The treant slashed at the skeletons as Jay jumped closer.
None of its abilities took Jay by surprise, so he fearlessly went in and began slashing again, supporting the skeletons and blocking a few hits.
*Clong~ - Shring~*
He blocked a swipe with deathwalkers sentry and retaliated with a slash.
*Fwoosh~
A heavy bolt flew past and pierce the creature right in the centre of its chest.
*Scriii!~*
Seizing the opportunity, one of the skeletons suddenly dropped its hammer and pierced its claw-covered hand right into the dihexapede’s abdomen.
“Oh?”
Jay could only guess what was happening as he looked on. It seemed that the creature was in immense pain as the skeletons hand carved up its insides, searching for one of its hearts.
The pale sunken eyes of the creature began to roll back into its skull as the skeleton found its target; a lump of black flesh was ripped out and the creature fell to the ground.
[65 Exp]
The skeleton dropped the heart of the creature on the ground, while the other one searched it, bringing back three soul stones for Jay.
“Oh, maybe they don’t drop helvetian rings? …that must be why there’s so many soul stones to collect.” Jay thought as he added them all to his inventory.
[Soul stone] (Empty) x 3
There was only a short breather from the fight, as more dihexapedes were outside, trying to claw their way in as they fought over who got to enter the tower next.
Jay and Anya could hear them crawling all over the walls and the roof; their bug-like stone legs tapping and thudding against the outside.
Thankfully, the tower stood strong. It seems that it was another invincible part of the dungeon’s core structure.
*Scriiii!*
Another dihexapede charged in, carelessly trampling over its fallen brother and piercing its corpse to no end.
“Ugh… how many are there?” Anya reloaded another bolt; the rails of her weapon still glowing slightly from the last one.
“Just keep shooting them.” Jay ordered as he stood between the skeletons once more.
The duo continued to fight, stopping any dihexapedes from getting further in - they have no other option. The tower was both like a trap and a perfect defence, and they would hold their ground.
A few more shrieks and scratches later and the second one was dead.
[65 Exp]
[Soul Stone] (Empty) x 2
Jay blocked many times during the fighting, and Deathwalker’s sentry lost its green necrotic glow as its energy dwindled, though it wasn’t much of a problem now that Jay had put more points into his energy, easily recharging it.
The freshly summoned skeletons had finally recovered their armour and re-joined the fighting. They didn’t have any of their hammers so Jay just gave them the daggers he crafted in the third pyramid. They weren’t very effective against the petrified bones of the creature’s exoskeleton or its thick leathery flesh, but it was better than nothing.
The level one feeble creature was by Jay’s side all this time. It seemed to want to attack but so far, it found no openings.
Jay really couldn’t blame it though, the dihexapdes were a much higher level, and it was much slower and smaller than the other skeletons.
Another dihexapede ventured into the tower entrance, though it had a tougher time trying to get in because of the other two corpses.
After taking a few hits from the skeletons and having hardly any room to move around in, it retreated.
“Huh, I guess they’re not completely stupid.” Jay shrugged.
The attack was finally over.
“Phew, that was a little intense.” Anya sighed.
“Yeah. Good thing this tower was here.”
“So what now?”
“Hmm, I’ll send out some skeletons to see if there’s any enemies left in the area. Then we can move to the fourth pyramid.” Jay said, as two skeletons immediately ran out of the tower and into the mist.
“Okay, sounds good. I still have my skill if we need it.”
“Good,” Jay nodded, “just save it for an emergency.”
Anya nodded as she watched two of the skeletons leave. Her eyes then drifted to a different skeleton. It was acting strangely.
“Hey, that one is being weird.” Anya pointed.
“Hm?”
Jay watched the skeleton for a moment, it was periodically looking at the bone pile. Jay analysed it, and a grin began to form on his face.
“You already levelled up?” he smiled.
<[Germinating Skeleton Level 4 - Blue]>
[Type - Undead]
[Role - Unclear]
HP - 75/75 (+20 - equipment)
MP - 10/10
Armour - 29
<[Skills]>
[Bone Eater]
[Scrimshaw Level 1] (Passive)
[Undeath] (Passive)
[Fear] (Weak) (Passive)
[Shade Vision] (Passive)
<[Description]>
[An abomination, its existence spits in the face of life and death - and they spit back. Stop it before it’s too late. Execute with extreme prejudice. Burn the bones.]
This was followed by another notification which lit a fire in Jay’s heart.
[Please choose a role from available categories - Available categories are based on the skeleton's qualitative experience. If no choice is made, a random role will be assigned once the skeleton levels up.]
[Commander]
[Warrior]
[Guard]
“Fuck yeah, they have roles?” he looked at Blue with a smile.
“Guard and warrior makes sense, and I’m guessing you got the commander because I put you in charge of the other skeletons.”
“...Obviously we’re going to go with the commander role.” Jay grinned.
[Choice: Commander]
“Oh, so it’s only a choice for now? Right… the level up part. I guess we will have to wait till you hit level five.” Jay shook his head with a smile.
“Hmm… I bet if I gave you all shields or bows we could find some other roles.”
Blue kept looking at the bone pile, and Jay nodded while mentally giving it the green light to eat as much as it wanted.
Jay suddenly had an idea - he immediately got another dagger and turned to his new level 1 feeble creature.
“Here.” he forced it to dual-wield daggers.
“It might be too late for the others, it might not be, but you’re definitely going to become something cool.” he smiled.
“I wonder what else I can do… maybe if I abuse and beat up a skeleton regularly it will get some sort of masochist class.” he scratched his chin as he looked at his skeletons.
“Nah… I can’t do that to them. I like them too much.” He pursed his lips and watched the level 1 feeble creature.
The creature seemed content with whatever weapon it was given, it went back to the formation as it twisted its wrists and got into a fighting stance with its dual daggers.
The stance it made was quite strange - one dagger was held low and one was held high.
Jay thought he would have probably done the same stance if that were him. He wasn’t sure if the skeleton somehow tapped into his subconscious thoughts to find a battle stance, or if it was simply the most obvious stance - at least from Jay’s perspective.
Blue was finished eating now - it didn’t get much taller, but its bones seemed to get thicker and its chest became wider.
As Jay looked at Blue’s upgraded body, he guessed that this might be what Michaels skeleton may look like - being the guard captain had given him a sturdy, muscular physique so surely his bones were larger too.
“Hm, even then, Blue would still probably have a thicker skeleton.” he said as he scratched his chin.
Anya only watched on silently as Jay chatted to his skeletons. It was like he forgot she was here, off in his own little world with his own little friends. Despite the ‘little friends’ being fearsome skeletons, it actually seemed quite wholesome.
*Clink clink tap clink~*
Two skeletons returned from the mist, as healthy and whole as when they left - the coast was clear, the dihexapedes had truly left.
“Alright, it seems like we’re safe to move on. We should probably jog to the pyramid since the dihexapedes knew where we were even while we were being quiet and sneaking. Are you ready?” Jay suggested as he added the remaining pile of bones back into his gauntlet.
“Sure… back into the mist we go.”
“Mist keep dungeon… it’s a suitable name.” Jay said as they left the tower, entering the thick fog once more.
Neither of them could see the skeletons in front of them - but Jay could sense them, so he had no worries. Anya simply had to trust and follow Jay.
As they jogged, they soon came across the remains of the other skeletons. Their bodies were slashed apart and broken into many smaller fragments, some were even covered with black slime.
“It seems that some of the dihexapedes had a little snack.” Jay said as he picked up and studied a bone.
One by one, the skeletons reclaimed their hammers, while Jay reclaimed their bones.
Screeches and shrieks began sounding in the dungeon once more. The dihexapedes were on the move again.
“Dammit, just how far away are we?” Jay wondered as they kept running through the fog.
“Should we go back? It doesn't feel right…” Anya still whispered.
“No, let’s just run faster. Remember, it’s a level three dungeon. It shouldn’t be that hard.”
They pushed on, and once more the dungeon became eerily quiet again.
“Keep running, at the very least we can see how far we get. Use your skill if things get bad and we’ll just leave the dungeon.”
“Okay” Anya nodded, simply trying to stick to Jay’s side as they ran. It would be a failure if they were separated in the mist.
Suddenly, another tower emerged from the mist.
“There it is… wait, it’s another tower?” Anya said.
“Hmm… Yeah… we should’ve been at the next pyramid by now.”
*SCrrriiiiii!~*
With the advancing dihexapedes, they had no choice but to take refuge in the tower once more.
As they approached, Jay slowed down his run as he looked at it - completely identical to the previous tower, except without the two dead dihexapede corpses inside.
“Get inside and get ready, it seems like we’re gonna be tower hopping for quite some time.” Jay gestured to the entrance.
Jay followed behind Anya as they quickly went into the shelter of the tower - just in time too as the first dihexapede showed up.
The five skeletons had already blockaded the entrance. Each of them were determined to get revenge on these creatures for ending their lives previously.
Immediately they all dashed forward to counter the dihexapede’s charge; their hammers crunched into the dihexapedes body and chipped away their black stone body parts.
The dihexapede didn’t know what hit it as it suddenly lost a large chunk of health. Wasn’t it supposed to be the one confounding its enemies?
Clearly it had become overconfident from its congenital buff. The foolish creature needed to learn its place as a level three monster.
“Nicely done,” Jay nodded approvingly.
He was waiting at the back, his arms folded as he watched, nodding in approval whenever a skeleton dodge or got a decent swing in.
The small feeble creature had managed to get a few hits in too, so hopefully it would level up soon. In not time at all, two of the skeletons were already digging around in the dihexapedes body with their hands, making it cry in pain while dying miserably.
Without so much as a claw attack landing on the undead, it was quickly culled, finished off by a final bolt to the chest.
[65 Exp]
[Soul stone] (Empty) x1
“Hmm, I guess they have become reliant on fighting in the mist. They’re hopeless otherwise.” Jay thought, while a skeleton brought a soul stone to him.
During the fight, Blue proved to be an imposing force on the battlefield.
The level three skeletons could merely chipped and chunk away at the creature’s carapace, while the level four skeleton could basically shatter parts of it, ripping its hammer out and creating a larger hole.
As for the parts of the creature’s leathery flesh, it was simply ruptured, teared, and broken away.
“Next level I think I might give it a shield” Jay thought as he looked at it.
It was dual-wielding the hammer effectively now; each of its swings were much faster, and much more powerful. It was clear that it could definitely use it one-handed if Jay so desired.
Without more time to analyse, the next dihexapede entered with a shriek - another was behind it as well. The one behind it seemed to want revenge; It couldn’t get past either so it simply pushed its ally into the wall of skeletal death.
“So dumb.” Jay shook his head, disappointed in the foolish tactics of the creatures.
“They truly are just mindless beasts I guess.” he shrugged.
A little disappointed in the poor tactics of his enemies, Jay let Blue command the other skeletons. It seemed that it was better at commanding the other skeletons now too, as at different points in the fight, some skeletons would move back while others would simultaneously go in to attack.
The dihexapede would slash at skeletons which were retreating (and miss) while being pounded on from a different side. Turning to the other side, the process would repeat itself.
The low level dihexapedes were a useful training tool for the skeletons. It wasn’t as cunning as a higher level enemy, but had a larger health pool. Right now, it was their punching bag.
Jay couldn’t actually imagine a better scenario than this to train his minions. A part of him almost wanted to mock the level three dungeon - but he decided not to tempt its wrath.
“Have the new skeleton attack more” Jay ordered through his mind.
Blue didn’t turn back to Jay, but it turned its bone skull towards the level one feeble creature with its dual-wield daggers.
Jay didn’t need a clue or a ‘yes sir’, it was obvious that it was already carrying out Jay’s will.
The little skeleton dashed into the fray, eagerly plunging its dual daggers into the tough, leathery, skin-like joints of the dihexapede.
***Blue needed a bigger chapter. Thanks for saying thanks :) Enjoy!***
