The Chosen, Kris Kramer [reading e books .TXT] 📗

Watching his understudies cross the river, Cadman noticed the sky darken severely. Within moments, he found himself totally immersed in a dense, thick fog. The sudden sounds of battle roared around him, but he couldn’t see anything. Running in every direction revealed nothing. His own hand wasn’t even visible right in front of his face. The solid darkness gripped him bodily and weighed him down, forcing him to his knees.

The battle now whispered, fading away into the distance. His cries went unanswered. Where were his companions? What was happening?

Kill me! Come back here and kill me!

Where did those words come from? Did he say them?

Now only the bubbling flow of the stream remained, a relative silence compared to the violent trauma that had passed.

Cadman’s eyes shot open and he leapt to his feet. Cold sweat poured over his entire body. Swinging his sword around in a circle, the soldier searched for his assailants.

Only the gentle sounds of the caverns’ waters greeted him.

With a weary sigh, Cadman sheathed his weapon and placed a hand against the slime-covered wall. He leaned forward, head bowed, frustration washing over him anew. The nightmares visited his sleep more and more these days. The druids had said his pain would ease with time, but there was no escape from the constant mental reminders of his failure.

Mercifully, the humiliating feelings of defeat and loss passed quickly. Cadman stood up straight and reconsidered his situation. A deep-seated resolve wormed its way up, a resolve that couldn’t be held in check by failure alone. The determination that had made Cadman one of the great soldiers of his time now squashed the petty emotions eating at his spirit.

A mission had effectively fallen into his lap and he, in his preoccupation and self-pity, had missed a redemptive opportunity. What kind of soldier would possibly leave the fate of such an inexperienced group in the hands of a low-ranking Thorn and a—

A nuathreen mage wielding the staff of a wraith and possessing the bearing of real experience.

Cadman slapped himself on the forehead as his memory finally engaged and he recalled the identity of that nuathreen accompanying the group. Upon seeing the wraith, Cadman had felt suspicious. A spell-caster like that diving around in the dangerous reaches of the caverns with a group of novices hadn’t made much sense, but that meant little now.

Frantic to redeem yet another mistake, Cadman rushed after the group, splashing through the shallow water, retracing the steps of those he’d abandoned to the wraith.

To the traitor.

Grim adrenaline drove him through the crack in the wall that he believed the young group had taken. His heart sank as he realized the destination awaiting him at the end of the passageway.

The lair of the dracolich.

No noise echoed through the narrow tunnel, so his hopes rose slightly. Perhaps there was still time to save them, time to save himself. If he could reach them before the guardians of the dracolich awoke their undead master—

He erupted into the gigantic cavern as a wall of sound hit him bodily. Undaunted by the terrible battle cries and ear-piercing screams of the dracolich’s army below, Cadman raced across the first section of the natural rock pathway suspended above the cavern floor. He rounded a curve in the elevated bridge and found himself staring at a stream of warriors from every nation, all rushing in the direction that he wished to go. A mixture of Bergsbor, Anduains, and Calderans all flowed in a chaotic procession down a ramp to the cavern floor, intermingling with the dracolich’s minions below, but not engaging them.

How had this many Bergsbor and Calderans gotten down here? The only entrance to the caverns Cadman had ever heard of was the main Teekwood Forest entrance that was guarded by Anduain soldiers, albeit a little lightly for Cadman’s taste, despite the ceasefire.

And why would all these sworn enemies move together like this? And with creatures of darkness in tow?

It didn’t make any sense. It was as if all these parties had one goal in common. Cadman paused to take stock of the situation. From his high vantage point, he could see the conglomeration of supposed enemies all funneling into a series of switchback ramps leading up to the dracolich’s lair at the far end of the cavern. And at the top of this path stood a Thorn and some other small warrior, holding their ground as best they could. Maybe they weren’t as dumb as they looked. These young Anduains were taking advantage of a bottleneck to reduce the power of the enemy’s sheer strength of numbers.

Cadman knew that he should be up there with them. Hopefully the rest of their group was up on the ledge behind them and not dead under the trampling feet of the enemy, an enemy made up of four different groups that should be fighting each other and not together. In fact, he found it very odd that none of the enemies running past him had noticed him nor deemed him a threat.

“No matter. I’ll make them regret this mistake,” Cadman said aloud with a grin, his words lost in the continuous racket of the frenzied army all around him.

He wasted no time and darted forward towards the enemy, his weapon ready to slice a path through the torrent of targets before him. As he ran, another thought occurred to him. Instead of gouging his way through the vast numbers, he instead inserted himself into the wave rushing down towards the cavern floor.

And they completely ignored him. The mindless herd swarmed chaotically and Cadman had to vie for his position, forcing others out of his way to maintain a place on the edge of the pack. Funneling down the ramp, Cadman observed the same glazed look on all the faces of those around him, their eyes all set on the poor Anduains fighting above.

Halfway down the ramp, some loose gravel caused Cadman to slip, and the oversized firbolg fell against a dwarf in front of him. The squat Bergsbor fell flailing off the edge of the descending path. His cry of surprise was cut short after falling twenty feet onto his head. Despite his scream being lost in the din all around, the dwarf’s absence apparently drew some attention from those around Cadman. A look into the glaring faces surrounding him hinted that the jig was up.

Without waiting for their response, Cadman preemptively swung his great sword in a wide frontal arc, cleaving some space to work in. The hordes collapsed upon him, but he pressed forward, ignoring the dings and smacks of various weapons on his armor and on the giant shield covering his back. Cadman figured that his main goal was to make it up the switchback ramps ahead. Failing that, he would take down as many enemies with him as possible.

All before him fell in droves as he continued to swing his weapon powerfully back and forth. The punishment soaked up by his armor started to take its toll, but he had a trick or two up his sleeve. Cries of defeat around Cadman intensified when he allowed his shade to soak into his body, just enough to take the edge off the pain.

The enemy looked on in dismay as Cadman pushed on with renewed vigor, now oblivious to the injuries inflicted by only the relatively few brave enemies who dared attack him. Terrified warriors broke away, and those remaining felt the wrath of Cadman’s enormous blade. He quickly reached the bottom of the path leading up to his goal. Lowering his head, Cadman drove upwards, battering a torrent of enemies over the edge of the inclined pathway.

Rampaging through the opposition, he felt his shade edging further into him than was safe. Resisting the strong urge to embrace the power of pure, unbridled rage, Cadman broke the bond and focused on pushing the shade back out. He hesitated a second to make sure it had fully released its talons from his soul. The consequences of leaving the shade’s hooks unchecked could be dire, but Cadman sensed the presence was completely gone.

My darkness walks beside me.

A lone dracolich guardian leapt onto his back, clawing and slashing at his helm. Now separated from his shade, Cadman felt the stabs and scratches intensely, but the pain only drove his fury. With a snarl, and without breaking his stride, Cadman reached back and gripped the monster by the neck. In a sudden and shocking movement, he ripped out the beast’s throat and tossed it aside as a bloodied shriek erupted and the mutilated guardian fell to the floor.

Slashing and crashing through enemies, Cadman burst from the masses and finally found himself facing the group of Anduains that he’d abandoned what seemed like only moments ago. Exhaustion threatened to slow him down, but the adrenaline flowed when the Thorn spiraled towards him with red blades lashing out. Confused, but not stupid, Cadman parried the attack away and yelled at the Thorn to stop.

The human looked confused for only a moment before recognizing him. After all, Cadman didn’t look much like the mangy mob of enemies enveloping the Anduains. One glance at him was enough for the average foe to think twice, and usually thrice, about attacking. Using this to his advantage, Cadman loosed a battle roar that eclipsed the screams and cries of the enemy. The opposing frontline hesitated and took a decided step back.

“We need to push them back to get out,” he yelled at his new companions, instinctively taking the lead. “We need to move before they wake up the dracoli—”

He was interrupted by an ear-piercing shriek of unimaginable proportions. Initially both sides of the fight paused and glanced around anxiously. The cavern grew deathly quiet for a moment. Cadman’s weary muscles would’ve appreciated the small break, but he couldn’t bring himself to relax. He could see all of his Anduains were still in one piece, but he suspected that might change on the way out if the dracolich had just risen.

A second terrifying shriek reverberated around the cavern and the enemy hordes roared in celebration as the monstrous dracolich ambled onto the wide ledge behind the Anduains. The ground shook violently under the weight of the enormous undead dragon. Red eyes glowed inside a skull missing large portions of its decaying, grey flesh. The skeletal structure of enormous wings arched out from its back, skin and flesh completely absent. Cadman’s new companions looked to him with genuine fear plastered across their faces, except for the Thorn. A cocky smile hung confidently on the man’s face.

A third shriek forced Cadman into action.

“Let’s move,” he said.

Nobody moved.

“Now!”

The enemy ranks had reformed after Cadman’s barrage, and they started to push up the switchbacks again. With the slow-moving dracolich pounding along the ledge behind them, the Anduains followed Cadman headlong into the waiting jaws of the enemy.

Dracolich guards snapped and clawed at Cadman as he led the way, forming a void around himself with his giant sword. Beside him, the Thorn spun through attacks and separated heads from shoulders in spectacular showers of blood. Just behind Cadman, a girl darted to and fro, careening into enemies with her shield, knocking them flat for the druid’s wolf to finish off.

The sudden surge of coordination impressed Cadman as he plowed through foe after foe, not taking the time to worry about killing fellow Anduains in the enemy army. As far as he was concerned, they’d abandoned Andua when they joined up with these creatures.

Rocks from above started to fall as the dragon marched right above the escaping Anduains. Fireballs shot from its mouth, barely missing Cadman multiple times. He pushed on, unaffected. The group reached the cavern floor and ran straight into another wave of winged guardians. Cadman ducked instinctively as a shower of purple orbs blazed over his head from behind. The swirling orbs penetrated the skulls of the enemy, who suddenly grabbed at their own heads and writhed around on the ground, screaming horribly.

He turned just briefly to see an elf holding her arms outstretched in the shape of a cross, an ancient spell flowing from her mouth, her domination magic executing its wrath on their enemies. Without more time to observe the elegant dominator, Cadman pressed on.

The wretches around him scratched at their heads feverishly enough to break their own skulls, making Cadman’s job far easier as he trampled over them, heading towards the ramp leading back up to the bridge they needed to reach. Pushing forward through the droves of attackers, Cadman only paused when the ground under his feet shook so hard that he flipped onto his back. Glancing back he saw the dracolich had leapt from the top of the ledge straight down to the cavern floor.

Bolts of energy erupted from the dragon, scattering death in every direction. Searing pain darted through Cadman’s entire body