"Are we really going to fight this thing in the dark?" Luna asked.
"Don't worry DreamWalker, albeit only slightly, I can use magic." The general put his hand out and faced his palm upwards. "Luminous" A small ball of light appeared in the palm of his hand. The general entered the cave as the ball of light floated behind him.
Luna was already a little shaky from the memories of her last cave experience. She just had to hope that this wouldn't turn out like the last time. Her steps echoed in the cave as she went inside.
It was considered a pretty basic cave from Luna's standpoint. There was water occasionally dripping from the stalagmites above. A strange smell similar to sulfur permeated the air.
Eventually General Braggart put his hand out to warn the rest of the group. "It's up ahead..." He said as he quieted his steps.
Another smell appeared, different than before. It was horrible, like the smell of rotting flesh. They entered a small outcropping on their left and the smell only got worse from there.
They were definitely getting closer to the beast. But the real question in Luna's head was: how much worse was the smell going to get before they would actually reach the beast.
They finally entered into a much larger room. A soon as they entered, they heard a maniacal laugh.
"Mwahahaha! Did they seriously think sending another group would stop me!?"
A old man revealed himself from behind the shadows. His cloak shadowed his eyes as he faced the group.
"Necromancer..." General Braggart grinded his teeth and clenched his fist. "We shall defeat you!"
"Wow no self introduction huh? Well... I myself am not very fond of fighting. So I'll have a little friend of mine handle the battle from now on." The necromancer raised his staff and stamped it on the floor creating a magic circle.
Hundreds of skeletons rose from the ground. They each held swords in their hands, a couple of them held staffs. The ones with swords had scattered pieces of armor covering their bodies. The ones with staffs had ripped robes hanging from their necks.
"Cosal soldiers..." The general hesitated. Fighting the men and women he trained for multiple years. It pained his heart to look upon their disheveled corpses. Jessica's hand landed on his shoulder.
"Grandfather, I know it pains you to fight against your previous comrades. But I'm sure they would rather now want the death given by your hands over the unending pain of an immortal life." The general knew what needed to be done, but he didn't know if he had the strength to do it.
Jessica grabbed his hand in hers. "Don't worry, I'll be fighting right beside you."
They both ran towards the swarm of skeletons. The necromancer then shouted. "Gus! Daddy needs your help over here!" Something large dropped from the ceiling behind the necromancer. "Daddy needs more valuable subjects, go kill them for me please."
The light revealed it's appearance. The copse of a white ape with four arms towered over the necromancer. "Take out the girl." It beat it's chest and screeched, shaking the entire cave. Luna felt an undeniable fear when looking at the beast.
[Your sanity has decreased]
"Huh?" But Luna didn't have time to be confused as the ape leaped towards Jessica. It landed right in front of her and reeled back it's fists. Jessica realized the power behind the beast. It's level, strength, and agility were far beyond her own. If that attack would hit, her life would be over in a flash.
It was like everything was in slow motion. Luna's body moved on instinct. "Sleepless-" Her body recoiled into a charged stance. The ape's attack shot forward. General Braggart tried tearing his way through the skeletons to reach Jessica. He knew he couldn't make it, but didn't want to believe what was about to happen.
"-Inception!" An invisible streak tore through the skeletons in an instant reaching the ape. One of it's left arms was completely torn off by the sword strike.
[You have dealt 580,125 damage]
The ape's attack missed Jessica and slammed right into the group of skeletons next to her. After the attack hit the beast, the whole cave went quiet.
Except for the necromancer who was now in a state of awe. "W-what... that sword strike. Y-you!" He pointed his finger at Luna. "Gus! Kill her!" The ape was already mad from Luna's previous attack. Now with permission, it threw it's body strait at Luna.
"KILL HER NOW!" The necromancer shouted.
[Your sanity has decreased]
"Wind blade!" A thin blade of wind flew out from Luna's sword, catching the beast midair. It's chest was cut disabling its current movement and the beast fell.
After pushing itself back up from the attack, the beast cried out in pain. It wasn't alive, but it was definitely feeling something. "Gus! Use fear!" The necromancer shouted while defending against the general.
The skeletons were getting wiped out by the general as his anger was greater than his reasoning. There was nothing stopping his push and the necromancer knew this. So he installed traps onto the undead he was summoning. Each one, after it was destroyed, exploded and dealt massive damage to the general if he couldn't get away.
Jessica on the other hand was taking out the mage undead. As each one of them was already capable of low level magic. It could deal massive damage to her grandfather as he was trying to fight the necromancer head on.
Her goal was trying to take out as many mages as possible and return to her grandfather's side.
"Swift!" On the other side of the cave, Luna was now in a state of panic as her sanity was rapidly decreasing. The fear effect lowered her sanity to the point of her hallucinating. She wasn't originally sure what it meant as it was something she couldn't find on the wiki. But it felt like the stat simulated her actual mental state.
She was scared. A massive beast kept swinging it's fists at her. Thankfully the attacks she had already dealt, slowed the beast down enough her her to dodge it. But there were echoing images of the beast around her. She was having a harder time telling which was real or not.
It felt like being surrounded by holograms. Sometimes a voice in her head would tell her where the attack was coming, only for nothing to be there. Each one of the apes was a threat in her head and she tried to dodge as many as possible. But after failing to dodge the real one, she was hit by the ape.
It hurt. Way more than it should have hurt. It felt like her sanity dropping was somehow affecting her pain settings. Her bones felt broken, and weak. But she stood back up. Using a health potion relieved a lot of the pain she felt. The ape swung it's right arm back. The same attack that was going to kill Jessica before, was about to hit Luna full force.
She wasn't even sure if she could survive something like that. There wasn't enough mana left to use Dust. The cloak could save her life, but her health would be stuck at one until she could take another health potion.
Her best choice of action?
Brute force her way through!
"Sleepless Storm!"
Strike after strike hit the beast. Each attack stunning it, interrupting it's punch. She aimed every attack, right at the wound caused by the wind blade. The damage she was dealing was massive.
[You have dealt 185,640 damage]
[The enemy is stunned for 0.5 seconds]
[You have dealt 188,640 damage]
[The enemy is stunned for 0.5 seconds]
[Critical hit! You have dealt 238,560 damage]
[The enemy is stunned...]
7 out of 10 of the attacks hit the ape. Now It's health bar was around 30% and Luna was looking hopeful. Even if everything around her was screwing with her head. She tried limiting her mind to just the enemy in front of her.
The necromancer was keeping the general occupied with lifeless corpses while he observed Luna. 'That girl uses strange swordsmanship, I thought she was the descendant of that despicable man. But it looks like something a bit different...'
General braggart was stuck in the center of the skeletons and cleaving through them like tofu. It wasn't hard to destroy them as their levels and defense were substantially decreased each time they resurrected. But each time one was cut down, 5 more would take its place.
Jessica was having a difficult time as well. Whenever the mages used magic., it created an opportunity for her to strike as each spell had a cooldown time tied to it. But whenever one spell was cast, 2 more would come from her sides. It was a hellish fight for the two of them. Their mental capabilities were already being tested by fighting the corpses of their soldiers. But the battle of numbers was overwhelming them.
"You all thought you could come here and actually kill me?! Are you stupid?!" The necromancer mocked them. The general wasn't going to fall for such mockery and used his skill.
"Brilliant earth!" His sword shined brightly as it jammed into the cave floor. A wave of rock spouted out in all directions.
The skeletons around him, all crumbled to the ground. He didn't let up. His footsteps were quick as he ran to the necromancer.
The necromancer was furiously cut by General Braggart's sword. Some strikes were blocked by the necromancer's staff. But the sheer number overwhelmed the necromancer as he had to fall back.
The undead ran to his aid. But it wasn't before he was already dead that they could reach him. That left the general with some cleaning up to do as he had to wipe out the leftover skeletons.
Even the white ape jumped to the necromancer's aid. It gave some time for Luna to heal, using another potion. The general was in dire need of help as he tried holding the skeletons off with his blade.
But it looked like the skeletons weren't even interested in the general in the first place. Every undead ran to the necromancer without even caring about destruction.
Luna and Jessica ran over to the general. They tried killing as many as possible, but ultimately they surrounded the necromancer's body. The purpose of which was unknown, but it couldn't be good.
Suddenly, their lifeless bodies crumbled into fragments of bone. Then they lifted themselves like it was carried by a wind. The fragments swirled around the necromancer's corpse. It created a strong wind, pushing the group back.
The bones formed around the body of the necromancer and shaped his body into something much more sinister. A large body appeared from the spiral of bone. "Mwahahaha!" The undead body cackled at the group.
"You cannot kill me anymore, you old fool!"
"A lich!" General Braggart shouted.
"Yes... I've already left my mortal body long ago. I just needed enough specimens to build me a truly immortal body!" The undead lich commanded his leftover army. "Kill them all, my army!"
The lich summoned his staff. The crystal at the top glowed a bright purple. The lich shouted "Death Ray!" Then a beam of black light shot out and went right through Luna's chest. The hole was so large that the other side could be seen through her.
[You have received 238,550 damage]
[The durability of the Cosal soldier chestplate has dropped by 90]
The pain overwhelmed her and her health dropped to the minimum. The Northwind cloak saved her HP from instantly hitting 0. She fainted from the pain of the attack and laid their lifeless on the ground.
"DreamWalker!" The general screamed. His anger soared as the ape leaped at him, ready for battle. He started to fight with all of his might. A golden aura appeared around his body and spread to his sword. Each attack he threw with his sword created a brilliant light that lit up the cave.
Jessica fell to her knees at Luna's body in disbelief. She thought Luna was a Silver hero chosen by the gods to live an immortal life. There wasn't anything that could stop a Silver hero from resurrecting. Their bodies always disappeared after their deaths.
So why was she still here?
Jessica wasn't aware of what the Northwind cloak's ability was and had assumed Luna was dead. Her body was pale and cold. It looked as though Luna had already passed on. But Jessica and General Braggart weren't in a party with Luna. They didn't know; her current health was stuck at the minimum.
Noll's eyes were torn. It was hard form him to keep watching this. There was something he had to do.
Luna was out cold, she couldn't see it, but something special was happening to her.
[Your Chrysalis is forming]