“You know what they say, the last one’s the charm!”

  “You’ve been saying that every single time!”

  “Yes, it is important to be optimistic in life. Nobody likes pessimistic killjoys like you”

  “Screw off, Benait!”

  Amidst the four, one that had not yet said anything spoke up.

  “This house… It’s way more rundown than the rest… Isn’t it the place where… Where that woman used to live?”

  “Huh? Oh, I see what you are talking about. I think you are right, no one even wants to bother maintaining it in good condition… Not sure why, though, not like the house would be cursed…”

  The complaining guard sighed loudly.

  “It was never even proven that she was the culprit. That woman vanished into thin air, and it’s not like anyone was willing to actually question her in the first place over her supposed crimes”

  “Yes, how could such a nice person like her have done anything wrong like this?”

  The fourth guard, who had remained silent, nodded with a smile whilst speaking his mind, prompting the other three to quietly glance at him.

  “He always had a crush on her as a kid…”

  “I see… I did hear that she was beautiful…”

  Benait cracked his neck, stepping ahead of the other three.

  “Let’s check this house, and then we’ll move on to the abandoned shops in the marketplaces!”

  A collective groan was the only response he got, but none of his three fellow guards made a fuss about it. Even if grossly inefficient and frankly idiotic, this was being done in good faith, and it was just hard to get genuinely mad at Benait. Not because he was far stronger than they were, but because he was too much of a good guy.

  The quartet thus set forward and made their way around the back of the residence after finding the front door locked. Benait thought that kicking it in would then encourage kids and curious passersby to look inside, and that could be a bit dangerous considering how rundown this place was.

  “Alright, are we splitting up?”

  “By the gods, Benait! We are looking for either a serial murderer or a serial kidnapper. This is dangerous!”

  “Huh… It’s not a huge manor. We could split up and still be near one another. I don’t see any problem with it”

  “Me neither”

  “That’s three against one, let’s split up”

  The complaining guard felt like bashing his head against the wall, but silently relented as the group spread out to cover more ground.

  They found nothing on the ground floor. Everything was in disrepair, the wood was withered and corroded by the passage of time and the weight of the element, many pieces of furniture looked like they would collapse if one walked too heavily close to them, long, dark streaks covered the walls, and in general, the place was simply filthy.

  Stains of odd colours, and puddles of stagnant water could be found in many rooms, not to mention that some wild animals had apparently been here…

  The upstairs was more of the same thing. The windows barely let any light through, not only due to having been boarded up, but also because vegetation had grown high enough to spread out over them.

  Such as a tree branch having broken and grown through a window in one of the rooms, the sight was strangely mesmerising, but it did not tell them anything about what they were here for in the first place.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but to me it looks like someone was here recently”

  “I agree, but it could have just been kids from the neighbourhoods. I doubt they can resist trying to explore the old, scary house, you know what I mean?”

  “There is a basement over here!”

  Before they could discuss anything in detail, one of them discovered the entrance to the basement, the old wooden hatch leading down into it being hidden inside what looked like a closet at a glance.

  Benait looked at his three fellows. Everyone was in silent agreement, so he flipped the hatch open, leading the way into a completely pitch black underground.

  Each of them had come prepared with a lantern, which was important equipment, considering that most of the houses they had previously visited also had a basement.

  What lay below was an empty room.

  Well, empty was probably not the right word.

  It was filled with dirt and stone, piles had been stacked in the corners, but still much of it all was left to carpet the ground. One of the guards dug through curiously, discovering that there was so much that they weren’t even stepping on the actual ground at all.

  They were overelevated by the sheer amount of dirt and debris.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “What the hell is this?”

  “Do we have a freaking mole monster living down here or something?”

  “No, take a closer look. There are broken pickaxes and shovels all over the place”

  Apart from Benait, the three guards were speaking aloud about what they were seeing, and indeed, many tools were a part of the mess, wooden handles broken in half, or lying in splinters.

  “Wait a minute, there are way more handles than there are metal heads…”

  The guard with a crush on a suspected murderer bent down, picking up the head of a pickaxe, only that half of it was missing entirely… It almost looked like someone had taken a bite out of it, judging by the marks.

  “Tools… Mmh…” Benait shone his lantern into one of the holes, for there were actually four of them, one in the middle of each wall.

  Inside, he saw nothing but what seemed like a tunnel that stretched out into further darkness.

  “Welp, I guess I’ll just-”

  “Benait, are you trying to climb into that hole? I put up with lots of things, but that would be the epitome of stupidity, you can’t even swing your sword in there!”

  The complaining guard strode over the Benait, putting his hand on the swordsman’s shoulder, pulling him back before he actually went and started crawling around.

  “Don’t worry about that, you guys can stay behind”

  ___

  “That’s- This is not what I am talking about!”

  “I can fight in enclosed spaces. I wouldn’t dare call myself a swordsman if something as mundane as a low ceiling could completely neuter my combat capabilities”

  “That’s more than just a low ceiling for goodness sake! You have to crawl to get in there! Crawl!”

  “It’s fine, we’re gonna have to check what’s up with these tunnels anyway, we can’t leave this unattended. So I might as well do some scouting”

  “I think you are genuinely unhinged, Benait-”

  Just then, all four guards heard.

  Benait and the grumpy one were near the hole in the wall facing the stairs, whilst the other two were standing in the middle of the room when they heard it. The soft, magnificent, grandiose melody!

  To them, it seemed to be coming from the hole opposite to the one Benait and the grumpy guard were near.

  In an instant, the swordsman lost his carefree demeanour, sword drawn with focused intent.

  But the danger wasn’t in the front. I was directly behind them.

  Who do they think they are anyway? Waltzing into my property like they were invited… And then speak about checking out my beautiful, magnificently dug out tunnels? That is simply unacceptable.

  Before Grumpy can even know what hit him, my jaw shuts down at full force directly on his neck. His chestplate and helm might be of good quality, but it doesn’t matter as neither of those covers the relevant area.

  I crawl back into the darkness as the melody stops, leaving a headless corpse and an active geyser of blood in my wake. I do not stick around to watch their reactions to what just happened. I am crawling through the tunnels like my life depends on it as the skull and helm are devoured into my body.

  I crash into walls as I move blind in the dark. The only reason I was able to sneak up on Grumpy was because the guards were all carrying lanterns, allowing me to see them when they couldn’t see me.

  It also helps that they weren’t paying attention at all.

  Though maybe I was a bit impulsive. But the occasion was just so good! And those guards… Their flesh seemed most nourishing, and their armour felt like such a delicacy! My body of living metal desired it.

  As I was crawling away, I heard shouts and screams that I did not understand echo down into the tunnel… Followed by something else, akin to rocks being displaced by a strong force and flung into the walls, accompanied by something dragging through dirt.

  Wait a minute–I am being followed.

  I can’t see who it is, but it’s pretty damned obvious that it's the guy that they were calling Benait and that I probably splashed with the blood of his fellow just now.

  That guy was clearly not the brightest light, who wanted to just go and crawl into a random tunnel without even knowing what lay inside? And now what? He was crawling after me?

  It was ludicrous, and it felt like I should just turn around and bite his head off as well, but no. I had a bad feeling about him, so I just sped up instead.

  I knew these tunnels better than anyone. I dug them out with my own two hands after all, and it seemed like my pursuer had forgone the usage of a lantern to crawl faster, and gods was he crawling fast, I could hear him getting closer like a feral beast.

  What is wrong with this guy? What even did I do wrong to deserve this much ire? I could feel the strongest amount of hatred directed at me since forever, and it wasn’t even close. The sheer amount of negative energy this guy was sending my way was equal to several days of harvesting.

  How does he even know where to go to follow me?

  It doesn’t matter. I am still ahead of him, and there are the pits I dug out in the way.

  So despite his abnormal speed, I have enough advance on him to swing around my tunnels, and burst out back into the basement from the hole on the right when one descends the stairs into the underground.

  The other two guards are still here, visibly panicked and clearly uncertain what to do.

  They visibly pale as I come rushing out, and their lanterns illuminate me.

  I am not wearing my coat or anything else at the moment, so they get to witness my monstrous metallic form in its full splendour, and it seems like their guard training did not cover confronting monsters right after one of their friends had his head bitten off.

  They barely even raise their guard as I lunge forward, clocking the closest one straight in the head. His helm serves no purpose whatsoever against the blunt force trauma, and he is thrown face-first against the ground, face grinding against a rock.

  I step with all the force I can muster on his spine as I reach for the other one, a sick, most delightful scrunch spread out.

  The second guard at least manages to do something, hitting me over the head with his sword, but all that does is make his weapon vibrate before I grasp both his arms and snap the bones like twigs.

  “You foul creature-”

  Benait does not take long to catch up to me, but it doesn’t matter.

  My foot is crushing one guard, and I hold the other by the head in front of me.

  I open my jaw slightly and sing a little song:

  “~Drop your sword~ Or he pops like a watermelon~ UNDERSTOOD?!”

  Benait visibly hesitates.

  “~Or eveeen betteeeer~ Stab that sword through your thigh~ Right now~”

  This guy doesn’t even dignify me with an answer. He just stares at me like a piece of filth.

  What, does he not believe in my honest character?

  “I AM SeriouSLY GoinG TO DO It!”

  But Benait just surges forward, slashing right through his fellow guard, and through me.