Whispers of a Dead Empire

Here is another chapter! We have just a few more until we switch back to Calixa and get back to world and kingdom building ^_^. another five or six I think, 

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Seeing our chance, Gunther and I threw ourselves off of the building. Thankfully, since we left most of our gear back in the safe zone, the fall wasn't too bad. Nothing a quick tuck and roll couldn't fix. I impacted the ground and quickly exhaled my held breath, and immediately began running. A quiet impact that followed shortly after told me that Gunter had landed. We both ran towards the door we entered, hoping to make it away quietly, while all the other undead seemed to fight amongst themselves.

I quickly pulled away the wooden slab, threw it away, and swung open the door, letting Gunther out first. I threw back my head, making sure that we were not being followed. However, what I saw was shocking. Even more of the uniform undead were pouring out of the now visible buildings, quickly swarming the small horde of undead pushing into the outpost. My heart was hammering in my chest as I watched the carnage unfold.

It was terrifying. This domain was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and every faucet of knowledge I thought I knew on the undead proved wrong. I tore my attention away from them and followed Gunther out. We hurried past the outpost and down the road, confident that all the zombies' attention was on the soldiers they were attacking.

I could feel my chest throbbing from how hard my heart was beating. Fear spurred me forth as if they were flames licking my heels. I didn't have the energy to fight anything else at the moment. Fighting that praetorian absolutely drained me. It forced out all my last resort skills and countered everything that I could throw at it.

Once we were out of distance for most of the undead, I stopped and spun around. The soldiers in the outpost seemed to have already pushed out the bulk of the zombies and were already cleaning up the stragglers. What really chilled my blood was that the two praetorians had already fought their way through and seemed hell-bent on catching us.

"Shit, we need to make a break for it," I called out to Gunther as I booked it even faster than before. I prayed to whatever gods existed that Carter and Alinore were nearby. The muscles in my legs were close to giving out, the pain in my legs seemed to only grow in strength with each step I took, and they felt like they were tearing. I threw another panicked look behind me and saw that they were gaining on us with each passing second, and for the second time today, I felt like I was going to die.

That was until I saw the familiar silvery strands of Lunar magic as they tore a divide between us and the praetorians. Alinore drifted from in between the trees and casted another spell, which quickly condensed into a silvery dart and shot towards the one on the right. Unfortunately, it dodged to the side yet didn't make a further move to chase us. They stood there menacingly for a moment, staring at us before they turned and went back into the direction of the outpost.

I almost fell from the relief that coursed through me. Well, mainly because my body was nearing its limit. Gunther reached out and caught me as I fell and supported most of my weight. "Thank the gods," I muttered to myself as Gunther helped me walk.

"What in the nine heavens happened out there?" Carter asked as he materialized from the trees. Three arrows were already locked into his bow, ready to be fired at a moment's notice.

"We snuck into the outpost, but there was a strange skeleton waiting for us. Before we could kill it, it rang a bell and made a break for it. However, before we could follow it, we were engaged by those two spirits. Almost killed Gunter and I both before the zombie horde broke in and all hell broke loose." I quickly explained as my walk turned into a limp. The after-effects of quick steps quickly started to damage my body, and I wasn't sure how much more I could take.

"Wait, two spirits almost overpowered you and Gunther? How is that even possible?" Carter asked us, his voice laced with no small amount of skepticism.

"Aye. They were at least adept swordsmen, and they moved as if a war maiden trained them." Gunther spoke between huffs. He clearly wasn't in any better shape than I was. I mean, we were both taken by surprise, and they forced many of our last resort skills out at the start of the fight.

"That doesn't bode well. Hopefully, the War Maiden isn't undead. If we encounter her, I doubt we stand a chance; we don't have enough ranged fighters to make much difference. Maybe once you two recover, we might be able to pull something off." I nodded my head, agreeing with Carter's statement. War Maidens were renowned fighters, able to master any melee weapon given to them. There weren't many around because of the class evolution requirements and the rarity of titles needed to get it. But those that were around were fearsome fighters. There were very few people who could go toe to toe with high-leveled ones.

"Hopefully. Anyway, let's head back to the safe zone. Gunther and I need a chance to recover." Carter nodded while Alinore rifled through her small bag and brought out a shimmering red liquid encased in a glass vial.

"Here, take one. This should help cut a lot of the pain. Once we get there, I can focus on healing you two." Alinore passed the potion over to me while she went to work fishing out another for Gunther. I quickly hit the cork and threw back the thick liquid. It rushed from its container like a thick syrup and coated my tongue with the taste of an acidic strawberry. Though much to my chagrin, the acidity was much more potent than the fruit.

Almost immediately, I felt better as a liquid warmth flowed through my veins. I could feel the muscles start to stitch themselves together and reposition. I never really got over how the potion worked. It felt like thousands of ants crawling under my skin, fixing everything wrong with one swoop. It was a godsend. The sad part was that we could only use one potion a day. Otherwise, our bodies would react negatively and start forming strange growths both on the inside and outside. Once that stage occurred, well, it was over. You would grow emaciated, and your hair would start falling out, and eventually, you would just pass away.

As the potion worked its magic, I could finally stand of my own volition. It didn't help my stamina any, but it made walking much easier than it had before. I passed the glass vile back to Alinore since keeping it would help cut the cost of having to refill it down. "Thanks. How many do we have left?" I asked as I rolled my neck, trying to work out the kinks and letting the potion fix whatever was wrong.

"We have six more in total." Ah, that was good enough to bail us out of any situation that may come our way. Hopefully, we didn't need to use them again.

"Alright. We should be back in the safe zone in just a few minutes. Once we get there, we need to take a break and discuss our findings a bit."

I stumbled into the cabin, my legs close to giving up. Even with the amplified boost of the potion, I was still on fumes. I walked through the hall, and into the main living area, and over to the couch. I threw myself onto it, desperate to get off of my feet. Tiny sparks of pain danced through my calves and radiated up through my stomach. I really hated using side-step, and I was still in the process of training the skill down for the stamina reductions. If I didn't need to sleep or eat, I would have finished it by now. But alas, I am only human. There is only so much that I can do in one day.

I rolled onto my back as the rest of the team entered the cabin and found seats. I stared up at the ceiling and took a deep breath in through my nose, and noticed something strange in the air. Since I have been here, only the scent of death assailed my nose. But this was far softer, and it was almost human. "Do you guys smell that?" I asked as I sat up and began looking around the room.

"Smell what?" Carter asked as he stood up and walked over to the window, choosing to monitor our surroundings.

"It smells different here. Like the scent of fresh grass and a lake." I told them I sniffed again as I tried to pinpoint the source. I stood up, ignoring the pain that was flaring in my lower half, and followed it. I had an acute sense of smell or at least thought I did. I followed the smell around my bags, where it seemed the strongest before it seemed to trail off around the cabin.

I quickly undid the wrapping around my bag and looked through it, and nothing seemed to be missing. "Are you alright, boss?" Carter asked without tearing his gaze from the windows.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. That fight took a lot out of me." I quickly put everything back together and sat back on the couch. Maybe I was just starting to lose it and was imagining things. However, before I lost hope, I had a thought cross my mind. "Alinore, do you see any traces of magic in here?"

She gave me a strange look before she activated her skill. Her eyes shifted colors as she looked around the room. Her questioning expression quickly shifted into a shocked one. "Y..yes. There appears to have been a very high-level teleport into the room and a teleport out a few moments later."

As she said that, I quickly sat up, "Carter, do a quick sweep of the room. Alinore, do you see any magic tampering with anything in here?" My mind quickly went into overdrive as I tried to think of everywhere we could have been tampered with. We are supposed to be the only ones in this domain.