<~> Chapter 32roup was now resolved to fight our way though the entire dungeon, having no other real choice do that to you. We stepped out of the gatehouse into the bailey bathed in moonlight. The full moon above us gave off enough light that it was unnecessary to maintain the fireflies spell so I let them disperse.

  It's a pretty good thing too si allowed us to clearly see the twe eight-foot-tall suits of armor walking right towards us from a distance.

  “Prepare for bat,” I said to everyone. I drew my sword a stepped into my position at the front of the group. It was as I was staring at the approag armor that I acutely felt my ck of a shield. The horror I had fought earlier was rger than me as well but its grotesque form made it fight more like a beast. The suits of armor however had humanoid ons, albeit giant ones, and I was going to have to parry their attacks and strike at them with just my single longsword.

  The closer one had a huge sword, it was a longsword in proportion to its wielder but it would be a pretty big two-handed cymore in my own hands. The other had a giant shield and a simple mace.

  “Bel, Man, try and slow them down as best as you . Torien and I will try our best to take them out o a time.”

  I receive a variety of affirmative responses before a fsh of magic chilled the air. Man was using ice to try and slow their joints as they approached and Bel called roots from the ground to trap the mace wielding armor. It was clear from a ghat it wouldn’t hold the armor indefinitely but I could see Bel weaving multiple spells intending to keep tinuously ing it as best as she could.

  That left the sword wielding one. On paper it might sound like a one on one sword fight but in truth, that thing was huge, its one handed sword was nearly twice the length of mine. I had a feeling that even with my strength I wouldn’t be able to bloy attacks head on, but my sword instincts told me that it shouldn’t be impossible to parry and redirect the attacks despite the size disadvantage.

  It was obvious from the first attack that I would have to be on the defensive nearly the eime. I couldn’t afford to bloy attacks directly aing hit at all was just out of the question. It would be a plete loss if I was alo fortunately I wasn’t. An arrow shot past me and plinked off the monster’s helmet causing it to stagger. The moment the opening was created I was able to get a solid swing in and cause some damage before retreating back to a safe length.

  It was like this that the two of us danced around. My brow was furrowed in tration as I worked to carefully parry each strike a a swipe iime Torieed an opening for me. After a few hits I realized the thing I was fighting wasn’t actually a living suit of armor but some kind of zombie wearing armor.

  After doing this for a short while I started to wonder if this strategy was even going to work when Torien got a super nasty hit in. She mao thread an arrht between the slits of the closed helm and into the monster’s skull. It clearly wasn’t dead but it lurched ba respoo the attack, pletely breaking its stance as it clutched its face with its off hand. Iion, I was able to get in close and draw a long ssh across the back of its knee, crippling it.

  I was able to ly do the damage a out e of a retaliatory strike just in time, avoiding an attack by millimeters. The creature fell to one knee as it threw its helm to the side arrow and all. Underh the helm was what looked like a mummified corpse with bck pits for eyes. Dark bck blood was draining from the arrow wound but it didn’t seem to be critically injured.

  Unfortunately it seems that this wasn’t going to be an easy fight even with the new advantage. Si no longer had to focus on its footwork it became much more capable of defending itself from my sword attacks and the arrows sent its way. The monster, despite bleeding from one eye, mao perfectly intercept every arrow Torien shot while parrying eay own attacks.

  The tables had pletely turned but I wasn’t in aer of a position to actually kill the thing. I gnced over at the irls to see how they were holding up. The other armored zombie would struggle and break Bel’s binds only to take a swing at one of them a rebound again. They were deying it detly enough but it would only st as long as Bel’s mana pool held out. Man was mostly using enviroal ice magic to slow it down ive it unstable footing but her tribution seemed minimal at best in this situation.

  “Man! Switch with me, I think you’ll have better luck exeg this one while I fight the other!”

  “Got it!”

  I quickly ran up and tried to get a ssh in right as the mace-wielding armot ed up in another set of vines but it just deflected my sword with one of its vambraces.

  “Are you going to be able to keep that up Bel?”

  “Only for a little while longer!”

  Fighting with this guy was a lot harder than the oh the sword. It wasn’t pletely impossible to divert blows with my sword but I found myself having to dodge pletely more often thaher o was only a matter of time before I made a bad judgment and when I did, it had a pretty nasty sequence. I tried to parry away an attack but I misjudged the angle and the rge armor’s heavy mace caught the bde in the air and s against the ground, leaving my sword in two distinct pieces. I cursed under my breath at the sword hilt with only half a foot of bde left attached.

  Fortuhe armor was left unbanced from the actal disarmament and at that same moment the armor’s foot slid against a patch of ice that had bee on the ground earlier. The armor on its stomad quickly began trying to scramble back to its feet on the slick ground.

  After this bastard broke my sword I was not letting him recover, I quickly circled around it and stabbed the broken point of my sword into the back of its neck. Before I could firm the monster’s death I heard cheering from the twins.

  I jumped bad quickly gnced over to the sword wielding armor that was now impaled with numerous ice spears through different parts of its body. It was slumped forward and no longer held its sword as the monster visibly turo dust. I returned my eyes to the one we were fag as it also began to turn to dust and colpse.

  [Your party has defeated 2 Dread Knights][Bck Cat has increased from level 2 to level 3][Learned passive skill Special drop rate up]

  [Special drop rate up - Rare Passive Skill]A Bck Cat es across all sorts of iing things in its travels. Food or ill your luck provides you with more opportuo find urange, fantastical and improbable items. Sometimes the differeween bad Lud good Luck is what you make of it.

  Wheification popped up in my head I released tension in my hat I didn’t even realize I was holding. And my first new Bck Cat skill! Though the text makes it sound rather ominous. I’m not sure if this skill is a good thi-

  “Hey! This one dropped something!” Man yelled over.

  Well… guess we’ll find out.

  I walk over to the two of them looking down at a sword. When this one decayed away its sword didn’t go with it. The sword looked a little big for me, more akin to a cymore than something more standard. Still if I swing it okay the extra length may help me a little.

  “Oh! This is perfect, your sword broke i fight so you’ll be able to use this oill we get to town. What good luck!” Bel said happily.

  I got a chill and an uneasy feeling when I heard good luck. Was it good luck that I found a sword to repce the one I just broke or is it bad luck that I lost my sword just in time for me to use this one.

  “Is it safe to use without having someone check it out first? Aren’t there cursed items out there?”

  Man crouches down and is the sword closely, presumably with magic sight or something. “I tell this is magical but even if it is cursed, with this much magic power the curse would have to be minimal at most. Something with debilitating or long term effects would be more noticeable. Either way, it would certainly be better than trying to fight bare-handed.”

  “If you say so…” I decided to reach down and grab the hilt despite my reservations and wow. This sword is way lighter than it looks. I stepped away and took a few practice swings with it. I could easily swing the two handed sword with one hand and while it’s a little awkward getting used to such a long bde, I felt pletely capable of using it effectively. Also, with such a long hilt I now have the option of switg between a one haance or a two haa will without any trouble. The length might make it difficult to use when in tight spaces or near others though and I’ll have to get a sheath ade for it if I decide to keep it.

  I looked back over to everyone. “Is everyone okay if I use this for now? lit up its value after we get it appraised ter.” Everyone seemed to nod. For now I’ll have to resort to carrying it against my shoulder while we walk around. I walked over to the broken piece of bde and slid it into my sword sheath. Maybe I get it salvaged or something.

  Torien was going through the arrows that she had shot at the dread knights hoping to find ohat she could still use or at least salvage the arrowheads from the broken ones. Man and Bel were both taking a breather sihey used so much mana i fight. From what Man has expio me, since she uses mana from outside of her own body, it doesn’t tax her as much as it does Bel but instead it requires a lot of focus and tration so it be easy to mentally exhaust herself if she isn’t able to take some breaks.

  Since I didn’t have much to do at the moment I kept watch while everyoed. Because I was mostly relying on the instincts gaihrough the system I didn’t feel particurly mentally tired but I was definitely pretty winded from the st fight. Keeping watch wasn’t as big a deal for me since I could still rest physically while being alert and I thought everyone else in the group could use a moment to destress their minds for a bit. We rested for maybe an hour before we decided to get moving again.

  The bailey retty rge and we didn’t kly where we were going other than towards the iowers of the castle. It would make sense for the door of the great hall to be somewhat lined up with the gatehouse but it’s too hard to see from this dista night. We remained vigint while getting closer to the castle’s inner walls but it wasn't until we got within a stohrow of the rge tral building of the castle that we saw any more enemies.

  Saine

  More dungeon diving! Not much to say on this one, I hope you ehe chapter! Thanks for reading.

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