Stunned by my knightly aura, the creature still hadn’t moved even after I’d approached it.

  I tightened my sword, briefly wondering if activating the Trapped Soul of Emperor Doza would trigger Grave Seepage. From what I knew of the last time I activated the skill on an Aetherhorn Ox, it shouldn’t.

  The wording mattered.

  Trapped Soul didn’t hit again, but it probably worked like venom injected within a bite. It latched onto a hit that already happened and inflicted extra damage after the creature had already felt pain, so END or armor wouldn’t matter. The ox had proven that much.

  Anabeth left a helpful tip behind me, “The binding tends to anchor around what would have been the center of burial, my lord. The pelvis, the lumbar knot, sometimes the sternum if the Interment—I mean, the Sumpwarden—was vertical. Disrupt that cohesion and the rest follows.”

  I should try to slay these creatures without relying on intimidation. That was how real strength was built. Victory earned because the enemy feared me wasn’t valor. And what if I face a foe who wouldn’t flinch under my aura?

  I struck it on the pelvis.

  Ah. That was great. I wouldn’t even need to activate my Intimidation Aura. Now I just had to stay out of range, wait for another thirty seconds, and—

  Bone scraped.

  Not from the one in front of me.

  From the dark.

  To my left, a Sumpwarden detached itself from the wall. To my right, another dragged itself free from a heap of ribs. I looked up just in time to see a fourth Sumpwarden unhook itself from the ceiling, limbs unfolding like a collapsed scaffold.

  Oh. This must be its locked effect: calling nearby bone creatures to aid it. Which made this extremely inconvenient.

  I took a step back. Shapes I hadn’t even clocked yet stirred in the peripheral dark, subtle movements as sediment resettled and weight redistributed. If I stayed here and hit another creature, it would also trigger whatever that locked skill was and call forth yet a few more nearby Sumpwardens. I must lure them to a space with as few Sumpwardens as possible.

  Behind me, Anabeth made a small, thoughtful sound. “Ah. How convenient!” Then she lifted a slab of the ossuary floor, turned it into a boulder, then dropped it on the nearest Sumpwarden.

  “Oh! A bone!” She exclaimed and picked it up. Skulls rotated. At least seven more Sumpwardens turned as one toward her voice and started crawling towards her.

  “Isn’t this ideal, my lord?” she said, utterly delighted. “They’re all responding to the same stimulus. If I remain here, we can draw them in at once and eliminate them efficiently. This will be the most fruitful harvest of bone slivers I’ve seen all season.”

  The cold slid down my spine. Still, I found it in me to boom, “ACCEPTABLE! SHOW ME YOUR EFFICIENCY, WITCH!”

  I took another step back, then another. The three remaining Sumpwardens were still crawling towards me. I glanced back. No Sumpwardens were in that corner, but it was effectively, well, a corner. If I let myself get trapped, the DEX superiority would mean nothing.

  Static Surge cooldown cleared. I brought my sword down.

  I could feel it—my attack had become more graceful, more knightly. I would be strong enough to get through its defense! As long as I could hit its weak spots, I would be able to stay clear of the debuffs.

  The second sumpwarden tried to swipe at me, but it was too slow. A crackle of lightning ran through the spine of my sword. Foul creature, you’re mine now!

  “BEHOLD! THE EXTREMELY HOLY SLASH OF KNIGHTLY JUSTICE!” I shouted.

  Yes! This was too easy! These bone creatures were nothing but walking leftovers! Feel the wrath of Saint Merin—

  Oh.

  No, wait. This was still salvageable. I must—

  The other Sumpwarden on the right swiped at me.

  I turned to instinctively hack at the creature on the right.

  Then the first Sumpwarden swiped at me.

  This was not great.

  Very well, I thought. If skill fails, then fear it is.

  I met their empty eye sockets and imposed myself. “Kneel before the lord.”

  Good enough. We were now on equal grounds.

  I still did decent damage! My STR and ATK might have deteriorated, but the creature didn’t diminish my Lightning attacks at all.

  While I let the left Sumpwarden bleed out to my Trapped Soul skill, I repeatedly activated Septimal Charge on the one on the right. Every time the Intimidation Aura was about to run out, I supplied another generic intimidating line.

  “Your end is imminent.”

  “You will be purged.”

  “Die, insect.”

  And the Sumpwardens became terrified anew.

  It took way too much effort, but after draining all the AP I had, plus the reserves from the Huskweave and Aether Reservoir, the last creature fell.

  I’d apparently levelled up before, but I only took notice of the notification now.

  The skill I’d just received did NOT heal me. I groaned. The wording was clear, but it was obvious Ceralis had deliberately timed its notification to make it seem like salvation while delivering nothing but future reassurance.

  I immediately allocated the new attribute points to RES, hoping to actually regain APs by the time I stepped into the second chamber.

  Then I suddenly felt lighter, as if the weight I’d been compensating for had been quietly redistributed rather than removed. The drag in my joints eased.

  I checked my armor.

  Pleasant news didn’t begin to cover it. Now I actually had a reason to branch out into metal other than simply to bamboozle Anabeth.

  Now, how had Anabeth been doing?

  I finally had the presence of mind to look around.

  There were no Sumpwardens left. Instead, the ossuary floor was littered with slivers of bone scattering like gravel after a collapse.

  At least twenty.

  Anabeth was already moving among them, humming as she knelt and scooped them into her satchel.

  “Oh no,” she said. “My inventory is full. I might have to trouble you with some of these, my lord.” She paused, then brightened. “And look what I’ve found! A Skull Helm fragment. It’s going to be so fashionable when we finally assemble it.”

  I stared at the pile.

  Twenty bone slivers.

  … How many had she wiped out while I was fighting for my life?

  “Have you had fun spectating, my lord?” Anabeth asked. So she hadn’t noticed me almost dying to debuffs. It was for the best.

  She skipped over with a handful of bone slivers and tossed several into my pannier, then followed immediately by a far more dangerous development: Anabeth climbed onto my back again and looped her arms around my gorget, settling her chin comfortably against my shoulder.

  “Insolent witch,” I bellowed, “do not disrupt my ferrum-flux crystallization cycle!”

  She let go at once. “Yes, of course, my lord. It shall not happen again.”

  I exhaled.

  At least I had found one command she respected.

  Anabeth didn’t stay still long. She bounced ahead, peering into the next passage where the ossuary deepened and the bonework grew denser. “We must move on!” she declared. “There are even rarer bones further inside—and the creatures will only be twice as strong!”

  By the Saints.

  Today was the day I would die.