南瓜影院

Gritting his teeth at the pain, Doherty saw an opportunity; With the slightly muffled clatter sound of the Spear falling onto a vine-carpeted floor, the Raiding Party captain realized his opponent no longer had a weapon.

So the moment his leg hit the ground, he put as much strength as he could into his knees and used it to propel himself at Echo with his sword pointed for a stab.

He was a foot away from Echo when he saw the Undead raise a hand and clench it. At first, Doherty was confused by the move and then his eyes widened when he heard something begin to swish violently through the air behind him.

His instincts warned him and he quickly made to sidestep.

Unfortunately for Doherty, however, the object coming at him from behind traveled faster than his agility could outrun and with a yell…

"Argh!!"

… that turned into a groan, he felt a sharp tip cut through his side and break a rib or two on its way.

"Fuck!" Doherty said angrily like his pained yell was not enough to express his pain and annoyance.

*bam*

The object that cut Doherty was, of course, Echo\'s Spear. The Undead had called the Weapon back to his hold and with a skillful spin and an expressionless mummified face, it aimed it at Doherty and moved in for a stab.

A stab Doherty deflected with a yell as he said,

"Ah, you fucking bastard! I\'m going to gut you!"

"Your vigor is commendable," Echo said as it pulled its Spear back, twisted, and made another stab at Doherty while adding,

"That\'s good. After all, the test is far from over."

Henry would have liked to continue to give the fight his undivided attention but he had to look away and focus on the multiple decaying Undead that came at him and Louis.

Louis twisted his Staff and tried to knock an Undead aside only to have his staff grabbed by the Undead who used it to pull him closer so it could swing its sword at his head.

Louis yelled out a spell just in time and Lightning charged from his Staff and through the Undead\'s body, causing a momentary stun that allowed him to pull his staff free and then jab it into the Undead\'s decaying abdomen as he yelled out a different spell to discharge even more powerful lightning that tore a powerful hole through it.

As the Undead keeled backward, Louis huffed as he let out a long spell chant before striking his Staff to the ground to charge out multiple tendrils crackling with electricity, haphazardly aimed at multiple undead.

"Oh—" Louis let out after that and slummed to the ground. His Mana was depleted but even more than that was his body not being able to keep up with repeated spell castings.

An Undead came at him with its sword raised and before Louis could weakly raise his staff in defense, Henry leaped over and kicked the Undead away before following up with a shot to its chest.

<Reload>

Henry managed to call the blue glow to glide across his gun and refill it with bullets before he was pulled into an Undead Woe.

[Kill-Reward: 150]

[Undead Woes: 400]

Once he had blinked it away, Henry raised \'The Hydra\'s Sting\' and fired a few shots.

Most of his successful shots had hit the targets because attention was not on him and sometimes because he had done something to stun them beforehand or had just shot at point-blank range.

This set of Undead, however, had their eyes —lifeless as they were— on him, and with a surge of their sickly Mana, they were dodging his bullets and sometimes managing to deflect them as they came close to smack him with the field their Mana was starting to form around their bodies.

Henry stood his ground against the surge and when it passed, he agilely avoided a sword stab… Only to put himself in the path of a second one.

"Ah!" Henry let out as the blade cut through an area in his side that his leather Armor had not been protecting.

[You have lost 30 Hit Points]

[Hit Points: 48/180]

While Henry was enduring that pain, the third Undead attacker made an even more powerful swing with its sword, cutting a diagonal gash across Henry\'s chest.

The attack cut the gun belt Henry had on into two, cut a long gash through the Leather Armor, cut the strap of the bag he had on to carry loot like the rest of his fellow cuff-wearing brethren and, finally, and of course, most importantly, it cut through his skin. Deeply.

"Henry!" Louis called out from behind.

Henry barely heard the call. He also barely heard his own scream of pain.

[You have lost 40 Hit Points]

[Hit Points: 8/180]

He saw the System\'s notification about his lost Hit Points though and he was sure it would have been worse if he hadn\'t had the Leather armor on— Even though it made for ineffective armor.

Anyway, the strike had hit Henry with enough force to send him flying many feet away and he would have had he not locked in his knees. Instead of his entire body being sent flying, only Henry\'s upper body made a hard lean back as he raised one of his legs.

But then, with a steely look in his eyes and a sense of awareness that the Undead were about to make another attack that would surely kill him, Henry put the leg he raised to the ground which snapped his posture upright.

He had the three so close there was no way he could miss.

Shocking Grip!

With his palm charged with lightning, Henry struck it against an Undead\'s chest with a pulse that had proven powerful enough to destroy its sickly magical source.

At the same time, he aimed \'The Hydra\'s Sting\' and fired an <Acidic Combustion> shot into the stomach of the second before he kicked it away so it could explode into acidic bits away from him.

*Brrzzt*

Summoning his energy, Louis shot out a Lightning strike that caught the third Undead off guard and shattered its power source in a single hit.

Henry was pulled into the Undead Woes of the two Undead he just eliminated and when he was back, he started to wheeze. Taking multiple breaths as a weariness gripped him all of a sudden.

[Kill-Reward: 150 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 400 Exp]

[Kill-Reward: 150 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 400 Exp]

[You have Leveled Up]

[You are now Level 19]

[Hit Point Maximum Increased to 190]

[Hit Points: 18/190]

[Mana Point Maximum increased to 300]

Despite the additional 10 Hit Points he just received from the Level Up, Henry\'s vision was still tinged in red.

And then, a yell sounded that seemed to rock the entire room.

"ARRRRGGGHHH!!!"

The eyes of anyone who wasn\'t embroiled in combat against an Undead turned to the battle between Doherty and Echo, the Mummified Undead.

Echo had driven his Spear through Doherty\'s stomach and had him pinned to the wall. Doherty\'s sword lay on the ground a few feet away from him as he gripped the spear\'s shaft as though to push it out of his body.

He spat out blood and tried to push but, weak as he now was, he was unable to resist Strength that was the same as his.

You see, similar stats were Echo\'s advantage, not Doherty\'s. As an Undead, Echo could not get tired and its Mana seemed infinite. It could also recall its weapon which was a massive advantage since it wielded a Spear precisely meant to be thrown.

"You failed. Your Mettle is sorely Lacking." Echo said in a tone that sounded almost disappointed.

"Shut the fuck up…" Doherty managed to say in a weak voice.

Echo regarded him impassively and with a powerful heave, it lifted its spear and cut Doherty into two so his lifeless carcass fell to the vine-covered floor. Torn apart.

Echo flicked the blood and entrails off its Spear before it turned to face the others in the room as it walked away from Doherty\'s body,

"Who\'s next?" It asked while its black eyes searched the room for a challenger,

"Who will step forward and have their Mettle tested?"

The three Mercenaries still alive gulped. If Doherty had failed, could they survive?

But then, Echo twitched as something came charging in its direction.

It unleashed a powerful Mana field ready to face the would-be challenger— only to be ignored.

Henry had no idea if he could have shot and \'killed\' Echo right then but that was not his focus.

He arrived at Doherty\'s torn-up body and grabbed the Command cuff on his wrist.

The Command Cuff, now lacking an able body to wield it, reacted to Henry\'s touch and glowed with Arcane Symbols.

"Release?" Henry said unsure if that was the required command.

*Click*

The clicks came from multiple cuffs but they sounded all at once that it came out as a single sound.

Cuffs snapped open on the wrist of every member of the Raiding Party and fell to the ground with clatters that heralded freedom.

Louis grinned delightedly as he looked from his now-bare wrist to Henry only to watch him activate some kind of brand on his right palm and open up an oval portal that promptly swallowed him so that he vanished from the room entirely…

… Leaving them to clean up the mess that was Echo.

"…"