Rebirth

by Darkbringer

  Stupid ass taint! I am the Young Lord Mik’hail of the House of Dancing Flames! I won’t be stopped by something like you so easily!

  Jumping In

  Since none of the others seemed like they wished to be the first to enjoy the new slide leading down into the darkness below our cavern, I channeled a small flame to hover at the end of my staff and majestically led the way. A half dozen swift strides led me to the opening of the slide, and with a slight smile across my lips, I simply took another step and allowed myself to freely fall down into.

  “My Lord!” Crystal cried out in alarm, but it was already too late. I was already zipping down the smooth obsidian shaft and picking up speed until I hit the dip which formed a “U” near the bottom, which I’d purposefully built as a means for slowing descent – but which wasn’t quite as effective as I’d hoped. It did slow me enough that I didn’t shoot out of the bottom of the shaft like a cannonball, but I still had more than enough momentum to arc out and fly a dozen spans down the hall to crash, flip, flop, and tumble before finally laying sprawled out in a dazed heap for several moments.

  It was the sound of echoing metal scraping down the slide and rapidly approaching that quickly brought me back to my senses. With a force of will, I forced myself to channel all the air in the nearby tunnels and compact them into a tight hurricane force wind and sent it roaring down the tunnel to intercept Crystal as she shot out of the bottom of the slide. Her momentum met the force of wind head on, and she spun, flipped, and twirled like a top in a twister; before I released the magic and let her finally fall the rest of the way to the floor. Her armor clanked, chinked, and echoed as she hit the ground, rolled roughly over, and then proceeded to lose the breakfast that we’d just finished eating a few minutes ago.

  Unfortunately, I knew I didn’t have much time to check on her as the others were probably just moments behind, so I quickly once again pulled upon the air and forced it to thicken and fly up the shaft, an invisible but powerful force to help work as a buffer to stop Dino and Jess from encountering the same wild turbulence as they reached the bottom.

  Once again, in my rush to grab and force my will upon the energy in the tunnels, I misjudged how much force was required. By still feeling the earth, I could now tell that Dino and Jess were both in the slide, held tight in each other’s embrace, and stuck about half-way down, stopped from falling by the force of air I was exerting up the shaft.

  Figuring they were both now down far enough in the shaft that the “U” would properly decelerate them, I simply released my magic and waited for nature to take its course. A few moments later, Dino and Jess both… “farted out of the shaft”, would have to be the best way to describe it. The “U” had slowed them do to the point where they almost didn’t get pushed out and started to slide back down into the “U”; but then decided to simply plop out to end up tumbled together on the ground half in and half out of the slide.

  “You bastard,” Dino gasped; the first to start to slowly rise to his feet. “You did that to us on purpose!”

  “And you’re welcome,” I told him as I slowly collected myself enough to finish sitting up and lean against the wall of the tunnel.

  “Welcome! For what?!” Dino sputtered while trying to hold his temper in check.

  “For not letting you and Jess fly out like the cork popped off a champagne bottle, arc through the air, and either crash into the hard stone floor, or the nice soft woman wearing steel chain in front of you.”

  “Oh! Is she alright?” Jess saw where Crystal was now lying face down, almost in a pile of her own vomit, and quickly shuffled on her hands and knees the short distance over to her.

  “I.. I don’t know,” I admitted honestly. “She was coming down and out much faster than you guys, with the weight of her armor helping her build up more speed, and I had to stop her fast before she ended up having a fatal collision with something.”

  Jess was already working her magics, sensing her life, while Dino was simply shooting a disgusted look in my direction. I suppose in this case; I can’t really blame him. But, in my defense, it’s not like using lava to build slides from one place to another was something that a person got to practice every day! I’d built a “U” at the bottom to decelerate us; it simply wasn’t big enough.

  I’ll just have to do better next time – if there ever is a next time. Hopefully, lava slides aren’t something that I’ll have to be building anytime again soon.

  “She’ll be OK, in just a moment,” Jess assured us as her hands gave off a faint glow of magic. “Whatever happened to her caused Crystal to break her wrist when she hit the ground. I’m fixing it and she’ll be good as new in a moment.”

  “That… That was some ride!” Slowly Crystal rolled over on her back away from her lost breakfast, before finally giving a thumbs up. “I’m alive.” Letting her arms drop with a plop to the stone floor, she lay quiet and still for several moments while Jess continued to work her magic on her.

  As the glow finally faded from Jess’s hands, Crystal slowly sat up and grinned over where I was sitting; her hair all sprayed out in chaotic disarray. “Care to climb up and do it again with me, My Lord?” Half laughing, she gave another thumbs up to show all was now good with her.

  “I don’t think so,” I replied, trying not to laugh in return. “At least, now until Jess can take a look and maybe fix my ribs. It’s bloody hard enough to breathe already. I think I broke half a dozen of them. You might’ve had a more interesting ride, but I had a much more intense landing.”

  “OH!” Looking shocked, Jess eased over to where I was and began to work her magic once again. After a moment, she giggled and patted me on the head. “You big baby! You didn’t break anything. You’ve just got a few bruises.”

  “Well, it feels like I’m dying over here!” I groaned a few times to help show my discomfort.

  “Here, let Jess make it all better.” Giggling, her hands glowed white and warmth flowed into my chest and spread throughout my body, eroding at my aches and pains fading them away.

  “Thanks,” I told her simply.

  “Hey!” Dino exclaimed suddenly. “Roommate or no roommate, you need to back off. You’ve got Crystal. Jess is mine!”

  Jess just giggled, blushed slightly, and got up, went over and snuggled with him. “Jealous much?” She teased.

  “I’m not jealous,” Dino asserted while blushing slightly in embarrassment, which caused Jess to laugh even more before she leaned up and kissed him lightly on the nose.

  “I’m just glad there wasn’t any dead down here to greet us when we popped out,” Crystal said as she finally got back up on her feet.

  “There was,” I told her, holding out a hand so she could help pull me up. “I simply melted them while I was channeling the flows of fire from deep in the earth up through here to make the tunnel up top for us. Bones and flesh melt much faster and easier than stone does. There might’ve been some dust left over from them, but I’m certain it was all picked up and blown up the shaft when I used the air to cushion and slow everyone’s fall.”

  “That’s no good,” Jess said, sounding a little concerned as Crystal helped tug me to my feet. “That means we probably breathed that ash and got it all over us. Who knows what diseases the dead might’ve been carrying that we just inhaled! I’m going to have to watch everyone closer for a while to make certain no one gets sick from anything.”

  “Oh great,” Dino said, sounding disgusted. “Now we’re stuck underground, lost in a set of catacombs, with the dead all around, above and below us, and we might be infected with the gods-only-know-what disease!”

  “That seems to about sum up our situation,” I agreed, brightening my flame to help illuminate the darkened tunnels a little better. “So guys,” I just had to ask, “are we all having fun yet?”

  Dino and Jess both looked at each other and rolled their eyes while Crystal simply laughed slightly. “I certainly am, My Lord. If you’re ready to continue on to even more fun, simply point the
way and I’ll take the point and we can get on to whatever comes next.”

  “That way,” I pointed straight ahead, as Dino sarcastically muttered, “Nothing but more damn trouble, I’m certain.”

  Through the Dead

  After walking a small way, we began to see more of what the catacombs truly looked like. My magics had roasted the walls and the wind had blown the area clean where I’d cushioned the others’ fall, but now we were beginning to see more of the natural layout of things. The stone walls here were tainted black with corruption and sometimes what seemed to be clear passages were instead filled with black cobwebs that blended into the darkness and got tangled in the face and hair. Soon, I was moving my small flame left and right down the tunnels in front of us, trying to burn the path clear before us.

  The smell of the tunnels was old and musty, with the odor of damp stone intermingling with mold, mildew, and the stench of the dead. The lack of sunlight and the chill of the narrow passages made it feel as if they were pressing down tightly, trying to crush us. All in all, it was an oppressive atmosphere that wore on one’s nerves and tired them out.

  And, of course, the dead moving about and trying to make us join them didn’t help matters any. Skeletons still fell and shattered as soon as Crystal approached them, so they weren’t that great a threat; but the tunnels became so think with them at times that we had to walk over their fallen bones to continue on. The sound of old bones breaking and grinding under step is not one that I will ever forget – no matter how much I wish to.

  Intermingled amongst the skeletons were more of the slow moving zombies which weren’t difficult for Crystal to dispatch in the narrow tunnels. They could only approach one or two at a time, and her blade sliced through them like they were made of melting butter. Processing through the tunnels themselves was slow with the constant interruptions, but we made steady progress as the morning marched on.

  It was midmorning when we had our first real setback, and when I began to get truly nervous about everything. Before, I was bothered by the dead and the corruption to the flows of magic that we were seeing, but I felt as if my own talents were strong enough to blast a way in and out no matter what. Around midmorning, I was proved wrong.

  We were traveling and came to an intersection with an uncountable number of dead down each branch leading off from the tunnel we had been fighting through. I figured the easiest and quickest way forward was to simply burn another hole into the wall and cut us another path to a different tunnel. Part of my mind had been thinking that we could simply burn a straight path to the other group and then out, but that wasn’t meant to be.

  Gathering up the flows of fire energy from deep in the earth, I focused them on the wall which I wanted to bypass. For a moment, the wall began to heat and scorch, like before, but then the energy and hit was dispersed by the corruption all around us. A dark wave of twisted death energy pulled the heat from the wall and forced it to spread outwards to the surrounding stone instead. When I increased my flow of power, the corruption did the same – and then it grew even stronger.

  Soon the walls were being covered by frost and ice, and the temperature of the tunnels began to drop instead of rising. The more I tried to channel fire and heat, the more the tunnels resisted and channeled the cold essence of death. Black ice formed a layer over the walls and floor, and our breath became hotly visible time we exhaled. Finally, I had to admit defeat.

  The corruption was too strong. Too powerful. I couldn’t overpower it alone. If Le’Nara was here, with the Azure Skyrose to work as a focus and a power source, I think I could’ve given this place a run for its money. Without it, this place would freeze us solid before I ever managed to overpower it like I was trying.

  There was always the option of reaching for the power of the deep earth, and bringing it to the surface again – but somehow I wasn’t certain unleashing a volcano while we were underground and trapped might be our best option. For now, I simply motioned for Crystal to lead the way down the left tunnel, which was the one that seemed to have the most skeletons and the least number of zombies to bar our way. Channeling just enough fire to melt the ice on the floors, and to light our way, we drudged on.

  After that, the day turned into a grind. Even by feeling the tunnels, and knowing where I wanted to go, and the shortest path to get us there, we still had to push through the ever thickening hoard of dead. At one point, there were so many dead that surrounded us and poured into the tunnel that we were in, we had to fight and crawl over their remains as they fell too deep to simply walk over.

  At this point, I think everyone was in a panic, though Crystal and I both did a better job of hiding our discomfort and fears. Jess simply whimpered as she crawled slowly through the tunnel half-filled with remains, but Dino was cussing and complaining loudly about everything. Stupid Mongo. Stupid Michael. Stupid dead. Stupid stupid!

  It seemed to be his coping method, so I simply bit my inner cheek and endured.

  Crystal was pale, sweating, and exhausted when we finally managed to break free from the swarm – even through it all, she had been the vanguard and kept the zombies down and clear for the rest of us. I could see that she couldn’t go on much longer, but I didn’t want to stop and hold up in a room like the others had when we were so close. Chances are, we would’ve simply gotten trapped as they had, with the dead amassed outside and keeping us from ever leaving. Our “safe spot to rest” would most likely turn into our final resting spot instead.

  Tapping her on the shoulder, I gave Crystal a slight tug. “You’ve done good, my dear,” I praised her, causing her to grin back feebly. “But now’s the time for you to rest. We can’t have you falling over from exhausting before we need you the most.”

  “So.. we stop where.. and rest?” She was gasping for breath and drenched in sweet.

  “We don’t,” I told her. “If we stop, we’ll simply get trapped like the others. We have to keep moving at this point, or else we may never end up able to move again.”

  “Then… I guess… there’s no rest… for the wicked,” Crystal gasped, resigning herself to lead on as long as she possibly could.

  “Perhaps not,” I told her, “but you’re not wicked. You have to rest, but we have to move on. Let me borrow your sword for a while, and you use my staff to lean upon.”

  “I can’t do that, My Lord,” she said, shaking her head stubbornly.

  “You can, and you will,” I told her, staring firmly into her eyes. “Like it or not, it’s an order.”

  For a long moment, she stared back into my eyes and then finally letting out a deep sigh, she lowered her head. “Fine.” Turning the blade so the hilt would we towards me, she waited until I took it. After she took my staff in return, I twirled and swung the blade a few times to test the heft, balance, and feel of it. The heartbeat in the hilt was hard to get used to, but otherwise, it was an excellent weapon for fighting. No Snowflake Razor, but it’d do. Heck, in this particular place and time, it might even do better.

  “A moment more, before we move on,” Crystal demanded. Sitting my staff against the black stone wall, she unfastened her chain robe and took it off. “If you’re going to be up front, you’ll be needing some better protection.”

  “I’m not used to the weight of the chain,” I told her.

  “Tough,” she simply shrugged, uncaringly. “You’ll get used to it quickly enough. Besides,” she added, “if I’m going to rest, I don’t need the weight on my shoulders for now. I’ll get my strength back faster, without having to carry it around.”

  “Fine.” Sighing, I could tell by the feeling of the earth that I wasn’t going to have time to sit and debate with her. The dead were already starting to converge in on us once again. Holding out my arms, I let Crystal help me slide the robe on, as I shifted Heartblade from one hand to the other as I put an arm through each chain sleeve. Finally tying the sash to hold the robe shut, I moved forward to intercept the approaching swarm that was threatening to clog the tunnels again.r />
  “Dino!” Yelling, I didn’t have a chance to look back to see if he was going to listen and follow my orders; I just to trust that he’d know how serious things were and would follow for a change without arguing. “Grab whatever bodies you can and toss them backward behind us. There’s more dead approaching from the rear, and that path’s half-filled already. See if you can cause a roadblock back there so we don’t have to worry with the bastards swarming us from both sides.”

  Moving forward, I placed myself in the center of the nearest intersection so the dead couldn’t keep crawling and piling upon each other trying to fight in the narrow tunnel itself. It meant that I had to face threats from three sides at once for now, but I thought I could handle it. After all, I could sense the difference in the way the skeletons and the zombies moved, and I knew the skeletons wouldn’t be a threat. Using them as a buffer, I could spin and slice at the zombies as they approached – and Heartblade did the job of dispatching them quite effectively.

  “Jess, you and Crystal dump whatever we don’t need from our packs,” I demanded from them, as I danced amongst the zombies and the skeletons scattered all around. “Frying pans, extra clothes, tents, sleeping bags – all that stuff! Lose the weight. Crystal’s right, we don’t need it down here. It’s just holding us back and slowing us down. Only keep the essentials!”

  “We’re on it!” Crystal yelled back, sounding quite weary.

  “What the hell?!” Dino yelled all at once, causing me to divert my attention towards the group. “What the hell are you doing?” He had stopped tossing bodies and was staring directly at Crystal now, who had yanked her leather tunic off over her head and was now rummaging through the packs topless.

  “I’m cooling my ass off as quickly as possible while My Lord buys us some time!” She yelled back at him as she tossed a sleeping bag down the passage behind us. “Now get your ass back to blocking that passage!”