Chapter 72 Black Pyramids 3

*DRRRRR* dust and pebbles fell down from the ceiling near the walls.

The heavy grinding stone sounds came from each side of Jay and his skeletons as the walls started to move downwards.

“My first trap I’m guessing.” he raised his shield a little, curious of what was to come.

Jay wasn’t alarmed, as he expected something like this to happen, and he was still a far higher level than this dungeon – it was still the first of the six pyramids too, so this would surely be more like a beginner’s test, a small taste of what’s to come.

The walls slid down slowly, and Jay was a little surprised. There was no toxic gas, large boulders or poison arrows flying at him – just more statues.

“More soldiers?” Two more stone sliders waited for the wall to drop as their bodies began to move and awaken, dusk and pebbles falling off.

“They must have been here for quite some time…” he thought as he analysed them.

<[Helvetian Soldier – Level 4]>

[50 HP]

<[Skills]>

[Brittle Armour].

– 40% damage reduction to slashing, stabbing damage.

– 20% more damage taken from crushing damage.

[Helvetia’s Revenge]

– Magic damage immune.

– Any wielded weapons become cursed.

[Double Strike]

– Does two attacks in rapid succession. Each attack is 75% as strong as a normal one.

– 10 Second cooldown.

<Description>

– A soldier of the Helvetian kingdom, turned to stone. It stands guard, waiting for it’s chance to exact revenge on those who would harm its kingdom.

“Oh, they’re basically the same as the level four spearman outside except for the different weapons… but the spearmen fought more aggressively even when they were the same level, so this might be harder than I thought.” acting quickly, he put his orb down gently before pulling out his hammer as he prepared himself.

What cautioned Jay was that each of these soldiers were both dual-wielding stone daggers – each dagger about the size of his ossein arming swords.

They would have been considered swords if a normal human was holding them, but in the hands of the large statues, they appeared to be daggers suited to them.

“Those things could really mess me up…” squinted Jay, thinking if these statues were holding his blue ossein arming swords, they would perhaps be twice as deadly – the stone daggers and his swords had incredibly similar proportions after all.

Unlike the stone statues which brandished massive stone swords and spears outside, their daggers were well suited to fighting in this enclosed space; well suited to the environment.

“It’s a shame I can’t use bladed weapons too.” he thought, glancing at his hammer “Well… I guess I could, but they wouldn’t do much to their stone bodies.”

“Even though these hammers have less damage than my swords, the statues’ natural resistance to swords and weakness to the hammers make the hammers the obvious choice.”

The stone wall finally stopped sliding down, forming a flat part of the floor surface. The stone soldiers each stepped forward, readying their weapons. The time for thinking was over, and the fight had begun.

Suddenly, each soldier stepped forward with a double-slash strike; one soldier aimed at Jay and the other aimed at his minions.

“There’s that double-strike skill again.” he pursed his lips as he began counting in the back of his mind.

Jay backstepped towards the entrance while his skeletons jumped deeper into the pyramid, both groups successfully dodging the first attack.

“Huh, these guys are pretty fast for stone statues.”

Jay decided not to counter attack, as he was still in striking distance of both statues. After a moment, one of the statues turned to face his skeletons while one turned to face him.

The statue made a fighting stance, holding one dagger low above it’s knee, and the other high above its head.

“Hmm?” Jay raised a brow “they look like veterans”.

Jay stepped forward with his shield first, blocking a dagger and bringing a dagger down towards it’s stone head – *ting*

The hammer didn’t connect with its head, but made a ringing noise as it was swatted away by the statue’s second dagger.

Jay backstepped, “I guess these ones are well trained compared to the others; they are pyramid entrance guards after all.” he tilted his head to the side after not being able to land a hit.

“How am I going to get past its defence…” Jay wondered for a moment – though before he could think more, the soldier stepped forward and thrust at Jay.

Sidestepping immediately, he noticed the next dagger was coming at him straight after the first one.

*Boongg* He quickly raised his shield, blocking it before retaliating with a hammer swing. This time, the strike landed – a powerful strike right on the soldier’s shoulder pauldron.

[6]

Another dagger thrust came at him from the side, threatening to slash across his face, but he ducked below as it went past. Normally Jay will have backstepped, but he was at risk of getting too far away from the luminous orb.

If Jay fought in the darkness, he would have no choice but to run back to the entrance where he could see again; the entrance wasn’t too far away, but the clouds were dark and thick, hardly any light got past them, less still got past the massive stone slab roof that jutted out of the entrance.

Jay raised his shield as the next one came right after, grazing across the shield as he deflected it.

“Double strike” Jay thought as he started counting to ten seconds again, he predicted it perfectly this time, not needing to disengage and wait a few seconds like he did previously.

Taking the opportunity after it’s double strike ability, he swung at the soldiers jaw, an uppercut strike with the hammer was easily enough to send its stone helmet flying off into the darkness.

[6]

“I guess my strategy has found itself this time” he thought as he was starting to damage it.

Dodging another dagger thrust and taking a hit to his shield, he swung his hammer sideways, finally landing a hit on its jaw.

[12][Critical Hit]

Jay smirked “Half way.”

The fight continued for a while, but since Jay learnt how to deal with the statue, the outcome was inevitable. The statue couldn’t do anything after Jay found an opening, but it still fought to the bitter end.

The statue has waited here for aeons and had all the time in the world, now all it could do was simply bide its time as it waited for death.

*Crack!*

With a final hit from Jay’s hammer, the statue’s head shattered. It’s stone daggers fell from its hands and crumbled on the ground just before the rest of its body did too.

[100 Exp]

Jay didn’t really need to catch his breath after the fight, and he took no damage, making it quite easy; he had only used a small amount of his large stamina pool too.

“They’re not so hard. Perhaps if it had more intelligence it could have tried to bait me into attacking and maybe wait for an opportune time to use double-strike – rather than using it as soon as it comes off cooldown. Oh well.” Jay smugly smiled as he walked over it’s corpse, collecting the loot – another empty soul stone and a ring. He threw them into his inventory before going to help the other fight.

“…where are they?” Jay couldn’t see his skeletons, grabbing the luminous orb off the ground, he began to slowly jog towards them.

“Have they just been back-stepping all this time?” Jay chuckled to himself “The statue’s aren’t that hard to fight… perhaps they’re just being extra cautious since I didn’t want them taking damage.”