The Lower Levels

Luke only had to move towards the beasts before he heard the sound of their footsteps turning his direction and approaching rapidly. He didn't change the speed of his walk, not wanting to waste additional energy.

The first of the beasts entered the range of his sight with a speed faster than he was used to the beast's normally moving. It was clad in a heavy set of rusted steel armor, only unlike the previous husks he'd faced it didn't seem slowed by the weight of the suit. Instead, if anything it seemed to move faster, and was quickly followed by two more moving at similar speeds and dressed in less bulky armor.

The armor was rusted beyond Luke's ability to make out any designs that were on it. Yet he noticed immediately that there was some sort of sigil on the shoulders and chest, of what appeared to be an axe of sorts.

Luke already had his chain summoned by the time they reached a distance close enough to him for him to strike them. Whipping his arm forwards, the steel chain flashed towards the beasts and slammed into the closest one.

To Luke's complete bewilderment, the beast blocked the blow with a gauntleted forearm. Of course, the block didn't manage to stop the blow completely with the beast's gauntlet caving in with a plume of rust and the arm underneath snapping. Yet the blow barely managed to cause the beast to sidestep, not slowing its speed at all.

Leaping back and swinging with his left chain, this time the blow was too quick for the beast to block. It slammed into the creature's helmeted head, hitting it with so much for the helmet fell off the creature and destroyed the skin on the outside of its head.

The beast didn't stop its pursuit, even when Luke hit it again with his right chain directly in its head, causing a crater just below its temple the size of an apple. Any of the previous husks he'd faced would have been decapitated by such a blow, but this beast didn't even seem to feel it.

Then the creature was on him, giving Luke just barely enough time to wrap his chains around his knuckles. Flashing out with a punch from his left hand, the beast blocked the blow once again its rusty gauntlet snapping like the previous one had. Like all the creatures wearing gauntlets in the castle, the creature black claws had somehow grown through the metal. The seemingly rotted fingernails pierced the rusted armor with ease. Razor sharp black nails cut through the top right half of Luke's chest, though due to the broken angle of the arm didn't pierce deeply enough to hit his lungs.

Luke slammed out with his right fist, reaching over the right arm of the creature and smashing it into the side of its head. The blow hit the apple sized crater in the creature cheek at an upwards angle, shattering a huge part of the interior of the beast's skull.

Then other two beasts were on him, swinging at him with wide deadly slashes. Luke threw himself backwards, avoiding the blows but rolling over himself to land on his stomach. Scrambling to his feet, he threw an unaimed strike in the air in front of him and felt a sense of satisfaction when he heard the blow connect to old metal.

Quickly getting to his feet, he saw the creature were already within a meter of him. Swinging at a level where he would likely hit one of the creature's heads, he swung with all his might with his right chain.

The blow hit the husk to the far right, slamming into its head and caving through it completely, practically cutting it in half. The beast fell to the ground dead and lifeless.

'They have the first one's speed but not its durability', Luke realized as he continued to retreat backwards as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough as the first husk reached him once more, its claws stretched out for his neck.

Luke didn't have time to wrap his right chain around his knuckles and settled for them returning to his arms. Thrusting both his hands upwards, he knocked the two clawed hands-off course with his body and turned to deliver a side kick to the beast.

Even with his newfound strength the blow barely managed to push the creature back a couple feet. It was enough however as he spun almost without registering his own movement, he became a blur as his chain unraveled with his swing. The metal struck the leftmost husk's head, and just as he had hoped went through its head-helmet and all.

As the second beast fell to the ground twitching, Luke turned to the last creature with heavy breaths. Blood ran down his chest, coating his workout tee in even more blood than was already stained on it.

Breathing heavy, Luke couldn't help but notice the way his heart rammed in his chest, and his body quivered in anticipation. Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he tasted metallic blood from where a cut had reopened on his lip.

Luke smiled and swung his chain at the advancing monster.

This time the beast was too close to look for the chains length to land properly. Meaning the halfway point of the chain hit the beast, leading the remaining length to coil around its head. Thinking fast, Luke grabbed the loose chain leading him to holding both ends of the chain while it was wrapped around the creature's head. Ignoring the chain completely it continued its run towards Luke, flashing out with its claws and catching him deeply in the upper side. While its other claw landed on his lower body, slicing into his stomach as if it were liquid.

Ignoring the pain, Luke jumped up, landing both his feet on the creature and forcing his body taught as if performing an armbar. Then with both his hands wrapped around in chains he began to pull with all his might, throwing his entire body into the motion. The beast continued to scratch his skin as he pulled, causing a pool of blood to begin falling on the ground beneath him. The tension of the chain and his feel on the beast's chest kept him upright. Then with the sound of cracking bones the chain went loose and both he and the monster fell to the ground.

Luke wasted no time getting to his feet, though in his mind he already knew the beast was dead. Its head had been squeezed to a pulp, its brain practically disintegrating as its skull imploded around it.

Sensing nothing else around Luke, he found himself unable to stop smiling. It took everything in him not to start laughing, as the adrenaline raced through him.

'I survived', Luke thought, feeling a sense of pride.

"Congratulations, you have slain the husk of a human elite. Your soul is being tempered.

Soul tempering until next rank: [470/1000]

Congratulations, you have slain the husk of a human elite. Your soul is being tempered.

Soul tempering until next rank: [485/1000]

Congratulations, you have slain the husk of Gerath the stone wall knight. Your soul is being tempered.

Soul tempering until next rank: [585/1000]

'One hundred points!', Luke thought in excitement, still giddy from the thrill of battle.

More than that he had killed a knight, all be it a weakened knight with a decayed body but still a knight. All he would have to do was kill a few more of the husks at that rank and he would reach the adept rank. Luke felt a hunger roar into his stomach as he felt as if his life had suddenly gotten far more exciting.

First thing was first though, Luke could see his injuries and while none of them were life threatening, he knew they would become a great hinderance when his adrenaline wore off. He would have a limp at the very least, considering the knight husk had torn into his thighs quite severely. Not to mention that while his body was quite good at clotting blood flow, he had already lost enough blood to create a pool on the ground.

Luke would need to go back to the Evergarden before he ran into another husk.

Feeling a little disappointed that he wouldn't get the chance to explore more of the lower levels, Luke began to move towards the hole in the wall he'd come out of. As he did, Luke suddenly froze as a new sound echoed through the old hallway.

"What happened to your…", a whisper said, in a low voice he immediately recognized.

Luke debated going towards the sound, but already his legs were starting to hurt. He might have gained a significant amount of confidence since arriving in the castle, but that didn't mean he would allow himself to act stupidly. The only reason he'd survived the last fight was due to his ability to gain distance from the knight husk, if he ran into another and had a limp, he would likely end up with way worse wounds.

Fighting his desire to go straight for the voice, in hopes of finding another vision. Luke forced himself back the way he'd come, his adrenaline slowly turning to pain.

***

Luke rubbed the ice-cold water into his wounds, he knew it would be easier just to dive into the pool but didn't want to risk contaminating his water source. As soon as the water was rubbed into his wounds they began to close, though he knew the process would take several minutes. Glancing at the claws marks that pierced his skin, he immediately knew he would have at least three more scars to add to his grisly collection.

He had found he didn't really mind the scars all that much, in fact in a way they were like tokens of his survival. Each scar he received was just a wound that had failed to kill him.

Luke waited for the wounds to close, picking a berry and popping it into his mouth. While he wasn't overly hungry, the energy boost from the berry would help him when going back down to the lower levels. Though the pain was still horrible, after three weeks of eating the berries, he had grown accustomed to the burning sensation.

After finishing his food, Luke went over and began to drink some of the special water. After feeling himself reinvigorated, he set out for the lower floors once again, free of any past wounds.

Upon reaching the hallway once more, he began to walk in the direction of the whisper he'd heard. Eventually as he grew closer to the position he'd been in before he heard Aerin's voice again.

"You don't look so good, your clothes are ruined", the princess voice whispered, the sound bringing chills up Luke's back.

Somehow, he'd grown used to the sound of footsteps running towards him on stone, and yet found himself creeped out by a couple whispers. Though he supposed that made sense as he had heard one sound far more than the other.

"Of course you are", the whispers came again from right inside an old wooden door.

Reaching out, Luke opened the door already knowing what was inside. It was a small room, with a ruined set of what he thought to be old cleaning supplies. On the ground in the center of the room was an old metal canteen in pristine condition, lacking any rust.

Already knowing what to expect, he reached down and picked the bottle up. The world went white.

The room he was in was some sort of closet, with several straw brooms and dusters. The stone ground sat bare of any canteen, though Luke suspected he would see it soon enough. Turning around to the now closed door, Luke stepped forwards to pull the door open when his hand slipped through.

Realizing his mistake, he stepped forward and went through the door completely. Glad there was no one around to see his mistake.

On the other side of the door, he was surprised to find several men and women moving through the halls. Some of the women appeared to be servants or cleaners of some kind, all wearing light green dresses and carrying towels or other supplies.

There were quite a few guardsmen as well, dressed in light grey armor that featured a ball of flame on their chestplates.

Unsure of where to find Aerin, Luke debated staying still and waiting for her to show up as she had in all the visions when he decided against it. It had been nearly a month since last he'd been around people, and he wanted to make the most of the experience while he had the chance. It was also a good time for him to search the lower levels without having to fight something every couple of minutes.

Moving through the now bustling castle, he moved in the direction the three husks had come from. As he moved, he couldn't help but note he felt a sense of sadness, after all it was hard to look at something beautiful when you knew it was going to be destroyed.

In a way the castle had become a lot like the husks that dwelled in its ruins. All the light and life sucked out of it, leaving it a cold and empty being.

As he moved through the hall, he found himself walking towards a big set of double doors with metal designs running down the wood in loops. Stopping himself from opening it, Luke stepped through the doorway with little issue.

On the other side he found a room too wide and long for his normal omniscience. Activating his veil, he found himself in a room filled with several long tables and headed by a raised platform. Atop the platform sat a fine bar-like table with several chairs laying across it.

'A cafeteria, or feast hall?', Luke thought, then paused as he saw someone eating at one of the tables.

It was a man wearing a bulky suit of silvery armor, with two axes depicted on his shoulder blades, and his chest. It was the same armor the husk he'd just killed had been wearing.