Arduwan was usually fearless, but the idea of a tomb was unsettling to her. Remember what she said about ghosts? Well, we stayed close together just in case. At the end of this tunnel was a big opening. The recesses of the room were too dark to make anything out. Last time we were in a place like this there were zombies wrapped in sheets everywhere. Surely that wouldn’t be the case here. But at least we were tougher than we were back then.
“I’ve got an idea, Arduwan. Keep your sword at the ready. I’m going to use Flash to light this area up and hopefully we find something. With a little luck, the light will reflect off the Rod or something.”
“Got it.”
I took a deep breath and felt the magic rise up in me. I had already used one minor spell but I wasn’t drained yet. I exhaled slowly and then held out my palms to cast the next spell.
“Flash!”
The entire room blasted with white light. It was like opening a brand-new refrigerator in a dark apartment. But alas, lo and behold, around us were a dozen, giant, snarling rats. Each one was about knee high, and they looked like they were rabid.
“Good god, it’s like The Princess Bride,” I noted.
The light from the Flash spell wore off and a second later Arduwan flew into a spinning Berserker attack. I hit the deck as rats leapt from all directions at us. Her spinning tornado-like attack obliterated three of them by the time she stopped spinning. When I knew it was safe to rise, I stood up and drew my own sword. There was just enough light left from the arrow to illuminate the immediate area that Arduwan and I stood.
Rats came leaping in from all sides.
*SWIPE!*
I killed one.
*SLASH!*
There went another one.
Arduwan regained her composure and joined back into the fight. The two of us now stood back-to-back slicing and dicing through fifty pound rats as they jumped at us, intent on ripping out our internal organs.
A few minutes later, the two of us, winded, sank to the floor with our backs still against one another. The final rat was tossing around on the floor with a slit throat.
“Arduwan,” I said with bated breath.
“Yes, Eric?”
“I just want…to let you know. I really appreciate you. It’s…times like these…that I don’t feel you get enough credit for.”
“Don’t mention it,” she replied, equally winded.
After a five-minute rest we decided to investigate the walls. All the rats were dead but we were still careful. A minute or two into our search we found a wooden ladder against a wall that led up a squared tunnel that was just big enough for someone to climb up through.
We decided to climb up with me leading the way. After about ten rungs up the ladder I could hear a strange noise. It sounded like metal clanking against something. The further up the ladder we went the louder it was. I could see light above, as if the ladder chute fed into a room lit by torches.
When I popped my head up, I saw that it was a gigantic room. This must have been the inner sanctum of the above ground tomb we saw outside. The walls were lined with lit torches and there was a massive grid of tiles everywhere. Opposite the side of the room where we were I could see Wraith! He was doing battle with a giant, seven-foot tall, stone golem.
Wraith was springing around and using acrobatics to dodge mighty swings from the golems hammer. He was fighting that thing with his scimitar. The blows he would land made a clanking noise. That must’ve been what I heard down the chute.
I climbed out and then helped Arduwan get up behind me. She immediately wanted to run to his aid, but Wraith stopped her.
“Wait! Don’t step on those tiles!” he shouted.
She stepped on one and it fell through the floor like a trap from Indiana Jones. That’s when I noticed that there were bigger tiles all around the room that had ladder chutes like the one we came up from down in the tunnels. No matter which ladder you chose, you would end up on one of these platform-like tiles with a sea of smaller tiles around you.
There in the center of the room was an altar. It must’ve been the final resting place of the infamous Bard the place was named after. Sitting on top of it was what certainly must have been the Rod of Resuscitation. Clearly it was left here as an offering.
But right now, we had bigger problems. Wraith was fighting with all his might to keep that stone golem off of him. I could see singe marks all over it from where he must have exhausted all of his plasma rifle energy on it. But it didn’t make a dent. I could see the rifle tossed off to the side. It couldn’t recharge without sunlight.
We had to think of a way to try and help him, but we couldn’t get over there to him. Also, he was limited on his space because of the collapsing tiles. That’s when I remembered something. In my satchel was the pistol I took from the assassin back at the mansion. It still had fourteen bullets in it. It had a sixteen round magazine but unfortunately one was used to murder Anabel and I used another on him.
I retrieved the pistol from my bag and shouted to Wraith, “hey, Wraith! Move as far away from the golem as you can for at least ten seconds.”
“Why?!”
“Don’t worry about it. Just do it!”
He sprang back and dodged another behemoth swing from that giant hammer. I could tell he was getting worn out and couldn’t do this much longer. As soon as I knew he was clear I took aim and fired.
*POW*
A bullet struck the side of that thing's head and knocked a chunk off of it. The most damage it had sustained yet. It brushed it off and started towards Wraith again.
*POW* *POW*
I took two more chunks out of its head and shoulder. The giant stopped and slowly turned in our direction. I knew what it was going to do. So I took preemptive measures.
*POW* *POW* *POW* *POW* *POW*
Most of my shots hit but some did more damage than others. The monstrosity was now making its way towards me and Arduwan. It was working its way up to a full sprint.
*POW* *POW* *POW* *POW* *POW* *POW*
*CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* Out of ammo.
But fortunately…this thing wasn’t immune to gravity. Just after my last shot hit, the golem had taken several steps over the smaller tiles and a whole slew of them were collapsing at once. It took the disintegrating stone golem down below to a spiky grave.
I tossed the spent pistol to the side and breathed relief. Wraith got to his feet and shouldered his plasma rifle.
“How did this happen?” I shouted over to him.
“I don’t know. I came up a ladder at the end of my tunnel and found this place. When I lit a wall torch, a stream of oil went across the wall and lit the other ones. That’s when that thing woke up and attacked me.”
“Damn. Well at least we stopped it,” I noted before asking, “so how do you think we can get the Rod?”
“Not sure. Think you can get it with Spectral Hand?”
“I don’t think so. Its range is thirty feet. That’s easily twenty yards.”
“Well, I was hoping we could cheat our way to it. There’s a puzzle to this room though. We just gotta figure it out,” he shouted.
I looked around, trying to see if anything stuck out. The most obvious thing was that some of the smaller tiles that collapsed had music notes on them. Made sense considering this was the tomb of a Bard. But if we were supposed to make a song by stepping on them a certain way, I’m not sure how that would work considering no matter what you stepped on they would collapse. How would you know which to try first? All the engravings were the same. Wraith had one collapse and so did Arduwan. That golem took out like nine of them. None of them lit up or anything on their way down. They just dropped.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Wraith mentioned, “it’s definitely gotta be music based. But
I see all the dilemmas with that that you do.”
“Then what do we do? We can’t just stand here all day. Maybe we should go back to the mainland and get a harpoon or something.”
“No, that would waste too much time. I have an idea. But it’s crazy. I think I at least have a 50/50 chance of being right though.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, you know how Indiana Jones had to make that leap of faith in Last Crusade?”
“Wraith, you’re not seriously thinking of jumping out there randomly onto a tile are you?”
“No…just hear me out. The tiles don’t light up and they aren’t coded to any specific notes. But what if they’re sound based?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if you make a note, acapella style, as you jump from one tile to another? You know, like, hum a song? The bard probably didn’t care if it was a specific tune, so long as the person doing it was making music.”
“Okay, that seems like a pretty big assumption. You sure about that 50/50? Maybe 80/20?”
“I’m gonna give it a try,” he continued, “I think the trick is just to make it an easy song, so you don’t trip yourself up.”
“You don’t have to do this, man. The girls wouldn’t want you to kill yourself on their
behalf.”
“It’s alright. Life has been really good to me since I came here. I may have plot armor. I think I’ll survive. But even if I don’t, I’d like to give back by at least eliminating this possibility. I do have one request though.”
“Yes?”
He paused for a moment as he walked over to the edge of his large tile and said, “Arduwan. I really like you. Not just because you’re smokin. But I genuinely like you. If I live through this, will you go on a date with me?”
She looked at me and then back at Wraith and said, “yes.”
“Cool…if I live through this…will you give me a kiss when we get out of here?” “Yes,” she replied once again.
“If I live through this…”
“Just accept the first two rewards for now, Wraith.”
“Alright.”
He got closer to the edge and looked one last time at the notes on the way over to the Rod and took a big gulp, “here it goes,” he said to himself.
“BAH!“ he enunciated as he leapt onto a tile with a note on it.
Arduwan and I cringed and held each other's shoulders. But it didn’t collapse. He looked over at another and made a similar leap followed by another sound, “BAH!” That’s two down.
He plotted out a course that would take him over to the altar and then towards our platform. He made three more jumps.
“Bah, bah, bah!”
Was he doing what I thought he was doing?
Five more, “Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah!” Yes, he was doing Iron Man!
Four more, “Bah, bah, bah, bah!”
He made it! He was over at the altar and was able to retrieve the rod! He decided to keep his momentum and continued the song all the way over to us.
“Man, you did it! I can’t believe you pulled that off!”
“Good job, Wraith!” Arduwan said as she ran over and picked him up by squeezing him with his arms at his side. The wind was nearly knocked out of him.
“Come on, let's just leave,” I suggested.
The three of us gathered ourselves and made our way back down through the tunnels. Wraith gave me the Rod. It had a golden hilt with a platinum ball at the end. I shoved it into my satchel until we could get it home to the girls.
