The air hung heavy and still, thick with the scent of damp earth and decay. A silver of a moon, like a crooked claw, clung to the inky sky, casting skeletal shadows of ancient, twisted trees across the overgrown yard.
Before them, the house stood, a hulking silhouette against the oppressive darkness, its gabled roofline sharp and jagged as a broken tooth. Every window was a blank, black eye, reflecting nothing but the void.
The five of them stood still, staring at the chilling, malevolent structure, waiting to devour them all in its deathly darkness. Clara, the young mage, clutched her staff, its crystal tip glowing with a faint, nervous violet light.
Beside her, James, the S class swordsmen gulped in tension. His grip on the hilt of his sword tightened. The assassin Cash and Brook, the shield warrior from the A class were also in a similar state. The eeriness was getting to them.
Grey stood nonchalant at the back. No sign of tension or fear could be seen on his face. This was a boring mission for him. He'd rather explore a few dungeons rather than investigating a so called haunted house. He believed this was just a sight made up by the professors for the test.
"W-We should move inside then?" Clara whispered, her voice barely audible over the chirping of unseen insects.
James nodded, his gaze fixed on the front door, a heavy slab of rotting oak. "Stay close. And keep an eye out."
"Clara, you stay in the middle. Brook in front of her, keep your shield up. Cash, you scout ahead and Grey, guard our backs." James immediately delivered the set of commands.
Grey nodded. James was not treating him poorly because of him being a C class, since he was right there at the front seat when Grey had one shotted Waylon in the joint practicals. He treated Grey with as much respect as he would someone from the S class.
Though Clara was the namesake leader, she knew nothing about team management and strategies. So, when James took over, she didn't show any dissatisfaction.
"Why are you letting him guard the back, he's an auxiliary C class, how would I be ensured of my safety if he's behind me?" Clara protested vehemently, she had not a single ounce of faith on Grey, who was from the C class.
"Didn't you hear professor Zarnak, all of us have to contribute in the mission and show team spirit. Also, don't judge him just because he's from the C class. He had defeated an A class in a duel, he's no less than an A class, maybe even equal to a S class." James said earnestly.
Clara was taken aback, her brows creased up, she couldn't believe Grey was this strong, but if someone from S class himself was vouching for him, she couldn't dismiss it. Accepting the set-up, she didn't speak up anymore.
They then moved. James pushed past a tangle of thorny vines, their tendrils like grasping fingers, and approached the door. It groaned in protest as he pushed it open, revealing an interior that was even darker than the outside, a black maw that seemed to swallow the faint moonlight.
The air inside was stale and cold, tasting of dust and abandoned, forgotten things. Their footsteps echoed unnaturally on the unseen floorboards as they ventured deeper.
Clara's staff cast dancing shadows, briefly illuminating cobweb-draped furniture, covered with the ghostly white sheets, and the peeling wallpaper that clung to walls like diseased skin.
Every creak of the house settling, every rustle of an unseen creature made them flinch. James nodded at Cash as his presence vanished, and he moved ahead to scout the house.
They moved from room to room. The kitchen was a ruin of broken crockery. The living room held a grand, if decaying, fireplace and portraits. Up the creaking staircase, the bedrooms offered further glimpses into a past long gone, filled with dust-shrouded vanity tables and beds that sagged with the weight of time.
Hours seemed to pass in this morbid exploration, the tension a palpable thing that grated on their nerves. They had found nothing truly amiss, no immediate dangers, but the oppressive atmosphere of the house was a constant, gnawing presence.
Just then, Cash, who had been scouting ahead, let out a sharp gasp from below. The others immediately climbed down the stairs.
They converged on him, finding him standing at the edge of what appeared to be a pantry or a small storage room, located surprisingly deep within the house.
In the corner of the room, where a sturdy wooden floor should have been, was a gaping, jagged hole. It plunged into absolute darkness, exhaling a chill that was far deeper than they had felt above ground.
It was a chasm, a maw within a maw, leading to the unknown depths of the house's underground.
"W-What is this?" Clara's voice shook, the darkness and the depth inducing an unknown fear in her.
"Don't know. It doesn't look like it's been made recently." Brook said.
"If this is not natural and has been made by the authorities for the test, then we have to check it out, or else we'll fail the mission." James said in grave tone.
"Can you use the levitation spell?" he asked Clara.
"I-I haven't learnt it till now."
James's brows creased up, this was a very basic spell that the mages learn early. Helpless, he shook his head and didn't charge her.
Cash brought a rope lying around somewhere in the room. He tied it to the metal pipe plastered on the wall and threw the other end down.
"Let's move."
Moving ahead first, James was then followed by Clara, Chase, Brook and finally Grey.
Grey was seeing everything as clear as day inside that darkness, but even he couldn't gauge the depth of the hole, it was quite deep.
Grey's feet landed on the soft and damp ground. His boots sank inside the soft mud as water pooled up around his feet. He turned around and saw the four of them in front, standing still, since they were all blind right now, it was so dark that they couldn't even see their own hand, even the faint light of the stone in Clara's staff was helpless, unable to illuminate even herself.
The darkness was not a problem for Grey. Everything was clear in front of him. It was a small room, carved out from a huge stone, as the walls were smooth with cut marks all around.
"Cast a light orb mage, I'm blind here." Cash called out to Clara.
"W-Well…the thing is…"
Grey knew already that she couldn't. Because she only knew a single spell, and that was not light orb.
He was surveying around when suddenly, his gaze stopped right in front of them. Black lines formed on his forehead. A chill went down his spine.
"Move back, climb up immediately, RUN!!!" Grey screamed out.
The four of them were shocked at his intense reaction, but before they could ask him anything, the sound of piercing flesh came from where Cash was, as a guttering scream of pain followed.
"AAARGHHHH!!!!!"
A low guttural snarl echoed, as multiple pairs of red glowing, malevolent eyes appeared out of the dark, approaching them with a symphony of clicking claws and rasping breath.