Part Twenty-Five

My climb up the staircase was extremely uneventful, so much so that I nearly decided to sprint up the steps. I held back though, if only to avoid the prospect of alerting the Undead that I was coming. That, and doing so was likely to leave me gassed.

Mercifully, my endless hike up the stairs soon came to an end, and I emerged onto the roof of one of the towers connected to the walls. A quick glance around made it seem that this was supposed to be a bell tower, but with no obvious ways up here, it didn’t seem to be accessible from the fort itself. Just the tunnel I’d taken to get in.

Wait, that doesn’t make sense. Why would there be a tunnel that can’t be accessed from within the fort? If it’s supposed to be an emergency exit, then it couldn’t be used. Then again, this is a Dungeon. It’s possible the fort was designed in such a way so that Challengers had an easy way in. There could be other exploitable gimmicks as well, if only I can find them. Hrm, this is really reminding me of a Stealth mission in a game. I was never very good at them, but I’m not terrible either.

Deciding to accept the good fortune I’d found, I quickly started scoping out the interior of the fort. I’d expected it to somewhat resemble Fort Aries, but instead of there being multiple buildings, there was just a single massive keep surrounded by a sprawling field.

And to make matters worse, dozens, if not hundreds, of figures were roaming through that space, likely the same kind of Undead manning the walls. Everything was too far away for me to Analyze, but I knew it wouldn’t be good. Every single one of them was likely to be strong.

“I need more information. Ash, take the other Spirits and scout out the walls. Head west from here and make a full circuit, though take care to not get spotted. If you see anything that isn’t an Undead, make sure to report that when you return, got it?”

*…*

“Good. Go.”

The four Spirits zoomed off, each one taking a slightly different trajectory. The top of the walls were huge, easily the size of a four-lane highway, so there were plenty of options for them. Though given that the walls were a complete circle with no breaks, I didn’t really understand why they felt the need to move like they were. Maybe they were just trying to be thorough, or were just messing around? If it was the latter, I’d need to discipline them when they got back.

As for me, I decided to take advantage of my vantage point by using my binoculars to scout out the keep. I was just glad I’d thought to buy a pair, as they’d come in handy several times already. Being able to one-sidedly look at my enemies was highly advantageous, and I needed as much of an advantage as I could get.

Let’s see. There’s a lot of Undead directly around the keep. Hrm, they kind of look like Death Knights, but their equipment’s a lot poorer. I see more than a few rusted out sets of armor and blunted swords. Mass-produced cannon fodder, perhaps? That’s what I’d do if I was a Necromancer. Aside from them, there’s really nothin-. Oh? That’s new.

Right in front of the keep’s gate was shroud-wearing figure clutching a large halberd. And from the chains wrapped around the figure, I could tell that it was likely one of the Executioners I’d been warned about. Alicia had described them several times to me before, and she’d always mentioned the chains, though that was because there’d been heads hanging from them.

Tch, I was hoping they’d be in less strategic places. If one of them's guarding the main entrance, I’ll need to find another way in. No way I’m fighting that head-on.

***

My reconnaissance continued for the next fifteen minutes, at which point my familiars returned. Their report was both heartening and somewhat worrying in equal measure. According to them, there were only Undead on the walls, and they were all the same level. Unfortunately, while there were guard towers at each of the four cardinal directions, only one led to the ground. And it was obviously the one directly across from me.

Yep, that makes sense. Haaah, why did I ever hope for anything different? Okay, all I gotta do is just make my way across a wall guarded by decently strong Undead. Not the hardest thing in the world, but not easy. While I don’t know what kind of Undead I’m dealing with, I doubt they’ll be stronger than the Death Knight or Death Beast, so I should be able to handle them. And if I utilize Ash properly, then I should be able to take down groups of them.

The only issue would be if they manage to set off some sort of alarm, causing a swarm of Undead to pursue me. If that happens, my best bet might be to just jump off the wall while using Beast of the Nightmare to run away. I might sprain an ankle doing that, but Rapid Recovery should take care of that issue. It’s not the most graceful of exit strategies, but it’s the best I can do on short notice. If I manage to clear part of the wall, then I can come up with something more permanent.

With all those thoughts in mind, I tied a rope around one of the struts holding the bell’s anchor point up, and rappelled down the side of the tower. That was the easy part, the hard part was just up ahead. I slowly sneaked up on the closest Undead and quickly used Analyze.

Death Soldier

Rank: C

Description: A basic Undead created through Necromancy. Designed to be cheap, effective, cannon fodder, Death Soldiers have the minimal strength and tenacity expected of Undead, making them a cut above normal soldiers. However, their lackluster intelligence means that they can’t efficiently use arms and armor given to them, generally causing them to be armed with nearly useless equipment.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the results. Not only were they C-Rank, they were also much weaker than Death Knights. And while I’d still need to be careful since there could be stronger Undead mixed in, fighting my way past the cannon fodder wouldn’t be impossible. I’d just need to prevent them from sounding an alarm, as even a horde of regular Zombies would be hard to deal with if it was this large.

“Eeeaaagh?”

The first group of Undead didn’t even see me coming. Over time, my speed had continued to grow, up to the point where I could probably outrun most land-based animals. I did need to several of my speed-increasing skills to achieve that, but the fact remained that a sudden blitz at that speed was pretty hard to deal with, even for the Undead.

Multiple severed heads flew through the air, the result of their former owners inability to see me coming. I’d worried that the Death Soldiers might not actually die without their heads, but it had been a needless worry. The second their heads were gone, their bodies crumpled to the ground like broken puppets.

From there, I sped down the wall, ambushing the Death Soldiers as I went. The creatures were either extremely dumb, or extremely slow, since they rarely reacted to me killing those nearby. They’d only react if they actually saw me, and it was too late by then. Honestly, the ease with which I was killing them probably made me sloppy, which is what led to the next fight.

“Herghergherg!”

Just as I was approaching the next watch tower, a chilling laugh caused me to stop in my tracks. Something about it felt sinister. An oddly intense feeling of dread gripped my heart, though I quickly shook it off.

…So, there’s more than just the one Executioner out here? Fine, bring it.

“Herrrgherghergh"

And bring it, it did. I had to leap sideways to avoid the halberd trying to cleave me in half. The Executioner had somehow managed to sneak up behind me, though the laugh kind of gave it away. Based on the way the blade sank into the ground, trying to block or parry that would’ve been a mistake. This creature was much stronger than the Death Knight I’d fought.

Taking advantage of its weapon being stuck, I lunged at the Executioner, both of my blades sinking into where I thought its legs would be. Since I already knew how dangerous these things were, my plan was to immobilize rather than kill it. Alicia hadn’t said anything about these things possessing regenerative abilities, so my hope was that it wouldn’t be able to follow me if I just maimed it.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to work. While the Executioner screamed in pain as I stabbed it, the feedback I felt from the wound was odd. Cutting into a living creature is usually pretty hard, even with my swords. Most monsters tend to tense up when hurt, causing their muscles to tighten up, making them harder to cut through. But that sensation was lacking when I cut into the Executioner. In fact, it seemed that the damn thing didn’t even feel the wounds on its legs, as it just kept going. It was at that moment that I remembered that Alicia had told me that even her arrows barely affected the one she fought. If that was true, then these things were likely even more immortal than I thought.

Nope, I’m out. I don’t want to deal with crazy, undying monsters.

I kicked the Executioner backwards before turning on my heel and booking it out of there. If this thing could keep fighting through pain, then there were very few ways I could actually fight it. It was better to just flee as fast as I could. Though of course, the Executioner wouldn’t make it easy.

“Herghergherg!”

Even as I scrambled between the Death Soldiers, the Executioner continued to pursue me, bowling over everything in its path. It even went so far as to cut down particularly thick groups of Undead with its halberd, sending bloody chunks flying forwards, right at me.

Shit! This isn’t good. I could definitely outrun that thing on open ground, but the Death Soldiers keep getting in my way. If this keeps up, it’ll catch me in no time, and I can’t try to stall it with a Bomb because either might get killed and become even stronger. What to do?

Actually, there is one thing I could do, but it’s pretty dangerous. A single misstep could kill me. But that Executioner will definitely kill me if it catches up, so…yeah, no choice. Just gotta get the timing right. Oh boy.

Resolving myself, I rushed towards the edge of the wall and leaped over, using the battlements as a pivot to help keep me close to the wall itself. Getting too far from it would’ve been a death sentence, as the walls were high enough for the impact to break both my legs, if it didn’t just outright kill me.

I held my breath as I entered free fall, though that was more of a focusing mechanic than anything. If I fucked the timing up here by even a little bit, I’d either splat against the ground or get picked off by the Undead archers.

Just after I passed the halfway point, I filled the white sword with as much mana as I could spare and thrust it at the wall. The blade cut through the mystery material like it was butter, sticking deep into it and nearly yanking my arms off in the process. That had been the greatest risk with this plan, as breaking an arm here would’ve forced me to retreat at the very least, if it didn’t kill me.

Now that the height was significantly reduced, I could safely drop to the ground. The impact jarred me a little, but it was easily something I could handle thanks to Beast of the Nightmare. And once I willed my sword back to me, I was good to go. Though unfortunately, my little stunt had caught the attention of all the nearby Undead, meaning that I wasn’t out of danger just yet.

“HERGHERGHERGGGGGG!!!”

Oh shit.