"Darkwing!?" Zao Wu Hai exclaimed in his tiny form, his voice shrieked a little, it was almost as funny as his appearance.
He was staring from across the room, "Yes, Master?" Darkwing was still recovering his mental state but he, there were a lot of thoughts going through his head, he stood there, petrified and amazed at the strength that was going through his fingers.
Laughing mercilessly as he smashed through the hallways past Darkwing's position, Wu Hai crushed the skulls of many of the Undead in the group's path. He wasn't about to wait for Darkwing to continue, it was hard enough before the transformation. 'Just how fast will he be now?' Wu Hai did what he could to break the front line of the undead but they were still coming in waves.
When Darkwing came back to his senses he started stretching out his body. "It is strange with no wings on my back.." Darkwing let out a relaxed stretching motion again and rolled to the side as an Undead tried lunging in his direction.
Khan's arrow whizzed past Darkwing's head and cracked the Skeleton's skull in half. "Watch where you're going!"
Darkwing kicked off the ground after flexing his fingers a few times, "Interesting! I like this." Tossing out a silvery sliver of energy, everything it touched seemed to disappear. Darkwing was destroying the Undead with an unfamiliar sort of attack. As the energy whizzed through the head of a fleshy undead, gaps could be clearly seen. The side of the skull disappeared like it had never been.
He tried it again, the neck fell off, decapitating the shamble. Darkwing's previous lightning abilities were second rate in comparison. Whole body parts were vanishing with every swipe of his fists.
Cleaving strikes were traced with lightning, they made up any gaps that occurred during Darkwing's rampage. He was messy, severed remains were left behind in every direction. Bit of corpses littered the ground, a large amount of the debris were dismemberments, arms and feet, the occasional head. Darkwing's had no use for weapons, he wouldn't have known how to use one either.
Darkwing was enjoying the fight, found himself thinking about the silvery ability as he kept releasing its power. 'Just what is this power?'
Picking up a ring from a corpse, Wu Hai saw that Darkwing was lost and threw the ring at his head. "Wear it, pickup corpses, body parts and all the crap they drop by waving your hand with energy, you'll feel it!"
Darkwing had a million things on his mind, picking things up was definitely not one of them. Surprisingly, he caught the Ring. "Why a ring?"
As the ring landed in his hand, he yelled out. "This!, This is it! Master!, My power is the ring." Darkwing waved his hand and everything in the room disappeared. "Master! Space! I control Space!" Darkwing started aggressively picking things up during and after each combatant. Clearing the path ahead, he moved incredibly.
Darkwing was moving in a manner that looked like he was dancing. It was strange to watch him while he moved, he blinked out of everyone's vision only to reappear in another space. Where ever Darkwing landed, something had a hole in it and another object entered the ring.
"Space magic?!" Wu Hai stopped what he was doing, released a giant wave of electricity and created a huge explosion. Leaping to Darkwing's side to check out his new ability in detail, he grabbed Darkwing's hand and asked, "Can you show me? Please! I need to know what space magic feels like when its not in a ring."
Thinking only of Space and the magic within the ring, a tiny glob of silver floated on Darkwing's palm. It wasn't large but it was only moments ago that Darkwing even knew he could control space. Condensing a liquefied elemental attribute was beyond Wu Hai's expectation, he only wanted to see the ability manifest or attenuate.
'I see, Electricity and the Void created by Darkness create the proper energy channel for spacial magic, maybe..' Wu Hai efforted once over the concept and said, "I'll give it a shot in a bit, I think I have a few ideas." He turned his eyes back to the incoming undead. More than a dozen came in the wave but Darkwing was already moving.
Catching up and catching his breath, Cheng Yu looked at his brother and said "I won!" They had been charging forward the entire time and since they were now at the end of the hallway, he had questions. "What happened to Darkwing? Brother Darkwing has no wings!"
"I still have wings!" Flexing his back, magnificent black wings crackling with electric arcs unfurled into the passageway. Darkwing tried stretching them out and stopped. "See, too big!" He pulled them close and dismissed them. The wings disappeared into his shoulders like they never existed.
"Brother, your wings are terrifying," Mu said, "Viscous, Yes!" Yu continued.
The Twins threw their thoughts out as they tried to charge ahead of the group. Snagging a room to themselves, they threw caution to the wind and started bashing whatever was in the way. Each tried their best to contribute. Darkwing's ability and Wu Hai's desire to compete were hard to keep up with, Khan Ni and the Jiao were still running down the hallways to catch up.
When she saw them breaking down a door from the other end of the hallway, she felt a little bothered by her lack of speed. It was nothing she couldn't work on but the others in the group had made such a leap that even with the Jiao's help, she would still be falling behind.
"Honing our skills in this tomb was the right idea." A very complicated chiding came from Khan Ni, she continued. "Withdrawing earlier was smart, you all were dizzy. Now you're both just trying to keep up with Darkwing's new form.." Looking at Darkwing pushing well past the group and down another hall, Khan Ni knew the entire group took was taking it as motivation.
She released more Arrows to make up for her talking, then, she let out a cheer when another flash of golden light enveloped her, "At least we're getting some combat experience!" Khan Ni was enjoying the battle and delve into a danger. She hated that it was underground but she had never thought such a thing was possible, the rise in her strength as she continued made her feel like anything was possible.
'Khan Ni glows again?' Wu Hai sighed and the buzzing noise from his wings could be heard in all the nearby rooms. He charged further down the catacomb, "Take the Stairs!"
They pushed forward while fighting, collecting bones, armor, weapons and treasures as they fell. Pushing all the items into storage as fast as they could, the group made quick work of the Undead. Their push into the cultist tomb had been going for hours, despite that, none of them seemed tired.
'Ugh, they all grow so fast. everyone seems to be growing much fast than I thought. I have to get Khan Ni to take the initiative.' "Everyone's attacks have different effective uses, Don't worry about appearances, as long as you're doing everything you can do to contribute, nothing is out of our reach within this tomb." Wu Hai reiterated his thoughts for the group. He was confident in his words.
"Thank you." Khan Ni drew her bow again and fired. It was a short reply but she was determined to prove herself in her own way.
As the group got deeper into the Catacombs and further down the stairwell, the number of Undead became less but the types of Undead increased. Soon, there were a number of animals that had succumb to the Undead, their skeletons were marching alongside half-rotten werebears and fire wolves, Foxes and Qilin.
Noticing the dramatic increase in undead, the battle intensified before Wu Hai could call the group back.
Retreating to the top of the stairwell, some of the dead that had not been eliminated from the previous floor were starting to come down. The group was being surrounded, Wu Hai kicked down a large section of the wall and closed the passageway that led down, sealing many of the undead before they could come closer.
"Lets get back to the Pagoda, I have some things to work out. We're being surrounded in all directions." The situation dawned on Wu Hai, "Hah! Inventory..Okay, when we get back inside, toss all the crap you've found.. all of it on the tables in the lobby. I want to see what we have." Wu Hai was excited, their combat ability had jumped considerably and it was time they check their spoils before they venture further. Darkwing needed armor and the group had use of better weapons.
It didn't take long to break through the Undead that were blocking their return to the Pagoda. The Twins watched the Undead rushing toward the light while they briefly reopened the entrance. The desperate moans of the dead, trampling over each other to dismember and feast upon whatever lay before them, was something no man would ever forget.
"Seal it." Khan Ni slipped through at the end and gave the signal to close the passageway.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
"Qu!" Zao Wu Hai called out.
He emptied his storage ring and much of what he had gathered in the past onto the table. "You guys do the same, I know we all have our own spoils, keep your gourds, I'm not talking about those."
Motioning for the Brothers to follow suit, Khan Ni took out her things. She put the bow on her back and sat at the table. There was a mound of corpse parts that took up a corner of the lobby.
Darkwing collected a large amount of corpses and took off the spacial ring he was wearing. "This skill is useful." Playing with it in his hand for a moment, he put it back on and emptied it onto the ground beside the table.
Qu quickly started to move the bodies from the area, it was not good to leave items like that out. Dead things and body parts, especially from the reanimated, had a tendency to affect the items around them. There was a method of disposal, Qu sent them away with some of his avatars.
"That was disgusting Darkwing." Zao Wu Hai commented, but let it go immediately.
"Qu!. Where are you going?"
"Yes, Master. These corpses cannot be left out, Undead reanimate. I have to move them to the corpse rooms." Qu explained.
Wu Hai still had questions, "Corpse room? is everything alright?"
"Indeed Master, I was following protocol." He sighed, it was difficult for Qu to maintain his secrecy and mysteries. "Sorry for my absence, What else can I do for you?" As formal as always, he respectfully bowed and answered.
"I need you to sort out all the items here, put materials in the upper floors where they are marked. After you're done with that please let me know, I have some other things that need to be taken care of." Wu Hai seemed like he was looking for something but he didn't explain.
Qu did not complain, he got to work while everyone took the time to refresh themselves. Pulling items from storage rings, armor from bodies, and weapons from muck while sorting was a simple task. As the spirit of the Pagoda, he had always been tasked with a multitude of odd things to juggle. Moving items around and transporting them from one place to another was child's play and a frequent request of his previous owners as well. Qu was finished after only a few minutes.
Pulling Darkwing aside to talk, Wu Hai had him demonstrate his power once again and soon a precious silver luster filled his palm. Within a few moments it started to liquefy, a tiny shifting pool appeared on his palm.
Wu Hai touched it with the tip of a loose bone, as a drop drifted from the pool, it soaked into the bone.
Darkwing felt the change, energy had disappeared from the pool and entered the bone. It was an eye opener.
Wu Hai probed his spiritual sense into the bone and discovered what had happened. There was now a space inside the bone, much like a ring. The space was not huge by any means but he could see enough space to hide gems, metal or even a scroll within the bones structure.
'Magic is amazing!' Wu Hai took a gamble.
With a Demon body, he had very good healing. Directly touching the puddle, his finger didn't disappear. His skin was able to survive the fluctuations from the fluid. There was an accumulation of the pools energy along Wu Hai's finger until he pulled back. Stunned, he looked at Darkwing then jumped in amazement.
Hugging Darkwing tight enough that Darkwing's Wings popped out and expanded fully, Wu Hai stopped himself. "Now those really are stunning. I didn't get a good look earlier. You sure are one lucky duck."
"Darkwing is Unique!" Darkwing quacked heavily as he laughed, it was contagious.