Free Web NovelChapter 35: The Crypts of the Forgotten
The nausea of spatial teleportation faded, immediately replaced by the overwhelming, physical stench of rotting meat.
Arthur stepped out of the black vortex, his boots splashing into a shallow puddle of stagnant, freezing water. Emily, Felix, and Chloe materialized right behind him.
The portal snapped shut, plunging them into the gloom.
The Crypts of the Forgotten was a textbook subterranean nightmare. The corridor was incredibly narrow and claustrophobic, built from rough-hewn stone blocks covered in slick, foul-smelling slime. The only light came from ancient, magical torches bolted to the walls, sputtering with a weak, sickly yellow flame that cast erratic, creeping shadows across the floor.
It was freezing cold. The air was so thick with ambient dark mana that it practically burned the lungs.
"Stay close," Arthur ordered quietly, his triple-digit perception already mapping the immediate area. "We’re not alone."
A guttural, wet hiss echoed down the corridor.
From the shadows ahead, the first wave appeared. Seven Skeleton Warriors, their bones blackened with age and wearing rusted chainmail, clattered toward them. Behind them scrambled three hunched, pale Ghouls with elongated, filthy claws and jaws dripping with thick, black saliva.
Arthur reached over his shoulder, grabbing an arrow from his quiver. He fully expected to have to carry this entire fight and babysit the group.
But Felix moved first.
The quiet, generic-looking boy didn’t hesitate or panic. He charged three steps forward and slammed the base of his massive iron tower shield directly into the stone floor.
CLANG.
He locked his shoulder behind the iron. In the narrow, ten-foot-wide hallway, Felix’s massive shield perfectly plugged the center, creating an absolute, unbreakable bottleneck. The leading skeletons crashed into the iron barrier, their rusted swords sparking harmlessly against the thick metal. Felix grunted, his boots sliding back an inch, but he held the line perfectly.
Emily didn’t wait for an invitation.
"Hold steady, Felix!" Emily yelled.
She sprinted forward, stepped directly onto the reinforced edge of Felix’s braced shield, and used it as a springboard. She vaulted effortlessly over the defensive line, landing squarely in the middle of the undead horde.
A ghoul immediately lunged at her throat, its jaws snapping wildly.
Emily didn’t use a weapon. She didn’t need one. Coming from a premier martial arts family, her Strength stat was easily double Arthur’s.
She ducked under the ghoul’s leaping attack, pivoted on her heel, and let her thick, muscular thighs unleash terrifying kinetic power. Her spinning back kick connected dead center with the ghoul’s jaw.
CRACK!
The sound of shattering bone echoed loudly down the crypt. The ghoul’s head practically exploded off its shoulders, its neck snapping instantly under the overwhelming force. The headless corpse hit the wall and slid into the dirty water.
Behind Felix, Chloe was pale and shaking like a leaf. But she wasn’t frozen.
She squeezed her eyes shut, pointed her mahogany staff toward the frontline, and rapidly chanted a single line of Elvish. A warm, glowing green ring pulsed from the crystal of her staff, washing over Emily and Felix.
[Minor Haste applied. Agility increased by 15% for 60 seconds.]
Emily’s movements visibly blurred as the buff took effect. She waded into the skeletons, shattering ribs and kneecaps with brutal, calculated palm strikes.
Arthur stood twenty feet back in the shadows of the corridor.
He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. With his [Ghost in the Woods] class trait active, his physical presence, breathing, and heartbeat were entirely masked. To the mindless undead, he was just another piece of the cold stone wall.
He unslung the Whisperwind Longbow. The moment his fingers brushed the wood, the glowing blue string of pure mana hummed to life.
He didn’t need to use his MP for Mana Quiver yet. Standard physical arrows would work just fine on these low-level mobs. He pulled a broadhead from his quiver, knocked it, and drew the string.
Time seemed to slow down. With [Eagle Eye] and 103 Perception, aiming at a moving target in a dark hallway was like shooting fish in a barrel.
A skeleton raised a rusted broadsword, preparing to stab Emily in the back while she was busy dismantling a ghoul.
Arthur released the string.
Thwip.
The arrow whistled over Felix’s shoulder, missing his ear by two inches, and buried itself perfectly into the empty eye socket of the skeleton. The arrowhead punched cleanly through the back of its skull, shattering the necrotic core inside. The skeleton instantly collapsed into a pile of lifeless bones.
Arthur seamlessly knocked another arrow. freewёbnoνel.com
Thwip. Thunk.
Another skeleton dropped, an arrow pinned directly through its cervical spine.
Thwip.
A ghoul charging at Felix’s exposed flank took an arrow straight through the temple, dropping dead into the muck.
The fight lasted less than two minutes.
Emily crushed the skull of the final skeleton with a vicious downward elbow strike. She stood up, wiping a splash of black ghoul blood off her cheek, breathing heavily but completely uninjured.
Felix slowly raised his iron shield, relaxing his braced stance.
The hallway was entirely silent, littered with shattered bones, rotting corpses, and three perfectly placed arrows.
Arthur walked out of the shadows, casually stepping over the destroyed bodies. He reached down and yanked his arrows free, wiping the black gore off the broadheads onto the tattered clothes of a ghoul before slipping them back into his quiver.
He looked at Emily, then at Felix, and finally gave a small nod to Chloe, who was leaning against the wall trying to slow her racing heart.
Well, what do you know, Arthur thought, a genuinely satisfied smirk spreading across his face. Felix is an immovable wall. Emily is a human wrecking ball. And the healer actually knows how to cast a buff under pressure.
"Good spacing," Arthur praised aloud, gesturing down the dark corridor. "Let’s keep moving. I might not even have to break a sweat today."
