Chapter 9: The Story of Oath

Oath, Trevor, and Mira fell to their hands and knees, close to passing out. They finally escaped the centipedes and were back in a standard corridor. Unfortunately, their strength was next to zero, and Trevor was knocking back potions. Only once all was calm did they finally get back on their feet.

“We need to find Noah and Beth,” said Oath, “we should—”

A solid fist striking his face both cut him off and sent him falling to the ground. His eyes were rolling like billiard balls, but the sound of Mira’s screaming forced him to focus. Trevor had tackled her and driven a knife into her chest.

“You son of a bitch!” Oath bolted to his feet and attacked Trevor, knocking him off Mira, who was choking on her own blood.

As they fell over into a storm of grappling and beating, Mira used what little strength she had to retrieve a health potion from her pocket and pour it on the wound. She passed out, stuck in a race between bleeding to death and recovering in time. Nearby, Oath and Trevor had gotten to their feet and hurled punches wildly.

“Trevor, what the fuck are you doing?!” Oath shouted.

“Getting you out of my way!” Trevor yelled back.

He retreated, going after his halberd. Oath did the same, retrieving his sword and raising it just in time to block Trevor’s thrust. Despite Oath’s strength, Trevor could exert more continuous force, and the spear tip of the halberd pierced his shoulder. Oath couldn’t contain his cry of anguish as he was pinned against the wall. It was a stalemate; Oath stuck where he was, and Trevor unable to let up the pressure.

“It would have been better if Mira had followed those two in the pit. I didn’t want to have to kill her, but I couldn’t risk you two teaming up against me.”

“We weren’t going to team up against you! What are you talking about?!”

“I just didn’t want her to intervene when I tried to kill you. It doesn’t matter, I’ll just tell the others you were both killed by the same monster, if they’re even still alive.”

Oath struggled to contend with the blade in his shoulder, but it felt like the wound was just getting bigger and bigger. “Why are you doing this?!”

“I need you out of the way so that I can become the baron. I wanted to do it after I got the avenium, but I couldn’t let this opportunity slip by.” Oath was forced toward the ground, leaving a trail of blood across the wall. “You’re the last of the main Fault family, so once you and your father die, I’ll be next in line to receive the title.”

“You’re another member? But my father said the branch family had been slain!”

“They were killed days ago, actually. It was probably Noah, hired by the baron. But he only thought to kill my father and my half-brother. He didn’t think it worth investigating further, to find a bastard like me living in Clive. The town will be mine! It should be mine!”

Oath reached around, grabbing a stone on the ground. Fate was kind to him, guiding his throw and striking Trevor in the eye. He staggered back, bleeding horribly, and Oath wrenched the halberd out of his shoulder and scrambled to his feet. He struggled to raise his sword, having lost half the strength in his wounded arm.

In a similar predicament, Trevor chose to retrieve his halberd and stare Oath down with his one good eye while launching stabs. Oath did his best to parry the blows, as he didn’t have the strength to do another shoving match. He was losing ground, fast.

“So all this time, you were just waiting for a chance to kill me? From the day we met?!”

“Not until you came out to us as the baron’s son, but when I found out about the dungeon crab, it was perfect. I could use you to get the avenium, so no matter what, I’ll still become a noble!”

Oath pulled away and reformed his stance, then went on the offensive. His capacity for fighting had greatly diminished, but still, his wide swings forced Trevor to retreat. Trevor had the longer reach, but his halberd was at risk of breaking. Oath pushed him back, trying to get past the swinging axe blade.

“You’re insane! You think you can get the avenium or even escape this place on your own?”

“I’m willing to take that risk. I want you to die down here, betrayed, abandoned, and robbed of your little family burial plot behind your mansion. You’ll just be another nameless skeleton with no grave marker. I don’t mind dying if it means I get to kill you first.”

“What could I have possibly done to make you hate me so much?”

“I just plain don’t like you, even before I knew you were the baron’s son. Your face, your voice, your soul, everything about you pissed me off from the moment we met. It’s because you’re weak. You’re too weak to rule these lands. You can’t even use magic. You were born a sniveling piece of shit, and you’re going to die here a sniveling piece of shit.”

As Trevor spoke, his blade began to glow with mana, and Oath instinctively stepped back. His sword would likely snap if he tried to block or deflect an attack like that. When the swings and stabs came, he only dodged, not letting the two weapons touch.

“All you do is let that arrogant prick take care of everything and toss out orders. Clive would burn to the ground on the first day if you took over.”

Oath swung his sword, just narrowly catching the halberd’s shaft and stopping Trevor long enough to close in. Trevor raised the halberd to block, but a cleave of Oath’s sword snapped it, leaving a shallow cut across his forehead and chest. Trevor jumped back, now holding an axe in one hand and a quarterstaff in the other.

“I can do plenty on my own, without Noah,” said Oath.

“Shut up and die,” Trevor shot back before charging at him.

To Beth, it was horrifying, the vastness of the chamber, for this grand cathedral to be just a tiny pocket of this wretched labyrinth. Noah, however, felt spine-chilling excitement. The room was as large as a football stadium with a bridge stretching across a lake of mercury, glistening from some unseen light beneath its depths. The air above it was filled with creatures resembling hummingbirds, touching their beaks to the surface as if fishing for something. The birds didn’t seem aggressive, as they paid no notice to the two outsiders.

Over their heads was a ceiling covered in bioluminescent life forms, supported by grand outward-bending arches. No, they were chains, each link the size of an SUV and encrusted by the shell. So too were there great statues adorning the walls; a pantheon of small creatures and great titans entombed by white, like flies in a spiderweb.

Noah and Beth crossed the bridge, staring in awe at the structures. This wasn’t just some animal nest or crustacean shell; this was surely built by a sentient will. Who made it? How? How many people knew about it? What happened to this place to end up like this?

It was Noah’s first time facing questions like these, for the presence of magic in this world created infinite possibilities that he would never have seen in previous worlds. Everything unusual he ever encountered was either manmade or caused by nature, but the presence of magic added all-new options, instigating curiosity. It could have been done by a whole other species, using powers beyond his understanding. It was a new way of thinking, one that invigorated him.

They crossed the room without conflict, entering a hall with normal-sized rooms on either side. In these chambers, too, the shell encased structures and shapes. Were they people? Furniture?

“Interesting.”

Oath and Trevor were locked in combat, struggling to avoid each other’s attacks. Oath had broken Trevor’s halberd in two, taking away his ability to use magic, but he still lunged and fought with the remains, granting him two smaller weapons. He would swing the head of his halberd like a hatchet, forcing Oath to block with his sword, and then use his free hand to strike Oath with the halberd’s shaft. The blows came at full strength, and Oath couldn’t stop them.

“You don’t deserve to become the next baron if this is the best you can do! You must be the weakest of the family.”

“Trevor, listen! Do you really think you can get out of here without my help? Stop this, and we can both walk out of this dungeon alive! You can still become a noble with the avenium!”

“That’s not good enough. I want the land that my father couldn’t have, the authority. I want to spit on his grave as the unwanted bastard and flaunt the power that he lusted after. I want Clive, and I want to rip it out of your hands. It’s not enough for me to win, you have to lose!”

A memory then flashed through Oath’s mind, and despite the dire situation, a chuckle slipped free. “I remember Noah saying that you were a jerk probably because of something to do with your father. I think he even said you would betray us. It must be embarrassing, to be sized up so easily and have your true colors seen!”

“Shut up! If he’s still alive, I’ll kill him after I’ve killed you!”

Trevor charged at Oath, and finally, Oath managed to deliver a wound of his own. He blocked Trevor’s two-fold attack and pushed forward, his sword slicing Trevor’s shoulder. Trevor dropped the broken shaft, his arm now slick with blood, though Oath was in the same state, no longer able to grip his sword with both hands. They stared each other down, picking the moment to strike.

Trevor’s broken halberd was lighter and shorter than Oath’s sword, so it would be easier to wield, but he’d have to focus entirely on offense. For Oath, his defensive situation was better, but while he could move his sword with one arm, his speed would pale compared to Trevor’s, and he’d be lucky to inflict much damage. His best bet would be to block and then try to overpower.

Looking at his cousin, Oath was reminded of that scene from the field when a group of men attacked him, Noah, and Tin. He had been utterly useless, just pulled into the woods while Noah took care of the threat easily. But in the week since then, he had trained relentlessly, and now, he could finally defend himself and his bloodline, even against his kin.

“This is your last chance, Trevor,” said Oath.

“No, this is—” A hole opened up in Trevor’s chest, and blood poured out.

Noah appeared behind him, his sword seemingly materializing out of thin air and now rendered crimson. The blade had gone straight through Trevor’s heart, leaving him and Oath stunned. Trevor tried to speak, but blood came out of his mouth. Noah dropped him to the floor, pulled out his sword, and then pierced the back of Trevor’s skull for good measure.

“Stop! What are you doing?!” Oath shouted.

“I’m fulfilling my contract. He became an enemy, so I dealt with him.”

“It wasn’t your place to decide he should die! Trevor wanted to become the next baron in my place, so it was my responsibility to take him down!”

“What are you talking about? He wanted to take your place as Clive’s next baron?”

“He ... he said he was my cousin, an illegitimate child. He kept it hidden all this time.”

“Oh please. His father wasn’t ranked high enough to have an “illegitimate child.” Trevor was nothing more than a common bastard. And while I’m sure he had some hard-luck backstory about growing up on the streets that would make us all pity or support him, I’m simply not interested. We don’t have time for you two to bond over your daddy issues.”

Beth arrived, standing beside him. “What’s going on?” Mira was with her, having narrowly recovered.

“I can’t just leave it this way!” Oath yelled. “I can’t just walk off without knowing how it would have ended! If I could have beaten him myself!”

“That’s just your pride talking, but pride won’t keep you alive in this place. Should I have just sat back and let you continue your childish squabble? I was hired to keep you from dying, not help you satisfy your ego.”

“Wait, what happened?” Beth asked.

“Trevor tried to kill me and Oath,” said Mira.

“You can’t be serious! After all the time we spent together, he just turned on us like that?”

“It was his plan from the beginning,” Oath muttered. “He’s my cousin, and as soon as he found out we were in competition for the title of baron, he planned out how to use us and kill me.”

“We’re not going to make it out of here, are we?” Mira asked.

“We should have turned back when we had the chance!” Beth tearfully exclaimed, falling to her knees as the pent-up strain finally released itself.

“Crying and worrying about it won’t help us get out of this,” said Noah. “Look, we’re all exhausted. Beth and I found a room we can rest in. Let’s set up camp and get our strength back. You three go, I’m going to sort through Trevor’s things.”

“Noah, you can’t,” said Mira. “Trevor may have gone crazy, but it’s not right to just rob his corpse.”

“Well, you can either choose to stop me, or you can go, eat some lunch, and put the whole thing out of your mind. So, what are you going to do?” Mira backed down and briskly walked off with Beth behind her. “And you go too,” he said to Oath.

“I’m not going to leave you alone here.”

“When the adrenaline wears off, you won’t be able to. You’ll collapse and I’ll have to carry you to the campsite. You’re injured, go patch yourself up. I’ll be fine.”

“I guess you will, won’t you? Nothing ever gets to you, does it?” Oath muttered.

“I hear backtalk when I want to hear anguished footsteps. Go.”

Oath limped off after Beth and Mira, and Noah began picking through Trevor’s tools, supplies, and treasure. It had gotten to the point where he had to be picky about what he could take with him, as he was reaching the limit of what he could carry and still move effectively. Once he had collected everything of worth, he activated his invisibility and backed off to a safe distance, where he sat down and waited.

After a few minutes, openings in the floor appeared like cracks in ice. They were seams, invisible to the naked eye until they opened up, and from within, a green slime appeared. Rather than spreading out under the force of gravity, it was moving willfully toward Trevor’s corpse. It enveloped his body and disassembled it in pieces the size of grains of sand. In time, the slime retreated, leaving nothing but some bones and scraps of fabric.

“So that’s how it feeds.”

Noah went to the camp chamber, where everyone sat against different walls. There was a dead look in their eyes, an exhaustion that was both mental and physical. They had each hoped they would make it out of the dungeon crab together so that their party would survive this trial and remain whole. Trevor was rude and untalkative, but his loss left a void, and they suddenly felt much weaker without him. But with the truth they were forced to accept, was it really a loss? After all, he showed no hesitation in trying to murder the people who thought him to be their friend.

“How could he do it?” Beth asked. “How could he lie to us for that long? Pretend to be our ally? All those battles where we had to depend on each other, did that really mean nothing to him?”

Noah sat down and began unpacking his lunch. “You’d be surprised how long you can keep the lies going, how easy it can get.”

“Have you lied to us about anything?”

Noah stared at her, challenging her to accept his coming answer. “Plenty of things, none of which matter in this situation.” He tossed some food to everyone. “Eat up. It doesn’t matter if Trevor is dead. It doesn’t change our plan.”

“No, it changes everything.” Beth stood up. “We should leave while we’re still alive, while we still have supplies and potions. We’re not ready for this place. We weren’t ready even when we had Trevor. We have plenty of treasure, more than enough to live happily. Isn’t that enough?”

“It’s too late to turn back now, to leave here without the avenium. I’m sure by now we’ve almost reached the bottom of the shell.”

“What are you really getting out of this? You’re so sure we can do this and keep pushing us forward. What is it that you want so badly as to risk all of our lives?”

“The same thing as you, an adventure. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“I was wrong, this is too much. Oath, Mira, you agree with me, right?”

Oath took a deep breath. “I can’t walk away from this, not now. I want to see this through to the end. I need to. I don’t want to live my life as a coward.”

“Mira?”

Mira hugged her knees to her chest and hid her face. Was she refusing to participate in the conversation, or had she shut down completely?

Beth turned back to Noah. “We’re in over our heads. It was a mistake to come—”

“You’re free to leave whenever you want,” said Noah, cutting her off. “I don’t expect anything from you, or anyone for that matter. If you want to go back to the surface, you can just walk right on out that door.”

“After everything you and I have done together, you would say that to me?!”

“Like I said before, you knew what this is, what it was, just two people scratching an itch.”

“Well because of that itch, I’m late.”

Mira tensed in shock, and Oath’s eyebrows nearly shot off his face, yet Noah didn’t flinch. “And?” Beth stammered at his question, not sure how to respond. “Again, you knew what the deal was when we started, no attachment. I’m getting that avenium, and there is nothing you can say to stop me. You can either leave now and try to make it back out on your own, or you can come with us down to get the avenium and we’ll make the trip back together.”

“This is an obsession! I don’t know what the baron promised you, but let it go!”

“That’s enough. Everyone shut up and get some rest. We set out again in a few hours.”

After some fitful sleep, they reluctantly advanced deeper into the maze. Trevor’s absence took a heavy toll on the group. Beth and Mira continued to attack from behind Noah and Oath, but the monsters still withstood barrages of stones and arrows to try and sink their teeth into something. Usually, Trevor and his halberd could have warded them off, breaking their momentum so that Noah and Oath could go in for the kill. Now they had to be the main defensive wall and block everything with their swords.

They battled through the monsters, but took injuries with each clash. It wasn’t just their formation that had been disturbed; Noah could see the group’s morale at the edge of an abyss. Noah was indifferent, but the others were grappling with despair. Which hurt more? Losing a friend, or finding out he was never their friend at all?

At the moment, they were surrounded by centipedes in a wide-open chamber. Noah, Oath, and Beth were stomping on the little bastards as they drew close, while Mira was swinging her staff, equipped with her Shatter Mace spell. She was wild, taking out her strain and frustration on the beasts, with her screams of exertion becoming louder with each swing. But, rather than helping, the onslaught of monsters only seemed to increase her drunken aggression. Beth, on the other hand, was acting sluggish, paralyzed by fear and the loss of hope.

As Noah stomped on every centipede that came close, he heard a scream. A few beasts had managed to jump onto Mira and were digging in. Oath rushed over to help her, leaving two sides of their formation unguarded, and the monsters closed in.

“I have a plan!” Noah said. “When the monsters move away, head towards that passage over there!

Before the others could say anything, Noah drew his knife and slashed his wrist, sending a torrent of blood pouring onto the ground. Seduced by the smell of blood, the centipedes turned their attention from Oath and the others and swarmed toward Noah. He took off, sprinting across the field of armored backs and spindly legs, leading them like the Pied Piper.

The trio rushed towards the exit without hesitation. Once he saw them reach the doorway, Noah turned around and made himself invisible. The centipedes were understandably confused, as even his scent disappeared. His blood, shrouded in mana, vanished as it fell. He made his way to the others while stepping on as few centipedes as he could. By the time he reached the exit, he had already used a healing potion to mend his wrist.

“Let’s go.”

The doorway brought them to a winding staircase. However, unlike the tight spiral past the dungeon entrance, this staircase spun down the walls like grooves on a drill bit. It was too dark to see the ceiling or the floor, but there was a twinkling star in the blackness. It was far below their feet when it should have been above their heads.

“Everyone, be extra careful and step quietly. I think we’ve reached the bottom of the shell.”

They proceeded down the staircase, this one having actual stairs. The darkness swallowed them from the lack of cave worms, but Noah lit his torch, easing everyone’s fears. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, their fears came rushing back like a flood.

A massive slumbering monster occupied the bottom of the room. This circular chamber was more than a hundred feet wide, and the beast was coiled up all over itself like a snoozing boa constrictor. By the light of Noah’s torch, there was no telling what its actual size or form was. The walls and staircase were solid shell, but the floor under the monster was flesh, and in the middle, in a raised basin, was a pool of powdered metal with a turquoise gleam. It was avenium, just like on Noah’s ring. It was so close, but the risk before them was giving everyone doubts.

Oath stepped forward. “I’ll go,” he said as quietly as he could.

Noah grasped his shoulder. “No, I’m better at stealth, remember?”

Oath turned to him, loudly whispering. “Please, it has to be me! The whole reason why we made this journey was so that I could become a noble! I need to be the one to get the avenium. Let me earn my title.”

“None of that matters, not in here. All that is important is getting the job done and getting out of here alive. If you want to do things the “right” way, do it on your own time. I’m going to do things the smart way. If this thing so much as twitches, leave me behind and run as fast as you can up the stairs.”

Noah didn’t wait for him to reply and activated his invisibility. True, this monster slept with its eyes closed, but he couldn’t discount its sense of smell and hearing. He moved past Oath and stepped onto the fleshy ground. Whatever this thing was, it had a lot of tentacles, and they were spread everywhere. He stepped lightly, double-checking every spot before putting his weight on it. Noah had not been able to escape the ravages of fatigue, and his muscles were becoming unreliable.

It was nerve-wracking for Oath and the others, as they couldn’t see Noah, just the torch he was holding over his head. Every time the light trembled, they imagined him fumbling, stepping on one of the monster’s tentacles, and waking it up. When the torch finally reached the basin, they released their held breaths. It was a substantial amount of avenium, at least two liters of the glistening dust. Perhaps it was expelled from the crab like a splinter, and it would accumulate in the basin over time.

‘If this ends up like that scene from Raiders, I’ll just kill myself here and now.’

Noah rested his hand atop the avenium and sucked it all into the ring, every grain. There was no reaction from either the monster or the basin. Noah waited a few moments to be sure, then turned and returned to the staircase. Once he reached Oath, Beth, and Mira, they resumed breathing and began the silent climb back up the stairs. When they reached the halfway point, a terrifying roar shook the chamber, coming from above instead of below.

The group looked up in horror, seeing a second monster descend toward them. It appeared to be the same species as the first, some kind of Lovecraftian griffin with a lion’s body, a teeth-filled beak, and tentacles growing from across its back that it used to climb. Just one slash of its claws would kill a sledgepaw bear. Had it also been nesting in this chamber? Perhaps the mate of the one down below?

“Beth, take it down!”

“Too late!”

It swung across the chamber with its tentacles, and the group scattered, managing to avoid its beak, though Beth lost her bow over the edge of the staircase. One of the talons on the beast’s forelegs clipped Mira’s face, which was all it took to obliterate her skull. Oath and Beth, seeing her headless body slump to the floor, were left in stunned silence. Noah stabbed the beast in the eye, and it jumped back with his sword pulled from his grip, howling in agony. Beside him, Oath and Beth cradled Mira, sobbing and screaming as her blood soaked their hands. Noah could understand Beth, but Oath’s reaction stood out.

‘Goddammit, don’t tell me he loved that girl.’ “We have to move! There is nothing we can do for her!”

“No, I can fix this!” Oath sobbed. “Give me all the healing potions we have!”

“Her head is gone, she’s dead. No potion can fix that.”

“Please, don’t ask us to leave her,” Beth whimpered.

Another roar echoed through the tunnel, this one from below. It seemed the first monster had woken up. Oath scrambled to his feet and grabbed his sword with furious tears streaming down his face.

“I’ll kill them! I’ll kill them both!”

“This is no time for heroics! We’re leaving!”

“GET OUT OF MY WAY!” Oath howled with a punch.

Noah deflected and countered with a jab to the throat and a knee to the stomach. Oath collapsed like a house of cards, and Noah grabbed and hoisted him over his shoulder. He turned to Beth and handed her his bow.

“Keep those things off our tail. If you run out of arrows, I’ll give you more. Now move!”

They raced up the stairs as fast as they could. Noah was struggling under the effort of hauling Oath and everything they both carried, and he had to hold the torch as well. Ahead of him, Beth was raining arrows down on the two monsters to the best of her ability. They seemed aware of the poisoned tips and kept a safe distance, but they still followed them up.

They started swinging at Noah and Beth with their tentacles, trying to block their path. Beth would slash at them with a knife to make them retract, but it was just getting worse and worse, as ahead, they could see the centipedes swarming down the staircase, following the group down.

“Noah, what do we do?!” Beth exclaimed.

“Run and fight! That’s all we can do!”

They continued their charge up the stairs, stomping on the centipedes and ignoring the feel of their pincers digging in and not letting go. Their bites didn’t appear poisonous, but they put bullet ants to shame on the pain scale. Not even Noah could maintain a poker face with them biting down on his legs.

With luck on their side, they escaped the chamber, running down several corridors before arriving at a chamber where they could rest. Noah dropped Oath on the ground and began ripping off the centipedes biting his legs. It was strange for Beth to see Noah so winded and injured. He collapsed near the wall, downing a healing potion to stop his bleeding. Oath, having regained consciousness, got back to his feet and approached the doorway with his sword.

“Don’t even think about it,” said Noah.

“I refuse to leave her body down here. I’m going to get my revenge on that beast and bring her home to bury her.”

“It’s a monster, it doesn’t understand your feelings. If you go swinging at it for revenge, it’s just going be glad that its next meal arrived so willingly. Besides, Mira has probably already been devoured.”

“Don’t say that!” Oath shouted.

“Noah!” Beth added her voice to the outrage.

“You just need to accept it. She’s gone. There is nothing you can do to help her. Nothing can be done to change what happened. I’ll say it as harshly as I need to if it gets the message through your thick skull.”

“What would you have done if it was Tin who died in there instead of Mira?”

“I would have left her. I’ve seen plenty of people die. This isn’t my first time leading people into combat, and casualties are to be expected.”

“So you were just waiting for each of us to die?!” Beth exclaimed.

“As long as I could fulfill my contract, I was prepared for all possible losses, though I’m honestly disappointed that you all came here expecting to do this without losing anyone.”

“Is that all we are to you? Just future losses?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Noah got to his feet. “Look, we’ve got the avenium, so the hard part is done. Now we can head home.”

“Two of our friends are dead and we’re in the bottom of a dungeon crab! How is that not the hard part?!” Beth screamed at him.

“Because I have an idea on how to get us out of here.” He took out a water skin from his backpack, poured in some powdered avenium from within his ring, then shook it up and handed it to Oath. “Both of you, douse this on yourselves. Try not to let any go to waste.”

“What will this do?” Oath asked.

“When I activate my invisibility, I wrap myself in mana, as well as anything I touch or hold, but for some reason, it won’t work on anything living. The mana just won’t stick on, like it’s being repelled. However, I did some research on avenium. It is a metal, but it bends light like a crystal, and it manipulates mana the same way. I can’t apply my invisibility to you, but if you’re covered with powdered avenium, it may help me conceal you a bit. Try it.”