“Come back, you bastard!” A harsh voice yelled in the crowded street as a pair of muscular men chased after a hoodie-wearing fellow.
“I swear to God that if I catch you, you’re dead. Do you hear me? Dead!”
The hooded figure ran with all his strength and turned left at the nearest alleyway. The pursuers got closer and closer, but he couldn't stop no matter what. Seeing the end of the alley turn into another street, the hooded man dragged his tired body forward with haste.
He almost felt relieved, but the ground not far ahead began to ooze out a strange black goo that evaporated into a cloud of thick smoke. A moment later the smoke took the form of several anthropoid beings. Their body shape was human enough, but one could still somewhat see through them.
“Why do you have to appear now of all times?” He growled as he stared at the strange apparitions.
The sound of screams forced him to look over the smoke creatures and toward the streets. More and more of them appeared and attacked the people nearby, which made him even more guarded as he stopped in his tracks.
“Thanks for stopping that basta... What the hell?” One of the pursuers huffed before jumping back from the sight of the human-shaped smoke.
The nearest creature moved toward the hooded man, sweeping its arm in a wide arc. Although it was easily dodged, the shadow’s claws left a hissing mark on the garbage bin it struck. It corroded away the paint like acid, forcing the three to inhale sharply.
“What kind of hell did you lure us into?” His taller pursuer asked him as he tried to turn around.
“I never asked you to chase me!” The young man retorted, rolling aside to gain some distance from the black entity that attacked him.
“We’re surrounded!” The other jock yelped before a smoke claw grazed his jacket.
“Motherfucker! This thing really wants to get us. What do we do now?”
“Grab something and hit it.” The short answer came from the hooded figure as he pulled off the lid of a trash can and slammed it towards his mystical foe.
The metal lid struck the shadow in the chest, dispersing a good chunk of it in the process. An enraged howl showed its pain, but it soon got its head dispersed by a metal pipe. Once the head got destroyed, the rest of its body flowed inwards, forming a black glass-like coin.
“That’s what you get creep!” The bulkier young man yelled before smashing a heavy box into another shadow’s head.
Their successful attacks against the strange beings brought them a new will to fight and soon there were only three panting men standing in the alleyway. This victory however was short-lived. When the hooded figure turned towards the street, a punch sent it to the ground.
“Don’t think we’re done with you, asshole. You won’t get away with just a few punches this time.”
While being balled up on the ground to lessen the surface that could get the shit kicked out of, the youth tried to grab the nearest black coin. Once he got hold of it, he raised it for a moment before slamming it onto the ground.
It burst apart like a water balloon, black liquid flowing on the ground. Pitch-black ropes reached out from the black goo, circling around the young man’s body. He was pulled into the black muck, vanishing from sight.
The sensation of falling through the void altered between an eternity and mere seconds before the darkness tore open once more and he crashed onto a hard floor. Dust flew into the air as coughing and heavy breathing broke the quiet. A mound of rags was piled on the floor, a hand reaching out from the mound, trying to push up a tired and weak body.
“Well, that wasn’t as bad as I’d expected.” His first words were after his arrival.
A moment later tears fell on the ground due to the pain that followed his statement. A burning sensation ran through his left arm as a hollow rhomboid symbol appeared on the back of his palm. ‘I just had to jinx it, didn’t I?’ He thought as the black tattoo shimmered for a few moments.
After a short breath or two, the stranger gathered his strength and pushed himself off the ground. Upon standing up, most of the rags fell on the cold stone floor, revealing a thin figure of roughly 1.65 meters in height. His dark ash-coloured skin was a strange sight with the shoulder long pure azure hair hiding most of his face.
Only a pair of deep purple eyes with golden edges shone in the dark. He wore what should have been a set of cheap and worn linen shirt and pants with no shoes. With no better alternatives, he grabbed a piece of cloth from the pile and wrapped his feet with that.
As he looked around, he found himself to be in an age-old sewer, judging by the scent. The place was both tall and wide with walkways on both sides of the meter-wide creek that only had some sludge flowing at the bottom.
Scarce light shone through some small holes in the ceiling at regular intervals, letting him see a few meters ahead in the dark tunnel. He wrinkled his nose after inhaling the stale air as he headed out to find an exit. A few minutes and a left turn later his eyes stopped on a barely armoured and quite fresh corpse up ahead.
The position the body was in seemed peculiar. It was obvious that the corpse tried to reach a glowing hole in the ancient brick wall, but its neck was torn apart. It wore an old knapsack and some cheap armour while a dagger and a wooden staff lay on the ground beside it.
Looking around, there were no other items of interest near the body, except for the hole in the wall. Inside it was a cluster of milky yellow crystals that glowed with a warm light. As the stranger gawked at the yellow cluster with greed, a growling sound from the darkness ahead brought ill news.
The youth turned his head towards the shadows and a pair of eerie red eyes lit up. First, only the bloody eyes appeared, but they were soon followed by the sight of the misshapen head of an oversized rat. It crawled closer, growling with every step.
While keeping eye contact with its prey, it leaned close to the ground before leaping forward with full force. The azure-haired youth jumped aside, and grabbed the rusty iron dagger from the ground, swinging it at the creature. As it turned around, a slash to its side caused a deep cut.
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Before the young man could advance with his attack, however, a second growl forced him sideways as an even bulkier rat smashed into him. He could only raise his left hand in defence, which the creature almost immediately bit.
A sickening crunch filled the air, followed by a not-so-manly scream. The young man staggered back as he stared at the bloody stump where his left pinkie and ring fingers once were.
Blood gushed from the shredded stubs as the youth kicked the first dog-sized rat away before rolling aside himself. His second opponent swallowed the fingers it took and dove in for another bite.
Both the youth and the rat rolled on the ground, the rusty dagger sinking into the beast’s neck in their scuffle. Stab after stab the blade slit the giant rat’s neck into a mess before its fellow could intervene.
The ashen youth pushed the twitching corpse away from himself before rolling onto his stomach so he could stand back up. A loud screech accompanied the first rat as it tried to claw him to death, landing a slash on his right thigh before the young man smashed the pommel of the dagger into its head.
He jumped at the rat with blood fuelled frenzy, stabbing it several times to end its life. Once both rats lay limp on the ground, the youth collapsed into a sobbing mess as the adrenaline quickly began to wear off. He looked at the still bleeding stumps of his left hand fingers while raising his right hand to cover the wound.
“Please work!” He stuttered a plea as he tried to focus on his next words.
His voice echoed with power, as the sounds that left his throat gained a will of their own and became something beyond anyone’s ability to comprehend. A faint light flickered in his cupped hands as the searing pain in the stubs slowly dulled.
Several seconds passed by before the light faded and he pulled back his hand in a slight daze. Where once only the mangled flesh of his palm’s edge could be seen, now thick scabbing showed. Not wanting to waste more time and blood, he repeated the process with his thigh.
The difference between the two wounds was clear to see as the one on his leg was almost completely gone by the time the warm light faded. After a failed third attempt at using the healing light, he pushed himself to sit with his back to the wall as he tried to calm his breathing and the world that spun around him while staring into the dimly lit tunnel.
It was now a hair’s worth brighter than before, most likely due to the rising sun above. His wandering mind quickly returned to the matter at hand as he turned to the corpses. He raised his wounded hand towards the dead rats with a firm will.
A thin strand of pale greenish mist rose from the carcasses, only to form into rice-sized green crystal shards above his hand. He grabbed them with a hollow sense of accomplishment.
“So this is the legendary Amaranth,” he croaked with a dry voice. “Let’s hope you’re worth it.”
With that, the crystals crumbled back into their mist form, sinking into the rhomboid symbol on his hand. A few more laboured breaths later he finally decided to turn his attention back to the human corpse.
Judging from the still smudgy blood and the faint warmth of the skin, it couldn’t have died too long ago. First, he would need to take the knapsack off and put it aside before he could peel the corpse’s gambeson off.
It also had a pair of decent leather forearm guards and a woven leather bracelet with a thumb-sized quartz crystal hanging from it. It could have been simple jewellery or some magical gizmo for all he knew, so he would take that as well, just in case.
“Sorry about this pal, but I doubt that you’ll need it more than me now.” He apologized half-heartedly as he grabbed the worn knapsack.
Once he pulled it off the corpse and opened it, he found a few rags covering a thin book made from sewing together a small pile of cheap leather sheets. As he untied the cord that sealed it, he found out that he could understand the words inside.
There was also a bronze knife in the bag, along with a few bronze coins in a pouch, a small water flask and a piece of dried meat. With the blood loss and dizziness that plagued him, the youth gorged down the piece of meat before drinking half of the water that was in the flask.
After putting back the rest of the items into the bag, he pulled off the leather gambeson and arm guards along with the woven bracelet to clean them a bit with a rag. He put on the armour pieces, gazing at the corpse's bottom half.
He left the dead man with his dignity and his breeches, taking the almost pristine linen pants and the old boots, both a bit oversized.
The bloodied iron dagger was wiped clean before he put it into the worn-out sheath his new rope belt had. Using the bronze blade, a few long strips were cut from the cleaner rags and rolled up into bundles.
‘It’s best to have a few bandages around, just in case.’ He thought as he put them into his knapsack. Since he took what he could from the dead man, the young man turned his attention towards the glowing stones.
There were a few fist-sized rocks beside the broken wall to choose from that he could use to hit the base of the crystal cluster. Soon several pieces broke off; including the large one he fancied for himself. He pulled a leather cord from the bag and turned one of the thumb-sized stones into a makeshift amulet and source of light.
With the new trinket donned and the rest of the shiny minerals bagged, it came to the last object on his to-do list. He walked closer to the dead rats, crouching down with blade in hand. Trying to remember the exact detail, the stranger began to trace lines on the dusty stone floor with the blade, creating what could be thought of as a child’s scribbling.
A circle was drawn inside another one with strange symbols and words filling the gaps. Lines connected the focus points of his creation as several minutes trickled by in the eerily quiet sewers. When he was done, an ugly yet intricate design stared back at him from the floor.
‘This should be it. Now comes the main part.’ He nodded as he grabbed one of the dead rats by its tail, lifting it up for a moment before tossing it into the strange circle. The knife’s tip was then pointed at his thumb, prickling it to draw blood.
As a single red droplet fell on the carvings, they lit up with a deep amber glow. Moments later the light solidified while the carvings burned with power as a creaking noise came from the rat’s corpse. Red motes of light started to float out of the carcass as it visibly dried up and shrunk into a mummy in mere seconds.
The red light motes gathered and fused themselves into a pea-sized red crystal shard as he felt something click into place in the depths of his mind.
“That’s one down and one more to go.” He sighed as he kicked the dried rat husk out of the circle, dragging the next victim in.
When the second rat turned into another red shard as well, the youth sighed even deeper as he held the two stones close to each other. They glowed up as a magnetic force yanked them close and they melted into one larger shard.
‘At this rate, I’ll need another three or four shards.’ He grumbled to himself inwardly as he put the small red stone into his new coin pouch. With nothing else left, he put away the bronze blade and pulled on the knapsack before grabbing the staff from the ground.
The idea of stabbing rats to death up close lost out to the feeling of safety provided by the thought of whacking them in the head from a distance. Soon enough the cracked stone path led him along the dried-out sewage channel once more as he shambled on in the dimly lit tunnel.
After minutes of tensed-up walking, the passage opened up to a room with a set of stone stairs at the side and a second tunnel joining in not far. However, before he could get a better look, a giant rat jumped out of a nearby hole. Its claws left several thin and bloody gashes behind as it landed.
“Son of a bitch!” The young man cursed as he held the old staff with his right hand bleeding.
The pained words were followed by a heavy swing with the staff that missed its target by a lot. With the attack botched, the rat had another chance at its target, but its next lunge ended up skewering it on the slanted tip of the hastily drawn iron dagger.
The creature fell on the ground screeching and the ashen fellow stepped on its mouth, yanking the rusted blade free, only to stab it deep into the creature’s eye. When the rat breathed its last, a glowing green mist rose from its body. It formed into the familiar green crystal sliver that was soon absorbed by his tattoo.
He raised his bleeding arm above the rat corpse, letting his blood drip beside the carcass. The crimson liquid came to life, following his will as it carved the same magic circle into the ground he used before. The rat corpse began to shrivel up as a deep blue fragment formed above it in the air.
He pocketed it with haste as he held his stubby hand over the thin cuts near his right elbow. The healing light left him wobbly as he leaned on the old staff breathless. With the wound recovered, his purple eyes turned towards the stairs at the side of the room. A faint noise from the other tunnel however forced the ashen young man’s attention towards the darkness.