Chapter 2357: Trap
Chapter 2357: Trap
The whole room is in absolute silence.
No one spoke.
"Seems like none of you have an answer. I hope the newcomers do."
As he spoke, few people just walked in. Hari, the leader of the second group came along with two other members of Drik's team. Hari had a smile on his face as he stomped in like he owned his place.
"We got quite a party here." He walked to Sam and extended his hand.
"Hari. Nice to meet you, Sam."
Sam shook his hand and replied.
"Nice to meet you too. I heard from a grapevine that your team is coming along quite nice."
"Yeah, it is. Until Drik's lackeys came along. I heard they wanted to discuss something with me. But I didn't hear anything about you. Are you here for the same thing?"
"Nope, not really. I came here uninvited. To negotiate on behalf of my friend. I hope they gave you more details."
Hari looked at Drik who gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath. This is the last thing he wanted. He didn't want Sam here in the first place and he definitely didn't want Sam and Hari to fraternize like this.
From the looks of it, it is highly likely that Sam and Hari could team up before they discuss any deal with Drik.
This made it easier for him to come to a conclusion.
"Come with me, both of you. Rashma, you too. Follow us."
Sam, Rashma, Hari and Drik all went into a room.
It is a standard meeting room, with a large round table and chairs. Sam looked at his and chuckled.
"You guys are planning to stay here for a long time. What the hell is wrong with you?"
He is genuinely confused. It seems like these people accepted their fate way too readily. Why would they create a building with meeting rooms and stuff if they are planning to go away?
"We had a meeting out in the open a few hours ago.
Our experts in necromancy and formations claimed that taking down the black skeletons is next to impossible. We need to spend our time here, planning on isolating one of them and studying it to find out a way.
Until then we need to stay here and also ensure that we have an enclosed space incase they start trying to fight us. This acts as a defensive fortress as well."
Sam just shrugged while Drik continued.
"However, from what Grethen tells me, Rashma managed to figure out a way to defeat one of the black skeletons. I also heard that there is not much help from you, there."
This is directed at Sam, who just smiled in response.
"I don't mind that you think that. I can't expect more from you anyway.
But as she said, if you want her, you will have to deal with me. But at the moment, I am not sure about dealing with you guys."
Drik ignored Sam for a moment and talked to Rashma.
"Do you really need this guy? He talks a lot of fluff. But he is not worth the salt. Please just cooperate with us. Tell us what you know about the black skeletons. How you dealt with them, and you can have something out of the deal.
I can even negotiate on your behalf."
Rashma didn't even bother looking at them and asked Sam.
"Do we need this?"
Sam didn't answer her and instead told Drik.
"This is getting old Drik. It is almost pathetic. I don't know how much you know about me. But you should know that I am as petty as one can get. You guys are constantly insulting me. I am still enduring it. One more word about bypassing me and dealing with her, I won't anymore. And trust me, in an environment as volatile as this, you don't want me as an enemy."
Hari suddenly intervened.
"I agree with Sam. I don't want him to be my enemy. So, Drik. If you are going against him, I don't want to team up with you guys either."
Drik slammed the table and spoke.
"Alright, here is the plan.
First, we will alert and direct everyone in the pocket dimension to one place, which is here. Once we are done with that, we will start tracking the black skeletons. We will lure one of them into a trap that we will set.
The formation experts will create the trap to ensure that not only will it be completely immobile, it will also be isolated from the rest of the pocket dimension's weird energy.
It would almost be an energy vacuum. Then, our undead experts will start examining the creature there.
I heard that Rashma 'killed' one of the black skeletons. I would also its skeletal pieces for further study.
Once we get enough data on it, we will try and deal with the creatures one by one."
Drik paused and looked at the rest, expecting some questions. Hair took the lead.
"So, what are you going to plan after that? With what goal in mind are you going to test the skeleton?"
"The goal to leave this place?"
"That's not what I meant smartass. What is it that you are aiming to do to that skeleton to 'kill' it? I am sure, you have thought of a couple of approaches and one of them would be in
the lead."
Drik pursed his lips and said.
"Our goal is to destroy the skeleton in at granular level. We will completely distort every cell of the skeleton including various methods."
"So, you are trying to tackle its regeneration mechanism. Your thought is that the basis of regeneration is the presence of a piece of skeleton completely intact and you want to make sure that no piece of skeleton will be in its original state, thus invalidating its regeneration
process.
Not a bad thought." Sam said casually.
Drik nodded and said.
"However, we might change some plans. Rashma has destroyed one of them. If we combine the information, maybe we will have a better idea moving forward.
And if we are going to work together, Sam will be part of the formation team in charge of blocking the retreat of the skeleton while we enforce the trap.
Hari, you will be working along with Rashma and I to be the frontal attackers. We will suppress the black skeleton while the formation trap is set.
Once the first one is captured, we will be moving on to the second and third and so on, at
regular intervals.
From what one of my team member said, there is a pattern for the upgrade of the skeletons. I am sure you have seen some skeletons having violet hues around them before they upgraded
to become black skeletons.
The working theory is that the presence of the skeletons at a certain level simulates the
energy of the pocket dimension. Once the energy reaches a certain limit the black skeleton appears. The second threshold hits, the second black skeleton appears, so on and so forth.
If we manage to isolate the black skeletons from the energy of the pocket dimension, we think
we can..."
"stop spawning more black skeleton?" Sam interrupted him.
"Yes, that is what we think."
Sam wanted to call all of them idiots. Because the most obvious thing in this pocket dimension is that the skeletons become stronger with destruction and regeneration until they reach the black state. Once they reach a certain limit as Black skeletons, they can be destroyed.
But he didn't.
He neither called them idiots. Nor did he explain the obvious to them.
"We are in." That is all he said.
The plan was set in motion immediately. Hari didn't have any objections and moved his team.
With Sam's tips on locations, they collected everyone in the pocket dimension. They also narrowed down one of the black skeletons that was farthest and more isolated than the rest.
Then the luring began.
Drik took the lead on that and lured it to the pre-determined location where most of the formation was set up. This one is a humanoid skeleton. Not as big as the giant one, not as
small as a regular human.
It is like a larger scale human being's skeleton.
Once it was lured, Rashma took over the lead position. She could destroyed the skeleton to
bits, however she has to hold back. They don't want the skeleton to be damaged. They want in
intact and be captured in their trap.
Drik, Rashma and Hari restrained the skeleton. They carefully deflected its attacks and
suppressed its movements. Of course, Rashma did most of the heavy lifting. The remaining two basically played support.
It became easier for other two because Rashma is the only one the skeleton focused on. The
one with the highest kills.
The skeleton did try to escape. Its instinctual thinking evolved into actual thoughts. It knew
that its in trouble.