The undead crashed against the blue barrier, pushing with all their might while clawing at its surface. Beads of sweat dripped down Welt's forehead as he focused on maintaining the barrier. Each time they pounded against the surface, a murky black aura expelled from their hands. The staff in Welt's hand wavered under the unrelenting force, and without hesitating, Paul immediately placed his hand on Welt's shoulder. Soon, an abundance of divinity transferred to Welt's body, cleansing the fatigue and lessening the burden.
With a dire expression, Welt held his staff with both hands towards the doorway and asked, "What do we do?"
"We need to find a fucking way out," Mark replied, examining the room they were in.
The room was dimly lit by the golden aura that surrounded Welt. There was no visible exit from the cobblestone chamber except for the doorway Welt blocked. Arthur closely examined the stone room they were trapped in. It was perfectly symmetrical, with no objects within it. As the frantic banging sounds intensified, Arthur began tapping the floor with the end of his spear. Upon seeing this, Cain and Mark started to hit the walls, searching for hidden passageways. Finally, as Arthur struck one of the corners of the chamber, a hollow emptiness reverberated through the floor.
"On me!" Arthur yelled.
Without hesitating, Cain and Mark immediately gathered behind Arthur as he clenched onto his spear covered in white aura, and sliced the smooth tiles. Shattering the floor before him as several chucks of stone descended below. In an instant, Arthur leaped down to the next level. As he was surrounded by darkness, Arthur felt several hands grab onto him and pull him into the shadows. With all his might, he flung them back with the shaft of his spear but felt tremendous resistance as he scrapped against the stone walls and undead bodies. In a moment of desperation, he shrouded himself in aura, creating a thin barrier that stopped the undead's teeth from digging into his flesh. Black blood splattered around him as Cain and Mark vigorously cut down the undead that pinned him to the ground.
"Arthur!" Mark ripped the undead off Arthur's body and threw them to the side as Cain cut them down. In an erratic voice, he shouted, "Are you alright?!"
"Yeah...yeah, I'm good." Arthur stumbled as he pulled himself off the ground.
"We need to run!" Cain pulled his spear out of the last undead's body.
As Paul landed on the ground, Welt quickly followed and barricaded the hole above them as the undead pounced after them. Sweat dripped profusely off Welt's face as Cain kicked open the wooden door leading to the tunnel. The hinges on the door were ripped off the walls as it slammed into the ground. Using every second they had, they all ran down the tunnel as blood-hurdling cries echoed behind them.
Welt gritted his teeth and quickly shouted, "We're too far! My barrier is gone now!"
As soon as Welt finished his sentence, countless undead bodies burst out of the doorway, sending stone bricks tumbling in all directions. They scowled and glared at their backs with a frenzied hunger. The spasmodic flailing and grotesque limbs fixated in their direction as they sprinted.
"Why the fuck is there so many of those things?!" Mark yelled.
"I...don't...know..." Welt exhaustingly answered while struggling to keep up with the other guards.
Seeing this, Paul tossed his spear into the air and looked at Arthur, who made it hover. Before Welt could react, he was thrown over Paul's shoulders as they sprinted down the tunnel. The cries behind them grew fiercer as their undead bodies pushed against each other. Arthur looked over his shoulder and glanced at the undead who chased after them.
In a desperate voice, Arthur asked, "Is there anything we can do to slow them down?"
"Shit!" Mark glared behind them.
With one hand, he coated the blade of his spear in a red aura resembling flames and turned around. The muscles in his arm filled with tension as he drove the spear forward through the empty space. His hip twisted as a burst of flames spewed forth toward the undead. Similarly, Cain slashed downwards right after Mark's attack, creating a gust of wind that propelled the blaze at a frightening speed. Charred flesh was all that was left from the undead humanoids as countless corpses littered the tunnel. But as the flames weakened with each body, it burnt to a crisp. Several more undead mindlessly charged through as their flesh melted off. In an unrelenting pursuit, they climbed over the ashes of those before them and screamed through their decayed windpipes.
Their limbs scrapped against the stone walls as their flesh tore. Even though dozens of undead vanished, it felt hopeless as the guards began running once more. No matter how many times they repeated their attack and culled the undead, an endless swarm trailed after them.
"What about the other guards! Will we be able to regroup with them?!" Arthur asked while glancing back at the nightmarish horde approaching them.
"We have no clue where they are, so how the hell will we regroup with them!" Mark yelled while thrusting behind them as flames erupted from his spear.
"Where even are we?!" Cain slashed again, sending a gust of wind trailing after the flames before running once more. The heat generated from the flames filled the tunnel with an overwhelming amount of humidity.
Arthur frantically considered what to do. If they kept running, they would eventually run out of stamina, and if they ran out of stamina, they would be helpless. His eyes darted around his surroundings, looking for an answer, and as the spears flew in the air, he could slowly feel his aura diminish. Accompanied by the suffocating air and stifling atmosphere, Arthur knew his body was struggling to adapt.
"I can create a barrier...long enough for you guys to escape," Welt's voice trembled as he spoke.
"Hell no!" Mark furiously screamed, with each step that amplified his intensity.
"We aren't going to abandon you!" Cain glared at Welt, who wore an expression with no regrets.
"We don't have a choice; if I stay in one place, I can set up a barrier twenty meters away from me." Welt reassuringly said, "With what's left of my mana, I can delay them for ten- no fifteen minutes. Maybe more with what’s left of my potions. That should be enough for you guys to escape."
"Save you energy if you have time to argue!" Paul couldn’t help but curse at the dire situation before them. It was difficult to come up with a solution and they were lucky that there wasn’t a swam in front of them.
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They continued sprinting down the tunnel, but there was no telling when it would end. Fatigue continuously built up in their bodies, and for Paul, who was carrying Welt, it became apparent how much his speed decreased as he was now the last one of the group. As of now, they were barely thirty meters ahead and had been running nonstop for nearly fifty minutes. Each fork they took led them deeper into the tunnels, and their breathing became erratic.
"What if we collapse the tunnel behind us?" Arthur's sudden suggestion caused the guards to glimpse at the ceiling above them.
Mark didn't care anymore and cried out, "Fuck it, just do it!"
"No! We don't know what's above us!" Cain angrily protested. "We could bring more of those things onto us or even worse collapse the entire network of tunnels!"
"We have no choice! Don't you see how much Paul is struggling right now!" Mark rebuked.
Cain clenched his teeth in frustration as he glanced at Paul. It was obvious from his ragged state that Paul was reaching his limits. Yet he didn't voice a single complaint while carrying Welt over his shoulders. If they were to turn around and fight, then they would practically be begging to be killed as only three of them would be able to fight in the vast tunnel.
"Do it." Cain reluctantly agreed as Arthur nodded his head.
In an instant, the two winged spears slashed at the ceiling behind them in a zigzag pattern. As stone bricks collapsed behind them, they desperately rushed down the tunnel with all their might. Dirt, gravel, and other debris crushed the undead that recklessly pursued them. Crushing their decomposed frames and narrowing their pathway. As more debris fell, more undead bodies piled on each other, creating a makeshift blockade of flesh and stone. The passage behind them violently shook, and moments later, it was completely sealed. The guards stood still and heavily panted, attempting to regain their composure.
"Holy shit, it worked," Mark said in disbelief.
Paul placed Welt on his feet and brightly smiled at Arthur. "Amazing Arthur, my boy! How did you know this would work?
The guards all eagerly waited for his answer. In a desperate attempt to maintain their momentum, some of them had dropped pieces of their armor. Their disorderly hair and parched throats emphasized their struggle for survival.
Under the immense pressure, Arthur took a sip of water from his metal canister and laughed. "Don't look at me. I'm just as surprised as you are."
"Well, it worked so good shit." Mark patted Arthur on the shoulder and stared at the only way left for them to go. "Do you think we'll run into anyone else?"
"Maybe the eastern guards if they're alive," Cain tiredly said while leaning against the stone wall.
"Unlikely if they had to deal with what we just faced," Paul replied with a grim look. "Welt, do you have any idea what those things are? I've never seen an undead move like that before."
"I thought about it, but I have no clue." Welt shook his head and said, "The only thing I noticed is that they were similar to that demon we faced earlier."
"Similar? That's odd. I didn't feel any demonic energy." Paul stroked his chin and walked towards one of the corpses that were buried under the rubble.
The other guards followed behind Paul with their weapons drawn. If anything tried to leap out of the debris, it would immediately meet the end of several spears and a single fist. As Paul stabbed the undead's arm, not a single muscle moved. He repeated this motion with all the other visible bodies, but surprisingly, not a single one did anything.
"These things had most of their blood drained." Cain covered his nose as the smell of burnt and decayed flesh heavily lingered in the air.
"It's just like the bodies we saw under the cocoon." The end of Mark’s spear lifted one of the undead arms. A look of disgust flashed across Mark’s face. "These bastards even stitched up the corpses as well."
"There's also that murky energy, too," Arthur said, pointing to the location of the undead body’s heart.
"Yeah, it’s faint but there’s a trace of it in each body," Cain added while inspecting another body.
"In...each body?" Paul's voice carried a stern edge.
"Yeah, can't you feel it, Paul?" Cain felt sick looking at the countless dead bodies and the murky aura that seeped out of the rubble. He looked away and said, “There's so much emitting from this rubble.”
"No...I can't. That's why this is troubling," Paul retorted, his gaze fixed on the mound of debris. "I sense no energy here whatsoever."
"That's impossible; surely you feel something, right?" Welt interjected.
Mark scoffed at Paul, but his eyes narrowed upon seeing the stiff expression. "You're serious…this is bad, this is real fucking bad."
"How is it bad?" Arthur asked, staring at the other guards who were deep in thought.
"Arthur, listen carefully. There have only been a few cases where those with divine energy can't detect the essence of the undead." Paul answered while forcefully pulling out a corpse from the rubble. "The first is that the suspected undead isn't actually dead and is forcefully being kept alive."
Arthur nodded as Paul revealed the collapsed ribcage on the corpse. The putrid smell of the decomposed internal organs heavily filled the area. Soon, Paul shrouded the undead body with divine energy, but nothing happened as the dark energy lingered within the corpse. The other guards revealed terrified expressions as the dark energy squirmed.
"The second is when a being ascends to this plane with a restriction strong enough to ignore divinity," Paul's grave tone caused the other guards to gulp. "Even though my divinity is only equivalent to the standard priest. It means that no priest in this town can repel nor detect this fiend."
"Basically Arthur, we're fucked." Mark sat down on the ground and sighed. "The only way to repel a demonic entity is to banish it through divinity."
"It's not completely impossible; we just need someone with divine powers so strong that it can't ignore it, right?" Cain asked.
"Yeah, and where the hell will we find that?" Mark retorted. "Ding ding ding, not here, you buffoon."
"This is a sticky situation we find ourselves in," Paul said before decapitating the undead body and returning to the other guards.
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"This really does seem like a daycare..." Stella watched as David and Raphael dueled in the center of the training arena.
The moonlight reflected brightly throughout the open area. It was a cloudless night with countless stars glistening in the sky. The grass in the nearby courtyard swayed with the gentle breeze, and the sounds of wooden swords collided. Stella gently brushed Claire's hair with her hands. If she had a child, she would have hoped for a daughter, but knowing David, he would surely want a son.
In such a joyful moment, Stella and David immediately froze as they glared at a nearby weapon rack. A sinister energy gathered itself from one of the iron swords that hung with its blade pointed to the ground. As they pushed the children behind them, nearby guards gathered around the training area with their weapons drawn. Stella quickly grabbed a nearby bow and notched an arrow onto its bowstring.
The guards were on full alert as they watched the demonic energy manifest in the air. Slowly, a hand pierced through the center of the spiraling energy before them. Then, another hand tightly clenched the wicked energy in the middle of the air and tore it open, revealing a woman's face whose charred hair was viciously wrapped around its neck. With an unholy smile that sent shivers down their spines. They watched as it stepped out of the fabric of darkness with its decayed flesh and newly made stitches around its neck.
Javic's eyes scanned around and froze once they met Raphael's and Claire's. With a gleeful voice, it whispered, "I found you."