractured, before wheezing in pain as the Undead King suddenly pulled him forward and slammed his knee onto his stomach.

Raven coughed out blood, which splattered across the ground as he collapsed onto his knees, before the Undead King swiftly yanked him up, meeting his gaze as an unsettling smirk spread out across his face.

He then lifted him off his feet and flung him towards Celia, who was struggling to get back on her feet, her eyes widening in alarm as she saw Raven coming hurtling towards her, his back slamming onto her chest before the two of them collapsed in a heap.

"Ah, nice, stay just like that...don't move, I'll finish the both of you off with a single hit!" Exclaimed the Undead King, as he shot towards them.

Raven exerted his remaining strength and sat up with a grimace, placing his left hand on Celia's leg and healing her as he moved his body in front of her, right as the Undead King closed in on them and leapt forward, his right fist drawn back before he began to drive it forward at a blinding speed, a fierce gust of wind erupting behind him, triggered by the force generated by his speed.

"W-we're...we're dead...!" Was the thought that played through Raven's head, his senses telling him that they could evade or block this attack, and that it was more than strong enough to kill them...

"Now, die-...!" The Undead King began gleefully, before he was abruptly cut off as a rapid blur zipped out from behind the pair, right as a large hammer slammed square onto the middle of the Undead King's chest with a loud crunch.

He flew back through the air at an incredible speed upon impact, crashing onto the doorway at the end of the level in the blink of an eye, before collapsing onto the ground as cracks spread out across the top of the doorway.

The cracks rapidly spread and deepened, before chunks of rubble broke off and plummeted down, loud crashes echoing out as they fell onto the Undead King's body, a cloud of dust bursting out.

"You two okay?"

"Is...is that you, Tacitus?" Responded Raven shakily, struggling to process what just happened after having started to prepare himself for what seemed like an inevitable death just a moment ago.

"Looks like we got here just in time," Came Aster's voice from behind them, before Raven and Celia glanced back to see the other three jogging over, an immense sense of relief washing over the pair.

"Hey, how about you warn me before launching me with your telekinesis like that?" Frowned Tacitus dryly.

"Sorry, but it was kind of an emergency, we wouldn't have reached them in time otherwise," Responded Aster sheepishly.

"Are you two okay?" Inquired Colt with a look of concern, as he knelt down beside the pair.

"Y-yeah, we're alright, Raven healed my injuries," Nodded Celia, as Raven then began healing himself.

He hadn't fully healed her, just enough that her injuries weren't fatal anymore...he was in a lot of pain, and couldn't focus enough to cast his Greater Heal Spell, only Heal, so he'd shifted his focus to healing his own injuries in order to be able to properly heal Celia.

"Don't let your guards down...that won't be enough to defeat him," Spoke up Raven with a grimace, right as the pile of rubble in front of the large doorway shifted before several chunks of rubble flew out as the Undead King emerged from the pile, his limbs bent in the wrong direction.

His broken limbs rapidly fixed themselves, before he stepped forward with a gleam in his eyes.

"So, there are more of you...today's turning out to be a great day!" He laughed ecstatically.

"W-we need to retreat...he's too strong, and he can regenerate from any injury, even burning him to ash or chopping off his head won't be enough!" Raven urged the others.

"Colt, Lexia...move the two of them to a safe distance. Tacitus...let's tear this thing apart," Stated Aster in a quiet, icy tone, a look of cold fury in his eyes as he stepped forward.

Chills ran down Raven's spine as he got a look at Aster's expression, before Colt helped him up onto his feet, supporting him against his shoulder.

"Come on, buddy, let's move away a bit," He remarked, as Lexia did the same with Celia.

Once they'd moved a few dozen meters or so away, they propped Raven and Celia against the wall of a nearby building, before Raven got to work on finishing healing Celia's injuries, as he turned his gaze towards the battle that was about to ensue...

"I suppose I should introduce myself again. You can call me the Undead King, I'm-...," He began with a smirk.

"[Telekinetic Slash]," Aster chanted icily, slicing off the Undead King's head before he could complete his introduction, as he added, "I don't care who or what you are. I simply intend to make you regret hurting my comrades."

"Well, now...another Arcane Mage, is it? Or Irregular Mage, I suppose is the term in this era. Weren't you listening to the Homunculus? That won't be enough to defeat me, as he experienced firsthand," Came the taunting response, as the Undead King's head rapidly grew back.

"You know, what...on second thought, stand back, Tacitus. I'll crush this bastard myself," Decided Aster as he narrowed his eyes at the Undead King.

"Sure, he's all yours," Nodded Tacitus, stepping back.

"Hm? You intend to fight me by yourself?" Scoffed the Undead King as Aster drew out his twin blades and shot forward, a smirk appearing on the Undead King's face as Aster began to close in on him, "Very well, then, I'll kill you first, and then I'll-...h-huh? What the-...I can't move!"

"You claim to be undefeatable, let's test that out, shall we?" Remarked Aster, before slicing off the Undead King's right arm with an upward slash of one of his blades.

"It's pointless, I-...wh-what?" He stuttered, as his arm began to regrow, before suddenly stopping.

"I control this space, you can't so much as twitch if I don't let you. I've turned the air around your shoulder solid, so you don't have the room you need to regenerate," Aster informed him as he kicked the severed arm away, before whipping his other blade across and slashing the Undead King's stomach open.

"I-impossible...!" Uttered the Undead King, before thinking to himself as Aster then unleashed a furious flurry of cuts and slashes, slicing up the Undead King's body into dozens of pieces, "This one's a real threat...whatever his Magic is, it's powerful, it's even keeping my Miasma from reaching him! I...I need to get out of his range!"

Aster then paused and turned his gaze to the left, as he spotted some movement in his peripheral, narrowing his eyes as he spotted the Undead King reappearing, his body forming out of the arm Aster had severed and kicked away, before the collar teleported around the neck of the newly formed body, as the chunks of his old body within Aster's zone turned to smoke and disappeared.

"My, what powerful Magic! Impressive...but I can tell, it consumes a lot of Mana, doesn't it? You can't maintain it for very long, you'll run out of Magic Power! I just need to keep my distance until you-...!" Smirked the Undead King as he started to back away.

"[Telekinetic Pull]."

"What!?" The Undead King blurted out, as he found himself being rapidly pulled in towards Aster, before his body froze in midair as he re-entered the range of the Telekinetic Zone Spell.

"And what makes you think I'd let you do that? I get it now, all I need to do is keep every bit of you within my Telekinetic Zone...so long as I don't sever and knock out any pieces of you outside of my zone, you can't regenerate. Now, let's see you recover from this," Stated Aster ominously, a loud crunch echoing out as the middle of the Undead King's body suddenly compressed sharply.

"You bastard...!" He growled, before his limbs got crushed too, followed by his head.

"You can abandon your body and regenerate from a severed body part if your body is trapped, and when you replace your body with a newly formed one, the old one turns to smoke and disappears. Raven mentioned that even turning you to ash isn't enough to destroy you, which means you can form a new body from even a speck of ash. In which case, I just need to keep the entirety of your being within the range of my Telekinetic Zone. Can you regenerate if your body is compressed down to the size of a grain of sand? Let's find out," Suggested Aster coldly, as he continued to compress the Undead King's body in on itself.

"It took everything we had just to stay alive against him...," Muttered Celia, a sense of frustration creeping up on her.

"Yeah, he's incredible," Nodded Raven, a wide-eyed look on his face as he watched the battle, if it could be called that.

"Don't tell him I said this, but...when his Telekinetic Zone is active, I doubt there's anyone who can beat him. Well, except me, of course, since I can just nullify it," Remarked Tacitus, as Aster reduced the Undead King's body to a barely visible speck.

"Looks like I can't compress it any further. Let's see if that did the trick," Mused Aster, as he flicked the speck out of his zone.

Almost instantly, the Undead King's body began to form again, his eyes wide as he reappeared, before he slowly reached up and touched his neck, his mouth opening slightly before spreading out into a wide grin...

"No way, it's...it's really gone. You...you actually managed to destroy it? Is...is this really happening? Hah...hahaha...HAHAHAHAHA!!! YES!!! FINALLY!!! After all this time, I'm finally free! What incredible Magic you have! To think it can actually destroy such a high level Magic Item! I just need to kill all of you, and then I'll be free to do as I please once again!" Cackled the Undead King gleefully...