Chương 17: GB - Chapter 17: Fight For The Fort

Figures that had been crouched along the crenellations on top of the fort's top-most floor shrieked, drawing Luke's attention for a brief instant. He raised his shield as a barrage of thorns came shooting down, and the loud tinks told him that he had blocked the whole barrage. The Captain shouted, "Cover your vitals!" Yeah, Luke thought, because for some stupid reason, you can't have a helmet and use Arts.

Luke charged ahead, getting to the broken-in main doors to the fort, and realized he had just charged headfirst into a trap. Two massive claws came down, one from either side of the door frame, from hidden Fog Creepers who were out of sight until he had passed the threshold. But his body reacted, and Luke was just along for the ride, as the shield caught the left-side strike, and the sword parried the right-side hit.

Luke's momentum carried him into the entry hall, and with a rapid slash, he cut through part of the retreating claw of the creature on the inside-right of the door frame, who was now on Luke's left. The creature hissed and lunged at Luke, but he took a step back, pulled the sword back, and once the creature extended its full reach, Luke used the lesson he had learned from fighting them with his dagger. He stepped into the lunge, and drove the tip into the chest.

The newly forged blade cut through the torso, and his strength, combined with the monster's weight, sent the thing fully down to the crossguard. Luke shoved forward and felt a slash against his back—but the Marrowsteel Plate took the entire blow. Turning, he managed to get his shield into the path of the next swipe, and before he could counterattack, fear caused him to jump to his right.

The Captain's sword darted past his left side, the bright, Holy flames surging along the length, as she stabbed at the Fog Creeper, pushing it back with the threat of injury. Luke was, temporarily, frozen with fear, as his entire being, his Undead body, just recoiled away from the divine might. Fucking get it together! Luke thought. This is my body. Fucking work! His limbs responded and he turned to his right and caught another Fog Creeper's sweeping talon strike on his blade.

He brought his shield around for a bash, and then saw dozens of smaller ones along the floor, rushing toward him. Spending 20 Stamina, he activated Grim Harvest. The scythe of bright, green power was tinged with a ghostly grey and deep, dark black. It manifested on his right, and swung across in front of him, to his left. He had just intended to sweep it across the little Fog Creepers on the ground, but it also caught the bigger one, who went staggering back from the sudden Art that manifested without warning. Huh.

It's more like a 180-degree sphere impact area for everything in front of me. Luke re-activated the ability once more, and that sent the smaller ones scamping away. [Health: 125 / 125 {Barrier: 12}] [Mana: 96 / 96 {126}] [Stamina: 59 / 96 {116}] The other Dawnbringers came into the building, and the Captain shouted.

"Roof!" Luke saw three split off to go up those stairs, while the rest held the first floor. But, his eyes were on the door to the basement level, which had been removed from its hinges, and he didn't see his Mindless Undead.

"I'm going down!" he shouted as he moved to the basement entrance. Captain Stephanie shouted, "Clear the first floor!" Luke bit back a retort. He wanted these people's approval for his plan to be put into place. He wanted to clear the basement, because he wanted to see what happened to the bodies, and more importantly, the Necromancer's notes and all the information Luke had put together.

Now that he knew he could access Death-aligned Arts and Aspects written down by viewing it through his VITAE heads-up-display, he wanted to take another look.

"Got it," he replied, turning to take in the scene on the first floor in the entry hall. The Dawnbringers had been doing good work, killing off the Fog Creepers that they drove into corners with their Holy, flaming blades. The monsters got their licks in, causing some injuries, but Luke didn't really see anything he could help.

Instead, he went into the armory, but seeing it was empty, and the door leading outside from it bashed through, he cut to his left and into the smithy One of the Fog Creepers was in there: a huge one, who was busy putting on the last bits of armor. It was one of the Nest Guardians, but made all the more imposing and large thanks to the ramshackle and forced-on bits and pieces of protective gear. Luke instantly activated Pale Flame Bolt and fired it off.

[Mana: 86 / 96 {126}] The white flame with blue tinge slammed into the creature, setting it alight for just a moment, but catching its attention. The thing rushed toward Luke, toward the small doorway it would need to squeeze through, and so Luke stepped back and waited for his foe to restrict its own movement. The thing got into the door frame, and Luke stabbed.

His weapon slid into the side of the torso, but he had to let it go and dodge to his side as the monster's headlong rush sent it sailing past him, and if he hadn't let the blade go, then it would've slammed into him. Luke got right behind it, and as it turned, he was able to turn the opposite direction, up close where it did not expect him. With his shield raised over his head to protect him, Luke managed to get a hand on the hilt.

The thing slammed its right claw into his side, but the barrier of bone and blood took some of the impact, and the armor he was wearing took the rest. Luke got the blade free and instead of backing away he stepped forward and stabbed it deep once more. The monster grabbed him around the torso, and its claws sought purchase, to rip him in half. But, Luke's body was made of stiff stuff, and his armor was of fine quality, with the T1 Life-Resist enhancement from the Essence Shards he had gathered.

The claws found no place to dig in to rip him apart, and skated across the scales. Luke kept stabbing as he shoved the large monster back, and out of the corner of his right eye, he saw the Captain, watching, from the doorway. Luke returned his attention to the monster, who had elected to try a new tactic: battering blows. Instead of trying to cut into him, the thing was using a balled fist and blunt force, slamming down on Luke's back.

He felt the impacts, felt the dull pain spreading along his shoulder blades, but kept up his stabbing assault until finally the thing went down. Luke wrenched his sword free and stood up straight, making eye contact with the Captain.

"First floor clear?" Luke asked.

"Yes. To the second—""No," Luke said as he walked toward her, pushing through his body's fear of the holy flaming blade. The basement, there were bodies down there: all the corpses I could find and put there until they could be put to rest." Or used, he mentally added. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The Captain frowned.

"I don't see the importance—" Once more, Luke interrupted her.

"The Matriarch would be down there, I'd wager, with the relatively fresh corpses. It's the Fog Creeper baby farm." He pointed past her with a nod of his chin.

"There's stairs going down in the kitchen, and here in the entry hall." A loud crash and shouts of panic echoed out from up above them. The Captain turned and bolted up the stairs, and Luke followed her to the entry hall, but he stopped, and turned to his left. [Health: 112 / 125] [Mana: 86 / 96 {126}] [Stamina: 59 / 96 {116}] Luke took a deep breath and chose to descend. He wanted those Necromancer's notes and all of his collated info.

As he took the first step, the itching sensation that he attributed to a strong presence of Life manifested all across his body. Gritting his teeth through the discomfort, Luke went down and into the main room with the well. It was as he had suspected and feared. His once-Undead guards had been taken out: though the door to the Necromancer's bedroom and study was still closed tight.

The entire center of the room was clear of corpses, and Luke could hear the sick, disgusting squelching in the mushroom farm under the kitchen to his left. Luke headed to that forced-open and hanging-askew door, and looked in. He could see the Fog Creeper Matriarch at the back, shoving down bits of meat and gristle. The vines surged from her stomach and were grabbed by the small, child-sized Fog Creepers, who wound them around the corpses that Luke had gathered up.

There were also two more Guardians, but these ones glowed with a vibrant, almost silvery-gray light that encompassed their bodies like a shroud. The fuck does that mean? He thought. Then, shouts from above caught his attention, and Luke chose to retreat. He headed upstairs to the first floor, and saw a contingent of the Dawnbringers, three of them, who were wounded, and staying put in the entry hall.

"I can heal you," Luke said. The group looked at him, and while two protested, the third, clutching a bleeding arm, just nodded.

"Sooner, the better. The fight's still on." Luke walked forward and used Grim Harvest, willing it to heal. The bright-green blade swept across the men, and the two who didn't want healing both yelped in surprise, with one even raising his Holy-flame-imbued sword at Luke. But, their wounds were healed. The one who had been OK with getting the heal nodded curtly and looked at the stairs going down.

"What's down there?"

"Nothing good," Luke replied. He moved to the stairs leading up, and glanced back.

"I'd hold these stairs, and stay out of the kitchen." He kept moving up to the second floor, and saw a heated battle was underway. It had spilled out of the infirmary to his left, and he saw a Dawnbringer's body, torn in half and obviously quite dead, strewn across the floor in the doorway. The Captain and two of her companions held firm against a tide of six Fog Creepers, and it was that fray Luke flung himself into.

As he bolted past the Captain and brought his blade in point-first for a stab, he shouted, "They excel at reach! Get in close!" He slammed into the one he had initially lunged at, and succeeded in piercing it through the chest, driving it back into its allies, and dispatched it. The Dawnbringers rallied and surged forward alongside Luke, and they pushed the Fog Creepers into the infirmary proper. As Luke and Stephanie pushed the remaining two into the corner with stabs and shoves, she shouted, "Clear the roof!"

The two others rushed up the stairs, and Luke received a slash along his leg that the armor took, but the scales dented inward, and he still winced as he felt a sharp jab. Armor helps, he thought, but it can't stop all injuries. He was able to kill another one of the Fog Creepers, and joining in the Captain's assault on her foe, they dispatched that one, too. The Holy flames still caused Luke to recoil, but he kept himself from backing away. The woman was huffing in deep breaths and sweating bullets.

She looked at Luke.

"Clear the second floor."

"The birthing chamber is down below the kitchen," Luke said as he turned to the storage room and peered inside. It was empty. Heading back to the landing, he went into the command room, captain's quarters, records room, and shrine. All of those were still empty and hadn't been visited since he was last there.

"Looks like the floor is clear," Luke said as he came back to the stairs. The Captain was gone, and the two men who had gone upstairs pointed down.

"Roof cleared. She went to the basement."

"Fuck!" Luke shouted as he rushed down and sprinted into the kitchen, barely turning a corner in time and keeping from slipping and falling. He almost ran into her back on the steps, stopping just before plowing her over. She was taking shallow breaths, and glanced back at Luke. Her eyes were glowing gold, and Luke assumed it was some type of dark vision Art. She said, "We can burn them out—""Most of the fort interior is wood," Luke replied.

"Unless you want to start from the foundations and stone shell in a rebuild, we need to deal with this." The woman swallowed and looked back.

"Undead… you go in first." Figures, Luke thought as he stepped down onto the mushroom farm floor. As soon as his feet touched the transplanted loam and soil, the Fog Creepers—the Matriarch, two grey-glowing Guardians, and the six small attendants all turned to face him. The Guardians rushed forward. Luke needed to slow them as he doubted he could take both of the monsters at the same time. Instead of using an Art on the monster, he targeted one of the fresher corpses it would run over and used Corpse Retainer.

He shouted the command, "Hold the Guardian!" [Health: 100 / 125] [Mana: 56 / 96 {126}] [Stamina: 9 / 96 {116}] The corpse jerked to life, grabbed onto one of the Guardians with an iron grip, and the thing tumbled forward from the trip maneuver. The little Fog Creepers went to work slashing the Mindless Undead, but it held firm and didn't react, save to get a better hold on its prey. The remaining Guardian got up to Luke and it felt almost… comforting, in a way.

Its eyes weren't bright like the others he'd seen, they were hollow and grey. The gaze matched the flowing aura surrounding it, and the monster brought a claw forward, wreathed in the same glow. Luke got his shield in the way, and saw the tips rip through the Black Guard defense. But, it held, and Luke returned with a stab. The monster danced back from the blade's edge, and Luke moved into the room. Behind him, the Captain got her nerve back and fired off a bolt of golden flames from her left palm.

It shot forward, hit the Matriarch, and set her ablaze. The thing shrieked with pain, and the little Fog Creepers surged toward the Captain in response to the aggressive maneuver. Luke was slashed across the chest, and the scales of his armor got in the way, but the blow still took him off balance. The Guardian then chomped down onto the nape of his neck, and while the armor took the bulk of the hit, Luke still felt a set of teeth claw into the flesh near his shoulder.

He would've grunted or shouted in pain if he had any air in his lungs. Dawnbringers came in from the stairs and other door and joined the fray. Two rushed the Matriarch, one joined the Captain in dealing with the smaller foes, and yet another went for the downed-and-grappled Guardian, who was trying to rip the Undead holding it apart, but only succeeding in tearing large chunks of flesh free. Luke dropped to hands and knees to escape the biting teeth, then rolled forward, and came up in a crouch as he turned.

His shield caught another one of the monster's downward slashes, and it drove him into the ground from the sheer strength of the blow. Luke lashed out with a horizontal swing, cutting deep into one of the skinny legs, and the thing let out a howl of pain as it toppled to its side. Luke followed up with another slash as it fell, cutting across the midsection, and then got to his feet and stabbed down, ending it, as it turned to sludge.

Looking up, he saw the Dawnbringers doing a good job, save for the one who had confronted the prone Fog Creeper Nest Guardian. That Dawnbringer, a middle-aged woman— Wait, how is she middle-aged? Luke thought. They were accompanied by relatively youthful people, and yet here was a greying warrior, fighting for her life against a foe who had finally dispatched Luke's Mindless Undead holding it down.

Luke got up and ran over, then shoved his blade into the monster's neck, wrenching to the side and cutting enough off that it fell and melted into sludge. The woman's grey coloring remained, though. She looked up at Luke with those same glowing, golden eyes, but she had bags under them, and wrinkles covered her face. The rest of the fight ended rapidly, and Luke saw a flurry of messages across his vision. [Experience Gained: 369. Current Experience: 386 / 1000.] [Art Increase: Grim Harvest 1 → 2 (Restores/Damages 6% max Health).] [Art Increase: Black Guard 3 → 4 (While active, reduce all damage taken by 4%).] [Art Increase: Corpse Retainer 2 → 3 (Increase Command Limit by +2).] [Aspect Increase: Armor Familiarity 4 → 5 (gain +5% damage resistance when wearing armor.).] [Aspect Increase: Melee Familiarity (Blade) 3 → 4 (Gain +4% damage with bladed weapons.).] Luke looked at the Captain, who had walked closer, and looked down at her companion.

Then, she looked up at him.

"What did you do to her?"