Chapter 276 Life Cycle 5

[345 Exp]

[Your skeleton has been slain.]

They slew more enemies at the gatehouse, though they had taken another skeleton out, now using their last bone well summon.

In total, Jay had gained three percent chimera research, bringing it up to thirty-one percent - though Jay was more concerned with his perishing skeletons and the time he had left.

“Not much longer.” Jay thought, anticipating the downfall of the defensive skeletons.

Following the roots, he noticed most of them leading through a larger passageway into another chamber.

The next chamber had many chairs, tables, and empty glasses; a dining hall. Some roots branched off from the others, but the majority led through the room, leading to a spiral stairway on the other side.

Seeing no enemies present, Jay sneaked through the room. When getting to the stairs, he and Red opened some more of the luminous jars around, splashing them around the entrance and on the stairs themselves.

“Hopefully no patrolling lesser knights will come down after us... but they might send something up after we dumped the bodies over the edge.” Jay whispered, disappearing down the stairs.

The spiral staircase went past many rooms; some pitch-black and others containing the luminous jars.

Of course, Jay would take a few moments to splash some jars around, ruining the paths of the patrolling knights.

More roots crowded the steps as they descended, and after an hour of walking, Jay wondered when it would end.

[230 Exp]

More knights died at the gatehouse, but seeing the enormous size of the castle, with many lit chambers, Jay thought he must have only touched the tip of the iceberg.

“The army of one-hundred must have been the surface guards… more will come up to the surface. Eventually.” He thought.

Seeing the odd labs throughout the castle, along with the unending architecture built deep into the earth, Jay guessed that this castle was not built by the parasite-infested knights, or the pre-parasite knights, but by whoever created this grand experiment within this starving crucible.

“The scientists and experimenters probably threw these people into the grinding maws of research.”

“I feel sorry for the children born here, but it seems this crucible has raised them into monsters, too. All are tainted, after all.” Jay thought, remembering the girl who lured him into the cannibal village; the villagers who only followed him to get free armor.

“The leaf-skin village is further from the castle, but as the roots spread, it will only be a matter of time before they turn into cannibals too…” he nodded.

“Perhaps the true experiment was on the people living here, rather than the plant, or the parasites.” Jay pondered.

Traveling deeper, the staircase opened into another room - yet several knights were in this one, from what Jay could see. A thick, pulsing root trailed from the depths of the staircase and went into the room too, branching in different directions and carrying nutrients from somewhere below.

Peeking from the staircase, it surprised Jay to see several knights without armor... or any clothes, for that matter.

Oddly, their flesh wasn’t dark or rotting either, as if they had only been infected by the parasites recently.

These fresh-looking men were standing around some more of the basins, each of them cupping the green fluids and drinking them.

“Yuck.” Jay's face turned sour.

Every so often, he could see an occasional wriggling string under their skin, though the men didn’t respond to it as they kept drinking the green fluids.

In this strange room, only one knight donned armor, and it was a lesser type; a walking parasite nursery. Periodically, it would walk over to the basin and hold its non-fighting arm out; splashes of eggs and parasites entered the fluids, which were drank down by the fresh humans.

“Like little babies suckling the milk. Probably aren’t too adept in battle… this won’t be too hard.” Jay thought, analyzing each of them.

Already, Jay had decided to slay them. Without armor, they could do nothing against his sword, his helminth bolts, or his unstable teeth spells. They didn’t even have weapons to fight back.

However, Jay would not use the teeth spells unless it was an emergency, fearing the explosion would attract too many enemies.

(Red, you take the armored knight. I’ll handle the others.)

Jay waited for the perfect moment, and it soon presented itself. Distributing more eggs, the lesser knight marched over to one pool; it’s back to the staircase.

Jay dashed forwards, his necrotic gauntlet hand reaching forwards at of the naked enemies.

“Uncaring rip.” he said lowly.

One of them suddenly froze and stopped drinking from the green parasite-infested pool.

His body shuddered until the flesh ripped.

*Splash! ~*

A mixture of green and red blood washed over all the other naked’s as a giant flat bone ripped from the back of his shoulder.

The scapula; shoulder blade.

Before anyone could turn around, two flashes of sinister dark light came from behind.

In the next moment, two more naked’s collapsed as chaotic swirling energies distorted the vision of the group.

It damaged no flesh, but the necrotic bolts of the helminth were an insidious thing.

Their spines turned to liquid.

The parasites living inside lost control and their hosts’ breathing stopped.

A heavy blow of a shield struck armor; Red sent the armored knight off-balance and slashed at its neck relentlessly.

Jay’s sword appeared as a flash, and a head fell from someone’s shoulders, splashing into the basin.

In seconds, Jay had killed four of them. Four left.

Jay brought his sword back again; one of the naked’s brought their arms up in defense.

One swing and an arm bathed in the basin while the other hit the ground.

“Pathetic.”

Jay’s reequipped his shield, covering his head as red and green blood splashed from the unarmed enemy.

A decisive thrust came from behind the shield next, piercing the throat and exiting the back of their head.

Instant death.

Three enemies remained.

One of them ran deeper into the room, the same direction a main branch of the pulsating root traveled.

Yet turning his back was the worse thing he could have done.

An ethereal, slender skull appeared as its jaws snapped shut; another necrotic bolt landed on his back, turning his upper body into a sack of twitching flesh.

Red offered no mercy, continuing to bash its shield and slash its sword at the knight.

The knight thrust its arm into the skeleton’s rib cage; It released a torrent of parasites and eggs - to little effect.

Only having a single sword and a useless egg-laying arm wasn’t enough to fight the fearsome skeleton.

Red ignored its egg-arm while swatting its sword away with its squire shield. Raining more sword strikes, the creature’s neck was soon severed.

Two fragile, naked enemies remained, gazing at the onslaught. It was unclear what the parasites controlling them were thinking. Perhaps they were immature.

“Finish them.” Jay said casually, stepping away from the parasite-filled pools of blood.

Red seemed to have its dreams come true as it pounced on the defenseless, weaponless humans. It cut off the leg of one, and then pierced its neck as it struggled on the ground.

For the last enemy, Red dropped its shield and pounced.

Red’s sword plunged into the chest while its bone jaws clamped onto the collar bone and crunched; it healed itself while slaying the enemy.

Releasing its sword, it grabbed the head and twisted sharply, breaking the neck. The parasite inside was no more.

[920 Exp]

It surprised Jay, seeing how brutal Red was, as he hadn’t seen the skeleton in battle against humans for a while.

“Well… they are still the same monsters they have always been. Giving them a role and fine armor won’t change that.” He nodded.

Red stomped on the remaining parasites and eggs, cleaning out its own skeleton as well, while Jay went back to the stairs and spread out more of the luminous fluid, ruining more of the scent-paths the knights used to keep themselves automated, and from getting lost.

Splashing some over the pulsing, nutrient-carrying root, it had little effect.

“Now… let’s see where this one leads.” Jay thought.

“One of the naked’s ran to it, so perhaps it’s a place of safety. Or so it thought.”