Chương 52: The Graveyard Part 3

"Damion!" Arica screamed as Damion was sent flying by the skeleton champion's kick. The Demonic Beast's kick sent Damion three meters through the air, slamming into a tombstone. The tombstone cracked from Damion's impact and as Damion tried to clear his head, he realized he had lost his grip on his sword. With blurry vision and a ringing in his ears, Damion tried to see where his sword had landed.

Before Damion could orient himself, he felt someone pull him roughly to the side and Damion felt an impact where he had just been a moment ago. The next thing Damion saw was a flash of light that stung his eyes. As Damion's vision began to clear, he saw Ethan and Arica on either side of him. Both of them were speaking, but Damion's ears were still ringing, and he could not tell what they were saying.

Arica shoved a bottle of something into his hands, but Damion was still dazed and did not understand what it was or what Arica wanted of him. The mage opened the bottle and then moved Damion's hand holding the bottle up to his mouth. With a glimmer of understanding, Damion took a sip of the liquid in the bottle. Seeing him take only a sip, Arica tipped the bottom of the bottle in Damion's hand forcing more of the liquid into his mouth.

As soon as Damion swallowed, his head started clearing and the ringing in his ears began to quiet. Damion took another sip and his vision, that had still been cloudy, cleared up and the aches he felt in his sides and back began to fade as well.

"What happened?" Damion managed to ask.

"You got the shit kicked out of you," Ethan answered.

"The skeleton champion kicked you. For a moment, we thought it might have killed you outright." Arica explained.

"Nope, not dead," Damion groaned.

"And the champion?"

"Justiciar Mathis hit it with some artifact that froze the thing in place. He didn't kill it, since doing so will cause the next one to come out and so on until the guardian pops out of the chapel," Ethan informed him.

"Can you get up?" Arica asked getting to her feet and extending him a hand. Damion took her hand got to his feet. Looking around, Damion saw what was left of the tombstone he had impacted not far away. Apparently, after he hit the tombstone, the skeleton champion had rushed over to finish him off. Luckily, his party members had knocked him out of the way and the skeleton champion had only managed to bury its hammer into the tombstone.

Before the Demonic Beast could free its weapon, Justiciar Mathis had frozen the beast in place, and it stood there unmoving just a few meters from them, shrouded in a white shimmering light.

"I take it that neither of you had any luck in being able to hurt the champion either?" Damion asked as the champion did not appear to be harmed at all.

"Nope, it shrugged off our attacks. Worse still, was that it completely ignored us and continued to go after you," Ethan explained. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Well, it is C Rank," Damion said with a shrug.

"Yes, that is a big leap in power over any of us, well, except for Justiciar Mathis," Arica said with a nod.

"Should we let him take out the champions and the guardian then? We wanted to wait for you to get up before we decided."

"Seen my sword?" Damion asked looking around. A moment later, Justiciar Mathis held it out to him.

"Thanks. My artifact is only D Rank and even with my best attack I doubt I can hurt it. What about you two?"

"Same, and I don't have an attack glyph. My daggers are enchanted to cut through armor and defensive enchantments, but they are only effective on things of equal or lower rank. I might be able to hurt it, but I can't take it down."

"I have several artifacts that my master let me borrow, and while they should be able to hurt a C Rank Demonic Beast, I don't think I have the magic power to overcome a Demonic Beast more than a rank above me. If it was a Ferocious Beast I probably could. They are just beasts that can use magic, not beasts formed by magic."

While Arica and Ethan were explaining their chances of taking down the skeleton champion, Damion was considering if he should remove the training bracelets and have another go at the Demonic Beast. Sure, he was weaker than it, but he felt his strength had risen quite a bit in the last few days and thought he might be able to at least hurt the creature without his handicap.

"I guess it is decided then," Damion said turning to Justiciar Mathis.

"Go ahead and finish the champion off and anything else that pops up so we can clear this dungeon."

"As you wish," Justiciar Mathis said with a nod. Before tossing the champion to the other side of graveyard and releasing it from its magical bindings.

"What did he use to stop the skeleton champion like that?" Damion asked when he saw the light that was surrounding the skeleton champion vanish.

"Some kind of Holy affinity artifact. I'm guessing his Order has special artifacts to use in each of these dungeons when they do them." Arica explained.

"Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me," Damion said.

"what was it that you gave me earlier?"

"A healing potion. Best thing you can have in a dungeon, unless you have someone with healing magic." A healing potion, Damion figured that was the case. The issue Damion was gripping with, was that healing potions were expensive. Depending on the rank of the potion, they could cost anywhere from a few silvers to hundreds of golds.

"You can take the cost of the potion from my share," Damion offered. He just hoped the potion she used was not going to eat away his share completely.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, I'm the one that put this party together without a healer, because I thought with a high ranker with us we couldn't get hurt. Using one of my potions on you is the least I can do to apologize."

"I knew the risks when…"

"Don't argue with me, Damion," Arica cut Damion off.

"Besides, I think Justiciar Mathis will probably reimburse me for the healing potion. He was quite distressed when he saw you injured and was going to use his own, but I got to you first since he had to restrain the champion."

"Why would he be worried about me?" Damion asked.

"There are three reasons I can think of," Arica answered.

"The first, is your teacher. You know she is an A Ranker, but I think you sometimes forget what that means. If something happened to you while you are under the Justiciar's protection, Ms. Teft would not be pleased.

"Second, it was his job to make sure none of us got hurt. Allowing you to be injured, just to see what you were capable of, was a dangerous thing to do."

"What do you mean, he let me get hurt?"

"I think he wanted to see if you could hurt a C Rank Demonic Beast when you are only F Rank. It would be quite the accomplishment. I think he believed you could so much that he blinded himself to the danger you were in."

"Uh… okay," Damion was not sure what to think about Arica's assessment.

"And third, I think Justiciar Mathis is hoping to recruit you to his Order."