My Necromancer Class-Chapter 275: Life Cycle 4

[690 Exp]

The skeletons at the gatehouse had slain more enemies while Jay and Red infiltrated the castle.

Jay crept out of the room as the two lesser knights left. Red cracked open the door, peeking at the leaving enemies and then at Jay, checking on the safety of its master.

Jay ignored the skeleton as he went to look around.

“How come they stopped?” he wondered, standing over the spot they stopped. It was the same place Jay had splashed out the luminous fluid.

Jay’s eyes drifted to the empty jar.

“Surely it’s not that simple…” Jay thought, “they have a pheromone scent ability, so they probably use it to create patrol paths, too?”

Jay grabbed some more of the glowing jars, adding some smaller ones to his backpack. There were still some echoes coming through the passages, so without wasting time checking the other rooms, Jay followed them.

A few of the roots led through this passageway too, so Jay was content with following them.

[Your skeleton has been slain.]

“One summon left in the bone well.” Jay thought.

So far, the skeletons at the gatehouse had held on for far longer than he expected, and had brought Jay enough time to recover a sizeable chunk of his mana pool.

Thirty mana to be precise.

“Blue must be commanding them well.” He smiled.

The two lesser knights led Jay and Red through different passages, connecting to different hallways until eventually coming to a much larger chamber.

The castle itself was giant, so fitting in so many grand halls was not a problem. Jay walked into the room on a stone balcony which wrapped around the wall.

The roof was so high that they could not see its top as it returned to darkness; The knights placed more luminous jars of green fluid around the balcony, and while bright, they were not enough to dispel the shadows completely.

Jay hovered around the exit of the passage, sticking close to the wall as he watched the knights he was following.

Together, they marched around the stone balcony and soon entered a door in the wall, which had a root trailing from underneath it. As they entered, Jay glimpsed another one of the root-basins just before they closed the door.

“A basin room.” Jay thought.

Jay peered around the rest of the balcony, and many other doors similarly had roots trailing into them.

“There must be a basin behind each door, along with its own pair of knights.”

*Crr~*

Suddenly, a winy screech of a door opening resounded.

It was right next to Jay.

Without a second thought, Jay dashed back to the passage, hiding himself in its corner.

Two more knights appeared, a fresh patrol.

“Shit. If they come this way…”

The door closed with another squeak of old hinges and the marching started.

Each step was getting closer.

(Red, get ready.)

Two knights came around the entrance to the passage, but two shields appeared, charging directly at them.

No time to react. The shields heavily smashed into their chests.

Tipped backwards in their heavy armor, they had no choice but to stumble backwards to find their balance… thankfully, a sturdy stone balcony rail broke their fall.

Yet the shield-smashing enemies were not done. As they reeled over the edge, the bastards grabbed their boots, pulling them upward.

The knights tried to pull back, and for a moment, it worked. Their own strength and the weight of the armor helped to keep their feet grounded.

Suddenly, Jay dropped a boot of the knight, ignoring the enemy as he went to help Red, pulling their boot up, and finally the knight went over the balcony, falling to its death.

[115 Exp]

The second knight brought its sword down on Jay’s head, landing a strike on Jay’s T-visor helmet and causing his mind to shake.

[-4.3]

A considerably small amount of damage to a level twelve necromancer, but it wasn’t something Jay could ignore.

Jay staggered back while Red took to sparring the enemy. Its sword expertly landed within the knight’s neck and guts, splashing green fluid with wriggling parasites everywhere.

Jay held his shield up as flickers of blood headed towards him.

He didn’t need to do anything as Red could already fight these enemies one versus one.

However, the knight saw it would not win. It didn’t turn to fight, but it didn’t turn to run.

Instead, it dashed towards one of the doors, hoping to pull its allies into the fight.

(Fuck, don’t let it get reinforcements!) Jay screamed through Red’s mind.

If the knight reached the door, then Jay’s plan would be all over. The enemies would open more doors and soon it would snowball out of control.

Red dashed after the knight, piercing it in the back, but missing the spine where the parasites lived.

“Shit, it’s going to make it.” Jay clenched his jaw.

The necrotic helminth responded it its masters’ stress, and launched a necrotic bolt, while Jay prepared to use his magic boots speed towards the knight with his shield down.

Just before the knight reached the door, the necrotic bolt blasted against its armor, but only ended up bursting into swirling necrotic energies.

“It’s already too late to use iskean,” Jay thought, clenching his jaw.

“Uncaring Rip.”

It was his last hope.

However, the spell critically failed, only ripping out one of the numerous bones in the enemies wrist. It could still use its hand. No effect at all.

“Fuck.”

The knight slammed open the door and covered its back in the room, stopping Red from getting at its spine.

Jay glanced down the passage he came through, but at this point, it would only be a dead end. His only option was to escape the castle, then work out a new plan.

Red entered the room after the knight.

[115 Exp]

The sounds of heavy armor hitting the ground rang out, then the grand hall returned to silence once more.

“Huh?” Jay raised a brow.

Cautiously stepping towards the room, Jay saw Red standing over the corpse, squishing anything wriggling with its feet.

Other than Red and the freshly slain knight, there was nothing else in the room.

“Ah… there were no knights in here.” Jay shook his head with a smile.

“But if they aren’t here, they must be out on patrol…”

(Red, help me with the body.)

Grabbing a boot, Jay pulled the corpse out of the room and onto the edge of the balcony. It was the only safe part of the knight to touch.

A few moments later, and the lifeless body was tossed over the edge.

Jay peered over the edge now, taking a chance to see just how deep this chamber was.

“Damn...”

The bottom was much lower than ground level, and he had not even heard the echo of the first knight slamming into the ground. It became dark further down, but there was more light at the bottom of the shaft.

*Ptoi! ~* Jay spat, giving into his impulses.

For a moment he watched his spit, but it soon got too tiny to see, and so he lost interest.

“Alright. We have more important things to do.” He whispered.

(Grab some of those jars and start emptying them around the doors and passageways. We’re going to break their patrol network.)

Red nodded and began splashing the luminous liquid all over the balcony.

After a while, half of the luminous jars had been used up and emptied; the whole balcony now filled with a light mist, though it quickly dispersed when Jay decided they had opened enough.

Returning to the passage, Jay waited and watched his work, and it didn’t take long before some knights appeared.

A door across the gap opened. Two knights marched out.

“Here we go.” Jay grinned.

They walked along the balcony and halted, looking confused for a moment.

“You’re grounded, bitches. Back to your room.”

With nowhere else to go, they both turned around and returned to their room, as if they were responding to Jay’s orders.

“It really is that simple.” Jay shook his head.