Krim kept a close eye on their captive as she led the way over the still muddy hills. He had expected the camp to be back in the forest but she was steadily leading them further north and west. The hills suddenly seemed to smooth out as if the gods had ironed the area flat. “I never knew the land changed so much this close to Krief.” Fredd said staring across the open plain.

Krim agreed but kept his eyes on the girl instead of the scenery. He had his tentacles out but held close to his body ready to lash out should she try anything.

“How far away is this camp?” Bargus asked from the back of their line.

“There's a crevasse about a mile ahead, its impossible to see until your right in front of it.” she called back.

'Well she wasn't lying'. Krim thought. A small bump in the land hid the deep fissure, the gap in the surface was only a meter or so wide but it had to be several hundred long.

“No guards?” Bargus asked.

The girl looked at him like he was an idiot and was about to tell him the same but held her tongue when she remembered how easily they'd butchered the bandits. “Its a secret hideout.” she said simply.

She was about to start climbing down when Krim stopped her with a tentacle. He felt her flinch but kept his grip. “We're not just running in blind. We need a plan.”

They pulled back from the hole but kept close enough to catch anyone leaving and she described the lay out. It sounded like the bandits had came across some kind of network of caves all carved from the rock.

“I should go in first.” Bargus said. “Hear me out before you say no.” He said to Krim who held back his argument. “I can't do anything if you're all in front of me. The girl can..”

“My names Val.” she added

Fredd quickly introduced the the three of them much to Krims annoyance. “She's still a prisoner.” he reminded him. Fredd blushed but didn't look convinced and kept quiet while Bargus explained the rest of his plan.

Krim slowly lowered all four of them into the hole using his tentacles to rappel down. He used thin tentacles like feelers as they went, the entrance to the hideout was only a few meters down but could easily be missed if Val was to be believed. He felt a tug on the tentacle that was holding Val and stopped moving. A sudden blast of heat rose past them, singing his tentacles.

Bargus has unleashed a heat wave as soon as the guard in front of the hole looked up. With the guard dealt with Krim dropped everyone onto the small ledge. “Its pitch dark in there.” he said pointing to the hole in the wall that was as dark as the void.

“Its an enchantment. Theres light once you step through.” Val said and stepped through before they could stop her. Krim swore and rushed after her with his tentacles flailing wildly.

“Stick to the plan!” Bargus whispered harshly.

On the other side of the enchantment the cave was lit by glowing white stones fit into the ceiling at regular intervals. The cave itself was bizarre, the walls and ceiling were completely smooth and floor made of stone tiles. Fredd ran his hand over the cold wall “Theres no way some bandits made this.”

“Of coarse not, didn't you see how poor the ones we fought were. I'm not getting a good feeling about this place though. Surely whoever made it will come back at some point.” Bargus said discreetly looking around as if they would appear at any moment.

“We could just leave.” Krim offered “Get the guards or more adventurers and come back.”

A group of bandits came from the right side at the end of the tunnel and saw the three of them. They roared in challenge and charged. The three of them dropped their bags and Bargus stepped in front of them as planned, when they were half way down the hall he blasted them. The closeness of the walls helped concentrate the blast but despite its strength the attack was wasted. A shimmering wall had appeared in front of the bandits and one of them was on his knees and breathing hard with the strain of maintaining it. Once the shield dropped they charged again.

Bargus had put all he had intothe attack and fell back behind Fredd to let Krim meet the charge while Fredd raised his shield to protect them. Krim let more purple tendrils flow out of his skin, he kept them thin and agile. The tentacles crawled across the ground and walls like ivy letting him catch legs and hands with ease. He kept his shield close to his chest in case they had ranged abilities or a bow but so far only the one bandit had shown a useful ability.

With so many tentacles spread out and his main thicker ones sporting spear heads he formed an impenetrable wall of stabbing flesh. A slight sense of euphoria came from using so many tentacles that he'd never felt before. It made him want to grow more, to wrap them around the men and crush them and feel... 'Thats enough of that!' he chastised himself. He'd spaced out mid fight and the wary bandits were trying their best to hack at his momentarily still tentacles.

Krim focused on the battle at hand instead of the odd intrusive thoughts and began forcing the men back along the tunnel. They went all the way to the end of the hall until they arrived at the intersection. They could just make out the sounds of fighting to the left but the bandits in front couldn't turn away for a second to see what was happening.

Finally he managed a killing strike when his spear tip plunged into a screaming bandits eye. Like dominoes the other started falling. He wrapped them up and tossed them at one another, stabbed the ones who stumbled and used his tentacles like barbed whips against the ones who backed away.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Krim had been expecting the invisible wall to appear again but he wasn't ready for the mans creativity. It formed at an angle allowing the remaining bandits to use it as a ramp, they jumped off the end and dove straight at him. One latched onto his chest and stabbed down into his shoulder. The second one he caught and slammed into the wall but the third managed to get passed him and engaged Fredd who was still protecting an exhausted Bargus.

Krim ripped the bandit off his chest freeing his pinned shield and smacked the man with it. A second hit knocked him out and Krim threw him as hard as he could into the wall. His right shoulder burned and he took a second to check on it. The wound was rapidly festering around the knife and dark green veins were bulging down his arm. “What the fuck kind of boon is that!” he shouted. He yanked the knife out screaming and his blood began spurting to the beat of his heart.

Krim stuck a tentacle into the wound but it just bled around it and the pain was excruciating. “We need to find Val's brother!” he shouted back to Fredd who'd managed to stab his bandit when Bargus had tackled the man at the knees. The ramp they had used was gone, as was the man who made it and Krim used his tentacles to propel himself down the left hand tunnel.

There was an open door at the end of the short hallway and he burst into the room swinging. It took him an embarrassing minute to realise there was no one left fighting in the room. Val was on her kneed hugging a young man who looked so similar there was no doubt to Krim they were twins. Fredd and Bargus came through ready for a fight as well but quickly took stock of the situation and rushed to the side of a now stumbling Krim. The room was spinning around him and the dark veins were visibly crawling up his neck. He finally collapsed in a heap of slime and tentacles and his whole world went dark.

When Krim was aware of his surroundings again he was lying on a hard wooden table with a sweat soaked pile of rags under his head for a pillow. He was completely naked except for the huge amount of tentacles which had been strategically placed to cover his privates. “Why am I naked?” he croaked. He coughed suddenly aware of his dry burning throat and was grateful for the water skin held out in front of him.

“We had to cut your clothes off so I could heal all of the infection.” a deep calm voice said from his right, He turned to see who it was but caught sight of his newly healed shoulder first. There wasn't even the slightest blemish on his skin. The wound had been a ragged black mess the last time he'd seen it but now it was as if the fight never even happened.

The man shifted and Krim saw him, It was Val's brother. He had his long black hair pulled back in a simple style that hung down his back in a loose tail but his blue kind eyes are what drew Krims attention. “How do you feel.” the healer asked breaking Krims focus.

He took a long drink before speaking again. “Tired but there's no pain. How long was I out.” He lay back not able to keep his body turned and tried to keep himself awake.

“Three days. The fever made you wild, none of us could get close enough to help. I could only heal you in your short moments of calm.”

He handed Krim a plate which he rested on top of his chest. The dried beef was salty and didn't help his thirst but as soon as he took a bite his four day fast hit him all at once and he devoured the entire plate. “I've never been so hungry.” he said only partially satiated and slowly sat up. He was in the same room he'd passed out in but it was thankfully clear of corpses. “Where are the others?” he asked while retracting the vast tangled mess of tentacles covering the room.

“Val and the other two went back to Krief to get the guard when it was clear you'd be out for a while.” he looked slightly worried about that but Krim had more important thing to deal with first

“Is there any clothes?” Krim asked once he'd retracted the majority of the tentacles, he'd started to feel exposed.

The healer laughed gently and pointed to a door at the back of the room. We put all the armour and weapons from the bandit in there. There's piles of loot from their raids but the guards will want to seize that when they get here.”

Krim thanked him and gingerly made his way to the next room. The armour the cave bandits had worn was much better quality than the first lot they'd fought. He picked out the least soiled shirt and trousers before grabbing an interesting armband. It was blackened leather with runes and odd symbols worked into it in a spiralling pattern.

He slipped it on and information suddenly popped into his head as if he'd know all along what the armband could do.The feeling of knowledge being forced into his mind reminded him of getting his boon. He thought back to the fight in the tunnel and just barely remembered the man who made the barriers. He'd had dark armour but Krim was sure he'd seen him wearing this. The bands purpose was to increase the strength of a boon. It wouldn't drastically improve a boon but he felt It would be perfect for Fredd who still worried about his boons strength. 'Not that he really needs it, those vines are terrifying.'

Krim went back to speak more with the man who'd saved his life, a man who's name he shamefully never even asked. 'Thinking about it I've been really bad at introducing myself and getting peoples names.' Resolving to fix his mistake he said “I'm Krim by the way. Never got a chance to say before.” 'Perfectly smooth, he doesn't suspect a thing' he grinned

“I'm Saul, If your up for it there's something I wanted to talk to you about.” he asked and Krim could see the worry clear on his face but nodded for him to continue.

“When the bandits caught us they chained me up, They threatened to hurt Val if I didn't keep healing them.” Krim had expected as much but didn't interrupt. “ The forced her to join them in their raids with similar threats about me to her. She never wanted to do the things they forced her to.” Saul wrung his hand while trying to think of the best way to ask what he wanted but Krim done it for him.

“You don't want us to grass her in to the guards.” he said and waited for Saul to nod.

“I know you'd make more money if you turned her in but.” Krim cut him off with a wave.

“I wont tell them. Though even if I did I doubt they'd do anything, besides I think Fredd likes her.” he joked. His friend had been quite defensive of Val since the team had captured her.

Saul relaxed visibly and smiled wryly. “From watching them I think it might be mutual. That actually brings me to the second thing I wanted to ask. The others mentioned you'd recently joined the adventurers guild and it was just the three of you. We were planning to join a team in Triton once we got there but we talked it over and decided we'd like to join yours if you'll have us.”

Krim was shocked at the offer and it must of shown on his face. Saul started to speak but Krim spoke over him before he took back the offer. “You can join us!” he almost shouted. 'No team in their right mind would turn down a healer.' Most teams had to hire healers to join them on dangerous jobs since they rarely joined a permanent team. “Have you asked the others?” Krim asked him.

“I asked Bargus, he said it was fine but only if you were ok with it.”

“Well then your in.” he said shaking his hand to seal the deal. He wanted to jump and cheer but held it back doing his best to play it cool. He couldn't stop from thinking of all the benefits of having a healer on the team though. 'It's all coming together.'