Chapter 12 - Second Raid (III)

Dragging his sword out of the golem's kneecap, Fable gathered the 200 hunters together.

"Are we just going to sit here until another golem spawns or something?" Rein sat down.

"Nope. We're going to start digging," Fable smiled patting him on the back. "Remember how we first found the golem rising up from beneath the sand? That must mean it's either being magically spawned or manufactured down there."

"How the hell are we going to dig that far down."

"Like this," Fable held his sword and positioned it a few meters before him

"[Slash],"

A condensed ball of mana gathered at his sword as he swung.

*BANG!*

The sand exploded in all directions as a large crater formed.

"Just keep doing that," He said, wiping his face and spitting out mouthfuls of sand.

"Yeah. Maybe if I want to go blind after this," Rein grumbled as he shook his head, trying to get all the sand from sticking to his face.

"Then what other idea do you have?"

"Why can't we just wait for another golem to rise up and then try digging then? I'll be way easier cause the sand would fall back in anyways..." Sarah contributed.

"Hm. We can try," Fable nodded, dusting his sleeves and walking back to sit down.

"Feel like I've just wasted two days of my life," Rein grumbled, sitting beside Fable, opening a packet of cookies and throwing it up in the air, and catching it in his mouth.

And in what seemed like another eternality of waiting. The ground finally trembled and a bump began forming beneath the sand.

"It's here!" Fable shouted, jumping to his feet, and grabbed his sword.

"[Slash]!" He chanted, aiming his spell below the golem's feet as it rose up.

With a large blast, the small dent in the desert sand erupted with a loud bang, causing sand to fly everywhere.

"I think that's the place," Rein whistled, looking down the large crater formed.

Beneath the sand, a glimpse of a black metal trapdoor could be seen slowly shutting.

"Jump in," Fable hopped down, followed closely by Rein and some of the hesitant raiders. The remaining of them stayed up in fear.

"Where are we?" Sarah whispered, spinning around in the darkness.

"[Flaming Sword]," Rein cast, summoning a flaming sword in hands, glowing the surroundings.

Around them stood thousands of golems lined up in a straight formation. Their figure creating a shadow that loomed over them.

"It's a golem factory?" Fable walked up to one, "It's deactivated," He noted, seeing the usual small red lights not present in the ones in front of him.

"If there's a factory, who's the owner?" Sarah frowned looking around, noticing a door on the left side of the room. "I think we need to go that way," She pointed at the door walking over cautiously.

Turning the knob, she slowly opened it, peeking out.

In front of them stood a long dark corridor. The walls made with black mossy bricks, the dusty floor littered with patches of water, dripped down from a leaky pipe running parallel to the roof. The path lit up by dim torches.

"What the hell is this place?" She whispered, sneaking out with everyone following close behind.

Wandering down the corridor, avoiding stepping on the puddles, the long corridor continued to stretch out.

*Twing!*

An arrow flew past them, scratching Sarah's face as she stumbled backward falling onto the ground, "There are traps ahead!"

The group stopped and stood in caution as another arrow shot out from within a section of the wall a few centimeters in front of them, followed shortly by a whole barricade of arrows, blocking them from progressing any further.

"We could've died," A small whimper came from one of the raiders as panic arose, fully facing the threat of death for the first time since the appearance of the first golem.

"Calm down. It must've activated from a trigger! Look around," Fable frowned making sure Sarah was okay before inspecting the walls and ground beneath them.

The dim lighting of the flame-lit torches cast exaggerated shadows on every nook and cranny of the brick walls, causing it to be more difficult to see anything fine details at all.

"How are we going to find it," Sarah wiped the blood off her cheeks, standing up.

"Do you have that golem head from a while ago?" Fable asked Rein, who rummaged in his bag, taking and throwing the head over to Fable.

Fable caught the head, gently tossing it past the arrow traps.

Nothing happened.

"Did it use up the arrows?" Rein asked his eyebrow raised.

"Or it's height activated," Fable muttered, taking out the steel pole again and whipping it in front of him.

He hit the areas in front of him. Nothing.

"I'll try walking through," He breathed out, taking his shield and covering himself with it. "Wish me luck."

He slowly shuffled forward as Sarah gripped her bow with anxiety.

First step.

Second Step.

Third step.

Nothing,

He kept going.

Another step.

*Thud* He froze

A singular arrow hit his shield.

The group gasped as some covered their mouth. It was really close. Right on the outer edge of the shield. The arrow had pierced through the reinforced wood and its tip could be seen a few centimeters away from piercing Fable's shoulder.

Gripping the end of the arrow, he pulled it off and threw it on the ground.

He picked up the golem head that laid before him from the previous throw and tossed it in front of him, a little higher this time, and surely another barricade of arrow flew across missing him and his shield by a hair.

'How long is this trap anyway...' Fable thought, looking ahead. The traps were camouflaged to the wall so it was impossible to tell where it would start and where it would end.

"Let's just try one more time," He muttered, walking up cautiously to the head once again,

This time when he tossed it, there was no reaction.

'Is that the end?' He made his way forward.

Nothing.

Turning around he beckoned the group over,

"There may be more traps ahead of us. So watch out. He once again tossed the golem head like a bowling bowl.

*Crash!* A large 10m radius of the ground collapsed ahead, showing nothing but darkness beneath.

*CRIIIAAAA!* A loud cry sounded from beneath, Its loud shriek instantly caused their whole body to stiffen up, paralyzing them to the spot.

"I'll assume that's the boss we're looking for." Rein commented, a shiver running up his spine.

"Could be a trap as well." Rein thought, debating whether to jump down or not.

If they did end up going down, the chances of it being a trap and having a way back up would be extremely thin. However, if it was the boss they were looking for, escaping from the fight when in trouble would also seem impossible.

"What do you guys think," Fable turned around after being unparalysed, asking Sarah and Rein.

"I can jump down first and warn you if it's a trap," Rein suggested, "I'll be able to fly back up with my wings,"

Sarah nodded, having no other ideas.

"That's the plan then," Rein grinned, jumping down into the hole nonchalantly.

A distant thud echoed out after a few seconds as he landed below.

"It's dark down here!" Rein's voice echoed out, as he cast his [Flaming Sword], easily lighting up the area.

The soft glow of the sword illuminated the large area around him, displaying 20 large cylinder-like test-tube placed around a large round empty area in the middle, where Rein currently stood.

"I think you can come down now! There's no one down here!" Rein called out, frowning, "Just some odd test-tube-like structures!"

Fable and Sarah proceeded to descend upon the lower floor, stumbling on their long fall down. Behind them, several others followed close behind, although many stayed up. Too afraid to jump an unknown height.

"What is this?" Fable looked at the cylinders. Inside were green-like liquid with the consistency of water and an oxygen tube floating in the middle with bubbles rising from it.

"Did they keep something in these test tubes? Some sort of specimen?" Fable hypothesized, looking carefully at the other 19 as well. At the back of each test-tube, a small door could be opened to access the inside of the test-tube.

"It seems like some sort of experiment went on down here," Sarah muttered, looking at a small digital screen located at the bottom of the tube. The display showed the percentage of oxygen in the oxygen canister remaining, the heart rate, and all vital information regarding the experimental subject.

"So. If there's a test-tube that stored experimental subjects. An oxygen task that's still producing oxygen. Where are the subjects and what was that shriek we heard?" Rein suddenly asked, cautiously looking around, swinging his sword slowly around.

Suddenly, a large gust of wind blew past them as the flaming sword swayed, completely extinguished in seconds.

"Something's here!" He shouted, as a loud scream echoed from above and a loud thud could be heard as a body dropped from above.