Chapter Eleven
We made our way to the city limits while the sun warmed our backs, but the stench of dead fish and rotting vegetation in the malignant water urged us to pick up our pace. Finally, we escaped into the underbrush of the forest that surrounded the other side of Lake Balerno, and the air was cooler and more sweet smelling than the open area on the outskirts of town.
I inhaled greedily as I led our trio to the burial sanctum, and I kept my eyes peeled for the skeletons, but if they were anything like the undead remains I’d encountered in various video games, then they would have a specific territory they were guarding. That meant they would only attack us once we got close to the sanctum.
I made a new save point when the burial grounds came into view, but I had a feeling I would be saving and reloading a lot in the day ahead of me, since I was aiming for one hundred percent completion of every part of the sanctum.
Moments later, I heard the clacking sound of the skeleton’s bones coming from my right, and out of the shadows beneath the trees came a walking, anatomically correct, skinless skeleton.
“Die!” I roared as I unsheathed my sword and charged toward it, and I slashed it in a wide downward arc as I approached. My blade hacked off his sword arm, and the bones went flying into the woods until they bounced off a nearby tree.
The skeleton opened and closed its jaw repeatedly, which made a clicking, snapping type of sound, and I assumed it was his best attempt at a scream.
I decided to put the thing out of its misery, so I swung my feather sword around again and severed its skull from its spine. Then the decapitated head fell to the forest floor and rolled down the slight incline toward Elissa.
“Bash!” the fiery redhead gasped, and she started to backpedal to get away from the skull rolling toward her like a kickball.
Meanwhile, the rest of the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones in front of me, and then they started to glow a light blue color. The arm bone that clutched the ancient sword flew across the ground and into the pile like a magnet, and the pieces all began to shift and move.
“Shit.” I watched in horror, but I knew in my gut what was happening. The bastard was reforming because it wasn’t completely dead yet, but how was I supposed to kill an undead being besides chopping off its head?
I rushed forward and began to hack and kick at the pile so the pieces couldn’t reform, but no matter how far apart they were, they still came back like they were magnetized to the spot, all except for the skull. I slashed at the joints with my sword and stabbed my dagger into the hollow where the skeleton’s heart should be, but nothing worked.
Suddenly, a bone-crushing crashing sound came from behind me, and the pile of bones fell back to the ground. As the glowing blue haze started to fade, I swiveled around to find a giant rock at Elissa’s feet, and I realized she’d crushed the skull after it had rolled down the incline toward her.
Team Bash: 1, Undead Skeletons: 0
I hadn’t even needed to reset to handle the first task of this mini quest, and I had a feeling it was because my power grew with each challenge I faced. I was stronger and faster every day I woke up in this world, and my women were becoming more badass, too.
“You did it, Lissy!” I grinned. “You killed the skeleton!”
“You crushed it!” Mahini gushed at the same time.
“That was a heavy rock,” Elissa panted as she pushed her hair away from her face.
“You’re a pro skull crusher,” I laughed, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder.
“A pro?” Elissa cocked her head to the side.
“A professional skull crusher,” I repeated as I nodded emphatically. “Actually, that’s your new nickname. Skullcrusher.”
“Skullcrusher?” Mahini asked like she was experimenting with the word. Then she nodded firmly. “Skullcrusher it is.”
“Oh, my,” Elissa said as a wide grin spread across her face. “That sounds like a scary name. I like it.”
“Alright, Skullcrusher,” Mahini teased as she took Elissa’s hand. “That will be your task for the rest of the day. Crush the skulls of all the undead.”
“I can do that,” Elissa giggled. “I wasn’t even scared of it, just surprised.”
“I know, you were very brave,” Mahini said with pride in her voice.
My heart swelled to hear the love shared between my two women. I really did have everything I could want, well, maybe except for magic. I really wanted to learn magic.
But first things first.
“Time to enter the sanctum,” I announced after I scanned the area for any more skeletons.
“Let’s do it,” Mahini replied with a nod.
“Yes, let’s do it,” Elissa mirrored, and she planted her hands on her hips in a heroic stance.
I pulled open the heavy iron doors, and bats swooped out into the daylight with loud screeches. Once the dark cloud had dissipated, I peered into the shadows inside, but the entry was empty, so I ushered the girls inside and followed behind them.
Then I made a new save point, and the tingling sensation creeping over my entire body comforted me and encouraged me to move forward.
We walked down a short hall until we were standing in a small, circular room with alcoves along the wall filled with coffins. I eyed the coffins warily, but our entrance into the room didn’t seem to trigger any enemies, so I relaxed a fraction and looked around. The walls were built with roughhewn, dark gray rock slabs layered over each other in rows, but vegetation grew along every crack, especially on the dome ceiling. There was a musty odor to the air, like the oxygen was over a hundred years old, and I tried to take shallow breaths as I looked around. Then I spotted the chest nestled between two of the burial containers. It had a lock on it, but upon closer inspection, it looked rusty and easily broken.
I slashed at it with my feather sword, but nothing happened, so I tried my dagger. Then I checked the stats on each weapon.
My dagger wasn’t in too bad of shape.
Durability - 84%
Weight - 0.9lbs
Quality - High
Magical Aspect - None
Magical Ability - None
Then I checked my longer blade, and my eyebrows furrowed in dismay at the result.
Durability - 63%
Weight - 0.2lbs
Quality - High
Magical Aspect - Feathering
Magical Ability - None
The durability on my feather sword had dropped dangerously low from my attempts, so I reset back to my save point to try a different approach.
Chime.
I stuck my dagger inside the hook of the lock and jammed it down until it wouldn’t move, and then I used the leverage of the blade and yanked downward. The lock popped off and hit the ground with a loud clang, and I whooped with joy.
“Fuck, yeah.” I pulled off the last few chunks of metal and then pried open the lid. Dust exploded out into my face, and I had to wonder if there were cremated remains inside the chest. I blinked away the dirt and peered inside, and I found a small red potion bottle and three pieces of gold.
I pressed my finger to the potion, but no stats popped up for some reason, so it was a mystery elixir for now. Not the biggest treasure, but this was just the first room. There were probably some really awesome things further inside.
“What did you find, Great One?” Mahini asked as she leaned over my shoulder to look inside the chest.
“A few pieces of gold and a potion with no label.” I shrugged. “I’m not sure what it does, but red usually means health, so let’s save it for later.”
“There’s no label?” Mahini took the bottle from my hand and inspected it herself. “Huh. Could be a poison, it would be dangerous to experiment with unknown potions.”
“Nothing is too dangerous for me, remember?” I teased as I scooped up the three gold pieces and threw them into my treasure sack.
Then I turned my attention back to the coffins inside the room. There were three of them, and two already had the lids cracked open. After a quick glimpse inside, I found those two empty, so I moved on to the last one.
I pushed against the heavy stone lid, and it made a loud creaking noise as it slid across the rim, but then the corpse within was revealed. I instinctively reached for my dagger, but the body didn’t move, so I released the breath I’d sucked in and studied the corpse. There were still wide swathes of skin hanging from the bones like the moss that clung to the walls, and the cheeks were hollow and sagging, but this kind certainly looked a lot juicier than the other skeleton we’d fought. This corpse wore a thin, rotted leather armor, and a sword was clutched in its bony fist. The blade was half rusted, and I’d probably need a tetanus shot if I was cut by it, but it would likely fall apart after a single strike, so I continued my inspection of the remains.
The corpse looked pretty dead to me, so I removed the lid enough to search the remains inside, but then I heard a strange rumbling sound.
My eyes shot back to the corpse’s face, and I looked straight into the glowing red orbs within its hollow sockets.
“It’s a zombie!” I gasped as I jumped back and withdrew my feather sword from its scabbard. “Get back!”
Mahini and Elissa quickly followed my instructions and scurried away from the zombie as it began to climb out of its coffin.
The undead moaned as it brandished its sword with its right hand, and then it lunged forward with an uneven gait. It was faster than I expected even though it moved in jerks, and it quickly maneuvered around the chamber in the girls’ direction.
“How do we kill it?” Elissa asked with fear in her voice.
“I’ve got it,” I assured her as I slid in front of my women. “Just stay back.”
I thrust my feather sword forward, but the zombie was surprisingly quick to block my attack with its crude, ancient blade. I scurried backward, and I tried to swing again, but the undead creature swiveled and charged toward Elissa.
I stepped in the way, and I parried his blow with my sword before I knocked his weapon upward and out of the way. The skeleton staggered backward, but then I heard the clicking sound of more of the undead coming from behind me, and I swiveled to see two more had attacked Elissa and Mahini.
Mahini held her own as she slashed her sword through the air and severed her target’s head, but Elissa didn’t stand a chance since her back was to the skeleton.
I wasn’t fast enough to save her, and the undead’s sword cut a deep gash on her neck.
The beautiful redhead cried out in anguish as blood sprayed from her throat, and she collapsed onto the stone floor.
Mahini roared out a battle cry, and the desert goddess shot three arrows into the undead’s back before it turned toward her.
I lunged forward, and I swung my sword in a wide arch. My blade landed on the zombie’s arm, and its hand was severed at the wrist. No blood erupted from the wound, though, and its decaying flesh peeled away from the bone.
“Fuck you, you bastard!” I yelled as I chopped the now unarmed zombie to bits with my feather sword.
The undead laid in pieces on the stone floor, and the chunks of flesh were scattered around me in a wide circle, so I had to step over them to reach my fallen bride.
Fuck this. Time to reload.
Chime.
We entered the sanctum, and I headed straight to the coffin that held the zombie.
“Hey, Mahini,” I said over my shoulder as I began to push the lid away. “Use your dagger to break the lock on that chest over there while I kill this zombie.”
“Zombie?” Elissa asked in a fearful tone as she took a step further away from the coffin.
“Just stay back,” I directed, and I shook my head to dispel the image of her broken body laying on the floor.
“Alright, Bash,” the redhead agreed, and she took up a position near the entrance.
I took a deep breath, and then I pushed the lid the rest of the way off the coffin. The stone screeched from the motion, but I ignored the sound as I focused on the zombie contained within.
The eyes began to glow the angry red I’d seen before, but I didn’t even give the fucker a chance to get up before I shoved my feather sword into its throat. Then I sawed its head off in a few short motions before I finally released the breath I’d been holding.
“Should we crush its skull?” Elissa asked as she tiptoed further into the room to get a better look at my kill. “Just to be safe?”
“Go for it.” I grinned.
The beautiful redhead picked up a large stone that had come loose from the floor, and she hobbled over with her arms full of the rock. Then she climbed up onto the side of the coffin and dropped the flat stone onto the now still zombie’s skull. Unlike the skeleton outside, the zombie’s brains made a wet squelching sound as the rock crushed its skull.
“Ew,” Lissy giggled. “That was fun!”
“Well, get ready for some more fun,” I chuckled as I pecked my wife on the cheek.
When the other two skeletons appeared out from the shadows, I was ready for them, and I quickly freed them of their skulls. Then I kicked one toward Elissa, and she smashed it with her rock, but I stomped my heel down onto the second one to end its life forever.
“Ugh,” Mahini groaned from beside the chest. “I can’t get this lock off.”
“Here, let me.” I moved across the room to the locked chest, and I took out the sorcerer’s dagger as I crossed the distance to where Mahini squatted down in front of the iron lock. I wedged the blade into the hook, and then I once again used the leverage of the weapon to pry open the metal.
The lock snapped off and fell to the floor in pieces, and Mahini gave me a wide-eyed stare.
“You’re incredible, Bash,” she breathed.
“It was nothing,” I argued with a wave of my hand, but I savored the look she gave me for a moment before I turned back to the contents of the chest. I stashed the gold pieces and the red potion bottle inside my sack, and then I made a new save point before we ventured further into the catacombs.
We came across several chambers full of coffins, but I didn’t find any more zombies or undead in them. I did, however, find a few more pieces of gold and the shattered remains of a gemstone. I kept all of it, just in case it would come in handy later, and then we moved on.
The further into the sanctum we delved, the more damp and moldy the walls became until the air was thick and humid but chilled. It was like a basement that had never been opened before, and the cave-like atmosphere swallowed the light of the torch clutched in Elissa’s hand.
A short while later, the tunnel angled downward as we went even deeper underground. We had to be at least two stories below ground level at this point, and I wondered just how big this burial sanctum was. Then the walls changed again, but this time they shifted into horizontal alcoves lined with skeletons. Some were wrapped in burial clothes while others were so old the fabric had all rotted away with the organic parts of the corpses.
“Mahini, shoot them all with your bow,” I instructed the desert goddess, and she obliged me immediately. By the time she’d shot three of the skeletons, a fourth was alerted by the sound of arrows crashing into bones, and the bony creature clacked as it searched for its target.
Mahini’s arrow whistled through the air and landed in the skeleton’s spine, which caused the pieces to explode into a thousand fragments. They rolled across the stone floor and scattered to every corner of the space, and its skull bounced a few times before it stopped moving.
Elissa quickly moved from skeleton to skeleton, and she used her big rock to bash in their skulls.
“Way to go, Skullcrusher,” I complimented her as I bumped my shoulder against hers. “You’ll be a lethal weapon with that thing before the end of the day.”
“I just hope we can save the poor town,” Elissa sighed. “The smell of the lake is worse than these catacombs, in my opinion.”
“Yeah, it was pretty gross.” I frowned as I thought about everything the people of this world had to endure. No wonder I’d been summoned to save them. Then I gave the tiny redhead an encouraging smile. “But I’ll have Lake Balerno uncursed before you can say ‘show me the money.’”
“I do not know what that means,” Elissa giggled and shook her head. “But you always make me laugh, husband.”
“It’s all good,” I laughed. “Let’s keep moving.”
I searched the skeletons wrapped in burial clothes, but I didn’t find anything, so I made a new save point before we continued on deeper into the sanctum.
The light of the torch in Elissa’s hand cast a silhouette of Mahini’s curves onto the stone floor in front of me, and I chuckled as I realized the shortest of our trio was lighting our way. Still, I was hesitant to take the job away from my wife, since it had already come in handy to have my left hand free.
I would need to be able to open coffins and still have my sword in my hand ready to kill whatever leapt out, after all.
We continued in a straight forward direction for a while before we came to an antechamber. It resembled the first chamber of the catacombs, and several coffins filled the alcoves that lined the circular wall, but the space was somehow magically lit with torches jutting out from the stone at every interval. Three pathways led off from the room, and it was anyone’s guess where they ended up.
We’d already traveled about half a mile underground with no end in sight, so the source of whatever curse was afflicting Lake Balerno would likely be in the deepest, darkest cavern at the furthest reaches of the labyrinth. I’d just have to explore every nook and cranny as many times as it took to figure out the puzzle.
Good thing I had all the time in the world.
I made a new save point before I disturbed any of the coffins in the room, and then I took a good look around, but all I saw were some urns on a shelf that sat between two of the sarcophaguses.
“Let’s kill these guys and get out of h--” I started to say as I gestured at the coffins, but I didn’t get to finish my sentence..
A growling sound came from the coffins, and we all turned to face the source of the noise. The undead had all risen, and within moments they stood facing us with ancient swords in one hand and crude shields in the other.
They moved faster than I would have expected, and I brought my feather sword up just in time to fend off an overhead blow from the zombie to my left.
Mahini shoved Elissa behind us, and the tiny redhead whimpered as she cowered next to the urns.
The undead had us cornered, and they bashed their swords against their shields to taunt us. They reminded me of Skyrim draugrs, but we were outnumbered by one.
Nothing I couldn’t handle, though, even without Mahini’s help.
“Keep Elissa safe!” I commanded, and then I rushed into battle.
I caught the first zombie’s sword on mine, but he brought his shield down and slammed it into my shoulder. The vibrations went through my bones like a shockwave, and my grip on my sword faltered.
Suddenly, a sword pierced my rib cage from behind, and pain arced through me like a lightning bolt.
Doh.
Chime.
This time, I was going to kill these assholes before I did anything else.
“Stand back,” I instructed the two women, and then I made my way over to the closest coffin. “I’m going to open them one by one to let the zombies out. I’ll distract it. Mahini, you shoot it with your bow, and Elissa, wait until it’s down and then smash its head in with your rock.”
“Yes, Bash,” both of them replied in unison.
The desert goddess notched an arrow to her bow and held it pointed at the stone floor while she waited for my next move. Elissa stashed her torch into a crack in the wall, and then she gripped her large flat stone in both hands.
We were ready to kick ass.
I crossed the rest of the distance to the closest coffin, and I shoved the lid off slowly. The zombie that laid inside the sarcophagus peered up at me, and then a low rumbling growl came from its disintegrated throat.
I leapt back and held my feather sword at the ready. It didn’t take very long for the undead to rise from his coffin and stand before me, but no other zombies stirred from their slumbers, so it looked like my plan was working.
Then the zombie bashed his sword against his shield in the taunting gesture, and I heard the echo of undead from the other coffins.
Shit.
“Mahini, try to shoot as many of them as you can before they climb out of their coffins,” I directed the black-haired beauty in an urgent tone. “The other three are waking up.”
“Alright…” Mahini murmured, and then she fired her notched arrow into the undead who stood before me.
The arrow lodged into his shoulder, above the circular edge of his shield, and his eyes immediately leapt to Mahini. It was just the distraction I needed, though, and I lunged forward and stabbed the zombie in the gut below his sword arm.
No blood poured out, but a dry powder speckled the blade of my weapon when I withdrew it from the zombie’s decayed flesh.
The undead creature growled and turned his red eyes back to me, so I scurried backward to get out of reach of its ancient sword.
Another arrow zipped through the stagnant air and landed in the zombie’s eye socket, and the projectile buried itself so deep into the undead’s skull that the point came out the back of his head.
The zombie crumpled and fell to the ground, but it let out a gaspy moan as it hit the floor.
“Take this!” Elissa roared out a battle cry as she dashed forward and slammed her rock down onto its head, and she crushed the skull in one hit.
I turned to face the other three zombies, but they’d already moved to surround us.
Mahini jumped in front of Elissa and fired an arrow at one of the zombies, and I lunged forward and parried a blow with my sword.
Then all three zombies attacked me at once. I beat back the brutal onslaught of blades with my feather sword, but I cringed every time metal struck metal since I knew that would affect the durability of my weapon.
They started to overpower me, and I caught one of their ancient swords on my left gauntlet. The pain lanced up my arm, and I was just glad it wasn’t my sword arm. I backpedaled to gain some ground, and I almost bumped into Mahini as she notched another arrow to her bow.
The projectile flew high and missed the small undead horde, but then she tossed her bow over her shoulder and grabbed her sword.
Two against three were good enough odds for me, so I charged forward into battle with the desert goddess by my side. A moment later, the ring of swords hitting metal and the thunk of our blades as they struck the shields filled the air.
Mahini managed to get one of the zombies down at the same time I spun around and beheaded the undead who attacked me from behind. Then we both turned on the last undead to finish him off, but a large flat stone suddenly hurtled through the air over my head and crashed into the zombie’s chest. He was knocked to the ground, and I quickly took advantage of the situation to rush over and sever its head from its shoulders.
“How the hell did you manage to throw the rock that far?” I asked Elissa as I stood from the dusty remains of the zombie.
“It was hard, but I knew I needed to help my husband, and I just experienced this crazy burst of strength.” The beautiful redhead sauntered over with her chin raised high, and then she scooped up the big stone and dropped it onto the undead’s skull. The crushed remains scattered in every direction with a moist squelching sound, and both girls wrinkled their noses in disgust.
“Well, your husband thanks you and thinks you are amazing.” I grinned.
Elissa repeated the process to the other two Mahini and I had killed, and then she eyed the rock now covered in gore and viscera with disdain.
“I think I need a new rock,” she observed with a wry smile.
“That was incredible!” I laughed as I crossed the distance between us, and I swooped her up into my arms. “You’re such a fierce warrior, Lissy.”
“Oh, hush,” the redhead said as a blush crept up her freckled neck. “I just wanted to help.”
“You did more than help,” Mahini commented with obvious pride in her voice. “You held your own in a battle with the undead. You have definitely earned the title of warrior woman.”
I suddenly remembered the burial urns, so I put Elissa down and made my way over to the shelf, and within the ashes were two pieces of jewelry. There was a golden chained necklace with a green gemstone pendant in one, and an ornately carved unadorned silver ring in another.
I quickly pressed my pointer finger to first the necklace and then the ring to see if the items had any magical abilities, but no stat boxes popped into existence, so I supposed they were just normal pieces of jewelry.
“Mahini, Elissa, come look at this,” I whispered into the shadows where the women had gone to explore as I dug out the gemstone necklace and the silver ring.
The torch light flickered and splattered across the stone walls, and shadows danced in between the reflection of the flames. The two women cast long silhouettes of their forms onto the floor as they approached, and their eyes glowed in the light like the gemstones in my hand.
It would almost be romantic if we weren’t in a deep, dank burial sanctum full of the undead.
“What is it?” Elissa asked with obvious excitement as the torch light reflected off the gemstone in my hand. “Ooh, Bash, it’s so pretty!”
“That is quite a find,” Mahini observed as her piercing blue eyes scanned the jewelry in my hand.
“I like the necklace, so bright and beautiful,” Elissa cooed.
“Just like you.” I handed it over to her with a grin. Then I gifted the silver ring to Mahini, and she turned it over in her fingers with an appreciative eye.
I helped Elissa snap the chain of the necklace around the back of her throat, and then I made a point to take the ring and slide it up Mahini’s ring finger. It was a perfect fit, just like the two women in my life.
“I wonder what the carvings mean?” the desert goddess mused as she brought the circlet closer to her piercing blue gaze.
“We will just have to find out, won’t we?” My grin grew even wider.
I loved to spoil my women and get them special gifts, and I was pleased I’d already found something they liked so early on in the catacombs.
I made a new save point, and then I fetched Elissa’s torch from the nook she’d stuck it into.
“Shall we continue?” I asked, and I gestured to the tunnel on the far left of the circular antechamber.
“Absolutely,” Elissa replied in a breathy voice as she repositioned the large gemstone necklace around her neck.
Mahini played with the silver ring and nodded absently, but then her brilliant blue eyes lifted to mine, and I saw the emotion hidden behind her stoic expression.
“It suits you,” I said as I lifted her hand and kissed the ring on her finger, but I didn’t let go of her as I dropped my arm back to my side and turned toward the next leg of our journey.
I’d chosen the tunnel on the far left for logical reasons. I wanted to be able to keep track of where we explored since it was likely we would encounter some confusing passageways or traps, so we started on the left, and I led the way down into the dark corridor.
There were some steps as the floor dropped down another level, and then it leveled out beneath our feet once more. There were chambers on both sides of the hallway, but I decided to only go into the ones on the left and then hit the ones on the right on the way back.
The first chamber I entered down the tunnel was empty, the caskets were already opened, and the previous contents were gone. I drew a mental map of the catacombs in my head as we explored, and I added this one to the cleared list before we continued onward.
The second room we encountered on the left-hand side of the tunnel had two sarcophaguses inside and one chest. The coffins contained skeletons, but they didn’t animate when I exposed them, so I assumed they were actually dead.
But I still had Elissa bash in their heads with her rock while Mahini and I chanted ‘Skullcrusher’ over and over again. Just in case.
The chest in the room was unlocked, but it only contained two pieces of gold. Still, I added it to my loot and continued to inspect the room.
Then I made a new save point by thinking about when and where I was, and then we pushed onward down the tunnel into the burial sanctum.
In the next chamber, a zombie stood in the middle of the room. He stood about as tall as I was, and he wore the tattered remains of what was once leather armor. His skin peeled away from his bones in random spots, and the stench of decay radiated off him. He growled and charged toward me as soon as I entered, and I had to scramble to bring my feather sword up in front of my face before his blade came down.
“Great One, watch out!” Mahini shot an arrow over my shoulder into the undead creature, and I shoved him back with my blade. Then I swirled my sword in a wide arch and brought it up under his shield. The metal cleaved through the decayed flesh of his gut, and crumbles of ash and rotted flesh fell to the floor.
The undead asshole kept coming, though, and he swung his sword at my face again.
I knocked it to the side easily, and I flicked his shield arm up before I thrust my blade deep into its chest cavity. That was enough to take it to the ground, and then I gestured for Elissa.
She had to find a new rock since her last one had become too covered in undead gore for her to want to touch it anymore, but it didn’t take her very long to find something suitable. Then my wife trotted over with a wide grin stretched across her face and her new stone in tow, and she dropped it onto the undead’s skull with a self-satisfied air.
“It doesn’t matter who starts the fight,” she quipped as she flicked back her fiery braid, “Skullcrusher will end it.”
“Way to go, Skullcrusher,” I complimented her with a wink.
“It seems to be the only way to put them down for good,” Mahini observed as she inspected the zombie’s corpse.
“I wish there was something other than a rock I could use,” Elissa mused. “They get heavy and gross.”
“You chucked that one rock over our heads,” Mahini reminded her. “You’re plenty strong enough, but a different weapon might suit you better. Something for bludgeoning.”
“Like a mace,” I suggested.
“Those are the ones with the pointy balls on the end of a stick?” Elissa scrunched up her nose like she was trying to remember some obscure fact.
“Those are the ones,” I laughed.
“So, we need to get Lissy a mace.” Mahini nodded her approval. “We might even find one while we’re down here, since previous adventurers may have perished and left their gear behind.”
“That’s a good point.” I frowned. “But that makes me think of the eight missing teens from Lake Balerno. Do you think they’re still alive?”
“If they were, they would have returned home by now,” the desert goddess pointed out. “They likely lost their lives for their follies.”
“How are you going to break the curse?” Elissa asked as we made our way back out into the tunnel.
I made a new save point as I thought over the best way to explain to the beautiful redhead what I expected would happen.
“There’s going to be something we have to kill,” I said carefully. “Once we do, the curse will be lifted.”
“What is it?” Mahini asked as her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “More of the undead?”
“Sort of.” I shrugged. I didn’t want to explain any more so as not to give away my lack of knowledge, but all I had to go on was my previous experiences with video games. Every game I’d played with dungeon levels and skeletons always had a big, bad undead boss you had to fight in the deepest bowels of the catacombs. If you won the battle, you would be rewarded beyond your dreams, but if you lost, then your soul was forfeit.
Except I couldn’t lose, thanks to my abilities as the God of Time.
We’d traveled about a mile since the room with the four undead and the jewelry. The mysteriously lit torches along the wall of the corridor helped a little, but the torch I held was much brighter. I held it up high to light the way for our little trio, and the two girls stayed close by my sides within the circle of the flame.
Suddenly, the torch light reflected off a silver thread about three inches above the floor.
A trip wire.
“Wait.” I held up my sword arm to signal the women to stop, and then I followed the line of the string until I found the source of it. A small pulley attached to a net of boulders. If we crossed over the tripwire, then the rocks would fall onto our heads and crush us. The fact that the wire was active and hadn’t already been set off told me two things. One was that no one had been down this tunnel in a very, very long time. Second, this wasn’t the direction I would find the source of the curse in. If no one had been this way, then the eight boys from Lake Balerno wouldn’t have been in this tunnel when they activated the blight on the water.
Still, there could be loot hidden in the rooms ahead, so it wasn’t a complete waste. Plus, I wanted to have one hundred percent completion of the entire sanctum when it was all said and done.
So, I lit the way while the two women stepped delicately over the silver wire, and then I followed carefully in their footsteps. Once we were safely across and out of distance of the boulders, I made a new save point, and then I grabbed a loose rock from the stone floor and chucked it toward the trap.
The wire snapped beneath the weight of the stone, and the boulders crashed down into the tunnel to partially block the path. Then I worked with the two girls to shove the debris out of the way enough for us to get back through.
Once we had our escape route, we continued on down the tunnel in search of loot, the undead, and the source of an ancient curse.
The next chamber we went into was empty of everything except a workbench where a few ancient tools laid scattered across the surface, and I could only imagine the kind of horrible experiments that occurred there.
Then we came across the final room. The hallway itself turned and spiraled into the chamber where it widened out into a space about twenty feet long and half as narrow.
Against the far wall, a zombie stood in an alcove with its arms crossed over its chest and its eyes closed. Mahini shot an arrow into its skull before I could even give the order, and the undead creature’s eyes shot open to reveal the red orbs that glowed within its hollow sockets.
I shook out the muscles in my shoulders as I prepared to fight the undead man, and I repositioned my feather sword in my fist to a more secure grasp.
Then the zombie dude pulled a mace from a strap on its shoulder, and my jaw nearly hit the floor. It was perfect for Elissa, not too big, but definitely deadly. She could slam it into skulls with ease after the way she’d thrown that rock.
“Bash, watch out!” Mahini called out from behind me, and I could hear the fear in her voice.
The zombie swung the mace down toward the top of my head, and even though I lunged to the side, it still slammed into my shoulder with a sickening thud.
Chime.
I decided to leave the boulders alone for now and to deal with the zombie easily awoken in the far chamber, so I trotted down the tunnel with the torch in one hand and my sword in the other while the two girls hurried to keep pace with me.
“We can leave that room alone,” I said as I gestured to the room with the workbench. “There’s nothing in there.”
“Yes, Great One,” Mahini said as her eyes widened with awe. “Your knowledge of these tunnels is vaster than the catacombs themselves.”
“It would seem so, huh?” I chuckled.
As soon as we entered the room at the end of the hallway, I ran straight up to the closed eyed zombie and began to hack and slash at him with my feather sword.
His eyes popped open after the first hit, and he reached for his mace by the time I landed a second blow, but I sliced his arms off before he could draw his weapon.
The zombie stumbled out of the alcove and let out a dry moan as he ambled toward me, but I merely spun in a circle and then stuck out my sword at just the right time to slice its head off.
“My turn!” Elissa strode forward as her hips swayed with confidence, and she scoured the room until she located a loose floor stone. Then she brought it over and dutifully crushed the skull of the undead at my feet.
I sighed with relief at the easy victory, and I made a new save point.
Once that was taken care of, I moved over to inspect the mace that had dropped down into the alcove with the zombie’s hand still attached to the grip. I pried off the dried remains of the fist, and then I touched the tip of the mace to pull up its stats.
Durability - 73%
Weight - 3.9lbs
Quality - Low
Magical Aspect - None
Magical Ability - None
It wasn’t the best weapon, but it would be better than the rocks Elissa had found to bash in skulls so far. With the mace, and her fiery red hair, she would really look like a Skullcrusher as she raged into battle.
Who knew my wife was prone to the berserker class?
“The perfect weapon for a Skullcrusher,” I announced as I handed over the mace to the red-haired beauty.
“Oh, thank you, Bash!” she gasped as she experimented with the weight of it in her hands. She swung it around a couple of times and then plopped it down into her empty hand with a wide grin. “It’s perfect.”
“If your arms start to get sore,” Mahini interjected in a worried tone, “let us know, and I can take over the skull crushing.”
“Stop trying to take my job,” Elissa shot back with a giggle. “Don’t worry about me, Mahini, my arms are fine! I used to help my dad haul copper ore around in wheelbarrows as a kid, I’m stronger than I look.”
“Is that what your necklace is from?” I asked as I indicated the copper circlet that hung from a gold chain around her neck. It was almost hidden from view by the large gemstone necklace I’d given her, but Elissa didn’t seem to mind her crowded throat.
“Yes,” the red-haired goddess replied with a soft, nostalgic smile. “It reminds me of all the hard work my father did to give me a good life. He was lead miner before the goblins took the mine, and I think he will go back to it now that there’s a council to help him take care of the town. He loves to dig, Bash, and you helped give that back to him. So, now this necklace also represents what you did for the town, and for me. You saved us all, and I love you for it.”
“Wow, Elissa, you are so beautiful when you open up like that,” I murmured as I crossed the distance to her and wrapped my arms around her shoulder. “I’m proud to call you my wife.”
“I’m proud to be your wife,” Elissa sighed as she snuggled her face into my neck.
“Shall we explore this cavern before heading back to the antechamber?” Mahini suggested as her piercing blue eyes roved around the room.
“Yep!” I made a new save point before we inspected the chamber, but I was pleased to find several chests and cremation urns inside the room. There was meager loot inside, though, only a few gold coins and more shattered gemstone pieces, and I wondered how many other adventurers had made it this far and taken everything in here.
Then we made our way back to the antechamber where the tunnels split off. We explored the rooms on the right-hand side of the corridor this time, and I made save points before we entered each one.
We encountered a few zombies and skeletons but found a little bit more loot as well, and it didn’t take us very long to reach the chamber where we’d been ambushed by the four draugrs.
Then I made another save point and took the second tunnel from the left. Immediately, the floor dropped down into a staircase that led us even further underground than the first tunnel had. The walls were damp, and the ceiling was covered in moss and algae. The air was thick, musty, and smelled of death and decay, so I inhaled carefully through my mouth while keeping my nose firmly shut.
Mahini and Elissa followed carefully behind me with their weapons at the ready. The desert goddess scanned the shadows with her piercing blue eyes while she jumped at every noise, and her anxiety grew stronger the deeper into the catacombs we wandered.
Elissa, on the other hand, practically bounced along behind me. She made sure to take careful steps, but there was an energy to her movements that reminded me of sunshine and bikinis. She also grinned widely while she swung her mace around experimentally.
“You know, I never imagined I would like such a big weapon,” she mused in a quiet voice as we approached the first chamber down the second tunnel. “It is intimidating, but instead of being scared, I’m excited to see how afraid I can make my enemies become.”
“You’re getting bloodthirsty,” I snickered. “Soon, you’ll get the fire inside your gut at the mere thought of a fight.”
“It’s true,” Mahini confirmed with a serious nod. “I long for battle, sometimes I even dream of it…”
“Like not nightmares?” Elissa tilted her head of fiery tendrils to the side as she gave the desert goddess a curious look.
“Right.” Mahini nodded again.
“I wonder if that will happen to me,” the red-haired beauty sighed. “I got upset when I first killed that kobold, but now I’m enjoying the thrill of combat more.”
“That is how it works,” Mahini said.
The second tunnel was much shorter than the first, and we cleared out two zombies and three skeletons with ease and found about twenty more gold pieces in the process.
Once we’d made our way back to the antechamber, I made a new save point, and I eyed the third tunnel closely.
We’d gone through half the pathways at this point, and I tried to determine which direction would be the one that led to the source of the curse.
Now that I looked closer, the third corridor appeared different from the other tunnels. The walls were exposed rock, and the floor was made out of dirt. The path was uneven and turned around a wall ten paces back, so I couldn’t see very far into the passage. I could feel a breeze coming from the mouth of the cave-like corridor, though, and shivers ran down my spine.
In comparison, the fourth tunnel looked much like the first and second ones. It was wide, and after a few paces it descended into steps, but a torch cast a ring of light and illuminated the bottom of the short staircase.
Everything in me said the third tunnel was the one that would lead me to the source of the curse, but I wanted one hundred percent completion, and there was no telling what I would find down these winding corridors.
So, I made a new save point and led the women to the fourth tunnel. Better to get it out of the way before I faced whatever was down the third, cave-like corridor.
“We skipped one,” Mahini observed as she followed dutifully behind me.
“Did we?” I asked in an innocent tone, and I shot her a wink.
“There has to be a reason for it,” Elissa declared with confidence. “Bash doesn’t do anything without a reason.”
“Spot on, Skullcrusher,” I confirmed as I gave the tiny goddess a charming smile. “The third tunnel holds the source of the curse.”
“Why do you want to avoid the goal of our quest?” Mahini seemed baffled by my choice, but she bit her bottom lip like she was worried I would reprimand her for questioning me.
“I merely want to clear out all the undead before we continue on to our goal,” I explained with a shrug of my shoulders. “There could be valuable loot down this tunnel, too, and I want to find it all.”
“Of course, Great One,” Mahini said with a small bow of her head.
“See, I knew there was a reason,” Elissa quipped, and she strode forward with a sassy swish of her hips.
The first chamber to the left was right at the bottom of the stairs, and Elissa bravely entered first with me lighting the way behind her. There were more coffins and burial urns, but none of the sarcophaguses were occupied, so we turned our attention to the cremated remains.
It seemed slightly sacrilegious to be scavenging ashes for loot, but after finding the jewelry earlier, I was determined to not leave a single stone unturned. There was no telling how rich I would be by the end of this quest.
We continued on our way, and I made a few save points as we went. We cleared out several more rooms but found nothing more than skeletons. At the end of the winding tunnel, the corridor once again opened up into a wide room, and the chamber was probably thirty feet across and twenty feet deep. All along the walls were coffins and urns, and in an alcove against the far back wall sat an ancient looking chest.
“Jackpot,” I chuckled as I gazed across the room at my prize.
A huge iron lock dangled from its latch, and I licked my lips as I decided what to do first, but then I decided we should clear out any undead resting inside the coffins before I attempted to open the chest.
I made a new save point before we inspected the coffins, but my gaze kept floating back to the chest, and it took all my willpower to stop from saying “my precious” all Gollum style.
I just freaking loved loot.
There were several undead asleep inside the coffins, but the three of us had settled into an efficient routine to deal with them. Mahini and I each severed the heads with our swords, and then Elissa came behind us and crushed their skulls with her mace.
By the time we’d killed four zombies, we were all sweating and breathing hard. While it wasn’t incredibly challenging, it was taxing work to grind through all the undead. We had to make sure they wouldn’t sneak up behind us, though, so I knew it was necessary.
I made a new save point, and I let the girls catch their breaths while I turned my attention back to the chest. The lock was sturdier than the last one I’d encountered, so I was certain my dagger couldn’t break it, but I had a different idea to try.
I took out one of the daggers Jaxtom had made me back in Bastianville since the blade was straighter than the sorcerer’s curved dagger. Then I slid the tip into the opening of the lock and wiggled it around.
I didn’t really know what to expect, but I could feel the mechanisms through the vibrations of the blade, and I maneuvered the weapon around until I could slide it further inside. Suddenly, a loud click echoed through the room, and the lock popped open.
“Oh, yeahhhh.” I grinned like a kid in a candy store and slid the hook off the latch. Then I pulled open the lid and gazed inside. Mounds of gold were piled up to the top, and several gemstones peeked out to shine in the torchlight. My mouth watered at the wealth in front of my eyes.
This was more like it.
I grabbed my loot sack and began to pile the gold inside, and I inspected the gems idly as I tossed them in after the gold. There were three of them, a blue one, a red one, and a green one. They kind of reminded me of my little ass kicking trio, so I made a mental note to figure out how to use the stones in a cool way. Then at the very bottom of the chest and underneath all the gold was something I had not expected to find.
A wand.
It was made of a carved wooden branch, but it was heavier than I expected it to be when I picked it up. My eyes widened as I inspected it closer. It was about the length of my forearm and had a well-worn grip on one end. There were some carvings in the ash gray wood, but they were weird looking symbols I didn’t understand.
I flicked the wand experimentally, and a tingling sensation shot up from the wood and into my arm.
Suddenly, the tip erupted into flames, and the wand poured out a fiery inferno the likes of which I’d never seen before.
“Woah!” I jumped back to escape the heat of the blaze, but it was no use, the fire quickly engulfed the entire chamber. The startled screams of Mahini and Elissa filled my ears, and I choked on black smoke.
Oops.
Chime.
I reset back to before I’d opened the chest, but I took several long moments to hold Mahini and Elissa against me while I inhaled their very alive scents. Then I turned my attention back to the ancient chest, but it was much harder to open this time. I cursed a little under my breath while I wiggled the tip of my dagger inside the opening of the lock, and then, after some effort, the mechanism clicked open and the hook popped off.
I let out my breath in a low sigh and then opened the chest. I already knew what inside, so I didn’t give it a second glance before I started to shovel the gold into my sack. When I came to the wand, however, I held it gently in my hands and inspected it carefully.
Then I touched the tip of my finger to the end of the wand to activate the stat box.
Durability - 95%
Weight - .5 lbs
Quality - High
Magical Aspect - Fire
Magical Ability - 1x Inferno
Holy shit, I’d used the only spell the wand had in it just to experiment. The sound of my women screaming still echoed in my ears, but I shook my head to dispel the thought. That didn’t happen in this timeline, so I needed to let it go.
“What did you find, Great One?” Mahini asked with a questioning arch of her dark eyebrows.
“Looks like something magic!” Elissa gasped as her emerald eyes took in the wand in my hand.
“Yeah, it’s a fire spell wand,” I explained. “It’s very powerful, though, and we can only use it once, so we will have to save it for a special occasion.”
I stashed the wand inside my pack for safe keeping, but out of reach for accidental waving. Then we headed back to the main antechamber.
I made another save point when we were back in the circular room, and the third tunnel seemed to be calling my name. There was something sinister and unnerving about it, and my gut was telling me something powerful laid at the other end of the tunnel.
Whatever it was, I was about to find out.
No matter what I faced, I would be victorious in the end, so I straightened my shoulders and led the way like the god I was.