I debated on how to inform the other’s on what I had just found out. Especially because it’s a essentially a death sentence for Veroth, who I think was bitten by one of the spiders which had created those monsters.
No, first I would watch Veroth to see if, indeed he was being affected by something, and truly displayed the symptoms of a bite. So far, he had, but that’s no reason to incite panic among the others. I might as well try talking to Veroth alone, and ask him about the whole thing—and whether he has a small spider bite anywhere.
We left the room, and waited for an hour before reentering. We had grabbed the symbols belonging to the two adventurer groups, and could turn them in, to the adventurer’s guild who could inform any next of kin that they had died. We set up camp in the now spotlessly clean room, which had reset without people in it. We had to clear out labyrinth spawned monsters this time, but after a few minutes, they disintegrated into light, turning back into pure mana circulating through the labyrinth. We would have seen a similar thing happen to the two groups, as the labyrinth broke down the bodies and materials, and took the resulting mana for itself. It was somewhat of a tradition among adventurers to let the labyrinth claim dead comrades.
There was a somber tone still in the air, though. It was rare to see entire groups of adventurers killed—Normally, there would be at least one survivor. The camp was mostly quiet, with a few whispered conversation around the fire, and some people went to bed earlier than they would usually. I took a quick look around, and spotted Veroth. He was fidgeting again, and there were now dark bags under his eyes. I decided that now would be as good a time as any.
I slipped around the fire, and tapped his shoulder. He jumped in his seat, and spun around, eyes wide and alert. I brought my finger to where my mouth would be on the mask, and motioned for him to follow me. He nodded, and got up.
We entered the next room, and killed the monsters in there without talking. After the last one disappeared into motes of blue mana, Veroth sat on his heels, and looked at me, tired but all too aware.
(Veroth) “What do you want to talk to me about? It must be something pretty bad, if you don’t want any of the other’s to hear about it.”
(Kai) “Well, I want to talk about you.”
(Veroth) “Hm? Why would that matter?”
(Kai) “It does. Let me ask you this—Do you have small amounts of swelling anywhere on your body, with two tiny puncture
marks in the center of it?”
(Veroth) “Wait, how do you know about that?”
I cursed under my breath, and it was faintly heard by Veroth.
(Veroth) “What? Should I be worried about it?”
(Kai) “Damn it!....Sorry. I’ll try and put this to you softly.”
I didn’t notice that I was slipping into a slight accent, my word flowing more softly into one another, instead of the harsh tones I had always made sure to speak in. Veroth noticed my agitation, and was beginning to look a little fearful.
(Kai) “When we were going through the swamp on the tenth level, I think that you may have been bitten by a certain spider. Unfortunately, while the spider’s venom isn’t deadly to the body, or any of it’s functions, it is deadly to the mind.”
Veroth looked sicker the more I said.
(Veroth) “Deadly how? Is there anything I can do?”
(Kai) “I don’t think there’s a way to stop it. And, we’ve already seen how the venom shuts down the mind today.”
Veroth instantly knew what I was talking about, and his already pale skin lightened a shade.
(Veroth) “You, you mean that I’m...going to become one of those...things?”
(Kai) “Call them what they were. Those were monsters. They were all bitten by a spider somehow, one found on the tenth floor,
and exhibited the same symptoms you are showing.”
(Veroth) “Then, do you know how long I have?”
(Kai) “I would say about a day. From what I’ve found, the infection completely takes over after two days, and we’ve already gone through one of them.”
I looked at him with pity in my eyes, even though he couldn’t see it through the mask. Anyone could have been bitten by that spider, me included. Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn’t it have been bad if I had been bitten? From what I saw, I think that all the mana in a person’s body is transferred into physical stats. With my mana pool, I would have easily become something that couldn’t be brought down by anyone. Though I don’t think I would have made it to that stage in the infection, as I would rather die with my mind intact.
(Veroth) “So, I have a day.”
(Kai) “Yes.”
(Veroth) “Well then. Can you please not tell the others about this? I think I want to clear one last floor with them.”
(Kai) “Sure. But, if it looks like you are going to turn sooner than I thought, what are you going to do?”
Veroth looked at what he could see of my eyes, through the mask, with sincerity, and a plead.
I knew what he wanted, and nodded. I would do my part when the time came.
We returned to the campfire without anyone having noticed that we had left. Veroth had a smile on his face. It was an honest smile, but one filled with sadness and slight unwillingness. It was more happy than anything, though, as he looked at his teammates around the campfire.
I went to my tent, trying to banish the old memories which had come at seeing that smile, one so similar to someone else who was ultimately destined to die.
When it came time to move again, only four hours had passed. The somber mood had been banished, as the group of adventurers had begun recalling old missions and incidences. There was much laughter, at the center of which was Veroth, who looked lively and smiled the widest out of everyone.
We packed everything up, and distributed it like normal, before entering the next room. In the middle of the room were two earth golems, boosting a high defence and good offence, normally they would give groups of our size a bit of trouble. The adventurers, however, seemed more lively than ever, and charged the two towering figures, lead by Veroth. He demonstrated his excellent swordsmanship, and protected his teammates with the shield in his left hand, holding fast no matter what.
The golems were quickly toppled, their cores extracted.
Like this, Veroth and his group blazed through room after room, quashing the monsters they encountered with seemingly boundless fighting spirit.
The smiths, Hogvir and I could only walk placidly behind them. Hogvir seemed somewhat puzzled by the change exhibited by the adventurers, and the rest of the smiths just seemed happy that they were getting loot at a faster pace. I was happy that Veroth decided to enjoy his time, instead of breaking down like so many others would.
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The toughest fight they had was against a few flame salamanders, but even those were handly taken care of. One was killed by Veroth, while the other was ganged up upon by the rest of the group. Veroth came out of the fight slightly battered, but still grinning. The others asked if he was okay, he said to not worry about it, he’ll be fine.
I could still see the fight in his eyes—He wanted to fight a stronger opponent, and prove himself one last time. He got his wish.
The last room on the twelfth floor. When we entered, a phenomenon we’ve seen twice before while in the labyrinth occurred again.
This time, the black fog signifying the entrance of a floor guardian materialized into a wyvern—a distant cousin to the dragons, with only two legs, due to their wings acting as the forelegs.
It screeched, nearly breaking our eardrums. Veroth ran to engage it, and the rest of the adventurers followed a second later. The wyvern blew a gout of fire at the bulk of the group, but everyone got out of the way in time. They reached the wyvern’s body, and began hacking at its limbs and stomach. Thin lines of silver blood dribbled down, hitting the floor in small amounts. The wounds dealt to the wyvern weren’t nearly enough to do anything except make it angry. They backed off as the wyvern trashed around with it’s body, hoping to crush one of the adventurers with it’s weight. When that didn’t work, it spun, and the wyvern’s tail snapped out like a whip, producing a shocking sound wave as it’s tip neared the speed of sound. It slammed against two unprepared adventurers, throwing them out of the fight with multiple broken bones and torn muscles.
Samith, the archer, fought the wyvern from a distance, lobbing arrow after arrow filled with mana at the beast, aiming for weak points such as the eyes and mouth. Occasionally, one would hit, eliciting shrieks from the wyvern. Every time it tried to go after her, Veroth stood in it’s way, shield raised and sword spinning, silver blood glinting off its surface as he carved line after line into the wyvern’s face, sides, and wings.
The other frontline fighters fought as best they could, dealing damage when the opportunity presented itself, and retreating when their actions brought the wyvern’s fury upon them. The mages cast restriction spells designed to rob the wyvern if it’s mobility, and limit the actions it could take against the adventurer.
Hogvir and I stood back, admiring the fight, and the ways in which the adventurers chose to fight.
The blood pooling on the floor grew as more and more cuts appeared on the wyvern’s skin. By this time, it had been severely weakened by the loss of so much blood, and was irritated by the fact that it couldn’t do anything to the adventurers. Other than the two hit by it earlier, none of the others were injured.
Things were going well for the adventurer, until—as things are apt to do, they took a turn for the worse. The wyvern was well and truly enraged now, and begun to ignore the damage it had accumulated. If I could put it into human terms, I think it wanted to bring us down with it.
Instead of the screeches it had made before, it let out a roar befitting a dragon, shaking the whole room, and causing dust to rain from the ceiling. For a split second, everyone’s footing was off, and the wyvern took advantage of that to sweep with it’s tail again, this time hitting all of the front line fighters except for Veroth, who had dodged the tail with inhumanly quick reflexes.
He jumped at the wyvern's head, and made a desperate stab at it’s remaining eye, the other one having an arrow sticking out of it, courtesy of Samith.
The sword sunk into the eye up to it’s hilt, and Veroth began to jiggle it back and forth, hoping to do fatal damage to the beast.
It’s screeching reached a new height as the wyvern panicked, now facing death. It began twitching before finally laying still, killed by the sword still stuck in it’s eye.
Veroth sunk to his knees, and I could see small traces of black in his veins, the venom within him beginning to activate.
(Veroth) “*Cough* *Cough* Kai! It looks like I don’t have much time left now.”
I appeared next to him, using my speed to run as fast as I could to his side.
(Kai) “Yeah. You're about done now. I would tell the others now, were I you.”
The other adventurers gathered around him, or at least the ones still conscious. He began by telling them what I had told him, that the monster we had encountered were bitten by a type of spider.
(Veroth) “I didn’t want you guys to worry, but it looks like I was also bitten by that same spider. I wanted to enjoy my time left,
and make one last good memory. I’m sorry that this couldn’t have been prevented.”
He was still smiling a heart-breakingly kind smile, but tears were now leaking from his eyes. He was on good company though—there wasn’t a dry eye among the adventurers. They appreciated the fact that he had the time to say goodbye to them, as most deaths in the labyrinth were unexpected and sudden, taking away those you know without any warning.
He turned to me, and asked me again, to give him peace.
Everyone else left the room, entering the transit room between floors. I stayed behind, and held Twilight tightly in my hand. Veroth sat cross legged, conflicting emotions and desires reflected on his face. I could tell he was having trouble holding on as the venom took greater hold of him.
I decided that he should at least see the face of the one to end his life, so I pulled off my hood, and took off the mask.
His eyes widened, as he realized that I was a girl, and that I had the horns of a demon-kin.
(Veroth) “Ha! Who would have guessed, right?”
I nodded.
(Kai) “It’s the least I could do. If it makes you feel any better, I can tell that you are a good man. Good men live well after death. Hell, maybe we’ll even met again.”
My voice was back to it’s original chime like quality.
(Veroth) “Good to know. Please...Hurry? Can’t hold on much longer.”
In response, I unsheathed Twilight, and raised it high, as a nod to a good man.
A few minutes later, I rejoined the rest of the group, my mask back on. They decided that their labyrinth dive was done now that Veroth was gone, and wanted to return to the surface.
Before I could follow them, Hogvir pulled me aside, to tell me some important things.
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