Chapter: 842

The sounds of battle below grew quiet as the skeletons under the gate all perished next. Most of the reinforcements had stopped before the gate, but too many knights pushed through and encircled the skeletons, and were now making their way into the gatehouse.

They forced Jay the defend his position up the stairs; he was a caged threat. However, Jay would not let them take him. Trapped or not, it didn’t matter.

“Two entrances to cover. Let’s make it one.” Jay said.

The gatehouse had two entrances to it on either side, though there were two other ways in which led to passages through the walls. For now, though, the bulk of knights were in the courtyard.

Jay dashed to the top of one of the spiral staircases and began releasing a huge number of bones, a funnel of femurs flying from his necrotic gauntlet.

The rattling bones attracted the sounds of knights below, but the torrent of bones drowned them out, and in moments he packed the whole staircase with a thick white plug.

The bones were not useful for forming a wall, however, being channeled into a funnel made them into an excellent barrier.

They directed some of the lesser knights to pulling bones out, tunneling up the stairs, but each time one they ripped one out, the mass of bones would shift and reform.

Jay made a separate bone pile and re-summoned his fallen skeletons, giving Blue command over them. Sweeper and Lamp went to reinforce Red, while Handy and Blue forged their weapons again.

However, they only made the most basic swords, copying Jay’s ossein arming sword design, as they had to back up Red.

[115 Exp]

So far, Red was holding the stairs without giving up any ground. Not only was it a one versus one, but Red also had the higher ground. The staircases also spiraled right as it ascended, meaning the attackers would have to use their weapons left-handed to swing, giving Red an enormous advantage over them.

With the other skeletons backing it up, Red began pushing knights back down the stairs.

For now, the situation was under control.

Jay watched Blue and Sweeper craft themselves some swords, and as the green necrotic mana reflected in Jay’s eyes, it disappointed him when seeing the sorry state of his skeletons. Lamp’s skin suit was a tattered mess of decayed flesh, scarcely clinging to its bones, while none of the other skeletons had their metal armor.

“I expected them to drop their weapons, but it sucks that they lost their metal armor, too. They must be able to incorporate the bone armor into their base forms somehow… there must be something missing when I’m making their weapons, something I’m doing differently. As for Lamp, well, Lamp is an anomaly. I have no clue how it re-summoned with its torn flesh suit. Maybe it’s just a unique feature of its emerging class.”

Jay allowed Blue command as the other skeletons needed to rearm themselves with some makeshift weapons. When they perished in battle, their weapons did too, now sitting in a pile of bones beneath the gate, buried among their metal armor suits. Their only armor now was the spectral bone pieces Jay had crafted for them.

Jay remained at the top of one staircase, adding more bones when the pit filling it shifted and dropped, while the skeletons made progress on the other one.

[230 Exp]

Red had killed some knights as it slashed, stabbed, and hacked its way down, and the dead bodies of the knights crashed and tumbled, forming additional hazards for the knights.

The skeletons could see perfectly on the pitch-black staircase, while the parasite-laden knights relied on instinct and the human eyes they controlled.

“I wonder how many knights are inside this place,” Jay thought, “I guess it won’t matter if we can hold them off. Good thing this gatehouse favors the defenders, and my plan worked. Mostly. We just need to clear out the knights inside the castle. Those on the outside won't matter.”

Outside the castle gate, knights smashed their weapons and rattled them against the metal bars, but that was all they could do. Rusted but sturdy, the bars held secure, only causing them to blunt their dull weapons even further.

[230 Exp]

More knights fell to Red, who had the high ground, but it didn’t escape without some damage. But Jay trusted his commander.