Chapter 27: Deathtouched Catacombs, Part Two
Two tarnished could be seen going through a cold hallway until they stood before a huge iron door. The figure wearing a half golden, half silver armor took a step towards it and tried to open it. Unfortunately, the door didn't even move an inch, and D then stated the obvious.
"The door is closed."
Max just looked at him and chose not to comment. In the meantime, D continued saying:
"Somewhere in this catacomb, there should be a mechanism that we have to activate, in order to open this iron door. The problem is that, these graves and catacombs are mostly build like a labyrinth full of traps and enemies that want to kill us. Therefore, we will have to be very careful from now on until we find this machine."
Max nodded and thought:
'Hmm, it's true, that there are many dungeons where navigating is really terrible and confusing, but this one is pretty small and straightforward, so it isn't so bad. ... For now, at least.'
"I believe that this catacomb is filled with skeletons, so I would recommend using Order's Blade, in order to be able to easily kill them.", added Max.
D agreed with his proposition and therefore the two did as they just agreed. With enchanted Swords, they then made their way deeper into the dungeon.
Immediately after they went down the stairs, they saw to their left a skeleton forming himself. In return, Max had already been expecting it and therefore quickly slashed and managed to kill it in one attack before it even finished rising from the ground.
D was impressed by the fast reaction of Max and complimented him:
"Well done! Your reaction was really quick."
The duo continued and one could see a big difference in their approaches. While D was really careful, looked around a ton and in general advanced really slowly, Max didn't look around at all, but instead clearly knew where to go and what to kill. This wasn't a really strange behavior for Max, as he knows this dungeon like the back of his hand.
When they reached the first floor, Max rushed towards the two archer skeletons at the front. He managed to kill the first one also in one shot before it formed, but, that wasn't the case with the second one. The skeleton was 2.10 meters high, one and a half heads higher than Max. It span its bow with an arrow aiming at Max. In response, Max took a giant step towards it and swung his Bloodhounds Fang.
Luckily, the swords cut through the bow first, destroying and leaving the skeleton without a weapon and was then easily killed by Max. Then, he heard that, behind his back, another melee skeleton had already formed and was ready to attack at any moment. However, it didn't get to attack as a huge stone hit it, and consequently destroyed its whole upper body. The skeleton collapsed to the ground but wasn't dead yet, as it was reforming itself at a decent speed.
Of course, Max didn't let it do that, as he turned around and ended its life. The stone which hit the skeleton came from D, as he cast the Stone of Gurranq incantation, once he saw it forming behind his tarnished comrade's back.
"Thank you, D."
"I got your back, but aren't you a little bit too reckless?", asked D.
"Yes, probably, but I need to take the archers out, because they are the biggest problem.", answered Max.
Then the two firstly continued right, where the skeletons don't rise immediately but instead a little bit later, with the goal to create an ambush. In the game, Max had to wait for them to do so, but now, he could eliminate them when they were still on the ground. He knew that he was successful, because when the golden light from the blade made contact with the dead, it creates a small blast of light.
As D saw this, he couldn't help but became a little bit skeptical.
'The whole ground is full of bones, so how did he know where the real skeletons were? Is it instinct, or can he perhaps feel where those are, who live in death? I mean, I can sense, if death has left its mark in a place, but it may be, that his sense is even more accurate than mine.', thought D.
"Let's proceed through this narrow corridor.", proposed Max.
"Sure", agreed D. He wanted to see more of that "sense", in order to try to confirm his theory.
And sure enough, in the next room the same scene occurred once more, as Max once more rushed to the location where the skeletons form.
"I will take the one at the back, you take the one in the front.", instructed Max.
D listened to Max and therefore conjured a rock projectile and launched it in a slight arc at the skeleton and when it was at the ground, D swiftly killed it with his sword.
Afterward, the passed through the door on the left and exactly like before, Max killed all the skeletons before they even started forming. It was then that D couldn't take it anymore and asked Max about it.
"Hey, Max, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure, what is it?", replied Max.
"How do you know where the skeleton's real bodies are? I mean, the ground is full of bones, so how do you know?", asked D.
Max was stunned for a second, as he searched his mind for an answer he could tell him.
"Errrr... err... Well, err… I don't really know how to explain it, but I just know.", told Max.
"I see. Could it perhaps be that your intuition tells you where they are? Like you can sense their general location and that's how you know?", said D.
"Yes. You took the words right out my mouth. That's exactly it.", said Max.
"I see", said D once more, while continuing to nod.
Seeing that D dropped the topic, Max was relieved, as he obviously couldn't tell him how he really knows. Then Max grabbed the Uchigatana from the corpse on the edge.
"I believe that the machine for the iron door is in that room over there.", Max pointed towards the room with his finger." We could jump down from here, or we can go all the way back and tackle this room from the front."
"I believed that it would be safer if we don't jump down, as there is a high chance that we would be encircled once we do that.", proposed D.
Max didn't have anything against that, so they went all the way back and once they were under the platform they were previously standing on, two archer skeletons began to rise from the ground. They were quickly taken out by the tarnished duo. Then, Max and D proceeded to firstly reapply the enchantment from the Order's Blade, since they obviously didn't want it to disappear during battle.
As they continued advancing in the room, another 3 skeletons started to rise from the dead. D and Max reacted quickly and therefore managed to take out two of them before they could do anything. However, this wasn't the case with the third one. Because the tarnished duo was temporarily occupied with the first two, it could fully prepare itself to attack.
The skeleton entered a weird stance, and then it jumped with a really high speed towards D, who blocked this dangerous jump attack, skillfully with his sword and then easily put it to rest for eternity.
Then they proceeded into the room where a statue with a lever was. Of course, this room was also filled with two melee skeletons, but they didn't pose any problem for the two. Then Max went to the lever and tried to pull it using only one hand, thinking that it will be easy.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the case, and he quickly realized that he had to use both hands and all of his strength. He eventually did it and afterward, Max was breathing heavily for a short time.
Having activated the mechanism, the whole catacomb started to vibrate a little bit and furthermore, the two could very clearly hear the loud sound of the iron door slowly opening. The sound was actually so loud that Max and D had to cover their ears for a moment. After a while the deadly silence returned and the lever went back to its original position.
With their first goal achieved, Max and D went back to the beginning of the catacomb. A short while later, they were now standing before the open iron door and were looking down the hall of stairs.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone