Dungeon Novel: Chapter Twenty-Seven (Patreon)

The Ant’s nest was a nightmare for Undead, with heavy mandibles and powerful jaws the ants were able to easily rip skeletons into their separate pieces. The tight corners didn’t allow Undead to press their own advantageous numbers as it forced them to go in two at a time. The skill, Material reinforcement, meant that they could not even break down the walls as it would require them to be far stronger to do so.

All the random ‘wild’ Undead that was strong enough to get there were swiftly overwhelmed by the tide of ants that swarmed them. Very few had been lucky enough to get to the Queen’s chamber by being silent and stealthy enough to not come across any ants but were then swiftly decapitated by a swing of an ax-like limb.

These Undead, commanded by a squad of necromancers, would not proceed without caution. They would be more surgical in their approach to the Ant’s nest. Unbound watched as the necromancers slowly proceeded into the tunnels that made up the nest.

The necromancer had brought the Undead closer to themselves, unwilling to lose the protection they offered and moved into the tunnels slowly. The large group of people was immediately swarmed by soldier ants.

The large armored ants taking up the Undead’s attention whilst the smaller, stronger ants bit the Undead with powerful jaws. As the Undead swung weaponry at the ants surrounding them the necromancers were desperately defending themselves against the poisonous ants with spells and blades.

The initial confusion of the battle caused two of the twelve necromancers to fall. As the two necromancers died, strength bloomed with Unbound and the Undead went sluggish and attacked everything around them. Friend and foe alike.

The ants and the rogue Undead were cut down by the teamwork of the controlled Undead, it seemed that his guess was correct because the other necromancers seemed unable to control the Undead the dead necromancers controlled.

After the initial insect assault, the necromancers changed tactics, ordering Undead to strike at the small gaps in the ant’s carapaces. They defended themselves better by ordering their own protective detail to give them enough room to attack the smaller, deadlier ants.

By the time the necromancers got to the Queen’s chamber, the group had only lost one other necromancer to a sneak attack. Any of the Undead the other necromancers had lost was replenished by controlling the rogue Undead.

As the invaders walked into the Queen’s chamber the necromancers seemed to collectively come to a decision to surround and overwhelm the boss. Despite the rest of the second-floors ability to resist the Undead invaders, the boss chamber was open enough for the Undead to bring their numbers to bear.

Four skeletons fell permanently before the Queen ant perished. Her ability to pick off the invaders intelligently unseen in the face of a swarming group of one hundred and eight swarming skeletons, the necromancer having sent in even their guards to overwhelm the Queen ant to win with minimal losses.

Nine necromancers and one hundred and four skeletal Undead marched into the third floor after defeating the second floor. They arrived from the portal onto the open glade that was the entrance of the third floor.

Seeing the forest floor, the incursion grouped up their defenders again before moving through the trees.

Unbound was happy however, despite the invader's progress, all of the skeletons they had brought were the Skeleton Hybrids: Weakest Heroic Variant, and absorbing all of them that fell was slowly giving a description of the defender.

As seven more of the skeletons were destroyed by the damaged elementals on the third floor Unbound unlocked a small description for the Skeleton Hybrids.

Looking at the description with disbelief and not an insignificant amount of fear Unbound mentally called for Elvinia to look at the screen he could.

Skeleton Hybrid: Weakest Heroic Variant

A reanimated skeleton that had been infused with heroic energy during its resurrection. This defender has a small amount of resistance to Heroic energies and small resistances to the usual weaknesses of Undead.

This defender is tougher than normal.

This defender has resistance to certain energies.

This defender may excel in certain areas.

Elvinia’s eyes were wide and her mouth formed a very perfect ‘O’ as she looked at the screen. The shock on her face evident and she didn’t say anything.

“This shouldn’t be possible,” Elvinia said very slowly. “Every single creature in existence has advantages and disadvantages to its existence. The Undead have clear weaknesses to their advantages, this negates that, and it says weakest.”

Weakest suggested there were stronger variants, they would definitely be more costly to create but if they were possible and stronger than these, it was entirely possible that Undead could kill everything else on the face of the planet.

Undead were a huge threat with their massive weaknesses. Tireless, immortal, able to increase their numbers by killing, and lack of many physical weak points meant for an exceptionally fearsome army when commanded by even the stupidest tactician.

The way most of the kingdoms combatted the threat was through the opposite of the heavy Death affinity of the Undead, Life affinity. The Undead variants with an Unholy affinity required the church's Holy affinity to fight but enchanted weaponry with life affinity was better at killing the Undead.

Heroic affinity was special. It encompassed a large number of affinities, excluding higher-ranked affinities like Legendary, including Life and Holy. Therefore, any Undead resistant to Heroic affinity would be resistant to both Life and Holy affinities, rendering the various kingdom's most effective weapons useless.

Suddenly the war looming between the sentient races and the Undead plague looked far less even, and one side didn’t even know of the threat that the other side posed.