Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Kaizen and Xisrith exchanged worried glances as they stood motionless in the dark corridor, waiting for whatever was making those footstep noises, but the silence that perpetuated when they stopped was almost deafening, except for the subtle sound of each other’s breathing.

After a few tense moments, they decided that they couldn’t just stand there forever. Kaizen raised his torch, illuminating the corridor ahead, and they would proceed with caution. So, as Kaizen was paying attention, while his eyes roamed the floor of the corridor, he found something that caught his eye. A thin rope was stretched across the floor, almost invisible in the dim light. He bent down and examined it carefully.

“Xisrith, don’t take a step forward,” whispered Kaizen, crouching down. “There’s a trap here.”

Kaizen turned his keen eyes to the area ahead and noticed that the rope was stretched out at a carefully calculated height, at ankle height.

“A trap, right?” She whispered back, looking at the rope.

Kaizen nodded and picked up a small stone from the ground. With a precise movement, he threw the stone forward, it cut the rope and a sharp snap echoed down the corridor as the rope snapped. Suddenly, thorns from the ceiling descended just a meter from where they were standing.

“Sons of bitches, they weren’t kidding when they created this crypt.” Kaizen said, standing up and watching the large thorns slowly recede.

Xisrith laughed briefly at Kaizen’s language, as he had never seen him speak like that before. “Indeed, the dwarves are very resourceful. We must be careful, I’m sure there are more traps ahead.”

Kaizen and Xisrith continued to advance with extreme caution, their torches revealing a narrow corridor full of intricate details in the rock of the walls. The two friends kept their eyes fixed on the floor, looking for any sign of additional traps.

As they went deeper into the crypt, the atmosphere became more oppressive. The air was impregnated with an old, musty smell, and the silence continued to be broken only by the distant echo of their own footsteps. Each sound, each shadow seemed more threatening than the last. Suddenly, Kaizen stopped abruptly, raising his hand to signal Xisrith to do the same. He pointed with the torch at a series of strange inscriptions on the wall, illuminating the symbols.

“Can you read that?” whispered Xisrith, studying the inscriptions with curiosity.

Kaizen frowned as he tried to decipher the symbols. “I can’t fully understand it, but I think it might be some kind of warning. Something about ‘guardians’ and ‘forbidden knowledge’.”

While they were looking at the inscriptions, they heard a strange noise coming from one of the side passages. It was like a soft whisper, almost inaudible. They exchanged nervous glances and decided to investigate.

Cautiously, they followed the sound until they came to a massive stone door, partially open. The dim light of their torches revealed a hidden room, full of vases and dusty shelves filled with leather-bound books.

Xisrith gazed in wonder at the collection of knowledge there, but Kaizen couldn’t help feeling a growing unease.

The sound didn’t come from nowhere, it wasn’t like the sound of the wind coming from somewhere.

Xisrith approached a bookcase and reached out to take one of the books, but before she could touch it, a whispering voice echoed in the room.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Kaizen and Xisrith turned abruptly to see a hooded figure emerging from the shadows of a bookcase. Her eyes glowed with an eerie light under the hood, and they could feel a powerful aura emanating from her.

“Who are you?” Kaizen asked cautiously, as Xisrith tightened his grip on his katana.

The hooded figure stepped forward, revealing a grim smile. “I am the guardian of this place, and you are not dwarves, nor do you have the blood of the Bloodstone, so you are not worthy to be here!”

[You have begun a battle against the main boss of the Bloodstones Clan Crypt, the Timekeeper].

The hooded figure, revealed as the Timekeeper, suddenly disappeared from their field of vision, entering the darkness of the bookshelves again.

Kaizen turned to his left, to speak to Xisrith, but before Kaizen could even draw his Ragnarok sword, the Time Keeper appeared out of nowhere beside him and, with one hand behind his back, made a quick movement with his right hand, as if pushing Kaito, and a gale of air actually pushed Kaizen hard towards a pile of shelves nearby.

Kaizen knocked over the shelves, books and artifacts, and Xisrith shouted:

“Kaizen!”

Now alone in the battle, she gripped the handle of her katana tightly, her eyes fixed on the Timekeeper. She was a skilled warrior and would not be intimidated, but it was impossible not to think how strong this Boss was to make Kaizen fly so easily. For his part, the guardian flashed an enigmatic smile before disappearing in a blur, only to reappear instantly behind Xisrith. He was using some kind of teleportation magic.

Xisrith spun around quickly, his katana slicing through the air, but the Timekeeper was too fast. He deftly dodged, leaving only a residual image where he stood. Xisrith felt a breath of cold wind as he passed her, and a chilling sensation ran down her spine.

The Timekeeper wasted no time either. With a wave of his hand, he conjured up a series of energy projectiles that shot towards Xisrith. She rolled on the ground to escape the attacks, her agility saving her from being hit. The projectiles collided with the shelves behind her, causing entire shelves to collapse in a cloud of dust.

Xisrith didn’t quite understand what was going on, but she knew she had to anticipate the Timekeeper’s movements or she’d be screwed. She took a deep breath, trying to maximize her senses so that even her pupils became wider, increasing her reflexes.

…

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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