Chapter Thirty-Four: The Prisoner

THIRTY-FOUR

It took them an hour to show up. An hour for Roan to sit there with all his thoughts swirling around about what Taoya had told him. By the time Darren showed up with the rest of the strike team, Roan was a ball of anxiety. He looked over the group as they walked in and immediately thought of the best way to fight and escape them.

It was composed mostly of the group that Taoya had come in with, the eight of them all lean fighters armed with high-quality weapons. Moira was in the rear of the group with one of the rusted swords carefully tucked into her wide robe belt. Darren was there with a few others that he didn’t recognize, but Roan didn’t see Tyler.

“Her talent must be very exhausting if she’s not joining this.” Roan nodded to them as they drew close to each other. Darren took the lead as he always did while roan did a final count of everyone there. Fourteen of them not including Roan. It would take one-hundred and fifty shards to have created enough amulets for all of them, which wasn’t many, but with how many had been sold it was surprising that they had managed to find this many.

“We don’t know what we’re facing, but this has to be where the final one-hundred anomalies are. We finish this quest and I can only assume that there’s going to be a nice reward for our work. No heroics, save your aces until I call for it. Whatever has corrupted this life force is down here. Get ready for a level boss. A real one and not one of those fake ones that guarded the saferooms,” Darren said. Everyone nodded along as if they knew what this was about while Roan stood there without moving.

“Only one who isn’t a sect member or a college student. Even that weirdo Jared is here,” Roan thought to himself.

“Eveyrone, this is Roan. He’s been one of our best association members. He’s going to take the lead,” Darren said and Roan felt his stomach clench. He didn’t mind being in the lead, but so soon after turning down Taoya’s proposal it felt strange.

“Follow me then,” Roan said, the words falling flat and empty out of his mouth as he turned and started down the tunnel. Darren was right behind him, only a step or so behind.

“I’ve gone down most of the route. There’s not too far to go before you can see where it’s resting,” Darren whispered.

“See what?” Roan whispered back.

“I don’t know. It was a shadowy shape in the back of a massive hall. There was a ton of the anomalies in between me and it though and I didn’t want to aggro them. It’s clear walking until then though,” Darren said.

“Still stay alert. You can’t trust them.” Roan kept his eyes locked on the floor, seeing if there were any types of traps. Floor plates, trip wires, pitfalls, anything that would slow them down as they entered the level’s final challenge. There hadn’t been anything like it so far, but the moment he relaxed and didn’t check he was going to find himself dying to a trap.

It took several minutes to work their way through the passage. The hallway was full of flickering lights of torches and candles. Shadows loomed deeper and deeper as they walked until Roan struggled to see. The continual push of corrupted life energy increased. His amulet grew hotter and hotter until his skin burned, but Roan didn’t stop.

The hall shifted slowly, the walls widening out. A caustic green glow emanated from the depths of the blackness. With every step he got closer the glow grew brighter, showing him the hidden width of what he realized was a wide bowl.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Stone shifted to loamy earth in one step to the next. Roan paused as he looked around himself, trying to find any sign of the anomalies that Darren had said would be guarding the area.