NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 34: Undead Introduction
With Left maintaining his Banner of Courage, the group was ready to go within a few hours. Even the bottomed-out Yanily was at full solar energy. After stowing supplies back in their Interspatial Rings, the group had moved down the tunnel quickly, up the stairs, and then finally out into the city. Like when he’d passed through the dungeon archways, a shiver ran across Hiral’s skin as he left the protected staircase.
“The air is weird,” Nivian said, and everybody made a face at their first full breath of it. Despite the constant rain, there was a stale heaviness to the atmosphere, and a cloying smell that crawled up Hiral’s nose.
Lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the city and reminding Hiral the giants weren’t the only reason moving inside the buildings was a good idea. From the looks on some of the others’ faces, they were thinking the same thing.
“This way,” Left said, jogging down the street about half a block before ducking inside a building.
The roots that would lead straight to the dungeon continued on ahead, but when Hiral got to the doorway Left had entered, the double was moving through the building perpendicular to where the trail said they should go.
“I hope we don’t find any Troblin paintings in one of these rooms,” Wule said, turning into the building and wiping rain from his face.
“That’s the least of our worries,” Seena said quietly, following along with Seeyela in the rear. Even in armor that was naturally an ivory white, it was hard to spot the woman, like she was constantly blending in with the background.
From there, Left led them through the building, across a narrow alley, and into another building that, from a quick glance, looked to be very tall. “We’ll go up to the fourth floor here,” Left said quietly, pointing at a flight of stairs in the corner.
“Up? Why?” Nivian asked, though he was already moving towards the staircase.
“Tighter quarters for fighting, and I don’t like the idea of being trapped without a way out,” Seena said, looking at the ten-foot ceilings and the small room. “If the undead Lizardmen are as big as their living counterparts, a couple of those things in here with swinging spears could get bloody.”
“The upper levels are larger than the lower,” Left said. “I believe higher prestige was associated with higher floors in the buildings, and in turn, more space. I only explored a few of the highest floors—living quarters, for the most part—but I also found some that were unmistakably top-end shops.”
“Don’t know if I can imagine the Lizardmen shopping,” Nivian said with a shake of his head.
“Considering they worshipped a giant lizard and snake, I’m surprised by all of this,” Wule said. “How were they so… sophisticated?”
“Even if their entire civilization was just this city, it’s still pretty impressive,” Hiral agreed, following as the group took the stairs up.
Like Left had said, the next floor was a good twenty percent larger from floor to ceiling, but they continued past it without stopping until they reached the fourth floor. At this point, the ceiling was almost twenty feet up, while the floor had gone from simple wood to intricate tiling.
“These tiles seem to have indicated public walking space,” Left explained. “It changes if we go into a home or shop.” He then pointed down the hall, where windows on the right side looked out into the rain. “We’re going that way. This building and the next one were empty when I passed through last time, but the one after that had several undead in it we may need to deal with.”
“That’s a good thing, I think,” Seena said. “It’s better we figure out what these things are capable of before we’re completely surrounded by them.”
“It should be safe to deal with them where we find them. However, the building after that will require us to be a bit more careful. One of the smaller hordes I mentioned was lingering on the street just beyond it. We’ll pass right over it as we continue through this pedway.”
“No other way around them?” Seena asked.
“There may be, but this is the most direct of an already-indirect route,” Left said.
“Besides,” Hiral added, “like you want to fight some of these undead to see what they can do, it’ll be good to see how the horde reacts to us passing overhead. If it stirs them up too much, we may need to change plans later. But it’s better to find out now, when we can still retreat to the tunnel if we have to. I don’t think they can enter there.”
“Like the dungeons?” Seena asked.
“Yes,” Hiral answered. “If they could get into the tunnel, wouldn’t it have been swarming with undead when we popped out of the dungeon?”
“Oh, that would’ve been fun,” Wule said.
“You didn’t even go first,” Nivian said without turning his attention from the windows of the hallway where they needed to go. “Do you think it’s safe, moving past the windows? What if the Enemy makes an appearance? Won’t they see us?”
“Left and I will keep an eye out the windows,” Hiral answered. “One way or another, we’re going to have to watch for them. At least in here they can only come at us from one direction.”
“You weren’t in the last building when the Enemy came looking for us,” Nivian pointed out.
“No, but I did have it thrown at me,” Hiral admitted. “Still, even though you have a point, what else can we do?”
“We can move,” Seena said, tapping Nivian on the shoulder.
The tank started down the hall as the group fell into formation, Hiral taking up the right wing of the arrowhead and drawing his RHCs.
His eyes went from the windows to the hall ahead, then quickly back the way they’d come. “Left, any idea how many stairwells in each of the buildings?”
“From one to three,” Left answered.
“Plenty of ways to get surrounded,” Seeyela said.
Hiral nodded at the assessment and glanced out the windows again. They were four stories up—more than that, really, with the floors getting taller—and while he could make the jump with his Rune of Rejection to cushion the fall, the others couldn’t. Across the wide street, though, the buildings were only two or three floors.
“Seeyela, if you needed to, could you portal us to the roofs across the street?” he asked.
Seeyela looked out the window, thought about it for a second, and nodded. “Might take two portals, but I could do it. Would put us out in the open in the rain.”
“Even if it does, it’s a good exit strategy,” Seena said as they reached the end of the first building. “Keep it in mind if things get bad.”
“This pedway will take us to the next block,” Left said. “The first building was empty last time I passed through, but the one after that had undead on this floor.”
“We’ll keep an eye out,” Seena said. “The giants?”
“Starting on the next block, one patrols along the same path as the roots leading to the dungeon,” Left said. “We’ll be turning before that to put some more distance between us. Nivian, turn right when you get to the first intersection after we cross.”
“Got it,” Nivian said, and the party started across the pedway.
Really, it wasn’t much different from the building hallway, except it had windows on both sides. All things considered, the place had withstood the ravages of time exceptionally well. Maybe even better than the small town they’d found before their first dungeon.
“Left,” Hiral started as he peered through the windows on both sides of them, “did you see any evidence of Enemy attacks like that first town? Torn-out windows? Caved-in ceilings? That kind of thing?”
“Nothing like that,” Left said.
“Do you think the Enemy didn’t attack here?” Seena asked.
“I’m starting to wonder,” Hiral said.
“What else could’ve happened?” Wule asked. “If The Mire dungeon was true, these Lizardmen weren’t always undead.”
“That’s a great question I almost hope we don’t find the answer to,” Seena said. “For all we know, it could be another kind of Enemy that did this. We’ve only really seen the one kind that infested…”
“We’ll find a way to get her back,” Wule almost growled.
“Yes, we will,” Yanily agreed, fingers squeezing around the haft of his spear as electricity sparked up it.
Hiral nodded but stayed out of the conversation, his head turning side to side as he kept watch out the windows. Even if the Enemy wasn’t around—and something about that statement felt wrong—there were plenty of other things to worry about. A flash of lighting to one side, and Hiral’s gaze snapped in that direction to catch a glimpse of something massive lumbering a few streets over.
Head and shoulders above the three-story buildings, the outline looked more like a walking mountain than anything else. Left hadn’t been kidding when he called them giants. And, though it lumbered along, each step carried it a huge distance. It would be deceptively fast if it noticed them.
And A-Rank? We really, really need to stay away from that thing.
Hiral turned his attention back to the others as Nivian left the pedway and entered the next building, glowing roots crawling along the walls and ceiling as usual.
“First right?” the tank asked quietly.
“Should be another thirty feet or so ahead of you,” Left responded, and the group found the intersection pretty quickly.
“This takes us away from the dungeon?” Seeyela asked. “What if we just go straight?”
“More undead in the next building, and the pedways start getting lower as the buildings themselves are shorter,” Left said. “With the planned route, we’ll stay on the fourth floor, and should be high enough up to avoid attracting a horde’s attention. I don’t know if we’ll have that luxury on the second floor.”
“How many are in a horde?” Yanily asked.
“The smallest group I’d call a horde was about twenty,” Left said.
“And the biggest?” Wule asked.
“Thousands,” Left said. “A sea of undead, shuffling Lizardmen standing shoulder to shoulder.”
“Fourth floor it is,” Nivian said, turning down the indicated hall without even asking, and the others followed behind.
“Any chance you’re exaggerating?” Hiral quietly asked his double, and the man shook his head.
“I wish I was,” Left said, raising their voice to tell Nivian, “This building isn’t long, and after the next pedway, we’re likely to run into our first opponents.”
“I’m ready for them,” Nivian said, his shield up on one arm and his whip coiled in his other hand.
“Wule, buffs,” Seena said, and Hiral quickly got notifications for Nature’s Blade and Lashing Vines to go along with Nature’s Bulwark.
And just in time, too, as orbs of blue glowed in the dark down the hall.
“Looks like these undead are wandering,” Hiral said, pointing out the glowing dots that shuffled forward, slowly at first, but building up speed as if catching a scent of something.
The Grower party paused as they got their first good look at the three undead, shadows dancing across the moving bones from the uneven lighting of the glowing roots. Each seven feet tall, the skeletons were mostly humanoid-looking—if larger—except for elongated skulls with curved, inch-long teeth and whipping tails of segmented bone. Blue light glowed within the otherwise empty eye sockets, and strange blue liquid leaked down the sides of the Lizardmen’s faces like luminescent tears.
Each carried the same kind of spear they’d seen in The Mire, but the skeletons’ movements lacked the constant, deadly grace from their living counterparts. The occasional shred of cloth hung from their bones, flapping like loose skin as the monsters broke into a sprint.
“They’re fast,” Seena said, tapping Nivian on the shoulder.
The tank blurred ahead while Hiral allowed his View ability to bring up their names.
(Undead) Wandering Lizardman Skeleton – Low-D-Rank
They aren’t Elite, and only low-D-Rank. But why is their health bar blue?
The same color as the glow within their eye sockets, the health bar hanging above their heads was shorter than Hiral had expected. Barely half the length of a normal monster. A third of the middle skeleton’s bar vanished as Nivian collided into it with a shield-block. The skeleton flew back and crashed to the ground in a clatter of bones, and Nivian whirled between the other two.
A shield bash seemed to stun the one on his left, but two of his three whips snapped between bones without striking anything. The one thorned whip that did catch something skidded off the bone, leaving only a thin scrape in the white.
Hiral’s first shot likewise passed between the same skeleton’s ribs, soaring down the hall to distantly thunk into a wall.
“That’s annoying,” he mumbled while pulling his other trigger, Yanily and Right dashing up the hall at the same time.