Chapter 16 Underground Part 2
Lanterns on the sides of the bridge lit up as soon as I set my paw on it. Eerie white flames quietly flickered in them, and as I walked further in, so the lights in front of me came to live as if to invite me…
“Since when am I in a horror movie…?”
I followed their path; the city was like a maze of streets and buildings, some of them were already collapsed, others would soon follow, their detailed stone facades crumbling and having lost their former glory.
As I looked around, I could sense no sign of life. It was dead quiet; not even an insect or a mouse dared to enter this city that seemed like part of the underworld…
“…”
After a while, I arrived at the cathedral, the center of the city. Through the big stone doorframe that lost its door, and windows I could see the white flames…
“So, it wants me to go in there…?”
“It literally screams trap…”
“Whatever, let’s see what’s going to happen.” I calmly wandered into the cathedral. On its high ceiling traces of a once grand painting could be seen, but what it depicted was undecipherable by now.
As I walked along the benches and stone pillars, I could already see at the end a big window with tinted glass, the colorful light it produced shone on the gray stone altar. The altar itself looked like chiseled out of one big stone; in the middle, a person-shaped statue came out of the stone, surrounding it, intricate carvings.
Its lower body was obscured by a big stone slab; on it burned down candles that formed one mass of wax, covering the stone almost entirely. The statue itself had its hands together and held out, as if to hold water, but instead a lonely candle burned in it… Its light gave me a feeling of uneasiness… my instincts were telling me to not let it burn out.
But what concerned me the most was directly lying in front of the stairs leading to the alar. It didn’t fit in here at all…
It was a blood-red crystal, eerily glowing…
“What is this thing…?”
I could feel a wired power coming from it but was unable to identify it…
“I have never seen something like this; it doesn’t seem like it’s a magical item…”
As I came closer to it, all flames vanished at once, and just the red glow of the crystal remained. I looked up at the altar, the candle burning just a few seconds ago extinguished…
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“This is bad…”
*Rumble*
As I heard a loud cracking sound and the ground started to shake, it dawned on me…
“This candle was a seal…”
“Shit… I knew it was probably a trap, but still…”
I took a few steps back…
Behind the altar, the stone cracked and broke apart…
And a big monster’s paw, clad in black fur and adorned with sharp claws, grabbed onto the carved stone, cracks appearing in the process…
“Ah…, don’t tell me…”
A giant head came out from behind the altar…
It snarled, baring its teeth at me.
“Yup, it’s a werewolf…” I said unimpressed.
“A classic…”
The giant beast howled.
“Hey, can you understand me?” I asked it in vain as a stone came flying my way…
“Yeah, it's definitely not of the talkative kind…” I thought as I evaded and observed its eyes driven by pure instinct.
In an instant, its large body lunged at me at an incredible speed, driving me out of the cathedral.
I quickly attacked it with sharp ice that formed into a wall to obscure its sight, and ran into an empty building. From it, I observed how it effortlessly shattered my ice, “Are you serious?! It’s not the hardest I can make, but it’s still not easy to destroy just like that…”
Before I could think further, the beast spotted me and with its powerful claws, destroyed the entire building. Reflexively, I sprung out, narrowly escaping the rubble, and manifested countless spears of ice that attacked the werewolf.
But it swiftly avoided them all, “This is the toughest opponent I have had in a while.”
I quickly followed up by freezing the entire ground within a radius of 80 meters around me, leaving it with no chance of escape.
Its feet frozen in place, I took the opportunity and transformed into my panther-like form, adjusting my size to that of the wolfs, who was over 2 meters high standing on its hind legs.
As soon as I finished what took just a second, the werewolf already broke free, giving me no time to attack, and lunged at me again. I evaded its predictable movement and bit into its stretched-out arm, my sharp fangs piercing through its fur that felt like armor, blood gushing out as a result.
A pain filled howl echoed through the city, followed by the other claws swinging my way. I let go of its arm and ducked under the claws flying at me and in one swift motion kicked it with my hind legs in the stomach, resulting in the wolf flying through one building after another.
“In this form, I’m as strong as the werewolf and even faster than it.”
I quickly ran after it, who was still flying through buildings, destroying them in the process, “Maybe I overdid it a bit…”
As the wolf lost its speed and was about to land in the final building, I let ice spears grow out of it, trying to impale the werewolf.
*Crash*
Dust obscured the view and rubble fell down from the building, burying the wolf underneath. “Did it work?”
I observed the scene from a nearby roof…
The dust slowly cleared, revealing more of the collapsed house…
Ice spears stained with blood protruded from the stone. “Did it get buried alive?”
I carefully listened to the sound of falling stones… and amidst, I heard heavy breathing and a fast-pounding heart.
As soon as I realized that it was still alive, I launched another attack. Pillars of ice sprouted out of the ground, trying to hit the still living wolf, but before it reached its target, the ground shook violently, and a loud howl pierced my eardrums.
*Whack*
The rubble flew to all sides as the werewolf emerged out of it, an ice spear stuck in its thigh and another in its back, but it immediately teared them out of its flesh…
*Hooowl*
Another outcry of the wolf filled the otherwise quiet city; it looked at me with rage, showing its teeth.
Then its body started to glow in a faint red light, “Mana!?”