Inheritor of the Dragon's Blood

"Sh*t!"

Cursing at his bad luck, Alexander kept his body pressed against the door that threatened to be busted open the moment he relaxed.

While this was his first time seeing the monster trying kill him, he knew about them from horror stories his sword instructor had told him.

Without any doubt, the creature currently slamming itself into the restroom door was a ghast. A nasty undead monster known to be born from mass graves of resentful people.

They were often noted to appear after large-scale and bloody conflicts, but they were certainly not a particularly common undead.

Unlike a simple reanimated skeleton or a shambling zombie, ghasts retained a bit of the cunning they had in life and were inhumanly strong.

Their desire for living flesh was also well documented, and Alexander figured he was the first person this ghast had seen in centuries.

Eventually the slamming on the door ceased and Alexander wondered if the ghast had given up on him.

Of course, he knew that this was just wishful thinking. This type of monster was not just driven by instinct and could come up with strategies to get what it wanted. By feigning leaving, it was trying to draw Alexander out.

'Like hell I am going to open this door and peak out to see if it is gone. Now that I have a minute, I can come up with my own plan.'

Alexander kept his back braced against the door and scanned his surroundings for any way out.

Unfortunately, he was in a small room with no exits other than the door he was currently blocking.

For a bit he contemplated using his enhanced physical abilities to try and break down another wall, but he doubted that he would be capable of doing so without overloading his magic pendant again. Plus, the ghast would never give him the time even if he could bust down one of the walls.

However, as Alexander tried to come up with a plan to get out of his current predicament, he felt an unnatural cold on his back.

Turning his head around, he saw that ice was slowly encasing the door and would soon freeze him as well if he stayed where he was.

"It can even use magic!" Alexander shouted in surprise and frustration.

With no other option, he jumped away from the door and watched it completely freeze over.

The ghast then resumed it assault on the door that Alexander could no longer brace with his body.

Thanks to the ice, the door was slightly reinforced and did not falter after one hit, but it was not going to last long without someone pushing back against the ghast.

Feeling the impending danger closing in on him, Alexander's mind raced for a solution.

He was not sure if he could win in a straightforward confrontation in such a cramped space. He could hardly wield his sword properly and knew he would be at a massive disadvantage without his main weapon.

There was also the fact this ghast had the ability to wield the ice element to conjure magic. Alexander could use his magic pendant to increase his physical abilities, but that was it. He had no other types of sorcery at his disposal.

'Wait! I do have something else.'

Opening up the pouch on his belt, Alexander grabbed the two water stones he had found in this very restroom.

Certainly, water stones were just utility items without any offensive use at all, but he had figured out a way to change the situation to his advantage.

Holding the larger of the two water stones in his left hand, Alexander poured in his excessive magic power without restraint.

Cracks began to form on the stone as he overloaded it, but his efforts paid off as water splashed onto the ground by the bucketful.

As the water reached the door, it began to freeze thanks to the ghast's magic, and the floor became icy and wet.

When the ghast finally broke the door down, it found that its charge led it onto a slippery floor.

The surprised monster was unable to stop its momentum and crashed hard into the wall on the opposite side of the room.

While this happened, Alexander had positioned himself on top of the toilet to avoid the slick floor and to get out of the ghast's path

His sword held above his head, he struck down on the prone monster and ran it through the stomach.

Alexander wore a confident smirk as his plan came to fruition and he delivered a fatal blow to the ghast. Or what he assumed would be.

Yet despite having a sword sticking out of its stomach, the ghast barely showed any signs that it had been injured.

Eyes going wide as the monster struggled on the end of his blade, Alexander held tight with both hands to prevent the ghast from dislodging from the sword.

Thanks to his enhanced strength from his magical pendant, Alexander managed to hold the ghast back.

Except, when it realized it could not overpower Alexander from their current position, it turned its head all the way around and began sliding its body down his sword.

This was by far the most terrifying thing Alexander had ever seen, and he lost his balance as he instinctively tried to take a step back.

He fell off the toilet he had been standing on and slammed his back onto the floor.

But with it still being slick with water and ice, Alexander luckily slid backwards towards the room's exit.

Once he passed through the doorway, he lifted his head and saw the ghast carefully making its way towards him so as not to slip on the ice again.

Fortunately, this gave Alexander a moment to recover, and he leapt to his feet and prepared to continue fighting.

Now that he was out of the cramped restroom, Alexander gripped his sword and assumed a form he had practiced many times.

He focused all of his attention on the ghast, before swinging down with all his might when it lunged at him.

This time he aimed for its head instead of its torso since his last strike had proven ineffective.

Yet, the ghast was not about to let him strike its one weakpoint and caught the blade with its left hand.

Alexander's sword backed by his enhanced strength carved through the arm without much resistance until it reached the elbow joint.

For a living creature this would have been a grievous wound that would have brought an end to their attack, but not for an undead creature such as a ghast.

It cared nothing for its destroyed arm and ravenously tried to bite down on Alexander.

The two of them wrestled with each other until they both tumbled to the ground.

This was far from the future that Alexander had envisioned. He figured that his sword technique would allow him to easily cleave through the hideous monster now that he had room to maneuver, but reality was not so kind.

His formal training meant nothing in the current struggle, and his sword was too deeply lodged in his opponent's arm for him to pull it out.

Alexander ultimately found himself on top of the ghast, pushing it down with everything he had as it lashed out and tried to rip the flesh from his body.

Frost began to creep up him despite his advantageous position, and he knew that the way things were going he would lose.

Weakness from the cold was already setting in, and once he lost the strength to hold the ghast back, it would tear him to shreds.

Searching for anything, his left hand rummaged around the floor for something he could use. Eventually, he found a sizeable piece of rubble.

Picking it up. he slammed it into the ghast's face.

Again and again, he picked his hand up and smashed it down onto his opponent's head.

A viscous black substance coated his hand as he continually pummeled the monster. But he did not stop until its head was left as a gory mess.

Finally, the ghast had stopped moving, and Alexander let out a sigh of relief. He had won.

However, as the tension left his body, the overwhelmingly putrid smell of the ghast truly reached him.

Gagging, he rushed out of the room that smelled worse than anything he had ever dealt with before.

While it was still whole, the ghast had already emitted a horrid scent, but now that its blood was scattered around, it was far worse.

Unfortunately, the blood had coated Alexander's body, and the ungodly smell lingered around him, making ever second unbearable. He could even taste it in his mouth, and his nose felt like it was on fire. There were several scrapes and bruises on his body from the struggle, but after he had finished it off, the ghast was doing more damage to him now than during their battle.

Eventually, he remembered the water stone still in his belt pouch and used it to pour copious amounts of water on himself.

With a bit of effort, he managed to wash the blood off, though a bit of sickly smell still clung to his body.

"All that for just this."

Alexander looked down at the waterstone that was in his hand. The only reward so far, he could show for braving this castle.

The larger of the two had broken during the fight with the ghast when he forced more water out of it at once than it could handle. Leaving him with the smaller of the two that he had further diminished to clean himself off.

For all the effort he had gone through, this single waterstone felt like a paltry reward.

His expectations of finding an untouched, unguarded hoard of treasure had been far off the mark, and obtaining anything of value had him embroiled in a life and death struggle with a terrible monster.

Then there was the battle itself. Instead of flourishing the sword skills he had practiced and achieving a glorious victory like the tales he had heard, Alexander had ended up in a chaotic scuffle he was lucky to have escaped from alive.

Now he was sore, wet, and cold, with little gained for his troubles.

Nevertheless, he could not give up yet. All that awaited him when he returned home now was the fate he was trying to avoid, and whatever punishment his father deemed appropriate.

"There are still plenty of places left to look. I just need to be more careful now that I know there are undead monsters here." Alexander murmured to reassure himself.

But as if to spit in the face of his resolve, the same rotting stench that emanated from the ghast began to fill the hall.

Wearing an expression of trepidation, Alexander looked in the direction of the smell, and there he saw six more ghasts slinking towards him.