The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 142: Witch Dance

As Crucis walked on through the tunnel, he found that the zombies mostly had their backs turned to him at first.

They must have been pursuing the man who had passed through first, until he left their range. They were still facing the direction he had fled in.

This made attacking them fairly straightfoward, since they took a while to turn with their stiff movements. Even for the few that sensed him early and turned around, Crucis began hanging back and leading them from side to side or sneaking past them and forcing them to turn in order to pursue him, since he noticed how difficult they found this. Often, they were practically teed up for him to slash at their necks while they were still trying to change direction. Although he had found them easy already, this cut out the unnecessary effort of anticipating enemy attacks and dodging.

Seemingly, the effective use of movement against zombies could make the battle itself almost perfunctory.

Continuing on through the tunnel, he eventually heard a loud, female scream. "What did you just say to me? Don't even come near me!"

Walking towards it, he noticed a chamber to the right, where the man from earlier was loudly shivering as he cowered against the ground.

"I'll get you if I find you!" the voice came again. It sounded like a fairly young girl, and Crucis could tell that she was scared during this event. "I saw you have no sword, it's over as soon as I found you!"

Crucis raised his sword, anticipating the new arrival.

She had clearly heard the man hiding in the chamber, and took long steps towards him as soon as she glimpsed him. However, on seeing Crucis' sword, she suddenly froze.

Hesitating for a moment, she soon began to charge away through the tunnels.

Crucis followed her, getting close because his high Agility was useful in the uneven, rocky terrain of the tunnel.

However, soon, they came to a narrow pass, with a low ceiling at just under shoulder-height.

As Crucis prepared to crouch beneath the low ceiling, the girl cast the familiar witch spell [Newt Body]. She bent over backwards at an unnatural angle, and easily ran through the smaller passage.

He hadn't expected her to be able to use magic, since she was a warrior class and this battle was restricted to melee classes. However, he wasn't entirely surprised. While thinking further about the encounter with witchcraft yesterday, he had remembered early rumours about a paywall sub-class named [Holy Spirit] which could be taken by any class, and led to powers which enhanced each class' skills and gave the user supernatural physical abilities. The final skill of this class was to temporarily turn into an angelic being of light, with extraordinary power. This class was seemingly branded impractical to implement and dropped quite quickly, first converted into a Mage sub-class before being dumped entirely and replaced with the [Lumenomancer]. Perhaps some fragments of the [Holy Spirit] class had remained, and led to these witches.

As Crucis reached the end of the low ceiling, he hastily attempted to straighten himself and begin running, but was too early and a few sharp rocks tore through his back. He flinched back down, but felt a sharp wave of pain through his back, and a patch of skin was hanging off. However, there was no time to delay, and he stepped forwards and then used [Agile Step] to help make up for lost time.

Although the narrow passage put some distance between them, as Crucis had to crouch and slow slightly to make his way through, soon the girl's hyper-flexibility made her lose balance and fall as she tried to navigate over a series of jagged rocks.

Crucis used his sword to cut off some vines hanging from the ceiling in his way, and then strode up until he was only a few steps away from her.

He lunged forwards in attack, trying to prevent her from getting up, and her sword rose up stubbornly in response.

She cast a skill named [Frenzied], but didn't seem to move beyond that.

However, as soon as Crucis attempted another strike, her blade swung up to block it, and her arm seemed to jag violently after it. When he changed angle, her blade again met his effortlessly Seemingly, this [Frenzied] skill meant that her blade would move automatically to block any attacks, at least for a few seconds. It seemed to be a witch skill tailored towards warrior classes.

All the same, it didn't allow her to attack, so using it for long would mean turning turtle and eventually being overcome.

She scrambled up, unfazed by his attacks, and began to try running again. However, Crucis forced her to slow down with another couple of attacks, which forced her to swivel around as her hands danced to cut off the strikes.

She faced him, with a look of terror and indignance in her eyes. He could tell that she didn't have as much experience of PvP swordfighting.

Crucis approached her, with his sword in a low position, daring the attack. She continued backing off, but had to backstep carefully to avoid falling.

As he neared, his sword flashed up in a [Rising thrust], which she blocked with some effort. Seemingly, the [Frenzied] had expired. He feinted a further thrust, causing her hips to sway far to the left, then quickly swiveled his sword around to [Slash] straight at her chest. This forced her to adjust late in order to catch his blow, and she only managed by bending her arm over sharply through the flexibility given by [Newt Body].

Her improvised defence was awkward, and her sword slipped backwards, allowing Crucis to step into close range as his sword moved forwards to follow. She wouldn't be able to escape now.

Flustered, she attempted a counter-attack, with a [Slash] of her own towards Crucis' right flank. He easily parried this, then lunged his own sword forwards in a counter-attack. Her sword rose firmly to deflect his out of the way to the left.

He quickly flicked his wrist and attempted a [Slash] from the left, but she cut this off as well, and then hastily attempted a further counter-attack with a [Lunge] of her own. Due to the potency of the Divine Weapon, she was jumpy and rushed to try and get first blood.

However, his sword was already resting horizontally across hers, and he easily raised it to jostle hers out of the way.

His sword ground against hers as he raised it to above his right shoulder, and her sword slipped off to his right. With an opening in the centre, he swiftly delivered a diagonal [Slash] through her neck and shoulder, beheading her.

Her body dropped to the earth, with short, black hair spreading in a circle around her head.

Although dead, her square face was pale and still wore an affrighted expression.

As a reward for killing her, he received Divine Mana, Ivaldi Gold, and an item named [Odin's Decree] which could be used to raise either INT or DEX by 10% while in the heavens. He used it for the Dexterity increase. He looted [Newt Skin], a CON-raising helmet, and a scroll for a skill named [Stone Elegance] which halves movement speed but increases damage and accuracy of attacks. This peculiar skill said that it was reserved for the [Holy Spirit] class, so he couldn't use it. It wouldn't be that useful during this event, anyway, since combat here was mostly quite fast-paced.

Crucis looked around. The vines clinging to the ceiling around this part of the tunnel probably meant that an exit was near. That wouldn't be surprising, since there were more players here and they had probably come from somewhere.

Soon, he found a hole which led down into the water, with some deep-green vines arranged artfully around its edge. There was an opening not far away, next to what looked like the legs of a white statue partially submerged in the water.

This must be where everyone came here from.

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