Anger. There is anger left to me.

You lay there, your life's blood spilling from you and you know this is your end. You're dying. This is where it will end. Here, so far from home, you will die in a bleeding heap on the floor of some chamber of darkness. Betrayed by your allies, by your kingdom, you have nothing left. You have **** and the knowledge that all you loved has been stripped and taken from you. Even your sister, your beloved little sister, has been defiled and tainted by the lecherous grasp of the prince who sent you to your **** with the help of his father.

It is that last thought, that last bit of knowledge that your only family is probably being ravaged even now by a depraved prince, that makes you move. It is that thought and the anger that boils up in you at it that makes your body lurch into motion as you slowly roll yourself over onto your belly. Pain lances through you at the movement, but you don't care. Pain is now secondary to rage and hatred.

No. It will not end this way. It can't. You will not let this stand. The rage within you will not let you.

You feel that rage and that hatred fill you and it pushes you to move. The others are in the chamber now, but their attention is taken from you by a chest on a pedestal. They all are paying attention to that, not you. That must be what you came for. The artifact that was supposed to be your goal. Now, though, the only goal that you have is to enact some sort of ****. What you can do with your weak and dying body, you don't know, but anger fuels you and you don't care if you must burn your very soul to cause pain to these people who betrayed you, you will lash out and make them answer for what they have done.

The others don't even realize that you're starting to push yourself up onto your feet once more as they inspect the chest, the mage waving her staff around it to detect magical traps and the like.

"There is no mystical entrapment I can detect, but...there is much dark power in this. Whatever this Remnant of Shadow is, it is powerful.", Rephina says as you shakily get up to your feet behind them.

"That doesn't matter. We were sent to retrieve it and so we must.", says Acacia as you manage to get your sword from your sheath and into your shaky hands.

"This artifact should be destroyed, not delivered into foolish human hands", the haughty Lorelei says and her sister, close by the ranger's side, nods in agreement as you take your first steps forward towards the group.

"I don't care so long as I get paid.", Tevlo remarks with a chuckle while you lift your sword up over your head and gain momentum.

"Enough talk. Let's hurry up and retrieve this stupid bauble before the darkness of this place seeps into my skin.", Rolf states gruffly and reaches a hand out towards the chest even as you bring your sword down in a swing with all your remaining strength behind it.

It is only then, as you give out a strangled cry of rage, that the group notices you, but it is too late as your sword bites into Rolf's flesh and severs the dwarf's hand at the wrist cleanly. The Dwarven warrior howls in pain and you feel a savage bit of satisfaction at that, even as your momentum carries your still weak and bleeding body past the group and into the pedestal that Rolf had been reaching for. You slam into it and the chest, tumbling over the pedestal and taking the treasure chest down to the ground with you. You hit the ground hard and so does the chest, bursting open and spilling its contents onto your chest.

What was in the chest was a gauntlet made of a black metal you'd never seen the like of before. It shone like obsidian yet appeared to be like steel as it rested upon your chest. It was etched with eldritch carvings upon the forearm and the back of the hand and the fingers tapered to points that appeared like claws. And those claws dug into your already bleeding body and drew new blood from you, staining the shining surface of the gauntlet with even more of your life's blood from you.

"How is he still alive?!", the rogue calls out in surprised amusement.

"Stupid human doesn't know when to lay down and die.", the elvish ranger remarks lazily.

The mage, however, seems much more frantic as she points to the gauntlet on your chest. "Quick! Take it before his blood comes into contact with it! Quickly!", she cries out and the paladin is quick to try and do just that as she leaps over the pedestal and heads towards you.

Before she can reach you, however, there is a surge of energy in the very air and she's thrown back away from you with violent **** and a spark of blood red lightning. The entire room begins to shake then, a deep rumbling heard throughout the chamber and beyond. Rocks begin to fall from the ceiling as the shaking becomes more violent with every passing moment. Along with that shaking, the dark energy seems to increase as well as crimson sparks arc through the room, seeming to radiate in a sphere around your bleeding form.

"Oh, no. It's too late.", Rephina gasps out even as the rogue grabs her by the shoulder and shouts at the others.

"There's no time! Let's get the bloody fuck outta here before the whole place comes down on us!", he calls out.

"But the artifact! My lord demanded it!", Acacia shouts as a large stone slams to the ground in front of her.

"Can't retrieve anything if you're dead! Hurry the fuck up!", the rogue growls and, reluctantly, the paladin relents after giving you a cold glare.

The elves are quick to follow and so are the dwarves, though the dwaves pause to look back at you. The warrior, clutching his bleeding stump, glares with hatred, but the squire...her eyes almost hold relief as she looks at you. And then they are gone, leaving you in the collapsing room with the strange artifact on your chest.

So strange was all of this that you almost forgot that you were still dying. You were given a big reminder as a fist sized stone slams into your open wound and you cry out in pain as more blood is **** out of you. Rage drains out of you to leave only pain and exhaustion as your body finally begins to give out on you.

This is it. This is the end. But at least you struck a blow in the end. At least, at the very end, you managed to get a small bit of ****, petty though it may have been. And it is that thought that follows you into darkness as you lose consciousness and you feel more than see or hear the floor give out beneath you as the tower collapses and you fall into the darkness.