A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 2125: Voices in the Dark - Part 6
His sword found the opening in the armour of its leg, as he would against a human opponent. He slashed and heard something shatter, though it did nothing to change the creature’s stance. It roared, and moved just as freely as before, and Oliver was forced to jump back out of range, as a fist came blasting towards where he’d just been standing.
"There’s a skeleton inside there," Oliver murmured to himself, finding with that understanding the way that he might deal with it. It was no different to the other Corpse Soldiers, he supposed. All he would need to do was shatter its head.
He rushed in again. The creature held up an open palm to stop it.
"SKRAV!" Came a noise from inside its helmet. It seemed like a word, though it was not spoken in a voice like that of any human that Oliver knew.
A sudden force stopped him dead, flattening his speed all the way back down to stationary, before pushing him slightly backwards. It wasn’t enough to hurt him, but it was at least enough to disorient him. It was like being hit by a sudden gust of wind, only this wind was not the sort that he could feel on his skin. He most felt it in his ears, as if it was sound that had stopped him.
"Troublesome," Oliver muttered, racing just as quickly as before. He came close to the corridor wall, inviting the blow of the hammer. The colossal creature allowed him it, and with a great swing, brought another cascade of stone bricks falling down on where Oliver had just been standing.
He was beyond the site of ruin before those bricks could come crashing down. He went all the way behind the armoured statue before it could turn. Then he was leaping up, throwing up an arm around its neck, and looking to plunge a sword through the slit in its helmet. A giant fist came reaching back for him, but Oliver’s sword found its skull first.
Suddenly, it was over, the armour collapsed as one, let a pullet whose strings had been cut. Its helmet came free as it fell, and so did some of the plate around its leg. The sheer size of the creature’s skull went far beyond that of any human Oliver had ever seen. And it’s femurs must have been twice as big as that of any living human. But the fact that the bones were there, he had to assume that meant it had existed at some point as an organic thing, even before magic had possessed it.
It was another question amongst many, one that he did not have time to solve. The number of corridors that he had to run through was beginning to feel near infinite, and he was beginning to lose track of the number of monsters that he’d needed to slay. Even the river that he’d counted on for direction before was growing unreliable. Four doors to choose from, and there wasn’t any guarantee that they would lead where he needed them to.
He chose a door at random and proceeded down it. He sighed, seeing yet another corridor that looked near identical to all those that he had seen before.
Corridor after corridor. Another armoured statue. Then a great chamber, with another altar that Oliver put his hand to. In doing so, he had heard the lid of a stone coffin fall heavily to the floor, and had watched as a figure just as big as the statues that he had slain had drawn itself out. Though that figure had not been dressed in armour. It wore a dark robe over the skull of its face, and great riches in the necklaces about its neck. A cruel dagger was in its hand, but Oliver was not surprised when it did not attempt to use it, and it raised up its hand to shoot him an ice bolt instead.
They were more spears in ice in truth for the length of them, travelling faster than any arrow was likely to. It was all Oliver could do to keep dodging for the speed that they came at him at. The strength of his opponents, without him even truly knowing it, was increasing. When he closed the distance to cut down the mage, he was unable to appreciate the magnitude of his achievement. In any other instance, even for him, it would have been a mighty opponent to have overcome. It would have been a hard-fought battle. But before the mage could even use the strongest of its spells, and just as flames were beginning to pour from its mouth, Oliver drove his sword through its skull, and cut down a creature that was of the Fifth Boundary.
He was getting deeper and closer to that which he pursued, though to him, it seemed very much like he was going in circles. The strength of one foe to the next was difficult for him to distinguish, for his eyes were focused elsewhere. The urgent forwardness made him unable to appreciate the magnitude of each thing that he was overcoming in the meantime.
"..."
He pushed open the next door, and paused, struck dumb. Glancing down it, it had looked like another corridor, but the second he had stepped into it, the scent of blossoms filled his nostrils and the river of blood disappeared. Trees surrounded him on all sides. A vast and beautiful forest – a familiar forest it was too.
He walked down it and felt the strangest sense of déjà vu. A river cropped up on his level, with sparkling waters and moss-covered boulders that invited any passerby to attempt to cross it.
"The River Tigris..?"
"Look who, look who!"
"Aye, I see, I see. It be the boy, Tempest!"
"Tempest!"
Oliver looked over, and he saw those little Gnomes in the same place that he had seen them two nights before – though this time they were bathed in sunlight. They waved to him, beaming great smiles. One – that Oliver knew to be Henry – was wearing his finest pointed blue hat, fallen low to the point that it hid his eyes, and with a belt buckle strapped across it. He looked to be in a fine mood. There was even a braid in his long white beard.
"What’re you two doing here?"
"Well, we thought you could do with a break," Henry said.
"That’s right," Bobby agreed, bobbing his head.
"A quick break," Henry said. "You’re off journeying deep, aren’t you? Well, we’ve got a snack for you, if you fancy it."
