Hours passed inside the gloomy dungeon. For what seemed like forever, Finn, Tommy, Natalie and Michael sat side by side in a row, on their backs, breathing heavily. Their bodies were covered in cuts and bruises. They had lost limbs, they had broken bones, and not even the warrior’s breath could fix them.
The technique was meant to increase one’s prowess during combat, numb the pain, increase strength and speed, and heal the body just enough so that one could keep on fighting. However, beyond a certain point, it simply could not keep up.
“Mr Griffin,” Natalie muttered after a long, long while. “He said something about a higher… level to the warrior’s breath. After we get out of here, I’ll go pay him a visit.”
“I’ll come with you,” said Michael. “Magic class is a pain.”
“I’ll figure it out,” said Finn.
“Cool, until then…”
“What about you, Tommy?” Natalie asked.
“I’ll stay in school,” the boy chuckled. “Someone has to.”
After Finn switched back to mage mode, he started healing right away. He was low on energy, so the process was painstakingly slow. It took five hours to fix everyone up, six for Finn to also recover his energy.
“Done.” The boy stood up and so did everyone else. “I and Tommy will go search for Annie. You two guard the exit.”
“No problem.”
“Oky doky.”
Finn was getting a bit worried about his friend. Annie was always a step above the rest, yet too much time had passed already.
“We’ll go after Bluntcoat. If there’s another enemy, then he'll go meet up with him."
The teens started walking towards the tunnel Bluntcoat had escaped through when the sniper himself came out.
“Ya’ll still here? Is the church paying you to slack off, boy?”
Finn shot a fireball, but it dissipated against his shield.
“Is this all you’ve got?” Bluntcoat grinned and shot at random, some bullets at Finn, the others at his friends.
Annoyed, Michael and Natalie chased after him while Tommy stayed behind.
‘Why isn’t he moving?’ wondered Finn. “There might be someone behind him!”
The shooter was standing right at the edge of the tunnel, his grin widening upon hearing him shout.
“I see you zealots are not so easy to fool, though not particularly hard either.”
Something emitted bright light behind Finn, and the boy turned his eyes. In the middle of the cave, the winged human statue was glowing, Nunac had his palm on it, and with an unconscious Annie on his shoulder, he was waving the teens goodbye.
The entire cave suddenly became covered in light, and when it subsided, Nunac and Annie were gone. Natalie and Michael stopped in their tracks, and Bluntcoat started laughing.
“That kid's a tricky one, ain’t he? So, what’ll you do now, humans, go after him or follow me?”
"Shit!" Finn cursed out loud. 'If we follow Bluntcoat we'll lose track of Annie and if we go after her, he'll follow and ambush us on the sixth floor.'
"What's the plan, boss?" asked Michael.
"We can split up," said Tommy.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"No." Finn turned his back on the shooter and ran towards the statue. "Tommy, take the berserker's sword. We'll sink or swim together."
The teens quickly tied themselves with a rope while Finn figured out how to unlock the gateway. He was nowhere near as knowledgeable as Nunac or as intuitive as Annie, and given the lack of time…
'Fuck it, let's do it the Michael way.'
After everyone was tied together, Finn shoved as much mana as he could into the statue, overwhelming Nunac's bottleneck and destroying the array through sheer force.
Almost immediately, the cave turned bright, and amidst Bluntcoat's shouting and shooting, the teens disappeared.
A second later, they found themselves at one end of a simple tunnel, leading towards a cave. The walls, ceiling and floor were smooth and black, with a slight tint of a glowing blue. The tunnel was so geometrically precise, it looked almost man made.
However, humans could not dream of creating such a thing. For at the end of this tunnel was something not even the empire’s greatest architects could build: a crystal.
As soon as they exited the tunnel, everyone’s eyes were glued to it. It was purple, and huge for a magic crystal, twice as tall and wide as a person, ripe and ready for the taking.
“They’re here.” The teens heard a familiar voice and immediately snapped out of it to identify the enemies. Nunac, the mage, was standing behind the crystal, channeling its energy into a huge array. It was a large, white circle surrounding the stone, and it was sucking in the crystal like a swamp drowning its prey.
“He’s trying to steal it,” said Tommy.
“Predictable,” Natalie scoffed.
Michael clenched his fists and waited for Finn to give the order, but the boy ignored all of them and rushed towards a corner of the cave. Annie was there, unconscious, covered in burn marks, her outfit a mess.
Finn summoned healing magic in his right palm and kneeled beside her to help. However, just as he was about to touch her cheek, someone’s boot kicked him square in the face. The boy went flying all across the cave, stopping only when Michael caught him mid-air.
“I cannot allow that,” said their newest opponent. His voice was low and gutural. His body was almost as large as a giant. It was a bipedal lion dressed in mercenary clothes, with a snake-like tail and thick, goat horns.
“Where did he come from?” asked Finn, at which the lion pointed at the ceiling. ‘Shit, I never look up.’
There was a skeleton merged with the ceiling of the cave. Its shape was humanoid, if humans were 100 feet tall. Bony wings sprouted from its skeletal shoulders, canines sprouted from its humanoid jaw. There were two, long goat horns sprouting out of its skull, and its arms and legs were dangling down, as if reaching for the bottom.
“A relative?” asked Natalie.
“Perhaps,” said the lion.
“Beast people aren’t that different from mutants,” said Nunac from his spot behind the crystal. “Our bodies have clearly changed due to mana, though not to a dangerous extent.”
“So, you want to rejoin your kind?” asked Michael. “You’re free to F off whenever you want.”
“No, we are not,” said the lion, slowly.
“Not while the empire stands,” added Nunac.
The lion walked towards the five teens with his fists clenched, though completely unarmed.
“Should I help?” asked Nunac. “The array works on its own, I’m just speeding it up.”
“Play your part,” said the lion. When he reached the teens, he went to grab Finn’s throat.
The boy ducked, and at the same time, Tommy and Natalie swung their blades at his throat. Both weapons hit at the same time, embedding themselves deeply into his mane.
“Oh, you are strong.” The lion’s tail swung left and then right, swatting the two warriors as if they were flies. “Out of my way,” he told Finn while slapping him with the force of a speeding bull. All three teens were kicked dozens of meters across the cave, and when the lion met eyes with Michael, the teen had no choice but to retreat.
“Wise choice, although pointless.” The beastman grabbed the top of the tunnel and then pulled it down as if dragging a curtain. The cave started to shake, and the tunnel, the only tunnel leading in and out of the cave collapsed in on itself.
“Hey boss,” Nunac sounded a bit nervous. “I left the return array inside that tunnel. How are we going to escape now?”
“We won’t.”
“What!?”
As the humanoid lion turned to face his partner in crime, a serene smile could be seen on his jaw.
“The part we play in history is here and now. We will unleash the full might of the demons upon this puny empire and put an end to its futile struggle. There’s nothing greater we could possibly accomplish, so what else is there to live for?”
“There’s magic!” Nunac stepped out from behind the crystal. “There are books, women; if you want to die, then have fun, but I’m getting out of here.”
The young man clapped his fingers and a magic circle appeared in front of him. Similar to the one around the giant crystal, though much smaller, it started emitting light quickly, and Nunac pushed his hands inside it.
“I’ll tell the others about our work here,” said the mage. “Baron Bloodeye, thank you for your service…”
Nunac barely got to finish his sentence. The array he had created to save himself disappeared. Out of nowhere, the lion had appeared behind him and crushed his skull with his bare hands. While the man’s lifeless body collapsed onto the ground, Baron Bloodeye placed a palm on the left side of his chest, smearing it with blood.
“May history remember your sacrifice. Thank you.”