CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: SIMPLY BETTER
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Dozens of lanterns lit up in succession as they walked into the ruined temple, exposing the carnage within. As they walked in and took n the sight of the many desiccated corpses and skeletal remains, a heavy atmosphere descended on them, threatening to smother their spirits. Gods! Even Howe was silent. How did Adil run through this yelling and whining?
The answer came to him. ‘He’s an idiot!’
“You three!” he called out, pointing at them. “You’re with Diarmuid.”
“Take the left flank while we clear the room. Howe and I will go down the middle. Cyne will lead the rest along the right.” The directions were pretty straightforward, and they had run through enough similar manoeuvres that everyone should know what to do. Still, Guillaume made sure to add a warning.
“There didn’t seem to be many of them when The Shields came through, but they could be any one of these remains, so keep your eyes peeled, and if you see one of the staff wielders, raise an alarm!”
The temple wasn’t too big. They should be able to cover it in a quarter of an hour.
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Cyne looked out into the gloom, squinting like a gran trying to thread a needle. Her eyesight wasn’t great on a clear sunny day. Here in the shadows of the crypt, she was damn near blind. She didn’t like it, not when she knew that there were foes out there lurking in the dark.
“Take out torches!” she barked at her men. “Give us some light!”
Within seconds, she had two torches to light the way.
To be honest, she wasn’t sure how much help she was going to be. She was only a fifth-stage initiate. She might have the fire element, but she was far from being able to manifest her mana and use it outside her body. This meant she couldn't attack directly with her power and could only use it to boost herself. However, that blowhard Howe said it would help, and the captain agreed, so she had to try. Taking a deep breath, she called on the flame within, stoking it like an actual fire by letting her lungs act as the bellows. Warmth spread through her, bringing with it a restless strength that compelled her to act.
Immediately, one of the skeletons twitched, nearly causing one of the torchbearers to drop his torch out of fright.
“That one moved!” he yelled, pointing towards it with his sword. “I saw it!”
Cyne narrowed in on it instantly. ‘Could it be?’ she asked herself.
She had only intended to prepare herself for the fights to come, but if the monsters were sensitive to their weaknesses, then… The skeleton twitched again before jerking up as if waking from a bad dream, its empty eye sockets staring right at them. Everyone else went still, but Cyne shuddered instead, a dark chill coming over her. She clenched her spear tight, knuckles going bone white as she pushed past the sensation. In the meantime, the skeleton scrambled to its feat, pulling out a sword as it did so. Scuffing noises from her left informed her that it was not the only one.
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She swung, bashing in the skull of the approaching skeleton with all the strength she could bring to bear, felling it with a single blow. More noises came from her left as the second one shuffled… away? Cyne turned, catching the robed skeleton as it backed away from them, staff raised. Its jaws jabbered like a silent puppet, and yet it somehow caused a grating hum to fill the air. She didn’t have time to think. Rushing in, Cyne lunged. The strike was true, and her spear went right through its left eye. For a brief moment, the skeleton glared balefully at her before crumbling.
Cyne spun around, checking her surroundings for more enemies. Finding nothing on the approach, she turned her eyes to the glowing item floating in front of her, an intricately decorated gold sceptre. It was beautiful. Bending slightly, she snatched it out of the air to examine it further. Still emitting a dim, almost indiscernible white glow, the sceptre did not look in any way tarnished by age.
“GET IT BEFORE IT CASTS THAT SPELL!”
The scream brought Cyne back to her senses. Shoving the sceptre into a loop on her belt, she turned to her men. She checked the area. “Where is the other one?”
One of the torchbearers sheepishly handed over a porcelain plate gilded with what she guessed was the Mirthtree Coat of Arms. Stuffing that too in her satchel, Cyne led her small squad further into the temple, searching for more treasure.
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‘Slow’, Howe thought as he smashed his way through another skeleton. The monsters were slower than he had first believed. Ordinary fighter slow. Any half-decent cultivator should be able to beast them. The only thing they had at their disposal was the element of surprise and their strange magics. Pound for pound, they were weaker than even second-stage initiates. They might as well have been standing still to a seventh-stage fighter like Howe. So much so that he believed that together, he and Guiilaume could clear this place without much effort.
In the distance, he made out one of the casters. Stretching a hand towards it, he blasted it with lightning before it could complete its own spell.
“Conserve your mana!” Guillaume yelled at him, rushing over to rescue one of the Diarmuid’s teammates from an axe-wielding skeleton.
He waved him away. He wasn’t stupid. He just didn’t feel like running halfway across the room for one enemy. True to his expectations, it wasn’t even ten minutes before they had killed all the monsters in the room. Without the edge of surprise and faced with a well-organised force, the skeletons stood no chance.
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They gathered at neat the dais, pooling the loot together.
“You faced how many again?” Guillaume asked.
“Three armed skeletons and one of the robed casters!” Cyne reported.
Howe half listened as Guillaume briefed his people, trying to figure out just how many monsters they had faced and where. His attention was taken by the small pile of items they had gathered. In addition to a small pile of what had to be a least a hundred gold coins, there were; two semi-precious gemstones that glowed white, a golden sceptre, also white, as well as a white porcelain bowl, three vials of unknown liquids that glowed, again, white, an ominous black orb that glowed green and a long staff of gnarled wood that glowed white. Assuming that the glows indicated their value, then the orb had to be the most valuable given that, like the sword the Vast Heaven Elder congratulated Adil for obtaining, it was the only thing with an actual colour.
“…meaning there were fifteen of the creatures. Twelve armed skeletons and three of the black magic users….”
Howe winced as his friend revealed everything to the people watching. He quickly interrupted him before he could spill more of the beans. “I’ve gone through the loot!”
“I can’t be sure since we’ll need to get these appraised first, but we’re looking at a haul of at least ten thousand gold.”
He was intentionally lowballing it because he doubted they would actually sell these. If Adil’s sword was any indication, then the equipment would be better served in active use instead of being sold to some collector somewhere. As for the other items, he doubted they held any special magics, so their worth would depend on the buyers they managed to scrounge up. It shouldn’t be too difficult. Pre-desolation artefacts tended to sell well. He doubted items from the Cataclysm would do worse.
While their jaws dropped, he grabbed the nearest one by the wrist and pulled him close to pack up the items.
“Have you decided which door we should go through?” he asked innocently, keeping his fingers crossed for the middle one.