Asher summoned the [Cicada's Cry], catching it's hilt of the Dao tightly.
They were currently walking to the dark tunnel in a line.
"Can we get back to that thing you said about how very few people manage to escape from here alive? Why is that?" Sunny asked
The huntress grimaced.
"That's because…"
However, before she was done speaking, something appeared out of the darkness and barred their way.
Sunny opened his eyes wide.
Right there in front of them, a corpse was standing on the edge between light and darkness, staring at the six humans with the black chasms of its empty eyes sockets.
…No, not really a corpse. A skeleton.
...Eckkk!!
Asher tried to calm his breath, but how could he?! There was a damned living skeleton in front of him!
It pounced on Effie, who turned her torso and slammed her shield against the lunging monstrosity. With a thunderous crack, the skeleton was thrown back. Its skull and ribcage shattered, showering the tunnel with sharp bone splinters. Like a broken marionette, it fell to the ground in a shapeless pile.
Asher's hair stood up as he saw the skeleton mend itself. It didn't make it any better on how he pretty much knew what was happening.
Dozens… no, hundreds of skeletal feet scraping against the cold stones of the catacombs.
Maybe even thousands of them.
The hordes of undead monsters populating the catacombs were coming to rip the seven humans apart.
Asher was in the middle of the cohort line, sensing the weight of the thousands that approached.
Soon, they crashed into the throng of Skeletons as Asher slashed around with all his strength.
The catacombs were a real maze. More and more often, the tunnels they were taking began to open into complicated crossroads and connect with other branching paths. When that happened, undead creatures could lunge at the cohort from the side, bypassing the impenetrable barrier of Changing Star and her two champions— Caster and Effie.
Asher's Dao whistled at one of the skeletons beheading it a clean fluid motion, yet the skeleton kept moving, bone claws raking into Asher's arm.
'Crap!'
Reflex took over. Gravity flared from him in a sharp pulse. To his surprise, it flew backward, smashing into its comrades.
Asher blinked. Then he grinned.
The skeletons didn't have a soul.
As far as Asher was concerned, that meant these were mundane stuff, meaning...
'I can influence them with gravity.'
He spun mid-fight, yelling over the clash of steel.
"Neph! Put me in front—I just had a genius moment!"
Nephis' brow creased. Wrong time, wrong place… but chaos doesn't leave room for long debates."Go."
They swapped positions in a whirl of steel, Asher carving down another skeleton before stepping up.
"I'll show you something cool…"
He put his hand forward, opening all five fingers as he said.
"Knell."
Every skeleton in sight hit the ground with a rattling clack! like someone dropped a sack of bones.
In truth, Asher's influence on gravity was weaker the further it went, with 170 meters being his limit, but in a narrow tunnel, it was a whole different story. Everyone looked shocked as Asher gestured both his arms, bringing them together before pushing them away.
"Move." He said, trying to be as cool as possible.
The skeletons on the ground paved a pathway for them to walk from.
In truth, Asher didn't have to gesture or say anything to use gravity but doing this made him cooler so why not.
Well, it wasn't to say the weren't in a threat at all, the skeletons all the way in the behind could somewhat struggle but it was futile. Asher was quite possibly the worst enemy for these skeletons.
Within ten meters, anything with bones was face-down on the stone. Beyond that, they twitched and wriggled, but the were far slower so the cohort had a easier time getting through it.
Asher strolled forward, trench coat swaying, hands in his pockets. The others followed in stunned silence—except Effie, whose jaw hung so low she could catch flies, while Sunny and Nephis had narrowed eyes.
They eventually reached a bridge as Asher said, "hey, if I do this trick while on the bridge, it will collapse for sure, so..."
"Your not going to do it here." Nephis finished.
Asher nodded, "Yeah, so I recommend we sprint as fast as possible."
Everyone simply nodded as Asher grinned.
"Well, I'm the one who should sprint, you all can take your time."
He cut down a skeletal arm reaching for his leg. "Go. Quick."
They bolted. Asher stayed, holding the choke point. Skeletons poured forward, clattering over one another until they formed a collapsing tower of bone.
He flinched, then shoved them back with a controlled burst—enough to scatter them without turning the bridge into splinters.
Seeing that the cohort crossed the bridge, Sunny sighed as he turned back. If he used to much force, behind him the bridge would collapse. So Asher didn't use gravity or anything, rather choosing to walk while destroying the wooden floor behind him with gravity at the same time.
Asher grinned as the mindless rattling bones fell behind him.
In front of him, Effie's jaw dropped onto the flower while Kai's eyes were just wide. No one from the cohort was really injured. Sunny and Nephis simply looked at Asher, who sighed, "I'll explain once we get out of this damned place."
None of them refuted as Nephis moved in to heal Asher's clawed arm, but was stopped by Effie. The huntress darkly shook her head.
"Not yet. There's one last hurdle to overcome. We'll need you to be at the top of your game."
The she looked at Asher, "I think."
Kai, who was panting a little while having stars in his eyes. "So this is the power of Saint Zerei! Asher you are amazing!" Asher chuckled a little, holding his hands to his hip, "Right? Hehe.."
Kai just gave a pleasant smile when Asher almost collapsed, feeling heavy weight on his shoulders. He turned back to see Effie grinning at him like a weirdo.
Asher had a bad feeling on what she was going to say.
"I promote you from a Poster boy to a Poster man! Congrats."
Asher looked at her deadpanned.
"..."
Effie was still smiling.
Asher smiled back.
"Please kill yourself."