Chapter Twenty-Two: Dusty Hallway

Dust instantly took to the air, as they disturbed the thousand years old room. The air was completely dry and made Jasmine thirsty from just breathing. The massive amount of dust entering her lungs made her cough furiously. She wasn't the only one, as her three friends went through the same thing.

"Great Gust" Jack chanted through his coughing and blew all the dust in the air away from them.

The sound from the raging winds that entered the corridor outside the room might have attracted something. So Jasmine quickly made the decision to return and come back again later. But when she turned to the entrance, she was greeted by a wall.

"We're trapped!" she said. Succeeding in making her party members panic.

All three of them turned in union to the wall. The reaction was instant, as Asiana and Jack devolved into fear. But Jasmine quickly snapped them back to reality.

~Pov Jasmine~ (First person)

I tightened my grip around my staff and raised it, holding it like a sword pointed towards the only opening to our room. I was slightly shaking in fear and Jantyr's lack of words made me even more nervous. What if the reason it didn't talk to me all this time was due to the ruin?

Without my deity's words of comfort, I felt uneasy. But no one in my party was doing better, so I had to take charge of the situation.

"Let's move, if other creatures are here, they'll surely come here after Jack used the great gust spell!" I told them, drenching them in our cold reality.

Harkolth was the first to regain his composure and he quickly walked past me and took the position of a vanguard. I had no complaints of him being first, as it was less dangerous for me.

I maxed out my blood circulation, in hopes of increasing my five senses. It was taxing on my mana, but thanks to it I managed to hear something. A quiet clunk sound was slowly becoming louder by the second.

We reached the opening and it revealed a corridor. The corridor was made out of some sort of gray stone, just like the room we were in. The corridor went two ways, while also having several identical rooms to the one we came from. Harkolth walked to our right and we followed him. There was no dust in the corridor for the moment, as Jack's spell had blown it away. Allowing us to breathe without coughing. But it was still uncomfortable, as the air was way too dry.

The clunk was growing louder and louder, as we walked. It was going without a break. Not that there were many options to begin with. I decided to inform my friends, as they had to know of possible danger.

Every five rooms we passed, there was a torch with a dim blue, ice like flame, lighting up the area. It made it possible for us to see ever so slightly. It also helped that each room had a torch, but the light inside them didn't make it outside.

"Guys, can you hear that sound growing closer?" I asked, finally hinting at the danger. Making all of them pause and hold their breaths. Trying to hear even the slightest of sound.

"Is that a clunk?" Harkolth asked and I nodded. The other two seemed a bit confused.

"I think we should walk a bit more, almost till the end of the dust free section and hide in one of the rooms. While we wait for the thing that's making the noise to pass us." I told them and Jack nodded.

"That's a good idea, let's do that!" he said.

We continued to walk in silence, both to listen after the sound and so we don't alert whatever is making that sound. We finally decided on a room, it was in the opposite direction of the torch on the outside. We quickly walked into the room. It was relatively big, about fifty square meters. Me and Harkolth hid to the right of the entrance, right in the corner. While Jack and Asiana did the same on the left.

We silently bided our time, waiting for clunk to pass us.

"Clunk, clunk, clunk" heavy steps were heard. I held my breath, as I heard it come closer and closer.

"Bang" it sounded, as it passed the wall next to me.

"Clunk, clunk, clu…" it suddenly stopped. I became petrified. This was the first time the sound had stopped since I noticed it. I could tell it was standing menacingly next to the opening. Its giant shadow crept into the room, as it sounded "Clunk, clunk, clunk" again.

Slowly a stained, silver armor revealed itself. No larger than a normal Falken. Inside the armor a shriveled up, brown, rotting dead Falken could be seen. Worms were crawling inside his eyes and mouth. A revolting stench made its way to my nose and made me want to puke.

I slightly moved out of reflex and the corpse in the armor turned its head to me. I stared into the eyeless dead creature, until it suddenly started walking towards me. Its heavy metal boot created a clunk with each step it took. A sharp, recently made sword was in its left hand and it was currently raised towards me, menacingly.

Out of instinct I used the strongest spell I knew. "Firelast" the red streak flew towards the dead creature and hit it in the chest. Instantly it bursted into scorching flames. The light from the burning creature lit up the room, as the creature screeched in pain.

The smell of burning, rotten flesh gassed the room we were in, making Alisia and Jack puke, while Harkolth seemed unbothered.

We quickly evacuated the room, as I took a last glance at the burning creature. The Jinx would only stop when it's dead and that's for certain. The amount of mana I poured into that spell was no joke. I panicked and let fear rule my actions and now I only have half my mana, in an unknown place, with dangerous creatures lurking everywhere.

As we ran, I could hear a thunderous sound in front of us and behind us. Like hundreds of light footsteps coming towards us.

"Damn it, that's a zombie!" Asiana said and I was instantly filled with dread. Sure zombies aren't powerful, but the thing is, they can only live for two weeks, after that, they either evolve into a ghoul, or devolve into a skeleton, because they lost all their flesh. That means one scary thing. That zombie I just killed was one of the people we were supposed to save and if that happened to him. There's a high chance it happened to the hundreds of footsteps quickly approaching us.

"This is very bad!" I said and the others nodded.

"We need to get out of this endless hallway!" Harkolth said and I agreed. If we don't find a way out of the hallway the things approaching us will be our end.

(An extra chaper, on a day that you already got an extra chapter, omg, better write a review and donate power stones :) Thanks for reading, author out :) )