Chapter 20

“Okay, so we are now on the fifth floor,” I said, my confusion obvious in my tone. “Where the hell is the rest of your party, Darius?”

“I have no idea!” Darius exclaimed as he activated his map display. “They were supposed to be right here waiting for us when ... by the gods. We are on a different side of the map, but how the hell is that possible? The stairs I just brought you up, were the same set I took down from the fifth floor to meet you guys.”

Because I had never gone to a lower level from a higher one before, I didn’t know if that was or wasn’t possible. The fact that Darius was confused by this told me we should have come out somewhere else. I immediately got my sword and shield ready, telling the others to get into our previous travel formation. Darius located the nearest village, but it was three hours away from our current position. It wasn’t the village we were supposed to go to, either, meaning we wouldn’t be meeting with his party when we arrived. Darius called a raven and gave it a message telling where we had emerged and where we planned to go. With any luck his party would divert to meet up with us if possible.

With no other choice but to move forward, we adjusted the formation to ensure we had maximum coverage. Darius moved to the back and Amenthia moved up with Entivala. She tracked our surroundings, but even with her high awareness, the walls of these large tunnels made it impossible to know for sure what could be nearby. We were ten minutes from the gate when our first enemies appeared, but it was only a small group of goblins. They were armed with small knives and rusty axes, with no real armor to speak of. We quickly dispatched the group and moved along to the next one.

About an hour and a half into our trek, we entered a huge cave. Glowing crystals still adorned the walls illuminating our surroundings, but there were various forms of fungi that were doing it as well. I looked to be at least five or six kilometers in diameter, with a small stream of water moving through it. We could see a few mobs of large insects, beetles, ants and the like all moving around and even fighting one another. Where the death of these creatures by our hands turns them into a plume of black smoke, if another creature kills them, the body remains. A large beetle was set upon by half a dozen ants.

The ants were half the size of the creature and far more dexterous than the beetle and we watched in amazement as they took down the large beast. Nature was showing that even the strongest could fall with enough enemies working together. It was a humbling sight and a shocking reminder to never underestimate an enemy. We watched in horror and fascination as they began to devour the giant beetle’s carcass. They took only a few bites, before they began to rip off pieces and walk away from the corpse. Our eyes followed as the first one walked to the wall, then began to scale it until it reached an opening about halfway up. A minute or so later and three left the entrance while the next one went in with food.

“Well, there is the colony entrance,” I said with a sigh. “It also looks to be right near the only exit from this room. We could handle ants out here, but we had no clue how big their colony could be. We could be looking at a hundred or even a thousand of those things. Any thoughts on how we are going to handle this?”

Entivala scanned the area and said, “If you had fire magic, I would suggest that you, Darius and Cassandra handle the ones outside while Amenthia takes out any that emerge, and Katie provides protection for me. Then I could launch fire spears inside, and their explosions would send columns of hot fire at them and collapse the tunnel. It would give us time to escape while they frantically dig themselves out.”

“I have three charges to my Dragon’s Bane,” I added. “Even one charge would be enough to deal some damage to them. I just wish I could ignite the flame without dispersing the attack.”

Amenthia looked at me perplexed and asked, “What do you mean not dispersing the attack? Why else would you wish the sword to ignite?”

“For the extra fire damage and the possibility to light up my enemies,” I replied, drawing the sword from its sheath. “As soon as the blade ignites with flame, a single slash of the sword and the flame is cast towards my foe.”

“That would be something to ask Brot’k,” Cassandra said, looking at the blade herself. “If I had the skill, I could place the required rune or runes to allow you to do that, but I don’t. Even if I was well versed enough, I have no idea how it works with Blood Steel.”

“For now let’s use Entivala’s plan,” I said with a nod to the elf. “Darius, Katie and I will attack the ones over by the carcass. You will need the extra damage Cassandra can deal to keep you safe if they get too close. I will use at least one of my charges to damage and possibly kill as many as I can. Amenthia, I want you to target wherever you think will kill them in a single shot. Enti, send two high pressure lances into there, but close enough to cast your stone wall at the entrance. I want it to be as thick as you can make it. It will give us more time to get through the tunnels, and once we are a certain distance from that entrance we used, throw up a wall there.”

We all agreed it was the soundest plan we had at the moment and I made sure to congratulate Enti on a great idea. We split up, with my group sneaking towards the carcass, while the others approached the entrance to the colony. With any luck, this would be over in a few moments, though we would be missing out on any drops there would be. We stopped just outside what we hoped would be their area of awareness and waited until Enti’s group was in position. She gave me a nod and I gestured to the others to go left and right. I summoned the fire to my blade and watched the beauty of its amber light dancing across the gun metal grey blade. I got up and began running as silently as I could towards the mob and when I felt I was close enough I let out a yell to pull their attention and sent out a horizontal slash of fire their way.

I blasted away from me in an arc of fire, hitting three of the ants before they could react, engulfing them completely, while only doing light damage to one more. The three in flames wailed in pain as we closed the distance and put the creatures out of their misery. At the same time, Enti tossed her first fire javelin, while Amenthia shot arrows at the ants emerging from the colony entrance. The arrows ended two, while only wounding the third. Enti’s javelin missed its mark slightly, striking the entrance wall, besting the injured ant, and sending flames inside. Enti quickly compensated and tossed two more. Another two ants emerged, slightly singed by the fire, but killed by the next two arrows Amenthia let loose.

This time, the flames cleared the entrance and traveled inside. When the second one was far enough in, Entivala threw a gesture and a rock wall slid up from the ground below, completely closing their entrance. They ran towards the exit to the room as we killed the two remaining ants. The injured one was gone quickly and the three of us had no issue with the last remaining one. We ran after our colleagues and once we were about a meter into the tunnel, Entivala gestured two more times and two rock walls emerged from the ground below and slammed into the tunnel roof. We didn’t want to risk them coming after us so we ran as far as we could down the tunnel.

When we stopped to catch our breath, Enti looked to see if any were following us, but the map showed we were not being followed. We rested for a few minutes, before continuing on our trek towards the village. The next hour was uneventful, other than three groups of goblins attacking us. I was surprised to see them in numbers of five or more, but I figured it had something to do with how things changed as we got to the higher levels. We made quick work of them and got a decent number of orbs and gold from their deaths. As we were closing in on the village, I started thinking that we had been dealt a much easier hand this time around. We had gotten extraordinarily little damage done to us and had gained some much-needed stat increases.

You know the saying, never say something has been easy or fate will drop a bomb in your lap? Well, don’t even fucking think it!

Just five minutes outside of the village, there was another large cave, like the one we saw when we came across the ants. When we left the tunnel, we carefully looked around the entire area, as we slowly made our way towards the tunnel that would lead to the village. We saw and heard no movement from any creatures in there at all. We continued, hoping that an adventurer had cleared it not long before we had arrived. There were two other tunnels after all, not including the ones we emerged from and were headed towards.

As we neared the entrance to the tunnel a rumble began to fill the cavern and we immediately stopped where we were. We scanned the walls and couldn’t see any sign of the origin of the sound. Just as I was about to signal for us to run, the area just above the tunnel exploded, sending rock, dust, and debris everywhere. My heart sank as the dust cleared and I saw the tunnel entrance had been collapsed by whatever had emerged. As the form of the creature began to become clearer, fear gripped me.

“Everyone look towards the ground now!” I yelled, shocking Enti and Amenthia. “That is a fucking Umber Hulk. If you lock eyes with it, it can leave you confused. You could be made unable to attack it, be forced to move away randomly or even attack one another. Looking at its feet and arms or chest is the best way to get an idea of where it is and what it could be doing. They are extraordinarily strong and have hard chitin armor that would take multiple blows to crack. Close combat fighters and Amenthia! Aim for gaps between the plates. Entivala, ice bombs and spears are more likely to work, like when we attacked the dragon. Katie, keep my ladies and yourself safe.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and prepared themselves for battle. I rushed the beast with Cassandra and Darius flanking me. As I closed into striking range, the beast sank its arms into the ground and tore out a big chunk of rock and dirt. With a roar, it tossed the large projectile at us, stopping our forward motion as we all dove out of the way. The large boulder hit the ground and continued towards the other group behind us. They quickly moved out of the way, ensuring the boulder didn’t even come close to striking them. With a gesture of her hands, Entivala called forth her wall of stone riddled with portholes. Amenthia sent two arrows careening towards the creature, but a shift of its mass caused the arrows to hit its thick armor.

Katie pulled out some of our throwable projectiles and began trying to hit the beast’s eyes in the hopes of blinding it. Perhaps if she succeeded, it wouldn’t be able to use its ability to confuse its prey. We approached it cautiously this time, making sure not to look it in the eye. It bellowed in defiance just as a ball of concentrated ice struck it. The ice splattered against its armor and began to make a sizzle sound as the ice worked to make the armor more brittle. Two more balls of ice struck near the first impact, spreading the area of the ice blast’s effect. It turned and let out a roar at where the blasts had come from. It gave me an opening to try and slash between the plates near the knee. My strike didn’t hit as intended and instead glanced off its insectoid armor.

As I dove away from the large arm that was being swung at where I had been, I turned and watched the beast cry in pain before turning back towards the rock wall. Two arrows were now protruding from the beasts neck. Both had stuck true, this time, finding purchase in the meat between its armor plates. I lashed out with the tip of my blade, focusing my will into igniting the sword as it pierced the flesh behind the hulk’s right knee. As it slid into the meat behind the beast’s knee, the fire wall triggered and caused a small explosion of force. While it was successful in damaging the hulk’s leg, it only slowed the beast’s movement.

It ignored the pain and lunged forward at me. I reactively placed my shield between us just in time to prevent its powerful mandibles from latching on to me. I struggled to keep the beast at bay, watching in both shock and horror as its mandibles began to cause the metal between them to groan. The mandibles were applying so much pressure that I could see the metal warping under the strain. The hulk suddenly cried out in pain as Cassandra drove the tip of her great new sword right into the fucker’s eye causing it to cry out in pain and try to get away. The sudden jerk of its head nearly tore my shoulder out of its socket, and I was sent flying through the air.

I landed on my back with a hard thud, knocking the wind out of me and dazing me for a moment or two. I looked over at our foe just in time to see Darius slam his maul into one of the areas that Enti had struck with her first volley. The armor made a loud crunching sound, as if someone were cracking an egg mixed with the sound of ice cracking beneath a person’s feet. The beast took a swipe at Cassandra and missed, but quickly drove the arm back towards Darius and slammed into his chest. He was knocked on his back and had to roll out of the way as the creature brought its foot down hard in an attempt to crush him. I glanced at my shield and saw the mandibles had done a number on the sides of it, but it was still functional.

I got up and watched as two of the small Tyr-symbol shuriken pierced the creature’s other eye causing it to wail in pain. It still looked like that eye could still function and it glared at us. Since we had made sure to never directly look at its face, no one had been whammied by it. The creature swung wildly at us, forcing us to move out of range and we watched in shock as it jumped into the air and dove straight down to the ground. Once its powerful hand touched the ground it began to carve a tunnel and quickly disappeared into it. We had to shield ourselves from the flying debris and by the time it had been done, the hulk had vanished from sight.

We could hear the rumble of its movement beneath us, but the reverberation of the sound against the walls of the cavern made it difficult to pinpoint. We searched the ground, looking for signs of movement below, but there was no sign of disturbance.