LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 23: Ambushed
The duskwraith moved, silent as the night it blended into the nearby darkness and rushed along the nearby allies. Moving past the stone statues undetected, it climbed atop the building and kneeled down besides a semi broken pillar.
From there, it lowered itself alongside the back wall near a shattered column. Seeing that the stone statues were still clueless, it jumped inside, landing quietly on the intricately designed floor.
The air inside was thick, laced with dust and the smell of old spices. The floor itself was covered with dark stone slabs once surely designed in intricate patterns, now cracked and pitted in places with the passage of time. Just a couple meters ahead, the room had several opened doors made of the same white marble from outside. Along the sides of the room stood massive pillars, each carved with stone faces—some serene, others twisted with grief or fury, their hollow eyes watching over the emptiness.
Looking at those faces something surged inside me, my brows furrowed on their own as my teeth grinded in rage. At the same time my surroundings began to shift. I was currently hiding inside a stone house, the walls around the house began to change transforming into flesh and blood.
What was happening? I jolted my body and came back to my senses. The walls turned to normal, and my anger disappeared as if it had never existed.
Blinking once more to check my surroundings were truly fine, I put my focus back on the duskwraith. It seemed to have sensed my sudden shift in mood as well, as it was currently looking all around the room, trying to find the reason behind my anger.
"Calm down." I mentally ordered, and it finally stopped.
I had no idea what had just happened, but whatever it was, it needed to be put on the backseat for now. Right now, I needed to investigate this place and see if it had anything worth grabbing.
Checking myself once more for any abnormality, I ordered the Duskwraith to move forward. It had only taken a single step when-
Suddenly, a sound of mechanical-sounding footsteps caused it to turn around. At the door stood the figure of a stone statue, with its sword unsheathed into its arm. Behind the statue were assembling several others, only their armor a bit more simplistic than his.
"It can see through the shroud?" The thought had only crossed my mind when only the statue in the front moved, instantaneously appearing only a few feet away from the duskwraith.
The duskwraith yelped and tried to dodge, only to have its arm slashed out of its shoulder.
"Argh." I hissed in my stone house and grabbed my shoulder. My arm was still there, yet somehow, it hurt as if it had been cleanly sliced off.
This had never happened before; then again, none of the revenants had ever taken any damage in the first place.
I hurriedly concentrated back on the duskwraith. With its arm gone, the duskwraith was trying to run away from the pursuing stone statue while still staying inside the hall as I had ordered it to.
It didn't seem to be affected by the pain, though; at the same time, I was hurting like I had lost an arm.
The statue drove its sword forward, swinging it through the air like a whip. The duskwraith, in a desperate attempt to fight back, tried to use its one remaining hand to block the strike. The stone meat flesh once again cleanly chopped through its fingers.
This thing, it was too strong. Maybe even as strong as that monstrosity we had fought back in the fort.
Almost losing another hand, The beast snarled and lunged towards the knight with its fangs wide open. Yet once again, the knight was faster- a gleaming gauntlet met its jaw, sending the creature reeling.
This was a nightmare. The duskwraith, it was fighting exactly like… a duskwraith. I knew the it wasn't exactly combat trained but to fight like a mindless beast, charging in blindly trying to chew through stone.
Duskwraith was staggering, barely trying to regain its balance. The stone statue advanced and swung once more, the arc aiming at the duskwraith's neck.
"Dodge." I practically screamed. Thankfully, the duskwraith ducked just in time, barely missing the blade as it swung past his head.
This was a disaster. If things continued like this, then I was going to lose one of my revenants. One of the only ones capable of hiding and infiltration. , If only it knew how to fight.
Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. Not wasting any time, I dove inside our shared connection, holding on to it, only this time deeper… much deeper than I had ever before.
Please work, please work.
As the connection between us grew deeper and deeper, some foreign sensations began taking over my body. From cold air blowing past the duskwraith skin to the fear and rage coursing through its head, the feeling of losing an arm, it all became more and more clear.