Interesting it seems whatever is controlling these undeads, leaves them once it realises that they are bound and are incapable of escape.
"Let's keep moving" I instructed both of them.
As we were getting close to a pillar suddenly it started shaking before cracks slowly formed upon the pillar.
Before we knew it a hand came out of the pillar and slowly ripped the rest of its body out of the pillar.
We haven't even left the undead girls body for 10 meters before another variant undead showed up.
This time instead of a little girl it was a 2m tall man this time. He had a hunchback but well-built body, covered in mould and various other worms and other insects which was feasting on his flesh.
He came out facing the other way and slowly turned to us showing his partially decomposed face, along with some of his decayed internal organs spewing out of his hole in his abdomen.
"Vitalise!" Ellis suddenly casted a spell on himself to help him not to vomit his stomach out.
The undead started limping his way to us very quickly.
"Ellis same as before." I quickly instructed Ellis as he was 7m away from us.
He quickly casted a mud block to trip the undead up. However, due to the undead already travelling at a very fast speed, his momentum carried him as he fell forwards landing only 1 meter away from me.
Seeing its prey within arm's length he slowly stretched his rotten arm, with rotten vein partially visible which had some kind of worm living inside it twirling as it was being moved, to grab hold of me.
However right before he even touched me an ice spike stabbed through his stretched-out arm and impaled it to the floor, followed by few more ice spike impaling the rest of the limbs.
It seems this grey zone likes surprise attacks. If we hadn't noticed the little girl undead, then this rotten man undead would have distracted us while the girl undead took one of us out by surprise.
The man kept resisting and it even seemed he would break out of his imprisonment. Seeing this Ellis started casting more ice spikes individually to keep him in restraint, on his limbs.
However, this didn't stop the undead as he kept on twitching and shaking, while his intestines slowly started seeping out of the hole in his abdomen and being grinded against his own body to a paste.
We still had to travel for few more minutes before getting to the main hall, that meant we will have to encounter other strange undead en route. I suddenly realised something and looked back at the little girls' corpse.
"Ellis cast a few more ice spike on him and come with me. Kristof keep watch and alert us when something goes wrong." I ordered as I hovered back to the body on my board. I looked at the head of the little girl which laid next to her body with her eyes closed.
Ellis finished with his job came towards me and awaited further instruction. He looked pale and his expression suggested that he will be traumatised by what he saw today.
"Ellis, do you have any magi that can take the ice spikes out of her body?" I asked him.
Ellis looked at me strangely before shaking his head. "I can melt them though."
"Do it and stay alert." I relayed my instructions and started watching as he melted the ice spike with a conjured fireball next to it.
Both of us waited near the body and seeing nothing happen, I turned back mouthing something to Ellis.
As both of us were walking back towards Kristof, Ellis suddenly turned around to cast ice spikes.
I smiled as my theory was just proven right and turned around to see what was happening.
The previously closed eyes of the undead seemed to have opened and was currently looking at me, while its body (that had just attempted to stand up and walk towards us in silence) was being bombarded with ice spike after ice spike to restrain it.
So, whatever is controlling these undead leaves them when it sees its restraint and impossible to escape. But once its restraints are freed it will come back to take control.
It's a good thing I realised it now otherwise it would have been very dangerous when Kristof and Ellis had to travel back out and had to encounter these guys again when the ice had melted out.
Suddenly Kristof took his sword out and ran towards me. I moved sideways to dodge his sword as he stabbed just a few centimetres behind where I stood before.
I looked at the hand that had been impaled twice by Kristof so far.
We can't use fire to burn these things up, as it might reduce the already well below oxygen level in the underground, that is being burned up by the torches. Along with that, it will also emit smoke which will be very dangerous for me to breath in, with my weak body compared to these two.
"When you two go back, while I am meeting with the ghost, remember that all hands that we thought we had subdued can be awakened."
They nodded as they looked in fear at the hand in that had been stabbed twice already in a day. "Ellis impale the hand and free the restrains of the little girl and the man there." I said as I formulated a plan.
Ellis and Kristof looked at me in shock while expecting an answer from me at what I had just said. "We can't restrain them here, as they will just keep coming back after the ice has been melted.
There is no point cutting their limbs off as the limbs work independently of the rest of the body.
We could have impaled them with mud spikes and prevent the spikes from melting, but I presume you haven't learned earth series spell much." Ellis nodded at what I said.
"That means we will have to ..." I carried on explaining my plan to them.
"It is very risky plan your highness. One wrong move and there will be no hope for us, going back alive, especially for you my lord." I nodded at what Kristof said.
"But it's the only one we have right now that can make sure these things don't take us by surprise and ruin everything." I said
Both of them finally relented and agreed to what I had planned.
Ellis then proceeded to melt the ice on the girl undead and moved towards the male rotten undead.
As she was free from her restraint she slowly stood up and walked towards us quietly, while Ellis was halfway done with melting all the ice on the other undead.
As soon as his arms were free, the undead started struggling more and more to get free, while the girl got closer. And after a few second both undead were finally free to come at us.
Both of them started moving towards us, while Ellis casted a speed boost magi spell on him, while casting a strength boost to Kristoff as his speed is superior to us even with the speed boost on us. This boost lasted a total of 2 minutes, which was plenty of time for what we needed to do.
Then we started moving towards the main hall very quickly, me on my board and Ellis and Kristof running.
We didn't even stop for any undeads we passed along and let them follow us to the main hall as well.
Soon by the time, the boost ran out we had reached the open door leading to the main hall, while a horde of undead followed us in the distance. What we had just done is something I usually do when playing games, kiting.
Instead of restraining them one by one I led all of them to the main hall. The main hall had quite a few undeads as well. We entered the main hall, which was a wide and spacious room with a broken chair and tables lying around, with splattered blood everywhere. There were torches laid out on the wall around the hall, followed by 5 different doors leading to wherever they were supposed to be.
The various undeads in the room started charging towards us. Ellis renewed the boost on Kristof and him.
We started dodging them and moved around the room and waited till the horde that was following us entered as well and chased us about. I dodged each one of them after me on my board while Ellis ran using his superior movement. While Kristof just ran and occasionally just slammed some out of the way with his sword.
This was the reason I chose to kite these undeads here. From the map we had received, we knew that the main hall was quite a large room. I was informed it was previously used to party for the bandit, hold the prisoners they captured along with the storing whatever they stole here. However after the bandits were killed, almost everything usable here was moved out, thus making this room more spacious.
Bringing these undeads here can let us easily dodge them while clearing the path for Ellis and Kristof when going back, along with wasting time taking care of them while the grey zone feeds on the negative thoughts each second and grow stronger.
As the final horde entered the room Kristof and Ellis slowly made their way out to exit the room, this caused quite a few undead to follow them as well. However, as soon as they got to door everything stood still.
"No one will move." Kristof started using his award, and I felt that no matter what I do, I couldn't move a millimetre. I saw that both Ellis and Kristof were standing still, while the rest of the undead followed suit and stood still while still moaning.
"Those who have capabilities and strength below a rank 1 can move." Suddenly I felt that I could move.
I looked around carefully where the room with the ghost could possibly be hosted. Suddenly I looked at one door which stood out to me more than the others. All the other doors had lit torches beside their walls. However, the light from the torches got dimmer and dimmer as it got close to the door, to the point that the torch next to the door wasn't lit.
I nodded at those two at the very back and walked towards the door I believed the ghost should be. From my memory, it should be the bandit leaders room.
As I opened and entered the room, I heard Kristof saying something else before closing the door behind me. "No one will enter or leave that room."