After hiking through half the day, they were approaching the Deathriver Tunnel when Nicholas signaled for them to get low to the ground. He had them crawl up the side of a hill, where Debra took a look over the side of the hill. Beyond the hill was a dry riverbed leading into a large cave on the side of a cliff. In front of the cave, were a pair of guards standing looking bored.

Nicholas whispered, "Those look like Kestonia soldiers. That's strange, this isn't supposed to be recognized as an official crossing yet."

"Is this going to be a problem?" Denise asked.

"I think we should be able to pass. There might be a fee we have to pay to use the tunnel." Nicholas said, and was getting up when Frankie jerked him back down.

"Take a proper look at these dickwads. Those aren't Kestonia soldiers. Look at the squad band on their arms." Debra looked and saw that they were wearing a black and green armband on their left arm. "It's on the wrong arm. If you did that in the army, you would be punished for disrespecting the kingdom."

Debra asked, "Do you think it could be either Kingdom of Solas or the Empire Soldiers posing as them?"

Nicholas shook his head and said "I can't imagine why either of them would even bother. The Kingdom of Solas would do it out in the open because it is leading into their territory. The Empire would do it out in the open to threaten the Solas kingdom and the Kingdom of Kestonia would let them. No, they are most likely bandits or the like."

Looking closer at the Guards, Debra had to agree as she saw the armor they were wearing was pretty beat up. She said "If they are bandits, it could mean that there are more in the tunnel waiting to ambush people that go in."

"I will go sneak in and take a look. Stay here." Nicholas' form suddenly disappeared and Debra saw him reappear silently in a shadow. He carefully snuck past the guards and into the tunnel. For nearly half an hour, they were tense waiting for Nicholas to reappear.

Eventually, they saw him sneak out of the tunnel and then disappear as he stepped through the shadows. He made his way back to them and sat down next to Frankie and whispered "There is a small bandit camp in the caves. It looks like they just raided a caravan."

"Did they have any people captured?" Debra asked.

Nicholas shook his head, "No, I overheard them speaking about selling the people they got to some necromancers. They were in the middle of discussing whether to leave or stay for a bit longer."

"Should we wait and see if they leave?" Denise asked.

"No, the reason why they are wanting to leave is they got word that the Kingdom of Solas is sending a squad to the tunnel to lock it down. If they do that we won't be able to get through. I looked over these bandit's. None of them are even above level five in strength. We can take them."

Frankie said "If they are selling people to Necromancers, they deserve what's coming to them. How do you want to approach this?"

"We have to make sure we take out these two guards quietly. I want to surprise the others in the cave."

Frankie thought and said "I go out, and you can sneak out behind them. When I have them distracted you attack and we will back you up."

"Got it. Be careful, they look pretty ruthless."

Following Frankie down the side of the hill, they approached the two fake guards. They looked at each other and began to walk towards them. Debra saw that the one on the left had a toothless smile, and they called out "Halt in the name of the King of Kestonia."

Frankie said "Absolutely we respect the will of the King. Greetings there, we three are on a journey to the Kingdom of Solas to visit our families."

"The King has decided to start charging for the use of the tunnel. A big silver coin from each of you will cover your entrance fee." The toothless bandit grinned at them looking over them and Debra could feel her skin crawl.

Frankie frowned and said "Wow that seems pretty expensive. I don't know if we can pay that."

The Toothless man stepped closer to Frankie and said "Well maybe you and me can come to some sort of arrangement." As he stepped closer he reached for the buckle of his pants.

Nicholas popped up behind the toothless man and jabbed his blade into the man's neck. The other guard looked shocked for a moment and was about to call for help when a glowing hammer slammed into the man's head courtesy of Debra and knocked him out.

Going to the unconscious man, Nicholas slit his throat. Looking up to see Debra frowning he said "He would have been hung for the crimes he has committed."

He ran his hands down the body and pulled out some coins and a paper. Unfolding it, Nicholas frowned and said "Shit."

"What is it?" Frankie said.

Debra walked up and took a look at the paper. On it was a sketch of Nicholas holding a black staff. "Damn they must have scryed me when I was holding the staff. Guess the Necromancers know what I look like now" Nicholas said.

"Before we go into that town we will have to disguise you." Frankie said.

"Yeah, looks like I'm going to have to go as Nicole for a bit. Let's keep going. Follow my lead."

Going forward into the cave Debra could see the walls were incredibly smoothed after years of the water rushing through the tunnel. Holding her hammer out she followed Nicholas who held up his hand indicating there were three bandits up ahead.

Sneaking up, she saw three bandits were sitting around a magic light. They looked to be going through some boxes they had hauled off a carriage nearby. Nicholas pointed at the one on the left indicating he would take that one. Frankie waved at the one on the right. The man in the middle was looking at a large metal object that looked like an anchor, so Denise indicated she would take him.

On the count of three, they attacked. Nicholas popped up beside the woman bandit and grabbed her head back and slit her throat. Before the bandit compatriots could respond to her sudden death, Frankie jabbed her blade into the throat of a skinny man. Seconds later Denise caused the metal anchor to slam into the man holding it and crushing him against a wall.

Nicholas whispered "The main part of the bandits is up ahead next to the lake in the middle of the tunnel."

They were walking slowly forward, when they began hearing screaming, and a man came running down the tunnel. He looked scared of his mind and ran past them not even bothering to stop when he saw them. "Shit, are they being attacked by the Kingdom soldiers already?" Frankie said.

"I don't know." Nicholas said and they continued forward and the screaming stopped. Rounding a corner Debra saw multiple mana lights had been hung around the camp. Rather what remained of the camp, tent's had been torn apart, and there was blood everywhere. 

Disturbingly there were no bodies in the camp. The cave chamber was fairly large about a thousand feet across. Most of the chamber was taken up by the large lake that took up the left side of the room. The camp had been set up on its shore. Debra did not like the look of that lake, especially the ripples that were going across its surface, indicating something large moving beneath its surface.

Nicholas whispered "Well it looks like something got them. Let's be careful and stick to the wall. Let's not get near that lake."

Forcing her back against the wall, Debra kept her eyes on the lake as they snuck across the large room. The occasional splash from the lake kept spooking her and she felt an immense tension pressing down upon her. Yet nothing appeared, only making her even more terrified.

They were nearly to the exit of the tunnel, when Nicholas stopped. He had a concerned look on his face. He turned and whispered "I'm going to light this place up."

Nicholas reached out and a large glowing bright light appeared lighting up the area. To Debra's shock, she was startled when she realized that there were figures slowly making their way towards them. Taking a closer look at them, she saw a blue screen pop up.

They were strangely indistinguishable under mana crystal light, but under Nicholas light they were visible. Nicholas withdrew his blood red sword and said "We will need to fight them."

Debra counted six of them. Debra dashed towards one who sensed her approaching and hissed at her and attempted to claw her. Dodging the sharp looking claws, she activated her Thunder Strike skill and slammed her hammer onto the Newt. It let out a massive blast of sound and the Newt looked dazed under the blow and had lost nearly forty of its health in the strike.

Taking advantage of it's dazed state Debra began to whale on it with her hammer. While she was doing that, Nicholas was slicing the newts that had gotten close to him. Unlike Debra, he looked as if he had gotten sliced up by the claws. He grabbed a newt and ran it through killing it.

Frankie had somehow gotten on top of one and was jabbing her blade into one of the Newt's skulls, and Denise was aiding her by pelting it with metal shards. Debra crushed the skull of the newt she was fighting and killed it. She felt herself level up, but ran to assist Nicholas and let off another Thunderous strike into the back of one of the giant newts.

It cried out as its spine was shattered and it collapsed. Nicholas took that chance and ran his sword into its skull killing it. Debra experienced another surge of energy through her as she leveled up again. She aided Nicholas in fighting off the other two he was facing. To catch one of them off guard, she cast a forging strike behind one surprising it and allowed her to use Thunder Strike into its face crushing it's skull.

Denise managed to kill the one Frankie was on by impaling it on a spike of metal. Nicholas finished off the last of the Newts by slicing it's head off. Recovering her breath, Debra was surprised by the sudden overflowing energy through her body that brought her to a massive orgasm that left her shaking on the ground.

When she finally collected her thoughts, she found she had gained five levels and was now level seven. Looking around she saw that Nicholas and Denise had recovered. Nicholas said "Let's get out of here before more of them show up."

"Yeah, I don't want to meet this Kerron."

Just then the lake began to part as something massive began to lift itself out of the lake splashing water everywhere. Debra could only stare at the enormous shark with razor sharp teeth who stared angrily at them. She shook herself out of the surprise and examined the thing.

Debra was about to run for the exit when Nicholas said "I don't think it can leave the lake. As long as we don't get close to it, it can't get us."

Looking at it, Debra saw it was eyeing them and moving back and forth. Debra suddenly heard a voice in her mind "You executed my servants. I will kill you!" The River shark emphasized this by biting towards them. 

"Let's get going." Nicholas said.

"Challenge me!" It's voice said. "Cowards!" It splashed in frustration and sank back into the waters. They left the caverns and exited the tunnel onto the Kingdom of Solas side. 

"It's a good thing that it's trapped down there." Debra said.

"It's not." Nicholas said.

"What?"

"It can't escape the water, yes, but it's suspected that the lake is connected to several bodies of water. Naturally given it's size I can't imagine it's going to be easy for it to travel around." 

Frankie shuddered and said "Goddammit I hate sharks."

ElKriJa

Thank you for reading my story. I never expected to be able to write one hundred chapters. I appreciate all your comments and insights. I've had to come to the hard decision to stop posting every day. I'm getting burnt out. To that end I will upload a chapter on monday, wednesday, and friday.