The grand-council was in a state of trepidation. The great-hall's basement was colored crimson from the blood-bath that had taken place there. The loyalist of the sword-saint, that had been previously imprisoned, were no-where to be found, but what had occured?

  Few hours prior to the massacre at the central building.....

  Few minutes after the beginning of the duel between Landel and Arlone, two people went missing from the tower occupied by Viyetral and his party — Kraft and Harwin.

  They were, however, quickly replaced by two men in cloaks. The exchange was not seen, or felt by anyone due to the secrecy and swiftness of the entire switch. Also, the duel acted as great distraction itself.

  The two lads, Harwin and Kraft, went straight to the back of the central building. They stopped near a carriage, and waited there for a few moments before several men arrived.

  “Who is the leader?” One of the men asked Kraft.

  “The sword-saint, Graftel” He answered.

  “Who defeated the grand-guardian of the town?” The man asked another question, this time from Harwin.

  “The mage-sword Yhorm.” He answered.

  “Who is the enemy?” The man asked once more.

  “The ones who killed commander Neilzen, and imprisoned the other captains.” Kraft answered.

  The man nodded, and then signalled them to follow behind. All of them sat in the carriage which began moving immediately. Soon, it stopped at a back-alley of sort that was diagonal to the central building, but was completely empty.

  In the carriage — at the center of it, there was small trap-door that was opened by one of the men. There was another trap-door of sort below it, but this one appeared to be the lid of a sewerage.

  It was lifted carefully, and then one of the men descended down there with a rope ladder. Once he reached the bottom, he shook the ladder to let the others that it was safe.

  Harwin, and Kraft were the next ones to follow. The pair found themselves in a large underground sewerage system. Ten more people climbed down after which the lid was closed.

  The same man, who had questioned the two earlier, said:

  “I am sure captain Viyetral has given you the instructions already. We have a limited time, and it will best to avoid any unnecessary blood-shed, so you two better be prepared to escape if the situation demands it.”

  They nodded in sync. The man, who clearly was the leader of the group, began to move forward with a lantern in his hand — it was quite dark down there.

  It took about thirty minutes to reach what appeared to be a close end, but upon closer observation, the ceiling had another lid. The leader ordered his men to climb to the top using the same ladder they had used before. Of-course before that, someone had to open the lid, or more precisely destroy it. Kraft was the one who volunteered for this task.

  He used a wind magika spell that released a strong gush of air towards the lid — launching it high in the air. In that small time frame, Kraft jumped as well to reach to the top. The other men were quite impressed by the youngling's feat.

  It was an risky action, but not enough to be noticed by anyone. Soon Kraft threw down the rope-ladder. Now, every single one of them had exited the sewarge.

  “We are in the upper dungeons right now. We will have to go down from here to reach the imprisoned captains.” the leader mumbled.

  They followed his lead. Two of them were left behind, for just incase, there was an attack from the rear. The leader did not just simply walk straight, rather took cover behind various walls, and checked ahead so they would not be surprised by any enemies.

  Soon they encountered the first series of guards — a group of five beast-men who appeared to be eating dinner at the moment. They had not noticed the intruders for now, and were enjoying themselves.

  The leader signaled Kraft, and two other archers to swiftly take the enemies down. They took down three of them down easily, and until the other two realised what was happening, it was already too late. The leader, along with his men, slit their throats immediately — it was a success for now.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Then the dead bodies were thoroughly inspected to find any keys. Alas, there were none.

  They slowly moved forward again — going downwards, steadily towards their destiny. The whole place was like a maze, but the leader appeared to have memorized every single corner, as he masterfully traversed it. Soon, he stopped in his track, and mumbled to his party:

  “Beast-men and war-hounds ahead, so ready yourselves to attack. Total numbers are five hounds, and about ten guards as well. They appear to have noticed that something is wrong.”

  The men tightened grips around their weapons — nervous yet their resloves not faltered.

  “I can use a fire spell on them, if you allow it.” Harwin suggested.

  “Cast it, but do not use any advanced ones, as they produce alot of noise.”

  The leader did not know that Harwin was only able to cast basic and a few intermediate spells. Advance spells were too difficult and complex for for now.

  Harwin prepared himself. Just a few moments before the casting was complete, he got out of the cover, and blasted the enemies with "blazing fire arrows", an intermediate spell. It produced extreme heat that could even be felt by his allies.

  Harwin had taken cover immediately after casting it. The leader signaled for the archers to rain arrows on anyone left alive, but after a few peeks, they determined that there was not a single person left standing. Few men who were screaming in agony were quickly slain.

  Harwin had eliminated all the enemies in a matter of seconds — he had truly casted ruthless spell. Now the lad did not even bat an eye whilst taking the life of his enemy. It was a strange, but important change, that is if he wanted to survive in this world.

  The leader gave Harwin a pat on the back, and then stated:

  “You are just as useful as captain Viyetral had claimed.”

  They did not waste anymore time. This time, they found various keys on the burned, charred bodies of the guards.

  After walking abit more, they came across a staircase that led them to the lower dungeon levels. At the base, there were no more alleys, but a large hall. The leader signalled them to stay as quiet as possible.

  He then quickly peeked to find that the hall had various doors. Each door had about three guards, there were about thirty or so guards in total — certainly a great number.

  They could not have used the same spell as before as this time the enemies were too scattered, but the most troublesome thing were the numerous hounds.

  The war-hounds were the same size as the old world’s wolves. They were, however, much skinnier. These had two great horns in place of their ears so they were deaf, and mostly relied on their vision or sense of smell. These creatures were not much tough on their own, but a group could be fatal.

  “We have to take down as many men, and hounds as possible whilst we still have the element of surprise. Do any of you two have a plan?” The leader inquired from Harwin and Kraft.

  “I can shoot multiple arrows at once, but my precision drops significantly, so I can take down all the guards here if they were to become immobile for a while.” Kraft offered.

  “We can trap them in the great-hall. I might only be able to cast this spell once, but I am sure all of the enemies will be stuck in their places. If there are no mages among them, or archers then we can take all of them down very quickly” Harwin backed Kraft up.

  “Very well. I have already seen your skills so I trust your intuition. I will cover you so cast the spell as quickly and precisely as possible.” The leader replied.

  Harwin began to chant the earth-type spell. It took a few minutes to complete the incantations. Once he was ready, he nodded at the of the leader who got out of the cover of the wall — gathering the attention of every guard.

  The hounds came at him howling, then the guards followed but that was when the whole ground became muddy — a large quagmire was formed in the entire hall.

  None of the time was wasted, all the archers including Kraft came rushing out of cover to rain arrows on their shocked, and stuck enemies. There was retaliation of-course, with the daggers thrown by the guards. One of the archers, and a swordsman were taken down from Harwin's party. As for the hounds, they were completely useless now, as they could neither move nor throw something.

  With two casulaties in intruders party, almost all thirty guards, and the hounds were taken down. The quagmire spell’s effect soon relinquished so the swordsmen including the leader took down anyone still standing in their way. It was a grand victory atleast for now.

  The room was filled with the stench of blood. The bodies of all the dead men and hounds made it abit hard to get around the place.

  After inspecting the bodies of the guards, they found numerous keys for the many doors in the hall.

  They divided the keys among themselves, and began opening the doors one by one. Some were basic storage rooms filled with various supplies, equipments and other general items.

  One door lead to an alley. It was dark, but there was light at the end of it all. As there was no-where else to go, they followed the path — slowly and carefully reaching the end. There was no wall to take cover behind, or peek at what lied ahead. The only way to see ahead was to expose themselves completely. Upon stepping out of the darkness, they came to a complete halt.

  “I never thought in a million years that someone would dare break in this place, and not only that, you also managed to reach this place. I commend you for your courage and foolery, but now it must come to an end. You can either throw down your weapons, or I will have to kill you all.” A man said menacingly.

  He was sitting on a chair in the middle of a dimly lit room. Once more, there were various door all around this small hall, but there was not a single other guard there beside him.

  It could have been taken as a sign of weakness, yet the man infront of them, sat calmly as if the other party was the one at disadvantage.

  Who was this strange man, and what was he doing there, all-alone?