Chapter 33 - Stage 8

Yuki and Meurig eventually awakened from their slumber. They organized themselves and prepared to head into the next stage of the dungeon.

"Ready?" Yuki asked.

"Yes. I'll try my best to assist you!" Meurig responded.

One again they stepped through the gateway and as the white light began to disintegrate, the 8th stage became visible. It was a large castle structure. There are many pillars holding up the structure. At the top of each pillar, there was a pole which was responsible for hanging up a red flag. At the side of the walls there were podiums which had a large structure on top of them. The structures looked like hollow armour shells. Even before having a chance to observe the new terrain properly, Yuki knew what his new enemies were going to be. Just as Meurig walked through the gateway with his cloak, two large swords immediately sunk deep into the ground in turn blocking the gate way.

[Courageous knight: Tobias]

[Courageous knight: Willam]

"Meurig, stay back!"

As the hollow statues began their attack, Yuki skillfully dodged them and retaliated. It had become muscle memory by now. It wasn't the first time he was fighting against creatures that were much larger than him.

[Open inventory]

Yuki pulled out a dagger as well as "Fallen angel of hell". He threw the dagger at Tobias but it simply deflected off of him.

"It's no use, I'll have to use a different strategy," Yuki said.

He could see about 20 other knights in the distance closing in on him. As he continued his 2 on 1 fight, he tried to come up with a plan as fast as possible so he could get out of this mess.

"The mini boss isn't even here so I can't afford to waste all my energy with them," Yuki said.

Just then a brilliant idea popped into Yuki's head.

"Meurig! Once I knock down a knight, close in on it as fast as you can and make it disintegrate!" Yuki yelled.

Meurig nodded back to signal that he had gotten the message. He couldn't talk since he didn't want to give away his location.

Yuki leaped into the air and landed on Tobias's head. With no remorse, Yuki kneeled down and punched Tobias's head as hard as he could. As the hollow knight began to fall to the ground, Yuki jumped off and landed on Willam's shoulder.

"Now!" Yuki yelled.

Without wasting a single second, Meurig rushed to Tobias and placed his palm on the knight's arm. Within mere milliseconds, Tobias disintegrated. Before Meurig could rest, he heard a loud crashing sound. When he looked forward, he noticed that Willam's body was on the ground.

"Already?!" Meurig said to himself.

Reluctantly Meurig sprinted towards William before he could get up and made him disintegrate. This process continued for over half an hour. While Meurig wanted to stop, he understood that Yuki was working much harder than him. While all this was going on, Yuki realized something was off.

"Hey Meurig! Have you gained any exp since we entered this stage?" Yuki asked.

Meurig shook his head from one side to another to signify that he hadn't.

"I thought so. Stay back for now, don't disintegrate the knights anymore," Yuki told Meurig.

Yuki knocked down one more knight before running back towards Meurig.

"Please tell me this will work!" Yuki thought to himself.

He quickly got under the clock and wrapped himself around it. The knights looked into his direction but then turned away. Yuki let out a sigh of relief and began thinking of a new plan.

"There's no need to attack them any longer. No matter how many we kill, more of them will just show up. It's probably someone's ability."

"Wait! Monsters can't have abilities. Could it be a spell of some sort? I know that NPC mages could use spells but could that rule apply to monsters as well?"

"It's safe to assume that there is someone controlling these knights. In a medieval setting, there would be a monarch in the form of a king which rules over the kights. Even so, how is it possible for a king to have an infinite amount of manpower, it's completely insane," Yuki thought out loud.

Yuki was stressing himself out trying to figure out a way to get through this stage of the dungeon. As he continued to lose himself in thought, a hand grabbed his shoulder. It was Meurig. Yuki almost fell out of the coat which would make him an easy target for the on looking knights.

"It's okay. You're overthinking this, all we have to do is walk right past them. We're completely invisible to them," Meurig whispered to him.

"I don't know how I could be so dense. I'm probably just exhausted from all the constant fighting," Yuki responded.

They both smiled at each other and began to slowly walk past the knights. They made sure that they didn't make a single sound as it would mean the end for both of them. Yuki hadn't realized it before. The castle was extraordinarily large. The hall which contained the hollow knights alone took 10 minutes to walk though. To the left of it was a dining room the size of a mansion. While everything else was big, the dining table was built for a human. It was long enough to host 40 people but it was short enough that ordinary humans could dine in it.

"Is this place built by giants so that a human could live in it?" Yuki asked sarcastically.

He laughed it off and took a look at the right side of the castle. While it was large, it was very odd. Yuki had just noticed that the entire castle was lit up by torches and lanterns. He just assumed it was the designer's choice to not include any windows. Yuki and Meurig continued their journey throughout the castle. The entire place was filled with knights however they couldn't spot the two intruders as they were invisible to them. After what seemed like years, Yuki and Meurig arrived at a giant wooden 2 doored entrance. They both knew that behind it was the throne room.