Five suits of rusted armor came marching through the forest. Their armor suits were making so much noise that Jay noticed their presence almost before his skeletons did.
Each of the skeletons were hidden in the forest, concealed for an ambush attack as they watched their prey from behind the thick roots and trees.
The five knights wore full-body armor, which was surprising as the villages didn’t have as much metal as a few bands wrapped around their clubs. It was majorly rusted through though, almost as red as it was silver-gray, and Jay guessed it was probably a remnant of a by-gone era.
Jay had not launched the ambush attack yet, as the knights were acting strange.
Firstly, they didn’t react to seeing the village decimated.
None of them paused in shock or looked around for threats; it was as if they had carried out the attack themselves.
Next, they started gathering some of the nearby corpses of the villagers.
“Hmm...” he gazed at them suspiciously.
Jay decided to wait a little while longer before attacking - yet soon he decided not to attack at all.
“So, they must be cannibals too.”
The knights had gathered small a pile of bodies, not discriminating between the fleshless, boneless or burnt remains of the cannibals.
They tied them with some vines and three of them began to drag the corpses away, presumedly back towards their territory.
(Handy, follow them.)
Jay ordered, letting the three knights escape his trap.
Two other knights remained in the village, who were still gathering corpses and forming a larger pile - more than three knights could hope to pull back.
Soon, it was larger than even five of them could carry.
“Seeing the whole village decimated, you would expect them to be startled? But their reaction seemed almost inhuman...” Jay thought.
Something was definitely wrong with the knights, and Jay guessed they most likely were a dungeon monster - one with intelligence.
After a while, he sensed that Handy was far away enough now that he could attack.
(Now. Slay them both.) he ordered the skeletons.
As usual, Jay had placed Blue in command of the attack, though he hoped that Blue would learn to conduct its own ambushes from this experience.
Jay and Landen remained on the edge of the forest as they watched Blue, Sweeper, Red and Lamp descend on the two unwitting knights.
In sync, Sweeper and Red lunged at the backs of each knight, sliding their blades cleanly between the gaps in their armor.
Both knights staggered forwards, and to Jay's surprise they weren’t struck dead from the assault.
In one quick movement they unsheathed their rustic swords and swept their swords backwards as they turned to face the skeletons.
Neither of the knights had shields - just a broadsword in one gauntlet while the other gauntlet was free.
Seeing that there were four skeletons, the knights positioned themselves closer to one another without even glancing at one another.
What was odd was that they didn’t seem injured at all, and neither of them had even made a sound after the swords found their way into their armor.
“They should be injured from the stabs, but seem fine?” Jay thought, seeing the knights moving as if they hadn’t been brutally wounded at all.
With their backs covered by each other, the knights held their ground in a defensive formation.
At least until they become entangled in battle with the determined skeletons.
Sweeper lurched forwards, aiming to stick the blade between the gaps in the armor, aiming for its chest and neck where the plates overlapped.
The first strike hopelessly struck the armor.
The second strike, the knight swatted the blade away with its gauntlet and stepped forward.
It deftly sent its broadsword forward with a swift lurch.
Sweeper ducked low, then brought its own blade back, pointed upwards.
It was still aiming to sneak its sword into the narrow gaps between the armor.
The knight had the high ground, and brought its awful broadsword down towards Sweepers collarbone.
But before the broadsword could find purchase, the knight suddenly lost balance.
A large bone hook had pulled the knight’s leg from behind.
Lamp’s shepherd’s crook sent it off balance into an uncontrolled stumble.
Taking full advantage of the distraction and its crouched position, Sweeper’s sword smoothly glided upwards and punctured right into his throat.
The fight was over - or so Jay and Landen thought.
The knight paused for a moment but then suddenly re-doubled its zeal, committing to attack and neglecting all forms of defense.
But Sweeper was just as unrelenting, fighting back with its own fervor.
Still holding the blade under its helmet, it thrashed savagely - cutting, piercing, or severing whatever it could.
Lamp dropped its shepherd's crook and jumped into the fight.
It plunged its gut knife into the un-armored armpit of the knight.
The knight shuddered, finally showing signs of pain.
Sweeper still had the blade under the helmet, and with a thrust the helmet finally shot off.
What awaited them was a grotesque sight.
“What is... it’s not human?” Landen whispered in shock.
Jay had already guessed it so he wasn’t as surprised by what they saw.
While it was a human head, the flesh was rotted and black; there were exposed decayed teeth as the lips had since fallen off.
The damage from Sweeper’s flailing sword had caused deep gashes across the face, each seeping a green fluid, while its eyes were grayish-white, sunken and looked deflated.
Lamp ripped its gut knife from its armpit, a splash of green spilling out with it.
It switched the gut knife into a reverse grip and stabbed it deeply into the exposed neck.
A jet of green blood burst out.
Sweeper had since jumped back as the knight began to ferociously swing its sword - finally landing a hit on the skeleton.
Sweepers arm was chopped off.
As a skeleton, it felt no pain - It turned it into an advantage instead.
The splintered bone just became another weapon which it tried to thrust into any armor gaps it could hope to.
Lamp furiously stabbed into the knight’s neck, the back of the gut knife ripping parts out with it; more green liquid sprayed out and covered its own skin-suit, slowly washing away the blood red color.
Finally the knight spun around to face Lamp, yet it didn’t swing with its sword.
Its free hand suddenly pointed all its fingers forward, forming a knife-hand which plunged into Lamp’s stomach, easily piercing its human leather suit.
Lamp turned its head to the side, confused as it took no damage at all.
It was just wearing the human leather as an outfit afterall.
Lamp started to stab again, relentlessly aiming for the knight’s neck.
Deep wounds built up and soon the head fell off in a spatter of green blood.
Yet the knight didn’t fall down.
However the knight now had its back to Sweeper.
It wasn’t until Sweeper plunged its longer ossein sword deeper into the headless body did it fall down, its hand falling out of the hole it made in Lamp’s leather chest.
Some more green blood flowed through its gauntlet even though there was no wound.
[115 Exp]
As its body fell to the ground, the skeletons began stomping their feet on the ground near the body, as if they were happy kids dancing in a puddle.
At least that was what Jay thought - Landen could only watch in astonishment and fear. He had never seen a knight killed before, but to learn what was hiding under their armor was almost too much for him to bear; not to mention that he had been travelling in the service of an otherworldly being who could raise the dead and take his flesh and bones away in a moments notice.
Neither Jay nor Landen could see anything, but Jay had a feeling that it was like when he had killed the leech queen.
His guess - it was a parasite-type monster.
“Remind me to check Lamp’s flesh later.” Jay whispered.
Landen nodded, but his face was twisted in disgust. He couldn’t stand to watch but he couldn’t look away.
[115 Exp]
The second knight fell to the ground right after, its rusted armor clunking into its own puddle of green blood.
Initially, Red was fighting the second knight alone while Blue surveyed the battle.
Seeing that the situation was contained and that its master was safe, Blue moved to join the fight and ended it shortly after, knowing its weakness was in the chest.
After the fight, Jay was intrigued.
The idea of a monster which took over humans and pretended to be them interested him as much as it made him recoil in disgust
Then, there was the armor they were wearing. He hoped that he would be able to [Loot] it for his skeletons, otherwise the armor would have to stay here, in the dungeon; an object which wouldn’t cross the boundary between realities.
“Time to check the loot” Jay smiled, walking out of the forest, “watch your feet too... don’t let anything crawl into them.” he added.
Landen nodded, but stayed behind Jay after his last piece of advice as they both went to investigate the corpses.
