Chapter 128: Apart from Despair

The air was thinning as the piling bodies restricted every ounce of possible airway. His mind slowly faded away along with his vision. Ghwynmyr closed his eyes and murmured an old dwarven funeral prayer to himself. But just as he was about to finish it, he faded out of consciousness.

"Ghwynmyr!" A familiar voice burst out from his faded consciousness. "Ghwynmyr, bhstyrd whkh yp! Fyrwrym ys hr. (Ghwynmyr, you bastard, wake up! The fire dragon is here!)"

Ghwynmyr woke up gasping for air. As he opened his eyes, he saw familiar faces he thought were long dead.

"Thyrhyn? Hvymyr? Dhrhghst? Fyrmhn?" He felt his blood drained from his face. "Wutz goin' on?!" Ghwynmyr shoved Hvymyr away as he crawled away into a corner of the dark tunnel.

"W-wuz ga-in han? Hynfhrtyhnyt mhn, hyt hrd yn nhgyn! (This unfortunate man, hit his head hard!)" Hvymyr said and asked others to understand his predicament.

"Hym hyt yn nhgyn?! Tys hphrynt dyfyrnt wyrds hys shy! (He's hit in the nogging? Apparently, his words are different!)" Dhrhghst pointed out.

It took Ghwynmyr awhile to realize where he was. The dark tunnel, the gloomy lighting, and his companions, this was a fragment of his past he recalled all too well; the Wyrmynd. The rite of passage that claimed the lives of young dwarves who were hungry for recognition and glory, he was one of them—the lucky ones who lived.

He looked at his companion's young faces. Their short, cropped hair, and smooth beardless squared chin were still their defining features. They were yet to grow their majestic beards and braided hair like the ones he enjoyed growing in the future.

"Yh yh hlrhyt? (Are you alright?)" Thyrhyn said.

Ghwynmyr nodded and apologized for spacing out. Just as he did, a blood curdling roar echoed throughout the tunnel. Its vicious growl made their skin crawled. He saw his comrade Fyrmhn uncomfortably jittered as he struggled to grip his battle axe.

Thyrhyn saw this and hit the cowardly dwarf in the head and scolded him. The hot-headed dwarf was about to dish out more scolding, but he immediately quieted down when they felt the earth rumbled. Ghwynmyr recalled this scenario, Thyrhyn would order them to assume their Grymys formation and attack the dragon from the rear after it passed the tunnel they were hiding.

In his mind, he wanted to object to this plan, because he knew the outcome of this stratagem. But no matter how hard he tried to spew the words out, nothing came out of his mouth. He stood there looking stunned as the scenario unravels. He saw their determined faces and cursed himself for not being able to do anything about it.

The earth rumbled stronger than ever. The fire dragon was coming up close, they could hear its heaving breath as it slowly crawled into the tunnel where they were. Dhrhghst pulled out the potion on his satchel and gave it to them. It was an invisibility spell specifically formulated for dragons. The potion masked their scents and made them physically invisible to the dragon's visions. It was a perfect potion to ambush such ruthless and powerful creature, and soon, they will test their mettle against it.

The monstrous creature sniffed and eyed every crevice in the tunnel as it tried to find them. His comrades asked him to ready his earth rune to skewer the monster as it passed beyond them. It was getting near the small hole they hid in. Its golden colored serpentine eyes glowed and illuminated the hole they were in. Even with the potion, they opted not to move nor breath, just so the dragon won't notice their presence. The dragon's petrifying stare lasted almost an eternity from what was thought to be a moment. Ghwynmyr's sweat dripped in his brow as the dragon's eyes blinked directly in front of him.

After the intense staredown, the dragon decided to go and search on the other crevices. That became their sign to initiate their crazy plan. On Thyrhyn's lead, they initiated the first stage of their ill-fated plan.

Ghwynmyr tried to stop himself from following them but his body had a mind of its own. It moved like clockwork; his hands gripped his hammer axe tightly the same way that he did. His heart raced as the dragon's tail was nearing their sight. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he slowly crept out of the crevice; the rest of them followed along.

Thyrhyn patted his back and signaled the formation. Fyrmhn and Dhrhghst aimed their make-shift barrel cannon at the creature's behind. With Thyrhyn's signal, they fired the cannon hitting the dragon with their spiked cannonball.

The spiked projectile easily pierced the dragon's thick scaled tail. Both of them immediately ran behind his back as the confused dragon struggled to turn around with its long slender body. Holding his hammeraxe, Ghwynmyr casted earth spikes underneath and above the dragon. The fire-breathing creature's skin was as tough as adamantite but Ghwynmyr's ingenuity proved to a worthy match against the hulking serpent.

He molded the spikes to go in between the dragon's scales and thus piercing it's hide directly. The dragon roared and struggled as he held it down while the rest of his comrades attacked the beast. The plan seemed to have work, his comrades hacked and slashed the dragon with their hammeraxes and long pikes. Unfortunately, he knew this one too well.

As his comrades became overly confident of their impending victory, they decided to toy with the dragon. They spat insults and danced in front of the dying dragon's face. He knew back then that it wasn't a good idea and he stood by that until now.

In its last-ditch effort, the dragon desperately slammed its tail hard on the ground. The ground rumbled violently and split open. Ghwynmyr lost his balance and his grip on the dragon. As the spikes slowly crumbled, the dragon violently rolled over squashing Fyrmhn who was atop of it.

The rest of his comrades were shocked and angered by their comrade's death and took it upon themselves to attack the rampaging serpent. Ghwynmyr stood there in shock the same way he remembered. His body froze as the rest of them tried their best to avenge their fallen friend.

Thyrhyn, Dhrhghst, and Hvymyr did their best to kill the dragon. Hacking the dying serpent with all of their strength, but the rampaging dragon proved to be too powerful against it. Thyrhyn got hit with the dragon's powerful swing and was instantly flung towards him. He caught his bloodied friend; both of them tumbled to the ground. He took Thyrhyn with him and made their way out of the tunnel. Unfortunately, for the other two, their bodies were incinerated by the dragon's powerful black flames.

Ghwynmyr and Thyrhyn tumbled and fell as they ran away from the black flames that was rapidly devouring their way. Ghwynmyr grabbed his fallen friend back up, but Thyrhyn stubbornly refused and pushed him away.

"Dh wht yhr? (What are you doing?)" Ghwynmyr grabbed him once again but Thyrhyn yanked his arm away.

"Lyv! Mhst yh! Shrvyv yh tl dh thyl! (Live! You must! You will survive and tell the tale!)" Thyrhyn grabbed him by the neck and then everything went dark.

It was dark once more. Ghwynmyr had no recollection of what truly happened after that. According to what he was told, he was found floating in a stream outside of the cave entrance with Thyrhyn's remains—his right hand.

Ghwynmyr sat in the dark contemplating on his ineptitude towards saving his comrades. The one that he had drank and ate with. The ones he had laughed and cried with, all dead because of his incapacity to save them.

It was a curse that he brought with him even until their rebellion against the empire. Ghwynmyr for the sake of his life, couldn't save his comrades during the most critical hours and yet he still got the credit as a hero against the odds. The title tasted sour in his mouth and tainted his heart with self-loathing.

Suddenly, he heard something echoing from the darkness. It sounded faint at first and then it grew louder as the moment passed. He turned towards the sound, slowly following it. The murmur turned out to be a booming shout from Urfaal. A light cracked in the middle of the darkness. Ghwynmyr approached it and saw what was happening. The beastman fought the swarm of headless monsters.

Ghwynmyr hacked his way through the invincible monsters. He fought bravely and desperately as he tore his way from their overwhelming numbers. The beastman unfortunately, could not even scratch the brutes but he persevered and pushed them away.

Urfaal's strength surprised even him, as his comrade managed to overpower the monsters surrounding him. However, even the beastman proved to be no match against their sheer numbers. After fending a lot of them, Ulfaar was already breathing laboriously. The monsters were at him nonstop, and finally fell as the monsters started to pile up on him.

He helplessly watched as his friend was being smothered by the monsters. Their claws sunk into Urfaal's skin, tearing it slowly as his friend tried his best to defend himself despite the unrelenting attacks.

Ghwynmyr tried reaching out of the fragmented hoping that he could instantly teleport there and help his friend, but it was all a wasted effort. He only went past it. He tried once more but the results stayed the same and there, he was again, a worthless friend, a bystander helpless looking at the carnage at his friend's expense.

He gnashed his teeth and screamed his lungs out in sheer frustration, he has failed them yet once more. He kneeled and gnashed his teeth as he punched a non-existing ground to vent out his despair. The more he hit it, the more unbearable the pain had become, but he continued on. It was the only thing he could do, to vent out the carnage that he cannot prevent—or so he thought.

"Wake up!" A voice suddenly broke into the darkness and startled him.

"Who's der?!" His voice quivered as he looked around.

In the distance he saw an image of a child standing in front of him, but he cannot make out what it truly was. He squinted his eyes but cannot get a clear view of what it truly was.

"Wake up! Open your eyes!" The child commanded.

Suddenly a strange strobe of bright light tore the darkness and blinded him. The next thing he knew, was waking up under the piled dead bodies, but this time, he's not giving up.