Chapter 9

Lucas watched with breathless rapture as Caleb descended upon the monsters. He hadn’t even touched the majority of them and they’d fallen still as if stricken with sudden heart attacks. Lucas himself could feel his pulse pounding in his ears, a pressure weighing down on his shoulders, choking him as if Caleb himself were physically squeezing his windpipe. What power was this? To bring his enemies to their knees without even laying a finger on them. Even the troll, level seventeen, was barely able to stand against him.

He swallowed heavily as the pressure relented and he could once again move, breath, and think. The others around appeared to have felt much the same thing – Tyler’s eyes had rolled back in his head. Like their bodies had frozen upon locking eyes with a hungering beast. It was unsettling. It was… powerful.

He wanted that power. For himself. He’d craved power and authority, always had. If someone like Caleb – a strange, antisocial loner – had gotten such strength, what was stopping Lucas? Nothing. That was what.

In this new world, the elite got to the top by fighting, by killing. Lucas was no stranger to brutality – the brutality of corporate life. He’d ruthlessly worked his way up the chain fast, stepped on the people he needed to, abused every connection his father had, pulled and clawed and climbed his way to success. And he was more than willing to do it all over again. Especially if that was the reward instead of just a larger office and higher salary.

All he had to do was find the biggest, baddest, strongest enemy he could, and slide a knife in their neck. And right now, he was staring right at that enemy. And they were already starting to bleed.

But he couldn’t do it now. Not yet. Tonight. When the man was sleeping and defenseless, then he’d have his opportunity.

First, he needed to get the hell out of this cold.

***

It took them around three more hours of grueling hiking to get to the blue mountain plaza. Not grueling for Caleb – it was really quite easy, but for everyone else. By the time they stepped out of the wind and into the mountain, Caleb feared they might not make it.

He ushered them into the crystal map room as it was the furthest from outside and the bitter wind, and they huddled together in the corner, blue-lipped and shivering. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much warmer in here than it was outside. He’d have to do something or freezing to death would be a very real possibility for all four of them.

“Stay here,” he said after watching them for a few seconds. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” Lucas’s words came out clipped, teeth chattering with every syllable.

“To keep all of you alive.” Caleb ducked out of the room, ignoring Lucas’s protests as they echoed through the frigid chamber. He stepped outside and inhaled a deep breath of chilly mountain air through his nostrils. The snow muffled all sound. It was silent outside, stay for the hollow sound of Lucas complaining, but that soon disappeared as well. God, he loved the stillness. Just him and nature.

But he couldn’t sit around and enjoy it right now. There were low leveled people he had to keep alive. Caleb went around the plaza, gathering each and every slain boggart’s spear. It only took him a few minutes and by the end of it, both his arms and his spectral arms were completely filled.

Nearly three dozen four foot long shafts of wood, about an inch thick. Should be plenty to fuel a fire long enough to warm their bones and fight off the deadly cold.

Caleb walked back inside, arms loaded, and dumped his collection on the ground.

“Spears?” Lucas asked, disappointed. “Are we supposed to stab the cold out of us?”

Caleb eyed him. “You want to give it a try? Be my guest.”

Lucas glared, but sat back and said nothing more. Each and every one of them looked in awful shape. Even Chloe, who until not long ago, didn’t appear that affected by the cold.

Caleb sat down on the ground and grabbed two spears, summoning his spirit arms – you never realise how much you’re missing out on with just two arms until you have four. He could feel all eyes on him. One spear was laid on the cold stone floor, held in place by his two real hands. The other was grasped within a spectral fist, held perpendicularly above. He placed the butt end of the vertical spear on the side of the horizontal one, then twisted.

The sheer overwhelming strength of his hands created a powerful sawing sound as the two pieces of wound rubbed against one another. A sizzle of smoke snaked up and a circular burn appeared on the wood as if it had been stamped by a cigarette. He twisted it again, then again, rubbing his hands back and forth, spinning it so fast that it started to blur.

In seconds, the thin streak of pale grey smoke had blossomed into a smattering of crackling embers. Caleb grabbed another spear, snapped it in two, and laid it over the baby flame as he started to gently blow on it. Fire.

When he’d finished, and his fear of the burgeoning warmth dying faded, he looked up to see everyone else gathering in close around him. They stuck their arms out, hands spread wide, trying to get their bare skin as close to the open flame as they could. All was silent but the crackle and pop of wood as their eyes sparkled with the dancing orange and yellows.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

The odds of them all surviving the Dungeon were still pitiful – especially Tyler – but at least they wouldn’t freeze to death now.

Caleb pushed himself to his feet. He had no need of the fire to keep warm, his body’s constitution was more than capable of handling that in its own now. “Don’t let it die,” he said. “I’ll try and come back within twenty four hours. I recommend you stay here and keep a couple spears unburned in case any monsters wander their way in here.”

“Wait, you aren’t staying here?” Lucas asked, a flicker of frustration passing over his features.

“No offense, but I have more important things to do.”