Chapter 15

“Let’s hope the rumors are right,” Samantah said as we approached the dungeon entrance.

We found the dungeon yesterday, quite late in the day. Our search had taken us a few dozen kilometers along the winding ridge of mountain peaks. Aluuth had trampled tundra bushes and rocks to carve her own path forward. The sound of her path-making made conversation impossible, and we literally tumbled about as the sled was pulled over the challenging terrain.

We saw evidence of adventurers having found the dungeon as well. Distant plumes of smoke rose from fires. The closer we came to the dungeon, the more often we saw pockets of blood stained snow.

The dungeon entrance loomed before us. Two oval boulders bordered a wide crevice that descended down the side of the cliff. A long wooden beam spanned the gap between the boulders at the very top. A white banner hung from the center of the beam. It read, “Rinni’s Canyon. 2. Death to All Who Enter.”

“Charming,” Henrick said.

Without another word, Seeud led the way. Henrick and Jorge followed after him, and the rest of us brought up the rear. The snow had lightened but the cold had deepened. If it weren’t for my cloak, I would have been forced to abandon the dungeon. My nose felt frozen, and my feet were stiff.

“Remember,” Samantah said, as we began navigating the crevice path. “Communicate with each other in battle. Let everyone know what you’re doing so we can better support you.

As we turned a corner, the warriors stopped suddenly and equipped their weapons. Jorge rushed forward and raised his shield as the first line of defense.

“False alarm,” Seeud said, and we all relaxed.

When I turned the corner as well, I saw what the false alarm was. Hanging just above the height of our heads, against the rock wall, was a large metal cage. Its chain rose up and over the canyon wall.

“That’s quite grim,” Antoine said.

There was a blood-red colored corpse in the cage. It’s bones were drenched red, and flakes of black material were stuck to it, as though the poor thing had been consumed in an inferno. It was sitting upright, but the torso had fallen forward. Its skull was pressed between the bars and its arms hung out and dangled below the bottom of the cage. The jaw was hung open. As snow fell upon the corpse, it melted then ran off and dripped to the ground. The corpse seemed to produce its own heat.

We passed by without another word, avoiding the grisly scene. We followed the rocky path until it spit us out at the very edge of a cliff. The dungeon trail veered left and continued with the cliff face to our left, and a fathomless drop to certain death on our right. I couldn’t even see the bottom. All I could see below were thick clouds.

We continued onwards, single file. Jorge led the way, then it was Seeud, Henrick, Antoine, Me, and Samantah.

“I pray we don’t get ambushed while on this trail,” she said.

The cliffside trail continued. At some point we started to come to more of hanging cages filled with corpses. They hung every few dozen feet and some were filled with more than one corpse.

We received another scare when Jorge passed beneath a hidden nest of vultures. There had been an outcrop of rock wherein a group of vultures felt threatened by our passing. They were large birds of prey. Their bodies were fully feathered except for their necks, which were layered with overlapping wrinkles of black flesh. Their curved beaks were blood red. That was the only spot of color they sported.

Their caws were decrepit, and no stone on stone could have matched the grating noise they made. They circled threateningly above, slowly flying closer and closer. Their talons were black and overgrown, curling beyond the point at which they should have been trimmed.

“Safety up ahead!” Jorge shouted over his shoulder.

I leaned toward the cliff drop so that I could better see what safety awaited us. The cliff ahead of us came out perhaps two dozen feet, and the trail we followed continued through it, via tunnel. It was perhaps half a kilometer away and we only needed to avoid fighting the buzzards.

For a few minutes we traveled un bothered. Then a pair of buzzards dive bombed one of the cages that Antoine had just passed by. The buzzards did nothing to slow their descent and they rammed violently into the cage. Feather’s exploded from their impact. The birds tumbled in a ball of black talons and red beaks. The cage was knocked about, and its chain clinked and creaked with every movement.

I was blocked from moving forward. The screeching buzzards battled each other between Antoine and I. There was no choice but to wait it out.

“Hold up!” Antoine called out to the warriors. “Tosin and Samantah are stuck!”

Henrick had come back and carefully switched places with Antoine. I could spy his legs beneath the tumble of buzzards. Then his longsword split through both buzzards, and continued through the cage and clanged against the cliff face. Dark blood poured from the buzzard halves. The bottom half of the cage tumbled down with the corpse still in it, and rolled off the side of the cliff.

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“That’s a bit better isn’t it?” Henrick said. He used the point of his long sword to smack off the buzzard halves. “Careful passing though. Might be a bit slippery.”

The rest of the buzzards circling above us went into a frenzy. Their decrepit caws were louder and their movements had become more erratic. Jorge and Seeud were the first to get dive bombed.

“Let’s move!” Henrick said, and beckoned us forward.

I had to fend off a swooping buzzard with my spearhead before continuing forth. After a brief clash of metal and talon, the buzzard retreated to the sky. I took the opportunity to carefully crouch-walk across the slick buzzard blood that stained the trail. Then I stood to protect Samantah as she crossed in the same crouch-walking manner. Her hair was so long it dragged across the blood and picked up the stain, and I’m guessing her dark cloak did too.

A flash of wings caught my attention. Unnaturally curling talons raked at me and I pressed myself against the cliff wall to stay out of reach. I jabbed my flagstaff up and thrust the spearhead through the vulture. The bird of prey wiggled for a moment before dying. I hurled it over the edge.

“Thanks Tosin,” Samantah said.

We picked up our pace and caught up to the others. Even though we were about halfway to the tunnel, the problem remained the same. The buzzards swooped down on us with increasing frequency. Jorge seemed to be having a blast of it. He’d bring up his shield, and each buzzard would smack against it. He’d laugh and fling the bird away while it was stunned.

I’d managed to kill another one by the time we made it to the tunnel. When we were in deep enough, the buzzards left us alone.

“Everyone alright?” Antoine said.

Samantah had opted to check on everyone's health bars so far. Her mana bar was cast out in a wide circle. All our health bars floated at the bottom left. Jorge’s health bar was imperceptibly shortened.

He gave a giant toothy grin and showed us his forearm. His leather sleeve was scratched. The mark ran the length of his forearm and ended at his hand. Blood leaked from the end of a superficial scratch.

My instinct was to hand over a potion, but the party moved on ahead without addressing the wound. Samantah smiled at me as we walked side by side, flanking the party.

“It's minor, no reason to stop and provide healing. How are you doing?”

“I get it. I’m good, a little cold, but good.”

The tunnel wasn’t always dark. There were many holes in the right wall that exposed us to the sky. Buzzards circled in the distance. The further we traveled, the more vultures we saw. Mountain peaks poked through the clouds below us.

The tunnel rose and fell as we continued. We found more cages filled with corpses, but instead of hanging from chains, the bars had been nailed to the rockwall. The wall and floor had been stained long ago, but there was more to it than just the color of blood. There was a layer of black soot beneath the long dried stains. It was almost as if the corpses had been burned alive in an incredible fire.

We later came upon a set of stairs that brought us to the top of the mountain. The terrain sloped upward at a slight grade once we exited the tunnel. There was no life here. Only thin blankets of softly drifting snow that was picked up by wind.

Seeud found a chiseled path that we followed. He was also the first to spot the gate up ahead. The gate was closed, and made of intersecting logs. It was set into a wide wooden wall that spanned the width of the mountainous ridge. The mountain dropped off at either end of the wall. Apart from flying, there was no other way around. The only way forward was through the gate.

When we got close enough, I heard the belting of a horn. Figures panicked behind parapet walls. Arrows were fitted to bows and pointed our way. Bandits, I figured. They were dressed in layers of buzzard skin that was stitched together with some sort of feline fur.

“We’re going to need a plan,” Seeud said.

“My shield will take care of the nasty bits,” Jorge said.

“We’ll need to break down the gate,” Seeud said. “Any guess at its durability?”

“This is a level 2 dungeon,” Samantah said. “At your level, you won’t need to spend too much time on it. There are eight archers that I can see. The rest are probably hiding and more adept at close hand combat.

“That one there is a mage,” Henrick said, pointing at a figure at the very top of the gate.

The bandit stood taller than the rest. His eyes were nearly white, but his nose was most peculiar. Instead of a human’s nose, it was the nose of deer. He raised his hands to the sky and he began chanting.

“Perius. Ventrius. Twerus. Skerpus.”

After he recited the fourth word, the air above his right hand shimmered. Humidity condensed into a sparkling long spear.

“Sekwus. Ventrius. Twerus. Skerpus.”

Another bolt of condensed wintry air formed above his left hand. The two spears were as white as snow, but shimmered with a moon glow. The bandit mage leaned back and threw one of the spears in our direction. It came at us unnaturally fast, as though spit from the current of a quick wind.

I flowed my mana bar into a large circle and called out, “Fist of Wind!” Then I slammed my flagstaff down and it struck against stone. The spells rune sheened silver and grey, before wind and shadow tumbled together to form a large fist. I aimed for the incoming spear and the fist sailed toward it. The bandit's spear was knocked off course and it flew off the side of the mountain.

“Not bad healer!” Jorge said, rushing forward and bringing his shield up.

The second spear had been launched right after the first and it struck with a loud crack in the center of Jorge’s shield. The impact drove him backward and though the spear was lodged in the shield, its magic continued to push him. He braced against the pushing spear with straining effort. He leaned against the shield and pushed back, but the spear’s force was greater and he began sliding backwards. Seeud chopped the spear in half with his cleaver and the spear disintegrated with a quiet whisper.

“Incoming!” Samantah said, pointing to the sky.

A volley of arrows with barbed tips descended upon us. The warriors leapt in front of us, one man per healer. Jorge shielded me, Henrick protected Antoine, and Seeud protected Samantah. The warriors received the arrows without flinching. I distinctly heard every barbed arrowhead plunk into plate armor, slice through leather, and pierce through flesh.

Then I heard the mange bandit take up his chant once more.

“Perius. Ventrius. Twerus. Skerpus. Sekwus. Ventrius. Twerus. Skerpus.”