Three skeletons and Jay brought their swords down, foolishly so, onto high-pressure roots. A minor cut was all it took to release a dangerous jet of high-speed fluid.
The jets damaged each of their swords and flung their arms back; Lamp fell off the bundle of roots, almost shattering the glowing jar mounted in its shepherd’s crook.
The cracks in the roots split wider, and shot against other roots, also cutting them open with ease.
“Oh shit,” Jay ran towards the door, hiding on the other side and expecting its opening. The skeletons followed Jay along, seeing how the situation changed.
The fluid gushed out with tremendous force, forming a larger and larger fountain, and ripping apart the remaining roots as if they were paper.
Finally, a deep rolling sound came from Jay’s side - the door was cracking open and light gleamed out.
As soon as it opened enough to fit someone through, three knights sprinted out towards the bursting roots. They knew it was bad, but didn’t know it would be this bad. Each of them stood at the side, lowering their swords as they watched the chaotic fountain.
Suddenly, a jet of green fluid shot towards one knight.
The knight paused, dropped its sword, and then shuddered.
The jet pierced its armor and instantly filled its insides as if it were a balloon. It had no time to react.
*Shring! ~*
The other two knights dropped to their knees - the skeletons decisively slayed them, taking advantage of their turned backs.
[115 Exp] [115 Exp]
All three knights died, but the door remained open.
Jay focused on his goal, and was peeking through the door. The odd lights inside drew his attention first.
“Luminous… sticks?” Jay thought, seeing the bright lights through the giant stone doors.
A pure white light came from long glowing rods in the ceiling, dispersing all the darkness.
Just beyond the door was a steel balcony overlooking the doorway. In the middle was something like a podium. No eyes were on Jay as he peeked through, though Jay saw a knight running from the podium on the balcony.
“I bet they control the gate up there. Good thing it didn’t see me.”
(Boys, quick, we’re going in!)
The skeletons rushed back to their master after the fresh kills, while Red had already slipped between the giant doors and entered the room, with Jay following.
Inside the room entrance was a small moat with a metal bridge going over the top. They did not fill the moat with water or anything, and it was as deep as Jay was tall. It was simply there to slow down enemies.; Jay could easily climb out if he fell in, and it would only be a problem if there were enemies around, harassing him from the other side.
The bridge itself impressed Jay as they formed it from one complete piece of metal, and had a pattern of small thumb-sized holes across in it; however, there was no time for analysis.
Across the bridge and below the balcony, a hallway stretched through the underground compound, turning left and right at the end.
Speeding over the bridge, Jay soon heard sounds of rustling armor.
It wasn’t the usual ordered, rhythmic sounds of marching, but a chaotic mess of frantic clunking which was getting noisier. Clearly, the knights were distressed and now disordered.
To Jay, it sounded more like a rock slide or heavy rain; he couldn’t even see them yet, but in a matter of moments the sound was becoming almost deafening.
“Dammit. Too many, too-fucking-many,” he thought, shaking his head with a smile of disbelief. Jay stopped his dash down the hallway.
Gazing back at the door, he thought about rushing out, but knew it wasn’t an option.
“That room will be the first place they search, and I’m already locked in the castle. There’s no going back now.”
Looking back at the hallway, he saw the first shadow of the knights coming.
Jay looked down at the moat below. It was his only option.
(Move!)
He immediately jumped into the moat; the skeletons followed along, and together they huddled under the metal bridge. Jay put his disgust at touching the skeletons aside and huddled with them.
He quickly grabbed the end of Lamp’s shepherd’s crook and stuffed it into his bag, stopping any light from escaping, and in moments, the first enemy ran over the bridge.
*Clong ~ clong ~ cling ~*
The metal boots of knights began stomping above their heads. Jay placed his hand over his mouth.
He looked up cautiously; peering through the thumb-sized holes at the passing knights. For once, he was glad their armor was so concealing; it blocked some of their sight, stopping them from looking below their feet and finding the four infiltrators hiding in the shadows of the bridge.
Jay steadied his breathing and tried to calm himself, but also came up with some worst-case scenarios and thought about how he would get out of them.
Many of the solutions involved flooding the room with bones.
[Your skeleton is no more.]
“Ah? So they can un-summon themselves.” Jay thought, “but they’ll have to wait before I can bring them back.”
Tens of knights passed, and soon over one hundred, yet the sounds of them somehow became louder.
Jay just made himself still, focusing on being quiet and calm despite the stressful, life-threatening situation. It would have caused many others in his situation to panic, but Jay knew there was nothing gained from doing so. After a while, he received another notification and his mood quickly improved.
< [Ability Acquired] >
[Stealth - Level 1]
“Oh?” he raised a brow. “Well, I guess it makes sense. I have concealed my presence while all these knights have passed.” He thought.
With nothing else to do, he checked the new skill.
< [Stealth - Level 1] > (Passive)
[Level 1 - The shadows ever so slightly bend towards you, protecting you as one of their own.]
[Less chance of being detected.]
[Greater chance of noticing other stealthy beings.]
“Awesome. All I have to do is sit still and I get better.” He thought with a sly smile, knowing the same was true for his skeletons.
Jay relaxed under the bridge, yet even now there were knights stomping across it.
Many had left, exiting out the giant stone doors; it was more than enough to deal with the burst roots, and he guessed they were rushing up the numerous staircases, searching for whoever did this.
Some time later, after what seemed like hundreds of knights had passed over, the amount now running across the bridge slowed down a great deal, from a river to a trickle. The stragglers were making their way out.
“Seems like there’s some in every group.” Jay thought.
*Clonk ~ clank ~ clang-ring ~*
Suddenly, a rusted metal sword fell; dropped by a clumsy charging knight, it rang as it skittered across the stone floor.
The sword caught Jay’s eye as it landed just on the edge of the moat; the blade hanging over the edge. Meanwhile, its owner was half-way over the bridge, having too much momentum to slow down.
“Fuck.”
Jay immediately clenched his jaw as his eyes widened.
Looking up through the thumb-sized holes, Jay saw the knight slow down on the bridge, and turned to walk back, fetching its sword.
Jay watched on in horror as his mind raced. All the calmness he had cultivated disappeared in mere seconds.
“It might see us when it bends down… What do I do... What can we do…”
