My eyes stared at the split pieces of my iron spear, dumbfounded by the unexpected event. My strength was enough to pierce the chain-mail that lied beneath the armor of the knight, and I believed I did some damage, but I didn’t expect my spear to break out of all things.
[Spear mastery - novice leveled up!]
No shit.
The spearman wasn’t content on watching its partner to be attacked, and it began a flurry of stabs that forced me to use my shadow step to get out of its offensive range. Its brows raised when my frame dissipated into a dark haze, vanishing out of its sight, only to be met with an unbroken dark spear colliding against its helmet, bending its skull and staggering it sideways.
Losing my iron spear meant that I can only rely on [dark arsenal] to provide me with the weapons to attack with. Luckily, my mana’s still full after a full day of being unconscious, so running out of it won’t be an issue for a while…
That being said, my conjured weapons now were packing more punch than my iron spear, which is a huge plus. Obviously, they only lasted for a period of time, but I won’t have to worry about them snapping in half when I was in the middle of an attack.
My last jab penetrated a big hole in the spearman's helmet, even sinking a few inches deep before it reared its head back, moving out of the way from the path of my stab. I don’t know if it would’ve killed it instantly if I skewered its skull since they are technically undead, akin to the walking corpses I’ve battled on my way here.
Despite my attacks landing, none of them showed any signs of pain or injuries. It was unlikely that they were capable of feeling anything, which was not a good outlook for my future. Time is running out, and I’ve lost another 6% of my health from the poison.
Both my arms and legs are losing their strength, weakening my attacks and evasive endeavors. The only silver lining now is that I have enough strength and stats to damage them, albeit only slightly.
Repositioning themselves yet again, I released a tired sigh while conjuring another spear in my right hand. I could let that knight charge again and repeat the process, but then another idea popped up in my head.
The knight lifted its shield, directing its hallowed eyes at mine.
Dashing to the side, I feinted an attempt to dodge sideways, which appeared like I mistimed dodging its shield charge. Tracking my path, it shifted the direction of its shield slightly ahead to where I ran and immediately charged, nearly scraping the spearman who was on its side. The spearman didn’t flinch nor reacted, content with waiting for the knight to finish its attack.
The walls to the side were a lot less spacious than the walls behind me. The knight’s charge shook the walls yet again, the only difference this time being the distance between the knight and the spearman, which was cut down by more than half. I simply stopped during my dash, calmly sidestepping the knight’s stampede, then shuffled slightly forward so that I stood between both tomb guardians.
At this distance, if the spearman attacked, its spear will slam into the knight to my right. But it never gave the distance a second thought as both of its arms grasped the spear, preparing to punch holes into my body. I even stayed a bit longer than I had to, just to make sure that it won’t change the direction of its offensive jabs halfway.
Then, its flurry of stabs came, like I predicted it would. The knight was just about to recover from its charge before it felt a chain of powerful stabs crashing into the back of its plated chest piece, painting holes on the surface of the knight’s armor once the attack was over. The original target of the attack was no longer there, however.
Despite of the friendly fire, the knight spoke no words as it simply turned around and faced me.
Reappearing behind the spearman, I steeled my grip as I thrust into the spot where the hole in its helmet was. I watched the tip of my dark spear about to enter its skull when it suddenly shifted its head sideways, narrowly avoiding the jab.
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The same shit will not work again…
The spearman jumped backward and landed behind the knight, who was now in the middle of the motion of swinging its blade, aiming to cut me in half. I held my breath as I bent backward; the sword grazing the air above me as I dropped to the floor.
Picking myself back up, I watched in suspense as the knight lifted its blade high up. Wincing, my brows furrowed when a dark haze emanated from the edges of its blade, as its eyes glowed even brighter. My chest tightened when I recognized it was about to use a skill that I was wholly unfamiliar with.
The haze exploded outwards, covering the room with its darkness, eliminating my vision. Two sets of glowing eyes penetrated the dark fog as they were both separated, surrounding me from both sides. The lack of clear vision disabled my use of shadow step, so I was out of a get-out-of-jail option if things got hairy.
That smell again. It wasn’t as thick as how it was when I saw the stone, but the sweetness and familiarity were hard to ignore. Regardless, now is not the time to appreciate the scent.
In the middle of the darkness, I couldn’t tell apart which of the tomb guardians owned the different set of eyes from both of my sides.
Observing the eye’s movement, I noted how fast each of them moved compared to each other. Since the knight is slower, that meant-
A massive gust of wind curled the surrounding haze, and in the middle of the twisted hole, I saw a giant spear on its way to skewer my chest off my body. I could barely react to the sudden attack as the tip of the spear grazed my sides, scraping what’s left of my old shirt and punching a hole in my cape. The damage wasn’t significant, but I couldn’t afford to lose any more health.
Expecting the spearman to continue its assault, I turned and faced where the attack came from. And yet, its spear was nowhere to be seen. The pair of eyes retracted back into the darkness, confusing the hell out of me.
Are they… trying to tire me out? Did they know about my poison?
A dozen questions popped into my head. At this rate, I have to consider a full retreat. Fighting in this environment is just pure suicide.
What happened next deemed that course of action impossible. The other set of eyes was hunkered down in a single spot, unmoving. I didn’t know why it never moved at first, but then clarity struck me.
That damned knight was blocking the fucking exit.
Stuck with no choice, I have to deal with the spearman, despite the disadvantageous scenario ahead. No vision, no escape, and most importantly of all…
No time.
Another gust of wind swept past me as I bobbed my head, watching the tip of a spear whizzing past my right ear. Turning around, I rushed to the tail end of the stick, hoping to find the figure who started that attack.
The spearman was just about to draw his spear back when I broke through the dark haze. It was fast enough to retreat when I was about to begin a quick jab, hiding its body in the darkness once more. I kept chasing, running at the eyes every chance I got, but the spearman had the initiative for the entire pursuit, weaving between the darkness with such ease and elegance.
With the advantage that it had, I simply had no chance of catching up. The spearman kept a solid distance between us, only moving to the side once it had reached the walls behind it. There were a few times when I almost smashed into the walls, but thankfully, that never happened.
There was a lump in my throat that was growing as I put forth this amount of fruitless effort. The fact that my life was draining every passing minute didn’t help, either. I had to reach for any potential solutions as soon as I could before finally, the dark haze awoken the memory I had about [Ezekiel’s Beacon].
Reaching for my backpack, I yanked the stone out with panicked eyes. The stone had sucked in the haze from the room I grabbed it from before, so there was a chance that it could do so again.
[Use Ezekiel’s beacon?]
Please work.
I watched as the stone hummed with power, trembling in my arms. The haze surrounding the stone started moving in circles, snaking its way into the cracks of the stone as the surrounding darkness dissipated. The eyes of the spearman rapidly approached when it witnessed what was happening, which I fully expected.
Another stab peered through the thinning darkness, allowing me to make out its entire figure when it reached a close enough distance. Summoning another spear, I ducked from the incoming attack, then performed a half thrust straight at the opening beneath its helmet.
But that was merely a feint. The first few steps were a fake to force the spearman to retreat. Which it did so beautifully.
As it stepped backward, the haze that once blocked the use of my shadow stepped was now sucked into the stone, and I could go far enough with my skill, re-appearing on the side where its helmet was punctured. Its eyes failed to track my whereabouts as I launched an all-or-nothing attack, directed solely at its temples.
Unfortunately, amid the chaos, a shielded tomb guardian knight broke through the haze, curling the dark fog around its shield as its giant body was on its way to smash mine.
Shadow’s step on cooldown.