Chapter 49: Enter the Explorer

I nearly vomited when I saw the final floor after climbing down the ladder.

The walls were dripping with blood. Skulls were jammed onto the walls, and they all seemed to be looking at me. Skeletons littered the floor, and bloodstains were everywhere. Blood dripped from the ceiling. I could almost taste the death in the air.

"Well, here we are," osrie1 said with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "This is the sepulchre of death." The awkward silence continued on for minutes.

"We should make a move on," I suggested. The rest all nodded, and we walked down the corridor.

We passed so many skeletons on the floor I lost count. The eyes in the skulls on the wall had a hint of red in them, and that red seemed to follow us. We arrived at a gate. The gate was constructed entirely out of bones, and the eyes this time were in the skull sat the top of the gate. I shuddered to think about how many people were killed to make all the bones that surrounded me.

"Welcome to the final floor," the gate sneered. "This is as far as you will go-I refuse to budge." I smiled at the gate, before smashing at it with my hammer. A small crack appeared in the gates' design work. The gate gave a loud, booming laugh.

"It'll take more then that to destroy me. I am, after all, on the final floor," the gate laughed. Osrie1 took out his staff, Sin took out his white sword, and Amy11 took out her dagger. We ran towards the gate, yelling with rage. The gate swore as it was smashed to pieces. Shards of bone flew everywhere. We continued on, dusting our hands.

I was positive I could hear whispers and moans all around me. I trudged in the front, staring uncomfortably behind me. I was sure I saw a flicker of darkness from behind me….

Since I wasn't watching where I was going, I tripped over something, and landed nose-first in the filthy ground. I sat up, rubbed my nose, and looked down.

I'd tripped over a body. The body was still alive, by the looks of it. He was a male in tan explorer's clothes, like Tom and Johnny. Unlike Tom and Johnny, he had pretty tanned skin. He had a steel sword in his belt, and attached to his bag pack, he had a most extraordinary weapon-it was a piece of wood, with a chain attached. On the other end of the chain, there was a blade. He groaned, and woke up, rubbing his eyes.

"Where am I….?" he asked himself slowly, then realisation hit him. He jumped up, gasping for breath. I steadied him.

"There, there," I said soothingly. He looked at me, confused. "What's you're name?"

"My name is Aaron," he answered, sounding worried.

"How did you end up here, unconscious?" I asked.

"Well, it started off in the catacomb of famine," he replied. "I and my exploration partners, Tom and John, were going through, when we were attacked by something. I managed to escaped, but Tom and Johnny weren't so lucky." He shivered, and then continued.

"I went back to look for them. Really, I did. But I couldn't find them. I was lost. In the end, I found my way to the grain of plenty, but the short time in which I was lost will haunt me forever," he said with regret in his voice. I patted him on the back reassuringly. "I went through the pit of pestilence, so depressed I didn't even notice the smell. But, when I went as far as here, something completely different attacked me."

"What was it?" I asked curiously, getting frightened.

"I don't remember much. All I remember is that they seemed to come from the floor," he answered.

"Would you like to join us?" Sin asked kindly. He nodded gratefully. We continued on our journey through the sepulchre of death with Aaron tagging along with us.

With combined effort, we smashed down another gate of bones. We got a massive shock here-the place was bursting with skeletons. Their bodies clanked as they walked around, and their red eye sockets surveyed their surroundings.

"Right, let's sneak around these skeletons very quietly," I whispered, almost mouthed, to the others. I tiptoed into the area, keeping close to the walls, with the others following my lead. As I got to the other side, a skeleton spotted me, and started screeching, communicating somehow with the others. We were bombarded with screeches, and the skeletons ran towards us.

I took out my Easter hammer and smashed it into an incoming skeleton. The skeleton collapsed into pieces, but another five ran towards me. I swung my hammer around, knocking their skulls off. They weren't fazed, because they were still trying to hit me with their bony fists.

"Osrie1!" I bellowed. "Can you cast the crumble of the undead?"

"I've just gotten to the level necessary, but I can't cast it properly!" he shouted back over the screeches. "If I try, goodness knows what will happen!"

"Try" I screamed, getting impatient. He breathed slowly.

"CRUMBLE OF THE UNDEAD!" he bellowed, and a massive brown explosion collapsed half the skeletons. The remaining ones screeched, and seemed to get angrier, of possible.

We continued fighting until there was only six left. I gasped, exhausted, and collapsed on the floor, covered with cuts and bruises. Osrie1 was gasping in a corner, Sin was wiping the grunge off his sword, and Amy11 was sitting down, breathing heavily. The remaining skeletons cornered poor Aaron. He'd been just standing there while we took out the rest, and he still seemed fairly calm. He took out the strange weapon that was on his bag, the piece of wood with a chain attached, with a blade on the other end. He swung this weapon around his head, holding the wooden part. The blade smashed through the skeletons. Shards of bone flew everywhere, and the skeletons were no more.

We applauded Aaron. I was pretty impressed. He wasn't a very high level-only level 27, like me. On the first floor, I was level 25-figthing through unpleasant creatures such as zombies, dark wizards, wolves, vampires, flesh crawlers, green bulls, skeletons, and Madrey1 had a positive impact on my combat level. My defence, strength and attack levels were 21-I had a while to wait before I could use my stone sword I'd won while fighting Gunther the Brave.

We continued through. I kept hearing whispers and such from around us. I was growing worried that something was stalking us. Thinking of vampires, I turned around to Aaron.

"What's the name of that weapon you use?" I asked him. He grimaced at me.

I don't really know," he admitted. "I just call it the Blade-I got it while exploring in a land called Morytania. That place I never want to go to again-it is under the complete rule of vampires. I especially hate the town of Canafis." I nodded, grimacing also. I hated vampires.

I was afraid on this floor. I kept hearing whispers in my ear, but I also felt safe, in the presence of this fairly powerful explorer Aaron.