Chapter 98: Undaunted

Marr led us toward the cave. The sunlight kept fading: we had about two hours before sunset.

The intense rotted smell. The fog only interfered when someone tried to get out but didn't do anything when people ventured inside; even fogs had class in this world.

The undead didn't attack us. There weren't any undead in the direction we were headed. As though the undead themselves were running away from something. Just thinking about it, made my heart race.

Do we really have to go in there? When we finally reached the cave, my heart throbbed. Even from the outside: the silence, the darkness and the rot made me sweat coldly. It was dreadful. I almost wanted to throw up. "Old man…"

"I know. That isn't an ordinary cave, and the thing inside isn't anything trivial either. I think we should leave." Even the old man now felt it. The old man was strong and he was afraid. Which only meant one thing. This thing was bad, real bad.

The thing inside was probably something we'd never seen before. It could very well have been even stronger than the Monarch we'd fought back in Moire: and I was in no hurry to find out. My heartbeat fast and my body leaked liters of sweat. The very presence was enough to stun me.

"Yarr! We ain't leaving just because of a monster or two. We will pillage this small cave. Yar har har har!" I couldn't pick between fear and embarrassment. But in the end, I settled for the former. Was the captain really sane? "Ye two can run back if yer scared.. Yar har har har!!!" And he was annoying too.

The old man looked at me and snorted in resignation. As scared as we were, we couldn't run back now anyway, so there was only one thing left to do: move forward.

The cave was quite dark, so we had to light a few torches. It had carvings. They looked quite old and I couldn't make out anything; probably the messages of people who died there before us, warning us not to go inside. Their well-wishes were probably wasted on the likes of us.

The ceiling was almost twice as tall as me and the cave opening was wide enough for six people to fit side by side.

We moved forward, though I didn't want to. The path was rather straightforward. For a cave that led to certain death, this didn't seem to have much complexity.

"Cap'n I don't think-" Now even Gack had second doubts.

"Yarr… this place seems lifeless. Those two must have already fallen. But are ye telling me we leave our fallen behind?" But apparently, the captain still wasn't convinced. I did respect him, but now all he was doing was being stubborn.

"Nay, cap'n we'll never-"

"Then we march on!"

I still couldn't believe that they were pirates. Weren't they supposed to be bad guys who didn't care about anybody and looted everything? But these guys were too chivalrous to do any of those sorts. If anything they seemed more like knights in shining armor. Except they didn't wear armor.

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We reached the end of the cave and the cave widened quite a lot. There was nothing there except bones. The blood, the guts, and even some of the bones were missing. Something ate the two missing pirates and it did a very thorough job. As for the actual monster, there was no trace of it. Even its presence was now gone.

"So they were here," I said, stiffened with fear.

"Not even single old weaponry? This was a waste!" Old man, why are you here again? The old man was relieved. Seeing his relieved face only made me more afraid.

"They died huh? But I don't see the monster anywhere. Did it run? Har har har!" Gack laughed.

Hey! Don't say that! Did this guy have a few screws loose? Given what we'd seen it was safe to assume we needed to run away yesterday, and yet none of the damn pirates seemed even the slightest worried.

The room in particular was pretty well spaced, fit for a dancing hall. In fact, every human being who wandered here probably danced a lot, the dance of death that is. There wasn't anything in the room apart from bones and some tablets. These tablets had weird writings. Even I couldn't read them or so I thought. But when I touched them, something happened, as though my mind flew somewhere else. I couldn't understand what was happening but someone touched my shoulder.

"They're probably just pretenders. I bet they never saw a single undead in their lifetime." Jowy whispered to me and made some distance. My sense came back. What was that? Some images flashed in my head. I couldn't make out anything as they were too blurry. But one thing I could understand, "RUN!" One stream of tears ran through one of my eyes as I turned around.

Rustle! There was some sound behind us. Too late?

My voice shivered. My body stiffened up. I couldn't move but I had to. "What was that?" I'd received some sort of memory from the tablets but I couldn't understand any of it other than, I'd needed to run from the monster.

The thing behind me really was something we should have run away from. Who cared about pride? Who cared about looking like a shameless prick? We could be ashamed all day, but we had to live on first.

My eyes felt like they'd pop out. Calling it an undead would have been a very grave understatement, and perhaps even insulting. Unlike typical undead it had meat all over its body; rotten meat that is. The meat was covered in full plate armor and flowed out from the armor; the meat must have inflated or something. The large head was exposed. Strangely it had a dark purple glow in its eye sockets. It didn't have any skin and the veins glowed in dark purple all over its body. What's more, it was standing in between our exit. That's why you should never say stuff like that! Damn it!

"Ca-ca'cap'n what- what do we do now?"

"Ye sea dogs get ready!"

The captain was calm but the rest of the men were shaking like little babies. I couldn't blame them. I didn't shake but my heart was racing quite fast.

"Daarc get ready! If push comes to shove save yourself." The old man came close. "We run the first chance we got." I knew what he meant.

Grawrrrr!!!!

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