Trap

As we got closer for a moment it smelled like a barbeque, before another scent was introduced slight charcoal, and another metalic-ish one, and finally a smidgen of sulfur. A smell I've yet to have introduced to before in my life. The smell intensified as we moved forward towards the room.

But I had no doubt that whatever was burning was was some kind of meat. One which I had an odd feeling about for some reason. The urge to vomit was welling up too even though the fire's contents haven't even been known yet. As I kept smelling it it became more and more unpleasant.

The flames kept burning and smoke rose up into that room. From the view here the fire sat in the middle of the room ahead. The fire in comparison to the room was huge. The room itself was fairly large yet still smaller than the one we came from, and fire looked as if it already took up a fifth of the entire room.

'Is there ventilation in there? Why would they start a fire inside, underground no less? This is stupid!'

As we got close to the doorway leading into the room the people in front stopped a few meters beforehand. In turn causing the rest of us to stop as well. Our group was position in the back right so I had to move up a bit to see the commotion. Moving pass some of the stationary disciples the smell increased as well.

Finally I saw what they seemed so destressed about. It was the fire, more specifically the contents I had wondered about earlier. In hindsight there were plenty of clues that pointed towards it, especially that unique smell. It was no wonder I had felt uneasy about it and had a urge to vomit.

It was human corpses that had been burning in those flames arms, legs, torsos, and heads could be seen as outlines within. The state of the bodies as well, they weren't charred nor turned to merely bone fragments yet. It could only mean this happened recently.

Our groups was once again merged into a single large one as we all stared towards the flames that crackled and burned the bodies that fueled it. The large pile of bodies within were numerous yet not overwhelming.

Before long something entered our vision, other people came from behind the flames and seemingly as if they knew we had always been here, walked over. Their numbers swelled until they out numbered us around two to one.

A man approached with his hands behind his back and a smirk across his face. He had a sword strapped to his side and wore a completely dark blue set of robes.

"So, you are the reinforcements they spoke of? How pitiful! Do you honestly believe your meager forces could of helped? Heh, more than half of you are still in the second stage while remaining few are in the third."

Someone from our group walked out to him before speaking, "This is a misunderstanding that's all! We aren't-" Before he could even finish his sentence the tip of a sword was seen exiting his back. Bright red blood illuminated by our light talismans was seen covering the blade.

"Y-You..."

"Heh, you can't talk your way out of this one! Just because the forces you were sent to help have been killed, don't think you all can just walk away!" Pulling out his sword the body of our comrade slide off and hit the ground. There was a clear wound in the center of his chest close to where his heart should have been.

Our group stood dumbstruck, but before any of us could come up with any words to say he spoke again.

"Ha ha ha.. kill them!"

With those words the men behind him took out their weapons. Every single one of them had a bladed weapon of some kind and started walking towards us, Menacingly!

I was reaching for the sword on my side before one of our own started booking it back the way we came. Seeing that one started running many others went as well including the experienced members. At some point Yao Ya had let go of me, but I was more worried with the men walking towards us to think too much about it.

I wasn't about to be a sacrifice to hold them back so I stopped my action and turn to run as well. I was in the center of the group now running together with the rest. Turning back to see where they were I saw they were gaining on us!

It only took a few seconds to leave that tunnel. Once we reached the large room we heard a scream from behind. Of course I had to run around and from there I saw someone wear our robes fall down as someone jumped him and a few of the other pursuers stopped near him as well.

Turning back I focused on running and remembering the weapons scattered across the ground I made sure to watch out for them. It seems someone else forgot beside me and tripped on some polearm that lied on the ground. Soon after a scream rang out from behind, most likely from the same man.

Another scream rang out just before we reached the other side. As we made it the door way to the stairs had been closed, a large double door had blocked it off. Most importantly there was another group of people welding bladed weapons standing in front.

We were going to be trapped between two different groups of them if we didn't move so I went to my left. The path with found when we were initially exploring this place. I ran into the dark corridor with nothing to help me see, I could still hear foot steps following after me so I tried running a little faster.

After a couple dozen seconds of running in the pitch black hallway a sudden bright light appeared behind me.

'Holy Shit! How are they so fast?! Fuck it, at least I'll die in glory!'

"AHH!" I screamed while quickly turning around and rapidly unsheathing the sword attached to my hip.

"AHH!" Two high pitch screams were returned.

'Aha! I caught a couple of them off guard, maybe I can escape after all or better yet I could kill them and get rid of my pursuers!'

I swung my sword out randomly toward the voices as the light had kinda blinded me.

*Clang*

My sword had hit another metal object, which wobbled a bit. Clearly another metal weapon had come to intercept.

'Shit, there's three of them!?'

"Hey! What are you doing? We're on your side!"

'Huh?'

As the light settled and my eyes got used to it my vision returned. The person I had clashed with was Chen Huang, his saber had intercepted my sword and the screams I heard were from two girls who had fallen onto their butts, they still had a slight fearful expression as they looked at me. The person who held the light was the woman who held the light for our team before. The other guy from the team was there too and-

Before I finished looking around Yao Ya came over towards me pulling my right arm down along with the sword that was locked with Chen Huang's saber.

"It's okay now Ip Cheng."

'Man, I was completely ready to die like just 5 seconds ago, but now not so much anymore. I suddenly don't want to throw away my life.'

Sheathing my sword I went up to the two girls who still haven't picked themselves up yet to apologize.

"I'm sorry about earlier, here let me help one of you back up." I said extending out my right hand.

They exchanged a glance before to my surprise they both took my hand simultaneously. I couldn't just reign on my words so I used quite a lot of my strength to pull them both up.

'*Sigh* I didn't lose face! I did it!'

Looking back at the room we came from I listened for any foot steps or any sign of an approaching enemy, yet the only thing heard was the stifling silence. We have to keep moving, we can't let them kill us, they'll probably take us and throw us into that pile of burning bodies we saw before.