Brisk and fleeting, the distant haze of a past filled the contours of my mind, hacking and carving away at a means to rise above the bile that filled its place.

I took a long deep breath as I returned to the dining hall and found the armour and clothing waiting for me to claim it still, the gore of my own still painted into the rooms design like the other strewn corpses of the malformed dead. Piles of viscera and black rot filled the corners of the room as though they had been pushed aside by the skeleton I fought.

Changing into the new clothes and binding the new armour’s straps I felt a genuine sense of accomplishment as I patted the iron plate over my chest and wondered about what kind of other armour I might find as I tried to escape.

To that point though I walked across the room to where the smashed chest was-

“FUCK!” Cursing I couldn’t react in time to save myself as the stone beneath me shifted and gave way.

I fell into unconsciousness when I hit cold hard ground some metres down a long fall and a slate tile crashed into the back of my head.

----------------------------------------

Waking from what I assumed was my fourth death going by the splatter of dark red that painted the tiles beneath me I found myself stumbling off the pile of rubble that had come with me rushing to defend myself as two skeletons rose from the dark of the large room.

Pale blue magical light emanated from odd sconces on the walls that illuminated the half rotting flesh-half exposed bone monsters pulling their weapons free of debris.

My sword was still in hand a palpable sense of strength overcame me, my eyes and body in tune with one another I rushed the closer of the two undead and attempted to do away with it. Smashing straight through it the bones crumpled into the wall it was next to-

“Woah- shit!” Surprise turned to blossoming pain as the short sword of the rotting corpse bounced off the chest plate as it attempted to thwack me, its other hand to followed up with a dagger that sunk into my thigh.

Crimson poured and I tried to elbow its head, the metal couter on my elbow shattered the jaw of the skeleton and I grunted as it wrenched the dagger from my thigh and tried to stab me again in our overly close positions.

Our awkward orientations lent it to jamming the rusted blade through the inside of my left elbow.

“AAaaahhhh!!!” The pain was too much causing me to let out a cry as I tried to fight back against it.

The crunch and clatter of the bones and vile meaty thud of decaying flesh hitting the ground.

Gasping for breath fatigue pulled on my body with the loss of blood being too much, sighing I tried to collect myself and got to ripping what remained of the clothes off one of the dead and using it to bandage my wounds.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Thankfully after a few minutes I felt at least well enough to move and found there were four doors in the room, one in the north-east corner of the room, another half way down the east wall, another in the middle of the southern wall and the final one in the south west corner. The room itself was utterly indistinguishable with anything that might have told me what it was once used for gone or aged into such disrepair it wasn’t worth guessing.

I wasn’t sure which door to take so I went for the door the first skeleton I had fought was next to, which was the door along the eastern wall.

Rattle- crreeeeeeaaakkk

The door was stuck at first but I forced my shoulder into it and it opened into a short hallway that continued south.

I found myself in a room almost half the size of the last with similar blue magical lights.

“I’m over here! Hey!” A distant voice called out as I entered, sending a chill down my spine.

The voice was eerie and echoed from out the door across from the one I entered through, ignoring the room I headed for the source of the words.

A droning ring filled my ears and wracked my brain like tinnitus as I was drawn into a long hall like those on the floor above, the voice called out again and I continued toward it.

“It’s here! Come look!”

Something dribbled down my face.

I blinked, touching my upper lip- blood leaked from my nostrils.

I kept walking, the voice getting louder and the ringing spiking.

The enchanting draw of the voice brought me to a large circular room, the moment I stepped in something struck my back-

“Gahck!” The air fled my lungs as I knocked across the room hitting my head on the round steps of an altar at the centre.

The only light in the room was that of a gem on the altar, it cast massive black shadows on the domed walls of the room.

Turning around and looking back I nearly choked on my cries as a mutant wolf creature with pulsing purple and black veins all over its scorched, feral heady that drooled dark goo. Its body was covered in scars and had spears and swords broken off in its side.

Standing two or more metres tall it gnashed its teeth opening a maw that leaked a cloud of putrid smoke.

Nothing but incomprehensible pain filled my mind as it threw itself onto me and ripped me apart with dagger-like teeth.

Ming turning blank my death left a scar on my mind as the last thing I saw was the inside of its throat.