Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 71 : Eulogy

Sweating and palpitating with anxiety, Uriel turned his head and then sighed in relief.

"Oh! it's just a skeleton."

"Just a skeleton you say!? It wasn't here before, how did it get behind you without us noticing in the first place?"

Uriel's eyes widened as all of his fears were confirmed. Somehow, that skeleton was able to move and appear behind him. Although skeletons didn't scare him, a reanimated one definitely gave him the chills.

"Run!" Uriel shouted as he darted across the path that somehow felt narrower than before.

Nika followed closely behind, but the cracking sounds soon gave way to the clattering of bones all over the place. The walls were indeed closing on them but that wasn't all, the sounds became louder and louder behind them, evidencing that they were being chased by something unnatural.

"They came back to life, the dead are walking among us! we're going to die and become like them!" Nika cried as she ran past Uriel.

"It's just as we suspected, somehow the ossuary seems to be able to bring the dead back to life. It was a short glimpse, but that skeleton was standing on its own, it makes no sense since there wasn't anything keeping them together. In museums they usually put them together using wires." Uriel excitedly rambled after the adrenaline rush had subsided.

"Of all things that's what worried you!?"

"That's not all, I mean... It's creepy, but it's also interesting. They should be harmless, even if they look creepy, without muscle or ligaments they shouldn't be strong."

"I see where you're going with this! Cover me, I'll do it." Nika stopped in her tracks, dropped the flare on the ground and turned around with the coil gun on her hand. Uriel still had the high tech rifle he took from the corpse, but he was torn in between using it or his magnum.

In the end he figured that, as long as he had enough batteries his rifle would still work while his magnum ammo was limited.

They waited for a few seconds, but then everything became silent. The clattering of bones, the cracking sounds, everything faded into silence.

"Maybe it was our imagination..." Uriel whispered ready to continue on his way but as he turned around he was startled by the presence of a skeleton.

"Duck!" Nika shouted, yet Uriel didn't move as if he was frozen. Fearing for the safety of her asset she rushed over ready for a hand to hand fight against the unnatural creature, but Uriel placed his arm on his side to stop her. "What got into you, are you mad!?"

"This is the same woman from before." He muttered placing his hand over his chin in a pensive manner.

"What? Can you tell them apart? How do you even know it's a woman? Just let me shoot it and let's be on our way"

"Of course I can tell them apart! Female bones are different than male, the angle of their hip bones is completely different, besides that I can also tell she died at approximately twenty years of age."

"No wonder you knew my measurements. If you can tell that from just the bones who knows what you can learn about someone by looking at them." For a second Nika lost all sense of fear and covered her chest feeling exposed by Uriel's uncanny ability.

"We can't shoot at her, in fact, we shouldn't upset the remains any more than we already have. The carvings on the roof, now it all makes sense. It sounded ominous, but we didn't come here to destroy their buildings, attack them or disrupt them in any way, we're only here to save ourselves and to keep those two abominations from roaming free."

"So?"

"So why were we running in the first place? This is as much a sacred place as the Cenote is and we should be respectful." As soon as Uriel said those words the skeleton that was blocking their way moved aside.

Despite it being nothing but bones, Uriel thought he could somewhat understand that the skeleton had been relieved by his statement as it crumbled disorderly on the floor leaving behind a pile of bones.

"Is it dead?"

"Are you kidding me? It's a skeleton, of course it's dead."

"I mean, is it coming back to life? Should... should we take off our shoes like back then?" Nika asked, wondering how could someone like Uriel manage to keep his cool in that situation. It wasn't just the skeleton that just collapsed in front of them what worried her, it was the fact that they were absolutely surrounded by bones that could, potentially, become reanimated.

"I don't think so, it should be enough to just walk in silence and show some respect."

The rest of the passage was easy enough to traverse, it was impossible to get lost in a one way path after all so they decided to save the remaining flares Nika had on her utility belt for later.

Uriel's heart was calm now, even a seemingly supernatural apparition from beyond the grave was something he was ready to accept as long as it made sense somehow but, contrary to him, the usually cool and battle ready Nika was scared out of her mind.

"Who's the sissy now?" Uriel whispered with an unseen smirk.

"Are you Implying I'm a sissy? I'm a veteran in combat, versed on all sorts of firearms and melee weapons."

"Then let go of my hand." Uriel said coldly.

"That's a no, I'm only holding your hand to keep you safe. You're still my asset after all." She blatantly lied amidst stutters.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine... If it was a zombie I would have been grossed out, but if it's just skeletons then..."

"Fine! I'm not great with horror stuff! I could fight a beast twice my size with no issues, but undead stuff is just too creepy." She admitted after having her bluff called.

Not long after they finally reached the end of the way. The wall in front of them was clearly constructed so people could use it as a ladder but the way up was completely dark. Nika was about to light up a flaregun, but Uriel quickly stopped her.

"From now on we'll need to be more careful, we don't know what could be above our heads." He whispered.

"But the skeletons didn't harm us."

"They were just resting, we might bump into something different. Do you remember how Flanagan called Kukulkan's pyramid a castle? well, a castle is bound to have guards. We can't rule out the possibility to encounter something, not when we're so close to our goal."

Although it looked dangerous, the ladder wasn't exactly at ninety degrees which made it safer. Even if they fell down, they should be able to grab on to it before hitting the ground. As they climbed, a distant echo was heard in the distance, the closer they got the more it resembled a conversation of the sorts.

When they reached the top of the ladder a small chamber opened before them, it was a three by three meter square with two entrances, but what drew their attention even more was that now they were close enough to distinguish Flanagan's voice.

Nika was about to call out to him when Uriel silently stopped her shaking his head. If their guess that on top of the pyramid was a cryptid strong enough to dispose of the panther they encountered in a single blow was correct, whatever Flanagan was doing up there couldn't be good.