Chapter 50: The bridge[10]
I ran through the cave tunnel as silent as I could and I noticed that this tunnel was different compared to the other ones, and since I could see in the dark, I could see it clearly — the rocks were of crystal like silver, they looked more like crystal than rocks.
I suddenly saw something on the wall in the corner of my left eye. So I stopped running and walked to where I had seen something.
When I got closer, I finally saw what it was.
It was the drawing of a face — no, it looked to be a face first but when I looked closer, I recognized that it was a mask, it looked to be white in colorr but it looked more pale to me.
Reaching with my right hand, I touched the mask drawing with my fingers. The wall felt cold to the touch, and when I tried to brush off the drawing, it didn’t come off.
"Ezio, do you see this?" I asked Ezio to confirm for me.
’If it’s the pallid mask-like drawing that you were trying to erase just now, yes, I can see it.’
So I was not seeing things.
Why was there a drawing of a mask here? By the looks of it, it looks to be old since I couldn’t brush it off.
I don’t remember there being drawings in this tunnel, however it was foolish of me to think I’d know about everything.
The mask had white eyes behind it and for some reason I felt like it was staring at me, the more I looked at it.
"A pallid mask..."
I suddenly felt a presence behind me and then a cold hand touched my left shoulder.
Bad-dum!
Chills ran down my spine. How did something lurk behind me and not be detected by my senses?
My katana was already out of its sheath and cutting towards my left shoulder.
I expected to cut something or my sword to be blocked but my blade didn’t cut nor meet any resistance.
"Huh?"
There was no one.
When I looked behind there was literally no one.
How the heck is that possible? I had felt something or someone touching my shoulder.
’What’s wrong? Why did you suddenly swing your blade at nothing?’
"Did you not feel that?" I said, my heart was beating loudly in my ears. "There was something behind me."
’What?’ Even when I couldn’t see Ezio’s face, I could tell that he had a frown on his face inside my shadow.
’I didn’t see nor feel anything.’ Ezio said. ’No one or no monster who tried to sneak up on us wouldn’t go undetected by me.’
Hearing that, I frowned.
"I swear that there was literally someone behind me and they touched my shoulders!"
I was not insane, I felt the touch, it was cold and real.
’I think you’re imagining things. Is the curse from yesterday making you hallucinate?’
Why is this guy not believing me? There’s no way Ezio, who’s very strong, would not notice it.
I knew that I had the habit of talking to myself but I wasn’t insane enough to imagine things.
There was definitely someone behind me.
I turned around and looked at the pallid mask, making me frown even more.
Was I really just imagining things?
But the presence and touch felt so real for it to be fake.
Was it perhaps something stronger than Ezio?
I had first thought that a skeleton had sneaked up but they weren’t that strong to erase their presence from my senses.
It could actually be something stronger than Ezio, after all, there are some dreadful creatures who are very good at stealth and you wouldn’t know that it was lurking behind you unless it wanted you to know.
But that was something not impossible but unlikely. Creatures that are that strong don’t leave their territories, and even if they tried, there are people stationed in their territory to monitor their movements. So if something like that came here, the strongest adventurers would’ve been swarming here.
So if it was not a monster, it could be an awakener.
But who could it be?
Who was stealthy enough to not be detected by a master assassin like Ezio?
I already had a name.
But why would he be here? He should be with my father at the moment, he never leaves his side.
My thoughts kept spiraling so much that I started to get a headache.
I activated [Calm Mind] and the thoughts calmed down, alongside the fear I just had.
So I came to the conclusion that maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was just my head making up stuff.
"Maybe you’re right Ezio, I must be seeing things."
It was not time to try to dwell on something unimportant, I had better things to do.
I gave one last look at the pallid mask on the crystal wall and I left, running deeper into the cave tunnel.
As deep as I was, I finally stopped running and started walking as silent as I was.
Thanks to my Main Story, my presence would become more stealthier not only in the night but in places where there was darkness.
I came across a turn on the left — that was the left tunnel that joins with the right tunnel where I was currently. So if I wanted to go back I either go back the same way or take this turn.
I kept walking and walking until my darkness sense circle picked up.
The moment it did, the darkness circle gave me all the descriptions of the monsters — it was an undead skeleton spearman with two undead wolf skeletons on both of his sides.
They had their backs turned to me, so it would be easier to kill them without alerting the others.
I crouched behind the wall, and once I noticed that there were no other undead skeletons, I made my move.
Since they were on top of my darkness circle, black tentacles came out from the circle and grabbed the trio — I made sure to cover their mouths so they wouldn’t make noise.
At my command, dozens of spikes popped out of the tentacles and pierced their bodies.
When the spikes successfully break their cores, the monsters turn to ash.
[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead Skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead wolf Skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead wolf Skeleton]
The system whispered the kills and I felt the story fragments entering my soul.
I kept moving forward.
After a few more meters the tunnel turned to the right, and I felt a presence.
I hid behind the wall and peeked with my head.
There were 4 undead wolf Skeletons. Two of them seemed to be sleeping while the other ones just stood looking at my direction.
"Hmmm..." I thought of a way to lure them to me and in a way that would allow me to kill all of them in one swoop.
I looked at the undead wolves again and then I thought:
Wolves are dogs as well. So they wouldn’t definitely run if they saw a ball, right?
Honestly, it sounded stupid.
Oh, then I had a better idea.
I concentrated darkness in my hands and with the help of [Darkness Shaping], I formed a large bone made of darkness. And then I added a rope of darkness tied around it.
This would do.
I looked again to check the position of the undead wolves and then I threw it across from me, the bone bounced once and stopped in the middle.
At the sound of the bone, the undead wolves that were sleeping had their ears raised up while the others had their heads snapped towards the direction of the bone.
They didn’t move at first, so I tugged at the rope tied to the bone, making it move slightly.
The undead wolves stood up at the motion and walked towards it slowly at first and were hesitant, but when they saw that it was a bone, their tails wagged and they all rushed forward.
They had taken the bait.
I made sure to keep the bone over the darkness circle.
So I waited and waited, until they reached the bone.
But just before one got to the bone, one of the undead wolves saw me at the turn but before it could bark, a very thin sharp wall made of darkness rose from below them and sliced through their necks at the same time.
The other undead wolves didn’t know what killed them...their heads rolled forward and then turned to ash.
[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead wolf skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead wolf skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead wolf skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead wolf skeleton]
’Look you move like an assassin.’
My powers did fit for an assassin but that was not what I was planning to become.
I walked deeper into the tunnel and came to a halt. I quickly hid behind a wall and made my presence as faint as possible.
After some minutes where I had just stood, a huge skeleton, at least 2 meters tall, stood. He held a heavy battle axe that was hanging on his shoulders.
I tried my best to keep my breathing still.
I couldn’t be found out yet.
The monster just stood there looking forward with its empty eye sockets.
Honestly I didn’t know what he was looking at but at least I prayed he didn’t look at me.
Talking about jinxing myself, the monster suddenly turned and looked at me.
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