My Necromancer Class-Chapter 262: Pierced
Jay stood up, after crouching behind the tree; his position was discovered. There was no point in hiding so he prepared to fight.
The two-hander knight was charging to Jay, while Sweeper was sprinting towards it, intercepting the enemy.
The knight had a target though, and it wasn’t going to let some measly skeleton stop it.
Holding its sword with one hand, it rested the blade on the back of its gauntlet and continued its charge, forcing Sweeper to either dodge or die.
Sweeper naturally side-stepped to dodge the hulking armored enemy, slashing at it as passed by - though no real damage was done as its sword scraped armor.
Immediately, Jay released a wall of bones from his gauntlet and a white barrier was made between himself and the knight. Unfortunately, it really was just a pile of bones. It had no structural stability or any real protection, and was tall as it was wide.
It was more like a mound than a wall.
Jay readied a spear from behind the barrier.
Sweeper followed the knight from behind, but the knight had kept its momentum and charged right into the makeshift barrier of bones.
With a crash, bones split and cracked as its unstoppable heavy armor smashed into the bone wall, and Jay was surprised at how flimsy his barrier truly was. At the very most, it slowed some of the knights momentum.
Jay planted the base of his bone spear into a gap between the roots, bracing it while aiming the tip at the rampaging knight.
The knight had no time to react.
The spear’s tip found a catch in the armor, fixing itself in place before snapping under the force of the knight.
The knight stumbled and slowed down, caught off guard for a moment - it couldn’t see what was on the other side of the wall before it charged right through it; relying on its metal armor to protect its body.
Yet even as it stumbled it brought down a heavy cut towards Jay’s head.
Jay stepped back as the spear snapped and brought an ossein sword out to meet the already-descending swing of the enemies two-handed sword.
The ethereal helminth let out a necrotic bolt but as it met the enemies armor it burst into a harmless glowing cloud of mana.
Jay’s gauntlet hand was free, and he didn’t have his death walker’s sentry shield out for one reason.
“Uncaring rip!”
He reached his gauntlet out as if grasping for his enemies soul, yet the bone pulled was not enough to execute.
The bone that was ripped out was somewhere in the chest, and if Jay had to guess it was part of the rib cage, though it didn’t exit the armor it was clad inside - perhaps for the best, as there was the risk of parasites spraying out.
The knight didn’t feel any pain at all as it continued to pull down its heavy sword.
At the same time, Jay’s bone sword deflected the two-hander from crushing his head, but it landed on his unarmored shoulder instead.
Jay dropped his own sword to the ground.
“GRRH!”
Jay gritted his teeth in defiance as he reached up and pushed it off of his shoulder with his necrotic gauntlet - but something was wrong: his arm was still attached?
Well, not wrong, but perculiar.
To Jay’s and the knight’s surprise there was no damage - a ethereal parasite tail had appeared and flashed a necrotic green as it met the sword just above its masters precious flesh.
The helminth’s [Sentinel form] was working perfectly.
Since the helminth had absorbed the damage, the sword didn’t sever his arm completely. In fact, as Jay push it off, there was no pain at all.
Sweeper finally caught up, and pounced on the intelligent knight from behind.
Unfortunately, Sweeper hadn’t yet reclaimed it’s weapon and was only like an annoying pest as it clung to the knight’s limbs and could only use its natural claws to rend through whatever gaps it could find.
The knight ignored the skeleton on its back and focused wholly on Jay.
A wide sweeping swing of the rustic two-handed sword caused a waving noise in the air as it closed in on Jay.
Its two armor-clad arms were working at full force as its whole body leaned backwards, and Jay doubted his helminth would be able to take another hit.
*Fwoosh! - BOONG~*
The blade was met with a solid block.
Deathwalker’s sentry appeared just in time as it materialized in Jay’s grip, though Jay was knocked away from his fallen sword.
Next, a dagger appeared in his other hand, but It wasn’t a bone dagger - it was one of the defensive spikes that Sweeper had previously crafted, and it was Sweeper who Jay tossed it to.
Sweeper scrambled to the ground to get the bone spike, while Jay spartan-kicked the enemy to get some distance.
It staggered back, and before it could swing again, Jay picked his sword up from the ground.
The enemy readjusted itself and checked it’s back, knowing that Sweeper could now pose a threat - yet Jay took this slight moment to step forward and plunged his sword into it’s neck.
It pierced deeply with a sponging squelch but had missed the spine, if only by a few centimeters.
The knight seemed to grunt - still having the use of its vocal cords. Jay was too close for it to make use of its long weapon.
Normally getting this close would be a good strategy - unfortunately Jay had acted far too brashly and forgot about one crucial threat on his enemy.
The knight held its sword with one hand, and its free hand was now flying right towards Jay’s stomach.
“Fuck” Jay’s eyes widened.
Immediately he recalled how Lamp had parasites and eggs pumped into its skin suit when then enemy pierced its stomach.
Jay stared in shock and time seemed to slow down. If that pierced his stomach and sent eggs into his body, it would be all over. Even if he won this fight, his life was forfeit, and all that would await him would be an excruciating death.
*BOOM!~*
A necrotic bolt appeared from the ethereal jaws of the helminth, but the blast of necrotic energy met the knight’s armor, dissipating into wisps of the sickly green mana on either side of the knights arm.
Its magic had no effect on the armor. The helminth’s ethereal body was not yet long enough to protect Jay’s stomach either.
“It’s over.”
The knight’s hand landed on Jay’s stomach.
“OOF!”
Jay curled forward, the blow sending the air out of his lungs - yet he smiled.
Jay couldn’t help but feel as if he just dodged a date with death.
To his own shock there was no blood - no wound.
The knight had curled its gauntlet into a fist at the last second as it slammed it into Jay.
“It punched me?” Jay almost chuckled, completely distracted from the fight.
The knight continued its assault and returned a spartan-kick to Jay, finally getting enough distance to use its long weapon again.
Yet Sweeper was already back on it, piercing its back with the crude bone spike; its jagged edges ripping through whatever it touched.
The knight was hoping to score a devastating blow on Jay while his guard was down, but instead had to deal with Sweeper.
With a backwards kick, it pushed Sweeper away.
Since the knight punched Jay, he had figured something out, and this distraction by Sweeper was all Jay needed.
Holding his shield with two hands, Jay faced it forward and leaned down as if he were about to brace before a tidal wave.
“Iskean!”
Two jets of air burst from the soles of Jay’s boots, sending him flying forwards.
Needless to say, the knight was caught completely off-guard; Jay was simply too fast.
The shield slammed against its chest and sent it toppling over with a loud clang.
Jay’s first magic-infused shield bash was a resounding success as the knight was knocked on its back. Despite holding the shield with two hand, Jay still had to push his shoulder up against it from the force of the blow.
While it was still alive, the knight was as good as defeated now. Not only did it take effort to pick its heavy armor off the ground, but now there was a person on top of him.
Before it could punch or harm Jay in any meaningful way, Sweeper was already there, ripping its helmet off and relentlessly stabbing into its neck.
Jay no longer feared it’s egg-laying attack. Why? Because he realized this knight in particular didn’t have that capability.
Jay pulled himself up - though he kept a foot planted firmly on the knight’s chest-plate as he watched it struggle pitifully to the bitter end.
Sweeper offered no remorse, no mercy, no quarter.
Jay stared without expression or pity; the knight’s head was different compared to the others he had seen. It’s eyes weren’t sunken.
Jay made a mental note to do a small autopsy later - the fight was over, but the battle was not.
Finally Jay could survey the battlefield once more, swiveling his head around he made a quick note of what all the skeletons were doing.
Lamp had initially been fighting the intelligent two-handed swordsman knight, but Blue had pulled it back into the other battle.
Jay was going to be angry as he was in trouble at the time, but after a moment he realized it was the optimal tactical decision.
Blue, Red and Lamp were fighting four knights. While Red could hold off two of them, Blue could not. If Blue went down, then soon Red would fall to a group of four enemies.
After that, Jay would have to deal with four extra knights - and at the time, he was dealing with the two-handed intelligent knight.
As for Handy, well, it was still dead.
Yet with Lamp there, Blue was able to fight only one, and using Lamp’s unique weapons, Blue was able to do some more maneuvers to move behind the knights and slay them.
It was only a matter of time before they were all slain.
“As reliable as ever” Jay smiled with a nod, praising Blue.
With all the knight’s dead he let the skeletons feast to their heart’s content, munching on the bone barrier he had summoned.
Jay watched over them as they consumed before him, and he allowed the helminth off his body so it could heal itself. The amulet that was the parasite’s body had a crack, but after it had some time to regenerate in it’s [Natural Form] of bones and spines, it was back to normal. Fully healed, it rested back onto Jay’s shoulders in its ethereal [Sentinel Form], it’s physical body compacting back into the amulet again.
Seeing that everything was in order, Jay let out a relaxed sigh, giving himself a moment to think after the battle - though he re-summoned Handy and let it join the others, soon reclaiming its weapon.
While the battle went well, one thing was a cause for concern. The one intelligent enemy had charged at Jay directly, realizing quickly that Jay was the source of the undead skeletons.
One intelligent enemy was bad - but what if there were more of these smart enemies? Well, Jay would just have to adapt, and he already had a few ideas in mind, but for now there were other priorities.
Jay opened his exp notification, once again pleased with his bounty.
[805 Exp]
Jay still had to loot his enemies too, but even if there was nothing, just getting this exp was reward enough - however there were a few other things to do first.
Glancing at the body of the intelligent knight, he wondered what made it so different from the others. In the mind of Jay, learning his enemies weaknesses was more important that getting a few pieces of armor anyway.
“Time for an autopsy,” he thought, standing over its corpse.