Gerhard called out for his guardian, "Vlad!" but as the vulture had warned, the earth between them interfered with their communication. "Can you hear me?!" Gerhard shouted into the darkness, but there was no response.
The tunnel, which wasn't very spacious to begin with, was halfway filled with solid waste due to the months-long drought in Bricester. This forced Gerhard to slouch, slowing him down considerably. The stench of human and beast excrement, rotting cadavers, and other unspeakable things was overwhelming. But he soldiered on, following a pair of fresh footsteps that appeared to belong to a man and a woman. 'Sir Richard and a woman... But who?' he wondered. 'The midwife, perhaps?' he pondered. The pounding of the footsteps above suddenly ceased, replaced by the eerie silence of the tunnel and the sloshing of the waste that now reached his knees. Based on the passage of time and the silence above, Gerhard deduced that he was beneath the Queen's Garden and would soon emerge on the other side of the wall. He prayed that the pipeline would also end there.
Gerhard trudged on through the waste that now filled half of the conduit, forcing him to crawl on all fours just to fit through the narrow pipe. The noxious stench was so close and pervasive now that every breath he took left a rancid taste in his mouth, causing him to choke and gag in disgust.
Suddenly, a loud boom echoed through the conduit, shaking the pipe and causing waste to slosh over Gerhard's face and body. It seemed that heavy bodies were colliding above ground. "What in Heaven’s name is happening up there?" Gerhard muttered, his frustration evident in his voice. "Could it be that the Chiefs have found Sir Richard already? But that's impossible. The pipe stretches on indefinitely..." His confusion lingered, but his communication with Vlad was cut off, leaving him with no way to find out. As pounding and stomping continued above, Gerhard had no choice but to press forward, fighting wave after wave of nausea.
"Ugh!" Finally, unable to hold back any longer, Gerhard’s heaving resulted in a violent fit of retching. If things could not become any more revolting, the waste around him was covered with a layer of his own bile, which he now had to wade through with his hands and feet. Remarkably, his senses began to quickly numb to his surroundings by the sheer intensity of the revulsion that persisted with every breath and every step. His limbs were now moving mechanically as he followed the faint footprints ahead.
After what seemed like an endless and nauseating journey through a fetid marsh of excrement, Gerhard's eyes caught sight of multiple streaks of natural light up ahead. He had at last reached the final stretch of the tunnel. The moonlight pierced through what appeared to be cracks in the trap door above that had been closed shut, signaling the end of his repulsive ordeal.
Gerhard fervently prayed that Sir Richard and the abductors had not gone too far. As he continued to crawl through the narrow and putrid tunnel, he noticed a steep decline beyond the trapdoor, and the faint sound of water lapping against the shore. It suddenly dawned on him that the pipeline drained out to the Berisel River. 'How did I fail to see that?' he thought. With a renewed sense of purpose, Gerhard pushed himself towards the trapdoor.
As he approached, Vlad's voice buzzed incomprehensibly in Gerhard's ears, but the interference from the earth made it impossible to make out what he was saying.
“G-Ger —”
“G-Gerharrrrr–”
“Wa -”
"What?!" Gerhard yelled, straining to make out the words of his guardian. He knew that the only way to regain clear communication was to leave the fetid tunnel behind. Determined, he quickened his pace, pushing himself through the last twenty feet of waste. At last, he reached the trapdoor which hovered about six feet above him and led to the surface. Without hesitation, Gerhard used his mana to cast Thrust, flinging the door open with a loud crash.
Using Mana (5 m)
Activating blue strain.
Thrust.
Simultaneously, Vlad’s urgent voice rang clear in Gerhard’s ears – “Gerhard! Go back!” – and a hooded figure appeared, leaning over the opening and uttering in a hushed voice, “Oopsi!”
The sound of whirring echoed through the tunnel as the hooded figure slowly placed his palm over the opening.
Gerhard, wide-eyed, stared straight into the palm of the silhouetted figure. “V-Vlad!” caught completely off guard, he called for the help of his guardian. Immediately, he turned away and flung himself away from the opening, just as a deafening boom echoed through the tunnel.
In an instant, a vacuum created inside the conduit, took every breath out of Gerhard’s lungs and lifted him off the waste for a split second. Explosions erupted all around him as the roof of the tunnel collapsed, sending rocks and debris cascading down on him. But before he could even fathom his next move, a merciless wave of earth engulfed him, sweeping away the waste from under his feet and burying him alive in a tomb of dirt and filth. Gerhard struggled to crawl his way to the nearest pocket of air, but he couldn't outrun the collapsing tunnel as it devoured him, imprisoning him in suffocating darkness.
“Pwah!” Gerhard spat out the putrid waste and grunted under the heavy weight of the earth as it squeezed out the little air left in him.
“Gerhard!” Vlad’s panicked voice echoed from above as explosions kicked up a dust cloud that reached the skies obscuring his vision. “Cast Thrust! Thrust yourself out, Gerhard! I’m coming!” Vlad bellowed as he continued diving towards his knight.
Gerhard gasped for breath, his face now a thick paste of waste and dust. As he pushed his palms against the suffocating earth, he summoned all his strength to cast the Thrust skill. But before he could break free from his muddy tomb, a sudden jolt of electricity surged through his body, followed by a searing pain as a sharp object tore through the dirt and pierced his mana shield over his lower back, leaving him to cry out in agony. “Arghhh!”
Warning.
You have received a damage of 2790 points.
900(AD) + 900(AD) x 210%(CS) = 2790
You have been dealt a devastating critical strike. I suggest you run.
Warning
Your mana shield of 460 points has been completely depleted.
The next strike could prove fatal.
‘2790!’ Gerhard had never seen an attack damage this high let alone receive one. Panic flooded his heart as he laid prostrate in what could very well become his final resting place. He had always envisioned his passing to take place on the white marble altar within the safe confines of the holy temple, not buried alive in earth and certainly not six feet under a pile of human waste. But what truly troubled him was the fact that he was only level 21. He was nine levels shy of earning his entrance into Paradise. He had devoted his entire life to Ora and the Temple, hoping to one day proudly walk through the Pearly Gates. In fact, every night he dreamed of entering the grandest realm of Paradise - Arcadia, where he would join the throng of the greatest heroes of earth. But at only level 21, his spirit would aimlessly wander the wilderness. He could not allow himself to meet his end this way.
Muffled noise of taunting laughter erupted from the surface, followed by the unmistakably proud yet forceful voice of Sir Richard, the Captain of the Royal Guards. "Hahaha! Well, I don’t know who you are, but I can say with certainty that you are no Chief Priest, considering your utter inability to put up any sort of fight against me," he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "Now, I'll be honest. I am curious to know how you managed to find the passageway so quickly, but unfortunately for you, I am in the middle of something quite monumental, history-changing, if you will. You are an unexpected variable, and therefore have no place in my equation. So my apologies, stranger, but may Ora guide your path to the Threshold," he bid Gerhard farewell as he raised his sword above him.
“Arghh!” Gerhard summoned every ounce of strength left in him, wiggling his toes and his fingers to regain mobility in his limbs. But he knew his death was imminent, as he felt the blade returning to snuff out his life. ‘If I can just turn my body!’ Gerhard cried in his heart as he unleashed a series of Thrusts – Boom. Boom. Boom. –to create some room for himself to maneuver. ‘Ora have mercy!’ he begged with gritted teeth as he fired another burst of air which propelled his body sideways, just enough to free his arms.
“Good enough!” Gerhard exclaimed as he pressed his palms against the weight of the heavy earth around him. With a loud whirring noise, Gerhard mustered up as much mana as he could, his eyes turning a bright blue and all the hairs on his body standing on end. The earth vibrated as the metal blade returned for his life, cutting through the surface and plowing through the earth as he strained with all his might, channeling the mana into his hands before it was too late.
Using Mana (55 m)
Activating blue strain.
Thrust.
Boom!
Despite the deafening noise that erupted within the vacuum, it wasn’t enough to propel Gerhard free from his grave. However, it was just enough to dislodge the blade a few inches to the left. These precious inches proved to be the difference between life and death for Gerhard as the glistening blue blade that descended upon him was jostled off its path by the impetus. And the blade, instead of splitting the priest’s skull in half, cut across his left eye.
“Argh!” Gerhard cried out as his bloodied eye glowed in the blue light that emanated from the blade that sliced through his flesh. Despite the shock and pain, Gerhard recognized the Stormbringer, one of the most powerful swords ever forged using Darnish steel, said to command the force of wind. As time seemed to stretch out, he watched the blade slowly slide out the way it came, leaving a trail of freely pouring blood in its wake. But instead of being reeled back to the surface, the blade stopped just a few feet above his eyes. Gerhard stared intently at its tip, glistening in the dark, poised to strike once more. Gerhard, out of options, resigned to his fate, closed his eyes, and listened to the sound of metal overturning dirt.
Shriek!
Suddenly a loud piercing cry of a vulture erupted from the skies drowning out every other noise. Vlad, Gerhard’s guardian, was plummeting from the lower skies, diving head first towards the scene.
Gerhard Kuhn, do you wish to transform into a Guardian Knight?
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