Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

23 Seedmonth 1007 AF

After a long journey, they finally reached Rodes.

They looked at the city and felt they are near now.

After greeting the guard, they headed to the city council, who eyed the four children in disbelief after introducing themselves as Knight of the Academy.

Formally introducing themselves and presenting their official documents from the Academy, proving that they were sent by the Order of Alan, the council members finally told them of the bandits.

They were still hiding in the mines.

No citizen dared enter, even after the kidnappings began. Distraught families wailed outside the city council, demanding justice.

"You're sure you can do this?" a council member asked them, their voice saturated with concern.

"We can," said Arial firmly. "We are Knights of the Order."

The four crossed the village and arrived at the mine entrance. They of course have prepared themselves.

They arrived at the mine at night.

"Ready?" breathed Arial. The others gulped, and nodded.

The old bricks of the mine were damp and covered in moss. Nobody would want to go here. Unless to hide, Arial smirked to himself.

Their footsteps seemed to echo louder in the darkness. It was cold here than the outside, damper than outside, darker than the outside. A world of tunnels and echoing footsteps.

Arial's torch flickered as there seems to be wind

They walked together in silence.

Then Arial stepped on something. The ground was muddy but not the usual muddy nor the usual wetness.

At first Arial didn't notice it. But then he began feeling something is wrong.

He lowered his head in suspicion, his torch lighting up the ground, and he staggered back. The others behind him stopped.

"Wait" he whispered in the stillness of darkness in the mines. He brought up his torch and the torch lit up a red path ahead of them.

A trail of blood, Arial realized with a sickening jolt.

He glanced at his friends; Helia and Lisa looked quite ill, but Kyle was staring further ahead in horror.

They walked forward until the encountered an open area

In front of them was a chamber, and lying on the ground was a woman. At least, Arial thought it was a woman.

Her skin had been pulled from her body and was lying beside the rotting corpse.

Another body was sprawled beside her, a gaping hole through her stomach, wide eyes frozen in the pain she had died in.

Arial came closer to the body and he could see the strangulation mark on her neck and the smell are revolting.

Another woman lay with a cleanly cut incision in her abdomen, which could only have been the work of a small knife in a skilled hand.

Arial come closer and inspected it.

The flesh was cut carefully and cleanly, perhaps with a small sharp knife, running from the pubis area to the chest and curving neatly around the bellybutton.

Who have such skill to perform this kind of incision? And who would be insane enough? The smell waved over him.

A smell besides rotten flesh washed over Arial.

He looked to the walls of the chamber to see herbs hanging, some he recognized, some he didn't. But the one he recognizes are all fatal.

One of them is the Conium flower. Conium flower; eight leaves of the plant is fatal if ingested or eaten.

Death from the leaves came in the form of paralysis. The mind remained wide awake while the respiratory system eventually shut down.

It is a cruel poison and must be handled carefully.

Beside the Conium hung Wolfsbane. It left only one post-mortem sign, that of asphyxia, as it caused arrhythmic heart function, leading to suffocation.

Poisoning can occur even after touching the leaves of the plant without wearing gloves as it is very rapidly and easily absorbed.

All these poisons and for what purpose? Arial thought they were bandits but looking at the incision mark this is a work of a skilled surgeon.

Next to Arial, Kyle heaved.

"I want to cancel this quest," said Kyle, his face pale. Helia nodded.

"I want to catch these bastards," said Lisa fiercely, staring at the victims' bodies.

"Me too," said Arial. "They have terrorized enough innocents. We move forward."

Helia and Kyle followed them reluctantly.

They walked along the putrid trail of blood for quite some time, until at last they heard voices. They crept silently into the shadows of the tunnels, and listened.

"Where's Engel?" Arial sees that the bandit is asking the question to a man with a large build and have a nose ring and scars all over his face. He wears no clothes and in his chest is a tattoo of a skull.

"Experimenting in his chambers." the sound of screaming can be heard from the chambers and some of the bandits were startled before cussing out

"Why you want him as a companion, I'll never know…"

"Yeah, he's crazy! At least we wait 'til folks have died before we skin them!"

Arial clenched his fists, Lisa's eyes filled with fury. The four of them backed up and huddled together, out of earshot of the bandits.

"What are we going to do?" said Kyle, panicking.

"We ambush them," replied Arial. "When they're sleeping. Then we kill as many as we can, as quickly as we can."

It was a simple plan but also the most effective

The others nodded nervously, and they waited in the darkness together, their torch extinguished.

We can do this, thought Arial, I have trained them, they are the most powerful recruits in the Academy.

And they have him. Anyway he need to be aware and protect them if thing go bad. They waited in darkness.

Finally, they heard snoring drifting through the tunnel.

Emerging from the shadows, they walked tentatively through the tunnel into another chamber where a group of bandits lay sleeping.

Not hesitating for a second, Lisa gripped her sword tightly and thrust it through the round, swollen gut of a bandit, killing him instantly.

Helia managed to calm her shaking hands long enough to slice the throat of another. Kyle threw his blades frantically, chopping flesh as he ran around the chamber.

Arial darted from man to man, using the Slicing Water technique to sever their necks so quickly and smoothly that they didn't have a chance to scream.

But it is not like the noise would be so silent.

The noise finally caught up to the far end corner of the chamber and one of the bandits was awakened.

He looks dazed and when he realize what we're doing he yell " Intruders! Intruders!".

The commotion had woken the bandits. Arial ran at the man who had shouted and waved his sword.

A light of the sword and red liquid spurted out. His body wiggle without a head like a dying fish before it stops

The bandit's head rolled away, but it was too late; the chambers to their left and right opened up, and in poured swarms of bandits from each side.

"They said there were only forty!" called Kyle.

"They must have been recruiting," Helia panted.

Arial caught sight of Lisa; her face was pale and twisted in anger and fear. Arial realized that he and Kyle were the only ones not shaken by the battle.

He hadn't expected Kyle to be so calm.

"What do we do now?" Kyle asked, edging closer to Arial.

"We charge."

Arial and Kyle exchanged a grin, then back to back, they launched themselves towards their opponents.

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