Chapter 0057 - Haliphron, Black Scales.

Kicking down the door, Cheng Yu heard a clicking noise and the giant, rotten, fat mountain of an Undead exited a pod in the back of the room. The Fluid drained out and filled the flooring in the room. When it was somewhat upright, the humanoid Haliphron started to swing its arms and rush toward the group.

The battle plan was simple, Wu Hai's turn to guard the room came up. He wanted to create a gap between the group and enemies, using a combination of his abilities only served to destroy. Instead, he had been taking advantage of dirt walls to protect the group.

Isolating each room was simple, Wu Hai worked to control the flow of incoming Undead.

Taking turns, the others entered the room and a notable, unforgettable foul odor assaulted their noses. It was unreasonable for them to fight in close quarters but Wu Hai had already sealed the room quite well.

Nothing was getting in or out.

"Damn, I didn't expect such a large undead in here!" Pulling her bowstring tight, Khan Ni let out a downpour of arrows, each arrow made from a different purified wood. The arrows would leave fist size holes in the large Undead But the hulking monstrosity just leaked more bile and guts like the inside of it was a storage device.

"Shield!" Cheng Mu made a large metal plate to hide behind when the Undead swung its arms wildly.

Grabbing a piece of the equipment and ripping it from the floor, the Undead swung it towards the group. The Machine crashed against the wall and broke apart, a long bit of piping remained in one of its hands when it swung the machine at Khan Ni.

Having armed itself, the attacks from the Haliphron stepped up a notch.

"Brother, Cage!" Cheng Yu called out and they combined their efforts and made a quick cage.

Khan Ni watched the Brothers pin the Haliphron under bars of metal. Its body shifted to the left and to the right.

The didn't stop, the Twins kept producing bars and rammed them through the cobbled creature. The putrid body of the Undead slowly stopped moving after its body burst apart at the seams, shredded.

"This muck is terrible... Look, There is no cleaning good enough for these clothes.." Khan Ni picked up her feet and saw an eye still blinking. "Its not dead!" She called out, "Find the Head and Crush It!" She stamped her foot down and crushed the loose eyeball.

Searching the wreckage in the room, there wasn't much.

"Found it!" Holding out a head in the air the skin slipped off the skull in strips and clops. Then, the Twins pounded it into indiscernible mush.

After clearing another two rooms the spot in Wu Hai's forearm shrieked, something bigger was coming. "Back off, something's coming. The spot is going berserk."

Wu Hai warned the group and pulled back, a crashing could be heard in the distance. A large, armored soldier rammed through the wall. The passage behind him was pretty wide, even Darkwing would have no issues making his way through it. The Armored Undead barely managed to make it into the room.

Channeling his ability, he produced a ring of molten rock to encircle the Armored Guard, the soldier type undead sent a number of strange noises into the area and many more skeletons rose, burrowing out from the soil. The group was surrounded again and he swung his Longsword. Wu Hai postured defensively and waited for the strike.

The group was battle ready, "Don't lose your focus, bash the heads so we don't have to kill the same enemy twice." Khan Ni shouted quickly and then leapt into the air to deal some more directed blows. Grappling herself to some roots on the ceiling, she performed more like an Turret.

Wu Hai was thrown back by the first strike of the massive armored undead soldier. It roared and charged through Khan Ni's rain of arrows.

Skeletons and Lesser Undead were falling constantly. The Cheng brothers liked her idea but took it into another prospective. The Twins started spinning very fast. They held large hammers in each hand, whirling in a blur and bashing everything in site.

The Haliphron was being handled, each time it struck out with its longsword, a deep sense of dread came over the group. It was like he was swinging gloom itself, depression, sadness, despair and fear all sort of rolled into one.

The oversized longsword couldn't penetrate the Crusher, not even damage it. Wu Hai stepped back and dodged another swing, "Okay, now that you're done.. please give me a hand!" Wu Hai had been managing to kite the oversized warrior but the zombified creation was strong and armored.

The Undead Warrior broke through the lava ring at great risk to itself. Bashing his weapon down, the longsword sent out a black wave that left a smoldering, bubbling fluid in its trail.

"WATCH FOR POISON!" Khan Ni immediately noticed the corrosive effect of the attack.

"Enough of this.. " Wu Hai was struggling and decided to stop holding back. Planting the Crusher on the ground, he started chanting, channeling and waving his hand. He brought out a large Infernal Fireball, cast an earth shield on himself and then struck out. Using the adhere spell, Wu Hai's Infernal fireball had gotten an extra attribute. The Sticky Infernal Fireball clung to the body of the Undead Warrior, It writhed in fire for almost half a minute before crashing to the ground in ashes.

Wu Hai was struggling to keep up, the blows from the Undead Swordsman were continuous and brutal. Panting, he stood up and a familiar golden glow wrapped Wu Hai, his wounds healed over lightly and the black spot in his wrist seemed to calm down. "That was ridiculous, we need a better battle plan, lets leave and come back. We weren't expecting the first one and now two much bigger enemies were mixed in. If we don't come up with a plan to handle our bigger foes in a more coordinated manner, we will all die."

"That was a little too close for comfort. I also want to see where that undead came from, we cannot stay in this place for too long, they might come back in large groups." Hanging her bow, Khan Ni knew that Wu Hai's plea was necessary and reasonable.

"It is not a problem, lets just regroup back in the pagoda. Block the entrance." Wu Hai led the group out of the Cultists Tomb and enlarged the Pagoda.

The Cheng Brothers took the time to create a large metal wall on the mouth of the entrance, this time with a large locking door. They couldn't risk the Undead reaching the surface and before, there had been nothing to stop them.

"Master, will you continue in this place?" Darkwing seemed like he was going to lose his patience if Wu Hai denied an answer quickly. "I want to go," It was no surprise when Darkwing asked to join them.

Wu Hai was working to expand the Pagoda. He turned to Darkwing and smiled, "No, we're not done with the Undead. But tonight we need to recover and reflect, we were caught off guard and its important to come up with a plan.

After almost an hour, the Pagoda was at full size and the group sat in the lobby to discuss the strategy.

"I don't think a Fire Elemental is the best for this but we relied on it a lot and the energy consumption was pretty high, I felt like I was wasting time. My stomach started growling almost immediately after we started fighting. It was a distraction." Wu Hai took out the dice and threw again.

'Lightning, Darkness, Explosion, Demon, Small' He read them off in his head, jumping up like an evil pixie Zao Wu Hai felt the anger filling his body. "I can use this body if we don't spend a lot of time inside. If we leave the pagoda out, we'll attract attention to this place. I think we should destroy the entrance. Qu can keep the Pagoda safe but if we stay for too long, people will eventually come to find this place."

"Just don't attack us!" The Cheng Brothers remembered what happened the last time Wu Hai had taken a Demon Form. He was like a different person when he started his rampage.

'I don't think I'm going to be a problem..' "Hey, I'm not going to a problem!" Wu Hai's voice was modulating at a higher frequency and at that moment his voice was high pitched. The whole group laughed slightly as Darkwing followed Wu Hai out of the Pagoda.

"If we encounter any problems, lets just return.. If I lose control, just back off and let me destroy these undead. Keep an eye on me though and don't let me die. Cage me if you have no other choice." Warning the group again, Wu Hai charged with Darkwing at his side into the doorway that the Brothers had just made.

Cheng Mu closed the door behind them, sealing it shut with a solid wall of metal.

Darkwing took the initiative to fly ahead, dipping in and out of shadows. He turned out to be quite useful, even the skeletons were having trouble dealing with his dragon talons, Darkwing was fighting like an animal. Pushing himself to a speed that left Wu Hai in the dust, Darkwing arrived at a group of Undead and opened his mouth.

There was a sucking noise, particles of light began to accumulate.

A Gray power manifested into a growing ball of silver, the beam that followed pierced through everything in front of him. Dozens of Torsoless corpses fell and Darkwing rushed to the next doorway before he continued and released another barrage.

'Thud' 'Thud' 'Thud' .. Thuds rang out as more bodies dropped. Ignoring all the items and springing into action, Darkwing called out, "Master, hurry up!"

Trying his best to loot all the corpses, Wu Hai finally just decided to collect everything and filter through the items later. Storing them into the Crusher, he pushed himself to catch up to Darkwing.

The tiny wings on his back were buzzing like an electrified Wasp.

As acrobatic as the group was, just picking up after Darkwing seemed to help all of them grow as a team.

Looking to the corner of his eye, Wu Hai could see a bright light about halfway down the hallway. Darkwing was surrounded in a Deep Silver light and a resounding echo of a chime filled the Tomb.

Darkwing's body started to change, morphing into a different version of itself.

"A second transformation?" Wu Hai wasn't sure but it looked like Darkwing had begun cocooning himself up. Darkwing didn't say anything but he had been the most vocal about returning.

'Silver?' Wu Hai tapped on the cocoon. "Hey, catch up.. I have to check on Darkwing, something's happening and its weird." Wu Hai called out to the group and they all saw Darkwing in the cocoon.

The Silver Hue was captivating to the eyes, it didn't seem like it was harmful but there was a lot of danger ahead.

"Plenty of creatures in nature go through metamorphosis but from what I understand that takes a lot of time. No matter how unique Darkwing is, he's still a creature. This is perfectly natural, even if the timing is horrible." Khan Ni held up her hands and stopped the group from interfering. The Twins were preparing to shred the cocoon to free Darkwing.

Walking up and she touched the cocoon with a single finger. It popped and unraveled onto the floor.

"Darkwing?" What spilled out was a naked creature covered in deep black scale. He looked human, but with a distinct Duckbill mouth, and stocky body.

"Hahaha, So.. the Fat Ass Duck is back?" Wu Hai saw that Darkwing now had an Ass... it was hanging out. "Darkwing, put these on.." Passing a set of clothes to Darkwing after he opened his eyes, Wu Hai couldn't help but wonder what else to do.

When he looked at the fully dressed Darkwing, he could only think out loud. "You looked like you were in pain at first but now you look dangerous." Wu Hai probed with his spiritual senses into Darkwing, "What can you do now? Any new abilities?

Khan Ni could hear undead returning from a distance, her ears perked up.

The Cheng Brothers were speechless. Staring at Darkwing's new form, neither of them had a response.

Khan Ni wondered what future laid ahead, every day it seemed like something amazing was happening among them.