In the lair

Crack.

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Crack.

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Crack.

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'What place is this?'

The crunching sound of bones underneath his feet gave Hex an unpleasant feeling.

The ground seemed filled with bones of various sizes. It was the first time Hex was glad to be surrounded by darkness.

He rather not see what he was stepping on exactly. He tried to avoid overthinking but he couldn't deny that some of the bone sizes could easily be human sized.

'This should be the lair of some deadly beast. What fucking luck.'

Hex cursed inwards with a worried look on his face. Bones didn't lie. And these bones were screaming. Screaming of some malicious horror.

Hex felt his heart beat wildly against his chest. He wanted to leave this place quickly.

He hurried along. The sounds beneath his feet turned louder and less careful but he didn't care.

'If the beast is near it won't matter. I wouldn't be able to escape the senses of such a predator.'

Hex made his mind up. He rather took his chance hurrying than to try being careful so he could escape undetected.

For a while nothing happened. The muffled sound of his steps in the darkness was the only that existed.

'What is that?' Hex was focused foremost on getting away. But as he followed his path, he noticed a faint glow appear up ahead.

He slowed in his tracks. He didn't know whether he was running away or towards danger.

'I still don't see a way up. Nor is there another path. Let's see whether I need to cut my heart open or not,' Hex thought, feeling worried for himself.

He still had the beast crystals harvested from the wolves in his pouch. He could use them to gain a high burst of power, like he experienced during his first mission.

But he rather didn't have to. No normal human would willingly cut his own heart open.

'I wonder if I can level up and gain a second Blessing by now. My control over my energy and the glyph have improved tremendously.'

The source of the glow was getting closer. Hex was happy to notice the decline in the amount of bones laying around.

He was worried about alerting a predator in advance. But with the 'cleaner' ground he would make less noise.

Up close he noticed the glow came out a wide opening in the wall. It seemed that the place on the other side was well illuminated.

This baffled him. He hadn't heard of animals that needed or used light. Then it suddenly hit him.

'Could this be a human habitat? But what human would live here?'

The answer of that question entered his mind almost simultaneously with the question.

'This might have something to do with the Dawnbringers.'

That was the only conclusion he could reach as he organized everything he knew about them.

The opening was wide and served as an entry point to another cave.

With some trepidation Hex stood beside the opening and peeped inside. He was very cautious.

He was strong but nowhere near people who apparently were destroying towns and cities.

The sight inside caused his mouth to fall open. It wasn't rusty or dirty.

No, inside the cave seemed to have been transformed into a sophisticated space with an open area and three doors at the other end.

The open area was well lit with the help of many moonstones fixed on the walls and the ceiling.

There were a few chairs and a nice table in the middle of the area and on one side he even saw an improvised sink.

'What the hell?'

Hex didn't know what to make of all he was seeing. The place seemed empty. It emboldened Hex to enter the cave.

'If I can find some helpful clues, the trip here would have been worth it.'

The open area was empty. He didn't find anything usable.

That left him with the three wooden doors. He nearly felt his heart coming into his mouth as he walked to the first door.

He pressed the handle and carefully pushed the door open. As soon as the door opened he heard the sound of cages rattling and soft growls.

The familiar sound of beasts made him enter immediately.

He found himself facing two rows of cages filled with beasts. They were pretty subdued. They lay slumped on the floor, not showing him any reaction.

In front of the cages stood a small table with a thin notebook.

Curious to see the content, Hex opened the notebook and read it.

"...administered doses increase the strength and wildness of the creatures."

"...the beast in a berserk state don't follow rhyme or reason."

"...the first bear lost control. It fell on a sharp spike. (Body was found by a young Hunter)."

Hex eyes narrowed as he read the information inside. It was clear that the Dawnbringers were behind the strange behavior of the beasts.

But the thing that shocked him was the fact that the bear he got his first crystal from, was an experiment gone bad for the Dawnbringers.

"How long have they been planning this?"

The thoroughness with which the Dawnbringers worked worried him. If they made one mistake, the entire town of Grindeston would be destroyed.

He put the notebook inside and approached the second door.

As soon as he opened the door he felt his blood turn cold.

There were again two rows of cages placed in the room. But these cages didn't imprison animals. They imprisoned humans.

Seldom had Hex felt so much anger well inside him. To make things worse, he recognized a few sickly faces staring blankly in front of them.

They were Crevice Hunters from the slums. He might not have known them personally but he had seen them around.

He ran up to a cage and kneeled in front.

"Can you hear me? Who did this to you? Do you know where the keys are?"

His voice was high and urgent. He tried to speak to an old man he had now and then.

But there was no response.

Hex took his sword and broke the lock.

"Come," he urged the man inside. But there was no response.

The man kept looking in front of him. He didn't even blink. He kept staring.

"Come on! Anyone?" Hex rattled the cages with his sword. He hoped to get a reaction, any reaction.

But the people just kept looking or laying around. They lacked all rhyme or reason to exist.

Hex felt helpless. He had to go. But could he leave all these people here?

"B-big b-brother?"

The soft stammering voice jolted Hex into reality. He turned towards the source.

From within a cage in the middle a young boy called as he stood up slowly.

The familiar face broke his heart.

"Gorge?! What are you doing here?"

He ran towards the cage within which Gorge lay. With Hex's assistance Gorge got out of the cage.

Like the rest of the people Gorge was weak and starved. Hex held him tightly.

He felt George's weakness. He didn't know about the others, but he was taking the young men with him.

Just as he exited the second room, he heard someone come towards their location.

The person was already close. Hex even could see his shadow on the ground.