Chapter 47: Who are you??
Daemon was not even sweating despite their number.
"Thirty, then thirty-five, then forty maybe...
He had lost count. His breathing remained steady, his heart barely beating faster than at rest. He was using a minimum of Chi, just enough to activate the First Sense Of Sword.
Against opponents so slow and predictable, the first Sense was more than enough.
"Why waste energy activating the second sense when the basics already did the job so well?"
He sliced a torso with a vertical blow, the katana splitting the rotten flesh and the core shattered under the blade. He crushed another core with his heel without even looking, while parrying a claw with his right forearm. He pivoted and planted his blade in the nape of a Daugr trying to bite his ankle. He drew, spun his katana, and cut the legs of two creatures with a single circular gesture.
The minutes passed, and the number of Daugrs decreased rapidly. The floor was littered with shredded bodies, torn limbs... The smell of rot had become unbearable.
As Kristian and Katelyn advanced over the remains of the Daugrs, they saw Daemon standing in the gloom, in the center of the room. He had just finished off the last standing opponent.
His right fist was still buried in the creature’s skull.
Daemon contemplated his fist covered in putrefied matter for a moment, then turned toward his companions.
"Your nauseating smell reminds me of my uncle Dorian’s boots," he said in a detached tone. Before sending the corpse flying far away.
Kristian scanned the room with his eyes then turned his attention back to Daemon. "I see you have not lost your sense of humor, you seemed a bit bitter lately."
Daemon smiled sarcastically. "What? Are you going to take responsibility for making me laugh, Kristian?" he asked while raising an eyebrow.
Behind them, Katelyn clicked her tongue then crossed her arms while looking at Daemon with a certain weariness. "For some reason, Lord Daemon seems so bitter lately... I hope this matter is not the cause."
Daemon turned toward her, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Maybe it is because I am jealous that a beautiful woman like you is in love with a man who ignores you."
Katelyn rolled her eyes with exasperation. She did not respond to the provocation, contenting herself with shaking her head in annoyance. "Hum... I think the right direction is straight ahead. Let’s go," cut in Kristian, who had no desire to linger on this kind of discussion in a place like this.
Without waiting for a response, he headed toward the back of the room, where a corridor opened between two roughly carved stone pillars. Daemon and Katelyn followed him without adding a word.
They walked like this for several minutes, crossing a succession of small rooms connected by narrow passages.
Finally, the corridor opened onto a new room, but this one closed abruptly with a wall.
Kristian stopped in front of the wall, placed his hand on the stone, then turned toward the others. "It seems we have to take a detour."
Daemon approached the wall, inspected it quickly, then stepped back. "I agreed to participate to prevent the Spear Clan from getting their hands on the relic...But we are not going to spend our whole life here."
Katelyn raised an eyebrow. "And what do you plan — "
Before she could pronounce the last word, Daemon took a deep breath through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth while closing his eyes. He concentrated for a moment, and Katelyn immediately felt a change in the air around them. The Chi was converging toward Daemon’s right arm.
"Second Sense Of Sword : Steel Breath," murmured Daemon.
The Chi flowed into his muscles, hardening his skin like steel, strengthening his bones and tendons beyond human limits.
He struck the wall cracks appeared in a star shape around his fist, then they spread rapidly to the edges of the wall. The noise was violent and echoed throughout the corridor and beyond, into the neighboring rooms.
"But what are you doing? Have you gone mad? Do you want to wake up all the Daugrs in the area?" she shouted.
Daemon crossed through the wall without turning around. "It is enough to leave this place as quickly as possible," he said simply over his shoulder, without slowing his pace.
Katelyn clicked her tongue in annoyance: "And here I thought you were injured in that bandaged arm..." she murmured between her teeth. She shook her head, then hurried after him, also stepping over the debris.
*
After an hour of exhausting walking in the labyrinth of the Catacombs, the group finally slowed their pace. Daemon, imperturbable, had gotten into the habit of systematically breaking the walls that blocked their path. Each time the corridor ended in a dead end or the progression became too complicated, he took a deep breath, activated his Steel Breath, and shattered the stone with a single punch. The successive detonations echoed for a long time in the galleries, and with each impact, Katelyn jumped a little more.
"Another wall? Really?" she asked for the umpteenth time, hands on her hips.
Daemon did not answer. He simply crossed through the debris, Kristian followed without comment, but Katelyn, for her part, was starting to show signs of irritation.
Finally, after crossing what must have been the sixth or seventh wall since they had left the room with the thirty Daugrs, the group emerged into a room slightly larger than the previous ones.
"We stop here," declared Kristian while setting his bag on the ground.
Daemon nodded, then sat on a collapsed stone block in a corner. He opened his bag, took out a leather canteen and a piece of dry bread which he bit into.
Katelyn opened her own bag with a sigh of relief. She took some water, then cut a thin slice of dried meat which she ate slowly then drank a sip of water, put away her canteen, then stood up.
"I am going to watch the surroundings," she announced while drawing her rapier.
Kristian nodded without looking up from his bread. "Do not go too far."
Katelyn left the room and entered the adjacent corridor, the one that seemed to lead deeper into the Catacombs. She advanced cautiously, her rapier held in front of her, senses on alert. She had only gone about fifty meters when she spotted a silhouette at the end of the corridor.
A hooded silhouette, wearing a long coat. Katelyn had not heard it arrive.
"Who are you?" asked Katelyn while frowning.