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The crackling sounds from the torch was uncomfortable so I stuck behind this group. “Astoria, can you come closer, the torch isn’t gonna kill you.” Alcor comments. “Not happening.”

I ended the conversation quickly, I did not want to talk about this. “Suit yourself I guess,” He says, giving a firmer grasp on his large axe. Looking around, the old man wasn’t lying about this necromancer being a parasitic bastard since he has taken over a good chunk of the catacombs.

No longer were the walls surrounded by stone walls, overgrowing moss and vines but instead, enormous amounts of bones replaced the stone wall. I have been told that these are not from dead bodies but instead made of magic, never heard of such magic but I have no information to dispute it so I believed it for now.

Question is, why are they serving as walls? It would be better for them to come alive and attack in this cramp path. “Perhaps, there is another reason…” I hear weird noises.

Looking closer, I could feel a skull stuck to the wall slowly gain its signature eye. A pure blue color, but before it could fully connect, I smashed the skull to bits with a punch. The sound was enough to alert this group. “The necromancer is using these skulls to spy on us.”

Alcor clicked his tongue, realizing that we have probably already been seen. “So that's the thing I’ve been feeling.” Cynthia comments. “You know?” I ask. “No, it was just a feeling so I didn’t know.” She adds.

“Either way, keep smashing every skull you see.” The old man, holding the torch said. “I’ll alert you if I feel it again.” Cynthia asserts.

We continue to walk along the path mentioned by the old man, strangely there are no monsters around. I hear another weird noise and a small but distinct sound of bones falling. I turn my eyes to the side, trying to look behind me without turning my head.

“There.” Cynthia points at a skull above to the left of Kin and he stabs the skull with his spear, destroying it. Looking at his hand, I see it tensing. Cynthia looks at me, specifically at my eyes. The twitching of my ears already told her everything so I approached the group.

“So how long are we gonna ignore that thing behind us?” I ask. Walking at a natural pace, the old man stayed silent while we discussed in a hush tone.

Alcor responds, “Until it gets close enough to our attack range.” Kin silently agrees with him. “But it is helping us. I’ve been feeling small chunks of mana appearing then disappearing just as quickly.” Cynthia defends the one following us and I was keen to agree. “I’ve been hearing bones falling a while ago so it's at least covering our back from that necromancer.

“If it wanted to help, then it should have joined us a while ago, but he’s not even stepping into the light of our torch.” Alcor refuted. Whatever is following us stays in a distance far enough for us not to see it but close enough for it to use our light as its own.

We stayed silent for a while. I could still hear weird noises behind us but I could also hear a sound similar to footsteps. “If you're trying to be hidden, you’re not doing a very good job.” I comment.

In a slanted tunnel, the old man states that we were almost there. Looking slightly up, I could see the end of this slanted tunnel but before we could, Alcor almost trips. Before we could even get a laugh in, we heard rumbling from above.

First it was just bone rattling and then there was a large pause. I draw an arrow laced with flammable oil at its tip and use the torch to light it on fire. Shooting it forward with my bow, I could see a large opening above at the end of the tunnel.

Something opened up, and considering the bones that fell, it was clear that it was not a contraption of the necromancer. “RUN!” I shouted as a large boulder suddenly fell from the opening and rolled into the slanted tunnel. The slant would make the boulder faster and eventually crush.

However, as I ran down with my group, I saw Alcor carrying Cynthia on his shoulder. Cynthia had both of her arms extended, the staff glowed meaning an immense amount of mana was being channeled. Thanks to her psychic magic, the boulder faced resistance, allowing us to still outrun it.

Unexpectedly, it was the last thing I saw before my vision turned dark and felt something grabbing my mouth and arm. My race allowed me to see in the dark a lot better than most creatures so it shocked me to see the one following us to be humanoid.

I grab my dagger from my hip ready to break out of its grab but before that happens, I was pushed away. I turn quickly only to see a man in severely unfitting clothes considering where we are as well as a standard issue sword on his hip. “A noble?” I think to myself, looking at his clothes.

I plant my feet firmer to ground, my dagger sheathed and my bow in hand. I know he cannot see me yet for some reason he points at where the boulder is. “Shit!” I exclaimed, I heard a step and immediately turned back at him to find him going ahead into the dark. “Are you insane?!” I shouted only for his shoulder to move by my voice and continued to run.

Seeing no point in stopping him, I head down trying to see if they are fine. “You guys okay?” I shouted on the other side of the boulder. “Barely…” Cynthia responds, breathing heavily. She channeled her magic so hard that she was barely able to get a breather.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I hear a crack from the boulder. “Stand back!” Alcor warns as another loud crack reverberates. He fills his body with air and with a loud shout, the boulder splits in half. Alcor breathes out a large amount of air, his muscles slowly returning to normal.

I comment, “Damn, minotaur’s blessing huh?” They all squeezed through between the boulders. “Yep, I ascended three days ago. Allows my body to take in air and use it to reinforce my muscles.” Alcor explained as he squeezed through the boulder. I tilt my head to see behind them. Skeletal clanks, raspy breathing, and god knows whatever seems to be on our trail. “Well we might wanna go, the guy following us went ahead into the dark so our asses are no longer covered.”

“Oh yeah, he was cute.” Cynthia commented. “You saw his face?” I ask then she responds, “I saw him grab you, and no I didn’t, I just wanted to see Alcor’s reaction.” She says as she looks at Alcor, when I turn to face him, Alcor was already looking away from me.

As we walked, we took turns teasing him. I look up to feel a presence. Before I could take a good look at him, he had already moved. “Guess he was waiting for us huh? Say, what do you think will happen if we just ran for it and left him in the dark?” I ask. “What do you think, dumbass?” Seeing the chance, Alcor retorts.

“Augh! I’m hurt o lover boy!” I immediately shot back, in an obviously idiotic manner which almost earned me a smack in the head. Alcor calms down however and clears his breath. “Look I don’t trust the guy, but seeing as he was covering our asses, I’m willing to not kill him immediately.” He spoke in a tone of disguised hate, not surprising considering his group was ambushed by a few so-called companions a few days ago.

“He could also just be here for the necromancer as well.” The old man adds. We fell into thought, it was definitely convincing, afterall he hired us for the same reason. “True, and he’s armed and dressed quite nicely actually.” I also add.

Without saying anything, we concluded that was probably a noble going here for revenge. The necromancer has been taking people, both peasants and nobles. The only reason everyone is acting normal is because the nobles are becoming…let’s say…a pain in the ass, which allows the guards to hide the kidnapping among commoners and put all the attention on nobles, pretty much a win-win situation if you look at it objectively. The government gets to hide the fact that commoners have more than triple the amount of people going missing compared to nobles as well allowing the nobility to be the attention whore that they are.

And so, for the time being we allowed him to share the light of our torch, in return we let him kill whatever's on our way, probably allowing him to vent. Probably best if we do not get in the way, we would much rather not have him go to the guards and complain about us.

I walk ahead of the group, allowing me to get a better look at him. His pants mixed in with the dark quite well but as for his clothes in his upper half was quite confusing. His clothes and skin blended so well that if somebody else saw him, they might think he is half naked.

His shoes were nice too. “I get revenge but seriously, only a sword? You really think that’s enough?” I ask in my head. A few more minutes of walking and we see a few bodies of ghouls and skeletons.

A close inspection shows me a lack of revenge-filled strikes. Slashes from the head, neck, heart, or stomach can be seen but that was all. This was calm and calculated which confuses me even more.

Soon we approached a fork in the tunnel. Three pathways going straight, left, and right appeared. The guy in front of us went straight ahead and as for us, the old man directed us to go to the right.

“Looks like he wasn't here for the necromancer.” I conclude…or so I thought. Vaguely, I can hear familiar footsteps behind us. Whether he realized that he went the wrong way or he chose to pick a random direction so that he can be behind us again is up for debate.

“I do wonder why he's so desperate to not be seen or talked to…” Before I can finish that thought, we start to approach a light in the distance. The atmosphere became even more tense, even I, who was not even good at magic, could feel the negative mana emanating at this distance.

Cynthia, drinks her potion filled with liquified mana. The moment we reached the edge both Alcor and Kin took out their whetstone from their satchel as their weapons were dulled.

As they do so, I pass them and look at the gigantic caverns. Makeshift braziers lit up the room, unlike what I expected, the cavern was not filled with bones. The cavern was almost circular and right below us was our target.

An army of skeletons stood still, waiting for the necromancer’s command. The necromancer himself was carelessly throwing weapons he had obtained somewhere. Even in this distance, I could tell that he was thin, barely any skin or muscles if you look even deeper. In the end, he himself was practically a skeleton.

I looked around the edge, I needed to find stable rocks to put my grappling hook in so that we could descend. In a distance about one-fourth of the cavern’s area, I find a set of jagged rocks. When I pulled on them, I could feel nothing even after pulling it at full strength.

I grab an old but reliable hook at my hip attached to a rope in my backpack. As I slowly dropped the rope down, I could feel my backpack becoming considerably lighter. The rope did not reach the ground, only a small flat platform. This leaves us with no escape after jumping down, it was do or die.

I go back to the group, walking sideways and hugging the wall to avoid slipping. They were all ready, a single nod from each of them was exchanged but before we head to my rope, I look back into the darkness. As expected, the guy was still waiting, still unaware that I could see him even in the dark.

The old man extinguished the torch and we headed to my rope. Aside from Alcor who almost slipped, due to his large muscular body, we descended into the small platform without being found. This is where the old man would stay. If we die, somebody has to let the people know and also because if he died, no one would be able to pay us.

I grab my bow with my right, channeling mana into it, the spiral roots spins, and the shortbow transforms into a longbow. From the left side of my hip, I took four arrows from the quiver, putting one into my bow and three in my right hand along with the bow.

Alcor drinks his potion which seems to have a bad taste as he tries to resist spitting it out. I have no clue what effect it has.

As I pull on the string, I place my index finger on the iron tip and softly, I spoke, “ᏕᏂᏗᏒᎮ.” A five word spell which sharpens anything a thousand times. I could feel the tip increasingly becoming even more lethal, as if a thousand arrows were infused into one.

“As long as my aim stays true, the winds on my side, and my bow working as intended, nothing in this world will ever block my arrow.” Although visually, nothing changed, anyone who has dabbled in magic would know that I just casted a spell which unfortunately includes the necromancer.

He turned to us but it was too late, we already jumped down, and my bow was already pointed at his head. Before landing, I let my arrow fly, swiftly heading into his head but a small brown hexagonal shape barrier appeared in front of his head. It delays the arrow for a millisecond before turning it slightly to the side and as the arrow pierces the barrier, instead of hitting his head, the barrier redirects it to his side, hitting some poor skeleton instead.

“Dark magic and now earth magic?!” I resist the urge to click my tongue. The barrier was born from mana and the fact that it was small tells me that despite his disheveled look, he was a capable mage. I put another arrow into my bow. “We have to get closer to him, which means, we have to get through his army” Alcor inhales a large amount of air, signaling the start of our fight.

I know for a fact that despite his army, four of us were enough to get through them but somewhere in my heart, I could feel the seeds of doubt growing.