A locked dungeon was dangerous for one reason: you could not leave it until it was finished.
It’s only benefit to its captives was that time would flow more quickly in the dungeon - at least in this case anyway.
Jay was completing it quickly - however if this one knight slipped away, it would not only affect how quickly he could complete the dungeon, but would affect his life in the real world too. The knight posed more danger to Jay than it would ever realize.
The armored knight in front of him was heavily stomping each step like a nail in Jay’s coffin.
Handy was battering its smaller two-handed sword behind the knights knees, but it was never finding the right spot as its legs moved too quickly.
Jay stored his weapons and shield in his inventory so he could focus on running, and while he planned to use his magic boots for another shield bash, he first pulled out a bone spear.
He stabbed the back armor of the knight, trying to send it toppling forwards, harassing it madly with numerous strikes.
The knight quick adapted and leaned backwards; Jay was only helping it run.
“Dammit.” He grunted.
Jay didn’t want to use his makeshift shield bash technique, as if he missed it, it would only create a bigger problem as he would slam into a tree or miss completely.
Yet as the shield was brought out, the knight suddenly turned.
Placing the pommel of its sword against a tree it slowed its momentum and swung its shield back.
Jay smashed heavily against the knight shield, deathwalker’s sentry pressing firmly back against it, only just raised in time.
He was not expecting this sudden change in behavior.
The knight’s arm gave way to Jay’s impact and only its armor stopped it from being irreversibly damaged.
Being this close to each other, the knight thrust its sword.
“Grrh!”
Jay’s abdomen offered little restraint against the sword piercing it, and the helminth was protecting his neck area, unable to block in time.
[-5]
All he could do was grit his teeth as he reeled from the attack, trying to regain his balance.
Thankfully these were only level four enemies, and not much damage could be done - at least to Jay’s hit points.
Another swing came but death walker’s sentry braced the hit - a critical block, no damage.
Deathwalker’s sentry caused mana-burn, but it seemed that these parasites were not magical creatures at all as the knight readied for another slash.
Jay caught his balance though, and returned his own sword. Sending it to the neck area, it returned with a green stain.
Handy was still with Jay and was still slashing and stabbing at the area behind the knight’s knees.
Now that the knight had stopped it only made it easier for Handy, and its sword was painted by the green blood too.
The knight realized its situation was desperate, and it made a desperate move.
In one movement it smashed its shield against Jay and swung its sword back.
It pushed away from the tree, returning to a maddened dash again, sprinting towards its army.
“No!” Jay growled, angry at how much pressure this single enemy was putting on him.
Tossing his shield to the ground, he lunged desperately with his sword.
The sword struck the armor harmlessly, but Jay’s free hand found placement, grabbing the armor by the neck.
The knight couldn’t run with the extra weight tugging on it, and Jay gave up all defense as he stabbed.
Handy positioned itself in front of the knight, but was ignored as the knight spun around, having to deal with Jay.
Jay’s sword made a gap in the armor but couldn’t sever the spine before he lost his grip as the enemy turned to face him.
Instead of taking a shield bash or a sword stab, Jay stayed close.
He did the unexpected and grabbed the knight closely, hugging it as if a broken boxer or a long lost friend.
The knight pulled its sword back to pierce the foe mindlessly clinging to its chest.
“Iskean!”
A blast of wind suddenly pulsed outwards, sending the knight backwards.
Jay was spared, while the back of the knight was fated to meet the blade of Handy’s two-handed sword.
Jay had used his magic boots again.
With a gap in the armor, all that needed to be done was to sever the spine - and that’s precisely where Handy was aiming.
With one decisive movement the sword pierced the spine, and just like that the fight was over.
The knight’s body continued to fall backwards, crushing into Handy who received broken bones from the added weight of Jay on top of both of them.
[115 Exp]
“Bastard.” Jay said, standing up.
Waving his hand over the corpse he got another loot notification - though he still had not read the other one he had from earlier, and two pieces of loot were now waiting for him.
Jay helped Handy from under the corpse and sent it to pick up his shield before heading back to his other minions.
It was easy to find the way back as he simply had to follow the thick flesh-like root.
Jay had left this group of three knights surrounded by four trusty skeletons.
It was enough to hold them off and to kill them, but it seems that Blue decided to wait until Jay got back before trying to slay them.
Battles could be hazardous, random, and sometimes the unexpected happened, and it seemed that Blue was not willing to risk another knight escape while its master was gone.
Sure there was some fighting, but it was always defensive on the side of the skeletons as they kept the trio of knight hemmed in from all sides.
As there was an intelligent knight among them, it helped to keep the other two lesser knights in a defensive formation. Not only were they effectively covering each others backs, but the intelligent knight was a better fighter too.
Though as Jay returned to the area, all hell broke loose.
Master was back, so it was time to attack.
The intelligent knight was slain first; Blue and Red each recklessly charged into a confrontation with the intelligent knight. Sweeper and Lamp each took the attention of the other two lesser knights.
A reckless wide swing was met with a resounding clunk of Red’s metal chest piece, and Blue was spared from damage as it dashed behind the knight, plunging its sword mercilessly into the armor, wiggling it around without care.
[115 Exp]
Blue and Red each moved onto the back of the other two knights, repeating the same steps.
The last two fell without incident.
[230 Exp]
“Damn, I kinda wanted to analyze one of them. Never thought I’d complain about killing enemies too quickly.” Jay shook his head at himself, but a hint of a smile appeared on his lips.
It was over so quickly it was almost like it was rehearsed.
After their bodies fell and their heavy armors went silent, silence finally returned to the forest.
Jay stood silently for a moment, glad that the battle was over. As he looked over all the dead knights around him, part of him thought he would feel glory or even shout for joy, but ultimately he just felt empty. While it made him stronger, there was something so senseless about it.
“In the grand scheme of things, these were simply parasites trying to survive and I am just here to eradicate them.” He nodded.
(Loot everything. Use it if you need it or bring it to me.)
The skeletons checked over all the dead bodies, looting fifteen in total which hadn’t been looted yet.
Jay checked the loot he received from the two intelligent knights he himself had slain.
<[Squire’s Knee Guards]>
[Common]
[3 Armor]
“Ah,” he held them in his hands, “it counts as one item. Good, I suppose. Odd but good.”
<[Squire’s Gauntlet]>
[Common]
[10 Armor]
“Another one for Blue then.” Jay shrugged, then glanced up at his skeletons.
“Or not…”
Blue had found another gauntlet.
Not only that, it had some upper leg armor now too. It seems they were designed with the knee guards in mind as it ended just above the knee, so Jay decided to gift it to knee guards too.
Without all the rust, the armor was a dark gray with a soft silvery luster on its surface; Jay decided not to give too much thought to why the looted armor wasn’t the same rusted junk the knights were wearing, as it seemed almost brand new.
As for the other skeletons, Sweeper found a chest piece complete with shoulder guards, while Red received a shield, gifted to it by Lamp.
Lamp also gifted a gauntlet to Sweeper, and it seemed that Lamp wasn’t too fond of wearing armor.
“Probably gets in the way of its skin suit…” Jay guessed, glancing at it.
It seemed that Lamp was comfortable wearing clothes though, no matter how tattered they were, so Jay was glad for that at least.
With the spare gauntlet from Jay, Sweeper now had two gauntlets.
(Red, show me your shield.)
Red was already at Jay’s side, his trusted body guard never strayed too far unless ordered to, and it held its new shield up for Jay to look at.
The shield was a kite shape, but Jay was more intrigued by the decoration on it. The two ‘II’ symbols were milky white with a blue background. Around the outside of the shield was a jagged brown pattern.
“Hmm… two… two what?” Jay raised a brow.
It didn’t mean anything to him.
Neither did the brown pattern surrounding it, which may as well have been rusted away like it was on the knight’s shield.
After feeding more bones to his minions, it was time to leave - yet one of the skeletons had leveled up.
Since all of the other skeletons were level four, Handy had gained all of the unsearchable ‘skeleton exp’.
Of course Jay was in a rush, but for this he would take a moment, selecting his skeletons new role.
As for it’s new role, well, Jay had been grooming it for this role since it was level one.
“Congrats Handy” Jay smiled warmly.
***Author note: Challenge: 3k power stones by end of week = 5 . +1 bonus chapter for every 500PS over 3k.
Plus ‘II’ is roman numerals for ‘two’. Also, let’s do an armor check for the skeletons currently with Jay.
Red:
- Metal: Chest/shoulders. Two gauntlets. Shield.
- Bone: Two greaves/vambraces. Helmet. Same for all other skeletons except for Handy.
Blue:
- Metal: Two Gauntlets. Cuisses(metal pants). Knee guards (also called the poleyn).
Sweeper:
- Metal: Chest/shoulders. Two gauntlets.
Handy has neither bone nor metal armor. Just a modified ossein sword made into a two-hander.
*Author is going away for a week. Has laptop so will still write and upload chapters when possible.*
