The Glass Warrior [Weak to Strong LitRPG]

While Lucas mischievously considered his next steps, all around the room people were finally beginning to open up their own boxes, and Lucas kept his eyes on all of them. He took note of a few of the rewards being revealed, even managing to identify some before they were quickly tucked away.

A couple of the most notable ones included an item called the "King's Necklace." From what Lucas managed to glean from its brief description, it appeared to be a life-saving device, one that, when activated, would unleash the power of a king.

Another reward that drew plenty of attention was the "Kinetic Sword." Its description was long and Lucas didn't have time to read the entire thing, but from what he caught, it seemed to be a weapon that grew more powerful with each swing, likely working similarly to a combo mechanic in a game.

Waiting for the others to collect their rewards wasn't exactly a wise move, but Lucas was still new to this world, and he genuinely wanted to see what kind of treasures a tomb like that actually offered before making his exit.

Still, Lucas didn't linger watching for too long. He had already made up his mind, he would do everything in his power to make sure none of them left the tomb alive, and his best shot at pulling that off stood near the edges of the chamber.

As long as he kept his distance from their loot, no one was really paying attention to him, especially with the monkey still busy hoarding treasures and occasionally swiping a few from the others just to keep things chaotic.

Lucas couldn't help but smirk at the absurdity of the scene, and before moving on to do what needed to be done, he sent a quick thought to the monkey, informing him of his intentions, but didn't wait around to see if the message landed.

A few moments later, Lucas found himself standing before a statue that towered nine feet high, looking almost identical to the one he had fought earlier.

A quick inspection of its surface revealed it had been struck more than a few times, probably by some of the stray spells cast during the earlier commotion.

Why didn't this one awaken like the other? Lucas paused to wonder. Could it have already been like this when I arrived?

To test that theory, Lucas slashed the statue with his blade and waited. Aside from a few chunks of debris falling loose, nothing happened.

Hum. Now that I think about it...

The other statue had awakened the very moment he walked through that door, but despite all the spells flying around since, none of the others had reacted like the guardians in the previous chamber.

Back in that room, all it took for the guardians to awaken was either physical contact or a direct attack, but that clearly wasn't the case with these knight statues.

Then, in a sudden spark of intuition, Lucas placed his hand against the cold stone surface of the knight before him and infused a bit of mana into it.

To his surprise, something actually happened, slowly but surely the statue began to stir, shedding its stillness like dust.

Lucas didn't stick around to see what would happen next, he already had a clear idea of how these Knights operated. Taking full advantage of the giant's slow awakening, he rushed to the next one as fast as he could and repeated the process.

…

"What is that noise?" Anthony asked suddenly, snapping everyone's attention toward the rhythmic thumping that had begun echoing throughout the chamber.

Emerging from behind one of the pillars came a wild-looking Lucas, and following close behind him was a line of the most terrifying giants anyone in the room had ever laid eyes on.

"Oh, god…" Anthony muttered, voicing the collective horror etched on every face as they stood frozen, staring at the oncoming army.

Unsurprisingly Lucas was bleeding all over, awakening those Knights hadn't exactly been a walk in the park, especially not with already-awakened ones chasing him down and wreaking havoc along the way.

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What truly amazed Lucas, though, was how no one had been expecting his return, not with the amount of noise he and his new companions had been making.

There were two reasons for that. First: everyone had been so deeply absorbed in securing their newfound fortunes that they hardly paid attention to anything else. Second: every single time someone started to question where all the noise was coming from, the monkey had been right there, stirring up trouble and keeping them distracted.

Unaware of what had transpired while he was gone, Lucas was just glad they hadn't prepared for his return. Truth was, he had taken a lot more damage than he'd anticipated during his suicidal attempt to awaken the Knights.

Most of his stamina had gone into healing his wounds, and now, even that had become a luxury, as he had open wounds scattered all over his body.

The recent evolution of his healing skill was making it harder than ever to stop once activated, but he'd had to force it, otherwise he would have already collapsed to the ground.

Still, when he emerged from behind the pillar, bloodied, half-limping and wild-eyed, with six terrifying Knights looming behind him in the corridor, he looked like something dragged straight out of a nightmare.

"What is he—" the Hive group leader began, caught completely off guard.

"Stop him! He wants to kill us all!" the elf mage screamed, panic raw in his voice.

Lucas didn't wait.

He moved like a blur, ignoring the screaming pain in his muscles, and closed the distance between him and Anthony in the blink of an eye.

"Seems like you didn't learn your lesson on the ship," Lucas snarled, his voice low and venomous.

Anthony barely had time to reach for his weapon. Lucas was already there. A blade extended from Lucas' knee and slammed under Anthony's ribs, lifting him off the ground, just as a fist blade carved a deep gash across his chest.

Anthony staggered, coughing blood, eyes wide in confusion and disbelief.

"You—!" he tried to speak, but Lucas didn't let him finish.

A final thrust drove a glass blade straight through his throat. Anthony collapsed in a heap, his limbs twitching once before going still.

That was when the others arrived.

With every thunderous step, the stone floor cracked and trembled under their weight. Their eyes glowed with dull ancient energy, and their weapons—massive, jagged slabs of enchanted steel—were already raised for war.

Coming from the shadows the undead monkey leapt onto Lucas' shoulder with a delighted screech. The creature was an undead, and by definition it wasn't very "lively" to begin with, but even then Lucas could still see how drained it was from everything they'd been through.

"Fuck—" the Hive leader muttered, but didn't get to say anything more before the first Knight struck.

Its enormous sword came down like a meteor, tearing through the stone floor and scattering piles of treasure like sand in the wind. People barely managed to leap away in time, many screaming as the chamber trembled from the impact.

The goblin in the dark cloak tried to leap clear, but was caught mid-air by flying debris and slammed into a nearby wall, dropping in a heap.

The elf warrior, panic in his eyes, bolted forward in an attempt to escape, but one of the Knights caught him mid-motion. He tried to parry the massive sword with his own, and was thrown like a ragdoll across the chamber.

The elf mage reacted quickly, casting a flurry of spells in desperation, but his magic bounced off the Knight's armor like rain hitting iron, doing nothing to slow him down.

The Knight kept marching forward, step by thunderous step, raising its weapon with mechanical precision. Then something unexpected happened; the elf's hand reached instinctively for the necklace he had acquired not long ago, and the moment his fingers brushed against it, a brilliant white glow flared to life.

A crystalline sword, massive and majestic, began to materialize in the air above him, its shape forming in an instant, and in the next heartbeat, it blinked, vanished, and reappeared mid-swing, cleaving the Knight cleanly in half with a single, impossible cut.

That's got to be the King's Necklace, Lucas thought, watching the spectacle with wide eyes. As good as advertised. That was definitely the kind of item deserving to be called life-saving.

But judging by the way the glow faded from the Necklace, it seemed to be a one-time use effect. He clearly wasn't going to stick around to test his luck again. Without even catching his breath, the elf turned and ran toward his companion who was groaning and just starting to push himself up from the floor.

Lucas remained where he was, breathing hard, blood still dripping steadily from the sharp ends of his glass blades. His whole body ached, his vision blurred slightly around the edges, but there was no need for him to engage again, not now. The Knights were more than enough to handle what remained.

If there had been just one Knight, or even two, Lucas had no doubt they might have managed. It would have taken effort, and probably cost a few limbs, but survival might have been possible. But five of them?

Even if another one of them had a miraculous artifact like the elf's necklace, Lucas doubted it would be enough. Especially since they weren't working together as they should.

The remaining goblin and human were spreading out, trying to avoid being caught in the crossfire or standing too close to the Knights. Only the elves seemed to be making any effort to coordinate their movements.

With swift hand seals, Lucas cast one last glance toward the trapped rats that had given him so much trouble and then stepped forward, vanishing from sight just as a massive stone sword came crashing down where he'd been standing a second before.