The corridor went on and on, the footsteps of the five cultivators echoing around them. Isaac’s hair stood on end - the whole thing was spotless and clean. Too clean. Generally, underground passages carried a dark ambience to them, lit up with eerie red cultivator lights, rusted pipes and old wiring running along the walls, steam hissing and spilling from valves. But the corridor that once belonged to the Department of Domestic Security and still bears its name - it looked as though it existed on a different planet. The walls and floor and ceiling were all made of sleek metal; combined with the lights, they were so white and so bright it almost made Isaac shield his eyes. They looked smooth, far too smooth, and so clean, despite the centuries, that Isaac felt out of place, the dirt from his boots scattering with each step standing in dark contrast to it all.
They headed down a long flight of stairs. Dan gripped his staff, Reed held her sword, and Oksana still led the way, snakes slithering ahead of her. Some of them had already reached the bottom of the stairs and disappeared further down the hall - and then immediately bolted back to Oksana. Three of them raised their heads and shook them intensely, hissing sharply. Energy crackled up Reed’s sword.
At the landing, halfway down another hallway, the group of cultivators found bodies. They could identify them from afar - the straw hats and grass capes gave them away as Zhanghai samurai. Their faces were frozen in shock, their eyes bulging in frozen fear. Isaac knelt next to them and narrowed his eyes at the black streaks of charred flesh. One of the samurai looked half-disintegrated, as if torn up by razors. The dead samurai’s tongue hung loosely from his mouth. If being torn apart didn’t kill him, then fear and shock might’ve done the job.
“The samurai at the depot must’ve explored down here,” Dan surmised. “And stumbled upon something. They retreated - these two didn’t make it out. The survivors locked the door, painted the warning sign on it, tossed the crates in front of it, and then scrammed.”
“These men were annihilated,” Demetrius said in his low voice. “What could’ve defeated them so?”
“Maybe it was me,” Reed said, disguising her true emotions with a cheeky grin. She glanced down the corridor. Not too far ahead, it opened up into a large chamber. Blood trailed from the fallen samurai down that direction.
“They must’ve ran into that something in there,” Isaac said. Unconsciously, he tightened a fist and felt grateful for the bracer on his arm that could double his power. Based on these two samurai, he was going to need it.
Dan cleared his voice and spoke calmly. “Anyone want to turn back?”
Red lights sparked up the arms of Isaac and Demetrius, Reed twirled her sword, Oksana the snake hissed while Oksana the cultivator had a dark look in her eyes.
“Didn’t think so,” Dan said. “Let’s go.”
Despite their protests, Oksana sent out her snakes ahead of her again. Step by step, the group of five followed the blood trail and corridor. Isaac breathed in and out of his nose to calm himself. After taking down an armada, he felt ready for anything.
Except this. The group stepped into the chamber, ready for an ambush, but none came. Instead, they found themselves in the heart of a large facility. Catwalks lead upwards to further floors; this floor was the bottom of the facility, featuring a maze of electronic equipment, blinking lights and beeping sounds, and strangest of all, a giant map stretching across the back wall. Isaac would’ve stepped towards it, because this wasn’t like any map he had seen before - it was entirely made of lights, low orange ones mixed in with dark ones that formed the outline of some landmass. More lights across the top read NORTHEAST REGION THIRD DISTRICT, and the bottom of the map proudly proclaimed POPULATION MOVEMENT ACHIEVED.
Again, Isaac would’ve stepped towards it, but the aftermath of an ancient battle was strewn across the floor. Dozens of skeletons, many in white lab coats, others in suits, appeared in the same shape as the samurai in the corridor. That is to say - torn apart, blown apart, scorched, annihilated. The samurai had been eviscerated recently, but this battle had been so long ago that the flesh and blood had long since vanished, leaving just weathered skeletons behind.
“What the-” Isaac paused when he heard footsteps from above. The five cultivators formed a tight circle upon hearing the noise, enabling themselves to take on an opponent from any direction. Reed stopped joking around, a frown on her face as she ran Rddhi through her sword. The sound of boots against metal came from above; Isaac’s eyes widened when he looked at the top floor of the facility.
More skeletons appeared. These ones walked and moved, paying no attention to the fact that they were dead. One by one, they assembled along the catwalk railing, forming a circle far bigger than the group of five on the bottom floor. The skeletons wore clothing, odd clothing - black boots, green-and-tan camouflage fatigues, their helmets an olive green color with goggles strapped to the front. As to why skeletons needed goggles, Isaac wasn’t sure, but he could deduce, based on the uniforms, that these skeletons were soldiers, just like him.
Time moved slowly in the chamber. The skeletons gazed down at the cultivators. Surprisingly, despite their gear, none of the skeletons were armed, but Isaac understood why a moment later. With no communication, with no warming, the skeletons moved as one, slipping over the railing, simply falling towards the bottom level. And then, right as Isaac sent out an electric blast and Reed shot a sound wave and Dan sent out screaming wind with his staff and Demetrius cocked an arm and fired off a beam of Rddhi and both Oksanas hissed in their general direction, red lightning erupted throughout the skeletons. In unison, every skeleton activated their Rddhi at the same time.
“...what the fuck-” Reed muttered before the light blinded them entirely. Isaac almost went into the shock, his heart beating so fast, as he recalled the sight of the bloodied samurai in the outside corridor. His legs turned into jelly and he could feel the heat of dozens of cultivators swarming downwards, the collective powerful so strong that it slapped Isaac across the face with its name - |SHOCK AND AWE|.
“Use the Rddhi!” Dan ordered. “We got a sixth sense for a reason!”
Dan’s calm, crisp yelling snapped Isaac to his attention. Sure, he was currently blinded, but he was a cultivator. Things like eyes could be obsolete at times for people like them. He listened closely to the Rddhi; time seemed to slow. With steady breathing, he observed three skeletons heading directly for him. Up above, their arms were cocked back, the bones in the arm sharpening, fusing, turning into ragged spikes intent on skewering their opponents. Isaac sent out another electric blast, relying entirely on his sixth sense, and succeeded in nailing one of the skeletons in the stomach. While that one crashed into an electronic panel, the other two were right on top of Isaac. He rolled out of the way just in time, narrowly avoiding a nearby console.
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Metal screeched as the skeletons slammed their spikes into the floor, having missed all their targets. The five-man group collected themselves, the initial shock wearing off, the initial blinding wearing off. Isaac could still only see dimly lit splotches as he bobbed and weaved, dodging the strikes of incoming skeletons. While Squad 1 stood their ground, so used to working as a team, Isaac and Reed ended up peeling away, both to give themselves space and because they were so used to fighting as just the two of them.
“Alpha Squad, moving up.”
Isaac almost shuddered - the voice came from a skeleton, but their vocal chords had vanished long ago. Instead, their telepathic thoughts were so powerful - or perhaps so old and rarely used by this point - that Isaac himself could hear them. A gang of skeletons charged Isaac and Reed, so the duo sent their ranged attacks at them, so the skeletons rolled and dodged, hiding behind panels and desks along the way. A pair of skeletons raised their spikes and aimed at Isaac; he recognized the motion and ducked right as the spikes rocketed off of their boney arms. They would’ve blown right through Isaac had he not recognized it in time, but the covering fire allowed the rest of Alpha Squad to reach him.
A sound wave decapitated the first skeleton soldier, while the second one was magnetically attracted to the large map. Another soldier then nearly skewered Reed, but Isaac got him with an electric blast first. He grinned since his vision was coming back to him-
“Flash bang, suppressing fire.”
The survivors of Alpha Squad, now joined by reinforcements, emitted bright flashes of Rddhi from their bodies, plunging Isaac’s vision back into white once more. At the same time, another squad of soldiers sent out a wave of spikes whistling through the air. Reed smacked away a sharpened bone with her sword, while Isaac knocked over a long wooden table to shield himself. A spike then broke through it, inches from his face, a bony hand having punched through the table. Isaac immediately punched through the table in return. Though the wood easily shattered, when his fist crashed into the uniform, his hand struck strong, solid bone. The skeleton got knocked away, but soon stood up no worse for the wear.
A soldier then broke through the table entirely, so Isaac rolled away back to his feet. The skeleton attacked one way; Isaac moved another and found an opening to strike. Energy flared in his fist as Isaac struck the skeleton’s helmet; between the strong material of the helm and the underlying skull, Isaac again only succeeded in knocking away his opponent instead of destroying it.
He frowned, because he was indeed a self-proclaimed brain expert, and needed to act smart to defeat waves of nigh-unkillable enemies. Can you kill something that’s already dead?
Isaac gasped. “These guys are cultivators!”
“No shit!” Reed answered dryly, hwe sword clashing with a long spike as more skeletons swarmed her.
“If they’re cultivators, then they have the same weaknesses,” Isaac reasoned. “Sever the connection between heart, mind, and soul, and they die!”
“He’s right,” Dan called out from the other side of the chamber, needing to talk in between blasts of his screaming wind. “Our opponents are alive, strange as it may be. They have to be if they can cultivate. The heart is protected by the ribcage, the brain is protected by the skull, and the soul is…the soul, but they have a weak spot.”
Nodding in recognition, Reed revved up her Domino Sword like a chainsaw, bright lights sparking from it, and decapitated an attacking skeleton. It didn't get back up again. “The cervical vertebrae. That means neck, Isaac.”
“I know,” Isaac lied. A skeleton thrusted a spike at his stomach. Isaac knocked it out of the way and then laid his shoulder into another approaching soldier, knocking it to the ground, and then blasted the neck of the skeleton soldier charging behind it. The Fists of Anji blew right through the neck bones; the body collapsed while the skull went flying away. More skeletons stepped up, but Isaac did the same, punching and bobbing and weaving and blasting and punching his way through neck bones. He twisted the head of a skeleton wearing silver insignia until its neck popped.
“Alpha Squad eliminated.”
“Oscar Squad eliminated.”
“Romeo Squad eliminated.”
The telepathetic communication between the skeletons sounded muddled and sleepy, yet utterly calm and devoid of meaning. Were these skeleton soldiers truly comrades? Isaac couldn’t tell. They wore the uniforms of an army and moved with military precision, but they made no reaction to their fellow soldiers dying, or even to their own destruction. And they were certainly getting destroyed - the battle had shifted in favor of the cadets. Isaac could finally see again - no more bright flashes of light came his way.
On the other side of the room, Demetrius fired off beam after beam, reminding Isaac of the Polyphemus but in miniature. He shot off short beams by punching the air; his attacks sliced through several skeletons. When one got close to him, wind screamed and the skeleton lost its head. The wind carried snakes with it - they dive-bombed Bravo Squad, writhing into their empty socks, coiling around necks until they snapped.
One by one, the cadets eliminated the hostile squadrons. The sounds of fighting were dying down, just a few to go.
“Third District Headquarters breached.”
“Reinforcements requested.”
“Reinforcements requested.”
“Contact lost with Northeast Main Station.”
Isaac sent a backfist through another neck.
“Reinforcements requested.”
“Contact lost with the Nevada facility.”
“Contact lost with Secretary Kohler.”
“Activating Currahee.”
The weight in the room shifted. Or, at least, the gravity did. Once on solid footing, Isaac not found himself floating in the air, spinning and unsteady. The skeleton soldiers were prepared for this, having launched themselves at Isaac right as the gravity shifted. One shot a spike from point blank range; Isaac knocked it away just in time, though it did take a few strands of hair with it. Not too far away, the colors on Reed’s sword changed as she magnetized herself toward the skeletons. She decapitated the first one, then dueled the other while Isaac grabbed the eye sockets of a third. As they wrestled, Isaac managed to punch clean through his neck, and the detached skull floating upwards alongside them.
Isaac, now facing upside down, glanced down at the ceiling and his blood ran cold. A final skeleton appeared on the upper balcony completed unaffected by the change in gravity. His shoulders bore golden insignias, his goggles were pulled down over his eye sockets, body armor covered his fatigues, and rusted barbed wire covered his arms.
He leapt down from the balcony, falling towards Isaac. The big skeleton, the one they called Currahee, cocked an arm back and punched the air. Rather than a spike, a thick whip of barbed wire came straight for Isaac. With no other choice, tumbling upwards into the air, Isaac cocked his own fist back and went to meet it.