{The following scenes have been removed due to the repetitive nature of using Nepherage's stone body to bypass the traps: A hallway of swinging blades, a crushing room trap and a pitfall blender trap. The best ways to describe how those ended: Blunted, jammed and broken. But enough of that, on to the next part!}
"Finally! Something that looks we can use to win this thing!," Zhen Hai exclaimed.
'Oh yeah totally, and the fact that it's sitting on a pedestal surrounded by standing corpses isn't ominous in the least bit...'
After surviving a whole bunch of death traps one after the other, the Zhen Clan team had finally stumbled upon a room that didn't look deadly...kinda.
The team had come to a crossroads of sorts, with only two ways forward, one on their left and another on their right.
The path to the left appeared to be a continuation of the hallway they were already in. They determined that was the obvious way forward and a way to get deeper into the wandering ruins.
On the right was technically a dead end, but was much more interesting to the group due to the painfully obvious treasure chest sitting in the middle of the room, on top of a pedestal... surrounded by a pair of dried out corpses stuck in fearful, standing positions.
While he wasn't sure on how "fresh" these corpses were, to Zhen Liu this was a massive red danger flag.
To his cousins however, this sight meant treasure.
"Alright, all we have to do is go over there and see what's inside," Zhen Hai declared...moments before turning to stare at Zhen Liu.
Zhen Liu was initially staring straight at the chest, trying to ignore his cousin's gaze but he couldn't handle being stared at so intently for too long.
"You want me to send the 'puppet' over and open it, don't you?"
"Well if you insist..."
Zhen Liu gave his cousin a deadpan stare.
'The memory profile I got on you says you're the proud, headstrong type that relies on nobody but themselves...I can't tell if you're being complacent or hoping that Nepherage breaks or something at this point.'
[Nepherage?]
[Yes milord.]
Nepherage made her way pass the group and walked into the room.
Zhen Hai, Zhen Yue and Sullivan were readying themselves for whatever traps were in store for them in this room, only to be pleasantly surprised to find nothing happening as Nepherage made it to about halfway through the room.
"Huh...guess we can go in."
The Zhen Clan team cautiously entered the room one by one, circulating their aether ever so slightly just in case they needed to fire off an art in self defense. As the group went deeper and deeper into the room, the standing corpses twitched oh so slightly. However, none of the Zhen Clan team members or Nepherage noticed, their eyes were locked on the chest.
"Is it just me, or does this room feel a lot colder than the hallway?"
[Should I try and lift the chest off the pedestal milord?]
[No, just try and open it from there.]
[Understood.]
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No meat...no blood...no marrow...just dust and bones...just boredom.
Hark...feel it...movement?
Vitality?
Life?
Flesh,Blood,Marrow!
FEEEEEEEEEEED!
_________________________________________________
"What the nine hells?!"
[Nepherage, look out!]
As Nepherage went to open the chest, the two corpses flanking it suddenly sprang to life and attacked Nepherage, their arms aflame with death aether. Thankfully, Nepherage managed to block in time.
[Ram Guard!]
A stone shield in the shape of a ram's head manifested in front of Nepherage, intercepting the weird attacks of the corpses.
Creepy black tendrils of energy began to emanate from the corpse's hands and plunge into the shield, causing all manners of cracks and breaks to form.
[Gross.]
Thankfully, Nepherage didn't have to keep her guard up for long.
[Moon Jaguar Claw!]
[Orca Smash!]
The hazy yellow outline of a jaguar manifested around Zhen Yue as she rushed one of the offending corpses, while the blue outline of orca formed around Zhen Hai as he rushed the other.
*Skrick!* *Slam!*
The two corpse attackers were sent flying away as soon as the Zhen Clan heirs made contact, one with a sizeable gash in it's chest while the other looked as if it's chest was caved in. The two corpses smacked into the opposite wall and proceeded to slump over.
Zhen Hai looked positively pleased at this result.
"Hah! Well that wasn't anything. I figured undead monsters would put up more of a fight!"
Immediately after he said that, the two corpses stood back up, their wounds healing as black flames began to form in their eyes sockets.
At this sudden turn of events, Zhen Yue shot Zhen Hai a dirty look.
"You were saying?"
(Un)surprisingly, Zhen Hai didn't look at all deterred, in fact he looked even more excited than before.
"That just means we finally have a decent fight, let's go!" With a manic battle hungry smile on his face, Zhen Hai proceeded to rush forward, his fists glowing with Aquarii aether. From what Zhen Liu could see, Zhen Hai was aiming for the corpse he had punched earlier.
'Guess he wants to finish the job?'
"Wait! Gaaahh!" Zhen Yue quickly followed suit, however she was running towards the corpse she had attacked earlier as well. "Zhen Liu, work with Zhen Hai and make sure he doesn't get in over his head. Sullivan, with me!"
"Right!"
'Making sure Zhen Hai doesn't get ganked, alright,' Zhen Liu thought as he nodded.
[Nepherage you heard the lady, can you work with Zhen Hai?]
[Yes milord, though I make no promises if he get scuffed up a little during the fight.]
[Fair enough, just make sure he doesn't die.]
[Of course.]
And with that command sent, Zhen Liu proceeded to take on a meditative pose in order to facilitate the illusion that he was fully concentrating on "controlling" his "puppet".
'On the one hand, undead monsters seems fairly expected in a wandering ruin. On the other...I distinctly remember reading the conditions for that, and this ain't it.'