The shattered skeleton collapsed into a heap of loose bones, its skull reduced to powder beneath Bjorn's hammer. Yet the rattle did not stop there. The intensity only increased as five more skeletons appeared. Without a word being exchanged, we all positioned ourselves in front of the enemy. Mana coursed through my body as a lightning bolt shot towards the shorter skeleton infront of me. I poured more mana than necessary into the skill to test its effectiveness. Ever since I got the skill, it has always felt lacking in its stopping power. Yet my current results were beyond my expectations. The lightning bolt burned through the magic, allowing the skeleton to move. Leaving only a pile of blackened bones in its place.
Using it against the skeletons was a bit of overkill, as they were extremely weak. Looking around, I saw my squad mates had made quick work of their opponents, allowing me to continue observing the room. Most of the magical writing was just the strange abbreviation of the word gha, which led me to believe that they were responsible for the constant stream of sterile light within the tomb. Although when we moved further in. I started seeing more of this ancient elvish. Some of which I could not recognize. The ones I recognized were lom, which translates to reinforce. But the one that stood out was farum. The rune radiated spatial magic, and the translation of the word was expand, which led me to believe that the rune was responsible for the size of the room, in relation to the size of the tomb itself.
"What is all of this?" Magnus's hand grazed the rune of lom.
"From my guess. It is some form of ancient elvish. But even then, there are some differences. Even though it is written is completely different. Elvish is far more fluid in how it is composed. While this," my hand flowed over the lom rune. "Is far more blocky and rigid."
"Bah. Who gives a shit? Whether it is elvish or dwarvish, it won't make a difference. Are we going to continue looking at shiny words? Or are you going to actually finish this tomb? If not us than someone else will." Bjorn was cleaning his teeth with his nail. While his warhammer was slung over his shoulder.
"I must say I agree with Bjorn. All of this may be fascinating, but we must remember why we are here." Jurgen was the voice of reason as always.
Magnus and I shared a look promising that this conversation was not over yet. But we relented and continued moving forward. When we reached the end of the room, the door was already open. We had to keep in mind that even if the tomb was similar to a dungeon, it was fundamentally not. We were not the only ones here. The longer we took, the higher the chances that someone else would finish the tomb before us.
So deeper into the tomb we went. The second room looked virtually identical. The same basalt pillars with the same runes covering them. This time, we did not stop to take in the scenery. We instantly got into a ready position. There were double the amount of skeletons inside the second room.
Blink brought me directly into the middle of the group. But Bjorn had already leapt forward with warhammer in hand. I struck from their back while he charged from the front. The room grew cold as frost covered the floor, freezing their feet to the floor. This was seconds before Bjorn's hammer struck the ground by their feet. The brown glow of earth magic sent a shockwave through the earth. The two skeletons closest to him were shattered in an instant, while the others suffered cracks all along their bones. I infused aura into my body, doubling my strength. Swinging my naginata brought me the head of three more skeletons.
Jurgen and Magnus were quick to finish off the last five skeletons. They were completely frozen by Jurgen's magic. Before Magnus's zweihander shattered them entirely. A slow exhale escaped my lips as I released the pent-up aura in my body. My tensed muscles relaxed while my heartbeat slowed. Looking out at the destruction that my party and I caused. Pride swelled inside me. "Well done, everyone. But from here we must remain vigilant. In the next room, we will begin to encounter ghouls. Remember to be wary of their claws lest you want the poison to inflict you."
The others nodded in response. "If it comes down to it, I can always just freeze the affected area until we get to a healer." Jurgen just shrugged it off. He did have a point, though. We were not completely powerless to the poison.
Once again, while walking to the edge of the room, we found the door already open. But this time, when we entered the room, we were not met with the undead. Instead, we found only piles of scorched bones and the charred corpses of ghouls. Black soot marks marred the basalt stone. Leaning down closer to the closest corpse. I brought my hand mere inches from the body. It was still warm; whoever killed them had done so not long ago. My gut was warning me that something was not right. Looking to the end of the room, I saw the door still unopened. My eyes widened in surprise. "They're still here!" I shouted, but it was already too late.
A muffled gasp rang out behind me, causing me to swing in its direction. Only to see someone covering Magnus's mouth with a dagger to his throat. Three others came out from behind the pillar. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A nasally voice came from a familiar stick-thin figure at the centre of the group.
It was the same man Bjorn had knocked unconscious the night prior. The man sneered when he saw Bjorn, a dark look appearing on his face, before twisting into a vile smile that promised nothing good. Fire blossomed in the man's palm as hatred disfigured his face. The bruise where Bjorn had punched him was a deep purple. Only adding to his disgusting features. His long, hooked nose and sandy hair. The only thing noble about him was his light blue eyes, but even that was overshadowed by his facial expression. "To think the gods smile upon us this day. That they would deliver to me the peasant who dared lay a hand on me. No one! And I mean NO ONE lays a hand on Baron Antoinette without paying the ultimate price." So full of himself was he that he actually started to monologue.
Using all my strength, I resisted rolling my eyes at his display. That was one thing I never understood. The need to talk during a fight, wasting conversation on something so irrelevant. What need do I have to talk to a man who is already dead? "I'll tell you what, kowtow by my feet and beg for forgiveness, and I might let you go." The cruel smile on his face made it clear he had no intention of doing so.
My eyes met Magnus's, and he gave a barely perceptible nod of his head. Within an instant blink brought me behind the man holding Magnus hostage. Lightning crackled in my hand as I stabbed my clawed fingers through his chest. He dropped the dagger as the strength left his body. While his life slowly bled away. Bjorn was already rushing at the baron with his warhammer in hand. But right as he reached a meter from him, he was met by a wave of flame, stopping him in his tracks.
{Author's note:
I know my writing pace has slowed a bit. But that is because I am spending more time writing the chapter to give you guys something better. I thank you all for your patience.
Sincerely Sanguine.}