Rituals are never as you expect them.

{AN: Made a discord server with the help of my friend, here is the link:

https://discord.gg/ZCX5F5cfKq

Don't worry I will also post the link in the comments session.}

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"Rituals are a complex thing. But are also the branch of magic with the most variety and flexibility, if you know what you are doing you can accomplish basically anything. Sadly Ritual magic is also the most magika intensive one, meaning that only people with truly huge reserves can enjoy the benefits of ritual magic, or so I thought until I started investigating and researching this branch of magic deeper."~Alt Jin Book: Ritual for dumies~

"Thankfully my research was able to bring me to a rather forgotten and high-level branch of ritual magic. Normally a ritual needs a huge amount of energy AKA magika, but I discovered that the best rituals don't need even a single drop of magika to be executed. Usually, the high-level ingredients needed for such rituals are more and better than enough. And yes, there is indeed some kind of rituals that do require both magical and high-quality ingredients or none at all. Magic is something complex and mysterious that is always changing and evolving, so the absolute truth to a mage can change in the span of a single hour." ~Alt Jin Book: Ritual Costs~

"And yes, the way you are going to change species is through a ritual. But fret not, you will be literally using fragments of creation for your species-changing ritual, if you needed to use magika even with that, the godhead himself would become offended." ~Alt Jin Book: The most expensive ritual ~

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With even steps I continued descending the stairway, the noise slowly becoming louder and louder, what previously were simply hypnotic whispers in my ears are now as loud as a person talking normally close to me.

I couldn't suppress the shiver and the goosebumps that this chanting is causing me, to felt sinister, spectral, otherworldly, vile. My instincts as I living being were warning me of how dangerous these whispers are.

I didn't dare to lower my guard, as I am literally entering the depths of this necromancer's den. My heart pounded with resolve and determination, something that I would have founded strange if I had paid attention. How come a person like me, someone that supposedly has long since lost his will to continue living, can still exert so much determination? But any higher level being would instantly be able to see why. In the end, a Dragon does not bend nor break.

After long moments filled with the ever-increasing creepy chanting, I was finally able to reach the end of the stairway. And I gotta say, this was a fucking huge stairway, easy the biggest I passed through in my entire life.

After the stairs I was in a strange hall, it wasn't as big as the previous one but still relatively big. Sadly with my limited 10 meters sight, I was barely able to see a 1/6 of the room. But that was more than enough to identify that there are enemies ahead-

"INTRUDER!"

"INVASION!"

"SEND THE FLESH GOLEM"

"SEND THE HORDE"

"SEND EVERYTHING WE HAVE"

Oh, fuck! But I guess with the commotion back there it was relatively impossible for me to not be detected. I wanted to go with my usual Skyrim approach of going stealth until I am detected, but I guess I guess a frontal approach is inevitable at this point.

Suddenly I was able to see a bunch of silhouettes and blur at the other side of the hall. There were a total of 35 blurs, and a rather big giant thing that I presume is the flesh golem. I just hope itis really a flesh golem and not a Flesh Atronach, the gap in danger is rather wide between the two with the Atronach being rather fearsome.

I didn't have much time to think nor plan any course of action because the first wave of skeletons finally entered my range. I detected at least 20 skeletons, and each one of them was armed. thankfully their weapons are simple, and none of them is using any armor.

One of the front skeletons immediately lunged swinging his iron sword with eh objective of decapitating me. With how tall and muscled I am, It's more efficient for me to jump back than to lower myself. And that is exactly what I did, using [Retreat Step] I was able to jump quite a few meters back, which soon proved to be a wise choice when a bunch of iron swords hit the ground where I was a moment before.

Sadly I didn't have any second to breathe when I saw that at least half of the skeletons were using bows. Those skeletons greeted me send a volley of ten arrows to my current position. Thankfully the usually fast projectiles were moving incredibly slow in my sight thanks to the [Sharingan], so with a clever and flexible use of [Evade Step], I was able to circumvent the arrows launched at me.

Sadly the sword-wielding skeletons didn't allow me any room to breathe when the moment I finished my [Evade Step] they were already swinging their swords at me. Thankfully I had enough time to use [Evade Step] and [retreat step] in quick succession enabling me to avoid any damage to my person.

I know this can't continue like this, my situation is worsening by the minutes and soon the second wave of undead will hit. I need to retaliate somehow, but the big numbers of skeletons I making my life extremely difficult. I can easily cut one or two skeletons but my [Sharingan] prediction abilities easily saw that if I do that I won't have enough time to retreat without losses. Overwhelming numbers are really a pain.

But if it is about overwhelming numbers I might have a solution for this. Using [Retreat Step] I distance myself once more from the skeletons, without missing a beat I started using [Illusion Step]. Slowly I started walking towards my left, but to the confusion of my enemies, another "Me" appeared in my place.

Slowly I increased my speed drawing a semi-circle of my copies around the 20 skeletons. the archers were incredibly confused and keep shooting arrows in the direction of my copies, and the sword skeletons keep swinging their swords, but nothing truly happened, their weapons just passed through my illusion like there was nothing there.

Thankfully I was able to use my [Illusion Step] as enough distraction for me to finally start a counterattack. Using [Advance Step] I appeared before an archer skeleton and with a swift motion of my saber filled with [Wave] I cut it in half, the skeleton immediately crumbled to ashes.

Immediately the skeletons all around me attacked me at once, but sadly for them, their attacks passed through "me" like I wasn't even there. I had just used a combination of [Illusion Step] and [retreat Step] to get out of there.

Repeating the same actions I use [Illusion Step] once more to trick the skeletons and approach another archer. with a swift and powerfully wong of my saber filled with [Wave] I easily bisected the skeleton, and to my surprise, a second one in half. Said skeletons which immediately transforming into ashes.

Without even missing a beat I repeated the same retreating maneuver once more evening the following onslaughter from the skeletons.

I know the ideal would be to continue like this, going in and out slowly nibbling the skeleton's forces until I am comfortable enough to engage a more frontal and straight form of combat. but sadly to anyone concerned about my safety, I am a relatively young and very emotional person, so I decided on a more dangerous yet efficient approach. At that time if I had stopped to think about it, that decision was slightly out of character, I was never that brash, right? RIGHT? Sadly Dragons aren't exactly known for their patience.

Grinning giddy at my new crazy idea I started forming a plan. Flooding my saber with [Wave] the weapons started shining like a genuine [Sunlight Blade], without any rhyme or reason I started swinging the sword midair into nothing, but when I was exactly mid-swing I used [Advance Step] while swinging my saber.

The poor skeleton archer that I easily approached was immediately bisected in two becoming ashes. But instead of retreating this time I started charging [Gungnir] on my saber, and a spiral of [Wave] started forming on my arms, the spiral of energy quickly flowed towards my saber giving me the impression I was carrying a drill rather than a blade.

Using [Advance Step] and pointing my saber charged with [Gungnir] I carved a path through the skeletons whiteout stopping or faltering. My attack pierced through their defenses and formation showing the true and impressive might of [Gungnir].

This attack was utterly devastating for the skeleton's formation and well-being. Right now there were only 12 skeletons remaining, 4 archers, and 8 swordsmen.

But this move from my part wasn't without consequences as clearly seen by the slash marks on my gauntlets and chest plates, thankfully nothing was able to truly breakthrough my armor so I didn't get wounded. A big factor of that is thanks to my [Sharingan], even doing everything at the highspeed of my [Advance Step] I was easily able to see everything in slow motion and adjust my body accordingly, thus avoiding receiving any damage.

This is also a clear show of my extreme inexperience in battle. I know it is supposedly smart to be cautious like I was doing at the start, but someone who is truly accustomed to using the [Sharingan] during fights wouldn't commit a mistake like that. Madara is a good example, he was able to throw himself in the middle of the Shinobi alliance army and absolutely destroy them with just close combat techniques, there he shows his monstrous proficiency with just the [Sharingan]and melee combat, and I am very far away from even coming closer to that... here suffering to destroy some little skeletons... Yeah, I have a very long way to go.

But there is something extremely positive about everything. I survived. As long as I survive I can commit mistakes, because being alive meaning that I still have the chance to correct them, to improve. Like before I suddenly had a burst of a deep will to live, to survive, to show strength. This feeling feels like it came from the deepest depths of my soul. Sadly Yang Jin of this moment is too concentrated on killing skeletons to notice it.

Before I could repeat the same combo and clean the rest of the undead I was interrupted by the arrival of ten zombies. This complicated things a lot, seeing as now I have to deal with 22 undead, 4 archers, 8 swordsmen, 10 zombies.

These zombies were of course using a somehow incomplete set of armor. Their armor looked low on durability, rusty, and definitely second or third-handed. And none of them was wearing a full complete set of armor, but all of them were wearing chest plates without exception.

The Zombies' weapons were a little more varied than the skeleton crew, there were maces, hammers, spears, blades, pikes, halberds, and some other repeated weapons. the weapons looked to be in a little better condition than their armors, don't get me wrong they are still rust and old, but I can clearly see that they have been sharpened to the extreme.

I know that with the zombie's arrival I should test the water firsts before doing anything. But if my previous experience taught me something, it is to be less of a pussy and, use ,and abuse my [Sharingan] in combat scenarios.