Saintess Summons Skeletons

Chapter 11: Hanging on

Sofia was discreetly peeking at the fight, all she could see was the mans left boot and a bunch of zombies' disgusting rotting feet. It smelled like hell, not barfing all over the floor was a harder challenge than not flinching at the undead crudely stomping on her back. If anything, she thought she was lucky none had decided to step on her head yet.

She had her reservations about whether using [Heal undead] would work underground but it had worked just fine, she wouldnt keep it for long however, the mana cost was huge.

Come on, just lift your damn foot!

The man was fighting valiantly and he didnt suffer too much damage, but weathering the assault from both sides got harder and harder as the undead piled on each other, preventing him from throwing them in the pit quite as easily.

Still, he was quite steady under the undead assault, but eventually, the opportunity that Sofia was waiting for came. A zombie from higher on the stairs had bumped on another one, causing a chain reaction that ended with the zombie currently grabbing Ovohens helmet to bump into him. It was only a mild shock to the fully armored man, but enough that he slid back a bit. The steps were large squares but that slight push got the back of his left foot in the air for just a second. As he moved to assure his footing and balance, all of Sofias remaining mana was used up.

She had summoned two masses of blood, one directly under the magisteriums left foot, the other over his head. It wasnt much, just a few liters of fresh crimson blood. The man grunted in surprise when the blood fell on his helmet and seeped in through the breaths of his visor.

As his left boot touched ground again, the unexpected slipperiness of the blood had him lose his posture for a second.

Sofia held tightly on the dagger that was hidden under her all this time. It was hard to move with the three zombies currently stepping on her, but she was right under the magisterium. The underside of his crotch was only protected by chainmail, the golden plate armor didnt extend between the legs. She stabbed upwards as strongly as she could. The glowing dagger didnt disappoint. It was the first time she heard the man cry out in pain.

Sorry.

You! he yelled.

She stood no chance at moving the man by herself, let alone make him fall. But making the zombies standing on her fall? She mustered all of her strength and struggled to roll and shake on the ground. All the zombies were bunched up on the narrow stairs at this point, one of them started falling from the shaking.

The man never recovered his balance. The whole mass of zombies gripping on him and one another tipped over.

Everyone fell into the abyss.

Sofias right side was violently shoved by the mans armored boot as he fell, she slid on the blood and off the stairs, right under the colossal man and the writhing mass of undead.

The man screamed as he was flung off.

She couldnt really do anything. She couldnt even use the dagger as a makeshift pick to stop her fall, as it was left stuck in the mans crotch. She could only watch as the whole crowd toppled over.

Her plan had failed. So close to success. Mentally she was cursing herself for not taking into account that she could be pushed off too.

Her head was upside down, hanging over the abyss. She had expected to fall much like the others, but somehow, she was stuck to the edge of the stairs. It defied all of her understanding of physics. Only her right foot was still in contact with the staircase, bent at a weird angle, holding onto her whole body.

She didnt even dare to move.

The Fool always stumbles but never falls

Thats why! her eyes and mouth were open wide at the revelation.

She felt very lucky that her huge fuck up somehow got saved by her recently evolved skill. Thinking about it, blood was getting to her head, she still needed to get back up somehow.

It took a lot of effort, draining the last remaining bits of her already low stamina, but she eventually got her other foot back on after playing the human pendulum for a bit. From there she managed to slowly shimmy both her calves on the square step. She doubted her muscles were strong enough to let her do that normally, without the [Way of the Fool] she would probably have fallen over a thousand times, but it was as if any part of her that touched solid ground was glued to it.

Her stamina hit 0. She relaxed all of her muscles, she couldnt muster even a tiny bit of strength. She hung upside down for a long while. She had received a bunch of messages but she ignored them, for now she had to get back up somehow.

In the end, she took off the outer chemise style part of her tunic only leaving her in the tight white linen shirt she wore under. She made a large knot at the end of a sleeve. What followed was thirty minutes of her trying to throw the knot over, to have the cloth stuck in the small gap in between two of the square tiles that made the steps. It worked eventually. The tunic now stuck in the stairs helped her get up, it ripped at the end, but she managed to grab on the ledge.

Her abs were killing her, all of her muscles working very hard to get her out of the situation. It took her more than an hour in total to end up back on the blood stained steps. She was sprawled on the floor once again, not playing dead this time, breathing heavily.

She smiled, glancing at the mans sword that he had thrown on the ground at the start of the scuffle. It had been her only source of light while she struggled to get up.

Finally out of danger, for now, she opened the numerous messages she had received from the system.

She counted 46 zombie kills, but the experience must have been minimal since that didnt even take her to level 50.

[Summon Blood] reached level 3

[Summon Blood] reached level 4

[Lead the Dead] reached level 14

[Way of the Fool] reached level 3

[Heal Undead] reached level 2

You have murdered [Armand Anzan Ovohen - Magisterium lv. 164]

[Way of the Fool] grants significant bonus experience

You gained a level! * 18

[Congratulations, your Saintomancer class reached level 50, +1 Active Skill Slot!]

[New Active Skills are available!]

[New Passive Skills are available!]

Murdered? Thats what she had done but she didnt expect the system to just slap her in the face with it. Whats with making it sound like I did something horrible and then rewarding me with a crap ton of levels?

She held her bloody hands above her face. The hands of a killer.

I should feel bad, I think, maybe.

All she had felt from the message was a wave of relief, finally she could try to escape without having to fear being summoned here again. All the tension that she had built up escaped her for a moment.

Got what was coming for him, rest in peace in your hole, Armand. No harsh feelings ok.

Just two people doing what they have to do.

She let out a soft sigh, now was not the time to reflect on her actions, she wasnt out of the place quite yet.