The confines have grown narrow in this section and Officer Bernice is out ahead with her feather sticking straight out in front.
So far, the place has been flooded with naked mole rats. They infest the depths and attack in large groups.
Stuck in the lead position, Officer Bernice has gained a level already, though she’s been hard pressed at times. Her ludicrously sharp weapon isn’t quite suited to killing the rats. Their rubbery skin slips and bunches just like Todd remembers it. Several times, Candra has offered to go first for a while, but the police officer insists.
Todd steps over a body and tugs on his stuck bag. The claustrophobic environment is starting to get to him already. He wears his new bracers: lacquered black and yellow splint. They didn’t come with gloves and he resents their absence. His new boots ride high over his ankles and have thick, rubbery soles.
From behind, Todd isn’t in position to be able to use his skill. His contribution thus far has been nil. He isn’t even covering the rear. Joe in in the back with Candra’s scepter. He slays the odd rat every twenty minutes or so.
So far, the group has been following the right hand rule, taking right turns at every intersection. It’s a meticulous method, but the four of them aren’t interested in leaving their wandering up to chance. They do however leave marks on the walls, arrows and numbers to indicate where they’ve come from and where they’re going. They’ve already circled back around once in this labyrinth, and hit two dead ends with larger rats nests.
They advance single file. Skittering noises filter in from ahead. The tunnel opens up sharply into a proper cavern.
Todd hustles into place as they form a line.
A swarm of giant, burrowing crickets makes this area their home. The air is acrid with their sawdusty frass. Todd shrugs off his bags. En masse, the dog sized insects hop, leap, and skitter to assail the team.
The dim light cuts the distance of engagement short. Todd fires a [water spear] into a gleaming segment of chitin and punches a hole through the bug. Then he’s fighting with his ixwa at close range. Even though his weapon is poor for fighting many enemies at once, he punches out with it in rapid, savage stabs. The barbed rear legs of the crickets tear at his gambeson, they scratch across his helmet.
A monster leaps behind him. He sprays it with a skill and cuts a lethal breach into its thorax.
Joe crunches bugs with each wide swing of his sword. Candra whirls like a dervish, her scepter scrambling internals. Bernice sweeps her feather across the bodies of many crickets at once, severing them into parts.
They could have fought from the tunnel, but that would cause the bodies to stack up until the way out was impassable. They take the more dangerous option instead.
Frequently, the crickets sail overhead and attack from the back. It’s a constant threat. Todd finds his attention split multiple ways, having to fight from above, below, and behind all at once. Feverishly, he dips, whirls, kicks, and most of all jabs. His brain feels like it’s overheating as he choreographs each motion of his body. His right arm must strike it’s mark in vital spots. His legs must avoid being bitten. His left arm must independently aim blasts which blow gaps in the swarm. Juggling all these moves is completely unfamiliar, and an overwhelming, mentally intensive challenge.
Cuts appear on his legs and hands. He grits his teeth and redoubles his focus. Olympian levels of power fill his body, it’s only a matter of making his nerves respond in time.
Candra ducks in surprise. Officer Bernice’s feather swooshes over her head, a slipshod mistake. Joe steps forward into the swarm. His sword is a tempest. Crushed bugs rain down around him.
The battle goes on for four harrowing minutes. Todd’s muscles burn with exertion. He feels like his gray matter is melting out of his ears. But the crickets have been reduced to a mere smattering of targets. Todd kicks over a pile of bug carcasses and advances on the last remaining individuals with his teammates.
The four of them sit down to rest. Stinging lacerations cover Todd’s hands, but their supplies of healing pills are severely limited. He’ll just have to deal. Instead, he spends the minutes cycling his cultivation manual to restore energy.
The cavern is large and stretches out ahead of them for 150 yards before making a severe leftwards turn. A few glowing mushrooms sprout from the walls, so the four of them crush the fungus and smear it over their garments to reapply their light source.
They continue towards the center of the cavern, where they discover a mass of juvenile cricket nymphs. Officer Bernice destroys them with a casual swipe of her long feather and they fall apart to reveal a bed of pearly white fungus underneath.
The others make to leave. Todd looks down at the mycelial material. It’s alien to him, but a lifetime of video games suggests to him that this substance is somehow valuable. It’s an instinct he can’t shake. It doesn’t matter much, he doesn’t have any good way to harvest it. The only thing he can think of is to cut a lump of the stuff out of the mat and stash it in one of his beast harvesting jars. He motions for the others to wait while he does so.
He feels a little stupid as he packs up again. Candra asks him what he’s doing, but when he explains his line of reasoning she simply nods her head.
They continue on. Cramped tunnels bore through the earth for distances up to a mile. Featureless intersections and branches cause them to debate their strategy more than once.
Various creatures impede their way and are split apart by Officer Bernice, or crushed by Joe. Many of the beasts down here are insects or rodents, and they often have strong physical defenses.
Todd continually strains his eyes in the gloom. Echoing scratching noises preface another attack coming from behind. With his second bag, Todd can barely even turn around in this tunnel. Once again, it’s Joe who deals with the threat. The effectiveness of his new shield is enormous in these linear circumstances, and Todd regrets not buying one of his own.
Backtracking down one of the longer tunnels is one of the most frustrating experiences of Todd’s life so far. It’s so tight he has to walk backwards for fifty yards before he can fit his bags around.
No matter how much distance they travel, there’s no way of knowing whether they are moving closer or further to their destination.
At some point, the bare earth tunnels begin intersecting with rectangular carved passageways. Officer Bernice suggests they prioritize the clearly constructed routes and there is no opposition to the idea.
Giant blind carnivorous voles infest the arteries. Officer Bernice exhausts herself and has to rotate out with Candra.
Any wooden supports which might have existed have long rotten away. An oppressive sense of weight looms overhead: the ceiling doesn’t seem entirely stable.
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The four pass through more larger caverns, these ones appearing like they’ve been excavated. Whether it was seams of coal or veins of ore, something has been stripped out of the ground here. The large open spaces with low ceilings contain numerous beasts, and once again Todd is pushed to his limit to fight without being injured.
It’s impossible to track the passage of time, and Todd develops a growing feeling of unease.
More caverns appear, and more pitched struggles are fought. Todd’s cosmic energy replenishes slowly, and he spends it all too quickly.
They stumble on more curiosities. Colored rocks which gleam. Pale white amphibians which exude cosmic energy and live in small pools. Rotting black mold which gives off a palpable and mysterious aura.
Todd wonders if he’s supposed to collect these things. Frankly, he isn’t sure what he would do with them if he did. The crafters weren’t ready to use anything but the simplest materials.
Maybe they’d be useful if there were some way to sell them?
More often than not, the group chooses to leave these oddities behind. Even with their [greed satchels] they still have limited space, and it’s not worth picking up unidentified stuff.
Soon, the four run into a dead end where a huge segmented worm with calcified teeth ambushes them. Candra and Joe’s weapons are nearly useless against the creature. Todd sends ribbons of water into its unprotected gullet while Officer Bernice slices at its mucogenic skin. They make a fighting retreat at first, but the invertebrate exhibits a sudden burst of speed and blocks off their exit. The next minute and a half is fraught. Todd finds himself leaping to avoid the grasping coils of the worm while Officer Bernice gives the worm scalpel-sharp tickles.
Mucous soaks the dirt. Pebbles shake loose from the ceiling. Todd plunges his ixwa into the meaty tube of the predatory annelid. Candra and Joe shift their [mercury rod]s into long knives and join the butchery. The worm is muscular, and filled with redundant organs. It refuses to die until it’s nearly entirely dismantled. Thick black muck is everywhere. The four of them are covered head to toe in gunk.
Cosmic energy enters their body as the invertebrate perishes.
Prepared for this eventuality, Candra produces a fresh set of clothes from her bag. She commands the boys to turn around while she changes. Todd pulls out a nexus crystal and absorbs part of its energy while he waits. Afterwards, the four of them take the long meandering way back and pick another tunnel to traverse.
Todd cuts roman numerals and an arrow into the wall. Their original, simple tunnel marking system is quickly becoming cumbersome. When one particular pathway loops around and reconnects with a tunnel they were in hours ago, the method becomes actively confusing. They can’t remember where or how long ago they made the marks in the first place. The sense of being utterly turned around is severe.
Eventually, their bodies’ internal clocks tell them it is time to sleep. They find a small cavern that is filled with some kind of long clawed gerbil. They clear it out.
Todd grips his wrist to staunch the bleeding in his hand. One of the gerbils got him while he was overwhelmed.
Todd argues that he’s fine while the others try to convince him to consume a [skin mending pill]. He loses the argument and takes the medicine. Numerous scrapes and cuts scab over, and his hands itch enormously.
He puts his free points into intelligence and vitality.
Laying down their bedrolls, they take a meal of rations and chat about the world before the integration.
Officer Bernice tells stories about her time in the force. Joe and Candra tell stories about their time in college. Todd mostly listens. They talk about Memphis, about its neighborhoods, its night life. They talk about family. They talk about history. They talk about crime.
Eventually, Todd takes the role of the spoilsport and reminds them that they have limited time. They quit their reminiscing. They sleep in shifts.
Whether or not the next day has arrived, the team takes it on with zest. They traverse tunnel after tunnel, destroying beasts and insects. They come up with a new strategy for marking intersections which is more robust. They continually crush mushrooms to make luminous paint.
Todd’s nerves are shot. Not only does the oppressive darkness and tight space bear down on him, but the constant vigilance grates as well.
Whatever mental map he had been keeping track of has long ago become an irredeemable mess. He wished there were clues! Todd can only hope that they’re headed in the right direction.
Hours pass into their second day. They crawl at the end of a long, unassuming tunnel. A bright shaft of light illuminates the way ahead, and Officer Bernice halts them with a hand gesture. Like many times before, she warns them silently that a cavern is likely ahead. Todd rolls his shoulders. He stretches out his cramped legs. There’s nearly always beasts living in the larger areas. The four of them need to be ready to fight right away.
Todd and the others break out into a brightly lit spherical cave. They rush out into line in a practiced choreography, but nothing living greets them. They stand with their weapons raised, looking around.
The only thing in the room is a fifteen foot tall dead tree at its center.
Shining crystals stud the walls and ceiling, providing the illumination. Three other tunnels exit the sphere on the other sides.
Todd and the others lower their weapons, unsure of what to make of this place.
“Let me mark the way back,” Todd says. He turns back around towards the tunnel they entered from.
But there, hovering in place over the entrance is a field of solid light. It looks like a force field made of glimmering fractals, and it fills the hole entirely.
Todd stares at it in confusion before an instinct of danger flares up in his gut. “Guys, I think we may have a problem,” he shouts over his shoulder.