"The duke made the announcement several days ago, that's when they posted the bounty. Several groups have gone into that strange arch, but none have come out. Clockwork scouts have gone in as well, but nothing has returned."
“Hmm,” Braden grunted, “Thanks for the info.”
"Again, our apologies, my Lord Harem Mage… sir… is it true?"
"Is what true?" Braden asked, turning back to look at the man.
“That you have come to overthrow the empire?” He whispered so none could hear, “The small folk have been whispering of your coming for months, they say you are here to save us all.”
"I don't know about any of that," Braden said, shaking his head, "I certainly don't want to rule anything… there is an evil in the world sergeant… I have felt its cold touch on the wind. I believe that is my enemy, but I have no more knowledge than that."
The man was nodding, "Sergeant Essos, my Lord, if you ever need anything, just ask for Sergeant Essos of the Dalton Guard."
Braden smiled and held out his hand, “It was a good parting Sergeant, you and your men take care.”
The sergeant looked at the proffered hand then swelling with pride he reached out and shook it firmly. When Braden turned to join the three women on the road, he saw the sergeant staring at his palm in awe.
“Strange man,” Braden said.
"Lord’s only shake hands with men of equal station," Leesha said, snickering, "you just told that man you think either he is the same station as you, or that you’re the same as him. Look at him trying to figure it out," she laughed hard, and Druska shook her head, not quite getting it.
Emma was exhausted and quiet as they walked, and Braden wanted to go to her, but Druska was there, and from the way she was handling Emma, it looked like she knew what troubled the girl.
"I failed," Emma said, her face crumpling into tears.
"You did," Druska said, her tone causing Emma to flinch and look up her tears drying in shock. Braden opened his mouth to give the alien woman a warning, but Leesha stopped him with a touch on his sleeve, her look halting his words, and she watched Druska with total confidence.
"You let our Master be hurt and attacked," Druska said, less harsh, "did you enjoy that?"
“No!” Emma said, her voice hurt and angry.
“Then what did you learn?” Druska said, her clear-eyed gaze boring deep into Emma’s red eyes.
“What?” The girl asked.
"Every failure that you survive is a lesson. If you learn nothing, then you truly are a failure. So, tell me what you learned this morning."
Emma's face grew grave, and she looked off into the distance as they hiked down the road. "I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings," she said finally.
"That is a good lesson to learn," Druska said, nodding, "what else."
“I hesitated when that magic first hit my mind, I… I didn’t want to hurt anyone, so I did nothing,” her voice was soft and ashamed.
“That is half the lesson,” Druska said, giving the girl no breaks, her hard glare boring into Emma’s face, “finish it.”
"I…" the girl paused, thinking, her face opened up in realization, "I was scared once I realized I could hurt them, and then I hesitated.”
"Good," said Druska with a warm smile for the girl, "this is your first lesson. You never before had to fear your strength, and it paralyzed you. That hesitation nearly got our Master killed, and you taken from us."
Emma nodded her face sad and ashamed.
"There is no shame in how you acted, you were not a warrior and not expected to think like one. You have just begun on this road, and already you have faced challenges far above what I did at your age," Emma scoffed at that, and Druska frowned, "You think I would lie for the sake of your feelings?" Her voice was harsh, and she stopped in the road, ignoring Leesha and Braden as they halted nearby, each silently watching this little drama unfold.
"I failed 73 times and learned 73 lessons in my training. Do not let your pride get in the way of your wisdom, girl. Learn from your mistakes, so that it never happens again, and leave them in the past."
"But I don't want to fail again," Emma said, her voice quiet.
"That's why we train and practice," Druska said, turning back to the road, "now tell me exactly what the attack felt like and how you think you could have combatted it if you had acted quicker."
Emma spoke, and Druska asked pointed questions, and over time, the girl felt somewhat better, realizing that the capable rogue was right. She wasn't a warrior and couldn't have expected herself to react or act like one. She resolved to learn all she could from Druska so that she would be more prepared for the next battle.
It was a half-day hike to get to the dungeon entrance, and the sun was high overhead when they climbed up into the small wooded area. The trail was marked and easy to follow. Druska lead them up and around to a rock outcropping and tucked in the back was an archway carved into the natural rock. At the top of the arch, it read: Level One.
The group eyed each other grimly, having prepared themselves mentally on the climb up. When they stopped outside the entrance, Braden missed his little drone Scry-bot and resolved to create another when he had the time and extra resources. He worried that if he created another now, it would weaken him too much before their battle ahead.
They ate a small meal going over their battle formations once more. Druska would lead as ever followed by Braden, Emma, and Leesha taking up the rear. When they got into battle, Emma would fall back, or the three would form a triangle around the girl with their backs to her. Druska hadn't had time to train her in the staff, and she would be useless as a fighter. However, her healing abilities would help her, and all of them stay alive.
“Are we ready?” Braden asked with grim determination.
The women all around him agreed, and with a firm nod to Druska, the graceful alien woman slipped beneath the arch, disappearing into the darkness. The others crept in behind her, feeling their fears magnify as the black closed in around them. Braden's increased efficacy with his powers allowed him to draw just the right type of force to cause his blade to glow slightly, illuminating the area around him and casting lurid shadows upon the walls. Behind him, Emma's lustrous hair shone with a faint silver light, and her eyes fainty glowed in the darkness. Leesha sent small motes of crackling red light to hover about her, and her eyes gleamed with hunger as they stalked the tunnels.
Chapter Ten
The first battle was a quick brutal affair. Druska had warned them of the cohort ahead, and as Braden led the charge into the vast cavern, she struck from the shadows, cutting through their leaders with ease. Her Vorpal blade sang in her hangs as it sheered through steel, meat, and bone. The monsters were twisted and warped by some fell magic. Gnolls changed into some terrifying hybrid of death and beast. Tasting its first kill, the spirit within the Vorpal blade felt its righteous purpose for the first time. The creatures were perversions of nature, unholy corruptions of the natural. This was anathema to all the Treant's had stood for, for they had been guardians of the natural world.
A thrum of power coursed up Druska's arm, and she sensed the blade in her hand achieve a new skill, how she didn't know, but against these creatures and any others tainted by the evil magics in the dungeons, or perhaps their source, her blade had increased efficacy. She laughed a mad laugh as she waded into the horde, blaster barking and blade carving a path of bloody destruction around her.
Braden cut the beasts down when they charged using the Glyph he had managed to memorize from before, to take down many. The blue lines traced in the air with force powers were crisper and cleaner after drinking the Soulsing tea, and he felt it use less of his power as he tore through the innards of beast after beast. Leesha was in her element as she blasted the twisted-gnolls away with thick bolts of red lightning, and when one drew too close to her, she smiled wide and wove her hand at its face, freezing parts of its body in chunks of ice as if her hand had been the whipping arm of a storm. Emma wat
ched first in horror then with growing sadness. She could sense that these creatures were already dead, or at least their existences were so miserable and unnatural that death was preferable to their souls. She learned much watching her companions battle the monsters and proved her bravery by striking out at one beast that got to close, instead of running away from it.
When dozens of the creatures lay dead or dying, the party regrouped and searched the vast room, finding nothing but bits of trash and refuse. Then Druska led them off and through another cavern similar to the first, cutting down dozens more. The monsters were not difficult to kill, but it was exhausting work.
After the third cavern, they came across the remains of the first adventuring party. Braden felt nearly sick up at the sight of their mostly eaten remains. What had been four large men and a smaller elf archer, lay scattered near the cook pots of the beast's camp. They didn't stop to search the area, so filthy and disgusting; it turned them all off. Braden scanned it for any magical signatures and saw none. With a muttered prayer, to any god that might be listening, he wished them what peace they could find in the afterlife.
Finding the entrance to the second level, they each dropped down. Braden had worried about how Emma would get down, but the girl just stepped off the edge, and as she fell, her hair fanned out wide, glowing faintly it fluttered in the wind slowing her descent. She landed beside Druska at the bottom with a small smile on her lips.
The second floor was much like the first, with large packs of monsters, only there was the occasional trap as well that they had to avoid or disable. It was a battle of attrition Braden soon realized, and he warned the women to try and conserve their powers as best they could. He hoped as they battled farther and farther and deeper and deeper, that he would learn more of swordplay or get some good battle experience out of it. Unfortunately, the only thing he felt he got from the battle was more and more exhausted and drained of his powers.
It was on the third floor that they took their first injuries. Druska exhausted hadn't seen a warrior charging at her back and took a spear through the leg. Dropping to one knee in a scream of pain, she still managed to turn and slash at the creature, cleaving off one of its legs before she stabbed it through the chest. Braden and Emma battled their way to her side, and the young woman healed Druska in seconds. The wounds still pained her, and the healing took its toll on Emma's strength as well. Then in the third level, Leesha took an arrow in the side and another in her guts before she could summon her shield to bear. Again, and again exhaustion and lack of focus caused one of the parties to make some small mistake taking wounds that required Emma to heal them.
Their progress slowed to a crawl, and they found themselves hours later at the top of the fifth floor. Their thinking was fuzzy, and their limbs were limp and exhausted. They paused for a couple of hours there, taking turns napping and numbly eating hard biscuits and dried meat. On the third level, they had tried to take a full rest, but more monsters had come wandering in from where Druska couldn't say, but the longer they waited, the more came. Forcing them to continue or squander the small rest they had gained.
The tell-tale scrape of a monster’s talon on stone warned the party that their current rest was coming to an end. With a sigh of exhaustion, Druska stepped to the edge of the pit and prepared to leap, glancing back at her loved ones she saw their haggard expressions and recognized the danger.
"Keep your wits," she said, "remember our purpose." She waited until they each met her eyes, then with a final nod, she leaped out.
Her fingertips and toes brushed along the walls as the shadows dragged at her body. Her descent was silent. She rolled over at the last moment landing in a crouch her legs absorbing the momentum. She stood on the lee of a massive cavern and far off in the distance, really, far in the distance she realized, was a stone table lit by a brazier, with a small figure chained to it. Behind the table was a magical portal similar to the exit portals they had used before.
This is it! She thought to herself, feeling a thrill of adrenaline course through her even as exhaustion tried to drag her libs down. Slipping out into the edges of the room, she nearly stepped out into empty darkness. Crouching low, she could make out the ground, which was a maze of intersecting paths and in-between dark pits that fell into blackness.
There was a loud snapping sound from high above a whoosh as of a great gush of air, and she stared up into the blackness wary. Crackling energies told of her master's approach, and she moved back to warn him of what she had heard. Just then, the shadows at her feet trembled, warning of a massive presence at her back. She struck the ground and rolled over the side of a walkway, gripping the edge and hanging down just as an immense form tore through the space she had just been.
Her eyes witnessed a horror she could never have imagined. A head the size of a horse's torso, long wicked snout curving down in hooked fangs twisting to snap at where she had stood. Then it was flying past as two mighty claws struck the walkway, nearly dislodging her. She began to pull herself up, but a long sinuous tail smashed the walkway again, sweeping the surface clear and crushing two of her fingers into the stone, bone splintering.
With a grunt of pain, she rolled onto the stone and pulled her blaster, sending three shots up at the roaring, flying beast. The plasma bolts illuminated a skeletal torso of blackened bone and tattered flesh. She scrambled back to Braden's side even as Emma landed beside him. Her Master was looking to the darkness above his face hard.
"What is that?" He asked, never taking his eyes from the sky. Druska described what she had seen as Emma laid hands on her fingers, straightening bone and knitting flesh, as her hair pulsed with a faint light.
"A fucking Dragon?" Braden said in exasperation as Leesha landed behind them in a storm of crackling red energy. The small elf was breathing heavy, the skin on her face slack with exhaustion. When she heard Braden's words, she sagged against the wall.
“How are we going to kill an undead dragon?” Leesha asked of no one in particular.
"She is there, my Lord," Emma said, pointing to the stone altar, "and the portal to escape this dreadful place is just beyond. We don’t have to kill the creature."
"She's right," Druska said, nodding, "our best hope is to get across without fighting if we can avoid it."
A scratching scuttling sound from deep in the pit drew their gazes down, and far on the edge of their light, a skeletal hand reached up climbing towards them. The rest of the undead creatures desiccated corpse coming into view in a blink. Then another hand beside it and on the other side of the pit, beneath the other walkway, more of the skeletons climbed free.
"Quickly!" Braden called, "Druska lead the way, let's stay close together."
They ran along the narrow path, careful of their footing on the stone. The whole cavern was honeycombed with the twisting winding walkways. They turned at the first intersection as a boney hand reached up to snatch at Braden's ankle, he shook the leg, breaking the grip and kicked the jawless skull, cracking dry bone and sending the skeleton flying back and down. More hands pulled at them, and their progress slowed to a crawl as they beat back the undead. The creatures climbed fore and aft, filling the walkways with their jerky movements, boney feet pounding towards the party.
The snap or wings overhead was all the warning Braden got, and he lifted his blade exhaustion, dragging him down as the blue shield of force sprang up overhead. The crash of the dragon's talon upon his shield crushed him into the stone floor, and he felt his head pounding as the strain tore at his mind. He screamed out as the second talon struck, then the best was standing one back leg on a walkway, and the second on the opposite, it reared high and came down with the force to crush buildings as Braden's shield flashed brilliant blue, trembling beneath the onslaught.
Four coruscating bolts of red and black energy tore at the beast’s snout, ripping free fist-sized chunks of bone. More peppered it across the chest and torso as Leesha threw her remaining strength at it, ignoring the grasping claws that threate
ned to tear her down. Druska slashed and hacked around them, trying to clear a path, but the undead just kept coming, climbing up all around them and charging her from down the path. The spider-like fingers dug into her skin, pulling and tearing at her.
Emma stood amid chaos and felt her heart breaking at the storm of tortured souls around them. She didn't see skeletal corpses with empty horror-filled eye sockets and grasping talons but instead saw once living souls, trapped and enchanted into slavery. One small skeleton slipped past Leesha and stabbed its iron-hard bones into her thigh. She let the light within her heal the wound even as she struck with her staff to bat it away. Feeing something strange as her inner light touched the creature, the healing energy tore through the skeleton separating the soul from the flesh. It halted as if frozen, and her staff shattered it to dust. She yelped in surprise, then turned to the army of undead, and her master's flickering blue shield above — her face hardening with resolve; she knew what she had to do.
Braden felt the trickle of blood trailing down from his ears, and he saw their deaths coming as the gargantuan undead dragon reared back for another attack. He poured all he had into the shield but just then felt more than saw a warm silver light fill the area. Glancing over, he saw Emma, shining with an inner light. Her face was calm and peaceful as she gazed out at the dark horde of death. Raising one hand, she whispered something even as a brilliant light shot out from her palm piercing through the undead before them.
The creatures halted in motion and then burst into clouds of dry dust. The girl turned her palm just as the dragon struck down, and as its claw came close to Braden's shield, entering that brilliant silver light, the bone cracked and sizzled. A dry scream rattled from its depths as it pulled back, hooked snout screaming to the heavens. Emma let her arm sweep entirely around, and the walkway before them cleared, a dozen skeleton bursting into dust in a heartbeat. She wore a beatific smile on her face as her eyes met Braden's, then he saw those gorgeous silver eyes roll up into her skull as exhaustion took the girl.
Harem World 3 Page 6