“MOVE!”
“Hrgk!”
Ezekiel could feel the heat of the fire blowing out from the passage behind the Void Lock. The only thing preventing his head from being immolated was Garrad grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and pulling him backward.
As Ezekiel went flying across the room as he was thrown out of the way by Garrad he knew the only reason his neck hadn’t snapped was the fact that he had reinforced his body just in case.
He also felt confusion, because there shouldn’t have been anything that would’ve attacked him in this instance. He had opened the Void Lock properly, and an elemental attack like that wasn’t something the Cruor were capable of in such situations.
As the fire from within the hidden passage faded away, Garrad retreated to where the rest of the party was waiting.
All of the Hunters from the Wandering Titans had taken up defensive positions around the downed Ezekiel. He slowly climbed to his feet as he turned to the passage, drawing his sword as he did.
Ishkel and his fellow Roaring Ruins Hunters also took up defensive stances, choosing to stand off to the side rather than accidentally clash with the Titans’ Hunters.
“Tch- I should’ve known better than to let someone like you take a shot at this.”
The voice of an unknown man emanated from the passage.
A figure walked out, dressed in heavy armor with numerous Runic engravings to indicate the large number of enchantments that were imbuing it with power. In his hand was a large pickaxe.
He had brown hair and eyes that glowed with mana. Beside him, slithering across the ground was a Spirit beast that looked like a pangolin.
The man wore two sashes. One for the Stormy Clouds Guild, and another indicating allegiance to the Cult of Light.
Behind him, several more Hunters exited the passage. They spread out to take up positions around the cavern.
“I’m sorry, Lord Laymond. I beg you, please let me have another chance!”
A familiar figure knelt behind the Tier three Cavern Hunter.
Aldor had his head bowed as the man in front of him continued to focus on Garrad.
“Perhaps that would be a permissible arrangement. There are enough of us here that we should be able to ensure that the trash Mage will be defenseless. Allowing Aldor another chance to kill him won’t cost us anything.”
Off to the side, eyes locked on Ezekiel’s wary figure, was Mina Kaspeere. Perched on her shoulder was her sparrow Spirit. Two daggers were held in her hands.
“Very well. Aldor, the boy is yours to kill, as requested. But if things begin taking a turn for the worse, I will step in directly.” Laymond said as he readied his pickaxe.
“Understood!”
For a moment, there was a tense standoff as Aldor stood back up and drew a sword that ignited as he channeled his mana.
“Laymond... Laymond Harper? From the Harper family? Aren’t you landowners who manage several farms and agricultural areas outside of Harkem?”
Garrad’s words brought recognition to several members of their party. The Titans and Roaring Ruins had each received commissions from the Harper family to clear out Umbral Beasts and other dangers that had encroached on their lands.
They’d even gone to negotiate with Spirits that had tried to make homes in those territories.
“I never thought that your family, out of all the nobles living in the Harkem territories, would be part of the Cult of Light.”
“The Followers of Light are not a cult! We are the chosen acolytes of the strongest Ancient!”
Laymond exclaimed in a near frantic tone. His zealous nature clearly shone through as he spoke.
Behind him Aldor and several other Hunters all had similar looks of anger at Garrad’s words. It was only a small handful of the Reaching Spires Hunters that looked indifferent. Including Mina.
Laymond took a moment to calm himself.
“Clearly, you are a misguided-”
Garrad threw a hammer from his Void Pouch as Laymond started talking again.
Unlike with Gerome, there were no preparations to stall for. So, the moment he got the chance, Garrad initiated the inevitable fight.
“Get to the passage. The further you go in the more likely it is there’ll be another Void Lock. Only a Tier four Hunter or a dozen Tier three Hunters working together can break them. You’ll be safe if you can get behind another one.”
Garrad called out order as he charged towards the enemy Cavern Mage. Drawing another hammer, this one more similar to the one Gerome tended to use, Garrad came down on Laymond with an overhead strike.
The pangolin Spirit attempted to leap at Garrad, but Brucey dashed ahead of Garrad to block. Gashes appeared on Brucey’s side as he clamped down on the pangolin’s shoulder. Brucey’s teeth drew blood that evaporated into motes of light as the keratin scale broke in his jaw.
The two Spirits rolled on the ground as Laymond jumped out of the way.
Garrad’s hammer impacted with the ground as he missed. Laymond responded with a horizontal swing of his pickaxe. Garrad ducked underneath it, only to receive a knee to the face as Laymond used his mana to brace his foot and leg to support his knee blow from the awkward position that he was in.
A stone mask formed over Garrad’s face, which absorbed most of the energy of Laymond’s blow.
“You’re pretty good for a noble!” Garrad growled out.
“A compliment from a barbarian is nothing but an insult!”
Laymond rejected Garrad’s comment as the two pushed themselves apart before dashing in again and locking weapons.
Rather than leave himself open or wait for another attack, Garrad shot his still covered face forward. He made contact with Laymond’s nose. Drawing blood as he hadn’t raised a defense in time.
Off to the side, Ishkel flashed towards Mina, creating a contrasting battle to the one with Kameira and the Roaring Ruins Tier four Hunter.
Mina’s sparrow Spirit took flight, blowing small spirals here and there at Ishkel and his Spirit.
Unlike with Mina, Ishkel didn’t part from his Spirit. Instead, the Lightning snake was curled around his body, using its own mana to act as another limb and set of eyes for Ishkel, who couldn’t attack in the air like Mina’s Spirit could.
Behind them, in other areas of the cavern, Ezekiel’s team was fighting against another group from the Stormy Clouds, who numbered greater than the Reaching Spires in the confrontation. At the same time, Ishkel’s team was fighting with Hunters from the Reaching Spires.
Aldor was the exception to this as he fought alongside the Stormy Clouds Hunters, rather than with his fellow Reaching Spire Hunters.
It was a chaotic battle. There was little time to actually coordinate attacks. Defense and offense were forcefully blended as Herend had to bring up a wall of ice, only for spikes to shoot outwards.
Nathanus was using his knives to great efficiency as he attempted to control the battlefield to cause their enemies to trip up.
Tracy stuck near Ezekiel, as her duty was to heal the party after the fight, so it would be best to save her mana for the moment.
Philip ignited a sword, much like Aldor’s, and entered into combat with a Radiant Hunter with a sphinx shaped Spirit. His rat Spirit was having difficulties with the comparatively larger sphinx.
Filia had several tendrils of necrotic energy surrounding both herself and her raven Spirit. It was mostly due to her direct involvement in the fight that their party was able to hold off their enemies as well as they did.
No one wanted to be harmed by Filia’s spell, as there was no guarantee a Life Mage could fix it.
A spear of fire managed to break through Herend’s defense, nearly striking Ezekiel through the chest if not for his quick reflexes.
As he had been carried for most of the journey, Ezekiel still had most of his mana, sitting close to the middle of the fourth step when it came to how much mana he still had.
Regardless of his skillful dodge, however, he still ended up slightly singed as the fire burned through the enchantments woven into his clothing. Luckily, it only affected the top layer of his clothes, not doing anything to the more protective under layers created by his mother.
“Ezekiel!” Tracy exclaimed as she saw him dodging. “Guys! We need to move toward the passageway!”
“Right!”
The team tried to move its way to the passageway, tanking a few of the attacks to get Ezekiel inside. Luckily the Tier threes had continued moving during their own battles, so they weren’t currently near the passageway.
Even better, the Void Lock had sealed itself again.
“Even if I get in there, how do we know there won’t be anyone lying in wait?”
Ezekiel’s question raised concern within the rest of the party. They couldn’t afford to go with him, since they were needed to keep the fighting even up here. If they left too, then the Spires and Clouds would quickly overrun whoever was left.
“It’s clear!” Garrad called out from another area of the cavern.
Parts of the stonework were beginning to crumble in that half of the cavern. The continuous impacts dealing damage to the surroundings, as well as causing tremors to emanate outwards.
“When the Lock was open, I could sense inside. It’s empty!”
With that reassurance given, the group continued to move closer to the passage.
Unfortunately, it seemed like they now knew what they needed to prioritize, as the ones they were fighting began to attack with much greater ferocity.
“Get over here and help us!” One of them yelled at the team fighting with the Roaring Ruins Hunters.
It wouldn’t be the smartest thing, to allow the Roaring Ruins Hunters to attack them from behind. But it was clear that the Stormy Clouds had enough influence in the given situation to have their instructions take priority.
“Cover me.”
One of the Hunters from the Spires broke off and ran towards the Void Lock. As he got closer, tanking a blow from behind, he stomped the ground as hard as he could.
A foot thick stone formed to cover the Lock. It was slow, and crumbled in a few places, showing some weaknesses, as the Hunter hadn’t been able to focus enough mana into his spell.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Look out!”
The Cavern Hunter from the Spires turned around to see a bolt of Tier three lightning flying directly at him. Throwing up his arms, he braced himself for death, as he knew he couldn’t block this attack with the mana he had left.
“RAAAaaaaggghh!”
The Hunter from the Spires lowered his arms in shock as he saw his Spirit, a Cavern Hound, take the brunt of the attack.
As his Spirit fell to the ground, the Hunter’s soul seemed to break as he saw a massive, charred hole in his Spirit’s side. Motes of light were starting to scatter as the Spirit died. Its life given up in exchange for its partner.
“No...”
“MOVE!”
The Hunter had no time to respond to the warning. He was in such shock that he barely even noticed when a knife, directed by Nathanus, flew through his undefended neck.
“Grk!”
The Hunter choked for a few seconds, falling to the side as he hopelessly held onto his bleeding throat.
“Marrow!”
The other members of the Spires cried out as they saw their fellow Guildmate die. Their attacks became more ferocious as the seriousness of this battle finally sunk in.
Death was always a concern when fighting occurred within the Ruins, and while members of one Guild killing members of another Guild did happen, such occurrences were rare.
For instance, even though a major conflict broke out between the Roaring Ruins and the Reaching Spires Guilds the last time they were on an expedition to these Ruins, the only deaths that occurred happened when the Rot broke out. None were killed by their fellow humans or spirits.
Neither the Roaring Ruins nor the Reaching Spires only believed that the one who would die was Ezekiel. They knew there’d be a fight but had no expectation that they would need to kill or be killed.
The Titans were under no such assumptions. Nor were the Clouds.
With the blinders removed, the conflict between the Roaring Ruins Hunters and the Stormy Clouds Hunters reached a new level of intensity.
The elements present in the room seemed to tremble as the conflict intensified. No longer were there any concerns with managing their mana. All that mattered was destroying the enemy.
“What now?! Philip called out as the Void Lock was covered. They didn’t have any Cavern Hunters close enough to undo what the Spires’ Hunter had done, and Garrad was too focused on his own battle to come help them.
No one said anything for a moment. Instead, they focused on defending against the continuous onslaught of elemental attacks directed at Ezekiel.
Ezekiel barely seemed to hear him, as he was slightly shocked at seeing a man die almost right in front of him. He couldn’t freeze, however, and as the adrenaline from the battle ran through him, he managed to not stop moving as he thought about what to do.
“Nathanus, can you get me the hammer Garrad threw?” Ezekiel asked after a moment's thought.
He kept his voice low so as to not alert anyone else right away.
Nathanus didn’t reply, but Ezekiel saw his Spirit, Tosser, seemingly turn invisible as he flew around.
Suddenly, the hammer, which was on the other side of the domed over passage from their group, was sent flying towards Ezekiel via a gust of wind.
Herend did nothing to block this, allowing it to fly through a small opening towards Ezekiel, who caught it with a grunt.
“Spirits damn you!”
A wave of flames from Aldor reached out to cover the entire group, only to be countered by Philips own flames.
The resulting explosion nearly made Ezekiel’s eardrums burst and caused a minor lull in the battle between the many Tier two Hunters in the area.
“Now!” Aldor suddenly yelled out.
Ezekiel barely had a chance to wonder what was happening when the ground beside him seemed to melt, and Aldor’s snake Spirit launched itself from the ground, a small explosion from behind propelling it forward.
“What!?”
Across the room, Garrad was shocked. How had he not noticed a Spirit literally melting its way underground for a sneak attack.
Turning back to Laymond, he realized that the other Cavern Mage was shifting his senses. Making it more difficult to see the details in the earth outside of a certain range of their battle.
Ezekiel knew he was in trouble. Even with his body being continuously reinforced with Void Mana, Ezekiel was still too slow to turn around as Aldor’s Spirit aimed straight for his neck, mouth wide and white-hot fangs barred for all to see.
Ezekiel knew that, if those fangs managed to sink into him, he would be dead as literal fire was forced into his veins.
He tried to raise his sword as best he could. But he knew he wouldn’t make it.
A small figure suddenly appeared in front of him, having moved far faster than he had.
A navy-blue frog now hung in the air between Ezekiel and the Flame snake. With a quiet ‘ribbit’ the frog grew in size, becoming covered in a thick layer or blue ice.
The ice was so cold that Ezekiel could immediately see his breath condensing in the now cold air.
The fangs of the snake slid over the rounded body of the Glacial frog, becoming stuck as they partially melted the ice that was covering it, only to have it refreeze.
Aldor and his Spirit may have been Tier two, but they were of a lower Step than Herend and his Spirit, Phear. As such, it wasn’t hard for them to spend the mana necessary to disable Aldor’s snake.
“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” Aldor screamed in a blind rage. “Why won’t you just die!?”
As the two Spirits crashed on the ground, Aldor’s screaming seemed to fade from Ezekiel’s senses. Seeing a Spirit that he had become friends with over the past few weeks in such a perilous position made him furious and fearful.
Swinging his sword as hard as he could, Ezekiel struck Aldor’s Spirit, sending it flying from where it was stuck to Phear. Its fangs broke as Phear did not move with it.
The small frog had also frozen itself to the ground to prevent the snake Spirit from moving with him in its mouth.
Fangs now broken; Aldor’s Spirit slithered back to Aldor as fast as it could.
“Okay, get me to that dome. We can also use it for cover if we get there first.”
The team of Titans Hunters nodded their heads. Herend took a risk and threw up a wall of ice that would cover one side as they made a dash to the dome covering the Void Lock.
Ezekiel made a lead, bringing the hammer over his head for a downward swing. It made impact with the dome, and due to its enhancement from the Void mana Ezekiel was pumping into it, much of the dome actually cracked.
“NO!” Aldor screamed out again. “I’m not letting you get away!”
Throwing caution to the wind, Aldor surrounded himself in flames, channeling both his own mana, as well as his Spirit’s.
He recklessly charged, intent on stopping Ezekiel before he could break through to the Void Lock.
Seeing what Aldor was about to do, Ezekiel’s team did their best to prevent him from getting close. But the Hunters from the Stormy Clouds had moved to a different side, and the team was forced to split their attention.
They couldn’t afford to let any of the comparably more dangerous spells from the other Hunters get through, as it would certainly mean they would die.
Aldor, on the other hand, was just one person.
CRACK
A large portion of the dome had now crumbled under Ezekiel’s blows. The Void Lock was now visible, and the hole was big enough for him to get through.
He placed his hand on the Void Lock, channeling his mana through it once again.
BOOM!!!
An explosion rang out from behind him.
“EZEKIEL!!!”
Tracy screamed as she forced a large tree to grow in the ground between Ezekiel and Aldor, who had created an explosion behind himself to propel himself forward, just as his Spirit had done earlier.
It slowed Aldor a little bit, but the tree was quick to ignite, and burned to a crisp quite quickly. Luckily, the mana it took to burn the tree meant that the flames surrounding his body were no longer as hot.
As such, Aldor, still covered in flames, slammed into Ezekiel, knocking them both into the passageway behind the Void lock.
Ezekiel’s protective clothing did little to protect him from the heat but did buffer him somewhat. So, he did not get immediately burned as he and Aldor fell into the passage.
“KID!!!”
Garrad yelled as he tried to disengage from his fight with Laymond.
Unfortunately, as soon as he did so, Laymond slammed his pickaxe into the ground, focusing his mana toward the direction of the passage.
A crack spread out, reaching all the way to the half-destroyed dome, and reformed a much larger, much thicker, dome, that would take even Gerome a few seconds to get through.
Garrad didn’t have a few seconds, however, as Laymond was on him in moments.
“You see, brute! I don’t need to beat you. I just need to ensure that abomination dies!”
“Then I guess that means I’ll just have to kill you faster and save him!”
The fight between Garrad and Laymond began again. This time, the entire cavern was beginning to tremble, causing the other fights to stall as most of them lost their footing.
However, the fighting didn’t stop. Both sides knew that, at this point, there was no guarantee of mercy for the losing side.
For Ezekiel’s team, they knew that they couldn’t get through the dome covering the Void Lock. Nor would they be able to get through the Void Lock even after the dome was cleared.
For now, as tired and as frustrated as they were, all they could do was fight.
Ezekiel would have to survive on his own for now.
----------------------------------------
Ezekiel rolled head over heels as he was grappled by Aldor. The burning feeling he felt was only barely tolerable, and he couldn’t help but wince in pain as they tumbled through the darkness of the passage beneath the Temple of the Void.
The old and worn-down steps caused new bruises to form as he and Aldor continued to fall deeper and deeper into the Ruins.
Finally, after what felt like it must’ve been a hundred steps, Aldor and Ezekiel came to a stop. Ezekiel, channeling his mana into his arms, pushed as hard as he could, breaking out of Aldor’s slackening grasp.
He threw himself to the side as a stream of fire was shot directly at him by Aldor’s Spirit.
Looking at Aldor’s fallen form, he realized that Aldor was having difficulties getting up, but was still in good enough shape to be a problem if he remained in this area.
He was running very low on mana, and Aldor’s Spirit was still powerful enough to cause him some problems right now.
Carefully turning away from Aldor, but not letting him out of his sight, Ezekiel backed away from Aldor before breaking into a sprint as soon as he was a few more feet away.
“You... bastard!... Get... back here...”
Aldor’s voice faded from Ezekiel’s ears as he fled. But the light he was creating from his flames wasn’t fading away. He was chasing after Ezekiel as fast as he could.
Taking a risk, Ezekiel used what little mana he still had to charge up several of the explosive ball bearings Merlot had given him.
Tossing three of them over his shoulder as he rounded a corner. Ezekiel expected a large boom to echo out as he continued running.
Nothing happened.
The ball bearings were charged with as much mana as he could put in them, but they didn’t explode. They just wasted his mana.
A cold feeling settled into Ezekiel’s stomach.
‘Could it be...?’
Ezekiel changed the way he focused his mana, moving faster than he’d ever moved before so as to get away as fast as he could, rather than try any more of the ball bearings.
Eventually, the passage reached a fork in the road. Looking for signs of what might be down each passageway, Ezekiel paused for a moment, but didn’t find anything that wasn’t blank walls. Not caring about which path he took; Ezekiel immediately ran down the left one.
“I know where you are, you little brat!”
Aldor’s words simply fueled the feeling of unease he’d had for the last few minutes.
Ezekiel ignored it as best he could as he came towards a turn in the passageway. It was a couple dozen meters away, but he would get to it soon.
Unfortunately, he was quickly running out of mana, having already used quite a bit earlier, and he didn’t know how much further, or if he even would find, another Void Lock. Choosing to take one more risk, Ezekiel reached into the pouch with the ball bearings one more time.
Only to immediately withdraw his hand as they felt hot to the touch.
He poured the ball bearings out, spilling them all over the ground behind him, and seeing that each and every one of them was glowing with white hot Runes.
They were all going to explode soon. Somehow, they were absorbing the ambient mana in the atmosphere, and much like what Ezekiel did on purpose, they were going to shatter once they reached critical capacity.
Throwing caution to the wind, Ezekiel channeled as much mana through his body as he could safely handle.
His eyes gained focus as the dark passage brightened in his eyes. The was a muffled ‘crack’ as the ground beneath him shattered when he launched himself forward.
He had barely made it the twenty or so meters needed to dive around the corner when the dozens of ball bearings went off like grenades behind him. He hadn’t even fully passed the corner when they went off.
“AAARRRRGGGG!!!”
Two voices screamed in pain.
Aldor, who was following behind Ezekiel, had just gotten in range of the blast when the ball bearings exploded, receiving shrapnel to the front of his body. His Spirit suffered a similar fate.
Ezekiel, on the other hand, was blown into the wall at the end of the corridor, and his legs were nearly shredded as metal shrapnel tore through them. His upper body was mostly spared, as it had been around the corner when he dove for cover.
Dazed from hitting the wall as hard as he did. Ezekiel’s vision was starting to go blurry, and he couldn’t focus on channeling his mana properly.
But as he looked forward, down the new hallway, he saw something that gave him hope.
Another Void Lock!
If he could just get to it, he might be able to get to safety before Aldor got to it, leaving Ezekiel safe as Aldor was trapped in the current area that they were in.
Slowly, he began to drag himself the few feet forward to get to the Void Lock.
The sound of metal scraping against stonework emanated like a cruel whisper from behind him.
“You... I’ll kill you!”
Aldor’s voice was coming out in wet raspy utterances as he continued forward to cut down Ezekiel. Neither he nor his Spirit were in any condition to continue. Bloody, bruised, and burnt. Both were on their last legs.
‘Tap’
Before they could reach him, Ezekiel touched the Void Lock, opening it with the last dregs of his mana, and forcing himself through the opening as he crawled away as fast as he could.
“There you are!”
Aldor’s voice called out from behind Ezekiel. Just as he crossed the threshold of the Void Lock, he turned to take a look at his pursuer.
The lower half of Aldor’s face was a burned and bloodied mess. He had gashes and lacerations all across his body from where the enchantments on his armor had failed. All his clothes were ripped and cut, and his hair was partially singed from where white-hot metal had gotten caught in it.
His Spirit wasn’t doing much better. It had just as many lacerations and holes where shrapnel had hit it as Aldor did and looked like it would start fading away at any moment.
Suddenly, as he looked down at Ezekiel, Aldor stopped.
Ezekiel watched with bleary eyes as Aldor reached into the relatively undamaged satchel on his back. Taking out several vials that he held between his fingers, Aldor downed them one by one, giving ones that were similar in color to his Spirit.
The first one made Ezekiel flinch as Aldor and his Spirit screamed in pain. Metal fragments were forced out of their open wounds. The potion was purging their bodies of foreign objects.
The second potion surprised Ezekiel, as it seemed to heal the cuts that ran all along their bodies.
The final potion seemed to cause the burned skin on their bodies to peel off. New skin was growing underneath.
Ezekiel was shocked. Each of those potions was worth at least a hundred gold each, if you supplied the materials yourself, taking off the additional two hundred gold cost for the rare ingredients necessary for their creation.
They weren’t as expensive as the gift Lina had given him, but still, they were more than he could have gotten after all the other items he’d received.
He knew for a fact that each of those potions needed a Tier three Mage to brew them as well.
Aldor, seeing the look of shock on Ezekiel’s face, just chuckled in sadistic pleasure.
“That’s right, trash! Look upon your betters, and despair!”
Leaping forward, Aldor came down with his sword, intent on cutting through Ezekiel as lay injured on the ground.
A black wall filled with countless stars appeared between them. Aldor slammed into it with a pained grunt. Screaming in rage when he realized what had happened.
Ezekiel saw none of this, however, as he was surrounded in darkness. His mana enhanced senses fading away, and his consciousness following after it.
The last thought he had was one of confusion.
‘Was Aldor’s eye... golden?’