23 Raid
Didn't take too long for them to arrive, the place was known for its good food and drinking. The tavern called "The Drinking Bear" was full of customers as usual. Stepping inside Riou walked to the counter near the kitchen, followed by a suspicious and yet curious princess who kept throwing sneaky glances at everything around her.
Syldis was leaving the kitchen with a customer request when she saw Riou.
• "Riou! Come in my boy, take a seat and I will get you the special in a moment!" Said the smiling woman with her golden braids swinging while she walked.
• "Make it two, Syldis! I have a guest with me" said Riou showing the approaching Eileen.
Riou thought that Syldis looked serious for a second, but at a second glance her usual big smile was already filling her face and in a joyous mood she replied – "Take a seat and I will bring you both something in a moment!" – She said looking at Eileen.
The princess looked at the owner of the Drinking Bear as if seeing a ghost. She didn't express anything but Riou noticed that she was acting weird around her. The princess clearly knew her reputation.
They went in search of a table when Riou found a few known faces amongst the customers.
• "If it's not our friend, I thought you'd be hiding or be dead by now…" Said a big man with his trademark smirk looking at the girl following Riou.
The mercenary leader Viktor was accompanied by Levi and Judeau.
• "A few things happened…" Said the boy scratching his head –"But how are the brothers recovering
• "They are stubborn, it will take more than a Dracar to kill them, a day or two more and they will be up on their feet once again… but what I really want to know is why are you holding so many swords? Are you having a change of heart?" Asked the smirking mercenary changing his glance to Eileen with curiosity - "I've never seen you around before… and what a fine sword you are holding there…" Said the mercenary leader looking at the rapier on her waist.
Riou had forgotten the bad attitude that Viktor had when he was outside a mission and sighed.
• "This is Eileen, she is a friend of mine… These are Judeau, Levi and the one with the big mouth here is Viktor." He said introducing the mercenaries to the princess who nodded complimented them as Riou continued – "we just came from the blacksmith, and we are taking these swords to the castle… I will be taking classes on sword fighting there." Said the boy to the mercenary
Viktor squinted his eyes for a moment - "The castle was hiring a sword master to teach the prince, they came asking for me to come in but I refused. If I had known you would be taking the classes as well I might have considered the offer. You learning the sword that would be a sight to see" he said laughing.
• "Enough with your tasteless jokes, Viktor" Said Levi ashamed by the mercenary leader's behavior, while Judeau just listened drinking his spirit.
• "Alright, alright… we are just having some fun with our good friend here" he said losing his smile and getting serious –"Kid, it has been a long time since I had such a good time fighting, if you ever need me again all you need to do is ask" said Viktor bringing his mug up, cheering for the boy.
Riou smiled and thanked the mercenary with a nod - "I will hold you to that" Said Riou raising his eyebrows looking directly at the mercenary leader.
Riou and Eileen took a table near the end of the tavern; they were sitting down facing each other, soon after Syldis came with the food.
She put the plate down on the table filled with bowls and mugs. She served a bowl of stew each with another bowl of pieces of bread. It was meat cooked in a vegetable soup, the meat boiled for hours inside the broth creating a strong flavor and a very soft meat.
After serving the food Syldis sat down beside Eileen surprising them both.
• "So, why is she following you around?" Asked the big woman with a serious tone despite looking at them both with a big smile
Eileen froze for a second.
• "This is Eileen, we will be training swordsmanship together at the castle" Answered the boy.
• "I know who she is… what I want to know is why she is following you around without an escort" repeated the owner of the tavern in a more serious tone.
Riou sighed, she knew Eileen was the princess… "It will get tricky now…"
The princess recovered from the initial shock and promptly answered in his regard – "He is my sword master" she said in a serious tone.
Riou was taken aback in surprise… "Wasn't that supposed to be a secret?" he thought to himself surprised
Syldis widened her eyes. She knew what that meant and it surely explained why she was following him. But still she couldn't conceive the idea of the boy being a sword master and began to laugh loudly
• "Hahahaa!"
Riou hid his face behind his hand, ashamed by the consideration that Syldis had towards him, or the lack of it.
• "My poor girl, you must be desperate… I heard the stories: you chose the path of the North Rites, and how you feared that teachers stronger than you would use the opportunity to propose a challenge you walked the path alone, as a true North Woman I must say..." She paused for a moment after complimenting the princess and then returning to her serious tone – "But to use him as a means to gain freedom outside the castle walls is not right, my dear…I don't know how you got the king to consent with this nonsense… But I must say, if someone recognizes you and wants to take advantage of you, you will be putting this boy at risk. You may be able to protect yourself, but his life will be in danger as well"
Eileen looked terrified at Riou who was still covering his face, upon noticing the princess' look he just shrugged, unable to reply to that statement.
• "I was put in charge of this boy's safety, so please understand my concern" Said Syldis to the princess
The princess was very confused and instinctively nodded vigorously in agreement at her. Seeing the princess' prompt response, Syldis smiled.
• "You are a good girl, so please treat this boy well." She said once again smiling.
Recovering from the lack of consideration demonstrated towards him and all the condescending tone, Riou was uneasy to ask about Max and Eleanor, but he wanted to know what happened to them.
• "About your guests? Are they gone already?" asked the boy
• "Yes, they went traveling together, it was a good sight to see, and they were getting along very well I must say, that was not usual."
Riou smiled – "That's good to hear"
Syldis stood up, - "I took too much of your time already, please eat and feel at home, if you need anything let me know" She smiled and patted the boy's head before leaving.
Now that Syldis was gone, Eileen looked at Riou eagerly expecting an explanation to what just happened.
Riou smile wryly - "What can I say? I'm a poor, innocent and defenseless victim of the circumstances… it seems that I was terribly abused by the evil princess" He said sarcastically before pausing, soon after he added – "I had no idea you were such a scoundrel"
• "Pft… Hahahaha!" Unable to contain herself, laughter burst out of the princess to the point of tears rolling down her face…
Riou laughed together with her, it had been a while since the last time he was having such a good time. Perhaps it was the first time since coming to this world, so he looked to the princess with tenderness and smiled.
• "You know, I thought you shouldn't say I was your master… why did you do it?" the boy asked intrigued
• "You should never lie to a bear…" She answered.
• "I heard that before… so you know about Syldis past?" Asked the surprised boy already digging in.
• "Yes, she was one of the few humans to be recognized by the Beastmen, she is also a woman of the north, so I know all her stories." The princess answered while watching the boy.
• "I'd like to hear these stories sometime …" Noticing that the princess was not eating he tried to help – "You should eat before it gets cold."
• "Tell me, those were the mercenaries that helped you when you were looking for Maximilian right? Did you fight against a Dracar at that time?" Asked the Princess with curiosity, picking up her soup and a few pieces of bread.
• "It kinda happened…Why do you ask?" Riou replied dismissively…
• "Because you asked how someone was, and they mentioned that a Dracar would not be enough to kill them… So you met a Dracar?" she asked inquisitively…
• "Yeah… but it was a small one, and the Mercenaries took a hit, but quickly took care of it… they were really good fighters." Riou said to appease the princess curiosity.
Unconvinced that was the whole truth, the princess let it slide for the moment, but the memory notes she was taking already had a few pages… "Called master by a Head Blacksmith inside his own shop for teaching them how to craft legendary living metal swords, has not one but 6 blades of its metal, and let me hold to one of them as if it was nothing but a tool… He quickly grew a friendship with the great Magus who is known to not like people, the Mercenary Leader treats him as a friend for some strange reason. He is protected by the Bear Syldis probably by the Magus request… he is stronger than a master swordsman at the early age of 15 and easily won against advanced ranked magicians in a 1 on 1 combat… but no one seems to know it… Why? And despite all that he affirmed that he had some magical knowledge but never used it… So it is safe to assume that if he knew how to properly use magic he'd have taken advantage of it against the mages that attacked the castle. The fact he didn't, indicates he does not have much power in that regard… at least there is one aspect in which he seems to be normal."
She thought for a moment lost in her mind while she tried to follow his way of eating… without a spoon or a fork, she didn't know how to properly do it. With much resistance she tried to eat directly from the bowl like he was.
To her surprise the food was excellent, the taste was rich and the peculiar way of eating had its charms.
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In a vast windowless dark room, filled with smooth plane rock blocks in the walls and ceiling, which had no natural light, just a few torches far away from each other at the walls near some corridor that showed no end, a sinister figure sat down upon a stone throne in the very center of the room.
Only what seemed to be a dark cloak could be identified covering what seemed to be a person sitting down on the throne. The shape that could be identified was only the top of the head. Everything beneath that point was hidden in the dark, no face or members could be seen.
Another man covered in a black hooded robe entered the room in a very respectful manner, and ended up kneeling before the figure just a few steps from the stone throne.
- "The failure to kidnap the princess and queen has been reverted to our advantage, the king's court mages were send to investigate the mine… the ritual is being performed as we speak to ensure they are properly dealt with." the dark capped man said slowly without looking up.
The sinister figure on the throne slightly moved its head, a voice that no living creature could create soon followed
- "What else have you learned?" It said in a heavy, rough, threatening tone
- "A powerful mage remained hidden at the castle my lord, our spies gathered information that the story disclosed to the guards was that a servant boy was able to defeat two of our members. As you know, one of them died and the other was rescued by us and interrogated. He said that the boy was indeed there, but he was protected against his magic. Before he knew what happened he was already unconscious with broken bones, bound by a magic that we have never seen before" The man paused as he heard the figure slightly moving, the sound of cloth being pressed against the stone made his blood freeze. His eyes never went up to directly look towards the throne, his fear from the figure wouldn`t allow him to do so. After a moment of silence, since no words came from it he continued
- "The magic is being researched, but to no avail so far….it is probably a secret spell from one of the Allard noble houses. And that's precisely why we believe that this boy was credited just to maintain this mage's hidden identity.
- "You may proceed… we will weaken Allard… one way or another…" the sinister voice once again echoed through the walls. Without saying another word the man respectfully stood up and turned around, vanishing into the dark corridor.
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As soon as Riou and Eileen arrived at the castle the princess began to unstrap the swords to hand them over to Riou… The boy looking at her brought his hand up signaling her to stop
• "You can hold on to them a while longer, use them to train" Said the boy to the princess who nodded at him.
There were two days left until the expedition to the mines. Riou had some time to spare and they both used it to improve Eileen's skills.
Riou taught her different techniques and guard stances than the ones she was used to. He showed her the importance of good feints and locations to aim for to completely disarm an enemy.
But most importantly, in these two days he showed her that it was possible to use mana to improve physical abilities which allowed the creation of new sword skills and techniques. Riou discovered that in that world that was not very common.
So as it was expected she did have some difficulty to understand the concept. And was unable to use it at that point.
But still, they trained all day long during this two day period, both of them got used to the weapons that were crafted as well as creating muscle memory of the new techniques Riou taught the princess.
Eileen could easily see how powerful the steel weapons were compared to normal iron weapons. She adapted so well to them that Riou began to feel guilty to ask them back.
The princess' abilities grew greatly while training with Riou, but despite her improvement, she still was nowhere near the boy's ability.
It was the end of the last training session before the incursion to the mines on the next day… they both were tired and the princess was restless for some reason.
• "Eileen!" Called the boy approaching the princess who was already turning around towards him.
• "Regarding tomorrow…" Riou's tone went serious and his expression was preoccupied. He continued:
• "For the next days during the incursion into the mine, be watchful, I have reasons to believe that there are spies in the court… they might use the opportunity to strike once again. Don't trust anyone… especially the yellow caped knight and his men."
• "Rodrick?" Exclaimed the princess in surprise.
Riou nodded.
• "Keep the rapier always near and at the ready… remember what I told you and what we trained."
The princess nodded… that information was heavy, and deeply concerned the princess. She never would have suspected any of the court members… but at that point she knew that Riou knew much more than he let her know, so it would not be wise to dismiss the boy's words and recommendation.
-------------------- Few moments later
Once more Eileen went to the study room where she knew she'd find her parents following their usual routine.
• "Eileen… if you came here to talk about that subject again, don't even start, this is the third time already, and you know my position, you will not go." Said the king clearly angered
• "I know Father, I was just wondering… who will be taking care of the castle defenses once Bhalrom and the mages are on their way…" Asked the princess…
The king was not expecting such a question… and answered suspiciously – "Rodrick and Rottcher requested to take care of the castle defenses… the blue and red banners will be patrolling the city with the rest of first army while Bhalrom is on the mission."
The princess stopped for a moment, pondering his words…
• "Can you please reassign the men of the First Army to protect the royal wing instead?" She requested with a serious expression.
Finding it very suspicious the king questioned – "Why do you think that's necessary?"
The princess replied – "I'd feel safer knowing that the First Army is protecting the royal wing"
The king lowered his head thinking, a wry smile formed on his face and as if talking to himself he muttered something that came to his mind – "Snakes in my grass hum..."
Raising his head once again he looked to the princess with a smile – "Very well, if that will make you feel safer…it will be done"
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The next morning came and the preparations were finished. The sun was shining early in the morning and the horses were prepared for them for a quick journey. The mages and Bhalrom were in front while Riou was riding with the cavalry. About 30 men were ready to ride, while the rest of the infantry would follow at march speed later on. There were about a hundred men total behind the mages and Bhalrom, from which most of them were already friends with the boy.
Without delay, everyone was ready and they departed towards the mountains in the north. Riou thought that he'd have some difficulty because it was his first time riding a horse. But strangely enough it felt like second nature to him, "All those games riding horses seemed to have a good effect on the real skill" he thought to himself.
They passed beside the big plateau where the castle was built, from down there the castle seemed even bigger and impenetrable. Looking from that point Riou regarded the enemy in a much higher position, as it was no easy task to assault the castle from that side.
They rode fast, straight towards the Deadwind passage; it took almost the whole morning of riding at fast speed to reach the mountain passage. Seeing it for the first time, Riou could clearly see it led towards the rocky peaks in a winding trail that vanished from sight just to come back again far away, the lack of use caused the trail to be precarious, and the rocky terrain didn't help either, it was narrow, allowing only one person at a time to go through.
The soldiers made camp at the entrance of the passage and the horses were resting at the green vegetation far to the south, but still within eyesight, it was the only place where the rocky terrain didn't reach.
Riou stood in front of the path, he looked at the rocks and tried to estimate the distance they probably would have to go across it, the trial was slippery as the loosened rocks and dirt could easily take someone's balance with a misplaced step. The path went straight up towards the mountain, so a slip there would be fatal. The gray rock path extended beyond the boy's sight, it went up and down following the mountain to the next, no signal of any entrance could be seen… Riou calculated that the path itself was dangerous enough and there were no other option to it, the mountain was too steep and the lack of vegetation didn't help either. The terrain was so bad that there were no other paths, the only way was the Deadwind trail … if anything were to happen wherever this mine was, the return with injured people would prove disastrous, if not impossible "If I had my doubts before… now I'm certain... this is a trap" concluded the boy.
The first patrol was formed, the first army would send a group of 5 in front with trackers on it, followed by another group of 5. The mages would be next with Bhalrom and Riou, guarded by another group of 10 soldiers, the rest of the soldiers would wait for further instructions and guard the encampment until the rest of the army arrived. The objective was to locate and secure the mine entrance while protecting the encampment below from any attack. They would be an easy prey, trapped on the mountain without resources and a way to come back if the encampment was taken over by the enemy.
The first two groups had already departed, all the mages were together inside a tent probably discussing their tactics. Bhalrom was outside coordinating the soldiers and waiting for a massager to return.
It took over three hours for the messenger to return with information that they had found the entrance of the mine and no activity was seen. It was safe to approach.
Bhalrom went to gather the mages and the guards to begin the incursion.
All mages were tense, especially Lilly. The seven mages were using a battle robe, a lighter cloth that did not cover them entirely, it had cuts specially designed to allow all ranges of movement, and some of the older mages even had swords attached to their belts.
Ursula was the first to move towards the path, followed by Lilly and the other mages. Bhalrom and Riou went after them followed by the soldiers.
The path was a challenge by itself. At any moment there was a possibility that the rocks above them could drop their weight upon them, or worse, the rocks could get loose beneath their feet, taking the soldiers with them, falling towards the cliff to their right.
Riou soon noticed that the wind was strangely absent… He understood why it was called Deadwind, not a single breeze could be felt or seen anywhere, despite what you would expect on a mountain path, nothing could be felt, which was a relief, he couldn't imagine to traverse that small path if assaulted by strong winds.
They reached the mine entrance with difficulty, it took a lot of time. There was a dark hole that led inside the mountain with plenty of space outside, where a camp could be built. It could comfortably hold 50 people with tents "The miners must have leveled this place to serve as a camping point and some kind of deposit for the ore found in the mine… The path probably was wider and more secure years ago, but with the lack of maintenance, it is almost gone now" thought the boy realizing how strange that place was. It was as if two mountains leaned on each other with a natural balcony formation… the small path kept on going up, but that was the only mine in that place so they stopped there.
The entrance seemed like a square hole in the mountain, held by wooden beams and stone pillars… it was wide enough to easily fit in a couple of men side by side walking comfortably in and out of it.
Riou noticed that no one had approached the entrance yet, and from afar, only darkness could be seen inside the mine. The soldiers were preparing the torches and the mages were taking position to defend from whatever could come from inside the mine. As no sign of hostilities could be seen, they began forming a group to investigate.
Ursula with her dark hair tied in the back of her head, and just a few raven locks loose in her face, was the first to organize the party.
• "We will enter in groups of 5, the first will be formed by 3 mages and 2 soldiers… with the magical support our soldiers should have no problem in dealing with any enemy inside." She said to the group.
• "I, Barbara and Alec will be the front with two soldiers as melee support, and then groups of 2 mages and 3 soldiers will come in, Nolan and Tess. Lastly Lilly and Serena, we will investigate first and then send word back with our findings, we don't know how big is the mine, so as soon as we encounter any problem third group will retreat and alert you outside."
Riou and Bhalrom were listening to the proposition… Seemed like a good plan, 3 different well balanced fronts, if something were to happen the other groups could, in theory, support it leaving a third one able to go back and alert the others… "But that is in a case where the environment allows such support, if the mine becomes too narrow… or they don't have a clear sight of each other… that will not help" thought the boy.
Riou was preparing himself and already gathering a torch… he intended to go in with the first group of mages in the position of a soldier…
The first 3 mages were already moving towards the entrance when Riou approached to join them. Ursula noticing it reprimanded him – "What do you think you are doing?"
Taken aback Riou replied – "I intended to go as a soldier…" said the boy puzzled to her remark.
• "You shouldn't even be here in the first place, you are an observer and that's all. We can't risk bringing a boy to a real fight, despite your dueling skills and magnified stories of you helping in the attack, this is the real world, and we need experienced people to join us. So step aside and let a real soldier join us." Said the head mage sharply.
• "I insist" – Replied the boy in an equal sharp tone, looking straight into her eyes.
• "Step aside" Ordered the head mage coldly.
Riou felt a heavy hand rest on his shoulder, it was Bhalrom also requesting him to stand down, but in a much friendlier manner. Riou looked at him – "You are all making a mistake… this is a trap… and you should allow me to go" Ursula turned her head away from the boy when she heard that, and Bhalrom tapped his shoulder once more – "You've done enough already in the castle, leave this one to us…" Said the knight… Riou dropped the torch – "Do as you want…" he answered clearly displeased, turning and walking to the side, he sat down facing the entrance of the mine.
It was still the afternoon, they had almost 4 hours before the nightfall, Bhalrom agreed it would be better to investigate the mine and take care of anything that could be there instead of waiting until the next morning, they were too exposed to be there for a longer period of time, bigger numbers at that point would not help inside the mine. The best bet would be the mages' assault as it was planned.
The first group went in, a moment later the second, and at last the third one… Riou noticed that Lilly did not pay much attention to him that entire time "She must be tense…it's probably her first incursion, she`ll want to prove herself to the other court mages." He pondered.
Almost an hour went by with no contact from the teams that went inside, "It's been too long already… someone should have returned by now" thought the boy.
With the arrival of more men from the bottom of the mountain, Bhalrom was already putting together a search party to go after them in the mine.
Riou suddenly felt a shiver… The sun would take a couple of hours to set but the light of the day was not that bright anymore, and precisely because of that he noticed something at the entrance of the cave… looking with attention he noticed the darkness there was not entirely natural, and had already taken more of the entrance than it should. "As the daylight is getting weaker the darkness inside is beginning to come out… this is bad, something happened."
Riou quickly stood up and without thinking he immediately rushed towards the entrance of the mine.
While he ran, he reached for his dagger on the back, and holding it with an inverted grip he disappeared into darkness inside the cave.
Seeing that the knight shouted in anger – "Prepare to follow that damn boy! Assemble immediately!"
Inside the mine, the light from outside did not reach until its end. As Riou was walking further inside it got darker at every step, no sound could be heard coming from the inside. As there was no wind, the silence there was almost maddening. The first impression of the entrance was that it was big, the sensation of the air and the echoing of his footsteps told him that it was wide and with a lot of height to the ceiling, much bigger than the light from the entrance allowed him to see. Many big rocks and stone pillar formations could be seen nearby. "It seems they build this mine on a cave…" Concluded the boy while looking around. He walked forward, entering the darkness with his dagger in his right hand in front of him. He was cautious to only walk forward where the light of the entrance still reached his surroundings… with attention to all his senses he proceeded, as he sensed something was not right.
In his rush he forgot to bring a torch with him but before he could turn back to look for one he noticed movement to his right. Amidst the dark veil he was certain something big was moving as the shades of black changed to the side of his sight, as if a shadow was cast at it, turning it darker.
Quickly glancing at the location he could not tell what or where it was now, but something was moving nearby, and what really caught his attention was that it did so without making a sound. There were small rocks and dust on the floor, anything walking on it would make a noise. And that realization put him on edge. "I'm not alone in here…" He then quickly burst a flame on his left hand to illuminate the ambient, trying to catch a glimpse of what was moving nearby.
The light quickly illuminated his surroundings in a burst that lasted a couple of seconds, but to his surprise or to fuel his fears, nothing could be seen… it was all empty, only rocks, pillars and their shadows flickering side to side by the light of the flame, nothing there was big enough to hide a man.
With caution, he walked a few more steps and stopped at the limit of the entrance's light, his breathing was the only thing he could hear. He tried to force his sight to see anything that could be lurking in the dark but to no avail, he began to look around him.
It was at that moment, that he noticed in the corner of his eye, towards the entrance, a quick glimpse of a figure crossing the opening… a dark, slim humanoid form with long arms… the sight send shivers down his entire body, and it was very close to where Bhalrom and his men were showing up.
• "GET BACK!" Shouted the boy to them – "DO NOT ENTER!" he added from the top of his lungs towards the entrance where the soldiers stopped, perplexed by his reaction.
The soldiers despite the warning still stepped forward to see better inside the mine, and since they were still at the entrance they were lucky enough to not be attacked… but the shadow cast by their bodies blocking the light, instantly engulfed Riou who was left completely in the dark.
The stillness of his surroundings was truly scary and so he instinctively created a wide layer of mana around him as an extension of his senses. At the very moment it was formed he felt something sharp coming toward his chest… by reflex he raised his dagger to intercept it.
The clash was vicious and powerful, it would have ripped him apart, had he not defended. Riou lost balance for a moment and had to step back to regain it. Without thinking he pointed his left hand to the entrance without losing his focus to his surroundings and shot his mana with a force push effect at the soldiers to throw them outside of the cave all at once.
The light quickly took its place again shedding a light at the boy and his attacker.
Riou saw a humanoid body made of shadows, holes instead of eyes and no mouth, his unnatural elongated arms, legs and fingers… made him feel uneasy, giving the creature a very tall stature and a long reach for his thin four shadowy fingers…
The light clearly bothered it, not to the point of hurt as no reaction to that regard could be seen, it was more a matter that Riou was able to see it than the light itself that bothered the creature, and it quickly disappeared inside the darkness a moment after being revealed.
"Shadow monsters" Realized the boy drawing one of his short swords with his left hand, he condensed his mana to create an energy ball on its tip, it was a sphere smaller than a coin, but was very bright and illuminated everything around him to the very walls of the cave, much more powerful than any torch.
Once again, no enemy could be seen, but Riou knew better than that.
"They are hiding in the shadows, behind the pillars and rocks… as they have no physical body they can easily fit in any shadow… I must be careful and quickly find the mages before the nightfall, I don't even want to think about this things roaming free outside the mine at night."
Riou was using his short sword as a torch in his left hand and keeping his dagger ready in the right hand. He began to drive away the shadows and continued his path towards the darkest parts of the mine.
Passing by a narrow square corridor he reached a new opening inside the mine, it was smaller than the entrance and had fewer rocks and pillars… Riou could see a path to the right that seemed made of natural cave formation and another to the left carved by the miners… "This damn mine was really built inside a cave… now with two paths to go, the question is, were they dumb enough to split up here?" He thought to himself, pondering the mages actions
"Chances are they were… they were lured here as they thought there was no danger… and surely split up to cover more ground… all that planning and mighty attitude for nothing… probably Ursula's group went on one side while the other two groups went to the other… dammit… this will complicate things…"
Riou rushed his steps choosing the left side first… another narrow mine corridor with old wooden beams to hold the ceiling that led towards another smaller opening, it was made by the miners and still had old crates and mining equipment lying around, it seemed like he was getting near that branch's end, so Riou kept going.
"The mages had torches and certainly knew light spells, so they should have been fine if they were cautious…."
Before Riou could conclude his thoughts he found fresh blood on the ground, it was a big pool as if a body was completely pierced and dragged from that position… bleeding profusely marking the ground with more than just drips… "Whoever was hit… did not survive" concluded the boy by the amount of blood he was seeing. Following the blood trail he was lead towards the right wall from the corridor, behind a crate, he found the corpse… it was laying down as if had been thrown with tremendous force towards the wall, blood spatter could be seen everywhere from the impact. The body was almost severed in half, a deep horizontal cut in his stomach that almost detached the torso from the lower body, the blood loss was fatal and he probably died before reaching this place, marks of 4 punctures could be seen on the right shoulder.
The facial expression it held still showed the terror he felt in his last moments…
"Ursula team went this way" He thought turning away from the body, it was the mage named Alec.
His mind was preparing for the imminent fight. "These are no ordinary monsters… they are intelligent humanoids… luring and ambushing both groups separately, somehow they are able to kill even when someone is protected by light… and if that's the case, this light of mine will not help me much longer" thought the boy looking at his light source, when another realization hit him "If these monsters were put here to ambush us as part of the trap… someone must be nearby controlling them…"
Didn't take long for him to find more bodies, it was the two soldiers, both killed in the same strike, as the slash began from one body to precisely continue to the other in a diagonal from the top left of the left body, to the bottom right of the other, they were lying on the floor near another corridor.
Riou without losing time began to rush in, it was a very long corridor, and at its very end he could see a beam of light coming from the ceiling. It was a square opening, probably created for renewing the air in the mine, through it a dim light shined through, and shedding the dark veil on its surroundings.
Riou dismissed his improvised torch as he approached the light source cautiously.
A few steps behind the breathing hole, was the end of the corridor, he noticed a red glow coming from where the light touched the ground "More blood"… following its trail with his eyes, Riou saw, sitting down at the darker corner, with its back leaned towards the end wall, a headless body… it was covered by blood and seemed to be struck with a clean strike, causing the body to just fall down on itself, ending up in that position.
Riou concluded it was Barbara's body, as standing against the wall to its right and in the brighter corner, with her back against the end wall for support was Ursula, very injured and bleeding from her head, left arm and torso, she was breathing heavily, clearly exhausted from a fight and the blood loss… She was still holding her right palm pointed towards the corridor and with only her right eye open, as the blood was running on top of the left one, preventing her from using it to see clearly. Her arm was shaky, clearly showing the signs of her exhaustion.
• "Ursula!" Shouted Riou approaching her…
• "Don't come or the darkness will come back!" screamed the mage… - "This is the only way to fight them stay clear from the corridor!"
Ursula was using the narrow corridor to help her aim, looking for more details he noticed the scorch and black marks on the rocks nearby. She was using fire to engulf the corridor in an attempt to fight the Shadows. She probably was attacked and cornered there, and desperately maintained her fire spells for long periods of time in an attempt to keep the shadows at bay. "She won't last long with this approach" thought Riou looking how exhausted she was.
Her plan would have worked for a while, but she failed at the moment she was trapped and cornered in that position. She had nowhere to run… it was only a matter of time for her to collapse, and when that happened she'd be done for… he knew he could not leave her alone as she was at her limit already.
• "Calm down, you need to rest… you will faint if you keep this up." Said the boy approaching her
• "You don't understand… the darkness will come back if you come here, and I will hit you if you stay there. Move away or I will have no choice!" She shouted trying to advert the boy that did not care for her warnings and continued his approach.
The air got colder as a soft gust of wind passed by from the opening Riou just came by…
And a moment after Riou was already shrouded in a haze of darkness that even the daylight from the breathing hole couldn't pierce.
He desperately tried to ignite a fire on his hand, strangely, he could only feel its heat as no light could be seen from it. As if a black thick fog blocked everything.
Immersed in complete and utter darkness, his sense of sight was completely gone.
Immediately after the darkness fell, heat began to come from the direction where Ursula was, Riou quickly brought up his left hand to that direction in an upward movement he erected a mana barrier just a step away from him that completely sealed the corridor between him and Ursula, a moment later it was formed he heard the sound of fire engulfing and raging against his barrier.
"I must admit, she is a woman of her word…"
The enemy wouldn't take long to attack him, now that the fire didn't kill him, the shadows would soon attack. So he tried to concentrate his mana in his eyes which quickly began to tingle, it was a bad feeling and bothered him greatly. Soon a faint violet glow began to form in front of him. His sight was being affected and changed to other kinds of light lengths, he was now able to see violet shades glowing and taking shape in his surroundings, the darkness transformed into shades of violet, red and white
• - "As I thought, not all kinds of light are blocked…" he said to himself satisfied with the result he achieved – "But this tingling feeling inside my eyes… is horrible" he thought containing himself from scratching his eyeballs.
Seeing no enemy nearby, he sheathed his dagger and short sword once again. He gave a quick look behind to see the fire still raging against his barrier, it was colored very differently than usual, and different shapes formed than the ones he was used to see, probably because of the different wave lengths.
"She has stamina, that's no small amount of mana she is spending" thought the boy while watching the fire's intensity and volume. He then turned towards the entrance where he came from… noticing a few shadow beings making their way towards him through the long corridor. There were three of them and they were taking large steps with their long limbs, covering great distances with each step, they were fast…
Riou pointed his index finger towards the approaching monsters and smiled to himself
• "You may not have noticed yet… but I can now see you lurking in the dark… all lined up in this dark corridor" he spoke to the shadows - "Let me give you some light"
The beings were smart enough to notice the boy's intentions, and prepared to dodge the projectile, being made of shadow, they would be able to thin up at will and dodge anything.
Suddenly a beam of bright white light appeared in front the boy's finger and instantly passed through the monsters that were lined up, light was not a projectile, it was simple too fast for them to dodge… and as a being made of shadow there was no knockback or impact. They immediately began to rush towards the boy once more as if nothing had happened.
But the light that seemed to have just passed through them left a small hole that quickly began to expand emitting a light of its own on its outer ring where it entered in contact with the shadow. It was rapidly consuming their body, and by the time they were a step away from the boy the last piece of them disappeared.
The darkness still persisted, despite having finished the monsters, which made Riou think "There are still more of them…"
He turned back to Ursula as he noticed the flame dissipating, she was not able to stand anymore and clearly had spent all her forces.
He quickly ran towards her, putting her arm around his shoulders he helped her to stand up.
• "It's you?" Asked the mage puzzled by the touch and help, she was still blinded by the darkness...
• "Hold on, I will take you out of here" replied the boy.
• "But how are you alive? The fire and the shadows… I thought you'd be dead by now… how can you see?" questioned the surprised mage recognizing the boy's voice, she did not understand how that was possible.
• "Now is not the time to think about that, let's go, I need to get you out of here" Said the boy to calm her down.
• "Wait, we need to find Lilly! She might be hurt" Said the mage who walked while leaning on the boy with some difficulty.
• "You are useless now, and I can't do much while having to drag you around. You get out so I can safely search for the others." Answered the boy seriously.
Understanding her position the mage went silent… - "They all died?" she asked…
Riou kept silent…
• "…" she was about to speak once again, but restrained herself, she understood what that silence meant… and her steps began to slow down…
• "We really don't have time for this…" he said pumping up his body with mana, and putting her over his shoulder
Ursula was surprised by the boy's strength. She couldn't see how fast they were moving, but by the way she felt the movement of his body she could tell it was not normal.
Riou quickly made his way back through the dark mine to the entrance, now that the enemy was known and that he could see their movements with ease he sped up. "I should have thought of this spell earlier… it would have saved a lot of time." He realized.
The darkness spell was very wide and extended almost to the entrance. Riou kept his hands ready to shoot at any sight of danger, but to his surprise there were no other monster on the way back and he reached the entrance with Ursula.
• "I can see the entrance" said the mage as her eyes were again able to see light. Riou put her down near it and once again helped her outside.
Covering his eyes with his arm to avoid the excess clarity from the outside, as the spell intensified his vision to other light waves, going into this bright ambient hurt his eyes badly.
Outside the soldiers were dispositioned in a concave line of two rows of soldiers, and were waiting for whatever could come out of the mine with spears ready. Once Riou came out with Ursula they relaxed and Bhalrom came with a few men to get the injured mage.
• "Bring her to the side so someone can tend to her wounds…" Said Bhalrom to the soldiers who approached her taking her from the boy who had his eyes covered.
• "Lilly, we need to find her!" Said the mage once more looking at the knight and then searching for the boy.
Bhalrom as well turned to look at the boy to scold him, but to his surprise he was already gone.
• "Damn brat… he went into the mine again?" He said angered. Turning towards Ursula.
• "What happened inside?" He asked the exhausted mage.
• "Shadow Fiends ambushed us…" She said with a sad tone
His eyes widened and his stern appearance showed a deep concern. Despite how uncommon that enemy was, Bhalrom in his early days had encountered such enemy when he participated in an incursion against a high mage of Argos, he and all his squad worked as support for the mages, just like the soldiers that went in the mine this time did. That day half his squad died at the hands at one of these fiends.
He knew well enough against what they were up to, he also knew that all the soldiers would die if they were to fight inside that damn mine…
• "The boy survived once… he might as well do it again…" Said the knight looking at the sky, measuring how much day light was left as the sun already began its way towards the horizon, he then turned to his men
• "First Army! We have a dire situation at hand, bring everything you can find that burns… we need a fire at the entrance of this mine if we wish to survive the nightfall!" he shouted with his potent voice. – "Our best chance is to defend here! If the boy does not return until the fire cannot light the entrance anymore, we will collapse it!"
Syldis was leaving the kitchen with a customer request when she saw Riou.
• "Riou! Come in my boy, take a seat and I will get you the special in a moment!" Said the smiling woman with her golden braids swinging while she walked.
• "Make it two, Syldis! I have a guest with me" said Riou showing the approaching Eileen.
Riou thought that Syldis looked serious for a second, but at a second glance her usual big smile was already filling her face and in a joyous mood she replied – "Take a seat and I will bring you both something in a moment!" – She said looking at Eileen.
The princess looked at the owner of the Drinking Bear as if seeing a ghost. She didn't express anything but Riou noticed that she was acting weird around her. The princess clearly knew her reputation.
They went in search of a table when Riou found a few known faces amongst the customers.
• "If it's not our friend, I thought you'd be hiding or be dead by now…" Said a big man with his trademark smirk looking at the girl following Riou.
The mercenary leader Viktor was accompanied by Levi and Judeau.
• "A few things happened…" Said the boy scratching his head –"But how are the brothers recovering
• "They are stubborn, it will take more than a Dracar to kill them, a day or two more and they will be up on their feet once again… but what I really want to know is why are you holding so many swords? Are you having a change of heart?" Asked the smirking mercenary changing his glance to Eileen with curiosity - "I've never seen you around before… and what a fine sword you are holding there…" Said the mercenary leader looking at the rapier on her waist.
Riou had forgotten the bad attitude that Viktor had when he was outside a mission and sighed.
• "This is Eileen, she is a friend of mine… These are Judeau, Levi and the one with the big mouth here is Viktor." He said introducing the mercenaries to the princess who nodded complimented them as Riou continued – "we just came from the blacksmith, and we are taking these swords to the castle… I will be taking classes on sword fighting there." Said the boy to the mercenary
Viktor squinted his eyes for a moment - "The castle was hiring a sword master to teach the prince, they came asking for me to come in but I refused. If I had known you would be taking the classes as well I might have considered the offer. You learning the sword that would be a sight to see" he said laughing.
• "Enough with your tasteless jokes, Viktor" Said Levi ashamed by the mercenary leader's behavior, while Judeau just listened drinking his spirit.
• "Alright, alright… we are just having some fun with our good friend here" he said losing his smile and getting serious –"Kid, it has been a long time since I had such a good time fighting, if you ever need me again all you need to do is ask" said Viktor bringing his mug up, cheering for the boy.
Riou smiled and thanked the mercenary with a nod - "I will hold you to that" Said Riou raising his eyebrows looking directly at the mercenary leader.
Riou and Eileen took a table near the end of the tavern; they were sitting down facing each other, soon after Syldis came with the food.
She put the plate down on the table filled with bowls and mugs. She served a bowl of stew each with another bowl of pieces of bread. It was meat cooked in a vegetable soup, the meat boiled for hours inside the broth creating a strong flavor and a very soft meat.
After serving the food Syldis sat down beside Eileen surprising them both.
• "So, why is she following you around?" Asked the big woman with a serious tone despite looking at them both with a big smile
Eileen froze for a second.
• "This is Eileen, we will be training swordsmanship together at the castle" Answered the boy.
• "I know who she is… what I want to know is why she is following you around without an escort" repeated the owner of the tavern in a more serious tone.
Riou sighed, she knew Eileen was the princess… "It will get tricky now…"
The princess recovered from the initial shock and promptly answered in his regard – "He is my sword master" she said in a serious tone.
Riou was taken aback in surprise… "Wasn't that supposed to be a secret?" he thought to himself surprised
Syldis widened her eyes. She knew what that meant and it surely explained why she was following him. But still she couldn't conceive the idea of the boy being a sword master and began to laugh loudly
• "Hahahaa!"
Riou hid his face behind his hand, ashamed by the consideration that Syldis had towards him, or the lack of it.
• "My poor girl, you must be desperate… I heard the stories: you chose the path of the North Rites, and how you feared that teachers stronger than you would use the opportunity to propose a challenge you walked the path alone, as a true North Woman I must say..." She paused for a moment after complimenting the princess and then returning to her serious tone – "But to use him as a means to gain freedom outside the castle walls is not right, my dear…I don't know how you got the king to consent with this nonsense… But I must say, if someone recognizes you and wants to take advantage of you, you will be putting this boy at risk. You may be able to protect yourself, but his life will be in danger as well"
Eileen looked terrified at Riou who was still covering his face, upon noticing the princess' look he just shrugged, unable to reply to that statement.
• "I was put in charge of this boy's safety, so please understand my concern" Said Syldis to the princess
The princess was very confused and instinctively nodded vigorously in agreement at her. Seeing the princess' prompt response, Syldis smiled.
• "You are a good girl, so please treat this boy well." She said once again smiling.
Recovering from the lack of consideration demonstrated towards him and all the condescending tone, Riou was uneasy to ask about Max and Eleanor, but he wanted to know what happened to them.
• "About your guests? Are they gone already?" asked the boy
• "Yes, they went traveling together, it was a good sight to see, and they were getting along very well I must say, that was not usual."
Riou smiled – "That's good to hear"
Syldis stood up, - "I took too much of your time already, please eat and feel at home, if you need anything let me know" She smiled and patted the boy's head before leaving.
Now that Syldis was gone, Eileen looked at Riou eagerly expecting an explanation to what just happened.
Riou smile wryly - "What can I say? I'm a poor, innocent and defenseless victim of the circumstances… it seems that I was terribly abused by the evil princess" He said sarcastically before pausing, soon after he added – "I had no idea you were such a scoundrel"
• "Pft… Hahahaha!" Unable to contain herself, laughter burst out of the princess to the point of tears rolling down her face…
Riou laughed together with her, it had been a while since the last time he was having such a good time. Perhaps it was the first time since coming to this world, so he looked to the princess with tenderness and smiled.
• "You know, I thought you shouldn't say I was your master… why did you do it?" the boy asked intrigued
• "You should never lie to a bear…" She answered.
• "I heard that before… so you know about Syldis past?" Asked the surprised boy already digging in.
• "Yes, she was one of the few humans to be recognized by the Beastmen, she is also a woman of the north, so I know all her stories." The princess answered while watching the boy.
• "I'd like to hear these stories sometime …" Noticing that the princess was not eating he tried to help – "You should eat before it gets cold."
• "Tell me, those were the mercenaries that helped you when you were looking for Maximilian right? Did you fight against a Dracar at that time?" Asked the Princess with curiosity, picking up her soup and a few pieces of bread.
• "It kinda happened…Why do you ask?" Riou replied dismissively…
• "Because you asked how someone was, and they mentioned that a Dracar would not be enough to kill them… So you met a Dracar?" she asked inquisitively…
• "Yeah… but it was a small one, and the Mercenaries took a hit, but quickly took care of it… they were really good fighters." Riou said to appease the princess curiosity.
Unconvinced that was the whole truth, the princess let it slide for the moment, but the memory notes she was taking already had a few pages… "Called master by a Head Blacksmith inside his own shop for teaching them how to craft legendary living metal swords, has not one but 6 blades of its metal, and let me hold to one of them as if it was nothing but a tool… He quickly grew a friendship with the great Magus who is known to not like people, the Mercenary Leader treats him as a friend for some strange reason. He is protected by the Bear Syldis probably by the Magus request… he is stronger than a master swordsman at the early age of 15 and easily won against advanced ranked magicians in a 1 on 1 combat… but no one seems to know it… Why? And despite all that he affirmed that he had some magical knowledge but never used it… So it is safe to assume that if he knew how to properly use magic he'd have taken advantage of it against the mages that attacked the castle. The fact he didn't, indicates he does not have much power in that regard… at least there is one aspect in which he seems to be normal."
She thought for a moment lost in her mind while she tried to follow his way of eating… without a spoon or a fork, she didn't know how to properly do it. With much resistance she tried to eat directly from the bowl like he was.
To her surprise the food was excellent, the taste was rich and the peculiar way of eating had its charms.
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In a vast windowless dark room, filled with smooth plane rock blocks in the walls and ceiling, which had no natural light, just a few torches far away from each other at the walls near some corridor that showed no end, a sinister figure sat down upon a stone throne in the very center of the room.
Only what seemed to be a dark cloak could be identified covering what seemed to be a person sitting down on the throne. The shape that could be identified was only the top of the head. Everything beneath that point was hidden in the dark, no face or members could be seen.
Another man covered in a black hooded robe entered the room in a very respectful manner, and ended up kneeling before the figure just a few steps from the stone throne.
- "The failure to kidnap the princess and queen has been reverted to our advantage, the king's court mages were send to investigate the mine… the ritual is being performed as we speak to ensure they are properly dealt with." the dark capped man said slowly without looking up.
The sinister figure on the throne slightly moved its head, a voice that no living creature could create soon followed
- "What else have you learned?" It said in a heavy, rough, threatening tone
- "A powerful mage remained hidden at the castle my lord, our spies gathered information that the story disclosed to the guards was that a servant boy was able to defeat two of our members. As you know, one of them died and the other was rescued by us and interrogated. He said that the boy was indeed there, but he was protected against his magic. Before he knew what happened he was already unconscious with broken bones, bound by a magic that we have never seen before" The man paused as he heard the figure slightly moving, the sound of cloth being pressed against the stone made his blood freeze. His eyes never went up to directly look towards the throne, his fear from the figure wouldn`t allow him to do so. After a moment of silence, since no words came from it he continued
- "The magic is being researched, but to no avail so far….it is probably a secret spell from one of the Allard noble houses. And that's precisely why we believe that this boy was credited just to maintain this mage's hidden identity.
- "You may proceed… we will weaken Allard… one way or another…" the sinister voice once again echoed through the walls. Without saying another word the man respectfully stood up and turned around, vanishing into the dark corridor.
---------------------------
As soon as Riou and Eileen arrived at the castle the princess began to unstrap the swords to hand them over to Riou… The boy looking at her brought his hand up signaling her to stop
• "You can hold on to them a while longer, use them to train" Said the boy to the princess who nodded at him.
There were two days left until the expedition to the mines. Riou had some time to spare and they both used it to improve Eileen's skills.
Riou taught her different techniques and guard stances than the ones she was used to. He showed her the importance of good feints and locations to aim for to completely disarm an enemy.
But most importantly, in these two days he showed her that it was possible to use mana to improve physical abilities which allowed the creation of new sword skills and techniques. Riou discovered that in that world that was not very common.
So as it was expected she did have some difficulty to understand the concept. And was unable to use it at that point.
But still, they trained all day long during this two day period, both of them got used to the weapons that were crafted as well as creating muscle memory of the new techniques Riou taught the princess.
Eileen could easily see how powerful the steel weapons were compared to normal iron weapons. She adapted so well to them that Riou began to feel guilty to ask them back.
The princess' abilities grew greatly while training with Riou, but despite her improvement, she still was nowhere near the boy's ability.
It was the end of the last training session before the incursion to the mines on the next day… they both were tired and the princess was restless for some reason.
• "Eileen!" Called the boy approaching the princess who was already turning around towards him.
• "Regarding tomorrow…" Riou's tone went serious and his expression was preoccupied. He continued:
• "For the next days during the incursion into the mine, be watchful, I have reasons to believe that there are spies in the court… they might use the opportunity to strike once again. Don't trust anyone… especially the yellow caped knight and his men."
• "Rodrick?" Exclaimed the princess in surprise.
Riou nodded.
• "Keep the rapier always near and at the ready… remember what I told you and what we trained."
The princess nodded… that information was heavy, and deeply concerned the princess. She never would have suspected any of the court members… but at that point she knew that Riou knew much more than he let her know, so it would not be wise to dismiss the boy's words and recommendation.
-------------------- Few moments later
Once more Eileen went to the study room where she knew she'd find her parents following their usual routine.
• "Eileen… if you came here to talk about that subject again, don't even start, this is the third time already, and you know my position, you will not go." Said the king clearly angered
• "I know Father, I was just wondering… who will be taking care of the castle defenses once Bhalrom and the mages are on their way…" Asked the princess…
The king was not expecting such a question… and answered suspiciously – "Rodrick and Rottcher requested to take care of the castle defenses… the blue and red banners will be patrolling the city with the rest of first army while Bhalrom is on the mission."
The princess stopped for a moment, pondering his words…
• "Can you please reassign the men of the First Army to protect the royal wing instead?" She requested with a serious expression.
Finding it very suspicious the king questioned – "Why do you think that's necessary?"
The princess replied – "I'd feel safer knowing that the First Army is protecting the royal wing"
The king lowered his head thinking, a wry smile formed on his face and as if talking to himself he muttered something that came to his mind – "Snakes in my grass hum..."
Raising his head once again he looked to the princess with a smile – "Very well, if that will make you feel safer…it will be done"
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The next morning came and the preparations were finished. The sun was shining early in the morning and the horses were prepared for them for a quick journey. The mages and Bhalrom were in front while Riou was riding with the cavalry. About 30 men were ready to ride, while the rest of the infantry would follow at march speed later on. There were about a hundred men total behind the mages and Bhalrom, from which most of them were already friends with the boy.
Without delay, everyone was ready and they departed towards the mountains in the north. Riou thought that he'd have some difficulty because it was his first time riding a horse. But strangely enough it felt like second nature to him, "All those games riding horses seemed to have a good effect on the real skill" he thought to himself.
They passed beside the big plateau where the castle was built, from down there the castle seemed even bigger and impenetrable. Looking from that point Riou regarded the enemy in a much higher position, as it was no easy task to assault the castle from that side.
They rode fast, straight towards the Deadwind passage; it took almost the whole morning of riding at fast speed to reach the mountain passage. Seeing it for the first time, Riou could clearly see it led towards the rocky peaks in a winding trail that vanished from sight just to come back again far away, the lack of use caused the trail to be precarious, and the rocky terrain didn't help either, it was narrow, allowing only one person at a time to go through.
The soldiers made camp at the entrance of the passage and the horses were resting at the green vegetation far to the south, but still within eyesight, it was the only place where the rocky terrain didn't reach.
Riou stood in front of the path, he looked at the rocks and tried to estimate the distance they probably would have to go across it, the trial was slippery as the loosened rocks and dirt could easily take someone's balance with a misplaced step. The path went straight up towards the mountain, so a slip there would be fatal. The gray rock path extended beyond the boy's sight, it went up and down following the mountain to the next, no signal of any entrance could be seen… Riou calculated that the path itself was dangerous enough and there were no other option to it, the mountain was too steep and the lack of vegetation didn't help either. The terrain was so bad that there were no other paths, the only way was the Deadwind trail … if anything were to happen wherever this mine was, the return with injured people would prove disastrous, if not impossible "If I had my doubts before… now I'm certain... this is a trap" concluded the boy.
The first patrol was formed, the first army would send a group of 5 in front with trackers on it, followed by another group of 5. The mages would be next with Bhalrom and Riou, guarded by another group of 10 soldiers, the rest of the soldiers would wait for further instructions and guard the encampment until the rest of the army arrived. The objective was to locate and secure the mine entrance while protecting the encampment below from any attack. They would be an easy prey, trapped on the mountain without resources and a way to come back if the encampment was taken over by the enemy.
The first two groups had already departed, all the mages were together inside a tent probably discussing their tactics. Bhalrom was outside coordinating the soldiers and waiting for a massager to return.
It took over three hours for the messenger to return with information that they had found the entrance of the mine and no activity was seen. It was safe to approach.
Bhalrom went to gather the mages and the guards to begin the incursion.
All mages were tense, especially Lilly. The seven mages were using a battle robe, a lighter cloth that did not cover them entirely, it had cuts specially designed to allow all ranges of movement, and some of the older mages even had swords attached to their belts.
Ursula was the first to move towards the path, followed by Lilly and the other mages. Bhalrom and Riou went after them followed by the soldiers.
The path was a challenge by itself. At any moment there was a possibility that the rocks above them could drop their weight upon them, or worse, the rocks could get loose beneath their feet, taking the soldiers with them, falling towards the cliff to their right.
Riou soon noticed that the wind was strangely absent… He understood why it was called Deadwind, not a single breeze could be felt or seen anywhere, despite what you would expect on a mountain path, nothing could be felt, which was a relief, he couldn't imagine to traverse that small path if assaulted by strong winds.
They reached the mine entrance with difficulty, it took a lot of time. There was a dark hole that led inside the mountain with plenty of space outside, where a camp could be built. It could comfortably hold 50 people with tents "The miners must have leveled this place to serve as a camping point and some kind of deposit for the ore found in the mine… The path probably was wider and more secure years ago, but with the lack of maintenance, it is almost gone now" thought the boy realizing how strange that place was. It was as if two mountains leaned on each other with a natural balcony formation… the small path kept on going up, but that was the only mine in that place so they stopped there.
The entrance seemed like a square hole in the mountain, held by wooden beams and stone pillars… it was wide enough to easily fit in a couple of men side by side walking comfortably in and out of it.
Riou noticed that no one had approached the entrance yet, and from afar, only darkness could be seen inside the mine. The soldiers were preparing the torches and the mages were taking position to defend from whatever could come from inside the mine. As no sign of hostilities could be seen, they began forming a group to investigate.
Ursula with her dark hair tied in the back of her head, and just a few raven locks loose in her face, was the first to organize the party.
• "We will enter in groups of 5, the first will be formed by 3 mages and 2 soldiers… with the magical support our soldiers should have no problem in dealing with any enemy inside." She said to the group.
• "I, Barbara and Alec will be the front with two soldiers as melee support, and then groups of 2 mages and 3 soldiers will come in, Nolan and Tess. Lastly Lilly and Serena, we will investigate first and then send word back with our findings, we don't know how big is the mine, so as soon as we encounter any problem third group will retreat and alert you outside."
Riou and Bhalrom were listening to the proposition… Seemed like a good plan, 3 different well balanced fronts, if something were to happen the other groups could, in theory, support it leaving a third one able to go back and alert the others… "But that is in a case where the environment allows such support, if the mine becomes too narrow… or they don't have a clear sight of each other… that will not help" thought the boy.
Riou was preparing himself and already gathering a torch… he intended to go in with the first group of mages in the position of a soldier…
The first 3 mages were already moving towards the entrance when Riou approached to join them. Ursula noticing it reprimanded him – "What do you think you are doing?"
Taken aback Riou replied – "I intended to go as a soldier…" said the boy puzzled to her remark.
• "You shouldn't even be here in the first place, you are an observer and that's all. We can't risk bringing a boy to a real fight, despite your dueling skills and magnified stories of you helping in the attack, this is the real world, and we need experienced people to join us. So step aside and let a real soldier join us." Said the head mage sharply.
• "I insist" – Replied the boy in an equal sharp tone, looking straight into her eyes.
• "Step aside" Ordered the head mage coldly.
Riou felt a heavy hand rest on his shoulder, it was Bhalrom also requesting him to stand down, but in a much friendlier manner. Riou looked at him – "You are all making a mistake… this is a trap… and you should allow me to go" Ursula turned her head away from the boy when she heard that, and Bhalrom tapped his shoulder once more – "You've done enough already in the castle, leave this one to us…" Said the knight… Riou dropped the torch – "Do as you want…" he answered clearly displeased, turning and walking to the side, he sat down facing the entrance of the mine.
It was still the afternoon, they had almost 4 hours before the nightfall, Bhalrom agreed it would be better to investigate the mine and take care of anything that could be there instead of waiting until the next morning, they were too exposed to be there for a longer period of time, bigger numbers at that point would not help inside the mine. The best bet would be the mages' assault as it was planned.
The first group went in, a moment later the second, and at last the third one… Riou noticed that Lilly did not pay much attention to him that entire time "She must be tense…it's probably her first incursion, she`ll want to prove herself to the other court mages." He pondered.
Almost an hour went by with no contact from the teams that went inside, "It's been too long already… someone should have returned by now" thought the boy.
With the arrival of more men from the bottom of the mountain, Bhalrom was already putting together a search party to go after them in the mine.
Riou suddenly felt a shiver… The sun would take a couple of hours to set but the light of the day was not that bright anymore, and precisely because of that he noticed something at the entrance of the cave… looking with attention he noticed the darkness there was not entirely natural, and had already taken more of the entrance than it should. "As the daylight is getting weaker the darkness inside is beginning to come out… this is bad, something happened."
Riou quickly stood up and without thinking he immediately rushed towards the entrance of the mine.
While he ran, he reached for his dagger on the back, and holding it with an inverted grip he disappeared into darkness inside the cave.
Seeing that the knight shouted in anger – "Prepare to follow that damn boy! Assemble immediately!"
Inside the mine, the light from outside did not reach until its end. As Riou was walking further inside it got darker at every step, no sound could be heard coming from the inside. As there was no wind, the silence there was almost maddening. The first impression of the entrance was that it was big, the sensation of the air and the echoing of his footsteps told him that it was wide and with a lot of height to the ceiling, much bigger than the light from the entrance allowed him to see. Many big rocks and stone pillar formations could be seen nearby. "It seems they build this mine on a cave…" Concluded the boy while looking around. He walked forward, entering the darkness with his dagger in his right hand in front of him. He was cautious to only walk forward where the light of the entrance still reached his surroundings… with attention to all his senses he proceeded, as he sensed something was not right.
In his rush he forgot to bring a torch with him but before he could turn back to look for one he noticed movement to his right. Amidst the dark veil he was certain something big was moving as the shades of black changed to the side of his sight, as if a shadow was cast at it, turning it darker.
Quickly glancing at the location he could not tell what or where it was now, but something was moving nearby, and what really caught his attention was that it did so without making a sound. There were small rocks and dust on the floor, anything walking on it would make a noise. And that realization put him on edge. "I'm not alone in here…" He then quickly burst a flame on his left hand to illuminate the ambient, trying to catch a glimpse of what was moving nearby.
The light quickly illuminated his surroundings in a burst that lasted a couple of seconds, but to his surprise or to fuel his fears, nothing could be seen… it was all empty, only rocks, pillars and their shadows flickering side to side by the light of the flame, nothing there was big enough to hide a man.
With caution, he walked a few more steps and stopped at the limit of the entrance's light, his breathing was the only thing he could hear. He tried to force his sight to see anything that could be lurking in the dark but to no avail, he began to look around him.
It was at that moment, that he noticed in the corner of his eye, towards the entrance, a quick glimpse of a figure crossing the opening… a dark, slim humanoid form with long arms… the sight send shivers down his entire body, and it was very close to where Bhalrom and his men were showing up.
• "GET BACK!" Shouted the boy to them – "DO NOT ENTER!" he added from the top of his lungs towards the entrance where the soldiers stopped, perplexed by his reaction.
The soldiers despite the warning still stepped forward to see better inside the mine, and since they were still at the entrance they were lucky enough to not be attacked… but the shadow cast by their bodies blocking the light, instantly engulfed Riou who was left completely in the dark.
The stillness of his surroundings was truly scary and so he instinctively created a wide layer of mana around him as an extension of his senses. At the very moment it was formed he felt something sharp coming toward his chest… by reflex he raised his dagger to intercept it.
The clash was vicious and powerful, it would have ripped him apart, had he not defended. Riou lost balance for a moment and had to step back to regain it. Without thinking he pointed his left hand to the entrance without losing his focus to his surroundings and shot his mana with a force push effect at the soldiers to throw them outside of the cave all at once.
The light quickly took its place again shedding a light at the boy and his attacker.
Riou saw a humanoid body made of shadows, holes instead of eyes and no mouth, his unnatural elongated arms, legs and fingers… made him feel uneasy, giving the creature a very tall stature and a long reach for his thin four shadowy fingers…
The light clearly bothered it, not to the point of hurt as no reaction to that regard could be seen, it was more a matter that Riou was able to see it than the light itself that bothered the creature, and it quickly disappeared inside the darkness a moment after being revealed.
"Shadow monsters" Realized the boy drawing one of his short swords with his left hand, he condensed his mana to create an energy ball on its tip, it was a sphere smaller than a coin, but was very bright and illuminated everything around him to the very walls of the cave, much more powerful than any torch.
Once again, no enemy could be seen, but Riou knew better than that.
"They are hiding in the shadows, behind the pillars and rocks… as they have no physical body they can easily fit in any shadow… I must be careful and quickly find the mages before the nightfall, I don't even want to think about this things roaming free outside the mine at night."
Riou was using his short sword as a torch in his left hand and keeping his dagger ready in the right hand. He began to drive away the shadows and continued his path towards the darkest parts of the mine.
Passing by a narrow square corridor he reached a new opening inside the mine, it was smaller than the entrance and had fewer rocks and pillars… Riou could see a path to the right that seemed made of natural cave formation and another to the left carved by the miners… "This damn mine was really built inside a cave… now with two paths to go, the question is, were they dumb enough to split up here?" He thought to himself, pondering the mages actions
"Chances are they were… they were lured here as they thought there was no danger… and surely split up to cover more ground… all that planning and mighty attitude for nothing… probably Ursula's group went on one side while the other two groups went to the other… dammit… this will complicate things…"
Riou rushed his steps choosing the left side first… another narrow mine corridor with old wooden beams to hold the ceiling that led towards another smaller opening, it was made by the miners and still had old crates and mining equipment lying around, it seemed like he was getting near that branch's end, so Riou kept going.
"The mages had torches and certainly knew light spells, so they should have been fine if they were cautious…."
Before Riou could conclude his thoughts he found fresh blood on the ground, it was a big pool as if a body was completely pierced and dragged from that position… bleeding profusely marking the ground with more than just drips… "Whoever was hit… did not survive" concluded the boy by the amount of blood he was seeing. Following the blood trail he was lead towards the right wall from the corridor, behind a crate, he found the corpse… it was laying down as if had been thrown with tremendous force towards the wall, blood spatter could be seen everywhere from the impact. The body was almost severed in half, a deep horizontal cut in his stomach that almost detached the torso from the lower body, the blood loss was fatal and he probably died before reaching this place, marks of 4 punctures could be seen on the right shoulder.
The facial expression it held still showed the terror he felt in his last moments…
"Ursula team went this way" He thought turning away from the body, it was the mage named Alec.
His mind was preparing for the imminent fight. "These are no ordinary monsters… they are intelligent humanoids… luring and ambushing both groups separately, somehow they are able to kill even when someone is protected by light… and if that's the case, this light of mine will not help me much longer" thought the boy looking at his light source, when another realization hit him "If these monsters were put here to ambush us as part of the trap… someone must be nearby controlling them…"
Didn't take long for him to find more bodies, it was the two soldiers, both killed in the same strike, as the slash began from one body to precisely continue to the other in a diagonal from the top left of the left body, to the bottom right of the other, they were lying on the floor near another corridor.
Riou without losing time began to rush in, it was a very long corridor, and at its very end he could see a beam of light coming from the ceiling. It was a square opening, probably created for renewing the air in the mine, through it a dim light shined through, and shedding the dark veil on its surroundings.
Riou dismissed his improvised torch as he approached the light source cautiously.
A few steps behind the breathing hole, was the end of the corridor, he noticed a red glow coming from where the light touched the ground "More blood"… following its trail with his eyes, Riou saw, sitting down at the darker corner, with its back leaned towards the end wall, a headless body… it was covered by blood and seemed to be struck with a clean strike, causing the body to just fall down on itself, ending up in that position.
Riou concluded it was Barbara's body, as standing against the wall to its right and in the brighter corner, with her back against the end wall for support was Ursula, very injured and bleeding from her head, left arm and torso, she was breathing heavily, clearly exhausted from a fight and the blood loss… She was still holding her right palm pointed towards the corridor and with only her right eye open, as the blood was running on top of the left one, preventing her from using it to see clearly. Her arm was shaky, clearly showing the signs of her exhaustion.
• "Ursula!" Shouted Riou approaching her…
• "Don't come or the darkness will come back!" screamed the mage… - "This is the only way to fight them stay clear from the corridor!"
Ursula was using the narrow corridor to help her aim, looking for more details he noticed the scorch and black marks on the rocks nearby. She was using fire to engulf the corridor in an attempt to fight the Shadows. She probably was attacked and cornered there, and desperately maintained her fire spells for long periods of time in an attempt to keep the shadows at bay. "She won't last long with this approach" thought Riou looking how exhausted she was.
Her plan would have worked for a while, but she failed at the moment she was trapped and cornered in that position. She had nowhere to run… it was only a matter of time for her to collapse, and when that happened she'd be done for… he knew he could not leave her alone as she was at her limit already.
• "Calm down, you need to rest… you will faint if you keep this up." Said the boy approaching her
• "You don't understand… the darkness will come back if you come here, and I will hit you if you stay there. Move away or I will have no choice!" She shouted trying to advert the boy that did not care for her warnings and continued his approach.
The air got colder as a soft gust of wind passed by from the opening Riou just came by…
And a moment after Riou was already shrouded in a haze of darkness that even the daylight from the breathing hole couldn't pierce.
He desperately tried to ignite a fire on his hand, strangely, he could only feel its heat as no light could be seen from it. As if a black thick fog blocked everything.
Immersed in complete and utter darkness, his sense of sight was completely gone.
Immediately after the darkness fell, heat began to come from the direction where Ursula was, Riou quickly brought up his left hand to that direction in an upward movement he erected a mana barrier just a step away from him that completely sealed the corridor between him and Ursula, a moment later it was formed he heard the sound of fire engulfing and raging against his barrier.
"I must admit, she is a woman of her word…"
The enemy wouldn't take long to attack him, now that the fire didn't kill him, the shadows would soon attack. So he tried to concentrate his mana in his eyes which quickly began to tingle, it was a bad feeling and bothered him greatly. Soon a faint violet glow began to form in front of him. His sight was being affected and changed to other kinds of light lengths, he was now able to see violet shades glowing and taking shape in his surroundings, the darkness transformed into shades of violet, red and white
• - "As I thought, not all kinds of light are blocked…" he said to himself satisfied with the result he achieved – "But this tingling feeling inside my eyes… is horrible" he thought containing himself from scratching his eyeballs.
Seeing no enemy nearby, he sheathed his dagger and short sword once again. He gave a quick look behind to see the fire still raging against his barrier, it was colored very differently than usual, and different shapes formed than the ones he was used to see, probably because of the different wave lengths.
"She has stamina, that's no small amount of mana she is spending" thought the boy while watching the fire's intensity and volume. He then turned towards the entrance where he came from… noticing a few shadow beings making their way towards him through the long corridor. There were three of them and they were taking large steps with their long limbs, covering great distances with each step, they were fast…
Riou pointed his index finger towards the approaching monsters and smiled to himself
• "You may not have noticed yet… but I can now see you lurking in the dark… all lined up in this dark corridor" he spoke to the shadows - "Let me give you some light"
The beings were smart enough to notice the boy's intentions, and prepared to dodge the projectile, being made of shadow, they would be able to thin up at will and dodge anything.
Suddenly a beam of bright white light appeared in front the boy's finger and instantly passed through the monsters that were lined up, light was not a projectile, it was simple too fast for them to dodge… and as a being made of shadow there was no knockback or impact. They immediately began to rush towards the boy once more as if nothing had happened.
But the light that seemed to have just passed through them left a small hole that quickly began to expand emitting a light of its own on its outer ring where it entered in contact with the shadow. It was rapidly consuming their body, and by the time they were a step away from the boy the last piece of them disappeared.
The darkness still persisted, despite having finished the monsters, which made Riou think "There are still more of them…"
He turned back to Ursula as he noticed the flame dissipating, she was not able to stand anymore and clearly had spent all her forces.
He quickly ran towards her, putting her arm around his shoulders he helped her to stand up.
• "It's you?" Asked the mage puzzled by the touch and help, she was still blinded by the darkness...
• "Hold on, I will take you out of here" replied the boy.
• "But how are you alive? The fire and the shadows… I thought you'd be dead by now… how can you see?" questioned the surprised mage recognizing the boy's voice, she did not understand how that was possible.
• "Now is not the time to think about that, let's go, I need to get you out of here" Said the boy to calm her down.
• "Wait, we need to find Lilly! She might be hurt" Said the mage who walked while leaning on the boy with some difficulty.
• "You are useless now, and I can't do much while having to drag you around. You get out so I can safely search for the others." Answered the boy seriously.
Understanding her position the mage went silent… - "They all died?" she asked…
Riou kept silent…
• "…" she was about to speak once again, but restrained herself, she understood what that silence meant… and her steps began to slow down…
• "We really don't have time for this…" he said pumping up his body with mana, and putting her over his shoulder
Ursula was surprised by the boy's strength. She couldn't see how fast they were moving, but by the way she felt the movement of his body she could tell it was not normal.
Riou quickly made his way back through the dark mine to the entrance, now that the enemy was known and that he could see their movements with ease he sped up. "I should have thought of this spell earlier… it would have saved a lot of time." He realized.
The darkness spell was very wide and extended almost to the entrance. Riou kept his hands ready to shoot at any sight of danger, but to his surprise there were no other monster on the way back and he reached the entrance with Ursula.
• "I can see the entrance" said the mage as her eyes were again able to see light. Riou put her down near it and once again helped her outside.
Covering his eyes with his arm to avoid the excess clarity from the outside, as the spell intensified his vision to other light waves, going into this bright ambient hurt his eyes badly.
Outside the soldiers were dispositioned in a concave line of two rows of soldiers, and were waiting for whatever could come out of the mine with spears ready. Once Riou came out with Ursula they relaxed and Bhalrom came with a few men to get the injured mage.
• "Bring her to the side so someone can tend to her wounds…" Said Bhalrom to the soldiers who approached her taking her from the boy who had his eyes covered.
• "Lilly, we need to find her!" Said the mage once more looking at the knight and then searching for the boy.
Bhalrom as well turned to look at the boy to scold him, but to his surprise he was already gone.
• "Damn brat… he went into the mine again?" He said angered. Turning towards Ursula.
• "What happened inside?" He asked the exhausted mage.
• "Shadow Fiends ambushed us…" She said with a sad tone
His eyes widened and his stern appearance showed a deep concern. Despite how uncommon that enemy was, Bhalrom in his early days had encountered such enemy when he participated in an incursion against a high mage of Argos, he and all his squad worked as support for the mages, just like the soldiers that went in the mine this time did. That day half his squad died at the hands at one of these fiends.
He knew well enough against what they were up to, he also knew that all the soldiers would die if they were to fight inside that damn mine…
• "The boy survived once… he might as well do it again…" Said the knight looking at the sky, measuring how much day light was left as the sun already began its way towards the horizon, he then turned to his men
• "First Army! We have a dire situation at hand, bring everything you can find that burns… we need a fire at the entrance of this mine if we wish to survive the nightfall!" he shouted with his potent voice. – "Our best chance is to defend here! If the boy does not return until the fire cannot light the entrance anymore, we will collapse it!"
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