Dungeon Trouble (5)

As before, the group used the same tactic for fighting this horde, Max took one Hound out in the beginning, as they were a lot faster than the other undead, and also a lot stronger, and with only his shield he relied on teaming up with Gwen again for an easy dispatch of zombies and skeletons.

The only undead that were bothersome were the Hounds, their more agile and stronger bodies and attacks were a change that the group had yet to completely grasp. The Hounds showed signs of higher intelligence already, as after seeing one of them being killed with ease by Max, not only did they target him more, but they were more careful on the way they attacked, trying to go around the shield not on or in it.

The group was fighting the last Hound, Andrew and Margaret just finished killing theirs with the help of Jericho so they were now going towards Max and Gwen to help them.

Andrew and Max had injuries on their legs, which could easily be seen through the ripped clothing.

Blood was still flowing out of them as they didn't have any time to at least patch them up. It was their luck that even though the Hounds were able to get to their legs and injure them, they weren't able to do any serious injury on the upper body.

After Andrew, Margaret and Jericho joined to help them, along with some help from the long-ranged fighters the Hound died at last, his hunger for life was finally over.

"It's finally over! They are all finally dead!" Andrew, wounded and heavily breathing because of his exhausted body, uttered. He was happy, when they got to fighting the horde it felt like it had no end.

It was truly a bless in disguise the fact that they were in a not-so-big place, and even though for them it was enough to even maneuver some attacks of the undead, the undead, cramped together, couldn't dodge their attacks but in turn it made them even more terrifying when looking at their numbers.

"I think we should patch up first." Max, pale-faced, said. It looked like he didn't take the leg injuries as lightly as Andrew.

"Let me patch you up." Gwen, still feeling grateful towards Max requested. She would forget it by now most probably, but the fact that they were still stuck together, along with the performance of Max throwing the spear in each fight, made her remember what happened, which only made her only want to repay him more.

"It's alright I can still do it myself." Max, making use of some clothes and medicine he had in his leather bag, began making some makeshift bandages, along with the Low-Tier Medicine he was now keeping with him at all times, his legs started looking better from the get-go.

"You want some too?" Max being self-aware asked Andrew.

"There is no need.. haha.." Andrew laughed strangely, then pulled his hems up to his knee, revealing an already healing leg, then continued " Since birth I had quite the body, strong and very tough, you can see my crazy vitality.." He looked around seemingly embarrassed.

Everyone except Will and Charlie, one of the long-range fighters, looked at his legs, which felt kind of strange. Will and Charlie were from his team before so they knew about his freakish body.. but sometimes people are lucky from their birth...

Charlie and Max rested on the ground for a while, waiting for their wounds to get better, while the others were looking around the place, inspecting it, as they didn't have time the last time they rested as they all rested together, but this time only the first-line fighters had injuries while any other fighters just needed to take a breather for a while, so they did just that while walking around.

They were looking around aimlessly as they already inspected where they had to go next. When they went a bit more forward to check the dungeon out, they didn't find another corner, instead they found a door, or at least the place where it should be one.

They had blankly stared at an arched entryway before, with only gazes, decided not to even come close to that place for now.

What they could see was a leveled terrain, with a stone coffin in the middle. The room looked quite big, cylinder pillars were helping the roof to not collapse on the beautifully carved coffin. The shading of the carefully placed lights that were on the pillars gave an ominous feeling, like something bad was bound to happen, and that was the reason why they chose to stay behind and way for Max and Andrew.

"Alright, I am feeling a lot better." Max, getting up from the ground, said. If one was to compare him now to how he was right after the fight they would see a lot more color on his face, and also he was more vigorous. He was happy to be near the end. He got reports from Anna and Ashley which were also in here stuck with the others about the next room and that it seemed that is where the master of the tomb was, and most probably the boss of this place.

"You ready Max?" Will looked at Max with a feel of awe. He knew that Max didn't fully heal, but he didn't want to say to him to rest more. Everyone wanted out of this place as soon as possible.

"Yea, I should be able to fight for now, worst case scenario you are carrying me home." Max said while the corners of his lips were slowly rising on his face, revealing the beautiful and almost-healthy face of a 16 year-old.

They were now ready, with their hopes up they once again formed their not-so-temporary formation and were ready to fight whatever was hiding in the next room.

They slowly walked through the open entrance. It was big enough for all of their team to walk through without disrupting their formation lines, so at least one of the worries were subsided.

Max and Andrew took a more angular spread after they entered the room. Trying to spread a bit more as the room was a big circle. They didn't want to get caught off-guard in the rears, which is why they did this.

But this was their mistake.

As everyone went in, Max and Andrew kept the angular spread in the front the room, leaving the center of their formation quite open.

A breeze went past them, and even though quite the current for a room underground, they didn't think anything of it until they heard Jericho.

"AGHH! HELP ME!" Jericho screamed with all of his lungs, but his scream was cut short by a sickening crunch.

As the sound echoed through the room, they were finally able to identify what happened.

As Jericho screamed, even though it was a scream coming from the front of them, they looked to where Jericho was supposed to be in. No one was there, and as the scream cut short everyone looked towards the middle of the room, where Jericho's dead body stood, with it's neck almost ripped horizontally, held by a dark hand that belonged to an also black human silhouette.

"Ah! Such tasty treat!" The silhouette said, opening it's mouth to an unregular size and biting Jericho's head straight off.

As the silhouette began making chewing noises, sickening crunches could be heard escaping it's mouth. But then it stopped... then gulped.

"This is so much better than anything I've had eaten in years! Delicacy!" The silhouette sounded again, while turning around to face the others.

Max and the group were completely shocked, not being able to do anything until that thing turned around, bringing Max back to reality while shouting "EVERYONE QUICK!" That was all he could muster before going closer to Andrew.

Andrew, woken by Max's words, began running towards him as well, trying to close the gap that they foolishly made before. They got close to each other, closing their formation from the front.

"No need to try that much living creatures... I will be taking and devouring your souls.. But oh my! What do we have here, such.. strong.. vitality... I am really going to savor you."

As he finished talking, the silhouette began sprinting towards them with great speed.