“Can we really take out a necromancer?” Kenrich asked as they rode Atlas towards the front gate. “The guy in the guild said that he comes out with an army of the undead.”
“Actually, he said a ‘small army’ so don’t go exaggerating,” Violet said. “We’re finally going to get you some actual combat experience against some lesser beings, and we’ll get a nice reward at the end. It's a win-win!”
“I don’t have a weapon though…”
“That’s why I’m going to let you borrow this-” She shoved her broadsword behind her into Kenrich’s lap. “I’ll be using my dagger for this mission. Fighting the undead is child’s play, so this will be more than enough for me to take out the whole nest by myself. Of course, I plan on letting you do most of the work. You gotta learn somehow.”
“Ugh…I don’t feel so good all of the sudden.”
“You’ll be fine. The undead are uncoordinated and almost always unarmed. It should be a cakewalk. Just remember your balance and your breathing and they’ll be no match for you.”
They made their way towards the cave that the man in the guild had pointed them towards. After arriving, Violet tied Atlas down near the entrance and they got ready to enter.
“It sure is dark in there,” Kenrich said. “It’s a shame we don’t have a light stone.”
“It’ll be alright, our eyes will adjust after a bit. You ready to go?”
“I guess so.”
They made their way into the cave and Kenrich once again was letting fear take over his mind. Even after the battles he had been in, and the week of training he had received, he still had an issue when it came to crippling anxiety before a battle started. There is nothing man fears more than the unknown. They made their way down the cave slowly, trying to remain quiet. Kenrich had to duck slightly while going through the first section of the cave, but after a bit of walking, they entered a large inner sanctum that had a ceiling that seemed to be able to form its own clouds with how high it looked. In this room, they heard the rattling of bones and squelching of flesh that made it apparent that their first battle of the day was upon them.
“We’ve got company!” Violet said. “Remember what I taught you!”
Kenrich got into the stance that Violet was always badgering him about and got ready to intercept the zombies that were making their way towards them. It was very dark but he could make out their movements just enough to defend against their weak attacks. He dodged a bloody fist to his right, another to his left, and found himself not being as unbalanced as he remembered during their first couple fights. He made sure to remember the movements that Violet had taught him and saw himself able to easily dodge the clumsy strikes of the undead.
“Nice dodging, village boy. But make sure to fight back as well! Don’t just dance around like a ballerina!” Violet called from a few feet to his right.
Kenrich took these words to heart and started to swing the broadsword at the zombies in front of him. The sword cut brilliantly, and he was able to take off their heads and limbs easily with an accurate swipe of Violet’s sword. He felt good. He felt…powerful. It was the first time he could remember ever feeling like that. He continued his onslaught using the basic swordplay that Violet had taught him. A strong vertical slice, another zombie down. An accurate horizontal slash, now a zombie was without their left arm. A powerful thrust, and now a zombie had a gaping hole where its face used to be. He was making quick work of the undead regardless of their numbers. He looked over at Violet who was doing her usually graceful routine of slashes that made mincemeat of the zombies in an even quicker amount of time than what Kenrich was capable of, even though he had a much longer blade. He was impressed with her skills like usual, but he was also impressed with his own. Violet had said that undead were easy targets, but it still felt good to have the upper hand for once. After about ten minutes, the room of the cave was silent again.
“Nice work there!” Violet said, giving a friendly elbow to Kenrich’s ribs. “You didn’t even get hit! I must be one helluva teacher.”
“I tried to remember all the stances and attacks you showed me, and they really worked wonders,” Kenrich said. “You really are a great teacher. It feels good to learn from a master.”
“Oh…you’re just saying that…” Violet was blushing and twiddling her hair.
“Should we keep going?” Kenrich asked.
“It’s safe to say that the necromancer is not in this section, so they must be deeper in. Follow me,” Violet said.
They made their way towards the back of the large room and found another tunnel that they decided to trek through. After a bit of walking, they saw that the path split into two.
“The paths diverge, huh?” Violet said.
“Looks that way. Which do you want to look through first?” Kenrich asked.
“Actually…I think we should split up.”
“S-split up?! What if I find the necromancer? I’m not ready for that yet!”
“You’ve done very well so far, so consider it the final test of stage one of your training if you happen to meet. Besides, if we go down the same path, it’s possible that they will try to escape out the other tunnel if we choose wrong.”
“I don’t like this, but…okay.”
“Good boy. Now go ahead and choose a path. You’ve earned that privilege for your work so far.”
“I guess I’ll take the left one.”
“Then, I’ll take the right. We’ll meet back out here at the crossroads once we’re done exploring our paths,” Violet said. Kenrich nodded.
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Kenrich went down the path on the left, and Violet, the path on the right. All Kenrich wanted was to not have anything to do with the necromancer, at least not alone. Violet, on the other hand, wished the opposite. She was impressed at how quickly Kenrich had been learning the combat moves and strategies which had taken her much longer when she was first in the academy. She was never that good of a student. Kenrich holds her and her skills on a pedestal, but she believes that it is because he had not been exposed to more skilled warriors yet. Now that she had been bested by those masked warriors in Fril, she felt that his opinion of her must have been lowered. Even if she was outnumbered, failure was not something that she accepted of herself, so why should someone else accept it? Her faults, her failures, her insecurities…none of them had ever been accepted by anyone before. Being a woman in a military academy was difficult because if you ever failed, they would use it as fuel for why a woman should not be allowed to enroll, let alone able to join the military at all. She managed to make it through and graduate, but she was a “C” student at best. Whether it was because of the self-loathing attitude developed by the country and environment she lived in, or because of being disgruntled by the burden of her parents’ request of her to live her whole life for the mission they entrusted to her, she did not know, but she never had much drive to excel. Regardless of her thoughts of herself, Kenrich truly did think she was amazing though. His opinion had not changed even a bit, even after everything that had happened. Violet would never believe that though.
Kenrich walked through the path which felt like he was making his way through the stomach of a giant worm with the wetness and shape of the tunnel. He tried his best not to think about that though and instead tried to keep himself focused on what was in front of him. Now that he had been in the dark for so long, he could see much better than he could at the start. He did not even know that his eyes could adjust to such extreme darkness, but he was happy to be wrong. After a bit of walking, without seeing any movement at all, he saw what looked like torchlight ahead of him. He had a sense of foreboding at the sight of this. He worried that this certainly meant he was in for a fight ahead. He knew he could not turn around though as Violet would just kill him herself if he ran with his tail between his legs after all the training they did. He swallowed his fears and doubts and went towards the light.
As he turned the corner, he saw a medium sized well-lit room with a massive cage in the corner of it. Inside was a woman who was chained to the wall. The woman weakly looked up at Kenrich, who was still standing in the entrance to the room and tried to stand up. She lost her balance though and went right back down to the floor. Kenrich scanned the room cautiously and did not find anything that looked to be a necromancer (not that he knew what one looked like). This room also seemed to be the end of the tunnel so Kenrich let out a sigh of relief assuming that the necromancer would have to deal with Violet instead of him. He had no doubt that she would win that fight, especially since she thought him capable of it. Kenrich walked up to the cage and kneeled next to the padlocked door.
“Are you okay, miss? Did the necromancer lock you up here?” He asked. The woman gave a light nod. “Do you know where the key is?” The woman shook her head weakly from side to side.
Kenrich thought for a moment. He could go back and try to find Violet, but there were too many unknowns. It was entirely possible that the necromancer was not in either path. Also, he did not want to have to make this poor woman wait any longer than she needed to for freedom, so he decided to try and break the lock using the blunt end of Violet’s sword.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Clank!
He had managed to break off the lock. He hurried and opened the door and kneeled next to the woman.
“Alright, I’m gonna check on the chains on your arms. I promise not to hurt you.” The woman nodded.
He inspected the chains on her arms, and they seemed sturdy. He was not sure if there was any way to get them off without either finding the key or cutting off her hands. He decided to check out where the chains met the wall and saw that the area looked like it had eroded a bit. This seemed to be the only way that he was going to get her out of here, so he prepared the woman and himself for another bashing with Violet’s sword. The woman braced herself while facing away from the wall, and Kenrich lifted Violet’s sword above his head, ready to try and dislodge it from the wall.
Smack! Smack! Smack! Crumble!
He had managed to separate the end of the chains from the wall. Her hands were still bound with the chains, but at least this way they could head back towards the entrance. He was sure that they would be able to get the cuffs off safely somehow once they were back in the city after breaking the curse. He helped the woman stand up. Getting a better look at her, Kenrich saw that she had a very pretty face and that she was quite young, maybe in her mid-twenties. She appeared malnourished and weak from being held captive. Her brown hair was shoulder length and a frizzy mess while her brown eyes had huge bags under them showing a severe lack of proper rest. Who knows how much longer she would have lasted if left here. Her clothes were nothing more than rags that made her appear like she was wearing a potato sack that had been mauled by wolves. Areas of her skin were bared through holes in her garments but nothing risque could be seen.
“Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked.
“I-I don’t think so.”
So, she can talk. He thought.
“Okay. Then let’s get out of here. My partner might be able to help get these chains off, and if not, I’m sure someone at the village will help. In the meantime, I’ll hold the end of the chains, so they won’t weigh you down so much. Can you walk on your own?” The woman nodded. “Alright, just follow behind me. I’ll keep you safe.”
Kenrich retraced his steps down the path with the woman following behind him. It took some time, but they were back at the crossroads that Violet had designated as their meeting spot. Violet was not there though. Kenrich wondered if he should go and try to find her, but he did not want to leave the woman alone or make her go down the path if Violet was fighting the necromancer. He thought about leading the woman out of the cave and having her wait by Atlas, but as he was thinking it over, Violet poked her head out of the path on the right.
“Did you find the- Wait. Who’s this?” Violet asked while pointing her finger at the chained woman.
“She was imprisoned in a cage at the end of the path. I managed to break her free but I wasn’t sure how to get the cuffs off without hurting her.”
“Did you find the necromancer?” Violet asked.
“Are you saying that you didn’t?” Kenrich questioned.
“There was no necromancer down the path I took.”
“I didn’t see them down my path either…”
“Was she the only prisoner that you found?”
“Yeah, there was nothing else in the room. So, what do we do now? Is it possible that the necromancer went back to the village?”
“I feel like we would’ve crossed paths with them, but it is pretty dark…” Violet said. She then closed her eyes and scratched her head. “I guess we should head back towards the village for now. Does this woman here have a name?”
“I didn’t ask yet.”
“Not much of a gentleman, are you?”
“C’mon, I broke her out of prison, what could be more ‘gentlemanly’ than that?!”
“M-my name is Sophia,” the woman said. “Thank you for rescuing me. You’re good people.”
“I’m Kenrich,” he said, giving Sophia a warm smile. “This here is Violet. We’ll be happy to escort you out of here and back to your home.” The woman returned a pleasant smile.
They started heading towards the entrance of the cave. Violet and Kenrich were walking side-by-side with Sophia following a few feet behind (or as far as the chains would let her). Violet could not help feeling like something was off.
(To Kenrich) “What happened to ‘Ricardo’?” Violet asked. “That guy disappeared before I even got a chance to get to know him.”
“I don’t think there’s a problem with telling her my real name,” Kenrich said. “I just wanted to be sincere.”
“In all seriousness...There’s something fishy about all this,” Violet said.
“Do you think the necromancer might be in some secret room or something?” Kenrich asked.
“No. It’s something el-”
Suddenly, Violet stopped walking. Her voice was also cut off as if she had lost the ability to talk in the middle of their conversation.
“Hey, are you okay?” Kenrich asked.
Violet’s face had the same blank expression as the villagers they saw in town. She was frozen.