Chapter 294 Controlled Chaos
Chapter 294 Controlled Chaos
(Blue, Sweeper. Start cutting the root open again.) Jay ordered.
Next, he glanced down at his feet. The helminth had eaten its fill and was ready to rejoin him, but Jay noticed something else. The root looked different.
"… did it get less white? It seems… faded? The slightest shade of grey." Jay thought, observing the milky sap.
"Are my eyes playing tricks? Maybe Red is doing something? But what?.."
The helminth snapped its jaws, craving its master's attention.
"Alright, come up." Jay patted his chest.
The bone worm sprang, shifting into its ghostly form while its body folded back into an amulet around Jay's neck. Since the grew to level four, there was more bone mass, it made a thicker chain with plated leaf-shaped segments.
"Nice." Jay nodded.
Blue and Sweeper got to work, hacking away at the root while more of the thick milky sap leaked out.
Meanwhile, the stream of knights coming into the room became larger, crashing into Jay's barrier of unwilling Ova. Yet this practice soon came to an abrupt end.
Suddenly, the stream of knights stopped.
"Hmm?" The battlefield felt different.
On the other side of the room, knights still made it over the barrier, but now they no longer charged mindlessly. It was immediately obvious what had happened.
"An intelligent one made it. Damn."
The knights amassed, and did so much more quickly than before. They were attacking the Ova in the passage and pulling more of their army through. With a little structure, their threat level increased.
"Now things will get interesting."
Glancing back at the root, the cut it in became larger, letting more of the thick sap through, flowing out in globs.
"It's not enough. It won't be enough." Jay shook his head.
Suddenly, the first group of the knight army moved. Gone was the chaotic mess; they marched in formation.
The large force marched towards Jay, yet they avoided the fearsome tentacles.
Jay hopped down from the root, glancing at it once more.
"I'm sure it's less white… maybe." He thought, "so the skeletons are doing something. Maybe it's okay to go through the portal?"
The large force of knights charged into the barrier of Ova, smashing against them.
Alone, the knights were not a threat. They were level four while the Ova were level eight and would regenerate any damage after a small fight. But with so many slashing swords and crushing armor, the first of them fell, soon to be followed by more.
The knights quickly dispatched the Ova that rose again, who were only getting a few hits in before falling a second time.
The intelligent knights focused the lesser's onto one area of the Ova. More knights fell than Ova, but it didn't matter when there were so many of them.
Back at the passage behind the first force of knights, another force gathered. A second wave would come soon.
Jay moved to where the battle was the fiercest. Splashes of green blood and squirming parasites filled the air.
He released extra lines of bones from the necrotic gauntlet, forming more rows of Ova and reinforcing them.
However, the second force of knights began marching.
As they came to the first group, one of the intelligent knights met them. If Jay had to guess, it was relaying orders or information.
Instead of charging right into the barrier of Ova, they began walking towards the wall where the floor roots were at their thinnest.
"Fuck. I expected this, but it's still annoying."
The Ova at the wall were slightly more spread out, and only one reached the wall. A weak point in Jay's barrier.
Jay dashed over before they could get there and released more bones from his gauntlet. The bones disappeared as the knights crashed against the Ova.
The new Ova didn't rise fast enough. They needed time to sort through the bones and assemble.
Four knights slipped past and charged at Jay, though the weak point was quickly closed and enough Ova spawned to block any more from getting through.
(Blue, Sweeper!) Jay called.
The four knights charged at Jay, ignoring everything else as they picked up speed.
Pulling out the death-walker shield, Jay dashed to the side, dodging the first two.
The third and fourth brought their swords down.
*Clang~*
The shield blocked one hit.
Jay's sword parried another.
Suddenly, a knight's hand shot towards Jay's stomach.
"Fuck."
It wasn't a fist. These were lesser knights. Jay could see an oozing hole in the knight's palm, leaking green fluids.
There was no time to block it.
Gritting his teeth, Jay stepped back to get out of range, but he lost his footing.
The hand was about to plummet into his stomach and deposit its eggs and parasites.
*Brrr~*
Suddenly, an ethereal green body appeared, blocking the infested hand from touching Jay with a humming sound.
The helminth parasite.
Its head raised up, its eyes glowing with rage. Who would dare to strike its master?
*Boom! ~*
A necrotic bolt struck back - useless against the knight's armor, unless it found a gap.
The knight's arm was outstretched. An opening at the elbow joint appeared.
The necrotic energies shot right into the gap and caused havoc inside.
The parasite transformation already weakened the arm, and now the bones had turned to liquid.
Pulled down by the vambrace armor, its arm fell off as the semi-decayed flesh ripped away.
*Clang~*
Jay blocked another sword slash. The other knight was still active.
Behind him, the other two had turned around.
In seconds they would be at his back, their swords and infested hands both keen to taste his flesh.
They surrounded Jay from all sides. The helminth could not block everything that was coming.
The skeletons were still rushing over, but would not get there in time.
Immediately, Jay side-stepped and crouched to the ground. A complete tactical disadvantage.
A slash was about to land on his back. Another stab was about to puncture him.
"Iskean!"
Suddenly, a blast of air sent the knight's severed arm flying behind him. It slammed against the wall of the chamber and crushed some parasites with it.
Jay slipped out of the circle of knights at a confusingly rapid speed.
Before the knights could charge again, the skeletons arrived.
Two of these lesser knights didn't even notice the undead creeping up on them. And it was their undoing.
Skeletal blades pierced through their spines with keen precision.
[230 Exp]
Jay had used his enchanted boots to escape the fight, almost crashing into the barrier of Ova he made. If he went the other direction, he would have smashed his brains against the wall.
Catching his breath, he stepped away from the vile vine creatures.
Yet the two remaining knights had already charged.
"You fucking idiots." He said, a hint of disdain in his voice.
It was an effortless task to side step again.
The two knights thundered past, unable to stop themselves.
Both of them smashed into the wall of Ova. It caught them in a deadly embrace.
The skeletons rushed over, speeding after them.
(Stop.) Jay ordered, wanting to finish them in his own way.
The Ova mercilessly pierced their needle claws into the knights as they held them.
The one with a severed arm had no hope, but the other pulled itself up.
A few tendrils still clung to its armor, but before it could slash its sword and pull itself free, a heavy blow hit it in the back, sending it sprawling deeper into the clutches of the Ova.
Jay had spartan-kicked it.
After a desperate struggle, they both died.
[230 Exp]
"We won't last much longer." Jay thought, glancing around.
It was controlled chaos.
They wiped out a single row of Ova, while they had brought the first force of the knights down to about twenty members - yet a third group of reinforcements were already coming.
(Sweeper, head into the portal, wait there for fifteen seconds, and then come straight back.) Jay ordered.
So far, none of the skeletons had come back through the portal, and Jay could not communicate with them either, so it was necessary to give the second order to return.
As for the portal, the only thing which changed was that the milky-white fluid seemed a little darker, like it had been stained.
"If I get to the other side, maybe we can shut down the portal and escape to wherever it leads. But I don't want to go in blind. It's up to Sweeper."