XXXIV

  Waiting in the Dark

  A deep breath shuddered through my lungs.

  ‘They sensed me?’

  These things had better senses than their originals.

  [Scorn - lvl. 16]

  [Scorn - lvl. 16]

  ‘And a higher level…how is that even possible?’

  Saber stepped into the middle of the path now that the need for hiding was gone.

  Guttural sound waves more dreadful than any the drake had released in life smashed against the walls and dug into my bones like a thousand needles.

  My heart paused in my chest. It might be better to—

  Saber’s fur bristled. But not in fear. Embers sprouting from his crown blazed. Jaw muscles rippled underneath the skin.

  My heart shocked back into rhythm. ‘His presence is strong. Much stronger…’

  That made it possible. But I should still get a harpy in the field to use my other abilities.

  Shard energy coalesced over my finger. Saber whirled on me right as I began to paint, and his fiery gaze froze the energy over my finger.

  The dead barrelled through the corridor.

  Saber squatted so the floor cracked under the pressure of his nails, then launched forwards.

  I blinked. Twice. Only then did my breathing continue. Without fully understanding why, I let the shard energy dissipate and pulled Red Fang from its sheathe.

  ‘This guy wants to kill me.’

  Nothing else made sense.

  Yet I rushed forwards.

  Though Nala could still run, the lion’s head hung at an awkward angle which didn’t allow it to bite. Saber’s claws helped the poor creature solve its predicament, but the spirit beast couldn’t handle my summon’s emergency surgery. The undead slammed against the wall and its head rolled.

  It scrambled to its feet not a second later to join its master in charging.

  The Black Fang disciple’s molten trousers were plastered on his bones—bones which had turned brittle and made him run like a drunkard smashing against every obstacle in sight. But he still had a weapon and one good arm. Throwing with his entire weight behind him, the disciple’s axe curved through the air in an attempt to split Saber’s skull.

  The boy missed, but I didn’t get to watch Saber’s counterattack.

  Empty eye sockets leaking blood stared through my soul before a column of fire ripped from the drake’s mouth.

  I leapt off the wall and soared over the technique. The drake was still firing at the air when I landed.

  My brow rose. ‘It’s slow.’

  Whatever was animating it must be using spiritual senses to track me. The same senses which were muted in this place.

  Well, all the better for me, I supposed.

  Essence condensed in my legs. Using agility may not be possible…but there was always the good old enhancement! I shot forwards and cleared the distance, the beast’s fire trailing after me. Red Fang’s edge carved through the drake’s back leg, making its flames fire at the floor. But the fires kept pouring.

  Whirling around, I placed Red Fang’s tip through the top of the skull. Two deft flicks of the wrist splits its mouth. Only then did the fires go out.

  I breathed out. So not unkillable—

  Red Fang moved before my brain was conscious of the command. The tail bounded off steel instead of piercing my throat.

  The attack—even blocked—sent me careening against the wall.

  ‘Heavens be damned…can they die at all?’

  I stole a glance at the other side of the fight, where Saber sheared through one of the boy’s legs. The Black Fang already lacked both his arms and the lower side of his jaw. Yet he remained moving just as his companions.

  A blur at the corner of my sight made me duck. Sparks flew as the weapon-like tail of the drake slammed into the wall right over my head.

  ‘We have to get out of here.’

  Fighting them was useless if they couldn’t die. Perhaps if I had a summon with a breath attack of its own, but cutting at them piece by piece would take too much time. Someone was bound to have heard those roars just now, and they may not be allies.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Saber! We’re getting out of here!”

  He growled but didn’t disengage.

  I slapped a follow-up strike of the tail off-course and dismantled the drake’s remaining leg for its trouble. The creature didn’t cry. Spraying blood was the only evidence I had struck anything at all.

  “Saber!”

  The summon ripped through Nala’s flank, opening the creature up from head stump to butt—if you’d shown me an image of the corpse as it was now, I doubt I would’ve recognised it as a lion—then he whirled on the disciple. The Black Fang was still crawling forwards despite lacking any means of attack. Saber’s claw tore through the air and slammed into his head. Once. Twice. The disciple’s skull cracked and imploded. Saber didn’t stop. Not even when blood and guts covered his fur and plumes of smoke escaped from his skin because of the boiling heat simmering within him.

  ‘What ferocity…’

  I knew fury increased his speed as he fought, but he hadn’t reached this level even in the fight against the herald. Was it a result of his tree growing?

  “Saber.”

  This time, my voice broke through the red haze glazing his eyes.

  ‘No,’ I thought to myself as our gazes locked. Most of this was still his fury skill. ‘I need to learn how to use it.’

  The pattern for it wasn’t complex, but something about the skill was eluding me.

  My summon returned to my side. What remained of the disciple and his companion were in no state to follow him. The drake tried to stand but similarly failed.

  ‘Let’s make this quick.’

  Essence drew towards my fingertip.

  Saber growled.

  “I’m absorbing the corpses, you tyrant! Can I at least do that?”

  His gaze narrowed…but his voice lowered.

  I huffed. My hands flourished and drew a portal for the branch of the cindertree…only no branch came out.

  My brow rose. ‘I can’t absorb them?’

  It wasn’t because I hadn’t weakened the beast enough either, for no matter how often I struck it, the shard didn’t flare.

  My lips pressed together. ‘That’s what I get for hesitating.’

  “Let’s go, Saber.”

  We rushed off, leaving the struggling undead behind us.

  The undead in wolf’s skin—more a ragged piece of cloth by now—pushed itself up, using its arm stumps as support.

  A being it instinctively knew to be part of it wriggled on the ground beside it. It was trying to get to its feet, but its body had lost too much integrity.

  Listless eyes scanned the area ahead, where a bigger corpse than them both snaked over the floor and spit flames. Their target was no longer there. Why was it still attacking?

  That’s when it spied the long and thin shadow slithering over the floor.

  The tongue-like appendage originated from a tunnel to their side. Lights in that part of the Tomb had winked out, leaving nothing but indiscriminate darkness. Reflexes innate to the body stirred and pupils narrowed. Darkness diluted to reveal the outline of a being, which was sitting on its hind legs yet filled half the passage. For some reason, the undead found its gaze drawn to the silhouette’s face. There, a clump of strands reminiscent of a mane writhed like worms.

  The undead couldn’t draw its eyes away from that detail. Not when the tongue wrapped around the drake to drag it into the shadows, or when that same tongue wrapped around its waist.

  Darkness grew closer and closer. Deeper and more unforgiving.

  “Na…la.”

  And then the undead became one with the shadows.

  Saber and I jogged through the tunnels. I kept the locator in my palm as we did.

  Though I’d bought dozens of locators, the ones linking our main party together were distinguishable from the rest. Three of my party already linked, merging their beacons and enhancing their signal.

  They weren’t moving though.

  ‘Must be waiting on the rest of us.’

  …Or they were dead. But I’d just have to figure that out first-hand.

  Now that their signal was stronger, I could easily tell if a tunnel was getting me closer or further away from the main group. Others in our party would find the same thing, so it was no surprise that I caught wind of another signal in the vicinity.

  Saber’s head whipped around as we reached an intersection. I peered. Someone was pushing their way through the fog. They stopped once they caught sight of me.

  “Tell me that’s you, Ashe.”

  “Raven?” I tried.

  Shoulders sagged and the boy jogged towards me. “I explain to you how happy I am to finally see a familiar face.”

  Flecks of blood clung to the bright yellow motives of his robe.

  My mouth opened…and closed. There was a spirit sitting on his shoulders. The two-headed bird bore resemblance to a raven.

  “Is that where you get your name from?” I said beside myself.

  He stroked the bird’s crown, which earned him two pecks, and the boy drew his hand back with a chuckle. “Phobos is a recent addition.”

  I wanted to ask where his name had come from, then, but there were more important matters to discuss.

  “Did your battle end in corpses?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I take it yours didn’t stay down either?”

  Beside me, Saber glared up at Phobos. Steam still rose from his fur where droplets of blood boiled and escaped into the air.

  I shook my head. “I couldn’t absorb them either. Whatever is controlling them has a tight hold on the bodies.”

  A rumble shooting through the earth from our rear interrupted his response.

  My forehead scrunched. Though the mist made it hard to see details, bright lights made clear the length of the path I’d travelled. Until they flickered and part of the tunnel went dark like someone had flipped a switch.

  “I suggest we do not figure out what did that,” Raven said.

  He brooked no disagreement from me.

  We charged through the tunnel, keeping an eye on our rear all the while. More lights winked out but luckily the phenomenon wasn’t quick enough to keep up with us.

  Checking the intersections also went faster now that we were two, and the signals grew closer than ever.

  ‘Almost there.’

  Reaching the others wouldn’t necessarily guard us from whatever was making the lights go out, but it would at least give us a chance to face it.

  “Do you think the other three are alright?”

  I blinked. “What do you mean?”

  “The remaining signals. They’re far away from us. And if they’re not ahead of us…”

  I glanced over my shoulder. Half of the tunnel had already gone dark.

  “They’re still moving,” I said. “They should be fine.”

  But then more than the living moved in this place.

  Another look back, then I added: “Let’s hope they’re fine.”

  Because searching for them with the lights on was already hard enough.

  The next intersection was a large open square with tunnels leading into it from all four directions. Strangely enough, the square was free of the low-hanging mist.

  “They’re down one of these,” Raven said.

  “I’ll check the left tunnel.”

  He went right, which left the tunnel directly opposite us if we both came back empty-handed. We rushed down our respective exits, which weren’t clear of mist, unlike the square.

  The signal from the beacon lessened before I took more than ten steps. I whirled around. And as I did, a shadow crouching in the fog rose to their full height.

  “Mother must be smiling upon me.”

  Red Fang cleared its scabbard before I recognised the voice. Glowing hot metal cut through the air and found its mark on pure chance.

  My flimsy counterattack was thrown aside in disgust. A hard rod slammed into my midriff. Breath pushed out of my chest as I flew backwards towards the entrance to the square. Instincts kicked in, barely allowing me to land on my feet and skirt to a halt.

  I threw up air and gleamed up through burning eyes.

  Muscles bulged underneath a mute grey robe. The cord hanging around my neck suddenly burned into my skin, making me sorely aware of the single fang hanging from a thread.

  Erri smiled and cracked her neck.

  If you want to support Ashborn, please check out my , where you can read up to 18 chapters ahead.