DragonCrest Online: The Beginnings

Trapped!

I reverted to my original form and Claire and I headed deeper into the forest. I had my claws raised and Claire's dagger was at the ready for any surprise attacks from monsters. But surprisingly there were no monsters sighted.

“ Uh, X, something's not right" Claire said.

“ Really now?" I asked sarcastically.

“ I'm serious, Xanathos" she pleads. “ I haven't seen or heard a single monster since we have been walking"

“ Hmm, you're right we haven't been attacked and we are at..." I said, but I never finished my sentence.

The ground opened up beneath our feet and it seemed like time froze.

“ Oh shit" I said nonchalantly.

“ XANATHOOOSSS!" Claire yells as time resumes and we fall into the hole.

While falling to impending doom....

“ Well, this has been a long fall, and still I can't see the bottom" I said lazily.

“ How can you be so calm at a time like this!" Claire shouted.

“ Oh look, I see spikes" I said.

“ WHAT!!" Claire shouted.

Sure enough, we were rapidly approaching large stone spikes that would surely rip us apart if we hit into them. I quickly look around and see a cave like opening in the side of the wall. So I grabbed a screaming Claire and turn to the cave.

“ Aura Blast!" I shouted aiming the blast behind us.

The force of the attack pushed us right into the cave, with me slamming into the cave wall and Claire slamming into me and me slamming into the cave wall again.

“ Ow" I cried out.

“ Sorry, but thanks for the save" Claire said, calmer now.

I rub my aching back and look about the cave. There was one exit that only seemed to lead to more darkness but it was our best bet. I motioned for Claire to follow me as I continued down the dark corridor. While the corridor itself was dark, there were some glowing markings on the wall. I stopped to study them but only made out one word, DANGER! At this point I became serious, because if someone went through the trouble of scribing that onto the wall, there had to be something to it. Darkness encompassed my hand as I summoned my Hell's Fangs ( this is the name I gave to my dark claws) and had them ready to rend any oncoming foes asunder.

Claire was puzzled as to why I equipped my claws but kept it to herself, but being an Everblade, I could read her aura to piece together her feelings. Then suddenly, a light emerged from in front of us and murmurs could be heard.

“ Claire we need to...Claire..CLAI-" I exclaimed but was cut off by a hand which was clamped over my mouth.

“ Shush, and get over here" Claire hissed, dragging me into a crevice.

“ Yesss, masster will be pleassed once I bring him the intrudersss, as a snack, haha" a voice said.

I quickly used the Satzujin Eye ability and tried to find the owner of the voice. Since I didn't ever use my Everblade abilities, except Soul Fusion, they were all at level one which needed to be remedied. So because of this I could only see the creatures aura and not the being itself, which was shaped like a snake. Well, duh, with all the hissing we could have deduced that much. What I really wanted to know was its size, and since the aura outlines the exact shape of the body, I'd say it was a little bigger than me.

As the light got closer to the crevice, I braced myself to jump onto the serpent. Then when the light was directly in front of the crevice, I jumped onto the snake. It was momentarily stunned allowing me to take a good look at it. It was humanoid at the torso but from waist to toe, it had a snake's tail. Then it recovered and tried to throw me off itself but I sunk my claws into its back preventing me from getting thrown off.

It hissed in agony and wrapped its tail around me. It started to squeeze me and before it could crush me, I saw a flash of light then a dagger which was embedded in the wall. Then slash marks appeared in the tail and soon it fell of in chunks of flesh. I brush myself off and lifted the Snake-man off the ground by his neck.

“ Who are you" I snapped at it.

“ Grraah" it wails in pain. “ Foolish mortalss, you shall pay for attacking a member of the Brotherhood Of Chaoss"

“ Brotherhood of Chaos? What's that?" I asked.

“ You really don't know what iss happening in thiss world, do you?" Snake-man hisses.

“ If I did, you think I'd be asking the likes of you?" I snarled. “ So give me answers before I start giving pain!"

“ Ssss, fine, I shall tell you"

The serpent informed us that he was an emissary of the Brotherhood, which was a secret organization working to resurrect Chaos from his eternal slumber. They currently are gathering energy sources to power some sort of machine to break into the Temple Of Darkness.

“ Sso will you release me now" he asked.

“ Hmm, no" I replied.

“ Wai- argh" he said spewing blood as my claws ripped out his heart.

I threw the heart on the ground and Claire steps forward. I patted her on the shoulder and we pushed further into the mines.