Mathew’s group had finished off a small band of Undead. Given how long it took to kill the three of them, he was more than sure this group was around Level 10 each. He pulled out a canteen from his bag and took a long sip.
He then started to summon Wispy, as it had fallen in combat. He took a risk and flew the wisp closer to the group. It was the wrong decision, and now he had to sacrifice precious mana to bring it back.
“Well, things are going smoothly so far. How much further till the end you all think?” Victor asked.
Alan shrugged, “Mazes are not my thing. If I had to bet, we are near the entrance, or another team. I doubt our luck is good enough to be near the end this quickly.”
“It’s a Novice Dungeon.” Agnox said from his spot on Jeffrey’s back. “Each Dungeon has a size limitation. Novice is about 1-2 square kilometers, if using Earth metrics.”
“Ew gross, European mectrics.” Victor said. “Use feet, yards, or miles like a real winner.”
Agnox shrugged, “Meters work best for my own conversions. We use a base seven counting system back with my clan. Base ten is another common counting form, and meters are a nice number. I have no idea why miles use such a random number of feet. Why even use feet?”
“Well, back before we had an accepted measuring system. Distance was measured in your foot size and paces.” Victor explained. “Hence the term ‘foot’. Then the English had to ruin it all and standardized everything. The English ruin everything. Fucking bastards.”
“You just say that because your family is Irish Vic.” One of his team mates said.
“And I’ll die Irish!”
“I thought you were American?”
“I’m both!”
Mathew rolled his eyes and sighed in annoyance. “You all need to stay quiet. You will bring everything here to us if you keep arguing with each other.”
Another couple minutes of wandering and backtracking led them to a lone undead. Alan sliced it in half with a single swig, showing how weak it was.
Mathew frowned and pulled out a notebook to add onto the map he was drawing. “If we triple back to the crossroads we came to, we can go through the right passage, that should take us further down to the end. It’s the only way we hadn’t gone without going all the way back to the beginning.”
“What are the odds our path is correct?” Victor asked.
Mathew shrugged, “I’m betting all paths lead to the end. Poor planning to do it that way. If there is only a singular path, you corner yourself. No way to escape.”
Alan nodded, as if he understood. “Makes sense to me. Let's get going.”
Mathew stopped and narrowed his eyes. He saw something come out of Alan’s mouth, as if it was cold. He blew warm air out, and saw it fog in front of his face.
Slowly charging up his rod, Mathew made a hand signal.Everyone else readied their weapons for the next fight. “What is it Mathew?” Alan asked.
“No clue, I can see my breath and a cold shiver just went down my back.”
Agnox narrowed his eyes and looked around. “I don’t see anything, and I can see kinda better than you guys can. Unless you have a technique.”
Suddenly Victor cried out in pain and fell to his knees as a ghostly apparition raked its claws down his back. Before any attack could land on it, it faded into the floor.
“Fiery shit! A fucking ghost!” Agnox called out in a panic. “How is that here?”
“Explain please for the rest of us!” Victor’s medic shouted, as she started to patch up Victor.
“Okay, short version. Ghosts are not supposed to exist. Messing with a spirit is unaccepted by everyone. Even The System hates those who mess with souls and spirits. The Black King is a rare exception if you heard of him, which I doubt. Anyways, ghosts are souls or spirits manifested. If one exists here, than the Dungeon Boss is either stupid, desperate, or something we can’t fight. The punishment The System deals is always deadly.”
Mathew looked up at his imp. “I think we both know which option that is.” He saw it just a moment early enough, the ghost appeared behind Alan. “Behind you!”
Alan turned, and claws raked down across his body, but stopped thanks to his mana armor. “Fucking, hell no. We need to get out of here! “Alan shouted. Mathew threw his attack, but it just splattered against the stone wall.
“Go where? It can go through walls!” The mage shouted just before he was grabbed by the ghost. Mathwe saw another image of the mage get shifted slightly and then fell to the ground.
Mathew was able to get a better look at the ghost. It was humanly shaped. Tattered clothes hung off of it like a robe. Its hands ended in four elongated claws. Its face looked familiar to Mathew, which was not good news for him. If Bob killed himself to make himself a ghost, that would ruin his plans.
He blinked and he continued to look around. Mathew backed up to Alan and Jeffrey. Agnox floated right above them. “Get back to back!” Mathew shouted. The medic was in a panic trying to patch up both her teammates.
“Ignore them, we can’t save them if we are all dead!” Mathew ordered. He readied a powerful [Mana Bolt].
“Okay, so fast, and hard to hit. That mean low magic? No wait, low health!” Alan muttered to himself.
“This isn’t a game Alan.” Mathew corrected his bodyguard. “It probably can’t even be hit except by magic. Your armor stopped it.”
“Right, so I can’t do jack shit then, ya?”
Mathew was about to answer, but saw the specter fade in right over Victor. He blasted his spell and a high pitched squeal was the result of his attack. “You can help me keep an eye out. Call it out if you see it, we are ending this thing, now.”
Just as he finished talking, the ghost appeared again, finishing off Victor. It got away scott free, Mathew being too slow to get his spell off.
“Vic!”
“Stay focused!” Mathew shouted at the medic. He frowned, this wasn’t good. He needed to figure out a way to kill this thing. No spell he had could affect a wide area. He needed to somehow predict where it would strike next. Only four of them were left in total including Mathew’s summons.
A wave of fiery heat washed over Mathew, as Agnox attacked the ghost, either missing or the flames had little effect. “We should leave!” Agnox called out.
“No, we can’t risk it attacking while we run from it.” Mathew retorted.
He felt a sharp pain drag across the back of his back leg, as he watched Alan attempt to strike the ghost. “I can’t hit it with my axe!” he said as Mathew fell to one knee. His entire left leg felt cold. It was slowly spreading, and he realized why Vic went down so easily.
If this thing attacked him directly…he was done for. He flooded his Axiom of [Resistance] across his body, praying it could protect him. It ate through his mental energy quickly, pushing him to end this fight even faster.
The ghost appeared again, this time by the medic, killing her, but not getting away from another [Mana Blast]. There were only three humans, a wolf, and an Imp now.
“Get over here before it gets you too!” Mathew told the lone warrior.
He rushed to them, but tripped over the body of his comrade. Mathew winced as he saw the ghost shove a hand into its chest, and pull out some energy and eat it. Of course it took long enough for Mathew’s entire barrage of attacks. It let out a high pitched scream, forming Alan and Mathew to wince.
“Okay, maybe now is the time to run.” Mathew admitted. Yet, he had no clue where to go. He had gotten turned around trying to focus on the ghost. If they went the wrong way, they were truly cornered.
“Anyone know which way to go?” Mathew shouted in question.
“That way!” Agnox pointed with his sword, just as the ghost appeared again. Jeffrey lunged out and faded right through the thing. It slashed out at the wolf, causing it to yelp in pain.
Mathew nodded. “Okay, Alan behind me. Jeffrey and Agnox in front. Let’s go!”
Yet, before he could take a single step forward, the ghost appeared in front of him. It grabbed both sides of Mathew’s head, and sucked. Mathew got off a single fully powered [Mana Blast]. A gaping hole was left in the creature.
It let him go, letting him fall to the floor. The coldness washed across his entire body. He struggled to stay awake. His vision slowly went dark as he saw a bright flame wash across the specter.
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Emptiness.
Death.
Cold.
Mathew felt very little, other than those three things. His entire vision was filled with darkness. He was dying, properly dying. He has been close a few times, but this was it. He was surrounded by darkness, whatever life he had remaining was ticking down.
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Looking down at this body, he could see parts of it were missing. His left hand, some of his legs, two gaping holes in his chest. In total, there were seven large gaps across his body, with dozens of little ones.
Floating around him were small parts of him, getting dragged away by some invisible force. Mathew had no idea what was going on, but as more and more pieces of him vanish, he feels weaker. If all of him vanished, he would be dead.
He didn’t want to die, he refused to die. He came so far, just for it to all end here? He refused. Reaching out, he tried to grab one of the pieces floating away, some of it slid through his fingers. He hurriedly pressed it against his right hip, trying to patch himself up.
Continuing to grab out at anything near him, his hand brushed up against a small blob that was solid and cold. Refusing to let anything get away, he grabbed it and pulled it to him. It was a singular small blue thing. It felt oddly familiar.
It was one of the largest chunks he was able to grab thus far, and slammed it into where his left hand would be. He reached out and felt a second one. He grabbed it with an iron grip, and placed it into the same spot, hoping the two sums would fix his hand.
Doing that made him feel better. More whole. He needed more.
Reaching out again, Mathew felt something familiar. An iron chain. He only saw this once, when he bound himself to Agnox. Yanking on the chain, he saw it was connected to his chest, just right where his diaphragm would be.
He started to pull the other end closer and closer to himself. Soon a fiery ball of power came into view. It was almost the size of the hole he had in his chest. “Perfect, this will do nicely.”
He shoved the energy into his chest, and he came back to consciousness. He was lying on the ground, Jeffrey and Agnox were fighting the specter. “DIE YOU DAUGHTER OF A WHORE!”
Vision faded back to darkness, and Mathew couldn’t help himself but laugh at Agnox. Even after how cold he treated the familiar, he still defended him. He was like the family dog, a part of the family just as much as anyone else.
He trusted Agnox. Did he have doubts? Yes. Yet, now more than ever, he knew the imp would protect him. However, would he do the same? Would he risk his life for the little infernal? He paused.
Normally, he would sacrifice the imp in a moment, yet now, he almost couldn’t fathom such an idea. Agnox was a part of him, now more than ever. He felt that.
A wave of cold washed over him again, and he panicked. “I almost died again. Need to focus.”
Mathew reached out for more things to fill his holes of life with. He found another, smaller, ball of fire, and shoved that in his right thigh, where another large piece of him was missing. It didn’t fix it, merely patched it. Out of the four things he found thus far, only the energy that reminded him of Agnox fitted perfectly so far.
Mathew reached further, wider, deeper. He needed one last thing, something like the flaming ball. Enough to wake back up, find Bob, and make him fix him. If Necromancy dealt with life, then Bob can fix him. If he didn’t…
A giant ball grazed his hand. He almost missed it while distracted. Refusing to let his last hope of life get away, he gripped it, but it ran away. “Come back here!”
Mathew reached out again with his hand, chasing the life saving energy. He didn’t care where it came from, or whose it was. If it kept him alive, it would become his.
No mental energy of an Axiom came to him, nor did his mana. All he could use was what little of his life remained. Including the four balls he used to fix himself. The one that resonated with Agnox flowed down his arm, the chain, still connected to his chest, lunged out and wrapped around the evading energy.
He yanked on the chain, tightening its grip around the orb. Then started to pull it closer to himself. A giant green ball of energy floated toward him. “Yes! Come to me! Cure me!”
He shoved it into the whole down by his abdomen. The power reminded him of the same power that resonated with his rod…Doozkora’s rod.
Just as he realized this, his eyes shot open. “NO!” Yet it was too late, it was a part of his body…his life…his soul.
Mathew’s real eyes flew open as he coughed up blood. Alan was holding his body. “Mr. Mathew! Don’t die on me..” Tears flooded the man’s eyes.
“Wh…” was the only sound Mathew could make.
“The imp, Agnox, killed the ghost. We are taking you to the medics, stay alive.”
“Bo…B-...” Mathew muttered, trying to stop him. To take him to Bob, the Dungeon Boss.
Agnox entered his view, he was on Jeffrey’s back. Both of them looked like hell, Agnox was either dead or knocked out.
“Sto..stop.”
Alan sniffed away his tears. “We can’t Mathew. You’re dying. I need to-”
Mathew lightly slapped the man, barely any energy remained in him. “Boss.”
“Why do you want to go to the boss? We can’t fight him!”
“Weak…my…final chance.”
Alan looked down at Mathew then the way forward. He stopped walking and looked back down at the summoner. “Are you sure?”
Mathew coughed once, his eyes piercing into Alans. Mathew needed him to take him to Bob. He was running out of time.
Alan squeezed his eyes. “Okay, I trust you.”
Pulling what little strength he had, he pointed at his bag. “Pills in bag. Feed me.”
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Bob closed his eyes. His spectar both succeeded and failed. It killed Mathew and most of his team, but also died. His knight was still fighting, a stronger version than that brute he created. Yet the woman's group was snaking its way closer. He had nothing left to fight with.
If the ghost returned like he demanded it to mentally, he could reunite with it and reap in the extra life energy. Yet, it refused. He had no clue why it was determined to stay after Mathew. Either it resonated with his hatred of the man, or it was greedy for more life force.
Regardless, he was a dead man. He laid on his cot and thought of his life before. Just as he was imagining his parents, a shout came to him.
“Yo boss man. You are going to fix my friend here, or I’m killing you.”
Bob saw a large man carrying Mathew’s body. Next to him was that mutt of a dog carrying the Imp. All four of them looked to be on death's door.
Bob let out a wheeze of a laugh. “Help him? Why should I. He’s dead.”
The large man shook his head, and Bob heard a whisper of a voice.
“Bastard…fix…me.”
Bob’s eyes went wide and he sat up. “Impossible.”
Even on death’s door, Mathew still remained a thorn in his side. He looked closer at the man and paused. He activated his vision ability and almost choked on his spit. “What..what are you! What is wrong with your soul!”
“I’m fucking Mathew McGonald, and you almost killed me. Alan, bring me closer, so I can beat the ever living shit out of him.”
The large man stepped closer, bringing Mathew to him. If Bob could fight back, he would. Yet barely moving a muscle hurt him. He saw Mathew get placed on his feet, and then the sharp pain of a punch came from his face.
Mathew then punched him two more times. “Fix me.”
“I can’t.”
Mathew punched him again, realizing Bob couldn’t retaliate, he punched him four more times, pent up anger driving his actions. Each movement of his arms burned. His body didn’t hurt, his being hurt. He could move. And he would continue to beat Bob into submission until he got what he wanted.
“You seem to not understand the situation. You are one of the few still alive people on this planet who has pissed me off. Fix me, or you are going to wish you were dead. I’m only punching you because I have no magic, a splitting headache, and an unyielding rage to kill you. Fix me now dammit!” Mathew finished with another punch, and started to cough up blood from the overuse of his taxed body.
Bob spat out blood from his mouth, “I already am. Your friends will be here soon anyway to finish me off in case I don’t die before then..”
Mathew pulled out a stack of paper from his personal space and placed it on Bob’s chest. “Sign the contract. You won’t die. Don’t sign it, you will wish you did.”
Bob eyed the papers. “How did he already have this prepared?” Yet, his face must have given away his thoughts.
“I knew you were the boss. Agnox saw you go in. Sign it, fix me, and you can live long enough to ask how.”
Bob closed his eyes and sighed. If he could fade away into death, he would already do it.
“Won’t matter. I’m already dead even if I sign it.”
“I’ll keep you alive, until you fix me you son of a bitch.” Mathew said, then coughed up more blood, spitting it on the floor. “Sign this, you fix me. You live.” Mathew then punched him again, to push his agenda.