Now that she had learnt the undead very rarely looked to the sky, she would have been comfortable using a little bit of the Zephyr herb to float down to the city. Unfortunately, there were still the ever present shades floating through the air letting out their cries of torment. The sound had faded to background noise to her now, always heard but no longer paid attention to. It could actually be helpful, in a way, loud enough to cover the sound of her footsteps much as a thunderstorm would.
Zalia climbed back down the tower and began making her way towards the keep in the distance. The going was slow but she eventually made it to an old decrepit forge near to the high walls of the keep. The closer she had gotten to the keep, the higher ranked the Bathar were and the better the buildings were constructed. It did mean the numbers thinned slightly but it also meant the less she could reliably kill in a single shot. She hadn’t yet attempted to kill any of the Iron rank ones. While it was possible, the chance of discovery wasn't worth the risk.
She inspected the high walls from the window of the floor level forge. The room was filled with various rusted pieces of metal that may have once been weapons or armour now useless to anyone.
Congratulations! Healing presence has reached Iron 19.
Her heart skipped a beat as the ding resounded, announcing the level up of her ability. She hadn’t been expecting it and the loud sound, only audible to her fortunately, had felt like an announcement to the entire neighbourhood. Calming her breathing, she checked the high walls again. There wasn't anything patrolling the top of the wall as far as she could see, though there were plenty of the undead along the path at the wall's base.
She knew the best way to get in would be to make a distraction to draw them away from the wall. Unfortunately, the same method would also bring a lot of the further away Bathar closer to the keep walls, making any escape or exit harder. Weighing the options, she decided to wait the last half hour or so until Nature’s wrath was available for use again. Going in was worth the risk if she had her entire arsenal of abilities at the ready. Besides, she hadn’t seen any of the undead above Bronze rank yet, what were the chances she did now?
The answer to that question, she knew to be very high.
While she waited for her ability to come off cooldown, she started setting up the distraction she had in mind. She ripped off a small section of her shirt sleeve, knowing the minor enchantments on the cloth would be able to repair it eventually. Rolling her shoulder as a dull ache pulsed in it, she pocketed the length of cloth and started to gather a few heavy metal pieces. She would need to find a way to suspend them from a high place held by the length of cloth. She could set a fire to slowly burn the cloth until the entire contraption dropped, hopefully making some sound.
She started heating bits and pieces of metal until she was able to bend them into a large ball, using what might have been an old sword’s handle as a hook she could tie the cloth to. The entire thing looked like a misshapen mass of rusted metal with some cloth sticking off it but it would work. Hopefully.
She managed to find some kindling from a desiccated bush near the entrance and brought it with her as well. Sneaking up to the roof of a tall abandoned building that reminded her of a church, she laid down the kindling under a rooftop decoration. The metal decoration was a spike in the ceiling that split upwards into a Y shape, the two top ends showing broken décor that might have once been something tree-like. The cloth now tied to the metal base with the metal ball hanging off the edge, all she would need to do is light the kindling and run for it.
Remembering that Boreal now shared her Survivalist passive, and so also sharing the Heat resistance passive, Zalia sent a thought to her friend. She sent short images of Boreal lighting the fire and then running away, the feline much smaller and able to move stealthily at a higher speed. She also asked that Boreal wait until Zalia had a better head start, then moved back away towards the forge.
As she arrived, she turned to see a small flame begin flickering atop the church roof. She could see a slight flicker as Boreal dashed away, teleporting through shadows to remain hidden amongst the streets. This was possibly the most dangerous part as Boreal moved with less care than they had been since arriving. Luckily, Boreal arrived shortly after a loud crash could be heard as the metal ball dropped an odd three or four stories to the pavers below. The Bathar immediately began moving in the direction of the sound as Zalia and Boreal waited patiently.
Before long, they saw their opportunity as the moving undead all passed by. Using her bridging technique, Zalia started making a ramp up to the top of the wall and made a dash for it. They made it to the top and vaulted the battlements, getting down to a crouch as they waited for the chaos outside to subdue. Zalia began scanning the inner courtyard as they waited, noticing a fair few undead but significantly less than outside the walls. Inside the walls was a now dead and wilted garden leading to the still standing keep. That was where Zalia wanted to get to.
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She was hoping that something inside that building had managed to withstand the test of time and provide her with some edge, some advantage in this wasteland. If there was nothing there then she may as well abandon this island as nothing other than grounds to gain easy levels in her abilities. Clearing out a whole host of the weaker outer undead may give her enough to level some of her abilities to bronze. It would also finally give the Bathar the rest they deserved. She couldn't help but notice when she killed them that they didn't release shades like Juniper had. She thought it might have something to do with how corrupt they were when alive but didn't have any way to test the theory.
She considered her next move as she looked around the length of the wall. There were actually two undead on the walls, having stumbled up the stairs along the inside most likely. They were far enough away that they wouldn't be an issue so she ignored them for now. Making her way through the Bathar in the courtyard would be easy enough, it was inside the walls of that keep that she was worried about. She had no way of telling what would be inside and a surprise such as hordes of undead or the Silver rank she was dreading would not be ideal. She was far enough in danger now that she would need to be real careful with how she acted.
She could have slowly culled down the numbers of the undead over weeks or even months to get to the keep in a safer manner but was willing to take the risk in case there was something that could help her in there for the short term.
Her indecisiveness came to an end when she noticed that a central part of the keep had a glass roof on it. That would provide her with exactly the type of insight into what the inside of the keep looked like in terms of how many undead there were. All she had to do now was get on top somehow.
She went to the nearby set of stairs and slowly moved down them, entering the withered garden below. Using the emaciated plants as cover, she carefully made her way past all the undead in the garden. There were a few close calls, the Bronze rank undead being slightly more perceptive than the Iron or Tin ones outside. Luckily, she hadn’t yet seen any silver undead and so kept moving.
She made it to the keep’s wall and began scaling it slowly and carefully. It was harder than she would have thought with the abundant wall reliefs but something about the design of the keep made it innately difficult. It could have been some kind of latent magic that went into the making of the structure but she made it to the top anyways, Boreal close behind. Safely above the undead, she walked over to the glass topped room and was able to see down into a kind of feasting hall that was on the top floor.
It was heartening to see that some of the furniture had managed to survive its time in Cormaine, even some of the cloth being intact. There were a few banners along the wall that she didn't recognise except for one. It was the same Y shaped logo the metal decoration on top of the church had been, though she could see the treetop shape that the two top prongs of the Y were shaped to be.
She could also see that there were indeed undead inside. Thankfully it looked like there were significantly fewer than even the courtyard. She couldn't see their rank but she couldn't help but feel encouraged. Looking around she noticed that one of the nearby spires had a balcony that she would be able to reach. It had a door that was very slightly ajar, a perfect entrance for her. She moved up to the door, using her bridging ritual this time, and inched towards it to peak inside.
Through the door was a bedroom, though different from what humans traditionally used. The bed was much different, sloped inwards so that it formed a kind of nest in the middle that almost reached the floor. Laying motionless in the bed was an undead Bathar, though it was small enough that Zalia thought it may have once been a child. For some reason the sight brought her a level of distaste the others had not. She wondered, not for the first time, what had happened to bring this place here. Was this how the Endarian kingdom had taken over? Some sort of ritual to disjoint the Bathar cities into Cormaine?
Putting the thoughts aside, she was close enough to see that despite its motionless form, the undead was not dead. It still displayed a rank, Iron thankfully, where a dead creature did not. Well, a properly dead creature at least. Moving quietly, she slipped into the room. All of a sudden the howling and crying of the shades outside stopped in an instant, the sound dying away. She quickly jerked her head to look outside but they were not reacting whatsoever. It was like the building somehow muted the sound.
While she had grown accustomed to the sound she didn't realise how unnerving it would be for the sound to stop so suddenly.
“Fucking hate this place,” Zalia thought.
It was, well, it was hell. She wanted to go back to the frigid north she called home where it was silent and calm, free from most life and undeath both. Boreal caught on to what she wanted to do next without a word spoken or thought. They moved towards the Bathar in unison, Zalia summoning her blade and attacked in sync. Boreal jumped at the creature's legs, pinning them to the bed with a layer of ice that began immediately spreading up its body. Zalia stabbed her sword straight down through its throat, cutting off any sound it may make. She left the sword impaled there, pinning it to the bed as Boreal began tearing at the creature's torso.
Using the Iron rank of Cold resistance and Heat resistance in unison with the help of Boreal, Zalia began pulling heat from the creature’s lower body and surrounding air and bringing it to its head. Before long a fire engulfed it as the undead only managed to let out a quiet croak, trying to pull her blade from its neck. The fight was over before it began and Zalia doused the fire with her manipulation, letting the sword dissipate back to its spatial storage.