I held my machete out in front of me and slowly moved forward. I made sure to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground so I didn’t inadvertently slip. I moved slowly toward the nearest wyrm and as soon as it registered my presence, I killed it with a simple swipe that chopped it in two. I moved back to my starting position and repeated the process on the next closest wyrm, and then I did it a third time. I wanted to make sure I knew the safe distance to stay from these creatures even without the help of my power. Once I was sure of the distance, I set about slaughtering every single one of those foul Nope Ropes.

As I kept slowly and methodically killing them, the wyrms kept spewing from the walls. I expected to get tired from the ordeal, similar to when I killed the Sand Murks, but it seemed like the more wyrms I slew, the more energetic I felt. It could have been that I was taking my time, so I wasn’t using up as much energy in the slaughter, but I felt that there was a different reason. However, I wouldn’t be able to get the answer until I was in a safe place where I could look through the infamous screens in my vision.

With no light but that of my moving flashlight, I had no idea how much time had passed. The ground was covered in slick wyrm mucous, blood and severed bodies. Then, as I chopped another wyrm in half and moved to the next, I noticed that there were no more. Yet I stayed in fighting position, breathing calmly and listening for any other sounds. When no other sounds or threats emerged, I decided that I killed them all and moved to grab my backpack.

Once I had all my gear, I slowly shuffled through the viscous mess of multiple fluids until I passed it and I could walk normally. I stopped and shone my light down the long tunnel to see how far it went, but the light ended before the cavern did. I hoped that I could find a spot to rest and sleep because once I passed the wyrms, my adrenaline dropped and I was exhausted. After a few minutes of slowly walking and constantly scanning the area, the path started slowly bending to the right. I continued walking along in the nearly complete darkness. The shadows on the wall in constant flux from my passing. Eventually, my legs grew weary and my feet began to shuffle and scrap on the ground. Luckily, I didn’t encounter any creatures for a while and I was able to take a moment to grab some food from my pack to eat as I walked. I gutted as many MRE’s as I could when I left my campsite, just to be safe, but I hadn’t expected to not make it to the car.

I eventually started to notice a faint glow that my eyes quickly started adjusting to, and it seemed to be peaking around the corner of the sharp turn in the narrow cavern. I quickly peaked around the corner to make sure it was safe and it was, so I stepped around the corner. I found myself in a literal crossroads. The path before me split into three directions - a path right in front of me, and one to each side. The side paths both angled off in what appeared to be perfect ninety-degree angles and they even appeared to be abnormally straight, which made me think they were manmade. In addition, I was able to see all this because of the glow, which I had seen coming down the hall. The glow came from a large crystal that was hanging in the center of the crossroad. The crystal glowed a bright green, but the light it gave off was much more subdued. The crossroads and my body were awash in the pleasing light and I actually felt calm underneath it. As I looked down each of the hallways in turn, I could only see darkness since the soft green glow didn’t pierce the darkness too far.

I closed my eyes to see if I could use any of my other senses for an indication of the best way to go, but there was nothing. No breeze or flowing air. No distant sounds. No random smells. I would just have to choose the path randomly. Even though I knew this whole dungeon was dangerous, I felt like I could relax a little while in the light. I took my pack off and set it down then I unclipped my rifle, dropped the magazine and the chambered round. I sat down and leaned on my bag as I inspected my rifle the best I could in the low light. When I was hit by the werewolf, my rifle tumbled with me and I was worried about its functionality. There was a small chip on the upper handguard, but other than that, it looked fine. I did a full functions check, reloaded my dropped round in the magazine, then inserted the magazine and chambered a round. I was red hot.

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I adjusted my sling to be able to wear my rifle at the ready from now on. I put it on even though I was still sitting down, just to be ready. I decided to take the time to look through the infamous screens that kept popping up. I leaned into my pack a little more and I could feel one of the magazines digging in my back, but it wasn’t too bad. My breathing eased a little bit and just as I was about to pull up the screen, my eyes closed. I was exhausted and I had no idea how long it was since I slept. I just stayed like that for a moment to let the exhaustion seep out of my eyes.

I jerked awake. The hairs on the back of my neck tingled and I had goosebumps all over my arms. Had I been asleep? Whether I had been asleep or not, adrenaline coursed through my veins. I stood quickly and scanned the area with my rifle. None of my senses observed danger, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling. I silently scanned the area for a long moment before the feeling went away and I started to feel calm again.

I sat back down and leaned against my bag. While I was no longer on edge, the desire to sleep had left me. I opened my screen to look through all the notifications and to gather more information, but then the light in the ceiling went out, along with my feeling of calm.

I jumped up quickly, scanning the area and ready for attack. As soon as I moved the crystal at the top of the cave lit back up and I was awash in the soft green glow that made me feel calm. The light was making me feel calm. I looked at it a little closer and then it once again went out.

There was a sound like an emptying drain where the crystal had been, but I couldn’t see anything since the area was plunged into darkness. I instinctively raised my rifle and began to fire in the direction of the crystal. I silently hoped that this wasn’t a bad idea since I was in such an enclosed space. I didn’t want to be struck by a ricochet. In the light of the flashing muzzle, I could tell that the crystal was no longer present. There was just a deep black hole with moist walls that glinted in the orange light.

I ran out of ammo and dropped the magazine. I reached back to grab another, but I paused as some type of danger sense flared up. Perhaps a residual ability had manifested from the other power I’d been using to read enemy movements. The ability that was like my dad’s, which I thought was useless. There was an attack coming and I raised my rifle in an attempt to block whatever was coming. My rifle was hit hard and I was forced to my knees from the pressure.

Whatever hit me clamped down on my rifle and pulled me up. I had my sling up and was jerked upward toward where I knew there was now a hole. I only went up a foot or two before the pull stopped and I found myself dangling in the air. Then whatever was attacking me started to shake and jerk me up and down, along with my rifle.

When I reached the top of the pull, my head slammed into whatever monster was holding my rifle. Its head was rock hard and slick with either water or slime. Whatever the substance was, it smelled of mildew and rotten almonds. When I fell from the monster attempting to jerk its prize up again, I was caught in my sling and it dug into my back and armpits. Then I went up again and slammed into the creature.

“Gah!” Was all I could say as it happened repeatedly.

I inwardly lamented the superior craftsmanship of my sling as I was flung up and down. Luckily, after a while, I was able to slightly mitigate the strain on my body by predicting the ebb and flow of the jerking. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything about my head continuously slamming into the creature that was flinging me up and down like a puppet on a string.

Then I heard the clink of metal breaking and I fell to the ground hard. My head stung from slamming into the rock. My danger sense flared and I tried to raise my arms to protect myself. The most intense bout of pins and needles struck my arms and I was unable to move them. My rifle slammed into my face then and I was unable to tell which sensation was worse.

My danger sense told me to roll to the side and thankfully, I was able to accomplish that. The stone cracked and the ground rumbled as the unknown monster slammed into the space I had just been. I fumbled for my knife on my belt and with numb fingers, I was able to get it out. I struck out in the direction on the monster and my blade sunk in.

I was still on my back when I stabbed the monster, having just rolled around to stab it. I had used both hands to stab and after my blade sunk in, I found myself being jerked up once more, but this time it was because the monster was in pain. My knife was dislodged from the creature, but I didn’t drop it, and I fell about a foot to the ground. I had no idea how high I had been though, so it was a slightly terrifying experience. I once again felt the need to dodge, but I didn’t even have time to move and I was swallowed whole.