Darkness surrounded me as I lay on my bed. I was ready to jump out at any time. My mind sharp and trying to sense as many Aether signatures as I could. When the clock in the hallway signaled 3 AM, the unknown group of people started to approach the building.
8…. 9? yeah, 9 people are trying to get inside.
I got up and walked into the hallway. I softly called out for Lucian as the door to Zeph’s room opened up and he silently walked out of the room. Lucian then joined us as well while I noticed that Amber was already on her way down the stairs.
“How many and where are they?” Lucian whispers.
“9 near the basement stairway,” I whispered back with a quick and short answer. “They came inside from the other side of the building. They all went in and I don’t sense any others outside.”
We made our way down the stairs as silently as possible when we saw Amber waiting for us.
We gathered together and continued to the basement stairway.
“There are about 9 aren’t there?” Amber said softly as we approached.
As Ignisari, Zeph, Amber, and myself, are really sensitive to Aether in the air but at different levels. Zeph was not good at it at all but still much better than other races while Amber was not as adept in sensing Aether in her surroundings as I was.
“Yeah, I think they are at the vault door.”, I replied, trying to focus hard on my senses.
Zeph reached the stairway first and could hear the people rummaging around downstairs.
“Ok I think I will go in first to cause some chaos. Amber, if you can join me quickly after their focus is on me, that would be perfect.”
Amber nodded. And got into position.
“Zephyria will jump in as we are working our magic and Lucian will keep an eye on us and give us support. What do you guys think?”
Determined, we all nodded in agreement and started going down the stairs.
As we moved down the dark stairs, trying to stay as silent as we could we finally reached the bottom. The trip down was excruciating. The stairs were made of wood and cracked a lot under our weight and we were lucky those robbers didn’t hear us coming down. Between the stairs and the vault room was a small corridor that was about 20 meters long. It had a big door that was opened.
As we slowly moved through the hallway a female voice suddenly called out from inside the room.
“They're here!” she called out and quickly after a few of them appeared in the door opening. Searching for movement.
“Shit, I thought we would be able to get closer,” Amber said quietly.
“No use in holding back now then,” Zeph replied while getting his weapon ready.
The hallway was dark enough to give us some cover as long as we didn’t move. This was the sole reason that they didn’t attack us yet. The owner of the female voice walked into view and, to our surprise, we saw that she was an Ignisari as well.
“Shit, there goes our advantage. What now?” Amber whispered.
I was thinking as fast as I could while trying to keep track of the people inside the vault room. Zeph was currently our main attacker while Amber would be able to support with heavy magic attacks. The only problem was that they couldn’t be too strong or we would destroy the building with us in it. Then there is Lucian but he doesn’t have the offensive skills to really do much, which leaves me.
“Ok, I have an idea,” I whispered. “I will join Zeph in the front. We are both battlemages so my offensive abilities are also on par with any fighter. Amber, you stay back and cast whichever magic isn’t too strong but will keep them busy. Zeph and I will take advantage of the interruptions. Lucian, you do what you always do. Interrupt with magic and heal when necessary.” I sounded a lot more confident than I really felt while laying out the plan. The darkness covered the way my body was shaking from the fear of combat against people.
Everybody agreed and I very carefully moved forward. Though apparently, it wasn’t enough as 1 of the robbers in the doorway started moving into the corridor.
“I think I saw movement,” he said as he aimed his sword into the hallway while slowly inching towards us.
Suddenly a thought sprang into my head, though it would be neither the place nor time for this. Nevertheless, me and Zeph started giggling.
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This reminds me of those stealth games I used to play on Earth. If we stay still will he just not see us and say “Hmm, must have been the wind”
As we were waiting for the right moment Amber put her hand on my back.
“Ready!” She whispered. She also felt me shaking and kept her hand on my back to calm me down. This also made me realize that it was us or them now. I couldn’t hold back. It might mean the death of me and my friends.
Lucian tapped Zeph’s back as a sign of readiness and the moment the robber got close enough, we jumped out.
Before the first robber even knew what happened Zeph already sliced his neck, leaving the robber to drop to the floor without making a sound. While Zeph took down the first robber I used my magic to enhance my speed and wind to give me even more of an edge. Without much trouble, I blasted into the room and using my momentum sliced through the Ignisarian robber. Behind me, Zeph took down the other robber who was still to the left of the doorframe.
That's 3 down, 6 to go. I thought.
When I dropped their mage they quickly saw what was happening and were able to quickly regroup.
With no real opening to attack, it was time for talks.
“Who are you guys and what are you doing here?” Zeph called out as we both pointed our spears towards them.
Meanwhile, Amber and Lucian ran in and took up a position behind us.
One of the robbers started laughing “Whahaha, you seriously have no idea who we are, do you? Well, it doesn't matter.”
A tall man I sensed was there came walking out from just around the corner of the vault behind the group of robbers.
The man had a dark cloak with dark clothing but surprisingly it had some patterns on it marked by a silver lining. On his left hip, we could just see 2 hilts from 2 different swords which looked to be light blades. He slowly walked up to his group and stood there behind them.
“Look,” he started with a somewhat menacing kind of voice. “You guys have no clue who you are dealing with and I would suggest not making this harder than it has to be.” The man looked down while putting his hand on his forehead.
“We didn’t want any casualties and certainly didn’t want to harm you people. But as we are now, we don’t really have any choice now do we?”
“Well, maybe if you just stayed away, this wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place. So I ask again,” Zeph’s sounding more and more threatening now. “Who are you and what are you doing here!”.
“I have no reason to disclose any of that information. And seeing where we are now, I don’t really see any other way to get out of here than to go through you.” He looked up again and took off the hood he was wearing that kept us from seeing his face.
“Now as you were so rude to interrupt our little plan here, I will have to deal with you directly.” The group of robbers in front of him moved to the right towards the vault door and started working on breaking the lock.
“Now, I believe your name is Amber, is it not.” He looked at her with a wicked smile while he sounded like he was anticipating a fight he would enjoy. “Won’t you be a good girl and open the vault door for me? Because that’s what good girls do right? They listen to what they are told.”
“You are better off going back to your little hideout, wherever that may be, and kiss your leader's ass. I am not opening the vault door any time soon.”
Amber tried to be somewhat intimidating but the guy in front of us clearly had experience in battle, much more than we did.
“Now now, there is no reason to start cursing. What have I done to you so far? You are the ones that killed 3 of my comrades. But it seems my options are running out, aren’t they?”
Shit, Shit, Shit, what do we do? We can’t take this guy on! He is way too strong. I thought.
With a roar, one of the robbers swung his axe on the lock of the door that I just noticed was an intrinsic pattern that waved over the center line between the 2 sides of the door. A crack appeared on it and with the second swing, it started to crumble even more.
“Well, this is a surprise. It seems you guys might just live to die another day. Lucky you.” he said as he turned around and walked to the door.
We didn’t know what they wanted but the moment the final swing broke the door's locking mechanism the doors suddenly started to glow brightly. The whole room suddenly was bathed in light. Amber, Lucian, and Zeph rushed away from the door while one of the robbers, trying to run away, stumbled and hit me, making me fall on my back.
The light seemed to get brighter with every second and my eyes hurt from the light even when I had them closed and looking away from the door. After a few seconds that felt like minutes, I heard Amber shout out to me.
“Zephyria! Follow my voice and get out of the light quickly! I think it is defense mecha…”
Suddenly the light was gone and it took a while for my eyes to lose its pain from the intense brightness I just came out of. The pain subsided more and more and I tried to stand up. The moment I tried I almost fell over and landed on my hands and knees in the… sand?
Wait a minute? Why am I in the sand? My thoughts were racing and my eyes were still closed from the bright light. After a minute or 2 I could finally open my eyes and look at where I was.
“What the… What is this… Where am I” I called out in surprise and confusion.
I looked like I was now in the middle of a desert. There was no light anywhere, No villages to be seen, no roads. There was, however, 1 thing more important.
“Shit,Shit, Shit, Shit.” I suddenly yelled in frustration. “How am I going to survive here? There is no Aether anywhere. I can’t sense anyone. There is nothing here.” I fell to my knees as I cried out in panic. “WHERE AM I!”