Re:Monster - Re:Vival

Day Twelve

After we descended to the 16th floor, we noticed some rather glaring differences between this floor and the previous floors. For starters, the colour pallet had changed from a stone grey to a fleshy red-pink with areas of deep red and black. I was able to confirm that walls were still made of stone so the only assumption I could make is that it would have something to do with the enemies here.

Speaking of which, there didn't seem to be many enemies near us at all. In fact, there weren't even any corners or alternate pathways. The entire floor seemed to consist of a single pathway with a large, black and grey door at the end. I assumed that nerves were getting to the humans as they decided to return to the surface for now. That was fine. I had some things I wanted to do anyway.

First of all, I had the bodies of the Beast Knight and the Parasite-Chimera-Thing. With [Lesser Bone Control] and [Bone Fusion], I started to fashion weapons and armour. I didn't need to do much to complete a set of armour, except for a helmet, for Ares made of the Beast Knight's exoskeleton armour. He really matched his namesake when I upgraded his axe with the sharp claws of the Chimera.

For Ankou, I made him a few sets of throwing daggers and a new knife since his current one was starting to chip. As for any kind of armour, I decided to try something a little different for him and created what may very well be the best thing I made today. I made an arm. With pieces of the Beast Knight and Chimera, I fashioned a single, clawed, full gauntlet that reached his shoulder for his left arm. With [Bone Fusion], it successfully became a part of him.

With Ares and Ankou taken care of, the next two to upgrade would be Mara and the Twin-Sword Skeleton. I thought long and hard about what to do and eventually came up with an idea, not for those two, but for Ankou. I admit I felt a little bad about it but there wasn't much I could do about my wandering mind. That said, I took the Bone Chimera's scorpion-like tail and grafted it onto Ankou, giving him a sharp, retractable tail he could lash out with for a surprise attack or use to defend himself.

With not much else I could do for Mara since the two corpses I had available weren't magic-based, I added a bone-blade to the bottom of her staff, if only for a little bit of extra offence and defence. Finally, I started working on the Twin Sword Skeleton who I should really come up with a name for at this point. The collection of letters 'Kazig' came to mind so I went with that.

It was unfortunate that I lost the second Twin Sword Skeleton, but the first still held a certain place in my heart. After all, it was the first one that willingly allowed me to take it apart and put it back together like a demented humpty-dumpty. With that in mind, I didn't really have much of a plan when I started haphazardly reworking it's body with pieces of our conquests. By the end, it stood at around eight feet tall and looked like a rather vicious, two-headed, beast of a man. Still, it felt like it was missing something.

That was when I got the idea to summon some more skeletons to finish off the design. I got two Swordsmen and two Shamans but that didn't really matter. Actually I was kind of curious what would happen with the addition of the shamans. When I finished, it's massive arms gave off a dark, misty glow as the six headed behemoth could now only be caught off guard from below or above. Although I went into it not having the faintest idea of what I wanted to do, I think it turned out pretty well. Twin-Sword Skeleton didn't match up very well anymore for a racial name anymore though, so, while I'd continue to refer to them as 'Kazig', I figured 'Bone Golem' would be a good enough racial name for now. They seemed to like it.

With the upgrades complete, I had my forces line up against the walls on both sides for a head count. With a total of 34 Skeletons, my forces had been cut down significantly. I decided it was time to change that and began summoning again. Considering I got two Shamans last time, I was looking forward to what I'd get. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.

In the first group, I got one swordsman, one spearman and two archers. Nothing to write home about but the diversity was good. I had them join the line-up after welcoming them. Although with a total of 14 Archers now, I was admittedly hoping to get something different.

The second group I summoned was a welcome surprise, consisting of 3 Armoured Skeletons which, if memory serves, I'd never managed to actually summon before, alongside a single Spearman. They joined the line-up quickly, as if sensing my intentions immediately.

The third group... wasn't really a group. Strangely enough, I was only able to summon a single Skeleton this time. For all appearances, it looked like a basic skeleton, however, something was off.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it to begin with so I commanded it to show me what it could do. I was shocked when it sprinted from one end of the hallway to the other only a little slower than myself.

With his arrival, my plan was starting to take shape. I decided to see if he really was the perfect choice by commanding him to point out his preferred weapon. He immediately pointed at my mace. I'd have been grinning from ear to ear if I had them.

I continued summoning two more times after that and gained some good subordinates. An Axeman, 3 Spearmen, a Swordsman, an Armoured Skeleton and 2 Mages. I immediately killed one of the mages and took it apart, adding it's bones to Kazig in the hopes that he would become able to use Magic. For now, that was nothing but a pipe dream it seemed but I'd get there eventually, I was sure of it.

The last thing I did that day was sort out the beginnings of my plan to deal with the humans. I removed my clothing, leaving me looking like any regular old skeleton and handed them off to the Sprinter from before he put them on before I handed him my mace. After that, I took the robes of the Mage Skeleton I repurposed and put them on. It would serve as good cover and allow me to use my [Pyrokinesis] Skill which I had no doubt would be necessary in the coming floors. I did also keep my sword at my hip, just to be safe.

                                    ~~~~~

A/N: Hey guys, thanks for reading my first story. I've been really enjoying writing it and seeing a few of your opinions. That said, unfortunately I'll be taking a week off next week due to health reasons. I'll get two chapters out the following weekend though. Again thank you for reading and supporting my first story. I truly appreciate it.