The wind howled in the thick forest, the faint whispers of the monsters lurking beneath the canopy sending shivers down Kael's spine. His breath came in strong, controlled exhalations, each of which fogged the frigid air between them. Behind him, the hunting team moved in synchronicity, the only break into the great, encompassing silence of the night being their footfalls.
Kael was definitely the strongest of the group. He had earned that A-rank Hunter title with blood, sweat, and tears, but he had something worse for all these comrades of his-envious glances. He would lead them on many a successful dungeon raid before the whispers would begin. For them, he was too powerful, too invincible. Maybe, it was more than envy. Maybe, it was fear.
The dungeon they had entered was considered very dangerous: The Labyrinth of Shadows, where one was driven mad in the end. Many lives had been lost before them because of it. But Kael was not bothered. Monsters and traps inside would not concern him. His study of the theoretical blueprints of the dungeon enabled him to know every turn, every secret. What he had not gotten ready for was treachery that would play itself out inside.
Kael again signaled the team as he scanned the path ahead. An ominous sort of silence filled the air, the best kind to carry a warning with it. Beside him stood Elias, his second-in-command, a lethal warrior of much repute, to whom he'd given a slight nod. The rest of the team included mage Selene and archer Lyra, came to flank him with weapons braced.
Each stride took them farther in, but each one slowed and tended toward heavier; it became harder to fill the lungs with air; the walls seemed to lean more and to fascally close as they went deeper into the very heart of the dungeon. It was here, in this enormous space whose ceiling disappeared into shadows, that Kael felt the change. Beneath them, the earth shook, and then—the trap sprung.
The floor opened into a void and received Kael and his friends into their tumbling fall. For him, there was no time before he hit against stone, a surge of pain rushing through his chest. His vision swam, but he could not miss seeing his team standing, unscathed, not a scratch on them. And then came the powerful realization.
They had not fallen out of an accident. They had pushed him.
"Did you really think we would allow you to go on, Kael?" Elias' voice rang out, frigid with venom.
Kael's mind struggled to comprehend. Lying on the floor, body wracked with agony, he could hardly heave himself up. Though he tried to summon his strength, his body felt as if lead was now weighted all over him. The betrayal ran as deep as the darkness that now closed in around him. To the side of him stood Lyra, the reason he couldn't trust, bow drawn at him, the once-and-trusted archer. Selene, the mage, mumbled some chant under her breath and brought forth chains of magical energy that now bound Kael onto the cold stone floor.
"You... you guys..." Kael stammered as his mind swam. "You are doing this... for the artifacts?"
"We have seen it all, " Selene replied, her voice only above a whisper. "You always held us back. Always the strongest. Always the hero. A leader who could take us to power its path was needed, not just one who would shield us from darkness."
Kael's heart was thumping heavily in the chest. His own fellows, whom he had once shared the battlefield with, are now his foes. They long sought these artifacts and had merely used him as a door into the world of power entirely dependent on the very artifacts he himself had been keeping for humanity.
"Why?'' croaked Kael, vision dimming and blood pooling under him. "I... I trusted you all."
"We didn't want to kill you, Kael," Elias sounded almost apologetic. "But you are the last obstacle standing between us and everything we want."
Before the answer could come from Kael's lips, another voice rumbled in the chamber, its deep, evil sound warping even the very air. The ground cracked as a shadow fell over him, dark and oppressive.
A monster it was. A half-human, half-beast creature, with burning coal-like eyes, loomed above Kael, breath foul and rancid. It did not appear when Kael had them led to the site, but now that he was vulnerable, it sensed the weakness of its prey and had come out of the dark.
But Kael was not at all afraid of it. This wasn't really the monster that terrified him-it was the betrayal of the people he once thought his friends.
As the monster's clawed hand reached for him, Kael's mind snapped clear, and the denier of his revenge-thinner than any injury-hurt inside him. He would not die like this-dead inside a dog, abandoned and left to rot in a dungeon.
It pulsated with latent energy within his body, and all the time he had hoarded his energy and strength by curbing his powers with ideals. But not this time-it's now or never.
Kael live howled, and that was how primal power ignited his two hands in a blazing force that reached its very limit. Those magical chains that had held him all broke into pieces like glass, and Kael launched up into the air like a rocket into that belly of the monster by a force that had just exploded within him. The creature rolled back, howled in pain, and Kael's fist headed up with a flash of light.
Yet there was something deeper; his mindset had changed. He was not thinking in terms of survival but in revenge. The fire within him burned, fueled by that of the betrayal by those who had once been his comrades. Trusting them had been a mistake. Caring for them had been very much a mistake.
It still rumbled on, but the more he fought, the more it became clear that the real enemy was not this monster but the very people who had once shared with him goals and ideals. And Kael, broken and battered, made his vow as he tore through the dungeon, a vow to echo in the darkened chambers of his soul.
He would be back for them.
They would suffer their dues.
Kael's body was limp on the cold stone floor, surrounded by the bodies of his teammates, as the shadows began to close in, but Kael's eyes did not fade into the darkness. Instead, he made a silent wish-one final desperate prayer.
"I.. want a second chance."
With that, the world around him crumbled.
To be continue...