Chapter 204: The Amateur Adventurer
Lott's mind raced at a fever pitch.
I can't win.
The realization was absolute. The wraith hadn't even struck yet, but the sheer,
crushing weight of its presence made every breath feel like drawing glass into
his lungs.
"Run!"
Lott seized Leah's wrist, yanking her around. She stumbled, nearly falling under
the force of the pull, but survival instinct took over, and she fell into stride
beside him. Their boots thundered against the stone as they sprinted through the
winding tunnels. Behind them, the wraith made no sound, yet that suffocating
pressure clung to their backs like a physical shroud.
Lott stole a glance over his shoulder. The spirit drifted through the air,
neither gaining nor losing ground. It looked like a predator watching two
headless flies buzzing frantically inside a jar.
"Damn it!" Lott gritted his teeth, pushing his legs to their breaking point.
Suddenly, the wraith moved. Its silhouette flickered, vanishing from the shadows
only to reappear instantly behind Leah. Its hand, a jagged claw of concentrated
malice, reached for her shoulder.
"Leah!"
Lott roared, acting before he could think. He shoved Leah violently to the side,
spinning to face the darkness. He raised his longsword, and a desperate surge of
Od erupted along the blade in a blinding white flare—the basic reinforcement
technique taught at the Evernight Academy.
"Get the hell away!"
He swung. The blade cut through the wraith's misty form, trailing wisps of black
smoke. But a heartbeat later, a massive concussive force exploded from the
spirit. Lott was launched backward, his body slamming into the jagged mine wall
with a sickening crunch.
"Gah—!"
He coughed up a spray of crimson, feeling as though every bone in his frame had
been reduced to splinters. His sword clattered to the ground, the ringing of
steel echoing his own failing consciousness.
No... I'm dying... I'm actually going to die here.
Dammit! I haven't even become Leaffall's top-ranked adventurer yet! The junior
girls at the Academy are still waiting for my signed portraits! I haven't even
saved enough to buy that master-crafted suit of armor from the Evernight Mall...
I can't die in a hole that smells like a centenarian's corpse!
With the last of his strength, Lott fumbled with a trembling hand at his belt,
pulling out his final vial of diluted Emerald's Respite. He didn't even taste
the liquid as he downed it in one frantic gulp. A cool, numbing sensation washed
through his system, dulling the agony of his shattered ribs, but he still
couldn't find the strength to stand.
"Lott!"
Leah's voice was a ragged sob. She scrambled to his side, throwing her thin arms
wide to shield him. She stood between Lott and the towering nightmare, her body
shaking so hard it was a miracle she remained upright.
"Stop... please, don't hurt him..." Her voice was a pathetic, broken whisper,
but she didn't take a single step back.
The wraith paused. Its head tilted at a grotesque angle, hollow sockets staring
at the trembling girl. Slowly, it began to lift a hand toward her.
Leah squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the end.
Just then, a chaotic thrum of footsteps echoed from the opposite end of the
tunnel, accompanied by a winded, desperate shout.
"Leah! Get down! Duck! No—crouch!"
It was Bard's voice!
Leah's body reacted faster than her brain. She tucked her head and dropped into
a low crouch. She snapped her eyes open just in time to see Bard and Tim
charging toward them, looking even more disheveled than Lott, their faces masked
in grime and sweat.
Bard, screaming with exertion, used his warhammer like a throwing weapon,
hurling the heavy iron tool directly at the wraith. Tim held his Light of
Evernight high, shaking it violently to create a strobe effect of blinding
flashes to disorient the spirit.
The wraith seemed indifferent to the flying hammer—until it realized the
projectile's trajectory would take it right through the tattered rag doll in its
hand. It altered its movement instantly, flickering backward with supernatural
grace to avoid the strike. The hammer slammed into the wall behind it, sending
sparks flying with a thunderous boom.
"You guys..." Lott wheezed, leaning against the cold stone. "Cough... I thought
you ran..."
Bard skidded to a halt beside him, hands on his knees as he gasped for air,
before launching into a string of curses. "You idiot Captain! If we actually
left, who would be around to scrape your remains off the wall?!" He paused,
adding in a lower, hissed tone, "Besides, all those wraith crystals we worked
for are in your bag! That's over twenty silver coins!"
Bard didn't waste more breath. He bent down and hoisted Lott onto his back.
"Shut up and hold on! Move!"
Bard took off, feeling as though he were carrying a full-grown ox. "Seriously,
Lott, lose some weight! You're heavy as hell!"
"I'm dying over here, you prick!" Lott snarled weakly from over his shoulder.
Tim was already in the lead, his Light of Evernight cutting through the gloom.
"This way! I remember the turns! Follow me!"
The four of them engaged in a frantic, suicidal sprint, looking like a brood of
chickens being chased through a coop by a wolf. Behind them, the Tier 4 wraith
trailed like a blurred shadow, never closing the gap, but never falling behind.
Leah looked back, her voice hit a shrill, panicked note. "It's still there! It's
gaining!"
Bard felt like his lungs were about to burst. "Don't look back! Just run!
Imagine it's a landlord coming for the rent!"
Tim twisted and turned through the labyrinthine side-tunnels like a panicked
rodent. Suddenly, his voice broke with a sob of pure relief. "Light! I see
light! The exit! We're saved!"
Sure enough, a faint glow filtered in from the end of the shaft.
"Move! Go, go, go!"
They poured every remaining drop of energy into their legs, launching themselves
toward the opening like cannonballs. They burst through the entrance, tumbling
out into the open air.
And then, the ecstasy died.
It wasn't the warm, golden rays of the sun. It was the cold, silver radiance of
the moon.
In their frantic struggle within the mine, they hadn't realized how much time
had passed. Night had fallen. The Tier 4 wraith hadn't been unable to catch
them; it had been herding them, driving them from one cage into another where
its power was absolute.
"It's over..."
"We're dead..."
The four of them collapsed onto the grass, panting heavily, the word 'DOOMED'
practically etched onto their faces. Leah closed her eyes and began a frantic,
incoherent prayer to every deity she knew—from the Sovereign of Evernight to the
Gods of the Gusteko Theocracy, even the long-forgotten Forge God of the
dwarves—begging for a miracle.
As the Tier 4 wraith drifted slowly out of the cave mouth to stand before them,
a massive, violet energy construct in the shape of a skull lunged from the night
sky. It clamped its jaws onto the wraith's shoulder with a sound like grinding
stone. With a single, irresistible yank, the Energy Skull dragged the shrieking
spirit back into the lightless depths of the mine.
The four youths sat frozen, staring in dumbfounded shock. Slowly, stiffly, they
turned their heads.
The mysterious woman they had encountered earlier was strolling toward them from
the shadows. The moonlight caught her silhouette, gilding her in a silver halo.
She stepped past them with long, elegant strides, heading toward the mine
entrance. As she passed, she paused, looking down at them with the amused
curiosity one might show a group of peculiar kittens.
"Human lives are fleeting things, destined for the grave," she mused. "But even
so, you really ought to cherish the breaths you have left."
She looked back at the four frozen adventurers and offered a small, hauntingly
beautiful smile. "After all, even in a novel, there is more to the story than
just the first and last chapters."
Lott, still sprawled on the ground, struggled to lift his head. He looked at her
with the wide-eyed reverence of a devotee witnessing a miracle.
"Who... who are you?" he managed to ask.
Skele-Lust waved a hand dismissively, stepping into the pitch-black maw of the
mine without looking back.
"Just an amateur adventurer, passing through."
☆☆☆
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