Arrows of fire darted freely around the tunnel. Rupturing stone and sizzling the small pools of water. The darkness was chased away by the fireworks of the mages at play. Yet shifting through the glimpses of shadow were the clashing of blades as Equa and Krita came to blows.
Jakurk kept his distance at the back, waiting for the most opportune moment to arrive. While Gnist continued to support with barrage after barrage of spells. Jakurk felt almost envious of the energy that the youth possessed.
Eyemik kept to the back besides Jakurk, She had only a dagger to defend herself and she had never before taken a life. She had stolen, and she had robbed but she had relied on other people to do most of the work.
The parties stood on an equal footing. Krita was outnumbered but had way more experience fighting people then Equa or Gnist. With each time Krita came to blows with the massive Drakyr. He was forced to avoid an arrow of fire. Benjen hid in the dark awaiting an opportunity to strike out. One which he found when Krita parried Equa's massive blade upwards. Leaving him an opportunity to throw three poisonous needles right into Equa's stomach. It paralysed him briefly. Which gave Krita the chance to cut a rift through the tall drakyr's side. He slipped past him and dodged yet another arrow of flame.
With a dash Krita was over at the fire mages side. He brought down his new sword against her head but was thrown back by a strong gust of wind perpetrated by Jakurk. And although heavily wounded with an open stomach. Equa took the opportunity to catch him in the air, and with all the force that remained in his body he crushed him into the wall. Krita dropped the sword, motionless.
Equa sank down to his legs, his open wound gushing out blood onto the dry stone bellow. Gnist ran over. Stepping in the murky pool of blood just to get close. Benjen, still in the shadows, saw that their fools gambit had failed. But he wouldn't just run away with this. Since that mage may want to avenge her dying comrade he threw his remaining set of daggers, two right towards her before making his escape. Not meant to kill just to hinder. But the daggers hit her chest and one burrowed itself into her heart.
But it was okay, since there was still a way to save at least one of them. Gnist fell to the ground to Equa's apparent horror. But still breathing she reached for something in her pocket, a simple Pale stone. One of the few things her mentor had given her when she started her journey so many years ago. "Take it" she whispered with her dying breath.
"No, it's yours, you have a better chance then me in this dungeon" A mage held far more potential to survive in the magically infested land of terror. Then he could. And he knew himself that he couldn't bear to live if she died.
Since this was the only pale rock they had, and the only rock they knew for sure was within the dungeon. It meant that it might just be the only one in the dungeon. "No, no you could carry me out, I couldn't drag you" Both of them were losing energy. Both of them couldn't make a choice.
"Then I'll take it," Jakurk grabbed it from her tired hand. And pocketed the stone just like that.
"Huh?" A terrified expression rushed over Gnist's pale face as she sank down to the floor. A few seconds later she died.
"What did you just do?" Eyemik looked scared.
"You bastard" Equa lunged out to grab the mage's leg. But Jakurk avoided it by taking a step back.
"I secured my own future, you were good people so im sad to see you go" Jakurk went over to Gnist's fresh corpse and looted the lodestone. Picking it up its glow started as usual. "Catch" He threw the stone to Eyemik, the only other person in the tunnel still fully alive.
"If you want to live then come with me, and join my party" Jakurk didn't need to hold up his usual cheerful appearance. For once he was able to let go and just be the man he truly was.
"Curse you, curse you to the ends of the Earth Jakurk Mianta!" Equa tried to drag himself towards them but his strength gave out.
"Dont worry when i have succeeded with the goal of my journey it will be like none of this ever happened" Jakurk went over to the still standing horrified Eyemik.
"Mikeye you're a bandit right? Which means you have been to the bandit camp, which means the lodestone will show you the way back there right?" Kimeye simply nodded, she didn't dare to look him in the eye. That sense of fear she had felt when she first met this group now she knew where it came from. Where that ominous dread came from. The old mage had the air of a man who had killed countless, the air of someone who didn't see the worth in other peoples lives.
"Jakurk! Why did you come to this dungeon! Why did you betray our trust!" It was with his final breath Equa was able to ask.
"I came here simply to get a dragon's soul, at any price, and after that, well… I think I'll rewrite history" Jakurk smiled for a moment. "Mikeye lets go, lets see if Augusts has truly fallen" With that he grabbed Opips sword and left the dying drakyr without so much as giving him a look.
A few hours later in that empty dead tunnel Krita woke up. A pain in his back, in his leg and some small wounds here and there. A bit of brain damage as well. But otherwise he was fine and dandy. "What happened here?" He said as he got up from the pool of blood that had formed from the drakyr.
Although he didn't get much time to investigate as a horrid shriek from something inhuman came rushing up the tunnel. "Dammnit"