"You go first." Guinevere muttered as she slowed down walking to let Gusion lead.
But Gusion also slowed down and looked at her over his shoulder. "You go first."
She rolled her eyes, annoyed. "Could you please just be a man for once?"
"Where's your relentlessness when I need it the most?" He hushed.
She glanced ahead and saw that the person they were following was getting too far away, and she hastily pushed Gusion to move them both forward.
He had this pale, lifeless skin and dead green eyes. He had a staff in his right hand with a glowing green stone that seemed to be the only thing alive in him.
He was skin and bones and he stunk like a hundred mice died under his red, ragged and filthy cloak.
They had been following the weird person for about a couple of hours, hoping he could lead them to the tunnels' exit.
But all he did was wander around, muttering indistinctly and chuckling every now and then. He never even looked back, which was much to Gusion and Guinevere's advantage.
"Don't push me. He creeps the hell out of me." Gusion said over his shoulder as he leaned back, letting Guinevere do all the pushing to move him forward.
"Could you just walk!"
"He stinks." Gusion complain, crinkling his nose.
Guinevere smelled it, too, but her nose was starting to get used to it in the two full hours of smelling it.
"I know. But he might be our only chance for survival."
"How could he?" He gestures a hand at the person. "He seems to be not surviving himself."
"Ugh!" She straightened up and stepped away from Gusion's back, making him fall off balance into the ground.
"Ow." He mouthed soundlessly.
She looked down on him. "Are you planning to live here and eventually end up like him?" She gestured the man's direction.
Gusion sighed and got up. "We don't even know if he's just leading us into something worse."
"Then what do you suggest? That we wander aimlessly around this tunnel that seems to branch out in every direction?"
Gusion sighed, reluctant. "Fine. Stay close." He said and finally led the way.
She feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand on ends, and she instinctively walked faster to grab Gusion's elbow as she felt a chill run down her spine.
"What is it now?" Gusion asked. looking at her with arched brows.
She scanned the empty tunnel that they had came from. "Don't you feel like someone's looking at us from behind?"
"Don't make everything creepier as it is, Guinevere."
She faced him. "But I swear I could feel something."
He was about to argue when the man ahead chuckled again, making both of them flinch and turn to his direction.
He disappeared into another tunnel.
"I swear to heavens, I would kill that man just because of his laughter." Gusion seethed.
"Let's just keep going." Guinevere suggested.
But they came into the tunnel where the man was when he halted and gasped.
"No. No no no no no no no!!!!!!" He suddenly bellowed so loud the tunnel's walls tremble.
Gusion pushed Guinevere behind, both of them backing away into the wall urgently as the man breathed raspedly in a snarl.
"Someone's killing them. Someone's killing them." He muttered frantically.
He stomped his staff against the ground and green light shimmered all around the tunnel.
As it faded out, the gray man had became a floating green smoke still possessing his human form but with his legs turned into tails of mist as he hovered over the ground.
Guinevere gasped as she had taken a good look at him, and the man jerked his head to their direction before Gusion had covered her mouth with his hand.
Both of them knew they were done the moment the glowing green eyes of the ghostly man fell on them.
"Let's go!" Gusion snapped and both of them blinked away.
They got five yards away, fear spreading inside their chest because of the man's crazy laughter. His ghostly form merely passed through them like cold air before vanishing into the shadows, leaving chills throughout their skin as they ran.
But when they thought they managed to escape, black chains appeared around their waists out of thin air.
Gusion's eyes widened as he looked down at it then at Guinevere, whose expression was mirroring his.
Both of them screamed at the top of their lungs as they got dragged back to where they were running away from, hitting walls and tunnel curves with the man's laughter echoing all around the tunnel.
They bumped against each other as the chain compressed into nothingness right after it had successfully pulled them right in front of the man, who was now back to his human (or half-dead human) form.
He laughed again as he looked down at them, who were now sitting on the ground, hands cuffed together at their backs.
"I got some unfortunate souls..." He muttered with a wicked grin as he stared at them. "Such young souls."
"Who are you!" Guinevere demanded.
The man's grin vanished, replaced by a confused look on his face as his brows raised. Suddenly he didnt look so sinister anymore. "You don't know me?"
"Would I ask if I know?" Guinevere snapped.
The man fluttered his lids, flustered at Guinevere's sharpness. The way she confused the creepy man almost made Gusion smirk.
What was with this girl that she even manage to snap a retort at someone who reeked of evilness?
Then the man gnarled as if he remembered he had the upper hand in the situation. "I am Faramis! And I possess the most sinister magic!"
"Trapping victims with your chains? That's the most sinister magic?" She asked, gazing up at their captor unconvinced.
"THAT IS NOT ALL!" Faramis exclaimed.
Guinevere distracting him gave Gusion a chance to look around the cave.
They were in one of the caves where the tunnel led, but this one was wider and higher than the one they slept in.
"You will soon know what I'm capable of doing and you will tremble in fear!" Faramis threatened.
"Oooooh, I'm starting to tremble in fear." Guinevere said in a very apparent mocking voice as Gusion continued to scan the place.
The walls were carved out so it serves as racks where bubbling, boiling liquids in disgusting hues were stored in vials and transparent bowls, making Gusion wonder what they actually were for. He could bet all of his swords that they weren't for healing.
But floating overhead, right behind Faramis, was an old, thick and worn out book.
It didn't look anything special, but the way dark mist seem to smoke out of its pages gave him a hint that it was what they came here for.
And he seemed to finally understand why the man stunk of death.
He immediately felt the urgency to get it. This was their chance.
He looked around, desperate for something to cut the handcuff off. He and Guinevere could never freely move with their hands tied at their backs.
Just when he was running out of hope, he felt his right hand got loose.
Surprised, he looked over his should to see his free hand, a cuff still wrapped around his wrist with the other that used to cuff Guinevere's hand now empty.
Somehow, she managed to slip her hand off it.
He looked over Guinevere. She was still arguing with Faramis, but he knew she was looking at him at the corner of her eye.
He did not care if their other hands were still cuffed together. Having one hand free was enough.
Using his bounded hand, he furtively curled his fingers around Guinevere's wrist and gave it a squeeze, hoping she would understand.
She glanced at him in just a very brief moment and he gestured the book with his eyes.
She followed his gaze and Gusion knew she got what he was referring to.
"You shall have to wait until I get eid of those demon hunters having lost their way in Necrokeep." Faramis muttered, his face grimaced in a displease.
Gusion and Guinevere exchanged looks. That meant Alucard and the others kept going and were nearer to them.
"They're wiping them all out. I have to go before that happens. Tsk!" He hurried towards one of the tunnels with a wicked frown, swaying a hand into the air and the book immediately flew right into his cloak.
Gusion suppressed a grimace imagining taking the book out of that stinky, filthy clothing.
He was about to get up and attack Faramis as he had his back towards them while exiting the cave, but Guinevere held him down strongly.
Then she shook her hand slightly, her commanding eyes saying it all; not yet.
Before Faramis could step into the tunnel, he looked over his shoulder towards them. "If you think you could just easily leave this cave, you're gonna have to think again."
His eyes glinted in wickedness before he continued on his way.
Gusion got to his feet the moment the evil wizard disappeared and helped Guinevere up.
"We have to get that book." Gusion said firmly.
Guinevere was dusting off her skirt with her free hand. "I know. But we still have to follow him, especially now that he's out to get Alucard and the others."
They walked side by side, their cuffed hands between them when Gusion remembered something.
"How did you...?" His voice faltered as soon as he daw Guinevere's free hand.
It was bleeding pretty badly and it looked like a part of its skin got peeled off in her attempt to slide it out of the cuff.
He came in front of her, making her stop and look up at him, her brows furrowed.
"We have to follow him fast."
"What were you thinking?" He asked, looking at how bad the back of her hand was.
"I was thinking we could not do anything unless I do that."
He thought of another way they could've found, but ended up scoffing and looking sideways as he hated the fact that he could never really argue to that.
"Let's just go." Guinevere ordered and walked ahead, dragging him along.
But before they could even step out of the
cave, they froze because of the hundred rattling sound approaching.
They exchanged nervous looks, and Gusion laced his fingers through Guinevere's as he saw the terrified look in her eyes.
He knew she could only think of one thing to look that scared. And he was suspecting the same thing.
"Come on." He said urgently and pulled her out of the cave before they could see the approaching creatures.
He knew once Guinevere would see them, she would break out hysterically and he would have to think on his own, which he found unreliable compared to Guinevere's ideas.
They sprinted along the rocky tunnel, the sound behind them getting louder, Guinevere's grip on his hand getting tighter.
They had to get away fast.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Could you guarantee me one thing?"
"No, I can't guarantee I won't go crazy once I see what's chasing us." She answered before he could even ask.
He clenched his teeth. "I need you to help me get rid of them."
"I need you to get rid of them for me!"
"Guinevere!" He exclaimed, getting irritated and desperate.
Then the rattling sound came so loud they looked over their shoulders.
Guinevere screamed so loud it almost broke his eardrums.
He grabbed her by the waist and lunged twenty feet forward before she could lose herself to fear.
He leaped through the tunnel until his legs felt sore with balancing and carrying Guinevere.
He then put her down. She was breathing rapidly as if she had been running herself.
He came right in front of her and cupped her face with both hands, looking intently in her eyes.
"Guinevere, listen to me." He said firmly, breaking her out of the trauma she was starting to get drowned into.
Thankfully, her eyes focused on him as she held his wrist.
"We will get rid of them. But our hands are cuffed so I need you to cooperate and move the same way I move. And your magic would be pretty useful."
"Gusion...I don't know.." She muttered hesitantly.
"We have to get rid of them first before we could go to the others!"
"But I can't—!"
"Just trust me, alright?!"
She stared at him for a few seconds before she nodded.
He nodded. "Good."
They stood along the tunnel, facing the direction the sound was coming from.
Gusion took out his blade and he was thankful when he saw Guinevere's free hand glowing with violet orb.
It came in sight as a silhouette at first, a figure as tall as the tunnel's ceiling with ma many legs that created the clicking sound at every step.
Then it came into view, Guinevere gasping audibly and backing a step away.
But she managed to keep her ground as she gripped Gusion's hand, and he must admit he also needed that to ease the fear that was crawling into his insides.
And it didn't help as he saw that the creature was actually thousands of little spiders crawling over each other to form one big giant spider.
Guinevere blasted one big orb of energy towards it, and their jaws hanged open as they saw the violet light got sucked right into the middle of the creature before it faded.
"No way..." Guinevere blurted out.
Gusion threw his blade towards it, and to their relief, it dislodging about a hundred of the crawling creatures as 9 more blades formed midair and hit different parts of the monster.
The fallen spiders scuttled towards their direction at once, and Guinevere blasted them with her magic.
Soon they had hundred of them smoking in the ground.
"We have to separate them before we could deal damage."
"Then be quick on it." Gusion said as he retrieved his blades, sensing more spiders off as it hit it again.
They worked together, burning spiders before it could crawl up into them, enduring the exhaustion at every attack they made and hoping they wouldn't be too late in following the others.