Master Of None



The retelling of what the scouting teams had seen made every one of the soldiers feel as if they were becoming one with nightmares. They were the witnesses to terrible things that definitely should not be. Especially when they heard about how the undead found any living thing to tear apart and use as fuel for their evil. 

It wasn't that they felt bad for monsters, yet, it was the principle of respecting life. When the undead hunted monsters, it was for causing even more death for the sake of death. When a hunter or a soldier hunted, it was for safety, food, and the materials that would improve life for many. These reasons justified the cycle of life. 

The descriptions of the different undead made many want to come up with new battle staples. So far, the only undead that had left were the mummified worshippers. The lowest of the undead that didn't really carry weapons. The Fel angels had seen these undead moving sand, repairing stone structures, and also wandering around in patrol. They were vicious since they could rebuild their body. That was clear. However, they were also dangerous because they used their bodies as weapons. 

The mummified worshippers were an undead that didn't mind the extra destruction of their bodies. Therefore, they would cut their own hand bones and dig in to living flesh even more. It was a brutal fighting style that caused brutal death. More than a few of the Fel angels had been victims of these attacks or even witnessed their fellow angels dying by these attacks. Now they knew what happened to the bodies dragged away. 

The undead described as larger than the mummified worshippers were definitely the soldiers. The fact that they had rusted metal weapons meant that they were able to cause more damage while following the same brutal battle styles too. But since Mordant had found that there were even more powerful undead within the ruins that had parts of a dragon as their bodies had made things very tense. 

This meant that anyone or anything that tried to get within the ruins could be defeated by them or would cause a massive scene when fighting. Even if the dragon attacked, they would find themselves battling against an undead with armor that is made from a dragon's body. From a dragon that was much more powerful than them. The fact that it was from a fire dragon just meant that Ignus had lost all chances of burning up those very powerful undead as well. 

This brought the tension among the entire army much higher. They could feel the threat looming over them. Whether it was one of these super powerful undead of just a few didn't matter. They were unsure of what level the strength they had was. They were unsure how the undead controlling them all was able to boost them when it came to the skills it had. 

These were the many questions that arose as the sun had started to set. The news that there were worse things than they had realized just below the sands had taken their time. The light runes, light skills, and many other methods used by those with light affinity had been set to a small degree. There were a lot of lingering runes and manas that had stopped them from going too far. This fact left a weakening area for the undead but not as great as desired. 

If the sun was to set, then there would be many undead leaving the ruins. They would even have the chance to come out and battle at a higher strength. Therefore, it was time to take all the emotions the soldiers had and begin their entrance. Because of Midnight, they had a pathway toward some of the undead resting within their eternal slumber. Or soon to be eternal. Especially since they had no means of awakening if they didn't have the proper unknown rituals. 

What a few of the other scouts had reported revolved around the maze of passageways. It appeared that there were many ritual rooms to create undead along with a few to awaken them. However, those awakened undead had been guarding the rooms with greater scents and signs of blood. These ritual rooms were the places that had to be destroyed no matter what. 

"You feel it too?" Gil looked at the rest of the party. He had been fairly silent for the time as he listened to the scouting reports. He looked around carefully. As if he was waiting for some sudden attack out of nowhere. 

"You're right. I feel it too. It's not the stress in the air but a lingering weight. Like we only saw the surface and that we are missing something." Su also had the same sense as Gil when it came to this. She couldn't put her finger on it yet though. 

"I know. You are all forgetting that slime breeder demon. We didn't see a single bit of him anywhere. No signs of demons. Nothing from any of the roaming scouts in the Fel and Rize territories. Nothing. That's worse than finding them." Remey was blunt but she knew exactly where her stress was coming from. 

"I hope they don't make it here…" Alice spoke softly. She was less speaking to them and more speaking to the world. She didn't want to run in to two different enemies right now. She would be using all of her mana against vicious undead that she couldn't completely purify because of their annoying existence. 

"Bad." Midnight and Onyx echoed one another with this. Their opinions were short, sweet, and showed exactly their instinctual feelings with the entire situation. 

"Just focus on one thing first. We are drilling through these undead to make our way to the core of these issues. We will break through to the slumbering undead, erase them, then push through the ritual rooms. We have an army of angels. Those left behind will be enough to send out warnings if another enemy appears." Walker could feel this weight on them too. He didn't want to add any other pressure though. He knew that the dragons were already fully focused on the fact that dragons were involved here. 

Ignus had spoken with the other dragons as well. There was a ruin here from the flame dominator dragon. A sealed palace that nothing could get in to. If the undead were awakened and there was a powerful controlling undead here with intelligence, he had his own theories to its goals. 

They had been trying in life to get to the ruins of the flame dominator dragon. Therefore, it made sense that in death they would be after it as well. That alone was enough to ensure that they would find the powerful undead and the flame dominator legacy together. 

"We will be unable to take our full forms. The ruins are built around the ruins of our ancestors. But the passageways are too small. Know that if we must take our full forms, that everyone is to retreat. We can bury the undead and start another attack exposing the ruins to the sun more and more over some time. It is better to survive than to fail and attack again." Mordant made sure to put some force in to this little speech. Everyone had to understand that if the dragons used their full forms then things were going to be rough. 

It wasn't just the dangers of collapsing ruins and dragons forcing their ways back to the top of the sands and stones. It was the fact that the soldiers behind or in front of them could be trapped. If the dragons had to face a foe at full power, then it wasn't what any slider could handle anyways. 

"We will be sending groups of healers, dragons, and soldiers to the five discovered resting chambers. We will clear them and converge on the largest hallways discovered. We will need to move with speed. The undead have been riled up by the trouble before." Rise gave warning but also showed off a slight glow of light around her. She was clearly ready to step in to this battle and put her trust in the light affinity soldiers, healers, and dragonkin. She knew they were ready to follow her orders and would be certain to weaken the undead at every single turn. 

What was left were the actual movements. These split groups weren't so much split since it was only small passageways dividing them. The mapped out sections followed by the scouts were enough to give them all a start to their battle. Especially since they would not be allowing the undead to separate them. There had also been no traps seen yet which meant that for the time being, they were able to focus on the known areas. It was time to start the quest. 

….

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