The Trials of the Core (GotC #1)

Chapter 19 - The Tomb's Prize

Wear me. I will give you victory. Hydro ignored the necklace; he didn't have time to put it on. This man needed to die. As he clutched it in his hand, the dragon scales bit into his skin, sharp as teeth. If what Cain told was true, this necklace would be able to grant him power here.

"Maa," Hydro said. He focused his mind to raise the earth between Zain and the bald man. With ease, a slab of earth rose and separated them.

The commoner, who had been inching closer to the man in hopes of saving Zain, stopped.

The man with the bald head looked back toward Hydro.

"Let me make good on my promise. I told you by the end of this you would die." The rain had stopped, but wetness was still in the air. "Palo." Fire circled his hand.  

The man smirked. "Well, a prince who can use power. How quaint!"

The black orb flew toward Hydro. He released his spell. The energies sped toward each other. Time seemed to slow. They collided, erupting in a flash of light. Blindness overtook Hydro. He was lifted and sent back onto the muddy ground. Pushing up his body, he looked around. Everything was a blur for the most part. It came back into focus in seconds though, and he saw that the bald man had been thrown against a sandstone wall.

The commoner and Zain limped over to the man. They bent down over him as he began to shake his head. They're holding him.

"Hydro, finish this!" The commoner yelled. 

Hydro shook his head and looked around. His sword was a few paces away. After crawling and picking it up, he got to his feet and staggered over to the man. As he approached, he could see the man's muscles surge from underneath their hands. Zain shifted more of his weight. Hold him a little longer.

Five paces.

Hydro readied his sword. 

After a loud grunt of defiance, Zain and the commoner were thrown off. The sandstone slab slid. The man stood. Before he could escape, Hydro used his left arm to hold onto him while he shoved the sword through his tattoo-ridden chest. Blood splattered.

The moment seemed to linger. Hydro stared into the man's inhuman black eyes. Neither of them blinked. The tattooed man grabbed Hydro's shoulder and walked toward him, plunging the sword deeper into his own body. Hydro's eyes grew. Closer he came. Hydro trembled.

The man leaned in toward Hydro's ear and whispered to him; lips moved, and broken teeth dangled amid the coughing of blood on choked gasps. "You cannot handle the power. Only one can. . . . Beware of the girl with black hair. . . ."

It was barely audible to him; Hydro doubted the others heard. The man pushed himself off of the sword, collapsing with a thud upon a slab of sandstone. Hydro looked at the man and then down to the necklace in his hand. It felt like it pulsed, but it was probably just his hand, weary from battle.

Zain grabbed his shoulder. "What did he say to you?"

"What does it matter?"

"It matters because the necklace should be mine."

"Well, it is not yours. I grabbed it." Hydro's eyes reverted back to the man. The girl with black hair . . . . Is this girl the one who can handle the necklace?

"You lie."

"What I do is none of your—"

"Eir . . . Eir . . . ek."

The voice barely made its way through the chamber. Hydro looked around. From the slab of sandstone that had fallen in the aftermath of the explosion, Cain crawled toward them. A trail of blood oozed behind him. What happened to him?