--------------------------------------
Aziel
I had no desire to die, especially in a scenario where nobody I knew well had a clue.
But as the Flivian and troops left us remaining questers to fend for ourselves, I noticed hordes of living bones rising from the split ground. We were surrounded in the equipment room. Not even the wall they crashed open was safe to go through, since the ceiling above it crumbled down and monsters were about to infest.
'Would've been nice to accept our help.' I almost said out loud. Then I realized I was with two Dwellven children, previously announced as the next heroes, arguing next to me.
". . .we're questers now, Thorne! Questers!" The younger girl with the wizard hat named Jade continued. "Want us to sit back while everyone gets hurt?"
"Do you want to get hurt, then?" Her older lanky brother retorted back, as they bickered face to face."Father doesn't want us dead!"
"We literally trained our lives for this! We'll live without dying."
"Alright folks, let's just head back upstairs, yes?" I quickly butted in. The skeletons of different extinct creatures creaked and rose from below.
Thorne gave a short, heavy sigh, as both of the siblings finally noticed the danger around them, and turned away from one another.
We ran towards the open metal door behind us. I made sure to activate the golden-like rings on my fingers, now emitting a glow. Thorne sprinted with his axe's smoky aura of red mist, as the wizard-in-training held her bronze scepter with one hand, following my other side with an excited smile. Despite the equally noticeable situation of monsters, slowly crawling out the hallway walls.
"Big apologies for my bickering brother, Lady Korr." She began to attempt a more verbally formal demeanor. "I assure you surely that an axeman and a wizard like I are useful in our age."
While we rushed through the narrow caves, I half-smiled for her nostalgic confidence. "Please, Jade, you may call me Miss Aziel. And we have bigger problems to-"
A muffled shriek blared from digging woolly legs on the roof of the cavern. Its full form crashed through the ceiling above the two of us, as the ten-legged arachnid creature stuck to the roof and shot a webbed ball from its mouth towards Jade. Somehow, it saw her clearly in dimness.
The girl screamed as she fell to the ground, caught by the sticky clump of grey string. Her scepter fell out of grasp and onto the floor. The one-eyed spider hurled out another thread to pull her up.
I pointed my hands in spell formation towards the monster, realizing it probably hasn't eaten since its death.
Thorne immediately swung his fiery axe to cut off the strand pulling upwards. The flames it created spread to eat up the webbing. I quickly gestured my fingers at the predator, lodging the spider to the wall with a small but thick curved branch, sprouted from the dirt that spilled out the ceiling.
Then I went to check on Jade on the floor as Thorne continued battle, readjusting his thin bronze crown every so often. As his sister looked up at me untangled, I saw a wound across the side of her cheek that hit the ground, beginning to turn into a deep red and very steadily dripping out.
I started. "Oh no, are you-?"
"I- I'm fine." She said while coughing from the floor's dust, slowly standing back up and patting off her wizard robes. "See?"
"You have a scar on your cheek." Her brother stated seriously.
Then the embarrassed quester yanked her scepter off the surface next to her. And pointing it at the creature fighting her older brother, the weapon flickered as she rushed to cast an earthy wood root like mine, slowly struggling to sprout but piercing the monster's lower body from below. As Thorne stood on-guard staring at the corpse, the Dwellven girl looked at me with a confident smile.
"Huh. Not half bad, wizard." I decided to compliment with a returning half-smile. My eyes were still fixated on the lengthy gash, beside the little one's pointed ears. While just barely bleeding out, she still tried to ignore it. "But seriously, you need to be fixed up. We should go."
"C-come on, it can't be that bad. . ." She forced a nervous laugh, placing a hand on the cut and checking her palm.
"What in Reytus' name. . ." Thorne muttered out loud. From the creature's squashed open abdomen, dozens of tiny versions trickled out like a spilling pack of rodents. And the horde bared their fangs with no hesitation to race towards us.
"It gave birth." Jade exclaimed, eyes widening. "Run!"
So we sprinted through twists and turns within the caverns. More spiderlings seemed to quickly bleed out of their parent, and charge straight towards our backs. They were just fast enough to slowly close the torchlit distance between.
We continued running, and I peered at the nearing darkened crowd with a side-eye. Thorne stayed behind Jade and I, swiping at the littler monsters relentlessly with his axe. They couldn't quit off our trail. There had to be another way.
I, and on an equal level we, needed to come out alive.
"I might know where our parents are." The Dwellven brother said while keeping the attackers away. "And probably Headmaster Chronisius with them, too."
He and Jade glanced a look at each other, and she nodded confidently while turning a narrow corner.
I took out my finger rings again after taking a short breath. Since I've reserved enough physical power at this point, there was a spell I could try to attempt. Creating another hand sign, the weapons on my fingers glowed once more, and cracks in the ceiling started to break while bits of dirt seeped out.
But I realized it wasn't enough. A ring infused with magic can only do so much. Weapons like staffs and scepters go beyond the basic, less tiring and easy spells.
Scepters. . .
"Jade," I caught my breath while we rushed."You think you can crumble down parts of the ceiling behind us to block them?"
Her eyes widened further, with a single glance at the item she held. "I- uh, yeah!" She then cleared her throat and raised her bronze spell-caster. "No sweat, Lady Korr!"
Towards the monsters, she struggled to crack the roof with her scepter as I continued with my weapon. Thorne promptly decided to move to the front, as we all darted throughout the halls, Jade and I looking behind to cast our magic and create our escape.
But the Dwellven's face was strained, becoming tired as hints of veins showed. She clutched onto the wizard hat worn atop. And her vision above her sharp nose became distracted, away from the targets.
"You need to stay calm."
I tried to teach in a quick way.
"The more you try, the more your energy is wasted."
Then transparent bullets shot out of a metal hatch before us.
The projectiles launched straight through our bodies, like the passing of wind, and fired at the groups of crawling ten-legged beasts. As we looked at the suffering spiders, the last thing we saw was the roofs of the cave above them fall. Until the only thing visible in the moment was smoke and dust.
We briefly coughed through the mist. The few torches surviving on the wall being our only light source. Standing within the open door in front of us, was a row of iron armoured soldiers, with their crossbows ready and scepters alike.
They appeared like silhouettes. The lanterns and natural daylight shone behind their almost dark figures.
I immediately prepared my hand positioning. Thorne and Jade followed suit with their weapons.
"Thorne! Jade!" A familiar and older voice called, behind the line of nearly unrecognizable troops. "Thank the god of kindling you're safe!"
The reddish robed Dwellven man stepped forward, pushing past the armed men to see his children. I realized he was the prophet Seifer who spoke earlier. So we immediately lowered our raised equipments.
He, with his equally robe-wearing wife Ruby, ran over to their two kids and hugged them in relief. I stood there with a smile and in one place awkwardly. Fixing my soiled braided hair and casual villager dress, wiping off soot from my leather plating. Glad that they made it back alive along with myself.
"Thank you for keeping 'em safe, Lady Korr." Ruby the dwarf-like looked up at me to say, to which I nodded back before I got to say anything.
"Jade, what happened here??" Seifer noticed Jade's scar through the dim lighting, placing two hands on her face to inspect it. "You're almost completely bleeding-"
"It's really nothing, father." The young wizard quester stated almost at once. "Just fell a little. . ."
I walked away towards the open secured metal entryway, deciding to leave the family to converse by themselves. I would know they might need that sometimes.
Then, behind the divisions of soldiers now dispersing, the wise aged Headmaster Chronisius greeted me once more with a nod, speaking with soldiers and heading our direction. Men and women set up more chariots near the closed gate entrance.
Around the wider lanterned room, were tinted windows closed to the cloudy outside, depicting imagery of a Dwellven-like figure. Except their design was coloured with a bright red, yellow, and orange, like the kinds you would find looking deep into a campfire.
Above the stretched out hand, shining white flames were held by the supposedly different deity they probably fully believed in. In the center of the marble flooring, was a stone statue with the same pose and details.
This was some sort of closed temple area, out of the cave. And right outside was an impassable steep mountain nobody could go around.
"Aziel, by Niytri, you're alive!" Headmaster finally snapped me out of eye-touring, as his poised smile matched his almost white, silky greyish hair. He approached with his hands rested behind his robe."I assumed you must have obviously helped the others, on the pursuit."
Oh. Was that an obvious thing to do?
Clearly, perhaps. But I haven't done this in a while.
Before responding, I gave him a little nod turning into a brief bow. "Well, there were two people to save, Headmaster Chronisius."
The leader of prophecy returned with narrow eyes, staring away in his own thought. "In that case, where have you last seen Vexx and Black Knight heading towards?"
A loud crumbling pierced our ears. Another smash through the wall interrupted in the distance.
The dragon beast that I knew as the Skollur appeared into sight. Jade and her family, along with the rest of the Dwellven soldiers, came up behind us. Shaking off rubble its goat horns, the flickering guardian beast adjusted itself to start running forwards.
"Don't let it escape!"
Seifer reacted as Jade stepped in front of him. Her hands shook lightly onto the scepter pointed at the front of the monster, as she glanced behind her while everyone else watched and readied themselves.
For a moment I saw my old self in the child.
I stepped forwards and locked my hands onto the handle as well. Jade's face reacted with a silent gasp, as she looked up at me, and the both of us casted an earthy spell onto the Skollur.
Within a closer range, the thickest tree spawned front of the guardian beast trying to rush off. It banged its horns onto the bark. And atop the back, Black Knight and his undead captors were launched up and fell down to the flooring. A caped, masked man of his similiar stature, held onto the leather reins of the monster to stay on top.
I ran towards where the quester had fallen. Everyone else followed to charge. The various monsters around the knight were caught off guard, readjusting themselves off the ground with cracks of bones and flesh. The Skollur itself seemed to struggle, shaking its heavy head, while its four legs attempted to coordinate and its physical appearance blinked.
Other wooden chariots appeared from the gaping wall, rushing to the direction of the huge beast until they stopped in place. As our Dwellven and Chronicle Order soldiers rushed forwards, including myself, I noticed Vexx on one of the horses flying down while his troops unmounted. Our battalion and questers scattered to fight off the agressors at will.
Finally, I made it to the Drownei they called the Black Knight. The enemies around him were either distracted by spells of our army, or trying to collect themselves.
He was getting up from the ground, head of dark hair down and held by his hand, and the helmet noticeably missing to unmask his face of deep green.
I cleared my throat. "Hey, we have to-"
Black Knight picked up his blade on the floor in a flash, and with a gasp pointed it to my throat. My reaction was to defend with own palm, now clutched onto his, both holding the double-edged sword.
We stared for a second. I saw no mercy in the Drownei's eyes for just a moment. Like the rest of them.
Then his face immediately turned into realization, and he quickly lowered the steel blade. I hesitantly let go.
"Apologies." He said. "Your presence. I thought you were another- behind you!"
The Drownei pulled me by my waist towards his side. A slouching silent dripstone beast, with hard stalagmites armouring its back, had almost swung its piercing claws of rock to my head. Black Knight countered the arm by slicing the creature's fleshy hand off.
I stood there, mentally questioning myself in the situation.
Then I removed myself from the knight's defensive grasp, and with a glow by my rings, I gestured at the previously sprouted tree nearby. Following my spell, one of the long, thick branches snapped off, and peeled itself to transform into a sharp sort of makeshift javelin.
Before the spiny monster landed another hit, the projectile followed the lead of my arm and bolted through its upper area, completely severing its growling skull from the body.
Black Knight and I caught our breath and looked at each other briefly. He surprisingly had the instinct to help me and others. But I had no idea what a Drownei, of the dark overlord, would desire joining this quest.
"Kill them! Do not let them get away!"
I overheard Headmaster Chronisius shout beside us, limping with the bandaged leg and a focused sight on the Skollur with its master running away.
As the beasts surrounding us began to disintegrate slowly, the caped silhouette on the guardian beast stared one last time at the masses. As they rushed off, I noticed the figure hide a little scroll into his pockets, and clutch onto Black Knight's helmet.
He held an object shining a black in his other hand. Pressing it against the flickering monster, they weakly flew off into the far sky, quick enough to dodge the arrows and projectiles from ourselves below.
The headmaster ordered the chariots around the room to be ridden off. His troops followed his command by mounting the horses, and ushering us into the carriers. I trailed behind Headmaster Chronisius into one of them, as Black Knight and Vexx entered too, along with Jade and her family. The vehicles shook and moved ahead at once.
Spells of fire were casted by the Dwellvens still surviving. The tall flames were summoned to be positioned within the wall crashed open. There wasn't a clue why, until I noticed the army of Drownei coaches behind the scorching fires.
They were about to ambush. But then, even if they're immune to fires, their horses and vehicles were not, and the oppressors had nowhere to go but back. The mountain blocked them from going around, along with the cave system protruding above the surface level.
"We best stay careful. Even if the other questers have escaped to fight before us." Headmaster Chronisius warned the group with a brief, as the chariots ran forward. "To reach our ship to the Flivians, we must travel through more Dwellven. And all territory belongs to the Drownei and their overlord."
"For how long has it been theirs?" Black Knight asked curiously about common knowledge. Clearly, something was wrong with him. He asked questions like he doesn't know a thing. Or remember all the important details. I was sitting in front of him, studying his clueless scaly demeanor.
Then all the prior clues hit my experienced self at once.
This guy has amnesia. Right?
"For around two decades, really." The headmaster answered beside the Drownei. Casually responding to his challenging questions.
"So they've been evil this entire time?"
Yes.
I thought to myself, but Headmaster Chronisius paused to explain. It didn't take long, though, until he spoke the obvious answer. His confident face turned further into serious.
"You see, Black Knight, say you're a figure who was given the praise and power of all the world. " He continued.
"Wouldn't it be so unchallenging to kill the lowly who gave, so you can hold onto it in your infinite life?"
Black Knight stopped responding, caught into deep thought. But he didn't speak up and challenge it anymore. No more questions like he usually would fire off, as far as I knew him.
And I fought with the back of my head saying it seemed wrong.