The standoff wouldn’t be kept for long. Little by little, the undead approach, as if waiting for Roberion and Shade to run away. The undead behemoth didn’t move with his fellow undead, looking from afar and betraying a kind of intelligence.
Now what? We just run away to the entrance? We will go nowhere like that.
It didn’t take too long for Shade to talk; Roberion’s earpiece produced the genderless robotic voice.
“Do not fear. The big dog isn’t a behemoth. His incarnation connection is lower, let’s call him undead dog variant 1, Undog V1 for short. I can deal with him; you deal with the undogs.".
What kind of name is that? Undog V1 seems like a name of a machine or equipment. I wish he would be the only variant, though.
Without any more words, Roberion only felt a spike of energy going out from Shade. Taking a quick glance at the giant, he detected the indigo line connection again, this time from Shade itself. The connection seemed strong, expanding to more than just a point of energy.
Before he could analyze, a sudden irritation was inflicted on Roberion’s eyes. Shade seemed to give an increased weight to reality, but this weight vanished in a blink of an eye.
Roberion tried to follow Shade's movement, but it was just fragments of the giant’s presence, like his vision was a video and Shade was flickering pictures. In a second, Shade cut through five of the undogs. The giant didn’t divert its target; it just used the sudden attack to do additional damage to their numbers.
In Shade’s dash, during the fast speed onslaught, the giant used the long reach of the glaive to kill the undogs. The movement of the glaive flowed like a swan cutting through the air. The glaive moved like wings, and Shade, Shade was flying. Each of the swings Shade made with the mad dash fell on a creature.
Heads cut, bodies sliced in twain. The blood didn’t have enough time to flow out after the attack, only flowing after Shade reached its true target. The blood was spelled like fountains, a gory display symbolizing the start of the furious battle.
As the giant struck the undog V1, the beast was powerful and agile enough to put its muscled pawns to block the fatal attack. The attack cut bone, stopping near the finish of the beast's pawn. The beast wasn’t dumb, using its pawn to divert the glaive and preparing a counterattack. Shade had no choice but to evade and lose ground.
The counterattack gave enough time for the beast's wounded paw to recover. The regeneration of this thing was absurd, but the recovery seemed weird as more muscles expanded from the wound like cancerous growth. This growth didn’t seem to be a deadly one, just making the beast more menacing.
Roberion didn’t have more time to analyze the two fighters. He had a battle of his own. The undogs seemed not only afraid but started to run from near the clash of Shade and undog V1. "Happily" for Roberion, the direction they were running was after him and Percival. If that wasn’t enough, new beasts showed up. Shade killed them if they were near the clash. But the giant couldn’t get them all. The undog V1 was taking most of Shade’s focus.
With the near undogs diminishing their distance fast, Roberion didn’t have a choice but to kill them with no effort spared. The slower he killed them, the more undead he would need to deal with at the same time. It was time to try his new spear.
Taking out the blackwood spear and focusing on his fireball spell. Roberion heard the first clash as Percival started fighting the undogs. The undead dogs were already circling the knight, as good as Percival was at fighting. He couldn’t do it alone, and he didn’t need to.
Roberion used the undogs distraction, already plunging the spear into the head of the beast before that beast’s pawn could touch the floor. Before he could take the spear out of the creature, other undogs had already tried their chances against him. Seeing that Percival, already sporting some wounds, made their distraction a lethal one, the rapier perforated the eyes of the first beast and cut the mouth of another.
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The injured undog was already regenerating his mouth; the regeneration was much lower than that of the undog V1. It was comparable to the ones present in the humanoid undead. The only benefit the dogs had over their humanoid counterparts was their speed and a little more intelligence. The regeneration and strength were similar.
Roberion and Percival kept their dance of death with beasts, trading the attention of the undogs and killing them when they could. Roberion cast his fireball continuously at where the undogs were coming from, the left intersection. Some of them tried to take the longer route; instead of doing a curve and going straight at them, some tried to take the long way around. Sadly for them, they would get to enter directly at the confrontation between Shade and the undog V1.
When will the beasts stop coming?! They are at least weaker than the humanoid undead. Where are these beasts coming from? These numbers are insane.
Shade's battle wasn’t any less difficult, but there isn’t any doubt that the giant will win soon. The cancerous growth of muscles in the beast is reaching a critical point. The beast’s movement is slowing down. Even the strength of the beast didn’t see an expressive increase.
More and more, the undog V1 looked like a meatball. The muscles were starting to compress his body until he couldn’t fight anymore. The beast was still alive but immobile, like a rock just waiting to be broken apart by píckaxe. Shade was happy to oblige, focusing on cutting down the head of the beast and grinding it like fruit in a mixer.
Shade was finishing its part. Now it was Roberion who needed to finish his. The smell of burned flesh was strong, the null already low on mana, and the flux of undogs diminished. But every two minutes, a new half dozen would be ready to fight.
Percival was already breaking apart in some places, especially his left hand; the shield had already broken down. By the number of beasts he put down, Percival was trying to protect and do damage in equal measure. His chest and abdomen were also heavily injured, with the armor breaking down. He could still finish this fight, but he wasn’t the only one hurt.
Roberion was sporting wounds throughout his body. Sadly, he didn’t get a chance to drink a regenerative potion. Fortunately, his crash with the undogs wasn’t that hard. Roberion's increased experience of fighting showed in this confrontation; the lance lightweight compared to the grotesque, massive club that was Jubilant Choir made a difference in this battle.
Roberion wasn’t a lancer, but he knew enough about handling the weapon to kill these beasts. His fighting style was barebones, more like a fisherman trying to catch fish with a spear than a true fighter, his speed and dexterity filling the gaps to exterminate the beasts. Add the smart use of his [Basic Elemental Glove], all this results in Roberion having a winning chance.
Roberion cast [Minor? Fire], stopping two undogs from advancing on him and making use of their window of hesitation. Roberion takes some distance from the beasts. Percival was already using a wall to protect his back, assuming a defensive position as three undogs attacked him.
Alright. Time to see what you can do, Shining Crown. We are running on fumes here.
Roberion activated [Shining Crown’s Bangle]. From nothing, the roothorn started to materialize in front of him. The undogs tried to use the opportune time to attack Shining Crown, but the roothorn didn’t need to turn on. He was a living thing.
As one beast neared the roothorn to bite his unprotected leg, Shining Crown just lifted his pawn before the beast. The undead looked incomprehensible at the sole of the roothorn's hoof as it came crashing down on its head, transforming part of the beast’s head into minced meat. The roothorn size and mass weren’t for show.
Shining Crown didn’t wait for commands, running right ahead in the next undog. The beast tried to evade the roothorn, but it was fruitless. Shing Crown bounced desks, chairs, and cabinets all out of his way with his massive body. The only end it could reach was the trampled corpse of the undog.
Roberion took a look at Percival as he drank a sip of the regenerative potion. The knight used the commotion Shining Crown made to kill the pesky beasts. Looking at Shade, he saw that the giant had everything under control. The undog V1 regeneration was slowing down, his head looking like a blown up watermelon.
Undog V1 is such a bad name; let's call him a regenerative undog at least. It will take a minute for these beasts to show up again. It’s time to do some mayhem.
“Percival, hold on to the Shining Crown's head. I will be on his back. Let’s trample some undogs.”
Riding Shining Crown, spear in hand, Roberion was moving fast forward. Percival, with an only a rapier in hand, seemed more like an acrobat than a rider, doing all he could to not go to the ground. He was using a sheet of fabric tied to his belly, the rapier already pointing out.
“Aha, here we go.”
The last thing these poor undogs saw as they tried to cross the intersection was the mad sight of Roberion and his buddies. The poor beasts didn’t have to fret for long, because seconds later their corpses lied cut and trampled on the floor.