The Master's Keep was more similar to High peak castle than I had initially expected.
If we just ignored the very noticeable reversal of color scheme and lack of windows facing a normal landscape, the basic arrangement of the castle and the total distribution of enemies was the same.
What wasn't the same was the existence of a master that had total control of the castle.
"Staggering isn't it!"
With a snap of their porcelain white fingers, Count Dracula flipped my vision on its side as I sent a kunai flying through their stomach in a futile attempt.
Feeling no resistance as the illusion disappeared in a whisp of smoke, what wasn't an illusion was the existence of numerous undead gunning for my head.
Feeling my stomach contents shift around in an attempt to leave through the place it had entered, I clenched my teeth and kicked off against the ground.
"Hoop!" Letting air leave my lungs, I kicked off of the shifting walls as arrows flew through the air.
Digging deep into the stone bricks, the dark blue coated archers drew arrows out of their quivers as heavily armored knights rushed through the twisting hallways for me.
Rushing to the right where a Lion framed by shadows and five scorpion tails floated about, the Buer lookalike tensed before sending all five of its tail striking at me.
I held no doubts in my mind that those scorpion stingers were filled chok to the brim with poison.
Placing my blade straight into its skull while weaving through all five of its tails, I twisted my body around letting a white bone and axe to fly by my sides.
Tracing the path of the axe and bone, a skeleton and knight in dark blue armor could be seen drawing out new weapons from their bodies.
Skeleton pulling out a part of their rib cage, I watched in real time as the ribcage regenerated its missing bones while they prepared to throw their own body at me.
I sent an arrow into their skull, briefly stunning them so that I could rushed forwards and grab the arrow shaft and rip their head from their body.
The axe knight on the other hand had pulled their axe from their waist band and wasn't as much of a mystery when predicting its future actions.
Sidestepping the falling skeleton, the golden edged axe whiffed against my body sending the Knight stumbling from the lack of feedback.
Moving my hand, I grabbed the red flume attached to their helmet and coated my knee with flames before kneeing it in the face.
And despite how the usual interaction of bone and steel should've gone, the exact opposite occurred.
Face section crumpling like a can under water pressure, I pulled out my knee covered in black goo and incinerated it before pivoting to throwing a sword at the next few armored fellows heading my way.
Still keeping my grip on the now falling axe knights helmet, I pulled my body upwards and flew up to the ceiling just as my vision normalized itself.
Not that it helped much since my vision was now primarily upside down.
Flipping through the air I pushed off of the tips of the blades thrust my way and grabbed the helmets of the Spear Knight lookalikes from within High peak castle and used my weight to slam their heads into the ground.
Caving in their helmets, black goo spurted out from the gaps within their body as their entire bodies fell apart at their deaths.
Dark blue cloth now stained black, I landed on all fours and pushed off of the ground.
Pulling out the newly acquired spears from within my inventory I rushed forwards like a bull and gutted zombies like a butcher.
"GRoaR!"
Letting out distorted roars from within their throats as they fell to the ground, gutted, a broadsword found its way into my hands as I used the pushback generated from skewering undead to stabilise myself.
Swinging the blade around like a toy, fames coated the edge of the blade as my surroundings were lit up with burning corpses.
Gore flying through the air coated in crimson flame, flesh and bone alike were torn apart by my reckless swings.
*Twinge
Feeling a tingle in my right arm, I( glanced to the side only to notice that a scorpion stinger had found its way through my arm.
Ugly sharp stinger pulsating as obviously poisonous purple fluid leaked out of the tip, I grimaced and put my broadsword away before replacing it with a sword I used to cut the stinger.
Separating the stinger from its main body, the lion head let out a pained roar before I shut it up by ripping out the stinger in my arm and stuffed it into its gaping mouth.
Unlike what biology would suggest, the Buer wasn't immune to its own venom and died soon after as evidenced by the poisonous sacs appearing in my inventory.
Confirming its death in this manner, I grabbed the tonic and stabbed it into the area of the wound, pushing its plunger and feeling the orange fluid fill my veins.
Gritting my teeth as the poison was purged rather forcefully, flesh reknitted itself as skin covered the fresh wound.
"You'll never reach my throne"
Reappearing all of a sudden as more and more undead rushed out of the castles neighbouring hallways, attracted by the ensuing battle, Count Dracula raised their hand.
And with a bloodthirsty grin adorning their face and crimson blooded eyes staring down at me, ignored the sight of their ruby colored eyes and focused on the rapidly approaching fireballs.
"Fire balls huh? Well if you can do it, I probably can to."
Time rune slowing down everything but my thoughts, I watched as flames kindled into existence around the Illusion of Dracula and mimicked him
I probably wasn't thinking straight by trying to fight fire with fire when I could instead rely on other methods that I was more familiar with, but I wasn't exactly in the state of being able to consider everything rationally.
Especially since instinct was the fastest way to react to combat.
Twisting my body around, I recalled the sensation of an arrow on a bow and placed that feeling all around me.
Running mana through the Inferno Runes carved into the backs of my hands, arrows made of fire manifested all around me
And although they weren't exactly balls of fire, I had an inkling of an idea that they would be more effective than those fireballs.
Mimicking the movement of letting an arrow loose, flaming arrows pierced through the air before they skewered the numerous fireballs and pierced the surprised illusion of Count Dracula.
Dissipating into mist once again I ran past the Count and continued deeper into Master's Keep, making a beeline straight to the Throne room if my theory on this place being an exact replica of High Peak Castle.
My theory was correct.
Placing my hands on the ground, giant spikes of wood suddenly drilled their way out of the ground and skewered the numerous undead around me alongside some of the flying undead.
Snapping my fingers, those spires of wood suddenly burst into flames that exploded outwards in an arc, sweeping away the lucky few undead rushing at me.
Feeling my mana slowly but surely dip into the zero zone, I motioned for the cell vial hanging on the side of my waist and popped open its skull, letting the condensed blue fluid flow down my throat.
'Mana replenished.'
Although the texture reminded me of jelly, I wasn't as preoccupied about the weird texture of cells and how they might've been body parts I was unhesitatingly devouring more so was I preoccupied by making sure I didn't die.
Moral dilemma could be put on the side burner once I figure out how to not die from Medusa trying to get me to stare her in the eyes.
Hurriedly bringing up my shield to block the red gaze, the slight stiffness at the tips of my fingers didn't go unnoticed as I ran forwards.
Clutching at the dagger in my right hand, flames coated just its tip as the heated blade sunk deep into the Monster's skinny green torso.
Giant clawed hands flailing about in retaliation, I hurriedly backed off from the monster, keeping mind to pay attention to the wildly flailing claws that left deep gouges in the stone.
Not that the shield did much against the green scaled tail connected to its lower body.
Yellow tipped tail slamming against the wall with me on it, I felt more than a few of my rib bones crack as flames covered my head in an instant, clumsily pouring the lifesaving potion over the flames.
Feeding fuel to my flames, with a resounding crack of bone reconnecting with each other, I forcefully setted the ribs in my chest and arms before pulling a whip from within my inventory.
Having absolutely no idea where this came from, I nevertheless swung it like those farm owners in the 1800s and left a long bloody welt on its green skin.
Crackling with lightning, Medusa let out another one of their iconic screams as they slithered towards me, grasping at the edge of my shield before pulling it down with an inhuman force.
Head now rearing behind the shield, before my stunned eyes, a red eyed beast of nightmare let out another screech before their eyes were filled with a yellow flash of light.
It's petrifying stone gaze.
Hurriedly closing my eyes before the same petrifying stone gaze filled the space in front of me, the many snakes replacing the many strands of hair usually placed on a normal humans head swiftly sank their fangs into my flesh.
Some of them bit into the armor and left nothing more than two holes in the metal plating, but some of them found purchase onto my body, injecting their venom into my body.
And although i would like to say that that was the worst of it, Dracula made sure that this wasn't the worst of it.
"I love bats, do you?"
Appearing with a smirk on their face, black furred creatures with red hued eyes instantly flitted through the air before trying to sink their fangs into my flesh.
And although I was flattered to be the meal of so many beings at the same time, I was also trying to not be turned into a lifeless husk.
So I did what any other man would do when trying to survive.
I exploded into a ball of flame.
Flames coating my entire body, the numerous bats screeched out in shock at the blinding light filling their senses, the snake hairs hissed in pain as they were scorched by the flames and the Medusa itself?
Well it couldn't really scream in pain when its vocal cords had been melted down.
Letting my shield go as it clutched at its face, I felt the poison in my system be purged by the flames coating my entire body.
An unintended side effect to be sure, but a welcome one.
Dropping my shield, I held my blade diagonal from my body and swung it left to right, cutting a nice little gash through the gap in bone.
Now leaving the collapsing corpse burning with cinders behind, I stared at the doorway which the Medusa was guarding and plunged the tonic into my arm.
Ash and cinder now trailing my every step, I pushed at the doors as I left behind a trail of burning corpses in my wake.
+++
Ok, I did some math on my planned plot and at the latest, you can expect Book 1 to end at chapter 99 leaving the much awaited chapter 100 for the next book
In other words, soon you'll be free from the world of Dead cells and be able to enter the world of Minecraft.
Tree