Chương 32: [LD-1] 31. Whispers of Death

XXXI Whispers of Death Alexa leaned against the wall, blade held out at her side. Her gaze swept our party once, then she nodded. I'm rooting for you, Master! Kil yelled. Shota's technos raced around the corner and fired. A hob's roar crashed off the walls a mere moment later and cut through the inner voice in my mind. My palms tightened around Cull's handle. I cleared the bend and rushed into view— Char burst forth faster than I did. His body shadowed me, and he stopped an arrow from entering my throat. I blinked.

I hadn't ordered him to do that. My gaze flicked to the side, where Kil was hiding within the undergrowth. His single eye was laser-focused on the battle. Leave it to me, Master! Focus on your training. A soft smile pulled onto my lips. One of the hobgoblins charged Alexa. A single flick of her blade cut off its arm.

"Joy, second one is yours!" she yelled, then ducked out of the way of the archers. Shota's technos soared toward the backline. I turned in front. The hob was already staring at me. Whether these beasts had true intelligence was not clear to me—Rhaast was obviously an exception—but the hob lifted its club as if it'd understood what Alexa had said. Rage whirled within its eyes—anger at what we had done to its companion. [Hobgoblin - lvl. 11] Breath escaped through pursed lips.

'The essence of combat…' Douglas was in the back defending Emily, so we had no frontline besides Alexa and myself. The President stepped away from me to create space. Air distorted around the hob, and the ground trembled underneath its advance.

'A skill.' Until now, not a single grunt or hob had used a skill. Was it because of its level? One step suddenly equalled two; the distance between us closed faster than I expected. My chest tightened.

'He's too fast.' I needed to use my barrier to stop his momentum— Cold was the steel in my hands. So cold that it jabbed into my bones and loosened the knot in my torso. A thought firing through my brain too fast for me to process saw me take half a step back in a slight arc. The club slipped in front of my nose and slammed into the floor, sending clouts of earth and plant material flying. Eighteen-hundred repetitions was nothing. Not enough for a movement to become second nature.

However, the memories of last night were close at hand, and I could feel the scythe's handle rake over my rugged skin. Cull's tip descended in an arc. The goblin's gaze widened, diluting the ugly pool of anger in its eyes. It leaned out of the way of the blow, so I barely nicked its chin. A thin trail of blood followed my weapon, but the beast grinned. I'd missed, so now it was his turn… Whatever intentions it had died in his throat as Cull suddenly switched directions and pierced its airway.

Fat fingers let go of the club without meaning to. The monster stepped back. Its knees buckled. If not for the hook Cull had on its throat, the beast would've collapsed. I dislodged the blade and pried off a piece of brain matter. My outside appearance was calm. But my heart was pounding in second gear.

'It happened again.' What was this? The voice Alexa mentioned? The soul of the Deathblade? Warm energy leeching from the weapon into my limbs made me look down. The weapon's edge gleamed.

"I didn't teach you that step back," Alexa whispered as she approached. Her glasses pointed at the blade.

"Are you hearing it again?"

"No. But I had a…hint." I had no better way of explaining it. She nodded like she understood me perfectly.

"You should pay attention to when these things happen." My head tilted.

"Hearing your weapon's 'voice' is a matter of training, so my father said. For that, you need to know how to trigger it, or you cannot train effectively."

"It triggers when I'm killing…" I said. That was the obvious answer; the voice had only ever appeared during battle.

"Be more specific," she said.

"Does it happen whenever you kill anything? Does it only happen when your life is in danger? Those are two entirely different conditions." My chin turned the other way, and my eyes closed in thought. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

'She's right.' Memories of the warlock rushed back into my head. The cries of a dozen goblins drowning out all the sounds were on its tail. Green blood spilled at the end of the Cull's edge. Then there was a touch of cold. The caress of a frigid wind rolling down an icy mountain. And the flash of a robed figure sitting on a mountain of skeletons. Was it really just the killing? I looked down at the blade. Faintly, faint like a mumbled secret not meant for other ears, I could spot a haze around the weapon.

There was a shape inside the haze.

"Let's move on," Alexa said, ripping her blade out of a goblin's corpse.

"You can walk and think." I looked away from Cull and listened in on the conversation.

"Are you sure we should enter the tunnels?" Shota yawned. The boy had yet to lift a single finger during a fight, his drones doing all the fighting for him. Shota continued: "If anything comes out of the entrance to the third floor—""—we'll be trapped," Alexa finished.

"I know. But if we don't level, we're trapped, too. Just in another way." Shota paused, then shrugged with a huff.

"Don't blame me if you die." You, for he'd surely find a way to survive, cockroach that he was. By the time my attention returned to my blade, the shape in the haze was gone. I lifted the head and let the scythe balance on my shoulder.

'Be more specific,' I repeated. My forehead scrunched up. Char's cloth ruffled, and he came to hover in front of me. A void swirled behind his pupils.

"What is it, buddy?" I asked. Don't mind him, Master. He's just being clingy. I chuckled and rubbed the side of his featureless face.

"Worried about me, are you? Don't worry. I'll figure it out." HIs inside pulsed. I waved him away and ordered him into the front line next to Douglas.

"Kil, can you lead the way?" Alexa asked.

"That's the Great Kilrog for you!" he huffed.

"And I don't take orders from you." His words were big, but he floated ahead.

"Don't you get tired of such a mouthy summon?" Shota sneered.

"At least the new one doesn't speak." Here, his head tilted.

"Huh. He's like a better Douglas. Handy." The tank did not react to the comment and merely raised his shield. I shook my head, then followed Kil. Off to the side, the crater in the ground leading to the third floor lounged and waited for us to head inside. Above us, the entrances to the tunnels gaped like the maws of darkness.

"Does anyone prefer an exit?" Alexa asked.

"I'll trust your judgement," Emily smiled. Evans shuffled in place. Likely, the shy boy wanted nothing but to run back home. Seeing this, Shota scoffed.

"Let's just hurry up." The President turned to me. I pointed to an entrance on the left.

"Any particular reason?" Alexa asked.

"It's the one the bouncer barrelled out of. All they do is roll around, so we should be able to kill more of them easily and rack up experience." They had a shield skill, but that wouldn't matter before Alexa's swordsmanship. The President hummed.

"As good as anything, I guess." All of us had increased stats, yet the jump was still no more doable than it had been when I first got here. But now, we had Char. The summon naturally hovered over the floor because of its lack of feet, giving us a few inches. Moreover, a lot of the summon's strength was in its arms. It had no trouble boosting us. Evans was the only one who couldn't make the jump and reached just short of the entrance's ledge. Douglas caught him and hauled him up the final bit.

"You should've just stayed back in the cafeteria," Shota said. Evans chuckled at that.

"You're right." My lips pursed. Describing their relationship as toxic was an affront to all the teenagers being ignored on the daily. But there was nothing to be done. Evans was his second. If I spoke up and tried to help him, I might actually make things worse. The moment we made it out of this dungeon (a big if), they would be alone again, and Shota would take revenge for anything Evans did. He could even take it out on his family. I brushed Evans's shoulder, which made him jump.

"You're doing well," I whispered, then walked on. The tunnel was wide (it had to be, given what'd come through), allowing for both Char and Douglas to walk side-by-side. But the pathway was dark.

'There's not a lot of moss.' Which was strange. The growth was all over the dungeon. Why not here? Don't worry, Master! I've got just the thing for this! I raised an eyebrow. Before I could ask, the bond connecting me to Kil lit up. Then my sight adjusted, and I could see through the dark as I saw during the day. My eyes widened.

'You can see in the dark now?' His haughty laughter rumbled through my head. Amazing, am I not, Master? It's called Black Sight. I learned it after you reached level ten. And my sight isn't limited to just darkness! I can see miasma and other death-related elements, too.

'That's certainly handy. Will all the abilities you learn be shared between us?' Unfortunately not. The sharing is a special feature of this ability. I hummed. While Kil's ability helped me, it didn't aid the others. Luckily, Shota's technos produced some natural light that allowed them to see where they were going.

"Opening ahead," Douglas said.

"Everyone ready?" Alexa brandished her blade. I breathed in to answer— And choked. My god! What a fucking smell! Emily coughed and waved in front of her face.

"Are they keeping carcasses in here?" Shota pinched his nose, so his voice came out muffled.

"Goblins do not know the definition of sanitation. Be careful not to come into contact with anything." Which was the most thoughtful thing he'd said in the last two days. Probably in the last year. A chamber expanded once we exited the tunnel. We blinked.

"That's…" Evans trailed off.

"Big," I finished. The ceiling was so high up we must be inside a mountain.

"Bridge," Douglas noted.

"Looks stable enough." I peered past his wide shoulders. A great wooden structure connected the platform we were standing on to a wide column lined with torches, from which more bridges crawled out both horizontally and vertically, creating a giant network. There must've been hundreds of smaller entrances in the walls. A few of them were in one line with us.

'It wouldn't have mattered which entrance we picked.' All of them ended up here.

"Are we sure we should proceed?" Evans asked. This time, Shota did not reprimand him. Grunts were weak, sure. Hobgoblins we could defeat as a team with ease. But facing dozens of the little buggers at once? That wasn't possible. Especially not if a higher level goblin such as a warlock or bouncer entered the mix. … However, these tunnels couldn't all be occupied. I whispered: "The goblins stopped coming during the siege on the warlock."

Which either meant they'd called off the attack and retreated, or there weren't enough warriors. I doubted the former. They could've wiped us out if they'd thrown more bodies at us. A sharp wind howled from up high through the entire chamber, making the numerous bridges shake and creak. Alexa bit her lip.

"There are a lot of angles to fire from." True. A goblin could be hiding on any of these bridges.

"But we have to go," she said.

"We cannot clear out the entire floor behind us—the other teams need to level as well. Also, I imagine this must be where Kiba has been disappearing to." That…hadn't even crossed my mind. Yet it must be. Unless he'd been going to the third floor, there was no other area he'd get into fights tough enough they'd injure him.

"That settles it." Shota inched his head forward toward Douglas.

"Lead the way." The tank glanced at Alexa, who nodded. He stepped onto the bridge, and we followed. As we did, I couldn't stop a shiver going down my back. Kiba had likely passed through here, true. But he'd been hurt. The same person who'd blocked the abilities of a level sixteen warlock by himself and kept the monster busy long enough for us to clear out the gallery. My Black Sight enhanced eyes scoured the surrounding shadows. Was this really alright?