"There are only 10 of them, team. We have dealt with worse." Enric drew his sword, touching the blade once before tossing the scabbard aside.
"Last time you said that, Mary came back half dead, boss." The giant man spoke with a grunt, while the big shield he carried almost dwarfed him.
"And I'll leave you half-dead again if you keep talking."
"Err... my bad."
"I will take the corners, boss." A man spoke with two shiny daggers in his hand.
Enric nodded toward him before the man became invisible.
"Drax, you know what to do." Enric gave another command, making Drax nod and erect his shield in front of Maria, who was supposed to heal them all.
There were lines of potions around the belt on her waist, all with the same purpose of replenishing mana.
"Let's go!" Enric dashed toward the skeletons coming toward them all at a slow pace. That was the advantage everyone had in a skeleton dungeon; these monsters were dumb and weak.
Before the skeletons could even slash the blunt knives forward, Enric lunged with the sword and pierced the head of the one in front of him.
The sound of bones cracking into smaller pieces came in front of everyone.
{+3 EXP}
Both Drax and Maria smiled, looking at their leader taking care of the skeletons one after another.
Soon, a silhouette came into Enric's peripheral vision, and the sound of bone popping came from the corner before the silhouette vanished again.
Enric's smile turned into a grin when he saw Lando take care of the ones on the side.
It was his turn now.
He smashed his sword at the spines of the skeleton, breaking them with no effort.
"Looking good boss. We might just graduate to D-Rank dungeons today!" Drax shouted.
"I have told you man --SMACK-- times, Drax." Enric spoke in between smacking the blunt side of the sword on a skeleton's face before beheading it.
"Live in the present."
SMACK!
Another skeleton went down to the ground, and the usual message of experience points came to Enric, who swatted it away.
When he looked to the left, the last two skeletons had already been destroyed with a single skill by Lando.
Lando disappeared one more time and reappeared in front of Enric in a matter of seconds.
"Good job, Lando. Let's go kill that boss and be done with this dungeon." Enric spoke before patting Lando's shoulder.
Just when he retracted his hand, Lando froze in between his steps, his eyes widened in shock.
When Enric saw that, his eyes were serious again.
He looked at the two dummies of the team and shouted, "Get back into formation!"
When Drax and Maria heard that, they stopped talking and looked forward in the same formation.
"They are coming." Lando spoke, making Enric look around the room. It could have been an invisible one in the room that Lando detected.
"Can you detect where it is?" Enric spoke while being as vigilant as he could. But nothing compared to Lando's instincts of hidden enemies. All depended on him.
"No, not it." Lando spoke in a horrified tone and looked back at the front.
Enric couldn't get it, he had never seen Lando so out of it before.
His gaze went in the front too.
There were only two things there.
The dead skeletons.
And the stairs to go up the next floor.
That's when it hit him. Lando was looking directly in front, not at the skeleton's remains.
"Skeletons... Skeletons are coming down the stairs, boss!" Lando said again, yet this time he was more panicked than before.
"Down the stairs? Are you in your right mind, Lando? I told you not to drink so much the night before the dungeon. Your tiny body can't handle it--." Drax stopped speaking out loud when he saw Enric's hand facing him.
Everyone went silent.
Enric listened carefully while looking at the ground, while Lando kept staring at the stairs with his daggers up.
CHITTER
A light sound of various marbles that were falling down the stairs came to Drax's ears.
CHITTER CHITTER CHITTER
The sounds became intensified when finally, they finally became noticeable.
Enric was at a loss for words. Just what was coming down the stairs right now?
"... How many, Lando?" He asked Lando, who had detected it before anyone.
"I... I... I don't know, boss." Lando could barely speak.
Enric had no time to calm him down.
Among the countless sounds of something walking down the stairs, Enric finally saw a small silhouette.
A second later, it was the whole wobbly, slow body of the skeleton they knew.
Then came the whole skeleton to the last step, its eyes bluish like usual.
Enric found nothing wrong with the skeleton.
But the loud sounds had not stopped.
One by one, skeletons started coming down the stairs, reaching the floor they were at and marching toward the team like the first 10 in the floor did.
"I declare emergency formation! GET READY!"
Drax moved his shield up to his shoulder with the mace ready to hit anything.
Maria uncorked a vial of potions that was still on her waist in case of emergency, she moved the staff with a white crystal forward.
Lando had his hands shivering while holding his shiny metal daggers.
Until Enric kept a hand on his shoulder, which made him look at him.
"Everything will be alright." He spoke and pulled his hand away, and started moving forward slowly.
"Remember our motto guys, whatever happens, always keep a calm head. We can survive anything."
Lando could feel the strength in his hands return as Enric spoke. There was no time to be scared.
With each step Enric took forward, Drax and Lando did the same from left and right. Maria followed five steps behind with her staff ready.
When Enric saw the stairs and the never-ending number of skeletons coming out of it, he cut off that second-thinking part of himself and moved forward.
"FIGHT!"
What Enric didn't realize was the fact that nothing about the dungeon was normal.
The formation did good for the first hour, with the three fighters killing the skeletons that came forward while protecting Maria.
While Maria healed the injuries they incurred during the process.
In the second hour, Maria was at her last potion, but she kept healing the injuries as quickly as they got hurt.
They weren't even past the third hour when Lando was pushed back by 20 skeletons trying to get that kill blow, no matter what.
He broke the formation, making Enric take the toll and Maria flee to the back in panic.
Things went so bad so quickly that Enric couldn't say anything; he kept killing each second.
By this time, he was sure that there were more than a thousand skeletons in this single dungeon, which was just not possible. Yet they were experiencing it.
Lando's panic made them experience their first downfall when Drax was stabbed by countless skeletons that had drowned his body.
Yet Enric didn't stop. His hands were already torn from swinging again and again. But all he could do was end the skeletons.
In a matter of minutes, the skeletons started moving past him from the sides, toward Lando, who was at the corner. He used his skill and vanished, making Maria the only target.
Enric had to listen to the horrendous cries of Maria as she was stabbed one after another until there was no sound anymore.
Lando found his end the moment the skeletons had swarmed the whole room until they were the only thing that could be seen.
With the death of Lando, Enric was all alone in the fight against the skeleton swarm.
He kept hitting, he kept breaking their bodies every second. He knew the moment he would stop, his body would drop to the floor.
But with no healer, no mana, and no support from his party members, Enric saw a small knife puncture in his torso.
His eyes widened as blood started drenching his leather armor.
"FUCK OFF!!" He kicked the skeleton off him, but the knife was still in his torso.
That's when Enric realized.
'Am I... going to die?'
When he thought that, something clicked inside him.
Memories of his family and his children came before him.
"No!"
SMACK!
{+3 EXP}
{+3 EXP}
{+3 EXP}
He killed three more skeletons with a single swipe of the sword.
"KUGHH." His torso pained with the knife still inside.
Enric only had to look at it for a moment before he smacked his sword at the skeletons that were around him, killing them with a full blow.
He pulled the knife out of his torso with anger and punctured it right inside a skeleton's skull.
"I WILL GO BACK TO THEMMM! DIE!"
Enric pushed forward and killed many skeletons before another skeleton stabbed him in the back.
He was fully surrounded now but he kept fighting back.
'My vision's all blurry...' Enric thought as his head became dizzy. He tried getting his willpower back, but his hand just wouldn't budge.
He felt a tug on his back and then at the front.
When he looked down again, he saw many knives punctured inside him.
'Fuck...'
THUD
He fell down to the ground and that was when the skeletons swarmed his body.
Enric saw the last glimpse of a skeleton pushing a dagger in his eye before he lost consciousness.
'... It didn't have to end like this...'
{You have died}
{Analyzing Soul Residue...}
{Trait Detected — Extreme Tenacity}
{Re-routing Candidate}
{You have been invited to join the System of Dungeons}
{Transfer Initiated}
'huh?'