Traces

The risks which Bardeelus just took, was perhaps the most irresponsible thing yet. Everything about this encounter could've gone wrong, and they haven't even made it far within the ruins yet ~ However, his witty idea to cast a spell, was a staggering and sudden success!

The spell he casted had no particular color, it was not visual in any way, but it was effective. The red dots that were spread across the snake's charging skeleton, suddenly disappeared, which necessarily meant that the enemy spell was dismantled!

He undid some random spell, and the result was staggering! The snake piled up over its own bones, since its movements stiffened as the red-dots diminished. The snake ended up as a pile of bones, and it deserved to end up as such!

Its pace had been so quick, that when its movements were messed with, the skeleton overlapped against itself. Many portions of its elongated rib cage were broken in exchange, and the crackling sounds of its crash reverberated, which only assured that there was no fixing this boa.

The spell that was attached to the boa was gone now, so this thing was completely dead, like nature demanded it. Even if someone tried to resurrect this snake in the future, it would be a waste of time ~ A crippled skeleton was of no use!

"That was badass!" Bardeelus celebrated, but he was so nervous that his voice came out as tiny.

He sighed deeply, and added. "Hope I don't ever get to do that again. Necromancers are crazy, no wonder they're hunted!"

"You aren't any better. Wanting to enslave fresh meat instead of a bag of bones, doesn't make you a saint." Audera reminded him.

"Eh, who cares? We're alive, that's all that matters." He said, and completely avoided such a topic.

Anyway, within the heat of that battle, he had caught a glimpse of something interesting. Those red-dots which represented the spell that kept the snake skeleton going, were sprinkled in more than one spot, not just on the skeleton exclusively. 

Now, as Bardeelus got a better look of the surroundings, he spotted a trail of red-dots that he hadn't seen before. The more he focused, the more these red-dots revealed themselves across the ruins!

"It's like someone bled all around this place," He thought, and tried to make sense of the trail.

There were a couple of other snug corridors, which connected to the main one. He focused on one that was attached to the main corridor's right side, and noticed that the trail was the hottest there.

It was imperative to follow it, so he said. "Get us down there, Erdeta. The snake is as dead as it was when we got here."

"Haha, that's hilarious." She said, and then grabbed her friends.

It took little effort to get down, she fell as lightly as a feather, regardless of the human baggage. Once they got down, all three of them relit their torches. The charcoal on them should provide the team with light for a long time, so it was smart to use them.

"Wow, you really messed this thing up." Audera said.

They had landed near the boa's skeleton, and there really was a sight to see. The pile of bones was almost as tall as them, this thing had to have been at least fifteen-feet long!

"Eh it's just a mega snake, nothing to look at. We'll probably see worse things here." Bardeelus hurriedly said.

He was rushing, because he didn't want to get distracted, and therefore said. "Follow me, I know where the necromancers are hiding… one of them at least."

The couple of ladies were nervous, though, they had no choice but to follow him. It finally felt like they had a solid direction to follow, which down here, was like a treasure!

Bardeelus appreciated this sense of direction tenfold. Not only were they getting close to a necromancer, but close to a life-goal itself! 

Today, if he attained the slightest clue of how necromancy worked as a whole, and lived long enough to tell the tale, then he might become a well-accomplished mage one day. It didn't matter if he ended up as a dark, and twisted one like most necromancers!

Bardeelus got overly-invested in this task now, so he said. "This snake has slithered around for a while now, and it had a goal. It was sent out to hunt us, so, both of you focus! We can't be caught off-guard again."

The ladies nodded in cooperation, regardless of how they got perplexed by his dedication. It would be useful to run into a necromancer here, even if it was a hostile one; They had a task to handle.

Anyway, this snug corridor was longer, and it didn't really have an instant, dead end. It was attached to many doors along the way, which led to plenty of random rooms.

Each room could carry a treasure of its own, be it informational, arsenal-strengthening, or monetary even! This was the worst time to get side-tracked, though, so Bardeelus kept following that one trail which promised results!

The team was led to some random room at last, which on its other side, led to yet another corridor. This corridor was similar to the one they left behind, it was snug, about two-meters wide but it was far taller than that. He predicted it to be over ten-meters tall.

The architecture here was admirable, and it was even more interesting how this place wasn't as collapsed as he had pictured. However, this whole topic had to be put aside for now. 

They followed the corridor further, and the spell's glowing traces became more radiant here. They were getting close to something important, and Bardeelus got more excited by the second.

Nothing could quite shatter his focus, he thought. "Little bit more… relax man, you're practically invincible here. If there's a living necromancer down there, I can blow his heart up if things go to shit."

It was a good plan, and as a one-of-a-kind necromancer, he surely had some advantages. However, it seemed as if the surroundings were dedicated on distracting him.

"Huh," He grunted.

Right besides this group, there was a fourth soul which followed the trail with them. That dark figure, which barely represented a human's form, walked beside the three!

This demon-looking thing walked right in front of Erdeta, and kept following its role as a guard, however, this scene was still creepy. 

He tried to ignore this creature, especially since it wasn't up to anything devious, but he did alarm Audera in the meantime!

She could read thoughts, very thoroughly, so when Bardeelus thought about a shadow-figure acting like their guard-dog, she had to investigate. Unfortunately, her eyesight wasn't as effective.

She couldn't see the shadow, and now debated if their 'necromancer' friend was going insane. The possibilities were limitless, although this time for the worse!