One day later

Lilith

I made sure my rapier didn't have any stray droplets of blood left on it before I dragged Broken Skull back toward the stairs to the third floor. I'd seen others lose good weapons because they didn't properly maintain them. This, coupled with the fact that some didn't do anything for their armor, got several good skeletons killed in the past two months. I also didn't want to lose the weapon I'd taken off the corpse of some woman. She'd been fast, but not fast enough to beat me. Goblins or orcs, it didn't matter what they were fighting, if their equipment was useless. Especially now, when both enemies were adapting to fighting us.

The orcs were more wary of being snuck up on, whereas goblins were forming much larger groups, and using literally anything, even the corpses of their dead, as weapons. It was similar to Broken Skull telling me about how earlier, he'd convinced the previous group of skeletons he led to use the femurs of other skeletons and fallen dungeoneers as weapons. A crude weapon, to be sure, but unique. At the time I had said that we shouldn't resort to using such methods again, as I didn't want myself or others getting used to taking apart corpses just for somewhat fragile clubs. Not when we had been killing enough to supply our newer recruits with decent equipment, although most of it was still crude in nature.

We hadn't been able to get down to the fifth floor in the past two months, but I could see that we were in a phase of preparation. Without it, we could easily end up becoming a stepping stone for some other monster, as the two orcs had become mine. I still couldn't get used to their ugly faces every time I cut them with my rapier. The way they would wince or flinch every time I swung out with the blade just made their natural looks worse. Granted, I still considered them savage bastards, but only because of their own desperation. None that I had met so far could keep up with my speed though, which I had honed tirelessly. Not even Broken Skull, although I didn't want to go toe to toe with him in a real fight, after he told me about a few of the skills he'd picked up.

"I told you, I'm fine." He spoke bitterly, carrying fragments of his own head. If I were to turn around and smack him on the edge of where his skull had caved in, I knew I could make him say differently, as something as simple as that could make him feel genuine pain. I was feeling gracious though, so I elected not to do so, in favor of turning around while walking, and feeling my own skull, in the position where he was missing an eye socket. "Seems I have one more eye than you do, though. Think there's a reason for that?" I mentally grinned at him, and he sulked in response. "I rest my case." I turned around, humming to myself internally.

Things had been going well enough for us recently. We'd been getting more and more recruits, and while we couldn't keep everyone in our hideout, we didn't leave them out to die. We'd set up a small encampment on the fourth floor, filled with areas where groups of skeletons could bury themselves if dungeoneers were coming. In that encampment, nobody stored weapons or armor, except in a pit which was kept buried, only noticeable due to the disturbed dirt. We also had sentries watching for any signs of both dungeoneers, and orcs. It ensured that our newer recruits could survive in relative safety, albeit they couldn't train as diligently as those in the third floor hideout, due to dungeoneers occasionally wandering a bit too close. Naturally, everyone was adequately armed and armored, which was why I didn't bother looting any of the three orcs. It simply wasn't necessary.

We'd also managed to find another three magic users, one of which had chosen to specialize in healing magic. The amount of Sentinels guarding the magic users increased from eight to a total of twenty. Rivena still had her original guard of eight, while the healer was guarded by six, and the other two both had three Sentinels each to keep them safe. The two other mages had chosen to specialize in offensive magic, and as such, could serve as a tactical advantage, according to Broken Skull. He'd said something about using them to "rain fire on distracted enemies." I took his word for it, but I had mostly focused on making sure everyone who was joining our forces had a proper set of skills. I made sure everyone had some sort of defensive skill at the very least. It might not make much difference in the end, but it made sure everyone could at least hold their own if the worst came to pass.

As we walked by the sentries, one of them nodded to me. If I remembered right, his name was Lokil. Broken Skull had been naming the majority of the skeletons, but I'd taken up some of the burden as well, in order to ensure he didn't spend all his time sitting in the encampment. I had to admit, having to sacrifice mana was much more preferable than sacrificing health in order to complete the naming process. Still, I considered it better to have him out there getting stronger than staying in the encampment naming new skeletons day and night.

After leaving Broken Skull with Iliana to get his head fixed for the sixth time this month, I went to check on some of the new recruits, to determine whether or not to send them back to the third floor for more training. I'd put Kellor in charge of those remaining on the third floor, so that they wouldn't be without leadership, and so far he'd been doing a great job of keeping them from being discovered, along with getting them some real combat experience against goblins and dungeoneers alike.

Stepping around one of the pits that had been dug, I passed by a few groups of skeletons who were talking to each other about forming groups similar to the dungeoneers, to better combat the orcs, and to be able to hold their own against dungeoneers as well. One of them was even talking about getting heavy armor in order to take all the hits while the others dealt damage. The shield wall tactic that Broken Skull had drilled into many had been adapted to instead allow multiple skeletons to be able to quickly switch from offensive tactics to defensive ones.

Everyone on the fourth floor had been trained to hide themselves from orcs and dungeoneers alike, and as such, we could more easily ambush whatever we needed to fight, whereas the orcs and dungeoneers were kept constantly on alert, tiring them out for our eventual attack. Our skeletons were starting to resemble the dungeoneers in regards to tactics, despite the fact that we didn't have any clearly defined classes like they seemed to.

After walking by a few huts where skeletons were dismembering corpses for anything that could be turned into makeshift traps or lures, I was greeted by the sight of several lightly armored skeletons all sparring with each other, using bones as practice weapons instead of the metal swords, axes, or spears. It was crude, and rather unsightly to me, but we couldn't use anything else we'd found so far without risking injury, and there was only so much Iliana could do, since Rivena had started dedicating her time to defensive magic and research about magic in general. So far she hadn't made any real progress, but this was due to a lack of resources. As such, she mostly tended to practice with the defensive spells she had learned thus far.

I could see the faint light of Rivena's magic off to the right, hidden away in a small hut that had been cleared of orcs when we'd first taken the area. However, I was more interested in the new skeletons who looked barely able to swing their practice bones effectively. Two of them weren't even hitting anywhere near each other. How they'd managed to get down here was beyond me, and I knew Kellor wasn't the type to just send them down here if they didn't have the experience. It was only a month ago that he'd himself seen just how dangerous even a single orc could be.

Debating on whether or not to send them back to the third floor, I walked over, making sure to wrap the scabbard of the rapier around the handle so that I wouldn't end up cutting through them too badly.

"You two. Your movements are terrible, your swings are wide and inaccurate, and you have too many openings. As such, I want you both to face me. Maybe by taking a few beatings you'll improve enough to not disgrace yourselves in a real fight. Grab whatever weapons you normally use, and let's see how you do." Gripping the hilt tight, I watched them get their weapons, which were an axe and half of a longsword, respectively. The axe was a bit dingy, while the sword itself looked to be almost falling apart. I wondered if it would hold up at all under the assault of even a partially decent goblin, much less a dungeoneer.

It's been too long since I killed one of them. Maybe I'll head back to the third floor and go hunting at some point. Yeah, that'd be fun.

Once they were equipped, the two of them didn't bother with tactics of any kind, and simply rushed toward me, swinging their weapons with reckless abandon. A small movement of my wrist and the sword was sliding harmlessly above me, right into the falling axe, deflecting both weapons simultaneously. It was embarrassing. Of course, I was partially to blame with how fast I could react, but the fact that I was able to do such a maneuver meant they were more used to fighting as individuals than as a team. I shoved the axe wielder back with a swift kick, before lightly knocking the swordsman on the head while he was still off balance.

"Dead." I said simply as I turned back to the skeleton who was now stumbling a bit as he regained his balance. I lunged forward, the scabbard knocking against his head, sending him crashing to the ground. "Dead. You both have terrible teamwork, and you telegraph your attacks by swinging wide. You leave yourselves open to so many counterattacks it's a wonder that you haven't been killed yet. Now, get up and try again. This time, don't swing so wide." I took a few steps back, and readied myself for them to try again.

This is going to be a long day.