| At once, all the monsters fell back several feet. It wasn't Kat's beautiful voice they heard, but instead a great growl from her venom- and blood-saturated mouth. They all moved, Kat thought, taking a step forward. The little monkey-like monsters all shifted to the side, clearing a path for Kat, Clara, and Salem. They didn't even seem to be phased by the presence of Clara and Salem, whose faces appeared normal instead of horribly twisted. They all obey and fear me! Kat thought, almost cracking a smile. Amazing! Maybe now we can find that sword! Kat took intimidating strides through the path created for her; she shook her sword in threatening manners as she found the way to the other door. Once the three travelers reached the doorway, they came to another torchlit room, with a small altar in the middle. Kat cautiously approached the stone alter; upon it were blood stains and old pieces of rope and some chains. In its center, Kat saw her goal -- the first half of the sword. Its tip and edge were dulled severely from age and use; on the blade was some blood, as well as a set of runes that Kat could not understand. "Is that the sword?" Clara asked, approaching the altar. "Just nod; don't say anything, or you'll scream again!" Kat nodded affirmatively, then reached for the blade with her left hand. But just as her fingers wrapped around the blade, the feeling of magical energy once more gripped her face. After a few seconds of an odd tingling sensation, the feeling faded away completely. What just happened to me? she wondered, then turning away to find that all the monsters she once controlled were standing before her, now overcome with vehement hatred towards the pantheress. Clara was horrified. "Kat, your face!" she cried, pointing at her. "You're no longer hideous!" Kat reached behind her head with one hand and unbuckled the straps, removing the mask. "My face," she began. "What happened to--" Salem was suddenly jostled by other movement. "Look out!" he shouted. Sure enough, several monsters suddenly decended on Kat, Clara, and Salem, latching onto their legs and digging in with their sharp claws. All three cried out as they tried in desperation to shake free of their grasp. Kat hacked downward at the monster attacking her and scraping at her fur. "Let go!" she cried out, finally raising the sword high and plunging it into the monster's skull. It was such a terrific thrust that she skewered it, letting her sword follow all the way into the ground. Clara and Salem each helped each other be free of the beasts, then raised their weapons to fight. "Protect yourselves!" Salem shouted, backing up. "Don't let go of the swordpiece!" For several agonizing minutes, the heroes fought against the horde of monsters, cleaving hides and bones. The tomb echoed with screams and all became splattered with blood, both friend and foe alike. Kat, Clara, and Salem backed away continuously, with the bodies piling up around them. The mask was dropped in the fray, surely crushed by the impact of falling bodies. After more intense, bloody fighting, Kat spotted an exit. "Go to that door!" she shouted, pointing to the opening five feet to her right. The group managed to push their way through the door into a long hallway which sloped downward slightly to Kat's left. "Run this way!" Kat said, running down the hall with the slope. Clara and Salem hurried after them, bleeding from the legs, their clothing and limbs splashed with the blood of demons. As they ran, with Kat leading the way, they passed by several more sections of hallway. Ignoring them, they continued, but even as they were chased by the monsters from the altar room, the branching corridors began to spew forth hundreds and hundreds of similar smaller demons. Kat was almost unnerved. "Don't look back!" she shouted to Clara and Salem, who ran along side her. "Just keep running!" The branching of corridors ended, and all that remained was a long hallway with no doors. Just then, Kat took a step in her strides and felt her foot sink a few inches. Undeterred, she kept running, not wanting to know what just happened. At the same time, Clara began to look about herself. Her eyes widened suddenly. "The walls are closing in!" she cried out, struggling to maintain her pace. Kat and Salem looked around; indeed, the corridor was getting narrower. "We will be crushed!" Kat said. "Run as fast as you can!" I must have triggered this when I took that strange step. This isn't a tomb -- it's a death trap. Kat, Clara, and Salem began to run single-file down the narrowing hallway, with hundreds of monsters following not far behind. Finally, a door was spotted ahead some 40 or 50 feet. The three travelers ran as fast as they could; soon the walls would contact each other, crushing all to death. The walls were now approximately six feet apart and closing in. Kat, in desperation, dove for the doorway. Diving head first, her sword in her right hand, the broken blade in her left hand, Kat slid on her belly on the dusty floor of the hallway the remaining few feet to safety. She was lucky, too; a space between the edge of the converging walls and the door about 10 feet long had been created. Clara and Salem followed her, diving furiously; Clara made it safely, sliding into Kat, who waited by the door. Salem rushed forward, passing his shoulders out of the converging hallway just as the walls were about to contact. He fell down onto his face and turned around. The three adventurers watched silently as the hundreds of little beasts chasing them down were suddenly crushed like grapes between the walls. Skull and limb were crushed all at once; screamed echoed in the hallway as blood sprayed towards the ceiling and the lone doorway. Kat, Clara, and Salem shyed away as blood washed over them, drenching and staining their clothing and bodies. After only a matter of seconds, the screaming was gone, and the walls began to separate. All that remained were walls, floor, and ceiling awash with crimson; bones and flesh remain adhered to the walls as they replaced themselves back into the wall. In the middle of the hallway, as far as the eye could see, was a linear pile of bodies. The walls and ceiling dripped with blood, and a thin, filmy river of blood ran down the slope of the hallway onto the feet of Kat, Clara, and Salem, who stood up, trying to catch their breaths. Next page >> |