9.1 - Dead end of the Catacombs

"Ah, the brave adventurers who have disrupted my master’s tomb, you have broken the curse, and now. I'm able to leave, but first I must kill you. haha"

“What is it saying?” everyone was looking at it in confusion. I was able to understand it.

"Mackenzie, Haruka, shine all the light magic you can on it. The rest of you, get ready to fight," Silica commanded, preparing for the imminent battle. “ it wants to kill us!”

Haruka responded, "On it!" as Haruka and I directed beams of light magic toward the shadow being, and it seemed to recoil from the intense illumination. Silica then shot a fireball directly at its torso, but it had little effect. Luke charged in, swinging his mace and sending the creature crashing into the wall.

“You cursed creatures, you shall pay for this” it hollered back. However, the shadow beast retaliated, casting a purple magic circle that rooted Luke in place, rendering him immobile. Undeterred, Kendra unleashed a barrage of rapid strikes, dealing visibly no damage to the shadow being. Tang! Slang! The sound of metal and metal rang across as Kendra hit its outer shell that looked like ribs.

The shadow lord we called, retaliated with fierce attacks, summoning dark minions to aid him in battle. They had no physical body, wasps of shadow like creatures. Despite our best efforts, exhaustion began to take its toll. Our movements grew sluggish, and our attacks weakened. The Shadow lord seized the opportunity, launching a devastating spell that sent us sprawling across the room. Much like a wind bust knocking us back.

Lying on the cold, hard ground, battered and bruised, I refused to surrender. My magic is empty, I couldn’t do anything but I had no choice but to shine a light. With a surge of determination, I pushed myself up, rallying the remaining strength within me to shine a light. The light seemed to be its weakness as it cowered off the light. Pushing all my might into the light, the shadow fiends disappeared from the overwhelming light. There was another light. Red light! Fire?

Silica who was forming a fire magic circle was forming her new fire spell. It was taking longer than expected. 10, 11, 12 seconds as she’s still channeling. This is a huge amount of mana!

“Clear the way in front of Silica a spell is coming” I cried out as people got out of the way. A sigh of relief as Silica looked at me unable to talk. It would have done massive damage if an ally got hit by that much fire magic.

“Flame Burst” She cried out. it looked like a ball of liquid fire she conjured flew at the shadow lord. Much like a flame thrower, a breath of fire engulfed the shadow lord. The shadow lord hollered in pain as we covered our ears as it yelled for 20 or so seconds as it burned and burned till the flames finally went out.

“How is it still alive!” It was still floating but looked like it was breathing heavily. It received more relentless assault from Kendra, Ryota, Daiki, and Luke the shadow lord's body was pelted with more onslaught of physical damage. The rib like armor was being cut off and bent as it was heated by the fire.

“You will not get away! My lord will revenge me!” it yelled out as it was finally resolved, leaving behind only ash, bones, and bits of metal as a corpse.

Victory calls came from Luke followed by Ryota. As we stood in awe of killing the shadow lord. I fell to my knees trying to catch my breath and recover some mana. Others did the same crouching down on the floor, a sense of excitement and disbelief washed over us as we lay in silence. It was pitch black.

“Light!” as people called out. I was out of mana, and I was guessing Haruka was also out of mana as well. our lanterns being all blown out by the shadow lord as we had to relight them.

Steef on the other hand who did almost nothing walked around the room. “Look at this!” pointing into a corner of the last room. It was pots full of gold coins. 10 pots in total with roughly 100 coins in each. The gleaming gold coins reflected the oil-lit lanterns as we relit, mesmerizing us with their brilliance.

“I can't believe it," muttered Yumi, her voice filled with disbelief. “All this treasure... it's incredible."

We gathered around the pots, counting the coins and estimating the immense wealth before us. It was a fortune that could change our lives, providing us with security and opportunities beyond our wildest dreams. I can finally pay Silica back, was all I thought about as I looked down at the gold.

We got back to house Silica and house Dreamweaver. Had all the gold coins spread out over the counter. As we all lay in awe and fully exhausted by the raid and trip back. “But what do we do with all this gold?" asked Yumi, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. Sora chimed in; his voice filled with determination. "Perhaps we can use this treasure to rebuild and improve our House.”

“That’s a great idea! we can update our base!” responded Silica.