Now that we knew what to keep an ear out for, making decisions about which tunnels to follow grew easier. Wherever the rumble of the nearby river vibrated the stone underfoot, we followed. The calmer the stone, we went the other way.

Eventually the tunnels grew wider and less oppressive, even opening into wider room-like structures that held signs that life had once existed here. We found carved wooden horses and wolves covered in dust. Old tapestries hung from the walls, though many had fallen to tatters to the ravages of time. Cairns of stone appeared every now and then, but their meaning was indecipherable.

“There were people down here,” Stiletto said as he knelt next to a pile of debris and wiped the dust away. “More of these little wooden figures. Is this one a person?”

The wooden effigy looked mostly human, except for the sharp teeth carved into the too-large mouth. It might have been an upyr, or something worse.

“This place is very old,” Naginata said.

“The books says that the Scholomance has been around for a very long time teaching a select few how to use dark magic,” I said.

“That’s just a fancy word for anima though, right?” Stiletto asked. “It must be. There’s no way that Balaur’s been here for thousands of years, and a God-damned dark magic school gets built right under the mountains that he’s grown around? No way it’s a coincidence.”

Xiphos stepped up on a large boulder at the far edge of the cavern. “It must be connected. I guess we’ll find out how soon enough. Everything opens up just a little further down here. Can you feel the moisture in the air?”

I lifted a hand to my cheek and touched it. Yes, there was a sheen of moisture on my skin, and it wasn’t sweat.

“We’re close,” I said.

“Then let’s not waste a second!” Stiletto surged ahead to join Xiphos.

Naginata stayed beside Kaiser as we continued on.

Eventually the cavern wall to our right disappeared and the path continued downward. The rumble of the underground river turned into a roar as we came to walk next to it. The black surface of the water churned with unbound ferocity, rushing off towards its destination.

Jumping into the river would be suicide. It might rush us off towards sharp rocks or pull us down in a dreadful undertow. Vodyanoi could be waiting for us in the river too, so we stayed far away from its dark bank.

The other side of the river was drowned in darkness. Our flashlights couldn’t illuminate the far shore, and the glow of my claws couldn’t reach it either. I could have used some anima to fill a grenade, then lobbed it into the water, but there was no telling what might happen if I used that ability down here. I didn’t want to bring the mountain down on top of us.

Kaiser trotted dutifully between Naginata and I as we continued in silence.

“Hey, can you guys see that?” Stiletto asked, flashlight pointed across the river.

He was right. There was something over there in the darkness. It was faint, but it was there. Some kind of green glow on the wall or roof of the cavern that enclosed the underground river. It reminded me of the glow worms you could see in dark caves down in the Springbrook National Park back home.

“I’m pretty sure that’s Balaur,” I said. The colour was exactly the same as his anima network that ran through the valley.

A little further on there was another glow on the far cave wall, far across the river. This time, it glowed red, just like the anima of the dragonslayer. I watched in horror as the red anima flowed across the wall right towards Balaur’s green anima. After a few minutes of aggressive growth on the part of the red anima the two sources touched. The red immediately spread through the green like wildfire, taking it over in a matter of seconds.

“So that’s how it works,” Xiphos said, then turned to me. “Hatchet, I think maybe we should have left you on the surface.”

A flash of anger flowed through me. “You’re kidding. I might be the only one who can reverse what’s been done here!”

“You may be right, but you could be a danger to us.” The look Xiphos gave me was reproachful, yet cold.

“What if the dragonslayer guy does that to you, man?” Stiletto said. “If his power burns through Balaur’s anima and corrupts it, and you’ve got Balaur’s anima running all the way through you… How do we know what’s going to happen if he gets his hands on you?”

“You don’t know what’s going to happen, but neither do I.” I summoned both sets of claws, which lit up with green light. “All I know is that Balaur chose me to heal and purify this corruption. Look at what I did for Naginata when Edgebreaker tried to kill her. Look what I did to the varcolacs. I turned their energy into my own! I’m not afraid of the dragonslayer. He should be afraid of me!”

Stiletto and Xiphos shared uneasy looks, but Naginata didn’t stray from my side.

“We are a team. We are stronger together, and weaker apart,” Naginata said. “If the dragonslayer somehow corrupted me, I would expect you all to take me down. I will do the same for any of you if I have to, though I hope it does not come to that.”

I nodded in agreement.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Xiphos said.

“Yeah, it’s not going to come to that!” Stiletto said. “We stick together, we don’t let anything else happen to each other, we’ll make it through this alive. I just know it.”

“We’ll win for Khopesh,” I said.

“You’re damn right,” Stiletto said.

Xiphos gripped her assault rifle in both hands, ready to continue. “His death will not be in vain.”

“We will triumph,” Naginata said.

We continued along the riverbank until we came across a hole in the wall that was clearly carved by human hands. It was roughly arch shaped, though clearly not crafted with any knowledge of sophisticated stonework. The outline of the door was more chiselled out of the stone itself and led into another chamber.

There were crude runes etched into stone beside the door. Those runes rearranged themselves in front of my eyes. My Wandering Scribe ability rearranged them into something I could understand. The words Continue to Adormitzeu appeared as the runes became words.

Adormitzeu hadn’t been translated, which probably meant that there was nothing in the English language that equated to it. If that was the case, it was probably a proper noun – a place name.

Maybe it was the name of the underground city Balaur talked about? The location of the corrupted obelisk.

“I think we go this way,” I said, pointing in the direction of the passage into the stone. “It’s a place called Adormitzeu, and that sounds like the name of a city to me.”

Xiphos nodded in agreement. “Looks like tight passages in there. I want everyone to be on their lookout. You especially, Kaiser.”

With the 45% buff increase in enemy detection radius I didn’t think we’d have a problem with being ambushed. Nevertheless, Kaiser barked his agreement as we headed into the tunnel.

The passages snaked through the stone in a uniform kind of way. The passage from the river only allowed us to walk in single file, but we soon reached a wider passage that could easily walk three people abreast. Or two people and Kaiser.

There were other markings on the walls leading down further branching avenues, and most of these were accompanied by other chiselled runes that had more generic names for places you’d expect to find in a city. One doorway was marked with runes that translated to market, another translated to temple, and another to school.

I pointed this last one out to the rest of the team. “That way says school. If the Scholomance is indeed a place of learning, then that should take us closer.”

We headed down that path. I led the way illuminating the tunnel with my claws while Kaiser trotted beside me watching out for threats. A little while later, Kaiser growled low in his throat at the darkness ahead of us. Right where the tunnel stopped and opened out into a new area.

“Bad guys?” I asked.

Kaiser barked an affirmative.

There was only one exit from our current path and the way ahead was obscured by gloom. If we wandered out into the darkness with our lights announcing our position, we’d pretty much be ringing the dinner bell for any waiting nasties.

“Stiletto, can you scout out there in stealth?” Xiphos asked.

Stiletto swallowed nervously. “I’ve upped my stealth time by quite a bit, but it’s still only a minute maximum before the shroud breaks.”

“Then we stay together and face whatever waits for us in the dark.” Xiphos gripped her sword in one hand and strode out into the darkness.

Our beams of light fanned out across the room as we walked out into the chamber in formation, keeping our eyes peeled for enemies. Left, right, ahead, behind, there was nothing but stone walls.

A noise came from somewhere nearby, like the rustling of dry leaves on a footpath. No wind moved in the chamber around us, so that couldn’t be the source. It echoed, making the susurrus of movement sound like it came from everywhere around us all at once.

There was nothing around us! What if they weren’t coming from the sides…

I looked up just in time to see grey flesh unfold from a hole in the ceiling, unfurling like the tattered banners of a defeated army. Halfway along that leathery skin, pairs of claws held fast to the ceiling of the chamber as creatures aimed their eyeless heads at us.

They fell on us with unrestrained fury, and I made a split second decision to activate my class skill.

Kaiser was right next to me when I activated it, and the portal appeared beneath our feet. The other end of the portal opened above the falling creatures, which immediately sent us falling too.

Some information from Balaur appeared in my view proclaiming these bat-like monstrosities as strigoi, but I quickly dismissed it. I needed to see my foes.

These strigoi had enormous fangs set in wide jaws in a head that looked remarkably human. Except for the flat strip of flesh that covered where their eyes should have been. A flat, yonic nose sat in the centre of the face, and a pair of pointed ears adorned their hairless scalps.

Their skin was the colour of rancid milk, and had short torsos, but long gangly legs with hooked claws on the ends. Their arms were wings, lacking any kind of distinguishable hands.

If the upyr looked like nightmare human-monkey hybrids, then these things looks like the overgrown feral spawn of Dracula himself.

Three strigoi landed outside the circumference of my portal and engaged the rest of my team as Kaiser and I fell. Stiletto disappeared for a stealth strike, but Naginata and Xiphos weren’t so quick. One strigoi leapt onto Xiphos and buried its face in the side of her neck.

Blood sprayed from Xiphos as Kaiser and I fell through the portal. Because one portal opened directly above the other, the other two strigoi who’d fallen through with us were simultaneously above and below us.

We fell through the pair of portals faster and faster as the thirty seconds of active skill time ticked down. Kaiser landed on one strigoi’s back and savaged it. I summoned both sets of claws and slashed at the other strigoi, who tried its best to carve me open too.

Those claws on their feet really were a killer. They hooked into the meat of my legs and clamped down. Then it wrapped its grey wings around me and hooked its other claws into my back. Then it drew me towards its waiting maw with abominable strength.

Pallid fangs gleamed in the purple glow of the portal’s light as it inched towards my neck.

My claws slipped into its chest, piercing flesh and winding around its brittle rib cage. I simultaneously drew on its anima and used my claws to push it away, keeping its fangs just out of reach of my neck.

I just needed to keep the strigoi beneath me and hold out long enough for the portal to expire.

Soon enough, it did.

The strigoi slammed into the cavern’s floor with a sickening crunch. All that built up momentum falling through the portals over and over came to an abrupt halt, but I didn’t come away unscathed. My head slammed into its face, and I got a face full of disgusting rotten blood breath.

I drained it of anima and walked away feeling a little wobbly. Kaiser had done similar, but his strigoi needed some more softening up. I drew Gravedigger from my back holster and pumped two shells into its misshapen face.

The strigoi’s head splattered against the stone floor in a burst of red pudding and fell still.

Xiphos had managed to pry the strigoi from her neck somehow. She was pulling her sword out of the dead thing’s head when we approached. Stiletto had reduced his strigoi to a pin cushion with what looked like dozens of stab wounds that leaked dark blood onto the stone floor. Naginata was the only one who looked completely unruffled.

She must have picked up on it from the look I gave her. She shot me a quick smile and shrugged. “They don’t have eyes, and I can be very quiet.”

But the chamber didn’t remain quiet. That same leaves-scraping-over-concrete noise came from the opening above. A lot more strigoi were on the way.

We had two choices: stand and fight or run for our lives.