Night had fallen yet again for the group of four as they marched through the sands. No wind, no heat, no flowing sands period, it was only the vast empty ocean of sand. Slowly they moved ahead step by step together, Mifune with his arms crossed behind his head and Christa with her bold walk, Enzo and Silas somewhat casually on the move.
“So remind me why we’re going out for this crypt in the middle of the night?”
“To attract the mummies, obviously Mifune.”
“Yeah but Christa, what’s the point? We can’t kill the damn things. They just heal like a bunch of sissies.”
“Because,” Enzo chimed in,” We have Silas and his magic to back us up.”
“And you’re sure that’ll be enough?”
“Listen to you Mifune,” Silas chuckled, “So worried about a fight?”
“Hey, I’m confident when I know my enemy will die. When you hack something into a million pieces and they just conglomorinate back together, it’s just not worth it.”
“You mean conglomerate. Also I get it but would Cardinal Senya?”
“Jerk.”
“Besides, there’s something I want to check,” Christa murmured.
“We’re here,” Enzo stated as the group closed in now on the oasis.
Right at the edge, over the dune, they came to a halt. Their heads moved around, sharp and quick. Enzo stepped forward, “They are most notably here at night, that never slipped me by when the locals talked back there.”
“Heh, you’d think for a bunch of revenge seeking rag dolls they’d wander further. So far it seems like they’re just staying near the crypt so I don’t get the big deal,” Mifune huffed.
“So true,” Christa mumbled, “Only near the crypt.”
The sand shifted just a touch, a little pooling away up ahead. All stood at edge immediately, waiting. All at once an arm shot out of the sand, a hand slamming down. The same that had happened before happened now with the mummies ripping themselves from the ground, moaning and slumping forward.
“These mummies act like the zombies we have yet to see,” Mifune chuckled as more and more popped out.
“Maybe the zombies were mummified, who knows. Silas?”
“Gotcha Christa, ahem,” he murmured pulling out his tome, “Magasa, Inferni!”
Waving his right hand in the air a sphere of fire quickly conjured itself. With the thrust of his hand forward the fire shot out directed right at a mummy, blasting right into it. With a roar the mummy blew apart, though as seen prior the sands slowly began to pool as the limbs came back together quickly. In mere seconds it now stood again.
Silas raised an eye, “Oh?”
“Oh? Oh! That’s all you have?!” Mifune barked.
“Calm yourself. You forget,” Silas murmured stepping ahead, “I tend to size my enemy up before going all butcher on them. Incelus Bekeheilios!”
The book hovered into the air from his hand, both arms flinging across one another outstretched, right to the left and left to the right. Flames, gold in color, began to emerge, “Astronosis, Carteliosis!”
The arms flung out as his head dropped with eyes on the ground, the golden flames launching themselves turning into a tidal wave of gold fire. The flames slammed into the mummies, their roar heard echoing as they stumbled. Silas looked up with a grin, “My anti-curse charm, enjoy!”
Slowly the mummies moved further ahead, their steps in the sand not yet ceasing. His eyes drew bigger, his mouth hanging a bit. Christa and Mifune both jumped back with shock flooding their faces. Mifune turned quickly, “Anti-curse huh? What do you call that?!”
“Not a curse, magic?”
You guys do your own thing, I’ve got this!” Mifune spat as he charged ahead.
“Mifune, wait!” Enzo yelled out.
It was no use as Mifune slammed right into the mummies. As he swung his sword it was quickly caught by three of the mummies, only minor damage to them as they held it firm, “Wha- gah!”
“Mifune!”
All at once multiple mummies slammed atop him, the sands rising up swallowing him and the mummies. Christa and Enzo stepped forward, witnessing as the sands sunk back down with Mifune and the mummies both.
“Retaka Galamaru!”
With the snap of a finger, the gold turned quickly to silver and then copper. All at once the flames combusted themselves with black flames and blew. Roars could be heard as sand flew, the explosions of each mummy being that of blocks of C4 going off in the sands buried. The sand washed at the feet of the four, ceasing itself.
“The hell was that?!”
“Simple, I blew them up Enzo.”
“How did that work and them dicing them didn’t?!”
“Magic is magic, heh heh. Though in all seriousness, that was a low level spell. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but it did.”
“Retaka Galamaru. That’s one of Cardinal Ember Victoria’s favorite spells. It takes the sum of mindless dark magic inside an entity and causes it to combust and explode out of the individual,” Enzo stammered.
“Yeah, a really great spell for low level threats like mindless mummies. I kinda figured that would work.”
“What about Mifune?” Christa murmured.
With a glance down Silas slowly bent his knees getting near the ground, his right hand placed upon the sand. His eyes closed as he moved the hand around. Enzo looked to him with an eyebrow raised. Christa nodded, “What I thought, right?”
“Yeah. There are traces of magic in the sand Christa.”
“Magic in the sand? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well Enzo, what it means is that our little game of mummies and mice is about up.”
A violent whirl of sand flew all at once, the storm of wind coming out of nowhere. An ungodly howl reached them all. All at once, rising up was a sand tornado which lasted only a few seconds. It, like the sand in the air, blew away to only reveal the mummy of blue standing, he of the blue tunic. All eyes shifted, turning to face the creature with Silas and Christa standing ready.
“BLEAHAUGHERO. So YoU wOuLd ReTuRn HeRe MoRtAlS, yOu HaVe DeFiEd My WaRnInG!!!” it roared.
“Onaka I presume?” Silas called out.
“I aM; nOw BeCaUsE oF yOuR iGnOrAnCe, YoUr FrIeNd Is DeAd!”
“Pft, friend? You really think too highly of him dry jaw,” Christa chuckled.
“WhAt?”
“Now Mifune!”
The sands right in front of the mummy blew apart, a blade flying forward.
CLANG!!
“GAH!” came the echoed roar.
A slight dripping could be heard, red blood rolling down the shoulder of the mummy and dripping onto its foot as it stumbled back. In front of it stood Mifune with his sword, a little bit of blood on it.
“Finally I got to hit something!” Mifune yelled.
“What is the meaning of this-?!” the mummy barked.
“Quite easy really,” Mifune chuckled, “Tell him Christa!”
“Do you know who you’re even dealing with?” Christa yelled at the mummy, “Too many parts of the story don’t add up as is the case with most crimes. Mummies that somehow come back together, mummies in the sand nonetheless. The story of Onaka’s revenge, how he would smite hundreds of people upon his return? You haven’t left the site where the tomb is said to be at all to our knowledge! Plus you let us go, probably to scare us off. You’re not Onaka’s ghost, you’re just a man using the legend to scare people off so you can get the treasure right?!”
“The blood, the magic in the sand, the fact that the mummies didn’t act like mummies,” Silas chuckled.
“Bah!” the mummy spat, “You think yourselves so clever. A couple of slack jawed idiots. You think you can just come in here and ruin MY operation like this?! You destroy my sand clones, attack me with a fricken sword to see if I bleed. You take pity on the descendants of murderers who hid a wealth of treasure while there are some people out here struggling to scrape anything together to live? Bah I say, BAH!!!”
Mifune raised his blade, holding it to the mummy’s throat, “It’s over mummy man.”
“Heh heh heh, you think so? I think not.”
“Once the people find out that you’re just a nobody misusing the legend, they’ll rebel lickity split,” Mifune laughed.
“Unless the secret dies here with you now,” the man chuckled, “I let you go the last time because I didn’t want to draw actual blood. A few sand clones zombified by fake mummies, my presence, I thought for sure that would have done it but NO! Your severed heads delivered back to Crakhowl should give me enough time to find the treasure and be on my way off this world!”
“You may try,” Enzo replied with a sharp yell.
All at once a wall of sand flew up, blasting beneath Mifune’s sword sending it and him tumbling back. With a leap, Mifune returned straight back to the others, watching as sand began to rise up all around the man. Humanoid forms began to form from some of it as the rest simply washed around in the air, the man’s hands flying out, “I’ll grind your bones into dust and fulfill my job. You will not rest, you will not scream, you will only die!”507Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Cr0ZyfpJ0
