The shadows of Floor 1 were alive with the sound of scraping bone.
Dozens of hollow white eyes stared out from the gloom. Rusted iron halberds, notched broadswords, and petrified bone spears clattered against the floor as a horde of Crypt-Husks advanced toward us through the narrow, purple-lit corridor.
I stood my ground, blood dripping from my broken collarbone as my dual katanas hummed in my hands.
"You’re holding the left hilt too tight," Valeska’s voice echoed in my head, completely unbothered by the horde of thirty undead monsters closing in. "A tight grip locks your wrist. If you cannot rotate your wrist, your blade angles become predictable."
"I’m holding it tight because my collarbone was broken two minutes ago!" I yelled back, stepping forward.
"A master fights with broken bones without complaining," Valeska replied coldly from her perch on a high bone pillar. "Adjust your stance."
The first three Crypt-Husks lunged simultaneously.
I didn’t try to use a wide, sweeping slash. In these narrow bone tunnels, a wide slash meant hitting the walls and ruining my blades’ edges.
’Exhale on the strike. Move from the root.’
I stepped forward with my right foot, driving my right katana upward into the first husk’s jaw—Tiao. The cold steel punched through the decaying bone, instantly severing its skull.
Without stopping, I pivoted my hips, bringing my left katana down in a diagonal chop—Pi—cutting through the second husk’s collarplate and splitting its chest wide open.
CLANG!
The third husk’s rusted broadsword slammed against my right katana. The impact jarred my arm, but thanks to [Adaptive Resonance], my shoulder muscles automatically hardened, absorbing forty percent of the force.
I didn’t push back against the blade. I used the momentum, twisting my wrist—Lan—redirecting its broadsword into the petrified wall.
Before the husk could recover, I drove my left katana through its throat.
Three down in five seconds.
"Better," Valeska noted, her visor glowing dark red. "Your wrist rotation was acceptable. But your rear foot was planted. Had a fourth husk flank you from the left, you would have been unable to pivot."
"I’m working on it!" I shouted, ducking beneath a flying bone spear.
Five more husks surged into the corridor.
I reached for my chest harness, snatched one of my black steel throwing daggers with my left hand, and flicked my wrist.
THWACK!
The dagger buried itself directly into the eye socket of a heavy Sentinel construct, staggering the four-armed beast. I used the gap, sprinting forward, dual katanas extended, and drove both blades through its damaged chest core.
I channeled 20 Soul Essence through my right gauntlet.
"Ashen Pulse!"
BOOM!
The short-range kinetic shockwave exploded inside the construct’s chest, obliterating its upper torso into a shower of bone dust and rusted iron. The shockwave’s backblast cleared the corridor, knocking the remaining husks onto their backs.
I panted heavily, my chest heaving. The decayed Aether in the air was making every breath burn like fire.
Inside my body, [Endless Resilience] was constantly fighting the environmental decay, slowly re-knitting small muscle tears and hairline bone fractures. The pain was relentless, a dull, throbbing ache that covered every square inch of my skin.
I unclipped one of the three High-Grade Vitality Potions from my belt, popped the glass stopper with my thumb, and downed the crimson liquid in one gulp.
GLUG! GLUG!
A wave of intense, icy-hot magic flooded through my stomach and into my bloodstream. My stamina replenished instantly, the deep fatigue in my legs fading as my torn shoulder muscles reconnected.
I wiped the crimson potion residue from my mouth and raised my dual katanas again. "Alright. Who’s next?"
The remaining husks didn’t charge.
Instead, they slowly backed away into the gloom, their hollow white eyes turning toward the far end of the corridor.
The floor beneath my boots began to vibrate.
RUMBLE...
A deep, wet grinding sound echoed from the dark depths ahead—the sound of massive, ancient stone gears turning after centuries of rust.
The petrified bone floor at the end of the corridor split apart, collapsing inward to reveal a massive, spiral stairwell leading down into the pitch-black abyss below.
[WARNING: Entering Sunken Crypt of Erebos (Floor 2)]
[Environmental Decay Level: HIGH]
[Warning: Ancient Bloodline Entities Detected Below!]
From the darkness at the bottom of the spiral stairs, a low, guttural breathing echoed up the shaft. The air rising from Floor 2 was ten times colder, reeking of ancient blood and a dark, suffocating pressure that made my skin crawl.
Valeska dropped down from her bone pillar, her heavy obsidian boots landing silently beside me. Her greatsword materialized in her hand, the black flames licking at the steel.
She looked down the dark spiral stairwell, her featureless visor burning with a deep, dangerous crimson.
"Floor 2," Valeska said, her voice dropping into a cold, serious register. "The ancient bloodline husks reside below. They possess real and variant combat styles, Kaelen Cross. If you step down there with that sloppy footwork and hesitant blade-angles, they will tear your limbs off before you can even drink your second potion."
I looked at the dark stairwell, then down at my hands. My knuckles were bruised, my clothes were covered in black monster bone fragments , and my dual katanas were chipped from cutting through iron plates.
I tightened my grip on the twin hilts, stepping up to the edge of the stairs.
"Then, let’s go!" I said breathlessly.