Chapter 62: Battered and Bruised

Alabaster

Alley wasn’t having a particularly good morning. He had made the choice to act as the decoy while Darius who could actually play Cards, defeated the largest of the three knights. It had seemed like a good plan in the moment, in fact, it was still a good plan. The issue was that Alley had gotten absolutely battered along the way.

The pair of ghostly knights were a lot slower than Alley, but they weren’t stupid or clumsy. While there had been no monologue like from the big one, no words at all. The pair of animated suits had used their advantage in numbers and a surprisingly high degree of teamwork to repeatedly box Alley in. Each time he would juke back out of the trap but it had cost him.

Already Alley was covered in light cuts from the ghostly knight’s swords. More than once the boy had been able to deflect a strike just enough, or move just slightly far enough out of the way that the rusted blades hadn’t managed to tear his flesh too deeply.

On top of the injuries from the blades Alley had taken a backhanded gauntlet strike to the same side of his face as his existing black eye. It had swollen the bruise so much that he could barely see out of it now. Then there was the pommel of one of the swords that had been slammed into his shoulder with enough force that his arm had gone limp for the better part of a minute.

On the upside, he hadn’t needed to use his Buckler Ring to stay alive yet. As his only magical defensive measure, Alley wanted to hang onto it for as long as possible especially since Manifested monsters had begun making their way out of the strange glass structure.

It was up to two 1400 Power zombies right now, they were easy enough to avoid on their own, but it was more manpower aiding the knights, and Alley couldn’t afford the time to kill them.

‘Hurry up Darius’ he thought as he hurled himself into a backward roll to avoid a combined assault from both ghostly suits of armor.

“Longest twenty seconds of my life.”

Alley considered himself in good condition for his rank, but he was starting to breathe heavily and if his friend didn’t rejoin him soon he was going to have to start making some aggressive moves, some extremely high-risk aggressive moves. Not the ideal situation to find himself in by any stretch of the imagination.

“Alley take!” The basic instruction was filled with more meaning than it might seem at first. Alley knew Darius wouldn’t have used those specific two words if he was simply telling him to come get something. That exact phrase meant that Darius was making a beeline for his friend and that he was passing him something right this second.

It was a part of the simple combat language they had developed while hunting the creatures on and around Cursed Isle. The goal of their code had more to do with quick and clear communication in a tense situation, rather than obfuscating their meaning.

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Without a moment’s hesitation, Alley turned towards the source of the call and flung a grasping hand out in front of himself. The moment he did Alley’s grip met the cold links of his CoreSteel chain just as the length of metal left Darius’ hand.

The redheaded boy held his spear one-handed down by his hip as he sprinted past Alley and directly at the encroaching group of two knights and two zombies.

Without the hook, Alley couldn’t really call his chain a weapon but he still felt a lot better armed now than he had earlier trying to defend himself with an old pitchfork. Plus there was the psychological aspect, as silly as he knew the idea was Alley felt safer and somehow less naked when he had his father’s chain.

It might have something to do with his sheer familiarity with the length of metal, usually with a hook attached but Alley had been playing with and later practicing with chain since he could walk.

Deciding to think more about his own psychology at a more opportune moment Alley tied the chain off around his left arm and hurled himself back into the fray.

The knights were still strong and durable but something had gone out of them. The cohesion that had allowed them to repeatedly box Alley in was simply gone. Even Darius who hadn’t fought the pair up until now, noticed the difference.

Plunging his spear into the head of one of the 1400 Power zombies the redheaded boy said as much.

“Is something wrong with these guys? They kind of suck all of a sudden.”

In the midst of wrapping one of the ghostly knights in his chain, Alley called back.

“I know what you mean. I’m thinking maybe when you killed the big one they lost something, but it's just a guess.”

“That makes sense.” Said Darius as he span on the spot to launch a flurry at the unchained knight

‘Does it?’ Alley wasn’t so sure, but it was the best explanation he could come up with on the fly. Whatever the reason for their sudden incompetence, the pair of boys did their best to take advantage of the situation, working together to topple each knight in turn with the chain.

After that, it was a simple matter to go get a decorative rock bigger than Alley’s head from the garden and bashing the hollow monsters into oblivion. The first had been sort of challenging as the other knight was still upright, but Alley kept it busy while Darius deployed his superior strength to the ‘bashing process’.

Much to Alley’s chagrin neither knight responded to his attempts to make them into Cards. They didn’t resurrect either, but something unusual was definitely going on here. Maybe the knights were some sort of extension of another creature? Alley had no idea of the exact cause but nothing happened when he placed his Dealer against the destroyed suits of armor.

It was another mystery he was going to have to relegate to solving later as with uncanny synchronicity a new Manifested Bone golem sporting 6000 Power stomped out of the glass structure at the exact moment a group of armored skeletons came pouring through the opening in the courtyard wall that the knight had entered from.

Taking a half second to assess the pair of threats, Alley made a snap judgment call.

“The Player first!” He yelled and the pair of boys took off sprinting towards the strange glass building and whatever horrors awaited within.