The fall down wasn't that long, merely a few seconds.
Once they arrived on the ground, most had to take a second to shake off the slight pain that came with the landing. Except, Kai and Cassie, of course.
Nevertheless, each person immediately readied themselves for immediate combat. Effie had thoroughly warned them after all.
Nephis, in her white and black armor, summoned her familiar silver longsword, which due to the actual size of the tunnel she had to take with both hands, one of them resting on the hilt and the other on the blade itself.
Caster had also already summoned his trusted jian, which, lucky for him, was short enough to be used comfortably in the tunnel. Even now, it already began releasing an eerie green sheen, something Ray had noticed some time back, once before.
Effie only seemed to summon her round shield, and not also her spear. At the first look, it appeared questionable, but when one began to properly think, then they would remember that with her strength alone, a shield could become a dreadful weapon, just as well.
Kai, meanwhile, after having put down their blind seer, cast a mournful look back, towards his quiver, before he summoned the falcata, that he had also used when trying to defend Ray, back in the castle once.
Ray was already more or less fully equipped, since he had been running around ever since that morning in his full gear, an advice from his 'roomy', which appeared to be somewhat right. After all, for what reason whatsoever, he was unable to access the spell.
So, he merely put his halberd on his back, securing it with the same eerily white belt which also carried his knives, and readied his shield. Honestly, the way Stormpiercer was hanging behind him could only be described as improvised and dangerous.
Especially dangerous, though.
Sunny stood there, looking as grumpy as ever, with his tachi in his hand.
The last one to equip her weapon, was Cassie. For that, she merely unsheathed the rapier from her belt, and let go of the hilt after pulling it out. It then simply began circling her a few times, before – for whatever reason – it suddenly pointed its tip towards Sunny.
The short guy took a step back in caution, and remained like that, until Cassie apologized for her unruly echo, "Ah, please forgive Quiet Dancer. She is shy around strangers."
This just caused the caution to turn to confusion, for Sunny, though.
So, she explained, after noticing the awkwardness, "Dancer is an echo and a partner of mine. We work well together."
"Huh… alright."
Noticing her chance, Effie put on a very peculiar look, one that Ray knew good enough by now, and leaned slightly towards Sunny, "Hey, Doofus. Won't you let your girlfriend join us again?"
Most people had heard that joke at least a few times, over the past few days, and therefore didn't react much. The same couldn't be said about Nephis and Ray though, who both looked at Sunny with raised brows, Neph's a lot less than Ray's.
At that, Ray simply needed to take that serve and continue it in an equally teasing tone, "Oh, you have actually met someone? I was sure, you didn't have the game for that, respect."
Effie's grin widened for a moment, and gave Ray a high-five for finishing up, on the joke.
Sunny's teeth audibly ground, before he spoke with a very annoyed voice, "How many times do I have to tell you, she is not my girlfriend! And you too, Ray!"
Calming down a bit, Sunny sighed heavily, and began again, "Effie, tell them the truth!"
Ray, by now, had a definite guess, but wouldn't yet put his money on it, while Nephis simply continued staring at the black haired young man.
It seemed, as if Effie had enough for now, or didn't want to waste any more time right now, "Its his echo, from my perspective, she seems also reasonably strong too. The nickname just came by chance."
After the clarification, Sunny's shadow began expanding again – though down here it was by no means as visible as it had been above ground – and revealed the familiar dark knight.
Now, he finally had a chance to properly take a look, and so Ray did. The first thing he noticed where her eyes, which remained behind her helmet's visor. They looked like two red flames among the deepest abyss.
While doing so, he also noticed why it had looked so familiar. 'He actually got a stone saint…'
Then, when Ray had actually stepped close, he felt a pulse. Not from the echo, but from within, it was like a sudden need, to comment critically about her. Before he could follow it though, a sound from further down the tunnel, reached them, causing everyone to direct their gaze that way.
Effie only sighed, and seemed to grow more downcast, "We have wasted enough time, it seems. Lets go!"
Having said what needed to be said, their pathfinder moved on, closely followed by Ray, and then everyone else. The stone saint remained in the back half of the group, directly behind Kai and Cassie.
Everyone moved with caution, the earlier warnings still fresh in their minds, after a few dozen meters, it was Ray that eventually felt something weird under his foot, which was accompanied by a crunching sound.
He, as well as Caster and Nephis all looked towards it, and then turned grim, well, even more grim as they had been already.
Moments later, Sunny also noticed what had caused the sound. "Effie, what is this place, and why do bones lie around here?"
She turned for a second, more addressing the entire group, instead of just Sunny, "The catacombs. And what do you think, how bones get to a place like this, huh?"
This time it was Ray who asked, "Catacombs, huh, you never spoke about them. I also can't recall anything about them, from my information, is there a reason for that?"
Effie answered, but here tone was anything but pleasant, "The catacombs have always been here. The tunnels basically span beneath the whole dark city. Most of them have already collapsed though, and as for the why you haven't heard about them. To say they are something like an unspoken taboo, would already be an understatement. Most aren't even brave enough to get close to them, not even dreaming of entering them. As for those crazy enough to do so… lets just say, even fewer people are able to tell the tale afterwards."
Before anyone could say anything more, she continued, "That is the reason I chose this path. Now, we just need to pray that they have no one with them, who had once been an outer settlement dweller, who has knowledge about them, like me. If so… then, we're already as good as dead."
Ray, the only one still able to actually joke, "Well, then we better hope that the dead gods will rise from their graves for us."
He didn't turn around, but Ray could undoubtedly feel the deadpan stares directed his way.
"Wait, what did you mean with, even fewer people can tell the tale afterwards? Why is that?" Sunny spoke up.
"That's because…"
Even before she could finish the sentence, something began moving in the darkness, in front of them. It's silhouette looked vaguely humanoid, but skinnier, a lot skinnier. And then it reached their lighted up area and the group's eyes widened.
In front of them was, what no one really wanted to accept. A living corpse. Or rather… a living skeleton?
It was standing there, and was able to move without any way it should actually been possible to, namely, there were no muscles that could move the extremities, no skin that would keep everything at their place, or anything that would be required for those bodily functions.
But here it was, and it didn't wait for the cohort to acclimate themselves with its otherworldly logic, but simply lunged at them directly, without any further hesitation.
The speed it reached even then was somehow faster than most of the cohort could move, themselves. Though, in such a narrow tunnel, it wasn't as if they couldn't react at all.
As the skeleton came closer, Effie turned to the group for merely a moment, and issued one last warning again, "Stay together!" Before she turned around again, using the momentum of her turn, to completely smack the lunging skeleton towards the nearest wall, with her shield.
When it hit the wall, the skeleton simply broke into dozens of pieces. It's rib cage shattered, releasing many sharp bone splinters, but besides that, it appeared thoroughly broken. Like a broken and discarded marionette, it fell to the ground and remained there.
Even as most of them began wondering if that was everything those things were capable off, their trusted pathfinder yelled again, "Don't stop, and run!"
All of them, immediately started running. In the end, it was Sunny who noticed it first, when he reached the point where the skeleton had been shattered, he saw something.
The bones… moved. The bones began reassembling themselves slowly, somehow.