Useless Bones

The Escape

I am venturing forth into the dark tunnel, holding a small glowing mushroom in one hand and my makeshift sword in the other. I feel proud of my work on the sword for what I had at my disposal. The blade is reminiscent of an obsidian knife but far longer, with a rough hit made from some moss.

I reach the next opening, another plateau around the pit. This time, everything is pitch dark except for a dim light gray glowing circle on the ceiling with smaller patches of darker gray.

The ground is covered in a long, soft grass that rustles softly as I drag my feet through it. As I walk, I nearly bump into a towering pine tree that's wider than I can reach around.

I continue walking forward with the rustle of the grass below my feet. I come across more towering pine trees getting closer together where I can see the previous tree behind me and the other in front of me by the dim light of the mushroom.

I feel a powerful wind blow but gently at the same time. I hear all the trees groan and begin to sway. Along with the trees groaning as they roc, I hear a different sound, and it could almost be mistaken for the trees.

The wind stops, and everything stops making noise; not even the grass underfoot utters a sound. I notice pairs of glowing red dots forming around me just out of sight. One gets close enough to the light that I can see a sizeable silvery snout with glisteningly sharp teeth.

Fuck, a pack of wolves. I think to myself as I see more snouts emerging from the darkness surrounding me. I drop my glowing mushroom and ready my sword with two hands, prepared to slash at whatever lunges for me first.

The largest one lunges at me first; I see it and react faster than it can. My sword slices clean through its neck, with its head falling to the ground, and its headless body flies past me as I dodge it and disappears into the darkness.

Enraged by their comrade dying, a few more lunge at me at the same time. I grip my sword tightly and swing in a circular motion. With all my might, I effortlessly cleaved them in half. I dart my head around, looking for who will attack me next, but the rest of the wolves seem to be backing into the darkness.

A booming howl shakes the air, and I turn to see a wolf twice the size of the others emanating what looks like blue sparks of electricity. I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and leap to the ground before realizing what's happening.

A large beam of sparking, dim blue light converges from the giant wolf, and I barely manage to get down. My right shoulder has had the clothes singed to a crisp, and I can feel sharp pins and needles from the electrical burn, but it's still nothing.

I get to my knees before the wolf tackles me again. I stop it from gouging out my throat by holding it back with my sword against its neck, but it's not enough to cut through the beast. The wolf only seems to get stronger as it stands above me, gnashing its teeth towards my face, its slobber blinding me and getting everywhere.

Some of the foam makes it to my hand and makes it slippery enough for the blade to slip through my hand, leaving another deeper gash. I slide out of the way as the beast goes for my neck again.

But I am not fast enough as it grabs a piece of my left arm and rips off a large chunk of flesh so the bone is visible. I gag in my throat at the sight but take this chance to escape its grasp.

I slide out from under it and stand up again, stopping the excessive bleeding from my arm. I try to raise both arms to my sword, but my left arm hangs limply at my side. Discouraged by my chances with only one arm, I still submit my sword, ready to give my all for another chance at this shitty life.

I charge at the giant wolf in front of me; it lunges at me, bearing claws and fangs. Just before we reach each other, I slide down to my knees and slice my sword through with just my right arm, and I am blinded with steaming blood.

I quickly stand back up and wipe my eyes with my only good arm. Through the burning and the blurriness, I see two halves of the beast lying on the ground with guts and blood spewing out.

Even without a clear picture of what it is, my brain fills in the rest, and I am instantly disgusted and wretch up what was left of whatever food I ate all over the now bloodied ground.

I am in no shape to fight those other wolves if they come back. I grab my glowing mushroom, now covered in blood, and hold it in my mouth, and I jog to where the previous tunnel upward was.

I make it to the tunnel, and after I felt a safe distance, I collapsed to the floor and leaned against the wall. I do not know how I made it out of there. I thought

A notification window appears before me. They always know when to catch me at a good time; that's nice, at least. It informs me that I have unlocked a skill called "swordmaster," and it's already level 5.

Swordmaster- Learning the way of the sword in a life-and-death battle is the truest way to learn about the sword. This skill helps you recall those times of life and death and hone your skills far surpassing others.

Arc Blast- Harnesses magic to create an electrical charge, then releases it in a beam.

And I can get the skills of creatures I kill. That wolf must have used Arc Blast, as the description is spot on to what it looked like.

After a short rest, I can somehow "turn off" my muscles to recover faster; I just wish I had learned that sooner. I push myself off the tunnel wall, still unable to use my left arm.

I come to another tunnel opening that leads back to a passage winding up the giant hole. Walking, I see large rats or mice scurry around at my feet. They are larger than my feet and look like they have sharp teeth. I must look too dead for them to want to eat me, and that's a low bar.

I want to try out magic, so I point my sword at a large grouping of them and think Arc Blast. I feel an electrical charge building in my body, then transfer to my arm, and I see tiny sparks radiating off me. With a loud *Crack* Lighting shoots out from the tip of my sword, a shockwave pushes me back, and I stumble.

The shockwave was much stronger than it felt as I see a few giant rats get tossed into the pit that were next to me, and the group I was aiming at are now black outlines on the already dark rock.

As most of the rats run away, I see one with a strange white swirl of hair on its head run up to my feet. It sits there staring up at me and then the glowing mushroom in my mouth as if saying,

"Are you going to eat that?"

After killing that wolf, I don't think I could eat for another day. As the walls of the path were now lit with tiny blue crystals, I didn't need a light source anymore, so I handed it down to the little guy. It took it in both paws, then to its mouth, and hurried up my pant leg, and I lost track of it.

After checking myself, I figured it must have jumped off, so I continue up the path. I soon see a blindingly bright white light coming from the end of the path. I also hear a murmur of familiar voices as I grow near. I soon recognize them as my classmates; I saw their figures fade into view. They all had the same faces, but they wore metal armor, robes, and leather armor, with swords, bows, and staffs.

Overwhelmed with seeing something familiar for the first time in what feels like months, I start tearing up, and I speed up my hobble toward them with my arm out, hoping anyone would let me hug them. God, I miss warmth.

A few of them notice me and point me out to everyone else. Relieved I say

"Hi everyone! It's been so long!"

But all that comes out is a

"Mmuurghhphhggg"

As I recall, my windpipe is still crushed. A few of them look nervously at each other and back at me. Then I hear Daimarion speak above everyone.

"I thought we had killed all the zombies in this area. I guess that loser came back as a zombie."

I then hear a flame roar to life, and a small ball of fire pushes me back, then it spreads quickly, burning every part of my body. I roll around, trying to extinguish myself, but the fire still burns, and I tire myself.

I lay on the ground with the awful pain of burning alive while watching the people I once trusted laugh and continue like it was nothing. The last thing I see before everything fades is Arceil's expression of fear as she watches me burn and hear Daimarion say

"He won't be bothering us anymore. Now he's just Useless Bones."