I immediately slashed my right arm in an arc, as my fist connected with the skulls head it was sent flying back as its skull shattered.
'Creepy motherfu-'
The huntress yelled, tearing him away from these thoughts:
"Don't stop, move!"
The cohort rushed forward, following Effie into the depths of the catacombs. In the corner of my eye, I saw the skeleton reanimating and mending itself. Were these fuckers immortal?
'I found my kin!' I joked in my mind, but I didn't find it funny so I focused on running ahead instead. Shashi was right next to me.
My ears caught a distant rustle coming from the darkness ahead of us. this wasn't the cursed sea. Instead, it was dozens ... no, hundreds of skeletal feet scraping against the cold stones of the catacombs.
Maybe even thousands of them.
The hordes of undead monsters populating the catacombs were coming to rip the eight humans apart.
***
Pretty soon, the undead creatures were upon them. First in ones and pairs, then in small groups, the bloodthirsty skeletons assaulted them in a constant stream. Appearing from the darkness of the catacombs, they lunged at the cohort in a whirlwind of bony claws and teeth, each bearing the same eerie skeletal grin.
Effie and Nephis, who were at the front of the group, faced the brunt of the attacks. The huntress exerted her inhuman strength, bulldozing through the skeletons like an incarnation of ancient fury. Her round shield acted as a wrecking ball, shattering the undead monsters left and right.
Nephis fought with the elegant fluidity of water ... but also with the crushing force of a devastating flood. She was holding the longsword by the blade, using its crossguard and pommel as an improvised mace. With white flames dancing in her eyes, she moved from one skeleton to another, skillfully deflecting their blows and crushing one skull after another.
If anything got past them, Caster was there to deliver the finishing blow. His sword shone with a ghostly green light, slicing through bones as if without meeting any resistance. The proud Legacy fought with graceful precision, always managing to immobilize the enemy with just one clean strike. The skeletons fell to his sword before even having a chance to retaliate.
Currently the rear and the middle were relatively safe as the three at the front stopped anything that came towards them, and we ran past whatever skeleton that was reanimating. The middle consisted of Kai, Cassie and Saint. As for the rear, Shashi, me and Sunny were there.
The catacombs were a real maze. More and more often, the tunnels they were taking began to open into complicated crossroads and connect with other branching paths. When that happened, undead creatures could lunge at the cohort from the side, bypassing the impenetrable barrier of three sleepers.
More than that, as the number of skeletons destroyed by them increased and several minutes passed, the abominable monsters began rising back from the ground and dashing in pursuit of the party, soon attacking it from the rear.
Eventually, the cohort was constantly assaulted from all sides.
Instead of trying to crush the skeletons, I was punching them with all my might to throw them backwards. Unlike the others I did not have good reach since I did not use a weapon, but my defense and force of strikes were better, keeping the rear relatively safe.
To my side, Shashi was slashing through the skeletons with her two khanjars. The woman was skilled with the katana, however seeing her fight with daggers was even more of an enchanting sight. Why was she using katana all the time when she was so skilled with the daggers?
***
Soon the cohort was surrounded from all sides. Everyone was forced to join the fight at full strength. Sunny's echo was very impressive, she crushed the skeletons with relative ease as she moved like a battle master through the narrow tunnel.
The Quiet Dancer zipped through the air, supporting the echo and covering any lapse left in the barrier of steel created by her. If something got past the two of them, Kai was there, using the curved blade of his falcata to crush the undead monsters, almost as if felling them with an axe.
He was holding hands with Cassie, guiding the blind girl through the dark maze of the catacombs. However, it seemed as though her ability to orient herself in space had seen a considerable improvement in the past three months, perhaps due to the connection she shared with the flying rapier. She was now able to move quickly without using her wooden staff for support, at least.
As more and more skeletons rose from the back of the group, we had to exert ourselves even more.
Shashi, me and Sunny sliced through the skeletons with relative ease. The only thing powerful about them was that they were immortal and they were big in numbers.
Also they did not have any blood or a heart for Shashi to predict their movements. However that did not stop her from butchering the skeletons into pieces. Sunny also moved through the skeletons with practiced ease, his form and style had gotten a lot better as he sliced through them as if they were butter.
We were going at a very good pace, however we also needed to keep up with the others. None of us had really practiced fighting while running, so it was hard to adapt.
I myself still hadn't activated my augmentation ability. I did not really want to lose sense at this moment and do something stupid. So I was holding it back, however that did not mean I was helpless without them. The skeletons were sent rallying back each time my fist connected with one.
My battle style had also improved, becoming more solid and unshakable. I used grounded footwork, however it was still adaptable to changes in conditions. My way of fighting was incredibly different from how the others fought, so I rarely had a person to spar and improve with. So I was left alone to fix things on my own.
But despite that I had improved my techniques, now my strikes carried sense and full intention to murder instead of mindless destruction.
As a skeleton lunged at me, instead of punching it away I immediately grabbed his arm and activated my dormant ability. Almost immediately the skeleton was left without an arm, which never grew back. Then I slammed my fist into its skull, sending it crashing towards the other skeletons that were trying to approach.
***
Things became even more hectic afterwards.
We were pushing ourselves to the limit as we fought against the tide of skeletons. Each one of us had to fight numerous enemies at once while also trying to keep up with the cohort at the front. Some wounds were accumulated across my body as well as Sunny's. Shashi seemed relatively fine since she had healing qualities and it seemed she didn't spend as much blood to heal herself.
We had to push ourselves to the limit if we wanted to get out of here.
I was grabbing the skeletons by their legs every time I got the chance, this hindered their mobility and it served us well. At one point, when I had bent to grab the lunging skeleton by the leg, another one immediately lunged at me by bypassing Sunny. But it never reached me, a blood arrow immediately shot from the left, piercing through the skeletons skull and sending it rallying back. I also corroded the skeleton's leg at hand as I stepped backwards immediately.
"Careful!" Shashi shouted as she butchered a skeleton into five pieces.
After a while, we switched positions with the Stone Saint to rest. I took my time to observe everyone around, and everyone was battered. Nephis had also finally activated her white flames. Shashi did not seem to have any open wounds, her armor was battered on some parts, but she was doing fine. I did not have any wounds that would threaten my performance either. Unlike the others, I had much more stamina from them due to my immortality.
Sunny's voice resounded from the right as I grabbed a skeleton by the ribs and turned it into dust, he was asking if we were close to the end.. However Effie did not give him the desired answer.
"What end?! This was just a warm-up!"