Chapter 14: Crossing The Threshold
Turning corner after corner, the sounds of clashing metal and violent roars echoed from far ahead, urging the party to hurry.
When they caught a glimpse of the battle, they all halted instantly.
The remains of a hooded figure and ten skeleton apprentice knights lay scattered across the floor, with two more still standing, on the verge of overwhelming the crumbling party.
"Stay behind me!" A man covered in heavy armor from head to toe roared, single-handedly halting the advance of the two apprentice knights.
Unfortunately, his strength faded. One greatsword impaled him through the gaps in his armor, and another stabbed him in the head.
With a loud thud, the warrior toppled lifelessly to the ground.
"NO!" Behind him, a bleeding woman with a hood covering her head clutched her bow desperately.
"I am out of mana!" She screamed, her life flashing before her eyes.
All four of her teammates had already died, lying motionless on the floor, and she was seconds away from joining them.
Just then, her eyes snapped to Leonard’s party approaching from a distance.
"Please help me! You can have all the loot, just save me!"
Leonard’s breathing hitched. The rewards the ten fallen skeletons carried would be more than enough to cover the month’s rent, with plenty left to spare!
"T—Two might be too much for us." Winston trembled, his fear preventing him from taking a step forward. "B—But are we going to let the girl die?"
Before Martin could speak, he was rendered speechless as Leonard charged straight in.
"I guess the experience should be worth it." Martin smirked, following suit.
Winston gulped in astonishment, remembering Leonard’s words about how true courage wasn’t the absence of fear but the choice to act in spite of it.
"I don’t want to be a coward all my life!" He shouted to hype himself up.
Meanwhile, the bleeding woman was pinned against the wall, her escape route cut off. She watched as a skeleton raised its sword above her, ready to end her life in a heartbeat.
The strike never connected. Leonard’s lack of hesitation allowed him to reach her in time. Using Lightning Strike, he deflected the skeleton’s blow.
Unwilling to linger needlessly, he scooped up the woman with one arm and ran to the side, putting distance between them.
’She is light... almost abnormally so.’ He assessed, keeping his eyes on the threat.
"Talk. What happened here?"
Realizing that her death had been prevented in the last possible moment, she clung to the fabric of his clothes tightly.
"M—my party encountered a Rare Mini-Boss, a Level 10 Lich, and its subordinates. Out of sheer arrogance, we tried to take them on. We killed the Lich and most of its subjects, but in the end we grew too exhausted, and this is the end result."
"Meaning the two skeletons are the only threat we have to worry about." Leonard nodded, relieved they weren’t going to face more monsters.
Winston reached one of the monsters, backed up by Martin, while the other headed toward them.
"Can you hurt them?" Leonard released the woman, needing both hands free.
"Y—Yes." She said, struggling to stay upright. "But you need to buy me time for my mana to recover."
With a nod, Leonard braced himself and met the skeleton’s charge.
Fighting the creature alone wasn’t realistic. He summoned Joker, commanding him to take his own form. That way, at least they could split the skeleton’s attention.
A frown etched across his face. Accelerated Manaflow, upgraded to Level 2, wasn’t able to keep up with the mana consumption when Joker was under heavy exertion.
In the event that Leonard didn’t use his skill, they’d get about five minutes of combat. Still, not relying on Lightning Strike felt far too idealistic.
Alternating attacks, the skeleton’s strikes battered both Leonard and Joker, who barely managed to stall the creature.
Unfortunately, the monster quickly began to adapt, catching Leonard off guard. It lashed out, carving a wound across his shoulder.
"Get down!" In that moment the woman behind him shouted, and he complied.
Ducking low, he saw a fired arrow, infused with light, collide with the creature’s skull. As an undead, the skeleton was vulnerable to light. Its helmet proved useless as its head shattered under the force of the impact.
[You contributed to the defeat of a Level 7 Skeleton Apprentice Knight.]
[You have gained 20 Experience]
"G—guys! A little help?" Winston yelled, his voice shaking, while Martin seemed too tired to move swiftly.
Leonard dismissed Joker, aiming to recover his mana pool faster just in case, and jumped in to assist.
In the end, Winston managed to deliver the final strike, killing the creature for good.
[You contributed to the defeat of a Level 7 Skeleton Apprentice Knight.]
[You have gained 20 Experience]
Level: 2 [Experience: 200/200]
[You have risen to Level 3!]
[You have gained 5 Attribute Points and 10 Evolution Points!]
Level: 3 [Experience: 0/300]
With the defeat of the last monster, the party collapsed to the ground, their lungs burning and limbs trembling.
"I—I finally did it! I reached Level 6!" Winston murmured, exhausted but content.
It was all thanks to teaming up with Leonard! Their meeting had given Winston the courage he had lacked all his life, allowing him to stand against foes several times more powerful than himself!
However, his joy was short-lived. Leonard was pressing a hand against his shoulder wound. Martin had sustained a leg injury, and the woman had curled up on the ground, bleeding profusely from her injuries.
Albeit heavy, Winston’s armor had allowed him to emerge unscathed. The others had not been so fortunate.
"A—Are you alright?" He stuttered, gazing at Leonard with concern.
"More or less." Leonard gritted his teeth. He quickly went over the corpses of each skeleton apprentice knight and retrieved the most valuable possessions, doing the same with the Lich the woman’s party had slain.
"Hey... Can you hear me?" He went to check on the woman’s condition, only to be startled by the amount of blood she was losing at a rapid rate.
"We need to return. Now!" He shouted to his companions, picking up her fragile body.
Leonard wasn’t heartless. She was losing so much blood that they were the only ones who could reasonably help her in time. Not doing so would have been equivalent to leaving her to die.
"No!" Martin suddenly bellowed, struggling to his feet. "We need to go deeper!"
"What?!" Winston’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
"The dungeon’s Boss!" Martin elaborated, using Winston’s shoulder to stand. "A restoration site is placed before every Boss room! We have traveled so deep that going back would take too long. Our only option is to push forward!"
Leonard let out a silent curse. Healing potions existed, but for those in the Lower Sector, they were all but impossible to obtain because of their astronomically high prices.
He ignored the pulsing pain in his shoulder, carried the woman, and followed the main passage of the catacombs, heading for the boss.
He prayed no monster would find them along the way.
Behind him, Winston moved carefully, helping Martin, who was limping on one leg.
Thankfully, the woman’s party had neutralized any threat in their path, providing a smooth way forward.
Exiting the corridor, the party entered a vast plaza that led to the restoration chamber and, beyond it, the Boss room.
Only a narrow bridge stood between them and the restoration chamber.
Many awakeners had come and gone over the years, only to eventually give the long overpass a name of its own.
They called it the Bridge of Death.
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