Chapter 235 - Lofty
Ed had many ways to stall for time. The first step for putting them into action however was to place the adventurers on edge.
‘Let’s see…’ The next step was to know the enemy, for that he had two options. One was to show up with his main body to scope things out, the other was to send Zephyr and other wind skeletons.
‘You two, come on up’ Ed directed his command to two green skeletons. They were obviously two wind crystal skeletons.
‘Help Zephyr scout and then report back’ Ed’s command rang in the consciousnesses of the two skeletons. They took it all in before quickly nodding and scampering off towards Zephyr’s position.
How did Ed get these skeletons up and running? The answer was simply goblins.
For Ed, it was the best of both worlds. He barely maintained his bottom line and also got himself some experienced scouts. That was what all of the goblins were delegated to. While Ed didn’t think much of their intelligence, he knew that they were very well capable of hiding. It was funny, the orcs’ hunt for goblins made them become even better potential scouts which in turn made them more desirable.
Thus far, Ed hadn’t seen any rejection happen. It was possible that the effects took longer to manifest in the undead or in larger consciousnesses and objects but Ed had to adopt a wait and see attitude.
After leaving Zephyr and the two goblin skeletons to handle the matter, Ed stood up from his throne. He wasn’t planning to sit there waiting for good news.
He walked to the back of the temple where the giant skeleton still lay. He climbed atop its skull and pressed down on it with his palm.
‘You will be my martyr’ Though it went without saying that Ed wouldn’t call it that. Martyr had died that one time he made it jump into the next floor portal. This time, the giant would make for a key distraction.
The ground beneath Ed’s feet suddenly vibrated slightly, that was Ed’s cue to hop off.
Soon after Ed stood on solid ground, the giant skeleton came alive. It used its large hands to lift its burly head and without too much trouble it stood on its own two legs.
The boney giant looked around the area with confusion. Its head which allowed it to see the roof of Ed’s earthen temple had a trace of slowness as it turned to glance around.
‘Is this a side effect of having too strong a body for its consciousness?’ Ed wondered as he observed from the ground. The reason he speculated this much was simply due to the conscious film that expanded out towards each limb. If there wasn’t sufficient it made sense for the joints to move slowly.
The way Ed pictured things, it was similar to lifting weights but with one’s mind. If you could barely hold the weight it was impossible for you to move quickly. At the very least doing so would be very tiring.
Ed then rose the ground beneath him and placed himself right in front of the white giant. It looked at him for a good while without any reactions.
‘Henceforth you are Lofty’ Ed then transmitted as a command. Nevertheless, even the joyous occasion of receiving a name didn’t garner the skeleton’s reaction.
[Lofty (Giant Skeleton)]
[ A skeleton made of many smaller skeletons. Lofty’s consciousness is muddled with meaningless memories. ]
‘Huh’ It seemed that in the future Ed would still need to clean up their memories. Still, Ed didn’t pay it much mind. If there were some positives, it was that Lofty wouldn’t know Ed was sending it to its death.
***
Balin’s run into the other room revealed a much more severe outcome than in the center one. The arrow and its contents were allowed to waft for longer and stick onto the skin of the knights.
“Ah, sir Balin!” One of the squad captains, Diar, yelled having spotted Balin’s mighty figure.
Balin didn’t spare another second as he instantly cast seeds into the air. The seeds began to grow just as they had before. The knights who were all scratching themselves suddenly felt relieved.
Before they could tell Balin their thanks as well as ask for their next orders, the plants began to die out and Balin was already darting towards the next room. Once there, he found a grim sight.
Knights stripped naked scratching themselves uncontrollably until their skin turned red. Blood oozed from their hands and body of many and some seemed to even contemplate slicing off their own arms and legs to reduce the affected area.
“Damn!” Balin tossed out seeds once more and the helpless scratching did simmer down but…
“Sir Balin…” The knights were now naked, bloody, and embarrassed. Who could have thought such a nefarious potion existed? ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Balin only sighed mentally before holding a seed in his hand. The seed then started to grow and turned into a herb.
“Apply all of these” Balin quickly made more herbs and passed them around. Those whose arms were swollen from pain had to have it applied by others.
“So, what now?” Fox approached Balin from behind and asked.
Balin brow’s furrowed briefly before his expression regained its stern coldness.
“We push forward” Balin’s instinct didn’t always work against him. His experience had not been faked either. He could now tell that the path ahead was ridden with traps, but not of the regular kind.
“Whoever is in charge must be stalling for time or has low numbers….” Balin reached this conclusion because he understood what it took to bring victory.
A small army would need to make the most of all available resources as well as every single man. While the former could be a side effect of the latter, it could also imply waiting for reinforcement of some kind.
“I see, so we charge forward” Fox nodded obviously approving of the idea.
“I also think it’s best we defeat this thing quickly. We don’t want more weird situations like… that rash venom…” Another squad captain, Ray, pitched in and said.
More squad leaders slowly came together and the unplanned meeting soon came to a unanimous consensus.
The squad leaders and their squad members were all prepared to race forth and deal with all things along their path. Those most injured by the rash venom had their injuries heal to near perfection after applying the magic herbs Balin gave them.
“We set out!” Under the roar of Balin’s somber voice, the squads all got moving. Previously, Balin’s lack of foresight had caused him a small loss. This time, Balin made sure to equip everyone with the correct fruits and herbs.
Why had he not done so previously? Well, the dungeon records said nothing of poison and Balin figured that any such cases that did prop up could be easily dealt with by using his seeds.
In the end, he was right. The main issue however was that it could have still been too late. Planning based on only the provided information meant one could easily fall victim to unexpected scenarios.
As the squads pressed forward, they were pitted against all sorts of purposely insidious traps. It ranged from having skeletons rise suddenly out of the ground to arrays triggered to explode upon entering their vicinity.
The march’s progress was slowed to a crawl as the group became increasingly careful and wary. That obviously made Balin quite angry.
“Sir, the left path is mostly clear but there is a wall sealed here which was not on the map. The right side is more dangerous in comparison but we’ve disarmed most of the traps” The scouts started to give their reports of the many corridors in the dungeon.
“So we should take the right path?” Balin asked to which the scout nodded. The left side was too easy, it had to be a trap. The sealed wall also drove in that point. Many didn’t need to ask what was beyond that wall to know it wasn’t good news.
Balin contemplated briefly but decided to trust the scouts’ judgments. The chances that their thinking was being manipulated was not small but if once one went down this path of doubting the obvious they’d find themselves stuck inside a loop.
“Stop!” Fox’s yell caused all of the squads to stop their orderly march.
“What is it?” Someone asked to which Fox replied by pointing at his ears.
“Hm? I don’t hear anyt-” “Sssh!” Fox shushed the noisy knight and silence prevailed.
The knights stood still like statues scanning everything in their surroundings like hawks. But in the end, all they could see was the faint light emitted by the flickering torches onto the mundane furniture and items.
“Vibrations?” Finally, someone was clued in. It was vibrations.
Balin as a warrior mage that could control the earth element was certain it didn’t have a magical nature. That only meant that their next opponent was a big guy.
“What the hell is that!?” One of the knights lost their knightly upbringing after catching sight of an imposingly tall earthen warrior.
“It- It’s a giant skeleton” It was a giant skeleton encased in armor made of the ground and walls of the dungeon. It gripped tightly a giant flail of earth and could only be described as a warrior of earth.
The monster in front of them, the colossus, had empty sockets and an empty stare. Or at least that had been the case.
As soon as it caught sight of the many humans the skeleton’s gaze was filled with purpose. It then did something unthinkable. Its bloodlust boosted by the 30 consciousness it was made of, made the skeleton let out a roar.
“ROOOAR!!!” Though it sounded like one it sounded more like a piercing deep howl of madness.