The Unlikely Hero

Chapter 13. The First Signs of a Storm

With a hiss escaping through his lips, Elek slashed at yet another skeleton and it crumbled down in separate bones. He glanced up ahead at the swarm of bony enemies heading towards him and frowned grimly. He wasn't that worried about fighting these skeletons as they were rather easy to kill. A few swings of his broad sword and they were gonners. Yet, other things were on his mind and he felt dead worried about Aleta. She seemed to have some kind of a phobia of skeletons and he could only hope she was fine. Elek was sure she could deal with one or two skeletons by running away or burning them, but if she was to come upon a group of these bony things, she could be in quite some trouble.

Despite her valor and her strength, Aleta was a magician and a girl, too. She could not hold out long enough against a group of such skeletons, not until she overcame her fear. Unfortunately, Elek suspected that Aleta might have turned to the deeper section of the crypts and, the deeper he went, the more skeletons he encountered.

Gritting his teeth, the warrior slashed his way through the skeletons and rushed forward. After a short few minutes of thinking, he had decided the most logical thing to do was to find the source of the problem and eradicate it. If by then he still hadn't found Aleta, he would literally comb through the crypts looking for her. And he would find her no matter what.

With a determined nod of his head, Elek dashed into the next room and sliced at the skeletons with no mercy. There were around twenty or so here in this room, but they posed little danger to the warrior as one precise hit of his sword was enough to kill them. Yet, just as he was half through the skeletons in the room, a strange thing happened. He felt a strong pulse and a rumbling sound as if something had just exploded resounded off the walls. By the sound of it, the explosion was no further away than a few rooms and Elek pressed his lips into a tight line as he wondered if Aleta was fine. He turned to slash at the next skeleton, ready to finish this off as quickly as he could, but to his surprise, the skeletons were crumbling away by themselves. As if the thing that kept them going suddenly went off. The bones clattered down to the ground turning into dust. Elek stood quietly trying to make sure none of them were rising again.

Yet, the bones did not move and the warrior turned on his heel dashing forth into the next corridor heading to where the explosion took place. Even though he no longer encountered any skeletons, it still took him quite some time to maneuver through the labyrinth like crypts. Everywhere he went, there were only shattered bones on the ground and rusty swords lying around messily. This could mean only one thing and Elek felt his worries increase. If the source of the skeletons was eradicated, then who did it? Aleta? But she was so scared of them before. Did she manage to overcome her fears so soon?.. Still, even if she did so, this was no easy task. There could have been hundreds of those skeletons on the way to the center of the crypts and he himself would have had some troubles dealing with them alone.

"Aleta, please, be fine," he whispered as he dashed forth along a long corridor. He could see some light in front of him and the floor was littered with bones. Elek was sure he was nearing the heart of the crypts.

He was right. As soon as he reached the hall, he realized this was where everything happened. The floor of the hall was covered in bones and skulls, rusty shields and swords. Looking at this mess, Elek groaned realizing there must have been at least a hundred or so of them here.

"Aleta?!" he called as he made his way across the hall. "Aleta!"

He noticed there were scorched marks at the center of the hall, forming a circle. He could not make it out yet, but he had suspicions it was the remains of a magical portal. That would surely explain some things. Elek shook his head as he glanced around the hall once more.

"Aleta?" He called out again worriedly, hoping she was here somewhere.

The warrior made his way across the hall and when he finally reached its other end, his heart skipped a beat as his eyes noticed a small figure lying on the ground. Weirdly enough, she was lying on a clean empty circle with no bones around her. As if some force had scattered all the bones away from her in a radius of a few meters.