Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) by V.A. Lewis (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

the first tripwire. Wait, did he say ‘most’? I thought, pausing. I’m pretty sure he said ‘most’! That means some of these can still kill me!!

I wanted to say something, but Victor wasn’t waiting for me. He briskly walked through the booby trapped section of the corridor, as I carefully— and exaggeratedly— stepped over each string. I’m not Sonic, so I don’t gotta go fast.

We continued down the winding corridor, making a few turns as we went; I was pretty sure we were descending just a little bit, but not enough to be completely underground. We avoided a few more small traps— none too big or dangerous— before we finally reached the end of the long hallway.

We stepped out into a large cavernous room, with clusters of stalagmites scattered throughout the uneven floor; there were also stalactites hanging off the ceiling, but they were almost 50 feet off the ground, and barely within my peripheral vision.

A small breeze brushed past my hair as I felt a slight chill go through me from the damp environment; mold grew on the rocks and the walls around us, giving of a slightly eerie glow that illuminated the room. The cave chamber was expansive, spreading out into a slight decline far before me. And down at the bottom, in the center of it all, was an encampment.

Tents were strewn about with torches lighting up the small settlement. A small wooden fence surrounded the camp, and I saw figures moving around in the distance. It was an outpost

Now this is what I had in mind when I imagined an outpost.

I was about to take a step forward when I heard a sound. It sounded like… string? I turned my head just in time to see something whizzing through the air straight at me.

By the time I realized what it was, I was already too late; I tried to react, but all I could do was blink. The arrow flew straight at me—

And a hand grabbed me and pulled me out of the way. The light spell disappeared as Victor raised and spun his staff in the air, deflecting another three arrows that came for us. Then he called out.

"That’s enough! We’re allies. Sent by the Infernalis."

The Dark Crusader raised his staff, and a magic circle began to form in the air. But instead of dissipating or forming a spell, magical symbols began to take shape within the perimeter of the circle; the usual complex patterns that overlapped on top of each other gave way to a… pentagram. And it was flipped.

The inverted pentagram shone red inside of the magic circle. Surrounding it were four small images of a black flame that glowed with the intensity of a real fire.

It was the symbol of the Dark Crusaders; their logo, made in homage to the home of the Demons who discovered magic. And with that very same magic, Victor formed the upside down star out of nothing.

The arrows stopped coming, and there was a moment of silence. The symbol vanished, and the young man lowered his staff. We waited.

Then slowly, out of the darkness a figure stepped into view: they wore a hood over their face, but even in the shadows, I could still faintly see their eyes. Two yellow glowing orbs stared right at me. And the figure spoke.

"Name yourself."

The figure raised their bow slightly. The arrow was nocked, but not fully pulled back on the string.

"Victorianius Valens. A Dark Acolyte, here to provide my assistance. I’m certain you should have been informed of my coming arrival," Victor replied, raising an eyebrow..

The hooded person relaxed slightly at the mention of his name. But they did not lower their weapon.

"We were told to expect you, yes. But we were also told to expect you a day from now, and to expect you to come alone."

The figure turned to me warily. I took a step back, but Victor spoke up quickly.

"The girl is with me. Who she is none of your concern. Now if you would be so kind as to lead us to Gerritt— your Commander— and lower your weapons, it would be very much appreciated." Victor then raised an arm and pointed past the figure. "And the same goes for your five… friends," he added.

The figure tensed. But only for a moment. They carefully lowered their weapon, then called out behind them. "Lower your weapons."

I looked up and blinked as more figures came out from the shadows behind the first figure. They were all carrying bows or crossbows, except for one of them who had a rifle instead. They all began to apprehensively lower their hoods, and I saw—

Glowing yellow eyes that showed barely a trace of the sclera; gray rocky skin that looked rough to touch; completely bald heads with thin eyebrows that had little hair in them; and long pointed troll-like noses. They were small too, and around my height at most. Or in other words: Goblins.

Truth be told, I knew that they were Goblins even before they revealed themselves and lowered their hoods. That was because most of this camp was made up of Goblins— Victor told me as much yesterday.

Of course he’d tell me such an important detail. He wasn’t going to wait until the last moment, only for it later to be too late. He wouldn’t do that. Who would do that?

People in movies, that’s who!

But even knowing that they were Goblins— even knowing what they would look like— I nearly recoiled. Because they were… ugly (I tried not to judge people based on their appearance, but they really weren’t good looking).

They weren’t horribly disfigured: they didn’t have a crooked face, nor were they covered with warts. But they had unnaturally large eyes— like a fish— and an unusually round head. Their proportions just seemed… off. However, I already knew what