Inside the mist keep dungeon, back in Losla, Jay had found three acid-filled shards. They were not useless, even though they were leftovers after a fight between a twisted abomination and giant warrior statues. Within each shard was an acid so powerful that it turned stone to liquid. Jay had been keeping these for emergency situations, and now was a perfect moment.
Jay made one appear, and he tossed it down into the gap.
“One less acid shard.”
*BOOM!*
The fist-sized shard exploded, and only now did Jay realize the abomination pressurized it on the inside.
“Such a despicable creature.” He thought, remembering the Mannaton Soul Eater, its soulless stare and its slackened jaw.
It landed perfectly on the jammed side of the gate. The acid spattered all over the rust and angrily hissed as it ate through both the rust and stone alike; each of them melted like wax before a flame, and with a deep screeching metal grind, the gate moved again.
*Crr - Boom!*
The knights below had no time to move, and none of them expected the giant iron spikes to come down.
The gate gave one last screech of defiance before it dropped, crushing a line of knights below and crunching through the floor of roots vomiting out of the castle. Their armor offered no defense against the metal stakes driving through them, forever pinning their corpses to the ground.
[920 Exp]
Eight knights perished.
The sounds of battle below grew quiet as the skeletons under the gate all perished next. Most of the reinforcements had stopped before the gate, but too many knights pushed through and encircled the skeletons, and were now making their way into the gatehouse.
They forced Jay the defend his position up the stairs; he was a caged threat. However, Jay would not let them take him. Trapped or not, it didn’t matter.
“Two entrances to cover. Let’s make it one.” Jay said.
The gatehouse had two entrances to it on either side, though there were two other ways in which led to passages through the walls. For now, though, the bulk of knights were in the courtyard.
Jay dashed to the top of one of the spiral staircases and began releasing a huge number of bones, a funnel of femurs flying from his necrotic gauntlet.
The rattling bones attracted the sounds of knights below, but the torrent of bones drowned them out, and in moments he packed the whole staircase with a thick white plug.
The bones were not useful for forming a wall, however, being channeled into a funnel made them into an excellent barrier.
They directed some of the lesser knights to pulling bones out, tunneling up the stairs, but each time one they ripped one out, the mass of bones would shift and reform.
Jay made a separate bone pile and re-summoned his fallen skeletons, giving Blue command over them. Sweeper and Lamp went to reinforce Red, while Handy and Blue forged their weapons again.
However, they only made the most basic swords, copying Jay’s ossein arming sword design, as they had to back up Red.
[115 Exp]
So far, Red was holding the stairs without giving up any ground. Not only was it a one versus one, but Red also had the higher ground. The staircases also spiraled right as it ascended, meaning the attackers would have to use their weapons left-handed to swing, giving Red an enormous advantage over them.
With the other skeletons backing it up, Red began pushing knights back down the stairs.
For now, the situation was under control.
Jay watched Blue and Sweeper craft themselves some swords, and as the green necrotic mana reflected in Jay’s eyes, it disappointed him when seeing the sorry state of his skeletons. Lamp’s skin suit was a tattered mess of decayed flesh, scarcely clinging to its bones, while none of the other skeletons had their metal armor.
“I expected them to drop their weapons, but it sucks that they lost their metal armor, too. They must be able to incorporate the bone armor into their base forms somehow… there must be something missing when I’m making their weapons, something I’m doing differently. As for Lamp, well, Lamp is an anomaly. I have no clue how it re-summoned with its torn flesh suit. Maybe it’s just a unique feature of its emerging class.”
Jay allowed Blue command as the other skeletons needed to rearm themselves with some makeshift weapons. When they perished in battle, their weapons did too, now sitting in a pile of bones beneath the gate, buried among their metal armor suits. Their only armor now was the spectral bone pieces Jay had crafted for them.
Jay remained at the top of one staircase, adding more bones when the pit filling it shifted and dropped, while the skeletons made progress on the other one.
[230 Exp]
Red had killed some knights as it slashed, stabbed, and hacked its way down, and the dead bodies of the knights crashed and tumbled, forming additional hazards for the knights.
The skeletons could see perfectly on the pitch-black staircase, while the parasite-laden knights relied on instinct and the human eyes they controlled.
“I wonder how many knights are inside this place,” Jay thought, “I guess it won’t matter if we can hold them off. Good thing this gatehouse favors the defenders, and my plan worked. Mostly. We just need to clear out the knights inside the castle. Those on the outside won't matter.”
Outside the castle gate, knights smashed their weapons and rattled them against the metal bars, but that was all they could do. Rusted but sturdy, the bars held secure, only causing them to blunt their dull weapons even further.
[230 Exp]
More knights fell to Red, who had the high ground, but it didn’t escape without some damage. But Jay trusted his commander.
Blue analyzed the situation keenly, and had already put strategy into place. Sweeper and Lamp went down to hold the stairs while Red darted back up and entered the gatehouse chamber again. Standing by the bone pile, it healed itself while feasting.
Blue prioritized Red’s safety, as it was the only skeleton with metal armor and would be the last bulwark in an emergency. Jay’s most sturdy protector.
Handy, having no armor, was the fastest. It had the duty of scouting the two passages connecting the gatehouse to the wall. It dashed back and forward through the chamber, monitoring each side so that the knights did not flank the party.
The knights saw no merit in manning the walls or the gatehouse as they had free rein in the crucible, and there were zero enemies inside. For now.
Jay used his necrotic sense ability to keep track of the skeletons in the other stairwell, but noticed a subtle change in the pit of bones in his own stairwell. They dropped less regularly.
“Too suspicious. What are they planning…” he thought, “Only a few have died, but already they’re slowing down their digging.”
Taking a moment, Jay hastily walked to the gate enclosure and peered down. Below the gate were several intelligent knights, all standing in a circle, making hand gestures and communicating in their own silent way. Other than the sounds of shifting bones and clashing swords, it was silent. Their behavior seemed so calculating.
A string of fear stirred in Jay’s heart. The enemy had underestimated him, but he would not do the same in return.
“They’re planning something, but what…” he thought, squinting suspiciously at them.
Jay returned to the staircase he was holding and topped up the bones, but the paranoid part of his mind spun as he plotted his next moves.
“This place is defensible for now, but isn’t safe. I won’t let myself be a sitting duck. I have seized the initiative, but I need to keep it in my favor.”
As Handy dashed through the gatehouse chamber again, Jay gazed into the dark hallway tunneling through the wall.
