Chapter 36: Echoes of the Mine

A cold and stale day greeted Mikael as he exited the city of Lan Exeter. Men huddled along as he rode Ebony through the gate, entering the vast mountainous region of Kovir. As he looked up front, he saw rows and rows of camps, possibly from refugees, smoke coming out from every single one of those camps, darkening the clear sky above.

He had gotten his first job here in Lan Exeter. A businessman had hired him to go to his mine just outside of the city. An infestation problem the businessman said, strange insects made his mine home not long ago, and he wanted to find someone to get rid of it. The pay was good, so Mikael accepted it.

He rode through the dirt road, soaking the mountainous scenery in front as the cold wind blew past his face, fluttering his cloak.

The journey was short and boring, only the occasional traveler and deer blocking his path was his entertainment. As he arrived at the mine, he was greeted by two guards, holding halberds, blocking his path to the mine up front.

"Halt!" the guard said. "What brings you here, stranger?"

"I've been hired by the owner of this place." answered Mikael as Ebony stepped back for a couple feet. "I'm here to deal with the infestation."

The two almost identical guards looked at each other, surprise filled their eyes. "I'm surprised someone took the job again," said one of the guards.

Mikael raised his eyebrow, not knowing what the guards were talking about. "Meaning?"

"There have been two attempts." told the guards, opening the gate to the mining camp. "None return."

Mikael just shrugged at the warning. "Well, third time's the charm."

He was then escorted to the entrance of the mine, the place looked abandoned, carts everywhere, pickaxes laying around, and the camp devoid of life. In front of the mine, Mikael saw a rather thin man, wearing shabby peasant clothing, he was holding keys, probably the key to the mine.

"Ah, There you are!" exclaimed the keyholder as Mikael unmounted Ebony. "Name's Stoval, the warden of this place."

"Mikael." the one-armed man simply said. "So, mind telling me about what I'm dealing with?"

Stoval sighed in tiredness as Mikael asked him the question. "Truthfully, we haven't got a clue on what lurks inside the mine."

"What? None at all? But the guards said that there were two men that tried to deal with it before me?"

"It's true, but, none return alive… we don't have much information, aside from the fact that they're insect-like creatures, and they could make you lose your mind."

"Lose my mind? Like illusions?"

"No, not like that… Workers report that they can hear things, telling them to get out of the mine, strange innit? They're insects, they can't talk."

Mikael hummed. He stared at the dark hole in front of him that is the mine. "That's strange indeed… but I've seen stranger things, It's entirely possible that the insects could talk."

"Well, whatever it is, I hope you can get rid of it." stated Stoval. "The mine'll close if you can't deal with it."

"Sure, don't worry about it."

He quickly retrieved his sword in Ebony's pouch, and wore it on his back. He grabbed a lit torch nearby, and proceeded to enter the dark mine in front of him.

As he entered the mine, he lit up the way using his torch. Only the sound of the crackling fire could be heard, the strange ores around him shining as light entered the place. The place was humid, damp, and rather suffocating, Mikael wondered what it would like to work here, probably not pleasant.

He continued to traverse the mine in front, occasionally finding abandoned pickaxes and bags of ores that haven't been retrieved. On his way, he found some unlit torches at the wall, which he quickly lit up using his own torch.

He went deeper and deeper inside the man, one might think that this mining complex is endless, but, as he heard sounds of small footsteps to that of insects, he stopped.

"You are not welcome here, outsider, return to where you came from!" a voice echoed throughout the mine.

Mikael frowned, he unsheathed his longsword in his back, and continued his way.

As he went deeper, he started to smell rotting corpses, the thick stench of decomposing bodies is definitely not a strange thing to him anymore, and he started to search for the source of the stench.

He followed the smell, he quickly discovered things that scattered around the floor of the mine. Clothing, leather, even scraps of steel were thrown everywhere. Bloodstains filled the walls, to that of claws and bites, not of swords or axes.

"You are not welcome outsider! Return!" a voice echoed once again throughout the mine.

"Who are you?!" Mikael shouted, a bit annoyed at the body-less voice.

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The voice did not respond however, only the sounds of crawling insects remained in his ears. He continued to walk forward, to the darkness in front, trying to find the source of the smell, and the voice.

As he followed the smell of rot, he found two bodies, all rotting and mangled on the ground. Their clothes were torn, swords were bent, and stains of blood everywhere.

"Seems these are the two guys mentioned…" Mikael said to himself as he knelt, checking on the bodies.

But then, something pounced on him from the back, he quickly turned 90 degrees to the right, and he grabbed the thing that wanted to pounce him with his steel arm.

The thing was moving frantically as it tried to release itself from his grasp. It resembles a dirty rock with insectoid limbs, the thing was hairy, and six blue eyes were glowing from the side of the body.

"Outsider! Return!" the voice echoed once again, this time, it was from his back, where he used to face. He turned around, the struggling insect still in his hand.

In the darkness, he found many glowing blue eyes staring at him, at the walls, on the ground, at the ceiling, everywhere.

Mikael sighed as he crushed the insect's head in his arm, and cursed.

"Shit."

He quickly threw away the corpse, his longsword in the other ready to be used, and he stood straight.

He rushed to the front, his arm reflecting the light from the torch that was on the ground, and many of those insects rushed to him, like a beach wave in rough weather.

Mikael frowned as he saw the swarm, and stopped running. He just stood his ground, without a trace of fear. The ground started to change, from the gray rocks that could be found anywhere in Kovir, to that dirt that had been mixed with blood.

Scarlet rot started to spread around, forming a protective circle on the ground. As the insects touched the scarlet ground, their bodies quickly rotted. Shells of the insects quickly piled up in front of him, obstructing the view.

He slashed the shells with his sword, destroying it entirely as scarlet butterflies flew around him. The obstruction was dealt with, but  he still saw glowing blue eyes in the darkness as the torch was extinguished.

Mikael just walked slowly to the eyes, scarlet dirt spreading from below, and his sword hitting the wall on the left, generating sparks of light to barely light up the room.

—

Stoval was waiting outside in anxiety as the man whom his boss hired didn't come back. He would lose his job if he didn't, he had a family to feed, a wife to take care of, a sick mother to cure. He was walking back and forth, biting his dirty nails as he gazed at the dark abyss that is the mine in front of him.

As time went on, the sun was slowly sinking, radiating a faint orange light from the west, he heard footsteps echoing from the mine. He was nervous, is it the monster, or Mikael?

He soon sighed in relief as a man with a redhead got out of the mine, his body drenched in insect blood, his face dirtied with dirt, and his steel right arm smirred with green flesh of the monsters.

"H-Have you done it?" questioned Stoval nervously, waiting painfully for the answer.

"It's done." hummed Mikael. "Though, you need someone to clean the carcasses if I were you… although some of them rot, I didn't bother to rot all of them…"

Rot? What is he talking about? But no matter, Stoval was ecstatic when he heard that.

"Oh, and also, I may have destroyed some of the silver ore inside and have turned it into useless dirt, if that's alright?"

"Oh, that's more than alright sir!" exclaimed Stoval happily. "It'll be quickly forgotten anyway once the mine is back and running again!"

"Anyway, the pay." stated Mikael, stretching his hand to Stoval.

"Sure sure." Stoval then gave a fat pouch of Bizats to him, Mikael opened it, and counted the gold.

"Right, my work's done here, so long."

Mikael then quickly jumped to Ebony, before riding her towards the gate.

As Ebony walked, he saw someone between the camps of the mine, he saw the redhead woman with a cloak, staring at him intently, before disappearing away as the wind blew the cloth around her, covering her body.

Mikael frowned again, it was the second time now, what does she want?

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