“This must be it, right? I’m not seeing any swords though.”
“T- Toba thinks we should go back…” He said as a shiver went down his spine.
“Hey, relax! The undead are the easy part, from what I’ve heard, what’s going to really give us trouble are the devils.” I said while dusting off my brand-new Shadow tiger vest.
If all went well, we would be getting almost a month’s worth of questing gold from this single mission, so I decided to splurge and spend what little money we managed to save.
I was planning to buy a breastplate, but I wasn’t used to fighting in armor, and it would be a waste not to use the shadow aspect tiger pelt I was keeping.
My luck wasn’t that great, however, since the already pitiful amount of pelt that wasn’t ruined in our fight got further damaged by the acid claws I was keeping inside it.
As a result, the pelt was just barely enough to make a single small vest, even shorter than the one I wore previously.
It didn’t cover my arms, and my legs were almost completely exposed, but it did give me a barbarian look that I enjoyed quite a bit; It gave me a reason to not skip leg day.
It was also supposed to help me hide at night, but just like Toba’s cloak and our spears, the effect was minimal.
Apart from my vest, I had Toba’s greatclub reinforced further, especially at the “hilt”, and bought ourselves throwing knives.
I also left the claws at the town’s workshop for the old dude there to make us something with them, and since I wasn’t feeling inspired at the time, I let him have complete creative freedom.
Slowly but surely, we were getting to know Alport. It already felt like home.
Right now, however, we were about to face something completely unknown.
Rattle… Rattle…
“Grrrrrrrr…”
“B- brother…” Our wolves growled, and Toba tugged at my vest, pointing in the direction of a twitching corpse covered by dirt.
“Our first zombie! It’s not part of our mission, but it should serve as a warmup.” I said as I twirled my spear around.
We came armed to our teeth, and a long weapon was more effective at killing small fry with minimal effort.
We were standing just inside the famous Cross Hills, which were the only area near Alport for killing undead and Devils.
Our mission was to get five imp horns, and the location specified was a mausoleum deep inside the hills.
This place was called “Cross Hills” due to the frequent sight of a sword stabbed upright on the ground, resembling a cross. The adventurers must have long since raided all the swords from this place, however.
Apparently, it used to be a common occurrence for old warriors to come to this place and fight the undead until they collapsed, turning into zombies and leaving their swords to serve as a grave.
No one knows if it’s true or not, since it happened during the old “War Era” everyone references when talking about distant past, but apparently it was a way for old warriors to keep fighting even after their death.
The miasma from the collective undead would raise them as zombies, and the strength of the zombie would depend on the strength they attained in life. Some even retained a fraction of their intellect and turned into zombie knights.
Thankfully, they were all cleared out, and the area is now a low level farming ground for undead and devils.
Legend’s say there are still zombie knights in the very center of the Hills, but I’m not planning to go there anytime soon.
“First one down!” I said as I retracted the boar tusk spear from the now hollowed out zombie’s head.
“…” After seeing how easily it went down, Toba seemed to have calm down a little.
“Just like they said, they don’t die unless you take out their head, but rotten bones are surprisingly soft.”
It’s certainly grim though… Are each and every one of the zombies here a fallen adventurer? That is a scary thought.
“Brother, why is the sky like that? is it night already?” Toba said as he gazed at the dark clouded sky. His exposed eyeball made him fit in with the landscape.
“Nah, I heard it’s the undead ‘miasma’ that does this. Think of it like a huge spell that’s always active around here.”
“Hmm…”
“By the way, take off your mask as well, not just the eyepatch.”
“But the smell…”
“I need your nose, we’ll soon get used to the stench so don’t worry.”
Toba nodded and lowered his face mask.
I wonder if wearing an eyepatch in public all the time is going to affect his vision… maybe we should just ignore the stares and let him walk around with just a hood.
Owl said so as well, so it’s probably fine, but it’s one of those things that the longer you hide it, the more troublesome it is to reveal it...
Well, I’ll think about that later. I need to focus on our quest.
Since zombies weren’t really part of our goal, we mounted up and started heading northwest towards the mausoleum.
Or so we thought… The sun wasn’t visible, and there weren’t any good landmarks, so I was having trouble keeping on track.
“We should have arrived already…”
“Brother, are we lost?” Toba’s recently attained confidence was slowly leaving his body.
“A little, yeah. But we shouldn’t be completely off mark. If we don’t panic, and set up a reference point, I think we’ll find it.” As I said that, I piled up a few rocks and stuck a piece of torn cloth between them.
“The compass…” He muttered in a low voice.
“The compass was too expensive! It was pricier than everything we bought combined!”
“Sorry…”
“Ugh… Don’t apologize, you’re right.”
“…”
“We’ll buy one with the quest reward. For now, just follow me and keep an eye out for any buildings.”
I can go a few weeks without my pre-workout…
…
I had no idea if my emergency plan made any sense, but we were going to random directions in a straight line from our reference point, setting up another reference point once we got far enough, and then searching for the mausoleum around that area.
When we didn’t find it, we returned to the center point, using the new one as reference.
It seemed like a good plan to me, or at least it was better than wandering around while completely lost.
The only problem was the time and fatigue. Our wolves were tired from carrying us around, and we were tired from fighting all the zombies that showed up.
I didn’t think it at the time, but it was basically a way to brute force us out of this situation while hoping that we hadn’t miss the mausoleum by a lot.
“… Hm? Look Toba… It’s a skeleton this time.”
We had tried three directions so far, and we had killed a little under ten zombies.
We were trying to avoid most of them, but moving around too much would cause us to lose our track again.
The silver lining was that zombies were slow and weak, but the fact that they were all fellow adventurers was eating away at our sanity.
The highlight was when Toba fought a zombie girl carrying a necklace engraved with a message from her mother.
I definitely should have lied when he asked me what was written on it, but I was too tired to think.
It took a while before he stopped crying.
Zombies and skeletons are fun enemies to fight in RPG’s, but not so much in reality. Just staring at them reminds you of your own mortality, and of the fact that the food and energy you have left are all that’s keeping your fate from being the same as theirs.
“We definitely should have bought the compass…” I said as I stabbed into the skeleton’s spine at full force, making him collapse into a pile of bones.
“Toba, the wolves will get too hungry if we stay… Maybe we should get out and camp before trying again.”
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but the repetitiveness of it all was making it seem much longer.
There was also no challenge to the fights, so I couldn’t even enjoy a rush of adrenaline.
“Brother… Over there… Toba thinks…” Poor Toba was exhausted from carrying around his club on his back, and he pointed to a seemingly empty direction while panting.
“Hm? I don’t see anything past the fog, but your eyes are better than mine.”
I decided to follow Toba.
I killed the hope that was growing inside me, so that it wouldn’t get too big and hurt me when we failed again.
But it wasn’t necessary.
“It’s here! Thank God…”
In front of us was an old stone construction with a broken wood door, and stairs leading down right after the entrance.
The fucking mausoleum…
The realization that we had only now arrived at the location for our quest made me remember Sophie’s words about how dangerous traveling here is.
I’m looking forward to her pale face when I tell her we came alone.
For that, however, we need to complete our quest and return alive.
“… We go in?” Toba asked with a tired face.
“Nah… let’s rest. We’re too tired for real combat just yet, and the imps we have to kill are told to be tricky creatures. We’ll need our heads sharp in there.” I opened our small pack with provisions, and handed half to Toba.
“We eat now?”
“Yeah, we burned a lot of energy finding this place, but it will be easier on the way back. It’ll also reduce our weight.”
“Hm!” Toba nodded and started eating.
Normally, we wouldn’t eat except for our two daily meals. Since this was a special occasion, however, I decided to bring food for us and not just for the wolves.
Just as we were starting to feel relaxed, and the wolves were almost finished eating the meat we brought, I heard a flapping noise from the entrance of the stone building.
“!- A bat?”
I was about to turn around, but before I could:
“SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK”
A screech loud enough to knock us down and make us cover our ears sounded from the inside the mausoleum.
Our wolves ran away instantly, and we were left alone and stunned from the high pitch noise.
I only managed to catch a glimpse of a red tail before the creature flew back into the darkness.
“An imp!”
Toba was still collapsed on the ground, clutching his wolf-like ears.
“GET UP TOBA!” I shouted at him while dragging him and our equipment inside the building.
“W- we’re going in!?”
“We have no choice.”
We were resting in peace because the zombies and skeletons were far away from each other, and didn’t notice us unless we got too close.
As Toba finally looked to his surroundings, he understood that the imp’s screech wasn’t just an intimidation tactic.
Countless zombies were getting up and slowly walking towards us, even the heavy fog and miasma couldn’t hide them all.
The imp didn’t want to scare us away, it wanted to lure us inside. It was impossible to get past all the zombies he awakened.
“Sigh… I hope the wolves are ok.” I said without thinking.
No… They’re dead for sure.
We hurriedly picked up our equipment and weapons as the zombies continued getting closer.
Toba had an understandably panicked looking face, but I couldn’t feed into the fire, so I did my best to stay as calm as possible while gathering the last of my stuff.
Before the zombies could get too close, we rushed inside the building.
…
“They really aren’t following us inside… I wonder why that is.” I mumbled while angling my torch up towards the exit behind us.
“…”
“We’ll probably be fine, you know? That imp must be used to luring in inexperienced and weak adventurers, and he’s up for a surprise when we get him.”
“…”
“That awful screech he let out, I bet some cowardly rookies would be shitting their pants right now, but not us. We’re not cowards, right Toba?” I said as I looked back to him, sheathing my sword and placing my hand on his shoulder.
He was trembling awfully.
“Look, I need you sharp in here. If you don’t man up, you’ll become a nuisance, but if you just fight like always, we won’t have any problems. I have my spells after all.”
If only this guy knew his own strength…
“… Does brother promise?” Finally letting out some words, Toba’s shoulder started to stop trembling.
“I promise. Have I ever lost a fight?”
“… The one with-”
“Shut up. WE never lost a fight, that’s what I meant.”
Now that I think about it… Have I ever WON a fight?
With Toba now somewhat stable, we continued descending the narrow steps.
The stone stairs led down a tight corridor, and there wasn’t enough space for us to comfortably walk shoulder to shoulder.
There was no light sources and the sun no longer reached us, but apart from the lack of compass, we had prepared well, and we brought good torches with us.
Fighting in tight corridors like this was perfect for a spear, but our opponents were small, flying creatures, so stabbing wouldn’t be easy.
If something managed to get past the spear, we would be in trouble, so the spear/sword combination I used against the tiger was a good alternative.
I didn’t have two hands available though, and accuracy goes down the drain when dual wielding.
“Toba, keep your spear out, and aim above my shoulder, I’ll use my sword.”
“Hm!”
Since Toba was walking behind me, and the steps were steep, he had good reach with his spear. Meanwhile, I would use my sword for more precise slashing strikes against any imps that dared get too close.
After what felt like 10 minutes of walking straight down the same stone corridors of the mausoleum, we finally started to hear something.
“Brother…”
“I heard it too. Keep an eye out on the walls and ceiling.” As I said that, I slowed down my steps.
It was a sound like stones tumbling down, but it felt too artificial. Like someone dropped them on purpose.
I was reckless, but I wasn’t dumb. I knew the imps wouldn’t fight fair, and so I had my eyes peeled for any tricks they would pull.
Just like I thought, I managed to catch a faint glimpse of a tail on the ceiling a little further down. I couldn’t see it completely, and only saw the shadows move slightly, but I could make out its position.
What now? It’s probably waiting to ambush us, and it made the noise to bring our attention down the steps, but we can’t reach it that far, and I don’t want to waste a spell on him.
Fuck it, I’ll take a gamble while we’re still not close to him. It’s safer this way.
Before I even warned Toba, I grabbed my sword and torch with the same hand, and threw a knife with the other.
PIIIINGG~
There was no fleshy sound.
“BROTHER!”
Just as Toba screamed and tried stabbing at something in the air, I felt something fly by at me from behind.
This angle!
The creature had jumped from behind us in an angle that made it awkward for Toba to turn around and stab it and got past him to strike at me.
We were wary of our surroundings, but somehow it managed to get past our sight and position behind us. Since we didn’t think we missed anything, we didn’t pay attention to our backs.
That overconfidence was our mistake.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
All I managed to do was turn around and grab my sword with both hands, dropping my torch.
I was too slow, however, and my grip was still adjusting when its claws hit me.
PANG!
A dark energy emanating from his claws made a tiny explosion against my blade and blasted it out of my hand. The force produced was out of proportion for a creature that size and took me by surprise.
For a moment I fully saw it, a devil the size of a cat, with red skin, small horns, and a heart shaped tail.
Its leathery wings glowed against the light of Toba’s torch, and that same light made the razor sharp claws protruding out of its fingers glow ominously.
Matching the claws, needle like teeth were organized in its open smile, and the head that looked like a distorted and frail baby looked straight in my eyes as if mocking me.
These eyes…
I was disarmed, and Toba couldn’t fully commit to attacking the creature or he would risk striking at me instead.
Instead of thrusting, Toba choked his grip and made a swiping motion. The horn tip passed inches away from my face.
As if it had predicted it, the imp dropped down to the ground and avoided the blow. Now positioned just under me, it prepared to pounce again.
“GO BACK TO HELL YOU SATANIC ABORTION!”
As my foot approached its tiny ribs, his slanted pupils contracted, and his smile died down a little bit.
I kicked it with all my strength. There was no technique involved, I just spun around and kicked it as if it was a soccer ball.
“Shrieeeeeeeeek!!”
The imp exploded against the wall like a bird hitting a window. The sensation of his ribs breaking against my foot still lingered, and even the screech this time was fainter, as if the air had all blown out of its lungs.
It tried to stumble back up and run, since its wings were now bent in weird angles and wouldn’t even work as a fan.
“DIE.”
BANG.
“DEMON.”
BANG.
“PIECE.”
BANG.
“OF SHIT.”
All that was left was a twitching pile of red. Leathery skin, bones and flesh mingled together in a weird shape that managed to be marginally less hideous than its previous, intact form.
You know, killing demons may actually be my calling in life. Is this why I was reincarnated? I think I’m catholic now.
“B- brother?” Toba brought me back to reality.
“Huff… I’m fine… It just scared me a little, that’s all.”
“Hm…” He nodded while keeping his head down, seemingly on the verge of crying.
Fuck. Am I supposed to be his therapist now? I’m trying to keep calm as well; I wasn’t expecting that thing to have magical attacks.
“Hey Toba.”
“…” Silence was all I got.
“Fuck…”
Having ran out of patience, and still angry that I was tricked by that imp without even understanding what happened, I grabbed Toba by the collar and started pulling him back up the stairs.
“B- brother?? Are we going back?”
I didn’t answer, and after a minute or so of walking up, I stopped abruptly.
“Right… It should be safe enough here.”
“Toba doesn’t under-”
SLAP
“Uuuuuh-” After getting slapped in the face, Toba finally began crying.
SLAP
The second slap made him swallow his tears though.
“Ok… Done crying?”
“… Hm.” He nodded.
This kid isn’t a stranger to breaking bones during training at all, and never complained about pain once.
A slap to the face, however, does psychological damage.
“Listen, you can cry all you want when we get back to town, but right now I need you to be a soldier.”
“Soldier?”
“Yes, I need you to do nothing else other than kill our enemies before they kill us. I need you to think about nothing else other than that. Do you understand why I’m asking you this?”
“…” He shook his head.
Seriously? This time I thought he’d get it.
“Because we’re both going to die if you stay like this.” I said with a serious face while looking him straight in the eyes.
Much to my discontent, however, his eyes began to tear up again.
“Sniff… T- Toba is sorry…” He tried his best to hold in his crying.
FUCK! IT DIDN’T WORK!
I had to remember that he was still just a child, unlike myself. The problem was that I had zero knowledge on how to deal with children.
“Sigh… Why are you crying again? We fought tons of battles already, but if you’re that scared, we can go back.”
“I- I’m not scared…” Toba seemed slightly offended by that statement, which only served to confuse me further.
“What is it then?”
“…”
Tsk, I don’t have time for this. I was hoping a few slaps would bring him back to reality, but this is taking too long. The imps may notice and want to use this opportunity to attack.
For a few moments my attention was completely focused on our surroundings, trying to notice any enemies creeping up the narrow stairs.
“I couldn’t protect brother…” Toba’s words brought me back out of my daze.
“What? When?”
“The imp… I feared hitting brother as well… And missed…”
You gotta be kidding me.
“Look, we’re not in a safe place so I’m going to be blunt. You made the imp dodge and bought me enough time to attack, there was nothing wrong with it, and it worked out.”
“But-”
“If you let every little thing get to your head, that is what’s going to get us killed. Right now, we’re in danger because we’re having this conversation in enemy territory. Were you looking out for enemies the whole time we talked?”
“Yes!” Toba answered with confidence.
Good. Because I wasn’t.
“Then stop being a retard and act like a soldier from now on. We already killed one of them, we can do this. Or do you want to go back?”
“No! Toba is strong!”
“Great. Keep your eyes sharp, your vision is better than mine.”
We resumed our descent into the stairs.
Now that I had dropped a lit torch down there while fighting the imp, not to mention my sword, we didn’t even need to entertain the idea of stealth. Every single enemy in here was probably aware of us already.
All we needed to focus was on noticing the enemies and not getting ambushed again.
We passed through the imp I stomped to death, and I remembered to rip his horn off for the quest.
My torch must have rolled all the way down, since I couldn’t see its light, but after a minute or so, I found my sword on the ground and picked it up.
I would let Toba carry our light source along with his spear, while wielding my sword with both hands.
The imps weren’t tough, but they were agile and packed a punch in their attacks. Accuracy was fundamental to taking them down fast.
After 3 more minutes, we reached the bottom, and a large hall opened in front of us. My torch was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, snuffed out.
“There was only one?” Toba asked with a stable voice. He seemed to have completely calmed down.
“Definitely not… I think they won’t risk attacking alone anymore, after having one of them turned into paste.”
“So…”
“Yes, next time we fight, be ready for a lot of them at once.”
This mission was highlighting just how much the intelligence of a monster brings up its danger. If the imps behaved like zombies, this would be a straightforward task, but with creatures as intelligent as them, we were in for a serious challenge.
The hall was large, but it was filled with coffins on all sides. It looked like a library, but instead of rows of books, the stone “bookshelves” had three to four human sized coffins each.
There were also a few ornate coffins spaced out and displayed either standing up against the wall or flat on an elevated surface.
The ceiling wasn’t high, but all the coffins made this the perfect hiding grounds for imps, or possibly even larger creatures.
“Let’s proceed carefully, stick to the walls on the left and remember where you came from. If it all goes south, we run back.”
Toba nodded in response, and we began to walk the silent hall.
Judging by how the undead earlier avoided coming down to this place, I was betting on these coffins being void of zombies, but we couldn’t be too sure.
If every single coffin, or even half of them, were to be loaded with a surprise…
Avoiding those bad thoughts, I continued to walk with my eyes and ears strained to absolute focus.
If I were a shitty little imp, I would probably want to ambush us right at the corner of the hall. Especially since we are on a predictable path forward.
So, if we were to suddenly change directions right when it’s about to attack…
Right when we were about to reach the end of the hall, I quickly turned right, passing through a coffin shelf.
We were walking slowly until then, and I wanted to surprise any attackers, so I turned around as quickly as I could after confirming there was nothing in front of me.
There was nothing on the ground, but surely enough, I spotted a red skinned imp hiding behind the shelf, he seemed surprised.
I immediately slashed vertically with my sword, forcing him to flee either left or right.
Since Toba was right behind me on the right, he jumped left.
Got it!
A quick knife throw did the work, as it lodged itself deep into its spine.
He’s still alive but he won’t get up, I need to-
CLANG!
Swat!
Sure enough, the rest started their attack immediately, with one of them clashing with my sword, and the other having to dodge a quick sweep from Toba’s spear shaft.
Toba had already dropped his torch and was wielding his spear with both hands, which was the smart choice now that we were on flat ground.
I, on the other hand, managed to keep my sword after taking the magical “punch” the imp’s claws carried. It didn’t feel great, and my hands hurt quite a lot, but now that I was prepared, I could defend against it.
These demons learn quick, once I’ve shown them something, it’s better if I change up my tactics immediately.
If I was fighting normally, I would probably drive it back and throw more knives, just like I did with the first imp I had just killed.
I couldn’t afford to miss, however, and since they had already seen I could throw knives…
I slashed diagonally at the imp after blocking his attack… But it was a feint!
He quickly flew back to dodge it, but the blow didn’t come.
That momentary confusion, coupled with the fact that he flew back just enough to dodge the blow, gave me an opening to jump and skewer him with a thrust from my sword.
Toba was still struggling in his fight, but when he saw I had finished on my side, he took advantage of the fact that his demon had his back turned to me.
Another large sweep, another dodge downwards… Only this time there was a dagger waiting for that little hellspawn.
That takes my kill count to four. Toba must catch up if he wants to be a demon slayer like me.
“How does brother do it? Toba couldn’t hit it…”
“It’s all about speed and variation. They’re not dumb monsters that will fall for the same trick twice.”
“…”
“Don’t use the same attacks in a row, and don’t worry about strength, they die easily.”
“Toba understands!”
I was about to collect the horns and keep going, when I noticed something was wrong.
The imp I ambushed was missing, in its place only a small puddle of blood.
Great, they regenerate too.
“One of them got away, stay on alert while I gather the horns.”
I was about to complain that Toba didn’t notice the imp getting away, but I should have been paying attention too.
After collecting two more horns, we proceeded through the only other door in the hall.
More downward stairs… This screams of lazy construction spells.
I was beginning to consider going back with only 3/5 of the quest complete, but it would be a huge blow to my ego.
I had just spent a month complaining that I couldn’t do harder quests, so now that I had lied and cheated my way into a challenge, I couldn’t back down.
…
After a minute we finally reached another room, but now the “dungeon” had finally opened up.
This room had a ceiling of similar height to the previous hall but was about half its size and only had coffins on the walls, but they were all adorned.
There were three closed doors leading to other rooms, not counting the one we came from.
Since there was not even a trace of blood from the imp I injured, it was pretty much confirmed they had regenerative capabilities.
I should have researched them better…
I could see this going one of two ways. Either the remaining imps would keep avoiding us until we’re forced to leave empty handed, or they would try to ambush us once more with all they’ve got.
Which one was more likely would depend on their remaining numbers, and demons were rare in low level areas, since they can’t reproduce outside of hell.
This meant that despite my feelings on the matter, I would probably fail this quest. If that imp hadn’t gotten away things would be different.
Either way, we had to move on.
I quietly motioned for Toba to stay away from the coffins. This place was low on monsters so far, and that was odd, so I wasn’t feeling as sure about the coffins being empty anymore.
Room straight ahead: dead end. Room on the left: dead end. The room on the right had two doors.
Before we kept going, I noticed something on the ground, shining against the light of Toba’s torch.
Hair? Can’t tell the exact color with this torch but it’s on the lighter side.
It was right in the middle of the room too. Someone must have passed through here relatively recently.
We hadn’t found any other signs in the rooms before or the stairs, which was odd to say the least.
“Let’s go.” I whispered.
Now more carefully moving between rooms, I started to notice more and more strands of hair popping up, and even more noticeable, some of the coffins were open.
Most didn’t have anything inside, but eventually we found a mummy.
It had sharp puncture wounds on the forehead, three of them to be precise, with a very small amount of what I could guess was embalming fluid mixed with blood smeared on the bandages.
Whoever killed this guy did it before he could leave his coffin. Maybe they’re still here?
The mummy honestly looked really cool. The bandages were laid on thick, hiding the usual zombie grossness, and it didn’t seem to be actively rotting or falling apart either.
The mouth and eyes were the only places uncovered by bandages, and its teeth had metal engravings on them, contrasting against the dark color resulted from years and years of aging.
The eyes were also surprisingly still there. Whatever process was used for mummification in this world, it seemed fairly advanced and certainly involved magic.
As I was examining my surroundings trying to find more traces, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
FUCK! Oh… It was Toba.
I almost never got scared after everything I went through in this second life, but that was out of character for Toba.
We were also in a very quiet, giant tomb filled with undead and demons, so I had every right to get spooked…
Toba noticed I got scared but ignored it and gestured to his ears.
“Did you hear something?” I whispered.
He nodded in response.
Before he could tell me what it was, I noticed a slight tremor, along with a faint noise I couldn’t identify.
It seemed to come from deeper within the tomb, and I had a hunch that whoever killed that mummy was involved.
“let’s go.”
Without a word, Toba followed me as I rushed through the various doors and rooms.
He was probably worried about the mysterious adventurer leaving hairs around, and while I don’t exactly share completely in his urge to risk myself and save any stranger I come across, the other option would be abandoning the quest and going back.
Making allies was also good.
As long as you don’t get your hopes up, that is.
As we continued running towards the source of the sound, the number of open coffins increased, all with dead mummies either in them or next to them.
There was also a dead imp, which meant we only had to find one more.
I wonder if that’s the one who ran away.
The sound and tremors kept getting bigger and bigger, and the rooms started to change too.
Instead of adorned coffins and dead mummies, there were now remains of skeletons and zombies thrown about in large open rooms. It was finally resembling a regular hunting ground.
After not very long we finally reached the source.
It was an enormous hall that seemed to stretch abnormally far in all directions, with huge columns I could not see the end of.
The undead roamed about freely, fancy sarcophaguses were displayed on top of pedestals, and torches burning with a green light were distributed at regular intervals.
It felt like I had stepped onto a real-life version of an MMO dungeon.
Stealing all the attention from his surroundings was a horned monster no less than 3 meters tall, with the head of a bull and a body worthy of an off-season Ronnie Coleman, carrying an axe at least 2 times my size.
An undead minotaur.
CRASH!
His colossal axe struck the ground, sending stone tiles flying everywhere.
In the middle of all that rubble and dust, with red eyes glowing faintly in the air, a tiny blonde girl was dodging each blow with a blank expression on her face.
It’s her?!
The demon eyes and blonde ponytails left no doubts about her identity, it was the demon girl who knocked me out, bit my leg, and left me with an exposed fracture.
She was wielding long daggers on each hand clearly made for thrusting and would quickly jab against the massive undead each time he missed an attack.
One of the minotaur’s arms had enough tiny wounds in it to be featured in a YouTube trypophobia video.
Not being able to get close enough to attack its brain, she was fighting a battle of attrition against an undead, which was far from an ideal situation.
Not to mention the fact that if any of the minotaur’s blows so much as grazed her, she would turn into mincemeat.
Half of my body was screaming “RUN AWAY” with everything it had, while the other half was wondering just how far her tight leather pants could stretch before ripping apart to expose her expertly toned body.
I decided to listen to the other half. The lower half, that is.
A quick glance at Toba was enough to know the limits of his sense of justice had been reached. He didn’t even know what to think in front of a creature that size.
The other undead roaming about were not getting close to the fight, but surely some of them would notice us and attack if we stood idle for too long.
“I’ll help her. You kill the zombies for us.”
Leaving what could very well be my last words, I started to run towards them.
Am I seriously risking my life just to save a girl who beat me up?
What worried me the most was the very fact that I wasn’t scared.
By all accounts I should have frozen up like Toba at the sight of that monstrosity, but there I was, running towards it.
There was a deeper emotion running through me that erased any common sense I should have. I didn’t know what it was though.
Now that I had committed, however, I had to take this seriously.
She’s not moving that much to dodge, the monster’s attacks are not that accurate but they’re fast and unpredictable, so she doesn’t commit too much to any one movement or he might follow up immediately and end her struggles.
Sharp, fast dodges, while being ready for sudden wild swings.
She also only attacks right after a dodge, as he’s retreating his arm. I suppose at some point that might wear him down enough, but undead don’t feel pain, and don’t die from bleeding.
I’m getting close, I’ll mimic her for now. Throwing firebolts at his back could be fruitful but it would be too risky and could throw everything off.
Maybe I can finally use that spell though…
I got close enough, and he immediately swung at me, his axe colliding with the ground just in front of me.
The wind pressure from the blow was something I had never felt before. It wasn’t just strength, that was raw mass.
He roared at me as his eyes bulged out. It was like he was telling me to fuck off and not get involved.
The stronger the undead, the better they retain their will… He isn’t a mindless zombie.
My legs were almost giving out just from his stare, but I couldn’t back off now.
Especially since a certain girl was using the opportunity to get close to him.
I saw the demon girl quickly approaching him, so just as the monster was about to turn back and stop dealing with me, I threw a knife at his left eye.
PING.
He shook his head and deflected the knife with his rotten horns.
Just as he raised his axe again to cleave me in half, the girl jumped and attached herself to his shoulder like a tick.
The size difference made it possible for her to pierce his neck with her dagger and jump off with a kick without even making him move.
The wound this time was more substantial than the ones in his arm, but it still wasn’t nowhere near enough to bring him down.
She could have gone for his brain instead, but the dagger would get stuck to the skull, and it could spell her end.
Even though she opted for the less risky option, it still wasn’t enough. While she was still in midair, the minotaur, from his stance ready to bring the axe down on me, shifted his body and made a quick swing with the butt of his weapon towards her.
The dark wood impacted her slender body and sent her flying my way.
Before she could fully stand, the axe came down on us.
CRASH!
We managed to roll away, but he didn’t end there.
Four more blows, each one of them with more than enough power to kill us instantly.
We were being surprisingly coordinated, however, as we dodged in opposite directions and made him keep turning around to keep both of us in check.
A quick glance at Toba revealed he had felled five zombies already and didn’t seem to be in any danger. He was moving around the battlefield picking off any undead around us, so we wouldn’t run into them while dodging or fleeing.
The ground around us was destroyed by constant axe blows and we were often touching earth. The broken stones that were spread all over also meant we needed to be careful not to slip.
One mistake.
One mistake and I’m dead.
One mistake from any of us and we’re all dead.
The girl managed to get a few stabs in, all in the minotaur’s left arm. It seemed she was focusing on one spot whenever she couldn’t reach a more vital point.
I wasn’t fighting back at all; it took all I had just to stay alive.
Whenever I would prepare to throw a dagger, the monster would always swing haphazardly at me without even looking. It was enough to throw me off balance while he kept the girl in check.
“TOBA GET ME THE SPEARS!”
My shout alerted the beast, who again swung unpredictably my way, but I was prepared.
The girl tried getting in for a stab, only to get kicked in the process.
It didn’t fully connect, but it still knocked her down.
The monster choked his grip on the axe and was about to dice her like a carrot with a quick chop.
He wasn’t going to be fazed by a knife or even a stab with my sword. If he killed her now, I had no chance against him, and he knew that.
He wasn’t going to stop even if I attacked him with everything I had. Even if I had my spears.
Or so he thought.
[IGNIS]!
The small fireball collided against his back, the explosion made a huge echo, and he stumbled forward.
His back was completely scorched with chunks of flesh missing, making his spine almost visible.
Even so, he still tried to hit the girl, but she had more than enough time to get up and dodge.
In doing so, she looked at me and nodded. Probably the best show of goodwill in years.
That’s a start… All I had to do to get it was save her life.
Toba was running with the spears in hand, but I gestured to him that it was no longer necessary.
The minotaur was angry and was trashing about with greater speed than before, changing weapons would be of no use now.
Something that would absolutely incapacitate a living being only served to agitate him even more, despite dealing significant damage.
That was the dangerous part about the undead. Some adventurers say they kill you by draining your stamina, not your health.
We were both exhausted. We could either risk it all and finish this quickly or try to push beyond our limits and hope we hold out.
I wasn’t going to bet on my cardio though. And I wasn’t too keen on risking my life either, not anymore than I already have.
Turns out I have just the right tool for this situation.
“I’m going to distract him so we can pop a stamina potion, when you see me activate a weird spell, just run towards Toba.”
She took a little time to consider but ended up trusting me.
“Ok.” She said without a hint of emotion in her voice.
Would it be better to hit him with two more minor firebolts?
Almost certainly.
Was the decision to not do so partly because I really wanted to test out my rare and very cool spell?
Probably yes.
I took an engraved pearl out of my hip satchel like I had practiced a thousand times. Even amid the rubble I didn’t drop it.
Just after he tried to hit me and turned his attention back to my newly acquainted blond girl, I spun the pearl on my index finger and said the word of power.
[DARKNESS]!
A dark mist spread all around us as if devouring reality itself. The minotaur turning his head towards me was the last thing I saw before I started running with everything I had towards Toba’s general direction.
After running a fair bit, I finally got out of the spell’s range.
“It really does spread out a lot, huh?” I said as I took three stamina potions out of my bag.
Before I ran over to give Toba his share, however, I noticed the girl was nowhere to be found.
Wait, was she caught by surprise as well? I did say to run towards Toba, but I didn’t specify it would blind her.
Fuck! Did she get lost? I need to find her quickly!
I left the potions on the ground and ran back into the dark cloud. I would need to find her with my hearing.
The problem was, I couldn’t hear her steps at all!
All I could hear was the minotaur stomping and swinging about and nothing else.
Is she being stealthy?
As I was focusing trying to hear her, my ears caught something else entirely.
A slight flap of wings.
Wait, what?
PWANG!
My back felt hot, very hot, and my knees gave up trying to carry the weight of my body, that seemed to have suddenly quadrupled.
As my body hit the ground, I could feel something warm soaking up my vest, some sort of liquid.
How could it hit me so precisely?
Everything in the area should be completely obscured, and my senses are better than average.
How did it land such a clean blow against me?
I can’t believe I’m going to die over a fucking imp.
I heard another body hitting the floor, only this one was much louder.
The minotaur? Did the imp get him too?
Wait, could it be that it can see inside my spell?
Even as I cursed my own demise, I gripped my sword and kept swinging at the slightest sound while crawling backwards.
My head felt light, but strangely enough, the lack of vision helped me focus and keep me from fainting.
I was straining every single cell in my ears and nose, the imp was fast, but I would be faster.
If I could get a hit in, it would be possible to follow up and kill him.
Even just a scratch would confirm his position and make him move, thus creating even more noise.
I was focusing so much. It was like my head was eating itself, the loss of blood also didn’t help one bit.
That’s when I heard it.
A slight, tiny step made with very tiny feet.
Swoosh!
Something flied past me and hit it with a fleshy sound.
“SCREEEECH!”
The imp screamed in the now much familiar way, before getting hit once more and falling to the ground.
“How long are you planning on staying there? We need to close your wound.”
It was a feminine voice, with a tinge of annoyance and… awkwardness? There was no doubt about who it belonged to.
“Wait… you killed them?”
“Yes. I don’t know which spell you cast, but it blinded the minotaur.”
“You can see inside it?”
“Let’s get out of here first…”
There was an awkward pause, as if she was deciding what to do.
Before it got too awkward, however, she helped me stand up, and guided me through the spell.
Halfway through, the duration ended, and it began to dissipate.
“I think… It has something to do with my eyes. The imp could see inside it as well.”
There was a sadness in her voice, as if it pained her greatly to compare herself with the creature.
“You saved my life, thanks.”
“No, I’m the one who needs to thank you. It was my fight to begin with, and you saved me first.”
“Let’s not worry about that. My name is Cona, by the way.”
“…”
“…”
With a silence that put the earlier pause to shame, the mood got really awkward. She clearly didn’t interact much with people, and the fact that she was pressed up against me helping me walk probably didn’t help.
Nevertheless, she eventually spoke.
“My name is Mia.”
That was the last thing I heard before passing out from blood loss.