Special Chapter XIII - Stone Door (part 1)

"Yo!!! This is not happening right now!!"

The captain shouted with a girlish tone. His hands are trembling really hard from holding his heavy sword, and his forehead is sweating profusely. He took a few steps backwards from not wanting to go anywhere near that demon, but he ended up stepping on a tree root.

He fell to the ground, but he quickly went back up awkwardly.

The undead studied us as it stood on both arms and legs in front of us. Its body is upside down, while the head is turned almost 180 degrees. Black liquid is flowing out of its eye holes that no longer have eyes, as well as from the mouth that barely has any teeth left.

I'm not sure how this thing is watching us, after all it doesn't have eyes. 

"Gajah... Gajah! Do something!"

"W-What!? Do what!?"

Both the captain and Gajah are bitching about this situation. They had never seen something this creepy before their whole life.

The two turned backwards and stared at us. We can clearly see how scared they are, but… they can also see how scared we are.

"G-Guys! Do something!"

Gajah shouted, but everybody shook their heads. The only one whose face isn't showing is me, and I shook my head at him really hard.

I simply stayed put. I'm not facing that thing. Ever. Period.

Everyone else seemed to be the same. No one is moving forward, so it's all up to Gajah and the captain.

"Wha-Guys!!-"

"HRIIIEEEKK!!!!"

The demon leaped forward once more. But this time, the target is the captain.

"Hyaaa!!!!"

The captain screamed like a twelve year old girl seeing a ghost for the first time. 

Luckily, he had lifted his sword up before the demon even moved. When the demon jumped towards him, the sword only had to move slightly before slicing the demon's body in half, completely killing it.

Everyone looked at the dead undead on the ground behind the captain, completely sliced in two. They all stared at the corpse for a flat ten seconds, completely and absolutely making sure that the demon is completely and absolutely dead.

After ten seconds, they all stared at the captain, and the captain turned his teary eyes to them. He slowly stood back up, and immediately posed.

"Whahahah!!"

"""Woahh!!!!!"""

The captain lifted his left hand and formed a fist. Everyone else screamed at him out of amazement.

He then cleared his throat, and spoke with a heavy tone.

"The Demon… has been defeated."

Gajah and the other knights all shouted at the captain once again. They all crowded him like some sort of hero, completely ignoring the corpse slowly rising back up.

But before the corpse could shout, a blade stabbed its heart, stopping it from moving again.

I pulled the blade out, and studied the hole I just made. As expected, this thing was controlled by something within its body. All we have to do is destroy it.

I was about to tell everyone that, but then I noticed they are all still very busy crowding the captain. They didn't even notice me killing the corpse.

Seeing the captain laughing really widely, I let out a sigh.

He… screamed like a four year old girl, there.

After a while, we all moved on. This time, Gajah and the captain didn't want to be on the front, so instead Kirene led the way. And after a long walk with Kirene's lead, we finally arrived.

"This is it."

Gajah said while he touched the stone wall right in front of us. Everyone gulped down from worry, but I simply stared at the wall with confusion.

What… the fuck!?

Standing right in front of us, right at the side of the cliff, is a giant ass door with tons of carvings on them.

It's a large double door, with tons of drawings on it. It looks like a giant gate of some underworld shit.

It's like the owner of this door didn't even want this place to be hidden.

Then again, there's probably no point, since nobody even wanted to come here. And if they do, they will have to deal with that demon from before, so they probably turned back and ran.

Thinking about how stupid this is made me annoyed, but I can't help but stare at the drawings on the door. The drawings show many things regarding death and reanimation, like demons floating above the graveyard or the zombies that are slowly rising from it.

Awesome door, I admit.

The door wasn't tightly shut. There's wind coming out from the gaps, and it gives us an even deadlier scent of the dead.

Everyone knows that this place is it from that scent, and everyone knows that we will immediately deal with the undead beyond this door. After all, the undead conjurer might as well be behind this door.

"This is it, indeed."

I said while checking the drawings on the stone door. After realizing that we are wasting time, I turned to the captain.

"Hey, captain. Can you break this door for us?"

"What? Are you insane?"

The captain seemed to be shocked. He turned to the others, and turned back to me. But seeing that I am not moving, he can tell that I am serious.

"With your muscles, it's possible."

"Hell no, it's not!"

I let out a sigh right in front of him. Looks like the captain is quite dumb indeed.

"Have you heard about physical magic enchanting, captain?"

As expected, he shook his head.

"It's when you enchanted a certain part of your body with magic energy. Making it stronger and unbreakable. With that method, you can destroy this stone door-"

"What!? Such a thing exists?"

I nodded at him, and turned towards the others. Everyone else seemed to know about it, which means only the captain didn't know.

"Of course. Everyone used it all the time."

"Then… why don't you use it?"

"I can't destroy this, I'm not strong enough. But you… you can, captain. Look at the size of those muscles. Do you want to compare that muscle to someone like me?"

I complimented him a little bit, hoping it might boost his confidence, even just for a little. But apparently the outcome is something I did not expect.

"Ha! That's right! My great muscles are the greatest. So… how can I do it?"

Perfect.

I told him the ways to move magic energy into your arm. He started by crushing a rock with his palms. And after a little bit of practice, I can sense magic energy going into his hands. 

This is too perfect, he is a quick and natural learner. I thought he was just some muscle head who only cares for his muscles.

After training for a few minutes, the captain got it. He turned a whole rock into dust rather easily, and everyone was quite mesmerized.

"Woah!! That's amazing, captain!"

Gajah and the others complimented the captain for being able to do that. The captain then stood up and lifted his fist.

Once again, he spoke with his deep and heavy tone.

"I. Will Destroy. This God Damn Stone Door."

"There it is! The great captain!"

The captain walked towards the door, ignoring everyone's cheers. He stopped only a meter away from the door, and he closed his eyes.

He took a stance, moved his right arm backwards, and threw a punch while opening his eyes. With all his might, he punched the stone wall as hard as he could.

BLAM!!

Sadly, it was just a regular punch. 

Seriously…?

"That hurrrtttss!!!"

"Captain!! Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine!"

The captain said proudly while he kept his underlings away from getting closer to see the damage to his hand. I walked towards the captain, and checked his hand.

"You didn't enchant your hand."

"I'm… pretty sure I did."

I activated my healing magic and healed his hand. Nearly every single bone on his hand was broken, and all of his fingers are facing the wrong way. But after my healing, what was once looked like a crippled fist, is now a normal hand again.

"Woah!! I thought I was crippled my whole life!"

"Try again. This time, focus on enhancing your arm instead of throwing the punch. Remember, even a normal punch with enchanting can be ten times stronger than your strongest punch."

I re-explained it to him as I took the steps backwards. The captain nodded, and turned his gaze back to the door again.

The captain walked back to the door. With me around, he can throw a punch all day, no matter the wound. With this, he no longer has to worry about being crippled, and he can punch all day until he gets it.

He slowly formed the stance again. He moved his right hand backwards, but this time, he didn't punch right away. I can hear his muscles growing into his armour, but they did not end there.

A grin slowly formed on my face beneath the mask.

The ground around him shook heavily as the ash from the ground slowly lifted itself. The captain's hands are slowly glowing blue… a really bright one. The energy was extremely powerful, and everyone could feel the pressure clearly emitted.

The captain inserted way too much magic energy into his hand. And once he felt the time was right, the captain threw the punch.

BAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!

The stone door right in front of us exploded into a million pieces as the cliff on the mountain crumbled. Giant rocks fell from the top of the cliff, everyone had to take cover behind the trees.

Thanks to the ashes on the ground, the dust clears a little longer. And when it finally cleared itself, the sight in front of us was shown, and not a single person from our group could believe it.

The stone door was no more. Instead, a gigantic hole on the ground was opened. Not enough, the walls on the mountain's cliff were completely devastated. Cracks were seen everywhere, and giant rocks even fell from the top.

The captain stood back straight again from his pose, and he stared at his own hand. That punch was an even stronger one, and yet there is no damage done to it. No blood, no bone dislocation, nothing. 

His hand is completely fine.

The captain formed a fist, and his expression only firm up.