Chapter 184: Death March, Part 5.

We ran with all we had, the skeleton army nipping at our heels was like a nest of wasps that had been kicked. The only hint of a path forward in the absolute darkness that pressed in around us was a fluttering trail of crow feathers. Following these feathers, we ran through the maze of alleyways and corridors. Occasionally smashing through a building, whose occupants had already been dealt with.

A trail of skeleton remains appeared here and there, showcasing that Morrigan had very likely punched through the envelopment to reach us. With how prevalent her crows were now, it was likely she’d spotted us earlier on, and it was entirely possible she had been working to join up with us for some time.

The skeleton army of course, was not happy with losing their prey. Whereas before they’d been measured in their responses, only acting out when we tried to break free, and even then, it just drove us further into their net. Unlike before, now they were throwing everything at us. Quite literally.

Some skeletons would abandon their arms and surge forward to tackle whomever they could. Bolts would come flying with no real target as the skeletons on the roof would throw themselves in our path. Even with their frenzied resistance and objection to our escape, rapidly, their attacks dwindled, and soon enough we couldn’t hear nor see them.

In the absolute darkness, we continued to move. Following the trail of feathers. Only the sound of our boots hitting stone echoed out. With my own breathing thundering in my ears, we pressed on.

How long had we been running? It couldn’t have been that long, but I was out of breath when we finally arrived at our destination.

Our destination being a meeting area. A crossroads that sat nestled within a packed neighborhood. The stones lining the area glittered with the familiar runes of a rest area, and at the center of it all was an inn of sorts. With a warm glow emanating from inside, hinting at life, and a place of succor.

The moment we crossed that threshold into the area, the darkness receded. An unknown chill that had clung to me vanished. The area was lit by streetlights equipped with crystals that shone as bright as stars, banishing the omnipresent haze. At the center of the square was a fountain that gurgled, the water inside pristine and clear.

The stone itself looked pristine as well, untouched by time, unlike the surrounding areas. The building, an inn, or perhaps a tavern looked worn, but in an inviting way. With its body polished and clean, showing signs of wear and tear, but also years of care.

As we all arrived in the area, I took the chance to take stock of our forces, only to click my tongue in annoyance. None of the knights were lost. The silver captain still persisted, but of our regular soldiers, only two were left. Meaning, I’d lost most of my regular soldiers, along with their supplies and bags.

As I took them in, I finally took the chance to take in our supposed savior. Morrigan. It had been some time since we last talked. She hadn’t shown up for the after-event party we had after the third and final tutorial. She’d simply vanished, not even giving Diana a means to contact her, or pass on her share of the loot.

As for what Morrigan was doing? Dunking her head into the fountain. I stared as she pulled herself free, splattering water everywhere as she shook her head like a dog would. After doing that, she wiped her hair out of her face and gave me a wide smile.

“Prima! Long time no see!” Her voice was chipper, and completely at odds with everything that had just happened. She seemed at ease, but when her eyes drifted to Talia and Ophelia, I could see the caution on her face.

“It has been some time Morrigan, you didn’t even come to the party.”

She rubbed her head. “I’m not much of a party person, ya know?”

I frowned, but… “I can get that, considering your circumstances, though… it does raise the question, why are you here?”

“This and that…” She said vaguely, before correcting herself. “Rather, I don’t really have a place to stay above ground. It’s actually safer to skulk around down here if you can find a rest area.”

“No? I suppose that means you don’t have a job? Rather, why not head to the lower district then?”

“Eh, not my style, and I did have a job, at first, but… yeah, didn’t work out. So, I figured I’d be better off down here instead of trying to survive each night and what do you know, I was right?”

“I suppose you get food and water by exchanging bronze coins?” I asked.

“Yup, just about. A single coin is enough to make any rest area a luxury apartment.”

“I can imagine…” I trail off and look around, “That does beg the question, why are you here specifically?”

“Eh, you know why. At least, I’m sure you can guess why.” Was her answer.

I sigh, but I play along. “Your magic, I assume? It makes dealing with the undead here rather easy?”

“Got it in one!” She says happily, “Not just that, but since they’re so easy to kill, it makes it easier for me to grow stronger as well. So, this place is really great. I do have to ask, what brings you here?”

There wasn’t really a reason to hide why I was down here, so I explained what was going on topside. I also took the chance to introduce her to Ophelia and Talia, both of whom were wary of the eccentric magical girl.

Not that I blamed them. Morrigan was definitely an odd one. Her history aside, or what little I knew of it, meant she was a bit of a wildcard. She and I worked together fine, but I had a feeling it was more because she understood me a little too well, and where my limits lie.

Although, it could partially be due to her being desperate for any kind of human connection, but that might be a stretch. Not like I’m the best person to be friends with, or even an acquaintance.

Hearing my reason for being here had Morrigan frowning. “Really? That seems a bit, no, a lot extra, isn’t it? Couldn’t you have maybe done something else?”

“This was the least troublesome option.” Was my answer.

She gave me a look, before smiling again, “Right, makes sense I suppose. I do have some bad news though, if this all you got, there’s no way you’re getting any gold coins.”

“Coins? As in plural?” I asked.

“Yeah, there’s multiple gold ranks, you think of them as area bosses, or well, I don’t know if you know that term.”

“I can make an assumption.”

“Good!” She continues to smile, teeth gleaming in the light. “Basically, this area is broken into at least three zones. We have the outer city, where we are at. Although, we’re about in the middle right now. There’s the inner city, which is kind of like a noble quarter with big fancy houses and larger buildings. And then the castle grounds sitting at the far end of it all.”

“And each area has their own gold rank?”

“Exactly! From what I know, this area’s boss is a death knight. The inner city is a full-blown lich, as for inside the castle…” She shrugs. “Who knows. I couldn’t get anywhere near with my crows.”

I couldn’t help but frown. “A death knight?”

“Yup, they even have a retinue of Dullahan, headless knights with them. Not to mention the rest of the garrison wandering the city.”

“That… sounds like trouble…” I sighed. “Maybe we should sit down and talk about this inside? Would that be possible?”

“Hm? Oh, sure. I imagine you are tired after all that running and fighting, I mean, you did really well despite being so small in number. I even thought you’d break free a few times, but you kept falling just short.”

“So, I was right, you were watching us…” She looked away at that comment, “I am not disparaging you, or attempting to condemn you Morrigan. I simply wanted to know when it is that you noticed us.”

“Shortly after entering? I mean, the moment I saw you, I figured you’d either back off, or realize you were outclassed, and it isn’t like I didn’t want to help.”

I rolled my eyes. “That soon? Regardless, you helped us when you could, so you don’t need to justify yourself. As for what I asked earlier, how about we take this inside and take a moment to rest before discussing our future plans?”

“Mm, if you say so… and, well, I’d love to have company! That and this place has a really nice kitchen and I have plenty of food!” And like that she led us in.

As promised by its exterior, the place proved to be a mix of a tavern and inn. With the upper floor having its own rooms, and a full basement, that was just cold enough to properly hold cold goods without spoiling. Morrigan had made herself home in the place, crates and boxes of goods were scattered about.

My first thought was, Morrigan was not a tidy person. Clothes were scattered about, something she realized only after entering. She quickly gathered what she could, shooting me glances with a tinge of red on her face as she quickly cleaned up.

There were discarded bowls everywhere, some still dirty, or containing remnants of a meal. There was a lot of cereal, open boxes were here and there, with crumbs and chips everywhere. Snacks were just, peppered everywhere.

Once she got it presentable enough, we worked on getting a meal ready, until Ophelia and Talia opted to take charge of the meal prep while I discussed with Morrigan our options.

“So, death knight and Dullahans?” I asked.

“Yes, not many, maybe like, five. The issue is the garrison though. They’re spread throughout the city, forming a web. They’re close enough to each other, that when one group engages in combat, the nearby groups all start converging. They also have whistles that they can use to send out warnings over a larger area.”

“Which means, we need to clean them out?”

Morrigan shook her head. “Not possible, at least, not with our numbers. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them. And if we make too much of a mess, they might send in soldiers from the inner city.”

“I imagine the inner-city guard are lesser in number though.”

“They are.” Morrigan agreed, “The issue is they aren’t normal skeletons like you’ve seen. They’re wights. Granted, most of them aren’t ranked, neither bronze nor silver, but they are a lot stronger.”

More bad news… Normal skeletons were durable, but wights? Even unranked, I think they’d give us trouble… Maybe not enough to take us down, but if enough of them converged on our location, and if we allowed ourselves to get surrounded…

Could we even kill groups fast enough to play hit and run? Smashing apart groups before fleeing, and hitting elsewhere? With Morrigan, I was sure we could be somewhat successful. Though, with the time limit hovering over my head, I wasn’t sure we could clear them out in time. Not to mention, their numbers might see explosive growth by the blood moon, something even Morrigan agreed was possible.

“Were you able to get a good look at the castle guard?” I asked instead.

“Not really, no. They never let my crows get too close, and well, even if you can’t see it, the sky above us is absolutely filled with monsters.”

Which means her options were rather limited. As we talked, Ophelia and Talia finished making the meals, doling out surprisingly good food, in the form of a stew. We ate and warmed ourselves up while Morrigan pulled out maps she had made, simple crude things, but they gave an idea of where everything was.

As we continued to hammer in details, I found there was one little issue with our continued cooperation.

“Morrigan, what is it you want?”

“What I want?”

“Yes, I don’t imagine you planned to stay here in perpetuity, surely you got the invitation for the event?”

“I did… I wasn’t sure if I’d join or not though… And well, you aren’t wrong. With the blood moon coming, things have gotten a lot crazier down here, and I was thinking I might try going topside for a few days, maybe get a hotel until everything cools down.”

“Then why help us? Rather, why stick your neck out for this? I didn’t take you as the type to just go out on a limb for anyone.”

“Well, you’re not just anyone.” Was her initial answer, “And also, I do want something. The garrison has a few skeleton mages inside, they shouldn’t be an issue when we make our attack, but I want their items. Some of them seem similar enough to your soul orb, or whatever it was, and I wanted to get my hands on those. Also, the death knight’s weapon is gold ranked, from what I could see. And I think I might be able to feed it to my weapon to help it along, if that makes any sense?”

I thought back to what Diana told me about our weapons, how they could evolve. Not just by using coins, but also by absorbing relevant metals or materials. Considering how Morrigan’s axe looked and felt, along with her magic typing, I could easily see something like a death knight having a weapon compatible with her own.

Only… “Do you think we even stand a chance?” Was my final question.

“Maybe? Honestly, I could do some serious damage to the death knight on my own, believe me, I tried, but I was forced to retreat when his reinforcements arrived. That, and trying to fight him with his bodyguard was difficult enough as it is.”

“You injured it then?”

“Not by much, I mean, yeah, I gave it a shot, but it’s probably all healed up by now. And honestly, if it was anyone else, I might be skeptical, but your abilities are a good counter to the death knight’s abilities, I think you should be fine. Well, you and others, and also… I have another reason to be sure.”

“And that would be?” I questioned.

She glanced at my gathered members. “One of the biggest issues won’t be the death knight, or his crew, but rather, the reinforcements. We would be on the clock, and I doubt we could kill him before they arrive. So, we’d need a bit of a distraction.”

“And if I disagree?”

She shrugs. “If you don’t, we might be able to brute force it, but the net would close in pretty quickly.”

I frowned. Not liking how Morrigan was essentially offering up my own people to be a sacrifice…

“I could do it.” Ophelia offered up of her own will. “I haven’t done much up to this point, and I feel like I’m still paying off your initial investment, right? I’m also specialized for this, so it’s not that far fetched to send me out there.”

“Are you sure? We were almost overtaken earlier. Do you really think you could evade them?”

“On my own, easily.” Ophelia said, sounding awfully sure of herself, which didn’t put me at ease.

Yes, her making the offer made this easier, but… I glanced about the room. Talia wasn’t disagreeing. Shi, well, she didn’t care. None of my knights seemed to be concerned.

However, sending her out on her own though…

“Orion.” I said, confusing Ophelia and the knight in question. “Take Orion with you, I don’t think he’ll hold you back that much, and if he does you can just leave him behind.”

“That… yeah, he’s pretty agile, but are you sure? I mean, I’d be fine on my own.”

“Yes, Orion, despite my warning has continued to act out. I was considering giving him a severe punishment but sending him out on a suicide mission seems fitting. If he makes it, well, maybe he’ll learn his lesson. If not, I can simply make another. Also, part of why I made him, was so that he can undertake tasks such as this.”

Orion was giving me a look. Ophelia didn’t seem to know what to say to that logic, the awkward silence persisted until Talia spoke up, “But he’s unranked, isn’t he? Even if he can keep up, how much could he actually contribute to the mission?”

That was a surprisingly good point. Even Ophelia agreed. We had time though, with how deep into the depths we were, time was beginning to twist in our favor, which meant, we had time to prepare for the assault.

Which also meant, we had time to elevate him to bronze rank, especially with another magical girl here to assist.

As for Morrigan’s thoughts? “Sounds fun, and honestly, it’ll take me some time to plan out the how and when of it. I have crows all over, but the devil is in the details and all, ya know? Even if we agreed here and now, it would still take time to get the plan in motion.”

Which was essentially her agreeing to the plan. With that, we started planning the details, and making our preparations, including properly elevating Orion into a bronze rank.

And before long, we were ready for the big battle.