Bound Evil

Emily dove behind one of the unopened coffins as a sweltering wave of heat passed overhead. A thick coating of blood insulated her from the worst of the flames but it was still unpleasant.

The fire stopped when another arrow lodged into the ice surrounding the specter's neck. Making use of the opening, Emily swiped up with a crescent projectile of blood. The specter tried to block but its shield was still contending with the other member's projectiles. The blood cut directly through the specter’s arm, separating it from the main body and dropping it to the floor. Another wail graced the vaulted ceilings and Emily laughed as she ducked behind the coffin again. In response, the specter created a series of flame darts with its remaining hand. Emily’s eyes widened as it launched them at the people furthest from it.

The damned thing had somehow known to go for their backline.

Without the time to react Emily could only watch as the dozen or so bolts smacked into their people.

However, Ashe intervened and moved to block. Placing a hand over the back of her neck she made two rapid gestures, causing the lid of one of the nearby coffins to lift and move into place blocking the darts of flame. Cracks splintered through the stone obstruction but it held.

Wailing in frustration the specter prepared another series of attacks, but it had completely forgotten about Emily.

Jumping over the coffin, she launched a tendril of blood at the back of the specter and connected directly with the prismatic gem at the back.

Emily’s blood immediately started to freeze, but she used this to her advantage to yank the stone from its home on the creature’s spinal column. It held on for only a second before dislodging and flying towards Emily. The specter’s fire dissipated and like a marionette with its strings cut, the thing fell to the ground. Shattering into countless shards of ice and bone. Emily encased the gem in blood before it froze solid.

She was just about to jump up to take in the room when a wave of life force hit her. But unlike all the previous ones, this energy came with an incredible feeling of wrongness. It was as though someone had poured a glass of ice water into her veins. Goosebumps littered Emily’s arms and legs as a cold breath escaped her body.

The life force was potent, worth almost twice that of a human, but the painful case of brain freeze that followed was downright unpleasant.

Able to take in her surroundings again she saw Kael still fighting the other specter. Interestingly, if this thing had been living it would have been dead a dozen times over.

But as Emily had seen with the arrows, piercing weapons were at a significant disadvantage against these creatures.

They had begun diverting the specter’s attention so that Alex or Selia could get in close enough, but this one seemed well-versed in fending off multiple opponents. It relied heavily on its large shield to block the incoming attacks. Its reactions seemed super-human, in that it only let through non-lethal attacks.

Kael must have lost his patience because he dove in for another attack and never backed off. Stabbing, parrying, and ramming his spear against the creature, his arms seemed to lengthen and twist in ways no human with bones should be able to manage—a trick of the light, Emily thought. Each strike echoed louder in the tomb, forcing the specter back. Soon, even the shield couldn't keep up with the speed and intensity Kael was unleashing.

The Specter’s footing collapsed and it staggered backward. Capitalizing on that, Kael drove the spear through the throat of the creature and stabbed it through the gem in its spinal column. Just before the specter got hit, it let go of its mace and tried to grab hold of Kael, but Selia cracked her new whip, knocking its bony claw aside.

When the prismatic gem shattered, so too did the specter. Emily braced for the cold to come but still shivered when it arrived.

A curse went up from Kael as he stared at the shard of bone and crystal.

“Alright, good job everyone! Take five!”

While everyone rested Emily headed over to Ashe.

“Hey, girl. How did even you manage to cast down here?”

Ashe looked sheepish.

“I only said for you not to cast down here because you aren't skilled enough to control your wave method yet. Nox could probably control his intake but it will be too dangerous for you to try. More importantly, did you get the title stone? I wonder what they were.”

Emily indicated for Ashe to follow her as she made her way over to the coffin the magic-user had risen from.

“Throu’rack Venser, loyal to the empire of the north.

Cause of death: honorable duel

Title: Fireborn”

Ashe hummed as she read it out loud.

“I thought as much. This an older title but and good one. If you can find the right buyer for it you could make damn good money.”

As she said this Atticus arrived beside them keeping his voice low.

“Can I have that title stone please?”

Emily pursed her lips, she had a feeling she wouldn’t get away with it quietly but he couldn’t blame a girl for trying, right?.

“What do you mean? I earned this fair and square.”

Atticus snorted.

“I’m aware but your deal with us was that we retain all the spoils save for one item Alexander would specify. Is that the item you are picking?”

Emily pouted at the man but still hesitated to hand it over causing his shoulders to droop as he lowered his voice.

“Come, Emily, I’m trying to help you here. You don’t want to give Marth more reason to find fault with you. He’s already looking for something to take you down for.”

Emily’s eyes searched the people surrounding them and noticed Marth was indeed watching them closely.

She was about to speak when Kael walked past.

“Let her have it Atticus, she earned it and I have a feeling there's going to be plenty more where that came from.”

Atticus shrugged.

As it turned out, Kael was right. When Alex moved to a small lever near the coffins and flipped it, the door to the next room slid open. Inside, they were met with another coffin, which popped open like a jack-in-the-box.

Because of Alex's early warning and Kael's experience with now fighting these things, they killed the specter with little difficulty, managing to get the title stone this time. This one was a Juggernaut so Kael seemed happier as he ripped out the gem lodged in its spine.

It was an incredibly versatile title even in the current day. It seemed that whatever empire these corpses were from contained a large amount of this title.

When Emily had asked, Ashe had said it was common for a city or even an empire to choose a couple of titles to focus on for their military. It made for an easier time training their forces.

It was when they stepped out of the second chamber they encountered something new. A fork in the road leading into two different rooms. Alex had been beside Gerade when he called for everyone to stop.

Dropping down to one knee Alex inspected the thresholds to each room. At first, Emily didn’t notice what he was looking for, but then she spotted the faintest trail of runes engraved into the floor. She hadn’t spotted it at first because so much dust had fallen into the groves, but a single breath revealed their lines.

Alex studied them for a second and took a step back.

“I recommend the left path, the right is a trap.”

“Oh? So it's a dead end?” Kael looked interested in the right path

Alex shook his head.

“Not necessarily, but if we go through this path, the runes are set to close off the room and banish all the air inside. We’ll suffocate in seconds.”

Kael along with everyone else frowned at the room’s threshold with significantly more caution than before.

Emily had to admit it was a brutally efficient trap.

“Come we should keep going. We are not even close to the next level.” Alex muttered

“How many levels are we talking here?” Atticus asked.

“Hmm, if we count the entrance as the first, then four in total. It's most probably set out to follow a cast system. Citizens, soldiers, nobility, and royalty. Each one will be harder than the last with far more dangerous titles appearing”

Kael suddenly stopped Alex with a hand on his shoulder.

“Wait… you’re saying there could be royal titles here?”

Kael was staring at Alex with a keen light in his eyes, unlike any Emily had seen before.

Alex’s lips tightened into a thin line but he nodded.

“It's a definite possibility. Just so we’re clear… if there is, Emily and I aren’t interested in those so they’re yours. But I would heavily recommend against fighting the specter that protects it. The likelihood of us all dying to an entity like that is high.”

Kael’s brow twitched, but he looked more subdued.

“Thanks for the reminder. Shall we be going?”

Alex’s eyes lingered on Kael before they moved down into the safer room.

They encountered three more rooms with specters in them, all of which they managed to get the gems from. A single title stone was said to start at five squares and that was for incredible common titles like Farmer. The combat titles they had gotten so far weren't less than a few pentagons.

Though the Juggernaut was significantly more sought after than Fireborn as it was more universal. So far they’d only come across these two rewards, but that changed when they started finding coinage in some of the coffins along with other trinkets. It would sell for a fair bit of money if they brought it back to a city. One of their people checked the cobalt purity and found each coin to hold the equivalent value as a tri. Basically, they had only just stepped into the tomb, but the wandering fangs had already made a fair amount of money.

People were still reeling from the treasures they’d found when Alex froze in front of the door to the next room.

Emily immediately went on high alert scouring every corner of the room. she could feel something coming from the coffin, but it felt weak like the specters that had yet to awaken. Frowning she looked toward Alex who was still looking around the room carefully, then against her expectations he took a step in. Emily was ready for something to happen but when it didn’t, she sighed in relief.

Following Alex into the room, their numbers slowly spread out.

“Okay, this might well be a good place to set up a fallback position. There are no traps and the specter isn’t developed enough to emerge. Or it would have attacked us already.”

“You’re certain?” Atticus said as he glanced around the room.

“As certain as I can be.” As he said this he finished another sweep of the room.

“If we get lost, we reconvene here. We may have to do some backtracking so it'll be good to set up places like this”

Kael hummed.

“Alright, we’ll clear the next room and set up flags so that our people know the way back. Where’s my Pathkeeper?”

The next room turned out to contain two more Fireborn and while their spells were dangerous they were far easier to kill again than Juggernauts. The room split off into three separate directions but this time Beth stepped forward. Placing her hand against the wall a large green flag appeared there as though someone had dyed the stone a forest hue.

Beth then backtracked into the ‘safe room’ and put one there too. It was like following a trail of green breadcrumbs.

Up until now, the paths had been pretty linear, save for a few binary choices. But as they progressed further, Emily started to realize this place was more of a labyrinth than a tomb.

This was made clear when they arrived at a room that gave even Alex pause.

Blood points: 98