Warning- Has yet to be proofread by the lazy (and tired) author.

The long corridor ahead of us is significantly wider than any other we’ve been in, with perhaps enough room for 10 men to stand shoulder to shoulder.

The beauty of these ruins once again amaze me.

Lining the wall are highly detailed, ornate carvings of metal beings, similar to those stood sentry at the door we entered moments ago.

Most are roughly human in form, and are depicted as craftsmen and warriors.

Although, some others are far more bizarre in form, from spider-like constructs to those much more difficult to describe.

At regular intervals along the corridor are sets of double doors on either side of us, which also bare fascinating designs of a similar fashion.

Down the length of this expansive corridor is a door that has the same size and grandiose as the one to our backs.

Equally visible from such a distance are two more of those metal figures, standing to either side of the door.

These don’t only show a high resemblance to the other two statues, but are almost identical to one of the nearby stone carvings.

However, there is nothing else along here except a few random pieces of scrap that always seem to find themselves scattered throughout every corner of the ruins.

This much empty space however has a similar effect as the previous room, with even a small sound reverberating through the archaic tunnel, making us overly aware of how painfully loud the smallest step can be.

Everyone moves forwards in such a exaggeratedly cautious manner, that I would find it comical provided that I wasn’t also partaking in the laughable movements.

Despite how ridiculous we all look whilst attempting to make absolutely no noise, we are fairly successful in doing so.

I tiptoe over to one of the first doors and then gesture for Torben to come over.

I then make a mostly successful attempt at stifling a hysterical howl that leaves me almost unable to stand. The cause of this is the sight of a gargantuan man, nearing 7ft. Tall, hunched over making small meek step towards you, whilst struggling to support his own weight on his tiptoes.

As I push the door, I find it soundlessly opens, much to my joy.

The room was of an average size and coated in a heavy layer of dust. Or rather, more dust than is usual for an ancient ruin.

This room contained various tools, including mallets and hammers, amongst many other things.

With some looking like they might be a useful tool, don’t quite look like any other I’ve seen.

Since there aren’t any workbenches present, I guess this is just used as a storage room

Even though I want to delve further into the rooms contents, unfortunately, we don’t currently have the luxury to investigate every curiosity.

As I turned around, my heart nearly gave out.

At some unknown point, everyone had creeped up to the edge of the room and crowed around the entrance to gain a good look into the storage room.

As one, we all begin to make cautious haste down the hallway.

The next few rooms also contain various stored items, with most being too foreign to accurately guess a function.

Now slightly past halfway through the tunnel, I attempt to open the next door.

This one however, puts up a bit of resistance. So, I push my shoulder into the door to budge it.

*Screeeee!!!*

The ear-piercing sound echo’s in my ears, jarring my brain as my body freezes in horror.

For the next minute, no one makes a noise, as if their own silence would erase the previous deafening cacophony.

…It did not.

Safe to say no one is opening another of these side doors any time soon.

Hopefully we were the only ones to have suffered that unholy racket!

As we finally reach the door, I put my ear to it and listen.

Almost immediately I hear the muffled noises of nearing footsteps.

Abandoning my previous slow caution, I begin jogging towards one of the side doors whilst making the hand gesture for danger like a madman.

The others do the same, a mad dash for the side doors whilst still attempting to minimise the loud echoing caused by even small noises.

This door thankfully open with no resistance or sound.

There is obviously some magic involved in the making of these door, otherwise they shouldn’t even be attached to the door frame. In the future, I need to find out exactly how they accomplish this.

Around half of us follow me into the room, which seems to store giant metal heads, each similar in design but still unique to itself.

As I close the door after the last of us have entered, the giant metal entrance slowly begins to move.

I leave the door ajar, with just the slightest room for sight, and wait.

It takes another minute for the metallic monstrosity to have opened enough to allow a single person to squeeze through. Which, although slow, it does silently.

Rather than the platoon of gnolls I was expecting, two females shuffled through the small opening and into the expansive hallway.

Though not the loud thunder of 30 boots, the two witches still managed to create a audacious racket.

“Uggh. Just leave the door like this, can’t be arsed opening and closing something this heavy.

At least we can finally get some sleep, I swear that women is trying to kill us sometimes, I don’t know why we need more of those dogs. Isn’t what we have already summoned enough?”

The first women to have spoke was heavily scarred, with only small tufts of grey hair clinging to her head.

The obvious cause is the extreme amount of burns she must have suffered sometime in the past, with almost all of her exposed skin consisting of burn scars.

“I dunno, I’m guessin’ that she had an… unfavourable divination, and is now paranoid we’ll lose to this Taldarian army.

Also, you really should be complainin’ ‘bout gettin’ rest. Plenty of people more tired than us still slaving away. Maybe she likes us?”

The second of the pair was someone who looked to be in her thirties, with dirty blond hair and a large nose that didn’t look to be well-proportioned to her face.

Though both of them looked tired, neither appear to be collapsing of exhausted in the immediate future.

The burnt witch makes a wheezing sound that could be interpreted as an attempt at a laugh, speaking in a distinct raspy voice I failed to notice the first time.

“CuCuCuCu! You think she likes anyone!

Hah!

She’s doesn’t give a shit about us. We likely got a break because we haven’t pissed her off recently.

And if all this extra work is from prophecy paranoia, then she’s a fool. We all know she does little more than dabble in divination, which gives experienced practitioners dubious results at best.”

The witches pass my door, completely oblivious to our presence.

I gesture to the archers in this room, three in total including Petri, bringing them up to the door and signalling for them to each nock a arrow.

“Maybe Helgnar, but I seen some ‘mpressive foresight before. Told ‘er all sorts of shit.” The big-nosed women retorted.

“Bah! Anything more than more than checking the weather and the readings become a load of bollocks. Then they use the excuse of ‘misinterpretation’ and metaphorical meaning behind some cryptic half-arsed message. Can’t trust the lot of it.” As the burnt witch continues talking, I slowly and soundlessly open the door. Giving the signal for the archers to draw and loose in unison. “All predicting the future’s gunna do is-”

One of the arrows buried into the burnt women's lower back, severing her spine, whilst the other goes all the way through her chest.

Narrowly missing the heart, but still causing a mortal wound in the form of a punctured lung, which now leaves her lying on the floor struggling to take in air.

The other women died almost instantly from Petri’s bowshot, with the arrow piercing her heart.

What worries me is the amount of noise they made when falling to the ground.

It would be much easier on my heart if they’d just die quietly.

Slowly, everyone else exited the various rooms used to hide in once it was apparent the problem has been dealt with.

I resist the urge to loot their corpses for anything magical and move back towards the giant door, which is now slightly open.

I could also risk a glimpse of what’s in the last room, but getting seen will throw away one of our biggest advantages. The element of surprise.

Now, this final room should be for constructing ‘golems’, judging by the previous directional signs.

So, I can expect it to be big enough to summon large groups of gnolls into. Relatively free of the usual clutter for the same reason. And I have to assume there won’t be convenient places for us to hide, provided we can even enter the room unnoticed, which may be unlikely.

Therefore, our only plan of attack is rush in and kill everything as quick as possible.

However, this could have heavy losses for us, I don’t really see any other options.

Again, what would be helpful is a sneaky peak around the corner. But if I’m seen, even the crappy plan I currently have turns to shit, so we are going in blind.

As everyone gathers near the door, I walk up to Argus and whisper my thoughts in his ear.

He pauses for a minute in thought, developing a gradual scowl as thinks of a less costly plan.

He finally mutters something under his breath and moves over to Lt. Hywel, whispering into his ear, who then goes through the same thought process.

Hywel however gave a much more audible “Bollocks” as a response, and moved to one of his men, starting a chain of whispers, followed by hushed curses.

Torben moves over to me with a look between annoyance and concern.

“I don’t like this plan, too much risk for everyone.” He says with a grim face.

“Ha. For you perhaps.

I however plan to stand behind someone big that I can use as a shield.

Now all you need is to find a walking mountain to hide behind and you’ll be covered.” I jest quietly.

Torben nervously looks around in the vain attempt to find anyone bigger than him, but surprisingly his eyes widen and he once again leans in to whisper to me.

“Will that one do?” He says, pointing towards one of the eight-foot metal statues.

“Sure. Just ask it to join you in battle, kill the witches, then you both can go skipping through a flowery meadow like the lovely maidens you are.” I say with the most sarcasm I can possibly fit into a whispered sentence.

“No, but the shield he has would be more cooperative. But this maiden will have to pass on the meadow.”

I look over what the metal man is carrying, a big hammer and a large rectangular shield around half the height of its wielder.

“But that is purely decorative right, looks like some kind of polished bronze to me.” Though I have to admit that it has slightly more of a gold tint than polished bronze normally would.

Either way, Torben walks to the shield and slides it of the statue who looked to be holding it like a normal person would. Strange, since welding it on would likely have been easier.

Even the small sound of metal on metal caused everyone to freeze, turning towards Torben in horror.

Some silently screaming at him, with the phenomenon mainly involving a lot of hand flailing.

Holding the shield, Torben was covered from his knees to his chin by what I guess is now a tower shield.

Moving back up to me and ignoring the many eyes glaring at him, he reveals a smug grin.

“Not quite a mountain, but I think this’ll be a good substitute.

A generous donation by our good metal friend over there.”

“It won’t be too useful if the metal is to soft or fragile.”

Now that he is closer I can definitely tell it isn’t bronze, or anything else I recognise.

“It certainly feels bulky enough, and even soft metal is still harder than I am.”

I move my hand up and touch the shield, revealing something unexpected.

As soon as Ii made contact, I could feel a distant source of magic within the metal that doesn’t feel like anything I’ve yet encountered.

Rather than it circulating and flowing through the metal, like is present with the devices powered by runes in the ruins, the magic here is different.

In fact, it isn’t moving what so ever. The mana feels as if it is fused into the metal itself, acting static within the shield.

I try to add mana into the metal and am met with resistance.

My mana filters into the metal far too slowly and I can even feel some of it being directed straight back at me.

Thinking back to the book on metallurgy I salvaged from the previous ruin, I have a good idea on what this is.

A small section was labelled ‘Infused metals’, which described metals that have mana involved in the making of certain alloys to alter its properties.

Huge portions of the book are too damaged to read, so I know very little of the process or the metals it makes.

However, it explicitly says most of these infused metals are used for warfare or certain purposes involving ‘heavy-duty mana exposure’.

The section covering these metals is amongst the most damaged area, which is unfortunate since it also happens to be what I find the most intriguing.

Once I get back to the fort and there is no risk of the witch hunters rifling through my stuff, I’ll collect the book from where I’d hidden it and look over these infused metals again.

However, one thing is apparent. This shield isn’t just for show.

As the rest of the metal statue looks to be of the same metal, I’d bet it isn’t just a piece of furniture either.

A worrying thought, since I doubt we can even damage the thing if it decides to stop being a statue and begins killing stuff.

But hey, at least one of them doesn’t have a shield anymore!

I refocus on Torben, who has been waiting patiently for me to move for a good minute as I was absorbed in my thoughts.

Finally removing my hand from the shield, I lean in to whisper.

“I think this’ll do just fine.

Likely even better than anything you or I could buy.”

As a response, he gave me a grin and turned towards the others, who are now poised in front of the door.

Ready to charge into the potential death-trap. The true measurement of a good soldier.

Torben walked to the front of the group, shield poised. And so I followed, staying just behind in the attempt to make use of the huge figure of my friend as cover.

Five people position themselves at each door, getting ready to open it on Lt. Hywel’s signal.

Said person raises his hand, counting downwards from five with his fingers.

3.

2.

1.

With ten people slamming into the doors they swiftly open, with no more noise than a small grunt from one of the pushers.

Everyone, me included, charge into the large room. Making no war cry or any other sound besides our footsteps.

The slower they react, the less of us will die.

The room is very similar in shape and size to the directional hub, with completely different are decorating the domed ceiling.

One very obvious difference is the presence of these ‘golems’, three of them lined up against one of the walls.

Though similar in design, all three are much bigger than the things stood outside the doors, with two being around 15ft tall and the other must be over 20ft high.

Most of what is makes up inside the golems are exposed, with all of them being in various stages of construction, revealing many of the strange parts we’ve seen scattered around in some parts of the ruins.

However, most of the junk and debris normally in the rooms have been pushed to the sides to give space for what’s in its centre.

A large green rune painted across the floor, with tens of witches stood at its edge. Presumably to supply it with mana.

Many of the witches look pushed far past exhaustion, seemingly already having a foot in their grave.

Though there is a single exception.

A women stood further away, observing the process with cold eyes and a hard expression.

A women with vibrant long red hair and a long tattoo running down her right arm.

Upon our arrival into the room, the witches stop and look up, frozen momentarily.

As we near further, the red women breaks them out of their stupor.

“What are you idiots waiting for!

Kill the intruders!” The red women shrieks, pouring every ounce of hostility possible into her words.

The witches jump to life, fanning out. Each of them activating runes, or doing other random chanting that I assume will have some effect.

However, I don’t have the luxury to pay attention to every witches actions. My only concern is with the head of their coven.

“Torben! We’ve making our way to the red witch!” I call out from behind him.

As we get to the witches a blue flash comes from my right.

Before I see the cause, Torben has moved his shield between me and it, blocking off my sight to it. A moment later, a reverberating *thung* rings out from the other side of the metal.

Attempting to take advantage of the distraction, a nearby witch points her hand at Torben, her palm showing a rune beginning to glow a fiery red.

Quickly grabbing one of my shorter daggers, I throw it at her whilst closing the distance.

The dagger pierces her outstretched hand, with the damaged rune immediately glowing a much brighter red before her hand bursts into flame. Soon this spreads further down her arm, leaving the witch writhing on the ground screaming in agony.

I look back up at the red witch still hold up at the back of the room.

A once again move towards her, ignoring the second flash of blue from the side of me as I continue forwards.

*Thung*

The witch’s face twists in disgust as she grabs her necklace, which lights up and covers her in a familiar blue barrier.

An arrow passes over my head soon after, hitting the barrier before it reached the witch.

Now much closer to her, much of the fighting is to my sides and behind me.

If not for Torben covering me, I wouldn’t have been able to move this close without being stabbed in the back.

Now being the closest to her, she redirects her attention to me and my oversized friend.

As our eyes meet, she first respond with a hateful scowl filled with unbridled rage, but her eyes suddenly widen in shock before once again becoming hostile.

The tattoo down the length of her arm begins to distort and glow as she touches it.

With there still being another 20 meters between us, I have no time to get to her before the magic is complete.

The tattoo begins to pull itself off her arm and quickly form a creature.

This is completely done in just over a second, revealing what monster she had stored there.

Of similar height to Torben, it looked much like a gnoll with more pronounced animal characteristics. A huge fanged mouth, large claws and legs that looked like that of a wolf, yet allowed it to stand on two feet.

A werewolf. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous, do these guys have some sort of wolf fetish!

Even though this is among one of the most well known creatures, it is very rare to the point of legend. Because of this, I have absolutely no idea what things about it are false and which real. I’m just hoping that the legends are heavily exaggerated and that I don’t need some silver weapon blessed with mystical dragon piss or some stupid shit.

If worse come to worse, I’ll just have to hope killing the red witch will get rid of it.

However, I won’t bet my life on it. Not that I’ll have a choice.

The beast runs towards me on all fours at a frightening speed, almost immediately closing the distance between us.

The as fast as a horse part of the stories appears to be holding up. Unfortunately.

I ready my self to roll to the side as it bounds towards me, waiting on the moment it will pounce.

However before Such a moment comes, Torben charges past me and rams into the beast, stopping it with a loud *thud*.

Using this, I run past both of them with the intent of reaching the witch and hopefully stopping the werewolf upon her death.

It only takes a second before the wolf appears in front of me, blocking me off from its master.

It’s clear I’ll never reach the witch before taking care of this damn wolf.

I throw my body to the side as the werewolf pounces towards me, swinging at my chest. It’s claw fall short of me, and I use the opportunity to take a swing at its arm.

My blade cuts into its fur, drawing blood and invoking a low growl, rather than the pained yelp I was expecting.

With the beast attention focused completely on me, I see Torben slowly circle around the back of the wolf.

I keep my shortsword out in front of me, taking light cuts every time the wolf moves forwards. Buying a little time, but not actually wounding the creature.

Finally, Torben closes in from behind the werewolf, attempting not to draw its attention until he strikes.

In order make sure Torben stays unnoticed I take a step forwards and feint a lunge at the wolf’s face. Jumping backwards just before the furious beast swings with inhuman speed. Hitting nothing but air.

The wolf shifts to all four and as it is ready to pounce, Torben takes action. Slamming into the back of the werewolf with his shield.

Torben the uses his body’s weight to pin the wolf to the floor with his shield, provoking an enraged snarl from the beast trying to get free.

Instead of attempting to stab the werewolf in its face, from which I’ll be in danger of being hit from its flailing arms, I move around to its side.

What’s worrying me however, is that my brother is as strong as a bull, yet is struggling to keep this thing restrained for even this short of a time.

I thrust my sword, into where I’m guessing its heart is, until it’s hilt deep in the monsters chest.

The werewolf lets out a pained howl as a response and begins trying to push off Torben with increased ferocity.

I remove my sword and stab into its chest two more times, with each stab spraying the creatures blood all over my legs and feet.

Surely one of those would have pierced its heart, yet it is only getting more pissed off.

Damn it, your not telling me I actually have to get some bullshit silver weapon to kill this thing. Do you have any idea how useless silver is for weapons!

With my blade still embedded in the wolf, it twists its body, yanking the sword out of my hand.

Finally out from under Torben, it lashes out at him, hitting his shield with enough force to send him stumbling backwards.

I shift my longer dagger to my right hand and draw one of my throwing daggers with my off-hand.

It glares at me with its bright amber eyes and begins moving towards me with strong certain steps. Unfazed by the injuries I gave it just moments ago.

I guess my next plan is to chop it into small pieces, which I will cook and feed to Torben. Maybe then this fucker will die.

As it starts to break into a run, a figure covered from head to toe in blood runs right past me, towards the not so little puppy.

Narrowly dodging death, the red figure scrambles onto its back, burying two daggers into its back to use as purchase.

My furry advisory and Torben’s dinner spins around, frantically trying to get at the annoying creature latched to its back.

Finnian however, avoids the vicious claws and teeth of the werewolf, all the while cackling like a madman and repeatedly stabbing into its back.

With finally us being momentarily free of the wolf, the path to the red witch is free.

Though it appears the witch hasn’t been standing there doing nothing.

Floating a foot in front of her is a massive green rune, far more complex than any other I’ve seen with my limited experience.

Rather than it being aimed at us however, she was looking in the direction of another. A Taldarian soldier far closer to her than us.

Before the man could reach the witch, the last part of her rune was completed, springing a pale green spectre from it.

The translucent spectre soars towards to the nearing Soldier, striking out with a long, clawed hand.

Although the man holds up a small metal shield to stave of the phantasm’s assault, the claw cleaves through it as if it wasn’t there, before continuing to pass through the Taldarian. Killing him before he had chance to hit the ground.

In the meantime, I have been getting closer to the witch while making sure to keep pace with Torben. He’s a damn good shield, so there isn’t a chance that I’m getting anywhere near this witch without him.

The witch turns towards us, pointing the rune in our direction and looking me dead in the eye.

“I’m not dying today! I refuse!” She screeches at me. Her eyes bloodshot, revealing a mad glint.

The spectre leaves it’s recent victim, rushing in our direction whilst letting out a low, spine-chilling moan.

I slow down slightly, dropping in behind Torben who has his shield up. Hopefully whatever this shield is made of proves more of an obstacle than the one that belonged to the Taldarian.

The spectre slashes down, like a scythe making a wide sweeping cut through barley. As its ghostly claws impact the shield, instead of effortlessly passing through the metal, it slides across. Emitting a low hum as it does.

Torben stops, working hard to stop the apparition from reaching around the shield and wounding him.

As he stops, I pass around him, ignoring the hulking frame of my best friend and the menace that offends him.

As soon as I pass the two, the witch slightly adjusts the rune to be facing me and mutters a word. Kill.

The disembodied moan I was moving away from just a moment ago suddenly grows gradually louder as I keep running.

With only ten metres until I reach the witch, I can almost feel the spectre breathing into my ear. If it was even possible for it to breathe.

I doubt I’ll make it to the witch in time, which leaves me with one option.

I throw the small dagger in my left hand, which spins through the air until it hits the green rune as it would a wall.

Upon impact the rune shatters, and the sounds of the phantom behind me stops immediately.

The witch outstretches her hand, revealing a rune on her palm. However, I’m already within arms length of her.

As my dagger plunges into her heart, her eyes widen.

The mad glint, the hate. All of it fades away with her life, until there is nothing left.

The witch is dead.

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Well this took longer to do than I thought.

Firstly, (ignoring the procrastination) fight scenes are hard to write. Seriously, it's agony.

Secondly, since the last chapter I have started two new fictions. One on my own, and another with an author called Jahnes. So go check those out if you'd like- Both of which are linked in my signature.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and be sure to rate this fiction or leave a review if you'd be so kind.