The raid team gathered at the forward outpost once more. As Princeps, Slayer, Magus, and Drone 7 prepared to make another raid, Custodian ordered a pause for the raids. The four drones were to be joined by Drone 6.

“Do you guys know what’s going on? It’s getting harder for me to get into the main databank since I have to take care of the little ones,” Exarchi asked his other brothers. He had been directing the lesser spider drones as Custodian focused his concentration on the scout drones in the ruined city.

Princeps shook his head while Magus shrugged. Drone 7 noted, “On the other hand, why would Drone 6 be joining us?”

The drones had no complains about anything, but they would still get minor curiosities from time to time, as a side effect from Custodian unlocking the first memory.

“Not even Drone 6 would know,” Slayer replied.

As the drones conversed, the target of the conversation appeared. Draped with smooth, silk fabrics from shoulder to toes, Drone 6 greeted its brothers.

“What is this?” Slayer asked he as pointed at Drone 6’s new robes.

Instead of replying immediately, Drone 6 tossed another set at Slayer, who caught it mid-air. “This is silk. It’s ugly, and amateurly woven, but it’ll do.”

“Define ugly?” Slayer raised his head.

“I do not know.” Drone 6 shrugged. “But what I know is that it is very strong. This would be the perfect supplement to metal armor.”

Slayer took off his fur armor, then wore the silk robes. Of course, he didn’t just throw the fur armor. He simply placed it on top of the robes again. Anyone else would’ve overheated from the tons of fur armor and silk worn over them, but Slayer was a drone. He didn’t care and he wasn’t affected by the heat or discomfort.

“I’ll be joining you. I brought an axe with me,” Drone 6 said as it raised a steel axe. “But I’ll be relying on you, brothers.”

Drone 6 didn’t train too much, as they would rather spend time finding other alternatives to gain profits. Slayer nodded, and exclaimed, “Noted. More kills for me.”

The raid team of five signalled their master, and in return, Custodian gave them a coordinate in hivespeak. It was the large open area the undead horde was last seen. By this time, the undead had already moved close to a large building. They weren’t discouraged by the fact that a massive explosion wiped out a lot of their brethren.

[Alert: Mana levels spiking in 3.. 2.. 1…]

Another explosion rang out, this time from the building the undead were swarming. A large section of the wall was smashed open, but a number of skeletons were decimated. Instead of a large red explosion like last time, this time it was a blue one.

‘Move, immediately.’ Custodian’s words were clear, and the drones didn’t spend a second slacking off.

Instead of the usual stride, the drones were running towards their destination. At the first crossroad, the five drones were joined by a pack of spider drones. Of course, they didn’t stop either. They kept running past the skeletons that didn’t join the rest of the undead.

More and more spider drones joined the raid team as they got closer to the undead horde. Custodian was even beginning to doubt the logic in charging towards a horde of skeletons, but it was too late. The raid team was only a few minutes away from the large building.

It won’t be too long until…

BOOM!

In the middle of a skeleton-infested city, a group of people struggled to hold their ground inside one of the many halls of a crumbling building. After wiping out another cluster of undead, a red-bearded middle-aged man wearing a thick brown fur coat fell on his knees, spurting blood from his mouth.

“T-that’s the last of my spells. I can’t… Humanos… ” The man fell unconscious after muttering under his breath.

A tall man wearing a full set of chainmail quickly ordered, “Grab Aefelred! This building’s about to go down so we’ll need to get out quick!”

Another young man, probably in his teenage years, grabbed the unconscious man, Aefelred, to the back of the group.

A short redheaded woman standing next to the tall man armed with a crossbow shot a bolt against an incoming group of skeletons. Mid-air, the bolt glowed with a red tint before exploding in the middle of the undead. Reloading her crossbow, she cried, “But how are we even going to get out of here?!”

Just as she was about to shoot another bolt, three wraiths bursted through the wall, charging into the people with weapons raised menacingly. The woman’s eyes went wide as shock enveloped her entire body.

Before the wraiths could even get close, though, a wave of bluish light resonated throughout the hall they were in. A young girl raised a fist-sized effigy of a human up, then shouted, “By Humanos, begone, enemy of humanity!”

Instantly, the wraiths dissipated into dust. If not for the weapons dropping onto the floor, one would’ve thought the wraiths never existed in the first place. The tall man frowned at their desperate situation. “Dyvona, take Priestess Elena with you and check if the other side of buildings has a hole we could use to escape-...”

“Gerard!”

The tall redheaded man, named Gerard, couldn’t even finish his sentence as he raised his sword to block an axe. Staring down at the man was a living armor, undead renowned for being resilient. Gerard kicked the living armor in retaliation, then swiped at the helmet of the undead with his sword. Just as the head of the living armor was launched off by the impact, it flung back into the main body.

This was the reason why living armors were hard to defeat. Just smashing pieces of the armor wasn’t enough as it would just reassemble itself. What was needed to defeat these type of undead were magics or miracles.

With their mage knocked out, Gerard turned to the priestess Elena. She didn’t even need to hear his orders to understand what she had to do. She raised the human effigy once again, then dictated a chant, “Once-servant of Humanos, may you rest!”

A beam of bluish light engulfed the living armor. Steam was coming out from inside the living armor as it became more aggressive, determined to take down at least one of them before it disappeared.

It would’ve been easy just holding off one living armor, but swarms of skeletons were rushing at Gerard as well. Elena tried to support him, but blood started to spurt out of her mouth. Her knees were slowly becoming weaker as she chanted more and more miracles.

Finally, her body gave out. The woman with a crossbow, Dyvona, managed to grab her just before the priestess fell onto the cold floor. With Gerard the only remaining member of the group to be able to fight properly, things were dire.

“We need to get out!” The man carrying the unconscious mage shouted.

“Let me kill this living armor first!” Gerard shouted in reply. As the dying living armor shattered onto the floor, another living armor charged with a spear. He barely managed to dodge the spear, but was knocked out of his feet by a follow-up attack by the newly arrived living armor.

“Gerard!” Dyvona shouted. The undead placed a foot on Gerard’s chest, raised his spear, and… was pummeled into many pieces by a large armored person armed with a greataxe.

The impact of the blow was so mighty that the living armor couldn’t even reassemble. Gerard couldn’t believe his eyes at the fact that one could just use extreme brute force against the living armor.

Another living armor charged at the armored man with a short sword on its hand. It tried to slash at the person to no avail. Giving up, it started stabbing at the weak points, particularly the gaps in the plate armor the man was wearing.

Unflinching, the large bulky raised his axe. Lightning danced across his weapon just as he slammed it down onto the living armor, pummeling it and creating a shockwave which obliterated a group of skeletons behind their stronger undead kin.

Another contender appeared, this time a wraith. Gerard thought it would be impossible for the armored man to win this, but contrary to his expectations, the wraith was also smashed into smithereens.

‘Enchanted weapon? But… enchanted weapons would have glowing runes inscribed all over the surface. His weapon obviously doesn’t have any of that!’ Gerard thought. ‘Could he be using magic?’

Gerard knew that magic had limited use in a short period of time, as magic would drain a person’s stamina. Overuse of magic could even harm the user’s body, just like with Aefelred, who started puking blood just after using his best spells three times.

But this person was just using magic so casually!

No, something was wrong. It felt like he wasn’t even using magic… or at least magic that he knew. Mana wasn’t being used by the armored man, so how was he using magic?

As soon as the wraith dissipated into mist, two wraiths popped out of the walls from the sides of the enigmatic man.

“Watch out!” Gerard cried out.

But, before the wraiths could even touch the man, they were hit with flasks. The glass flasks shattered, spilling water all over the supposedly incorporeal wraiths. The water burnt the wraiths, causing the undead to screech in pain.

‘Holy water?’ Gerard thought to himself.

Paving a way into the building, four other men arrived. The new arrivals looked the same; fur armor strapped all over their body, dark gray weapons, and dim red light glowed from within their armor or clothing.

One of the people offered his hand to Gerard, and he took it. “Everyone, help has come!” Gerard shouted.

“Who are these people?” Dyvona asked Gerard as she carried the weakened Elena.

Gerard turned to the person that helped him up. The man was beckoning for them to follow, not even saying a single word to them. “I don’t know, but they seem friendly. It’s best we follow them unless you have a death wish.”

The rest of the group didn’t disagree with their leader, as following the mysterious saviors would be their shot at surviving. The strangers led the way out of the building, then out onto the streets. They didn’t look like they were tiring out at all. In fact, even the bulky armored man didn’t slow down his relentless attacks. Just a few minutes of fighting would wear down anyone, much less fighting a city’s worth of undead.

All along, tiny metal spiders leapt at the undead, helping the strangers, adding more mystery to the strangers. Despite that, Gerard and his group didn’t voice out any confusion. After all, now wasn’t the time for it.

After an hour of fighting, the strangers broke out of the city, then started running down a path. The undead didn’t stop their pursuit and continued chasing the escaping people down the dead grassland. Soon, they arrived at a door that was wide open. Awaiting them was another stranger covered in armor with spiders clinging onto his torso.

As soon as the group managed to run through the door, the strangers closed the door. They held themselves against the door anticipating the undead would try to bash the door down, but unexpectedly, nothing happened. It seemed that the undead stopped pursuing them when they entered through the door.

At last, the humans could finally catch their breath. On the other hand, the strangers looked like they didn’t tire at all. They all stood around like statues, some staring at each other in silence. The only reason to think they were living beings was that during their silent ‘conversations’, they would do some hand gestures.

Gerard inspected the room they entered. It was a large chamber with a pool in the middle of the room. Other than the strangers and the moving metal spiders, the strange thing was that the pool’s water was greenish, but clear enough to see through it. It sparkled mesmerizingly, giving Gerard an idea of what the water was.

“Hey, Dyvona. Isn’t this holy water?” Gerard asked as he crouched at the edge of the swimming pool.

After laying Elena onto the group, Dyvona inspected the pool. “You’re right. This must be why the undead stopped chasing us. But why is there a large pool of water here?”

“Let’s ask the strangers… if they could even understand us,” Gerard replied. He walked up to the armored man that saved them, then bowed. “I am Gerard fal Sea’axfeared. May I know the name of my savior?”

The armored man stared at Gerard, and after a minute has passed, Gerard felt awkward that the stranger wouldn’t speak. “H-hello? Can you understand me?”

One of the strangers walked up to the armored man, and they exchanged stares. The whole situation was becoming stranger by the minute.

At last, a man wearing a white robe spoke, “Tong... tong?”

“W-what?” Gerard muttered.

It sounded like drums being beaten inside an empty hall. How could a person even make that kind of sound? Were these truly humans?

“Bham… Bham... “ The armored man made a noise reminiscent of a hammer hitting against an anvil, albeit softer.

Gerard took a few steps back in confusion. Who were these people? No… more like… what were these people?!

“Gerard, what will happen to us?” Dyvona asked, slightly nervous at the sound that their saviors were making.

“I… don’t know,” was Gerard’s only reply.