“Has anyone seen anything like this before?” Pax asked in a hushed tone as they moved out of the stairwell into one of the central hallways of the third floor. The space, wide enough for four or five people to walk abreast, looked like another world. An eerie green and blue glow filled the rubble-strewn hallway, giving everyone’s skin a sickly hue.
Ahead of his crew, Titus and his people had already moved forward to establish a protected area for Pax’s crew to emerge from the stairwell. Titus taking the lead made strategic sense, but Pax didn’t like feeling like the wealthy ’crat who got to travel in safety at the back of their expedition.
Titus had argued that besides Pax’s crucial value to the rebellion, his crew also had a lot more mages with specialized skills, including healing. Everyone needed them to stay in the protected rear position so they could step in and help better when needed.
“I’ve seen some moss in caves that glows a little, but nothing like this,” Crissim answered Pax’s question, pulling his thoughts back to the strange environment on the third level.
“No wonder they had it blocked off to stop more exploration.” Amil’s eyes were wide as he joined everyone else looking around. “Maybe we shouldn’t have bypassed the warning signs and the doorway chained shut back there.”
As they stepped further into the hallway, Pax could see more of what was emitting the weird light. The walls and ceiling ahead had patches of intricate, glowing comb structures that pulsed with the soft, eerie light. A luminescent substance filled each palm-sized cell of the comb, which was the source of the bizarre glow.
“I just saw another pulse.” Rin pointed above them. “Anyone else notice them?”
Pax looked up and caught the tail end of a sudden increase in the light that traveled quickly in a zigzag path along the connections between the patches of comb. His first instinct was to touch the comb and see if he could sense any mana in the pulses. But months of instilled caution around unknown monsters held him back. Maybe once they found the altar, and had time, he and Tyrodon could get a sample to study.
“The big question isn’t what this stuff is.” Titus waved at the comb that seemed to have spread even further ahead in the hallway. “But what made it?”
“It’s going to be bugs, isn’t it?” Rin whispered, a visible shudder traveling through her body.
“Don’t worry, Rin,” Amil said. “I’ll burn them all for you.”
She gave him a grateful look as one hand reached up to touch her empty shoulder pad. “I hate these close quarters missions now that Eris is getting too big to bring along and needs room to fly. She’d have eaten them for me.”
Pax gave her a sympathetic glance, glad of his pets’ versatility so they could always join him. Titus glanced back, an expectant brow raised, reminding Pax that they’d agreed he would lead the expedition.
Pax adjusted his shield, ready to give out instructions, when he suddenly remembered he’d never charged another spell into it. When fighting enemy mages, that was a reasonable strategy, because he could use the Spectral Mana Mirror to absorb an incoming spell. With beasts having many fewer offensive spells, it would be better to have a spell stored to use as an attack instead.
“Um. Quick question.” He struggled to sound confident, even though he’d forgotten something important. “With everything that happened last night, I forgot to get a spell charged into my shield. Crissim? Do you have something powerful I could absorb? Otherwise, I can just get one of Amil’s flame ones.”
Pax’s question drew a few interested glances at his shield before the others quickly returned to monitoring their surroundings. Everyone around him had been through enough battles and surprises to treat all new situations with caution.
Crissim threaded his way back to Pax with an eager curiosity in his expression when he stopped to peer at Pax’s shield. “Is this what you used to block that spell that was going to blindside Titus during the battle?”
“Yes—” Pax began to explain.
“Later, you two,” Titus said. “When we’re not in the middle of an unexplored and dangerous area.”
Crissim flushed as he and Pax exchanged a sheepish look. “What do you need me to do?”
“Which of your spells do you think would do the most damage against a swarm of powerful bugs? Then, depending on what level it is, I want you to aim it at my shield. To give you a reference, I could only absorb about half of the one that almost took out Titus. And I definitely don’t want you to drain too much of your mana right before we get going.”
“I’ll help with that some. It shouldn’t cost me much, with just one mage needing a boost.” Dahni stepped up and cast his buff.
Feeling the immediate change, Crissim gave him an impressed look.
“Thanks for that.” He shook his head and visibly suppressed another question before looking thoughtful, like he was calculating something. “My Penetrating Lance Flame is more for single powerful enemies. So, I’m thinking my Diverting Gust might be the best.”
Pax nodded and stepped back into the protection of the stairwell. He braced himself against the railing so the incoming spell wouldn’t knock him back. He gave Crissim a nod. “Go ahead.”
Crissim looked doubtful. “So, I just hit your shield with my spell? Maybe you should set it up against something and step away, so you don’t get hurt.”
Pax shook his head. “I need to connect my light mana for it to work. Just start slow and as soon as you see some of the spell’s power spilling up and over the shield, cut it off.”
Even more questions swirled in Crissim’s eyes, giving Pax the distinct impression that he and Tyrodon would be great friends in the future.
“Well, this is the air spell I’ve had to keep hidden for so long, so it’s not as powerful as my flame stuff. It should be safe enough.” He held up his hands, a light blue glowing through the front edge of his vambraces. “It damages opponents, but its best use is to knock anything in a wide swath of an area off balance. Here it comes.”
Pax flared up his mana, ready with Bulwark, Windscale Shroud and Aeroshift in case of an emergency. But Crissim was a professional. His spell rushed forward with unerring accuracy, the gusting storm limited to a narrow, horizontal column that hit the mirror embedded in his shield dead on.
His shield vibrated as the power flowed into it. Now that Pax wasn’t in the middle of a battle, he could focus more on what was happening. He reached inside with his Mana Sight and stated in amazement as the air mana of Crissim’s spell swirled in a cyclone of energy that narrowed to a central point and then just seemed to disappear.
Pax could feel a growing pressure through his connection to the mirror, much like the feel of his stomach as he worked his way through a meal and the room inside reduced. Fascinated by the process, he missed the ideal stopping point and flinched back as a gush of powerful air mana burst up and over the edges of the Spectral Mirror.
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Pax jerked to the side along the railing and popped a row of Chained Bulwarks around one edge of his shield just as his hair began whipping into the air.
“Whoa!” Crissim sounded surprised, but had fast enough reflexes to cut power to his spell before too much of it spilled over.
“Thanks.” Pax straightened back from the railing with a grin. “Time to get moving now.”
“That’s it?”
“Until I decide to unleash it. Then the mirror will be empty again. It’s not much, only a single spell.” Pax shrugged as he stepped back into the hallway, where everyone else waited impatiently.
Behind him, he heard Crissim mutter, “Only a single spell, he says.”
“Alright, everyone. Time to move.” Pax didn’t wait, knowing the others were more than ready. “Keep detection and shielding abilities out to all sides of our two crews until we have a better idea about what’s taken over this level. Quietly call out anything you see or even think you see.”
Thinking ahead, Pax summoned Ember and set her to follow them. Summoning her now would give him some time to recover the initial mana cost since maintenance for the spell wasn’t nearly as expensive now that he’d evolved it. The new Primordial Golem Resonance spell hadn’t changed Ember’s tiny humanoid appearance, however, with her still at level 1. But it had made her a lot more responsive now and able to follow commands without needing as much manual control as before.
Coming only to Pax’s knee, her slightly glowing scales appeared as if they were made of hardened rock, with constantly flowing orange and crimson lava beneath them. Amil wasn’t the only one to give Ember an appreciative glance as she hurried to the front of their procession.
Around Pax, the others prepared shields and defenses. He glimpsed something shimmering into formation in the air at the front of their expedition. Crissim had his hands out, obviously casting some kind of shielding spell.
“According to our map, we have two lengths of hallway to get through to reach the entrance to the 4th level stairwell.” Pax looked over the group to see everyone listening. “That’s a hundred yards straight ahead, then make the turn and the same distance again. Counter any attacks, just watch out for friendly fire with all of us so close together. If needed, I’ll call a retreat so we can regroup and figure out better counters, depending on what we run into. Everyone good?”
Everyone nodded.
“Move out then, at a walking pace. Extreme caution.”
Titus, flanked by two of his warriors, moved first. In moments, they were progressing down the hallway like a slow-moving caravan, senses straining to figure out what exactly they were walking into.
Pax monitored the comb structures along the walls and ceiling that grew more plentiful the further they walked. The pulses of light Rin had noticed earlier continued. If he wasn’t imagining things, they seemed to come more frequently. Then something in a cell next to his cell moved. He flinched and raised his shield.
“Hold.”
The tension around him immediately surged. He quickly explained. “I’ve got movement in a cell of comb next to me. Some kind of squirming worm or larva. No attack. Anyone else?”
There was a long pause as the others peered at the surrounding walls.
“Yep, got some here.” Dahni was the first to confirm that the cell near Pax wasn’t an outlier.
While others chimed in with their own findings. Pax flipped on his Haste and Sphere for any additional information while triggering his Strategist skill. Various possibilities and responses filling his mind with a myriad of choices.
His Haste gave him a few extra moments to decide without delaying them too much. He was relieved that his Sphere showed nothing other than thick stone walls around them. The worst thing would have been for the layers of comb to be a facade hiding something powerful, waiting to burst out at them. All his Sphere detected was the hexagonal structure of the comb and the squirming bits of life in a few of them. Not really helpful.
Pax let himself slip back to normal speed. “None of us want to go back. So, let’s make two turtle formations to protect us on all sides. We’ll wait to burn this stuff out, in case there’s a way to slip past it all without being noticed. If we’re attacked, go all out with the most destructive attacks you have and clear the hallway around us down to the stone. Any objections?”
Again, no one spoke. They shifted closer and brought shields together and overhead.
When both groups resembled ragged domes, he gave the order. “Move out.”
They continued at the same walking speed, making more progress down the length of the first hallway. Pax had taken up the rear position, facing backward. Whisk had moved to reinforce his shield and Talpa stayed at his feet, experienced at keeping close without getting underfoot. Pax needed to thank Bryn again for all the drilling she made them do to make their various formations instinctive.
The weird pulsing lights and eerie quiet of the hallway made everything feel so much more dangerous. The obvious increase in comb and squirming larvae as they continued only increased their tension. Pa cast quick pulses of his Sphere to make sure nothing was coming at them from a hidden pocket in the walls or ceiling. He knew he couldn’t be the only one wondering when they would encounter whatever had built all this.
They finally made it to the end of the hallway without anything attacking them. Pax glanced over his shoulder toward the front of their formation. Through the gaps between the shields, he saw Titus’ crew make the turn to the next hall.
Oh, Vitur. This can’t be good. Titus’ words came over his Echo with a note of shock that made Pax’s adrenaline spike.
We’re coming. Quickly, everyone. Follow them.
Positioned at the rear, Pax was the last one to make it around the corner. He joined them, understanding immediately why they’d all frozen in place to stare at the incredible sight ahead of them. The comb had increased to almost cover the walls and ceiling with more even further down the hallway, making it difficult for them to pass while still in their turtle formation.
But the influx of comb wasn’t what had made them all stop and hold their breaths. Huge glowing insects between one and two-feet long buzzed through the air, filling the hallway ahead with trails of light that made them look like living stars. The pulsing along the comb had increased to a visible rhythm around the bioluminescent creatures, creating a mesmerizing and almost hypnotic effect.
Even more incredible was the massive, glowing structure just visible at the far end of the hallway. It stretched from floor to ceiling, blocking everything, including the location of the stairwell entrance they needed to get to. It was some kind of huge hive or nest with the largest of the glowing insects flying a guarding pattern in front of it. The bigger bugs radiated a fierce, electric blue light.
This is insane, Pax sent over his Echo, awe and trepidation mixing in his tone.
His crew echoed his sentiments, standing in stunned silence, taking in the alien beauty and palpable danger of the hive. Getting past everything in front of them wouldn’t be easy.
Going back to try the other path around the central square of hallways wouldn’t help, as the hive had to be right on top of the stairwell entrance, making the direction of their approach unimportant. Pax blinked, feeling tired and disheartened. Maybe they needed to retreat and rest for a bit? It was a good idea to rethink their plan forward.
Pax’s thoughts wandered before a familiar stench burst into their protected formation. He flinched and almost coughed. The stink drove out the alluring sweet and floral scent that filled the surrounding air. His thoughts immediately cleared, like a fresh breeze airing out a closed-up room. He realized the deceptive smell must have been slowly growing stronger, so he didn’t notice it.
Thanks, Horrid! Amil, quick. Can you—?
Already on it. Amil waved a hand at his companion. Titus, my gal Horrid is heading to give you a blast of her stench so the sweet bug smell doesn’t mess with your head.
Thanks. Titus sounded grateful, but not as groggy as Pax had felt. Likely because of his higher levels.
Everyone, stay completely still and quiet. Pax cast Haste and pushed his Sphere in a direct pulse down the hallway, desperate for more information. If they haven’t reacted yet, we’ll take all the time they’ll give us.
Got it, Titus responded, a note of impatience in his tone. We’re sticking to minimal hand signals from here on out. But we need to either retreat or attack soon.
As the information from a myriad of flying creatures flooded Pax’s senses, he dragged together a fast and dirty plan. The instant he felt his Sphere touch the edge of the guardian insects in front of the hive, a wave of shock seemed to flash through every creature in the hallway.
A moment later, they all turned in a terrifying synchronicity to stare at the intruders. The entire swarm’s motion stilled as they hovered mid-air, the buzzing wings their only motion.
Oh, chaos. Tyrodon’s words over the Echo were soft and stunned. Identify says the closest ones are Level 6 Glitterflare fighters. The bigger ones are too far away to Identify, but my guess is probably level 7.
Pax’s stomach dropped. They’d never faced that many opponents with such high levels. He was suddenly very happy Titus and his crew had insisted on taking the forward position.