The Life/Death of Ray

Chapter 1: Awakening

     A heavenly voice resenates through the darkness. "Rise my champion of darkness, rise and smite all those who dare desecrate my realm." With that Raymin awoke with a jolt of life, breathing heavily, and sweating profusely. He looks around at the dimly lit catacombs confused as to why he is alive again. Raymin begins to think to himself, "what the fuck is happening?!?" He begins to get up, stuggling a little bit. As he attemps to get up he falls to his knees, his vision blurring slightly. He takes a second to compose himself. He finally gets up on his feet after a few seconds. As he looks around the room, he sees a stairway with light coming from the top. "Gotta start somewhere I guess," Raymin mutters to himself. He begins stumbling towards the stairs. As he reaches the stairs, he hears faint voices coming from the top. He takes a moment to gather his strength and begins to climb. As he gets farther up the voices get clearer and louder. It seems to be a female voice and one or two male voices. "Hurry up and get the damned door unlocked already!" A male voice exclaimed. "Alright, alright geez these mausoleums aren't easy to get into. Most of the time once they're closed, they're for good." The female voice says exasperated. "Don't even know why you'd want to get in here just a bunch of old dead people." "Are ya stupid? If they took the time to seal them off so well, there has to be something valuable in there." The other voice said. As the mysterious voices went on Raymin looked for a way out. After searching the door Raymin finds what he assumes to be a switch, and pulls it. With a loud THUNK the door began to slowly open. "That a girl! I guess you are useful for something." The male voice exclaimed. "Umm, that wasn't me." "What do you mean that wasn't you! Then who was it?" At that moment Raymin stepped out of the mausoleum and saw the three mysterious people standing there. The girl, only about 26, was wearing leather armor and equipped with knives and daggers. The first man of the group was a gruff looking mercenary type with a simple sword and shield. And the last man was a shady looking man in a cloak. It was hard to make out anything about him at all. "What the hell are you!?" The mercenary yells terrified, while drawing his sword. "What?" Raymin says confused to why the man is so terrified. The man lunges at Raymin with his sword. Raymin quickly step out of the way and grabs the mans shield of his back.As Raymin looks at his reflection in the shield he is shocked. His skin is pale white, his hair is gray and worn out, he has scars all over his body, and his teeth and nails are sharpened. During Raymins confusion, the mercenary swings at him again. This time the sword goes right into Raymins shoulder, down to his heart. "Shoulda stayed out of my business old man!" As the man pulled the sword out of Raymins body, the wound began to heal itself. As Raymin stood there unfazed, the three other were terrified that he was still standing. Raymin began to turn around slowly, now with a look of anger. "What the fuck are-" the man gets cut off half way as Raymin runs at him and picks him up by the throat. As the man struggles for air Raymin grabs his sword. Raymin throws the man to the side, looking at the other two, he says " I would've given you a warriors death, but a man who attacks while his opponent isn't facing him is a coward." Raymin walks toward the man as he gasps for breath and with one swing of the sword Raymin takes the mans head off. The other two people now stand, horrified as to what has happened. Raymin turns to them and points his sword " so, do either of you wish to die as well?" At that moment the cloaked man pulls out a spell book but before he could cast anything, Raymin was infront of him and swinging, and off came the mans arm. The man let out a scream of pain and fell to his knees. "I was never too fond of mages." Raymin said as he stabs the man in the heart. He turns to face the girl who is now trembling in fear on the ground. "So, how about you?" She shakes her head. "Alright then" Raymin puts his hand out to help her up. She looks confused at his gesture. "If you're not gonna try to kill me, then your an ally." Raymin says in a calming voice. She grabs his hand and he pulls her up. After pulling her up, Raymin goes over to the bodies and starts searching them. "So, you got a name?" Raymin says procceding to loot the bodies. "Sh..Shade. my name is Shade." She says, begining to compose herself once again. "Shade huh? So tell me Shade why are you hanging around these low lifes?" Raymin asks going from the thugs body to the mages body. "I uhh, I owed them money. Like, a lot of money" Shade responded hesitantly. "Well now you don't owe anything." Raymin said as he puts on the cloak the mage was wearing. "By the way, who are you?" Shade asks. Raymin hesitates for second. "Name's Raymin." He walks up to her "So where ya headed?" "I don't know, probably going home to Aria." She reponded "Aria! You're from Aria? Wait where are we now?" Raymin says becoming confused. "We're in Red Mist Marsh." "That's almost a two week trip.... So you're gonna need some protection getting there huh?" Raymin asks "Are you asking to come with me?" Shade responds "I guess I am. I'm from Aria actually." Raymin says. "Really? I haven't heard of you. But i guess it's fine for us to travel together." Shade says until she notices that Raymin has already started walking. "W..wait for me!" "You gotta keep up. You really gonna let an old man out speed you." He laughs as they continue down a dirt road. And so begins the journey of the undead Raymin.