《Oracle of Death》
Ch-1 The Horde
Nico was annoyed. Riding for nearly a week was not particularly pleasant. Riding without having a bath though, was maddening.
A large ensemble surrounded Nico, consisting of 24 cavalries, 5 mages, 15 swordsmen, and a commander, Commander Erwin. They were to accompany him to the Citadel, where he could access the Status ritual. He had been practicing calligraphy for years now, his list of skills and spells would be written quite clearly.
He wasn''t feeling hot even though it was midday and they were also in the middle of a desert, just dry. Seems that the massive cloud that Jacob had conjured could only block the sun''s harsh and brutal glare, which was good, but it would have been better if it would make the air less hot and dry.
Nico continued to think about the status and what it meant, more to distract himself from the seemingly endless riding than anything. He would probably get Mage or some other magic-affiliated class. He was quite good at chanting, and he was dexterous as well, all signs of a mage class. He didn''t need hope, he had confidence. He could already cast a strong Orb, and he was quite proficient with mana bolt. He had once managed to light up his father''s entire throne room with a Powerful and overfed Orb of light, for Three whole seconds...... Before passing out due to mana exhaustion.
Nico looked at himself. Maybe he would some Fighter class, like swordsmen. He has fit and had some muscles, not big but enough to make him look good. His light-brown skin was unblemished, without any kind of scar or marks, due to his abnormal immunity system. Having an Advanced healer tend to any and all injuries in the royal family helps though.
He had emerald green eyes, Messy pitch-black hair that reached said eyes, and Smooth and firm light-brown skin. He was Eighteen years old, the minimum age to access the Identity Script. He had an average height. He made sure that he had as little fat as reasonably possible, he would never forgive himself if he looked like he ate more than a cyclops.
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He didn''t like his mount, a sandstrider. His ride was tall, very tall. Its legs were twice the length of Nico, Its neck was long and thick like a tree branch, a robust one. Its head was similar to a Horse but with larger lips, and longer and thicker eyelashes. Its entire body was covered in a thick coat of Shaggy, Brown Fur. The Hair on its legs was coarse, tough, and similar to sandpaper.
He tried to remember the names of the 5 mages accompanying him, Cassandra was the light mage, Isacc was the Earth mage?, Jacob was the Sorceror, and he forgot the other two. Cassandra had long, wavy, golden hair, with white skin reminiscent of his father''s pale. Isacc was always covered in a thick layer of Stone, clay, mud, and plenty of sand, which obscured all his features. Jacob was the highest-level mage present, he was middle-aged, with many wrinkles on his face. His voice was hoarse, probably due to intense chanting.
Nico disliked the nighttime. The monsters came out then. Sandspitters would just slither out of their burrows and take to flight, spraying sand everywhere. Sand is the most irritating thing to try and take out of shoes or clothes or bags or just anything. Every time you take it all out there is somehow more?!?! He once threatened Isacc because he thought that the earth mage was playing a prank on him, which turned out to be false.
Dune rats were the most common. They usually formed hordes of 100 on the low end, and 400 on the higher end. Some were the size of cats, some could dig tunnels, and some could grow as large as a fully grown man. They smelled horrid.
There were then the tentacles. They randomly would pop out of the sand like massive worms. They had no eyes, no sense organs, just a large jaw. A dozen usually pop out, sometimes a hundred. They are the phara...pharan...pharangaol or something -He rarely remembered what his tutor said- jaws. They were connected to a huge beast that only showed for huge feasts, Raithmauns.
"Halt" Commander Erwin commanded. Everyone obeyed and stopped. It was sundown by now. It was time to make camp and sleep. Isacc started to shape the area into something defendable. He raised the sand into thick earthen walls around us, The sandy ground was solidified to something harder.
Ch-2 Blaststones
It was glorious.
The lights targeted only the rats as they pierced through their bodies. Most of the rats hit by the falling missiles were severely injured but not dead, a rat could take nearly 5-7 lights before dying. The rats filled the air with their pained screeches. The immediate area around the circle of swordsmen was filled with corpses but the further away from the circle the fewer dead rats and more dying. Even further away were more living and insane rats.
The mages and swordsman rest for the short while that the rats were at bay. One of them noticed that The prince was unconscious and began to treat his injury. In the distance, Commander Erwin was sitting atop the sandstrider, away from the rats while all the Horses and their riders laid waste to the sea of rats and made it a sea of bodies. Erwin was still able to direct his troops even though he was far from them.
"Husks, prepare fire, we are in retreat, Throw the stones after the retreat is complete" Commander Erwin spoke directly into the minds of everyone present. Nico regained consciousness and lay on the ground as his purple robes tore revealing brown cotton cloths. He also heard Commander Erwin and was repulsed yet again when he heard of the vile, smelly, dirty, and disgusting Mob of undead rushing to them. The dry and repulsive creatures were a type of undead that roamed the labyrinth and unfortunately the desert.
The sandstrider that Commander Erwin was on was turning back while all the horse-riding soldiers were rushing back. The mages immediately started to chant spells and write runes midair. The swordsmen began carefully pulling small sacks filled with black rocks of various sizes. They looked like red glass encased in obsidian, the were parts where the red colour showed. The swordsmen pulled the sacks to their place and kept them at their side.
The sandstrider and horses had already crossed the distance. The swordsmen all faced the side the horde was on with a Blaststone in their hand while they made a semi-circle formation. Once the retreat was over they Cocked their arms back and threw. The stones went flying in the air at speeds so fast that they were not visible. The stones flew like missiles and threw sand high in the air when they landed.
Explosions were heard in the distance as the stones exploded. But that didn''t stop the advance of the horde. The swordsmen just took more stones and repeated. The mages continued to cast as the sound of explosions was in the air. The horde of husks and rats was losing numbers before they even reached the group. Many mages had finished their spell already and flung them. Contracted summons of fire, massive fireballs, Hundreds of firebolts, a huge ball of green-yellow gas, and many more were thrown at the horde. The gas ball was the first. As it neared the gas ball spread until it covered the horde like a mist. When some fire reached the gas-mist, it ignited, engulfing the entire area in flames as it blew up. the rest of the spells spelled carnage.
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The blaststones were all used up and the swordsmen returned to a circular formation. The massive horde of undead husks and disgusting rats was reduced to just a group of monsters. Yet they advanced until they were in reach.
"Mages, Reduced their mobility. maintain the iron shield" Commander Erun shouted as he referred to the circle of swordsmen as the Iron Shield.
the wave of monsters finally came as they crashed at the iron shield. Erun and the horse-riding warriors had already rushed in the horde. Many mages continued to tug at their exhausted mana pools to cast spell after spell. The ground around the bulk of the horde caved downwards while sand blurred in a circle around the depression in the ground as it cut through many. many monsters just stopped moving like they were statues and ever more spells cut their mobility.
All the while Jacob had been chanting a spell. He wore a brown cotton shirt. He was a middle-aged man with black hair and black eyes. his face was wrinkled with stress as his hands blurred in motion and his voice hoarse from chanting so many spells. He was again casting a long and tiresome spell, attack friend. it would make all the rats attack the husks and then other rats and if they still survive then they themselves. all while ignoring any humans. The spell wouldn''t be completed any time soon.
the horde was thinning as more and more were decimated. The horses left trails of bodies free of living or undead as they became just dead. their riders were cutting swaths of bodies every time they attacked with their whip blades. Commander Erwin was watching from above and coordinating everyone. The mages stopped firing spells into the bulk of the horde as the fighters were there, instead, they focused nearby. The Iron shield formation was holding strong and completely surrounded.
Jacob had finally finished his spell. The Dune-rats went into a crazed frenzy and started attacking husks nearby. the slow corpse sandbags were torn bit by bit by the Dune-rats. the dune rats outnumbered the husks and quickly the entire Horde was down to a twentieth of what they had started with. Between the Blaststones, Spells, swords, Horses, and generally just carnage, the fight was nearly over.
The Air was deafening with the insane chatter of the rats as they ripped each other to shreds and then themselves. The last of the rats were dead. The warriors, the mages, The Commander, and the prince all felt relieved as the last of the rats died. The battle was over.
"Why the hell were there so many of them?" Nico thought as he sat on the ground, His shoulder felt hurt but otherwise fine. The air smelled like death, shit, and corpses.
"The rocks were not there before" Nico thought as he observed around him. The rocks in the distance not there before and were strangely getting higher or was he hallucinating.
Suddenly the ground shifted. Nico stumbled and regained his balance and looked around. The rocks were definitely higher now.
He went to a nearby mage and started to point at the rocks which now were now 10 meters above the ground and many more were still rising.
"You, look there. Those aren''t supposed to rise are they" Nico said while pointing at the rocks.
Before the mage could respond the rocks shot up and curved. The rocks were in a circle Around them forming a dome. At the base of some of the rocks a leathery material was present. Soon all the rocks had it at the base. All of the pieces were connected by the leathery material.
It was a mouth.
Ch-3 Escape
It was dark.
Nico was riding for his life. He looked back, they were still fighting. He looked forward, he couldn''t help, he needed to escape. He needed to live.
The sandstrider that he rode was going as fast as its legs could take it. It wasn''t fast enough. He was headed to a gap in the ring of stones, no, Teeth that surrounded them. They were all in the middle of the mouth of a Raithmaun. It was unfathomably large for an animal.
He was riding alone as the rest of them were fighting against some creatures. Were they snakes? worms? Tentacles with jaws? no, he read about this. They were tongues with pharyngeal jaws. The monsters were just the original tongue of the monster dividing into more and more...... Tongue-lets? The term doesn''t matter. what does matter is that a few thousand tentacles with jaws were sticking out of the ground and attacking indiscriminately.
He was moving fast towards the only escape point. He had read about this on a page in his Bestiary. He only remembered that singular page but it was saving him right now. He was heading towards one of the corners of its mouth which was quite far away.
Such a huge beast shouldn''t exist, it was so huge that Nico just couldn''t fathom it. His ride was going as fast as it could yet the jaw hinges of the monster were still a minute or two away, it was time he couldn''t afford to lose. The jaw was closing all the while. It blocked out a majority of the stars and most of the moon. he could just barely see where he was supposed to go.
He was so close. He was on the last stretch of sand but the jaw was almost fully closed and the area was getting too small for him to fit through. He would have to jump from above his sandstrider. He was readying himself to stand on the animal and jump when suddenly he was sent flying.
He landed on his face in the sand confused. When he cleared the sand from his face and turned he saw his mount just standing still. Did it stop abruptly? Why? Then he remembered that he had to escape. Turning away from the Sandstrider He just ran to the last space to escape.
The jaw was almost fully closed and the path was blocked by the teeth. He couldn''t go through the skin as even if the rest of the group were with him even they couldn''t cut through the leather of a Raithmaun. It wasn''t hard but it took time. He couldn''t climb the teeth because they were coated in a black oily substance secreted when they surfaced.
Was he trapped? He looked back and then up. He estimated that there was around a minute before the jaw was fully closed and the beast began to go to the labyrinth entrance. All the mages were probably on the last dregs of their mana while the swordsmen were probably just doing fine, the cavalry was.... well they were mostly dead or dying.
The maw of the beast had closed. A deep rumbling sound was heard as the Monster descended down into the depths of the sand. It was going to a labyrinth entrance. It clicked into place in his head, the army of rats and husks was because of a new opening. How unlucky could he be?
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The monster was moving deep underground as it went to the entrance. Nobody could see anything it was pitch black inside. Nico lost track of the fight as he curled up on the sand and tried to partially bury himself before tearing up.
He would most probably die in the labyrinth. He was nearly two days away from a class but he was going to die. What would happen after he was dead? Did it matter if he was not alive? He was trying not to panic. He almost forgot about the sandstrider before he heard donkey-sounding noises. He tried to make sense and became perfectly quiet or as quiet as he could be with his stifled cries.
More shrieking and baying and weird gory noises of flesh accompanied by the crunching of bones and pained cries of his sandstrider. He turned just a bit and tried to make out what was happening in the dark.
He couldn''t see anything but then he felt a sharp pain in his side. He struggled and kept hitting whatever had attacked him. He struck at his side as the worm-like creature continued to bite his side.
He felt drowsy after a few bites. That lasted for a few seconds before he recovered from the drowsiness and saw the appendage unmoving on the sand beside him. The tongue-let? The tongue-let was lying on the sand with random twitches occasionally. Both he and the creature were covered in his own blood.
His blood clotted far too quickly but he paid it no mind.
He was confused about how did it die. Then he realized that it was capable of eating so it must have consumed some of his blood. His blood contained enough diseases, poisons, and curses that a single drop could probably kill a mid-sized animal.
He looked at the tongue-let as its skin wilted and rotted before his eyes. The body continued to feel the effects after it had died as involuntary muscle contractions took place. It shook from side to side as pieces were flung to both sides.
He realized that he couldn''t feel anything as his body put him in shock, something he was used to. He just sat there in the sand waiting for any more of the tongue-lets to come and eat him but none came. He couldn''t hear the sounds of fighting anymore. Was it over? Had they by some miracle managed to kill the beast? No, probably not. He could still feel the rumbling as the Raithmaun continued to dive deeper into the earth.
Then another thought popped into his head. Does it not try to eat poisonous animals? That would make sense with the super-toxic animals that lived in the desert. Either his luck was coming around or it was trying to be sadistic. He would survive the maw of the beast but would die due to starvation or to some random monster in the labyrinth.
He tried to laugh as if it would make him feel better but he was still injured. He winced as the pain resurfaced and then he went numb again.
After a while, the creature had stopped, and still, nothing came to eat him. He was in the labyrinth. It was the first time for a few things. It was the first time he was trapped in a Raithmaun, It was the first time in the Labyrinth, but not the first time he thought that he was going to die.
He remembered the first time that he thought he was going to die. His food was poisoned with a toxin so strange that his body had nothing to compare it to. It was the first time he had a neurotoxin. He had lots more after but he always would remember when his would-be assassin begged his father for mercy but his father was called the Red Terror for a reason.
He ground his teeth. He had survived death many times, he would do it again.
Ch-4 Beast of the labyrinth
Jacob was physically, mentally, emotionally, and magically exhausted. He had been fighting non-stop for God knows how long.
He was standing in the middle of a shimmering magic dome just big enough to stand upright in the center. Three other mages were sitting inside the magic dome on the sand. He had little mana left and what he did have left was slowly being siphoned away to the magic dome. He didn''t have enough mana to power any of his mana-hungry spells. He was a sorcerer, that was all his spells.
The swordsmen, earth mage, and commander Erwin were the only ones still fighting. The dome produced little light but for the swordsmen, it was enough. They were fighting against an army of tendrils that shot out of the sand in the darkness. Their jaws were lined with razor-sharp teeth. Most of the mages were out because of the tendrils poison.
The swordsmen were blurred figures as they zoomed across the sand. They kicked up dust clouds as they chopped, sliced, and slashed, at the tendrils. They made a bloody rain of gore, and viscous materials like bits of meat, jaws, blood, and more. They were cut down by the hundreds with every move from the swordsmen, yet the waves of tendrils didn''t seem to thin.
The only mage still fighting was Isaac the earth mage. He was flinging boulders, solidifying the sandy ground into a solid dull grey stone trapping many, Petrifying thousands at a time, throwing large stones that shattered into fast-moving shards, and just being a force to be reckoned with.
He was able to keep up with the swordsmen as he had cast spells like Stoneskin, Earthmeld, and Rock armor, on himself. due to which his face and body were completely covered in rocks, stones, and sand which wouldn''t even leave space for his eyes. He would go in and out of Earthmeld as he sunk through the sand with his entire body becoming one with the earth and gliding through.
When he fought the blood-covered battlefield would look like a giant''s hand had torn it up. It was so dark in the Raithmaun that he could only sense the Tendrils by Seismic sensing. The swordsmen were working by the dim light of the dome and their trained ears.
It was hard to overestimate how many tendrils there were. The mages in the dome could only see a few meters from the dome and then it got darker, and all they saw was the hundreds of thousands of tendrils around them trying to go through the barrier or under it. They were cut by swords as crops would by sickle. They were cut by the thousands and then thousands took their place.
The battle continued for a while until the carnage the group wrought paid off and there were no more tendrils to fight. Isacc continued to be covered in the earth while resting with the swordsmen and commander Erwin.
They would go and search for the prince in some time but right now they needed to rest.
It had been a while and Nico and been phasing in and out of unconsciousness. He had no idea how long he had been sitting in the same place, but time meant less in the dark. He was starting to get hungry, when he saw some lights in the dark distance.
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"What? Had they won? Were they alive?" he wondered hopefully. He was shouting and waving with his left hand as his right side was injured heavily. They must have noticed as they started rushing to him faster. They were using a few Light balls that shone like the sun in comparison to the dark surroundings.
When the group reached Nico a mage knelt near him to treat his wounds. Nico was about to say something when the pain flared again due to muscle movements. Cassandra was a light mage with slight healing skills.
She first gave a slight check to see which parts were damaged. She had expected to have to cauterize the wound but strangely the Blood had somehow fully clotted around the area. She was mainly concerned about infection and the poison from the tendril but Nico just said that those would be fine.
So she called the rock and earth-covered Isacc to her. She would first cast a spell to burn away all of the impurities from Nico''s side and then Isacc would meld some sand to act as a temporary replacement onto his side.
"No," Nico said when he heard the plan."What? Do you want to be a liability or do you want to move?" Cassandra said slightly confused and angry. "No means that I will not let you burn my body," Nico said with some measure of annoyance. "I am trying to heal you. so just go with it" Cassandra said while trying to hide her growing annoyance.
Nico was about to say something when he suddenly just collapsed. Cassandra looked in shock until she heard Jacob say "Well, thank me or something. I might be executed if we return cause of that.".
She immediately began casting the spell and then applying the warm glowing light to Nico''s injured side. She saw it get redder as the affected area started to look better. It was burning away the coagulated blood and replacing it with a transparent thin skin-like layer.
She then concentrated the spell on the mound of sand with a paste-like consistency. Isacc slapped the hot and now sanitized sand onto the thin skin-like layer. He then worked on shaping it till it wasn''t bulky. The sand now had a rubbery texture that felt like tough skin.
The brown substance would make sure that it wouldn''t hurt anymore.
Nico woke confused and with a slight headache. He was on the shoulder of Commander Erwin who was tasked with carrying the unconscious prince. Nico looked around, there was blue light coming from crystals growing out of the massive walls. it was dark but visible.
The ceiling was so high that he couldn''t see it properly. all he could make out was that they were in a slightly lit cave, no, cavern made out of sandstone and was big enough to store seven dragons with room to spare. It was unfathomably large and made him feel like a small, tiny little ant.
He noticed that most of the group was missing. Including but not limited to Cassandra, Isacc, and Jacob.
He and everybody there were in the prison of monsters of titanic proportions, An ecosystem of vermin and colossal monstrosities, The home of living calamities. They were all in the labyrinth.
He had read about the labyrinth. It was a cesspool of ecosystems with occasional "Corridors" and entrances. Monsters were weeded out until only vermin who have become part of the labyrinth, and monsters of devastating power are left.
There was a bellowing sound that made the entire area shake. It sounded like a mountain crashing like pure power was poured into a roar. It was coming from directly behind them. Nobody turned to see what happened. A sound like the grating of stone except much, much louder was heard. A stray Beam of light so intense crashed into the wall burning a shallow hole into it.
Nico looked in the direction from where the light beam came from and saw a towering figure. It was a giant with 2 enormous horns jutting out of its head. It''s entire body was covered in shaggy brown fur. Its head was that of a bull with the torso of a hairy humanoid giant and the legs of a powerful bull. It was a minotaur