A torrent of silvery white light blazed as the wight chose the weakened hobgoblin as its target, but Banda knocked the sword off course just in time.

  The hobgoblin scrambled for a drink of another potion, and rubbed a grassy paste over his gushing wound which had started to rot away at his flesh.

  “...ne…eed … time.” It struggled to wheeze at the duo.

  Banda and Eres continued to fight the wight alone, as the hobgoblin watched patiently. Its breathing started to steady but panic remained on its face. And it glanced at the tunnel.

  “Join back!” Eres snapped at him.

  “I… am too wounded…” It lied.

  She narrowed her eyes, but a quick slash of the wight’s sword forced her attention back to the main threat.

  The fighting was fierce, but the duo were managing. Banda especially carried most of the weight, his instincts serving greatly to fight on par with a stronger foe. They chipped away at the wight, slowly but surely.

  It blocked another stone, but a second knocked its footing off balance just slightly, and the spear thrust out.

  “I will not fall again!” The wight roared.

  Moonlight surged within the wight as it struck the spear away. An aura of death surrounded it, and Banda started to feel sickly and frail.

  “We must run!” He shouted at Eres as he darted back. But the wight charged after, keeping them both within range of its deathly aura.

  In that moment, the hobgoblin dashed towards the entrance of the tunnel and spawned a giant dome of roots around him. Layer after layer with the sole purpose of forcing them to face the wight.

  Eres clicked her teeth. “Break open a path in the roots!”

  She took the fight to the undead warrior, surrounding herself in a coating of golden aura, and Banda shot towards the dome of roots. He smashed and mauled with titanic might. Spears and grasping roots struck back, but he evaded them all and wrought destruction on the regrowing dome.

  “Turn your focus to the threat behind, lest you perish!” The hobgoblin shouted in a panic, but Banda did not slow.

  He broken open a wide entrance to the dome, exposing the hobgoblin now clearly exhausted of all its mana.

  “Banda!” Eres yelled. Her golden aura resisted its aura of death, but the wight was too overwhelming, even for her avatar.

  Banda lunged back, and the two shifted around as they pressured the wight closer to the dome. As it drew near, it turned its sight in a lull of action, and saw the hobgoblin. The root-wielding jinn did not even have the time to plead for its life before the wight viciously stabbed is sword down into it, again and again and again.

  In that moment, Eres wielded the cloth of her spear to set the dome ablaze with golden fire, and slashed it apart to cave down on the wight. The undead warrior burst out in an instant, but that split moment proved fatal.

  Its bones were even more damaged now, and the luster of moonlight gone completely. Banda feinted his attack, and Eres’ spear finally pierced through.

  It ignited and set ablaze from within. The wight’s bones and even its armor crumbled to dust, leaving behind only its broadsword and a crumbling skull.

  “Trapped… in this forsaken tomb…” The voice rang out, quieter than before. “For what…? The prospect of power… I would rather have rest….”

  “Where is the treasure?!” Eres yelled. “Your power!”

  “Finally… I may rest…”

  The skull crumbled away and the illusion of the moon above faded to nothing. Eres looked all over the cavern but saw nothing but an empty room. She tried to wield the sword to see if it held any magic within, but it was merely a mid-grade weapon.

  “Worthless! All of it worthless!” She cursed with golden eyes, her anger uncharacteristically overt.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Banda glanced at the dead hobgoblin, wholly unsatisfied. They had missed their opportunity to reach the next town, and the hobgoblin who may have been able to cure them is dead.

  He turned his displeased glare to Eres. She was a burden most of the time, but she was not stupid. Banda would even almost call her wise. But she had not acted wisely here. She had impeded him. Risked his life senselessly. And for nothing.

  “I was too cautious…” Eres murmured to herself. “I should have subdued the hobgoblin as soon as the entrance opened. Force it to make the cure then used it as a vanguard for the tomb…”

  “We must return.” Banda spoke sternly, interrupting her ramblings.

  Her eyes drifted over to his. They were cold. Hostile. Selfish. She held her silence for a moment, then swallowed what she had left to say.

  “Yes.”

  ---

  The pair approached their town in the dead of night after another full day’s travel. Neither had spoken a word to each other on the way back, and it showed no sign of changing.

  Banda’s eyes sharpened and he darted in front of Eres, though to his surprise it was Scar who stepped out of the dark.

  “I was beginning to worry you died out there.” He spoke with fidgety mannerisms.

  “What do you want?” Eres snapped, devoid of her usual tact.

  Scar was silent for a moment, somewhat taken back by the hostility, and adverted his eyes. “All of the slumlords have Soul Seeds.”

  Both Eres and Banda’s eyes widened at the sudden revelation.

  “Finding a way to reach Rank 2 is pointless. It’s a different story if you were to reach Rank 3, but Otto would kill you before you got the chance. Also…” Scar continued, turning his gaze back to them. “The beastwoman watches us, always. She sees through our eyes and hears through our ears. Day and night.”

  Eres reacted far more strongly than Banda to this second reveal, though her emotions settled just as fast. “...It must not be absolute if you’re telling us now.”

  Scar fidgeted his head. “Once a month, on the night of a new moon, the woman falls into a coma. That is the only time Otto is blind.”

  “How does she monitor others?” Eres asked. “Can she watch anyone?”

  Scar wiggled a finger. “There’s a ritual of lights. And the gem on her head shines with the person’s reflection. She needs to be near and she needs to match your gaze for a long while. Then she always has you in her sights.”

  “His death is the only way to be free of this.” Scar blurted out, before they could ask again. “He can only detonate two Soul Seeds at once, and each takes ten seconds to detonate.”

  “Alone we cannot manage, but together, we can overwhelm him. He cannot wield another art when detonating. Whichever of us remains must kill him. But it must be certain.”

  “When?” Eres asked, her emotions giving nothing away.

  “No plans.” Scar said. “Too many variables. Too many risks. Just be ready on each night. We will only get one chance.”

  Scar lingered for a moment, then turned to leave.

  “Wait.” Eres stopped him. “Prove your sincerity.”

  “...you have an idea of how, I’m assuming?” He asked, lowering his head but keeping his eye on her.

  “Give us the method to advance to Rank 2. And something important of yours. So you can’t just use and discard us if things fail.” Eres’ gaze hardened. “That thing in your eye will do.”

  Scar fell still, for a moment that felt much longer to him. He shuffled around in place, before finally reaching behind the leather patch and pulling a red ball from his socket. He hesitated for a moment, then tossed it over to Eres.

  Eres caught the item and inspected. The ball was an intricately cut blood-red gem, painted on one side to resemble a demonic eye. The nature of it did not interest Eres. as with most things of infernal nature, it likely granted power at a steep cost. What was important, was that it was important to Scar.

  “In return…” Scar spoke. “I ask you to… delay your revenge against Tath. She is unpredictable as of late. But at the rate she is gaining power, she could be useful. In one way or the other.”

  “...fine.” Eres said plainly.

  Scar lingered again for a moment, though this time he was allowed to leave without pause, slipping back over the walls of the town under the cover of night.

  Eres watched him, gripping the infernal eye as it vanished into her ring. She would not make another crucial mistake.

  ---

  Beasts and Jinn of all kind stampeded over the ruins of the town. Only their terrible roars and wails remained as the poor souls who could not flee in time were long since silence.

  The monsters tore apart and devoured the human flesh, and as they did, those wretched faces twisted in torment. When their bodies succumbed to death, the strange magic of infernal red markings pulled their souls beneath the earth to another realm.

  A most infernal plight. To have one’s soul be a feast for demons was among the most horrible of fates. The agony inflicted by the ravenous beasts would end, but for those claimed by the Abyss only eternal torment awaited.

  In the distance, a group of humans one thousand strong trekked away from their overrun town. Therein comprised of two factions, obvious by their expressions.

  The bulk of the crowd were gaunt and cycled between listless and restless. A fearful desperation pervaded their mannerisms. Contrasted with the few others who seemed to have no emotion at all.

  All one thousand were led by a mountain of a man, who stood seven feet tall with the muscle and girth of an ogre. He had dark skin, with long black hair combed back and a thick beard braided into seven sharp spikes. He wore a black chestpiece over a luxurious tunic and the thick cloth pants and boots of a warrior.

  Barosa grinned wide as he walked from the terrible destruction, his gaze pointed straight east towards the next town.