Part 1

It didn't even take us one step into the room for the stench of death and rot to carve its way into our heads. It was awfully thick and heavy, making my mind spin for a few seconds before regaining stability. Those beside me felt no different. Instinctively, we searched for the source of that stench with our eyes, careful with our steps.

The unmistakable sound of retchings resounded on my left. I spun around, fearing whatever caused that retching, and saw Dino clutching his stomach with one hand and pointing with a trembling finger to a corner of the room. Dominik had already taken out his sword before I could even follow the trail of Dino's finger to the corner. I instinctively took a step back.

"What the fuck is that?!" I asked, keeping my voice as steady as possible without showing the threat of trembling growing in my throat.

Clustered in that corner, as if to cover the tunnel behind them, stood motionless an impossible number of nightmare-like horrid creatures. I felt the need to vomit as I took in with my eyes their form. Those creatures were all taller than me, some almost reaching the ceiling others just a few centimeters taller. They had four limbs, two on the upper body like squat arms and two legs that seemed unbendable, just like solid, straight tubes. They had no neck, and their head was just a sphere placed over their wide shoulders. Yet, the most retching feature of theirs was the fact that their entire bodies were made of flesh. Red, bloody flesh. Rotting flesh. Fibrous flesh. My stomach turned as I realized the nature of those creatures.

"F-flesh golems?" Asked Dino, finally cleaning the corners of his mouth after releasing what little his stomach still contained.

There was no need for an answer. We all silently agreed to what was formulated as a question but resembled more of a statement. We were in the presence of an army of flesh golems. I could already see the question being raised in my brother's eyes and I promptly answered with a nod of my head. "Are those really flesh golems?" was what Lucas wanted to ask. I saw his lips tremble and fear making his teeth chatter before he was able to regain himself by biting his lip. I could not reproach him for his fear, nor for the insecurity he showed with his question.

It wasn't due to the enemys' numbers but the fact that we had already lost the one advantage against such a great number, my magic. Flesh golems were said to be one of the few beings completely impervious to magic. Any kind of magic. Few survive them, and even fewer are those sane enough to tell the tale of what those monsters do to their prey.

[We need to run!] I thought, feeling the knot in my throat grow wider.

"Hurry-" I said as I turned to march towards the entrance "- we must get out before-"

A deep and inhuman growl cut my words short. I felt the golems' awakening and their mana presence grow stronger as more and more of those horrid creatures turned their empty eyes-sockets toward us. I shuddered. For the first time, I was face to face with an enemy that not only I couldn't beat but I had no hope to fight against. My ability with the sword was too poor for me to fend off even one of those abominations. For the first time ever since my encounter with the fiend, I felt fear.

"RUN!" Was the only thing I could say before spinning around my heels and running as if my life depended on it, as it unfortunately did.

The growls became shouts and animalistic screams as my three companions rushed out of the cave with me. The golems must've realized their meal was just about to escape. The tremors from their steps shook the entire tunnel as the flood of fleshy monsters chased after the four of us. The fear and adrenaline dampening the fatigue piling up.

We tried to follow the marks we had left on the walls but, as the flesh golems caught up with us, it became increasingly chaotic hence difficult to keep track of our path. A labyrinth of stone tunnels opened up in front of us while the stench of rot grew in strength the more those monsters came close. To make things even worse, their clumsy way of running caused those monsters to fall against walls, columns and the ground. Dust and debris falling from the ceiling added the fear of being buried alive to the already existing fear of being eaten alive.

[Running like scared kids like this won't help us in any way! Those... things are persistent as fuck!] I came to conclude after five long minutes of incessant running.

I could see the despair growing by the second on my companions' faces. The fatigue did not certainly help. Everyone seemed to be solely focused on running for their lives, but that wasn't enough. So I took it upon myself to think of a way to get out of that situation.

"Raph, you fucker!-" Shouted Lucas at that very moment "- Could've warned us of those things!"

"Are you fucked up in the head!?-" I shouted back, losing my cool in the heat of the moment "- We decided all together. WE! That's what the voting was for! And how could I fucking know we would find flesh golems!? Those bastards weren't emitting mana!"

"RUN INSTEAD OF BICKERING YOU IDIOTS!" Shouted back Dino, sweat covering his entire body.

I could practically smell the frustration in Dino's eyes as he turned his eyes around and noticed the short distance between us and the red mass of flesh. The streams of ungodly curses, most of them directed to my lack of judgment, coming from Lucas wasn't surely doing nothing positive for the situation. The only one seemingly unaffected was Dominik. Only then I noticed how good of stamina the old swordsman had and an idea sparked in my head.

"Dominik-" I shouted, catching the attention of the swordsman "- Can you run while carrying me?"

"...What?" Asked the man clearly surprised.

"Pick me up, carry me over your shoulder-" I repeated "- You get the idea!"

"Yeah, ok, but...why?"

I was unsure whether his face showed more concern, perplexity, or disgust. In any case, I realized how my words must've sounded and rapidly made an attempt to explain without much time wasted.

"Listen, I've got an idea, but for this idea to have even the slightest chance to work I can't run. So if you can carry, good, if not I must find another way to get rid of those fleshy fuckers. Can you carry me and still run, yes or no?"

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"RAPH!-" Screamed Lucas with fear shining dangerously bright across his eyes "- You are not thinking of using that? Right?"

"Do you want us all dead? Of course I'm not using that! Dominik, please make up your mind fast!"

"Yes, I can" Answered Dominik as soon as his eyes rapidly scanned my entire body, most likely trying to guess my whole weight.

"Good-" I replied, sighing in relief before assuming an authoritarian tone again "- Dino! You'll be leading us, try to keep us away from dead ends and follow the marks we left behind! Lucas, you have to fend off the little bastards approaching us, but do it while running. If you stop running I can't save you!"

It may have been due to the extreme situation or perhaps the trust I built in the past few days, but the three members of my group nodded in acknowledgment as soon as I finished speaking. With militaristic speed, they set themselves in an ordinated line with Dino in the front, Dominik picking me up and carrying me on one shoulder, and Lucas closing the line. For just a moment I imagined that a commander or a general must've felt that sense of fulfillment whenever one of his orders was carried out to perfection, but I soon snapped out of that fantasy when a squat arm swung dangerously close to Lucas' shoulder.

I steeled myself. Emptied the mind of every useless thought. Fear, urgency, fatigue, hunger, thirst. I expelled everything useless until my mind became nothing but the plain surface of a lake. Mana flowing underneath its surface cleanly enough for me to get a hold of. And so I did. I moved almost all the mana toward one single channel and chanted the required words. Shouted, rather.

"Seismic fissure!" I voiced as my left hand scraped against the wall of the tunnel.

"A fourth tier!? Just like that? Are you planning to kill us all!?" Shouted Lucas, livid with anger and he watched the four surfaces of the tunnel tremble and cracks form on their surfaces.

"Don't whine idiot, just run!" I shouted in return, holding back the need to close my eyelids.

Chunks of the ceiling began falling down as walls and floor crumbled under the weight of the monsters. The domino effect of stones crumbling against each other was pushed forward thanks to me spreading the spell through natural mana. An action that required me almost double the quantity of mana needed for the spell and left me almost devoid of that essence. Yet, the euphory of seeing the beings that instilled so much fear in me falling one after the other to my spell sent me into a crazed stage dictated by the joy of the conquest.

"YEEEESSS!-" I shouted as I swung my arms around over Dominik's shoulder "- Die you fuckers! Die under a mage's spell! HAHAHA, and they said a mage can't kill flesh golems! In your face you fuckers!"

The surprise on my companion's faces at my sudden outburst painted a clear expression of shock. It was understandable. I played the role of the level-headed and calm brother while Lucas took the role of the hot-headed one. Seeing me suddenly bursting into laughter in that kind of situation must've given them quite the scare. Only Lucas laughed. Almost as hard as I did, even.

"And here it comes! Raphael's true nature! Hahaha. It's been ages since the last time I saw it!" He shouted vigorously while keeping his stride as steady as possible and dodging various falling chunks of rock.

"W-What? Is everything...okay with him?" Asked Dino in between dodges.

"Yeah, haha-" Promptly replied Lucas "- He just gets in this, I don't know, psycho-like state? It usually happened whenever he completed a new spell. Funny isn't it?"

"More like creepy..." Faintly replied Dino, thinking that I wouldn't hear him.

Alas, that joyful and elated atmosphere didn't last long. While my spell had indeed caused many deaths in the ranks of the flesh golems, their numbers far surpassed what I had imagined and soon rows of those monsters were running over the corpses of their breathed and clawing away at the debris. My spell was only able to slow them down and enrage them even further. My lack of mana made itself heard even louder. At that moment I knew that I was little more than just a burden.

"Shit! They are too many! What do we do now, Raph?" Shouted Lucas, beckoning me with his eyes to grant the group a path safe from those monsters.

"I... I don't kno-" I began shouting before a loud voice interrupted.

"Look!-" Shouted Dino, pointing with a finger towards a side far down the tunnel "- There's some kind of...hole!"

I spun my head around, almost falling from Dominik's shoulder and staggering him slightly. I didn't want to admit it to myself but I too was feeling as hopeless as my brother. Dino's words seemed to have rekindled that hope. I ran my eyes around the shape of the tunnel until the hole came into view. It was small, big enough for an average person to crawl through. The idea of crawling through such an unknown place made shivers run down my spine yet the thought of it being an escape route suppressed those instincts.

"Can we crawl through it?" I asked, almost out of confirmation rather than information.

"We must-" Coldly replied Dominik "- Those golems won't leave us alone until either of us is dead"

Looks of anguish mixed with the sour expressions of fatigued painted grimaces on my friends' faces. It was a simple statement, one we had all understood from the beginning, yet hearing it only confirmed the doom those words brought. The hole in the wall was our only chance.

"Sir Raphael, are you able to cast any other spell?" Asked Dominik.

"... One or two small ones-" I said, reluctant to reveal the truth of my lacking condition "- but if I do cast them, I'll be completely useless. Why, do you have something in mind?"

"The wind spell-" He continued "- The one you used to support us against the stone golems. Can you keep it up until the hole?"

"I leave my body in your hands!" I said, catching up on the plan Dominik had wordlessly suggested.

His body tensed up as he ordered Lucas and Dino to push their bodies further. I could feel his shoulders getting stiff and his breath heavy and uneven. I briefly closed my eyes, recalling the sensation of mana coursing through my channels. It was faint, small and insignificant compared to my usual pool but nonetheless enough for that last struggle. Or so I hoped. The words flowed out of my mouth just as mana did with my channels and a gentle wind pushed the bodies of my companions from the back.

With no friction, their stride became faster and more fluid. Their tiredness eased up just a bit. Even the rising temperature of their bodies was mitigated by the soft touch of my wind. The spell had succeded but the cost was high on my part. With virtually no mana left, I was forced to sustain my hold on the spell by focusing only on that. A very dangerous thing since I had to close my eyes in the very middle of a battle. A mistake that in the majority of circumstances would bring death.

The spell's duration was brief, just enough for us to gain distance from the horde, reach the hole and consume my entire reserve of mana. But I had served my purpose. We had reached the hole and the horde of heinous monsters was far enough to give us time, not to crawl but rather shove ourselves into it. Lucas was the first, lounging headfirst into the crack in the wall. As soon as he was in he started to crawl and slide through the dark tunnel. Dino followed with an expression painting his clear primordial fear of closed spaces such as that. Nonetheless, I was surprised to see the noble swallow that fear and imitate Lucas in his endeavors. I was thrown into it right after that. Dominik grabbed me by the neck and belt to then throw me like a sack of potatoes straight into Dino's ass. I cursed my pathetic state. Then, just before the first of the flesh golems could reach the hole, Dominik slid into it.

What he didn't expect was that Lucas had stopped moving forward. The place was cramped, dark and dangerously close to the entrance. I couldn't possibly imagine why my brother wasn't crawling further. Alas, we were about to find out. Lucas tried to warn us with a shout but in the heat of the moment, with his life on the line, Dominik did not listen and pushed, or rather kicked, my ass forward as he entered.

The force and momentum of his push were great enough that the four of us, much thanks to the domino effect, were now all sliding into the darkness. A shout came and echoed around the walls soon followed by another of the same intensity. Then came mine and the

realization of the reason why Lucas had stopped.

"WHY ARE WE ALWAYS FALLING!?" I shouted as the stone disappeared below me.