Chapter 9: The Headless Soldier

With breath as fast as her steps, Alice runs desperately into the unknown darkness of the cave—refusing to look back, her sprint ends as she trips and falls to the ground.

[HP: 64/65]

"Glob?!"

She says sarcastically, "Don't worry. The rocks cushioned my fall," as she gets up and surveys the unfamiliar surroundings—an abandoned mine, accompanied by the remains of miners who never made it back home, some still with intact skeletons, others hardly recognizable as human. The environment is lit by conveniently placed small torches—she is surprised and relieved at the same time. "Well, this is better than spiders."

Motivated, she proceeds to explore the abandoned site, hopeful of finding items or perhaps new enemies—anything but spiders.

Exploring some crates left in the excavation, only spoiled food could be found. However, strangely, some of the fruits had a purple hue, a stark contrast to the grayish foods.

She also finds some of these anomalously colored fruits near skeletons, "Are these poisoned? So, the lore of this place is that everyone died poisoned?" Alice murmurs.

Next to the corpses, Alice sees a trail of footprints leading deeper into the cave—the footprints were three times larger than her own feet—yet she feels excitement rather than intimidation, anticipating a possible strong enemy. "Or something else…"

"GLOB! GLOB!" Fedora cries out in fear.

The player heads towards what is tormenting her companion and sees all 9 mine skeletons rising up—wielding their pickaxes for their final battle.

Without a shred of fear, Alice brandishes her sword with an arrogant smile, "All of you against me? Kind of unfair—but don't worry, I'll take it easy!"

[Wind Slash]

[Stamina: 65/75]

Taking advantage of the distance, Alice creates a wind slash and anticlimactically destroys 5 skeletons. She is thrilled by her own strength. "Wow, I'm getting good at this!"

[Experience: 143/225]

Confident in her abilities, the swordswoman advances toward the remaining quartet of skeletons—yet their consciousness ceases, and they collapse to the ground. A feeling of confusion and frustration overwhelms Alice, wasted EXP...

Upon noticing the large footprints again, a big smile forms on her face. Fedora notices this and emits worried noises, which Alice ignores. "Secret Boss, here we go!"

<10 minutes of boring walking later…>

The player—using Auracrysolis to light her way—maintains a disappointed and bored expression as she walks through repetitive stone corridors, the trail of footprints no longer exciting her.

[MP: 47/50]

"You know… Why am I even doing this? I should just grab some healing crystals with Sophie and—" she puts her hands to her head and shouts, "HOLY SHIT! I FORGOT THE ELF!"

Alice immediately starts running back, but soon realizes she can't even remember the way out of that cave, increasing her worry. The player looks around, trying to formulate a plan for what she's going to do.

"HELP!" Sophie's voice echoes from the end of the corridor.

Confused and afraid, Alice runs to aid her companion with her sword in hand. After several steps, she finds herself in a different setting: a giant chamber dominated by a white mist, with only stalagmites visible to Alice at that moment.

With limited visibility, she tries calling out for her companion, "Sophie?! SOPHIE!"

Fedora decides to help, "GLOP!"

…

Suddenly, Sophie's voice echoes through the chamber again, "Help!"

"Where are you?!" the player shouts as she advances through the misty path, unable to see even a foot ahead. With each step, she grows more impatient, just wanting to find her friend and escape this nightmare.

Until she feels her foot touching something other than stones, followed by a sigh of pain from below her. It was a man in armor lying on the ground, all limbs twisted, blood trickling from his mouth, most of his bones broken. There was no longer any life left in that warrior.

['Knight Angel of Aerion' LvL. +10]

[Description: The lowest rank of soldiers who protect the great kingdom above the skies, Aerion, from beings beneath them. All are humans, without exception. They wear armor made of a light, fine metal, with a retractable glider built into their arms—allowing them to descend from Aerion to eliminate threats below.]

"What the f-" her startled cry is interrupted by an uncontrollable urge to vomit. Even though the corpse is just an NPC, the unnecessarily realistic details—like the smell, lifeless eyes, oozing blood—make it seem as if she is staring at a real dead body.

Her terror is compounded as she wonders what could have caused the knight's death: was it a creature? A natural event in the chamber?

Alice considers the idea of leaving that chamber, but soon realizes her path has been obscured by mist, leaving her even more worried. She walks in circles, trying to plan a possible way out.

Lost in her thoughts, a chill runs down her spine as she feels something grabbing her foot. She looks down and sees the knight's corpse moving, emitting grunts.

She jumps back and immediately equips her sword, the knight continues to rise—but an expression of confusion and fear dominates his face. He stares at his own hands, horrified by his appearance.

Amid grunts and cries, some words are heard, "What... What did he do to me?!"

(KILL HER)

In an instant, the knight's emotions fade, along with any trace of humanity remaining in him. His eyes turn red, his posture turns aggressive, he raises a large two-bladed axe—though one blade is broken—with both hands.

<'Bryan, the Cursed Knight'>

Observing the Undead's actions, the player searches her memories of Arcadia for something that might justify this, "He revived... then changed personalities and his eyes turned red... There's a Necromancer nearby!"

The Undead swings his axe, then throws it, the weapon rotating like a deadly disc. Alice leaps to the side, easily dodging the attack, and advances confidently towards her victory.

"10 seconds and you've already lost your weapon. Whoever controls you must be an idiot!"

However, as Alice approaches the monster, he snaps his fingers and the weapon teleports back into his hands instantly. With his axe in hand, he throws it at Alice—she narrowly avoids being pulverized by the blow, protecting herself with her sword, executing a [Perfect Block].

[Stamina: 50/75]

The enemy is pushed back a few steps, but Alice is knocked to the ground. The Undead lunges at her without wielding the weapon—his leap higher than a conventional human. He snaps his fingers again, and his axe descends towards Alice.

She rolls to the side and escapes the attack, but soon receives a series of punches from the Undead—his strength no different from a normal human, but his speed absurd even in this undead state.

[HP: 55/65]

Fedora lets out a war cry as imposing as a puppy's bark, "GLOOOB!" and attaches himself to the knight's face, temporarily limiting his vision. The Undead halts his attacks and furiously tries to remove the Slime from his eyes.

"Thanks, Slimey!" the player takes advantage of the opening to decapitate the enemy, as easily as cutting butter. But before the head could hit the ground, Fedora dissolves it instantaneously, leaving Alice wide-eyed. "W-wow. You got fast."

However, with the loss of the head, the body doesn't cease its movements; in fact, it seems stronger, muscles bulging, skin turning reddish.

"Hey! We destroyed the head, why is he still alive? Haven't the devs seen zombie movies?"

[Berserk]

[Description: After receiving fatal damage, you can trade the slightest chance of survival for a power that transcends any established limit in your body until the last second of your short life.]

<'Bryan, the Headless Knight'>

Flames manifest from his neck, he snaps his fingers summoning his axe into his right hand, and supports the heavy weapon on his shoulder as if it were light as plastic.

"Wait a second. If he's Undead... Then can he use Berserk forever?!"

He extends his other hand with his palm up, slowly curling his fingers towards his body—challenging Alice to approach.

She laughs sarcastically, "I've played enough Soulslikes to know it's extremely idiotic to head-on against an enemy in their second phase—"

The corpse pulls a paper and pen, carefully writing on it, and then turns the writing to Alice see—it's a bit far, and the presence of the mist makes reading difficult, but after a lot of effort, she reads the message: "U afraid? Ez trash."

Motivated as if her family's lives were at stake, Alice advances against him furiously. The Headless Knight swings a horizontal blow with his axe to surprise her, but the player squats sliding on the ground—feeling the blade touch her hair.

After thanking every existing god for not being decapitated, she attacks the back of his legs—yet it barely moves him, as if she were trying to move a statue with a plastic fork.

Not a second after her futile attempt, Alice sees the Undead spinning while throwing the axe at her.

Letting her body be guided by her reflexes, she spins to the side, dodging the heavy attack. But her opponent does not give up, pursuing her with powerful stomps that crack the ground. Growls of fury accompany his steps.

Alice continues to spin to escape, but just when she had the slightest sense of security, she feels something in the way that prevented her from continuing her dodge: a stalagmite. Barely giving her time to process what happened, the Undead brings his hands together and strikes the player, crushing her on the ground.

[HP: 35/65]

The impact is so strong that it makes her spit blood, and the simple action of breathing has become a painful task. The Headless Knight immediately prepares a second and final blow, but the body shows signs of hesitation—staggering back, feeling an inhuman pain.

[WHY CAN'T I DIE?!?!?!?!]

Flames explode from the corpse's body like a bomb, even in that state, the knight was still able to feel the burn's pain, the agony of being unable to scream for mercy, the uncertainty if that suffering would end soon.

With the little free will that remained, all he does is vent his rage by hitting the ground, as if he were trying to scream for help. Alice gets up with a look of pity, somehow, it was as if she could understand the plea for help.

"There are only two ways to beat him: finding and beating the shit out of the Necromancer responsible for this, or destroying the corpse until the Necromancer sees no more use in it.", she sighs frustrated, "Unfortunately, I can't trust my searching skills. So hang in there, it will end soon!"

The blows against the ground begin to slow down, it was as if his arms and legs were being pulled by chains. His rage was no longer able to regain control of his body.

(Why are you disobeying me? I gave you eternal life, you ungrateful waste of mana! If you want to cry, I will give you something to cry about it!)

He snaps his fingers, recovering his weapon in his right hand and suddenly, his other arm spins, twisting his skin and breaking his bones—causing merciless pain, yet not affecting the efficiency of the Undead's movements, as a punishment for disobedience. Sadistic laughter echoes in his consciousness.

Alice runs to her opponent, who throws his axe at her. The player dodges to the left—right for the Undead—and advances with a precise cut on his arm. She watches him extend his hand to the sky and retrieve his weapon, causing it to fall on his head.

[Perfect Block]

[Stamina: 35/75]

The impact is redirected to its creator, who only has his arm lightly thrown back. However, taking advantage of this second of vulnerability, Alice goes for his left arm, colliding her blade with the damaged limb.

But even in this state, his arm was still inhumanly resistant. "Goddammit!" Alice screams, furious and impatient, while trying to propel her sword to tear off the limb.

"If this doesn't work, they really should nerf Necromancers!"

[Wind Scratch]

[Stamina: 25/75]

The skill transcends the blade finally severing the limb. Fedora, who was strategically hidden in the fog, quickly dissolves the arm. After her small victory, the player is grabbed by the neck.

In desperation, she throws the sword at his right arm, superficially piercing his forearm. Reflexively, the Undead brings Alice's face to his flaming neck, who uses one of her arms to push herself in the opposite direction, but all she is doing is just delaying the inevitable.

Watching her companion in danger, Fedora makes a war cry "Glob." and furiously rushes to the Undead's foot, trying to dissolve it, but the knight's boot hinders the Slime's attack. Despite all his efforts, he continues to watch Alice about to be burned.

("Why… Can't… Eat… FOOD?!")

[Glutton]

[Description: For 5 seconds, the Slime increases its dissolution 10x in exchange for all its stamina.]

Suddenly, the entire right leg of the Undead is sucked into Fedora's body—who after seeing Alice being released, sleeps peacefully—the headless knight loses his balance and collapses on the ground.

With a quick and automatic reaction, he prepares to snap his fingers, but his action is stopped when the player steps on his hand. "Just one more…!" she thrusts the sword into his arm and uses her foot on the hand to try to drag the limb out of the body.

(Urgh. Trash spammer.)

Her action is abruptly interrupted when she sees the Undead's flames extinguishing. The body is no longer writhing in pain, but rather it relaxes and embraces the sweet relief of eternal rest. The gentleman's only regret was not being able to say thank you to his savior, so he spent the little remnant of consciousness he had left to wish God to light his path and that no other living being has to go through what was left.

[Thank you…]

"No EXP? Well, it makes sense. Otherwise, Necromancers could have an infinite farm of levels-" the relief of victory is interrupted with footsteps, accompanied by a heavy smell of fire.

She looks to the origin and her face takes on an expression of pure shock: she sees 8 Berserker Undeads, each with flames coming out of their wounds. Two of these death soldiers are carrying a man, with long, messy brown hair, as if he hadn't bathed in days, wearing the same armor as the Undeads—however unlike the other knights, he wore a cowboy hat.

"Tsc. Tsc. Tsc. Jeez, you call yourself a player? You almost died to a mere Undead." says the man with a mocking smile on his face.

"Another player?!"

"Yep, Solol — the strongest player of Arcadia. And since you survived this long, I will reward you with the honor of being one of my soldiers!"