Clay looked out over the mines of Rodcliff, and tried not to shiver.
The others had broken off from him a short time before, veering out to continue their hunt for the monsters above ground. They seemed confident about their chances, and Clay had to agree. He’d just watched them tear the things apart for nearly a week, and that was before they had been given all the benefits of their [Achievements]. He had asked them to slow down and stay together.
They, on the other hand, had made him promise to call for help using Distant Whispers if he got into trouble. Not that he had any idea why they would think that was likely.
The mines of Rodcliff were scattered across a handful of hills. Openings of the artificial caves sunk into the slopes in various spots, with the path the miners had taken to their work branching off to lead to each of them.
There had been mining buildings set up near each cave, but the monsters had already reduced most of them to ashes or smashed them to pieces. Carts had been upended or crushed, with many showing signs of a frantic evacuation, even half buried in the snow.
Clay chose a mine on the left side of the trail, one where the burnt wreckage was clustered the closest together. He had to guess that the flame wretches had poured out of that area first, taking the miners by surprise. It wasn’t a guarantee that he would find the Lair buried in the depths of those tunnels, but it was a half decent bet.
He reached the mine without much trouble; a handful of flame wretches tried to take a bite out of him, but it was a simple enough task to clear them out. Then he was facing the entrance to the mine.
It was a plain opening that had been carved into the hill. The workers had braced the entrance with broad wooden beams, and the monsters had apparently failed to damage them. He saw fragments of pickaxes and shovels, tools of the mines that had been discarded and left behind. They left a trail of desperation that disappeared into the darkness further inside.
Clay studied that hole with disdain. This time it wasn’t going to be like fighting in the Tanglewood at all. There would be less room to maneuver. Any light inside the mine would have to come with him; monsters would have plenty of shadows to hide in. At the same time, any torch he carried would make him a clear, easy target for whatever monsters were waiting. He paused for a long moment, picturing a dozen flame horrors tucked away inside the depths of the shadows.
Then he used the [Chant] of Spontaneous Spark to light the first of the four torches that he would carry with him and stepped into the mine. His enemies were ahead of him. Waiting would only give them more time—and he had no intention of doing so at all.
It did not take long for Clay to decide that he hated caves, mines, and any sort of tunnel.
The stone walls of the tunnel around him seemed to close in as he made his way further into the mine. Stale air, seemingly full of ash and dust, clogged his lungs as he breathed. Outside, he’d felt uncomfortable in the cold and damp, but he would have traded the dark and claustrophobic conditions for the ability to see clearly in a heartbeat.
He paused as he reached a fork in the tunnel. There was an opening off to the right, while the main part of the mine continued further and deeper. Clay considered the branch for a moment, noting that it was both smaller and narrower than the main tunnel. Would the Lair be down such a small shaft, or would he find nothing but flame wretches in that direction?
As he hesitated, Clay felt a small gust of air from the opening. It was hot, and carried a hint of sulfur in it, something that gave him pause. In the clear, cold air of the outside, he’d never noticed the smell of the flame devils and wretches. Could the flame horrors’ breath be giving them away here?
He looked around and saw a half-broken sconce set into the wall nearby. Clay stepped over and slipped his current torch into it, leaving it dangling from the wall, the flames sending shadows shifting along the stone. A short pause had him light a second torch using the fires of the first, and then he turned to the narrower tunnel.
Clay moved carefully, trying to catch sight of any flawed camouflage that would give away a hiding monster. It would be frustratingly hard, if the manual was accurate, but any kind of warning would be helpful. A healthy sense of paranoia had him checking the tunnel above and behind him as well, making sure that the horrors weren’t copying the flame devils’ trick of trying to strike from behind.
A second gust of air brought more sulfur to his nostrils, and Clay resisted the urge to snort in response. His ethereal senses were starting to scream at him now, bringing him to a stop. He waved his torch back and forth, his eyes looking for any discrepancies in the tunnel ahead. There had to be one here. Even if it wasn’t alone, he needed to start thinning their ranks in order to make sure the Lair could be destroyed.
There was a glint of something as the light from the torch’s flame danced across the rocks. It was like the shine from a piece of metal, and Clay paused for a moment. He frowned as he watched the spot, seeing a flicker of reddish light reflecting his torch. Had the miners forgotten some crystal or metal ore in the wall here? It seemed kind of sloppy of them to ignore it like that.
His suspicions deepened quickly, but it seemed like just a jumble of fallen rocks. Surely the horror would not be able to emerge quickly, even to try to turn its head for a tongue strike. Moving at all would alert its prey as rubble fell away. How would it plan on attacking its targets if it was hidden beneath a half ton of stone?
The light glinted again, and Clay felt a chill stir across his neck. He started the [Chant] of Vanishing Ember out of something close to instinct. If there was an ambush here, he’d be able to react to almost everything but the fire breath; even at level nine, he would still burn if the thing caught him with that. Better to be prepared, and a little wounded by a claw, than burned to death.
His caution paid off only a heartbeat later, as he took another step forward, and fire jetted towards him in a sudden spray.
Clay’s instincts threw him to the side, even as he knew that the spray was still going to hit him. Fire struck his left shoulder and stuck, burning away at the cloth part of his armor. He felt the heat and panic wash over him in a flood, but he forced himself to focus on the [Chant]. A half-heartbeat later, it activated, and the flaming pitch suddenly went out.
Unfortunately, so did his torch.
The darkness was sudden and startling. It wasn’t the same as the dark of a night. Even with a new moon above, or during a storm, there was still some kind of light to navigate by.
Here in the dark of the tunnel, it was as if light had been utterly forgotten. Clay froze for a moment, feeling completely disoriented and lost. He heard the horror start to stir, sending pebbles and small stones tumbling down the pile, and his instincts came in handy again as he tossed his useless torch further along the direction where he had dodged. It made a clattering sound along the stone ahead.
The tumbling sound increased, and Clay tried not to breathe as he put both hands on the shaft of his spear. He listened, hoping his heartbeat wasn’t as audible as he thought it was, and heard the horror finish unburying itself and stalking through the dark to investigate where he’d gone. The click of its claws, the hiss of its breath, and the swish of its tail sent shivers along his spine. Sounds echoed oddly in the mine, bouncing off the walls in weird ways that made it hard to tell where things were in the dark.
He took a step back, trying to move silently. As he did, he started to whisper the [Chant] of Heart’s Light. It was not a [Chant] that he’d often used; in the depths of the Tanglewood, having a simple light with him had not been all that particularly useful. The reverse of the [Chant] had usually been much, much more helpful. At least, until now.
There was a snap of wood up ahead; something told him the horror had found his discarded torch. He took another careful step back, and his heart froze in his chest when his heel kicked a loose pebble. It clattered away into the dark, and he heard the horror hiss. Clay found it all too easy to imagine it twisting around, its eyes trying to fix on the source of the noise.
Just a moment later, Heart’s Light activated, and light flooded the mine once again. It was a wavering, unearthly glow that sprouted oddly from the back of his right hand; it made weird shadows and strange shifts in perspective.
It also revealed the flame horror for the first time, in all its terrible glory.
The thing resembled the smaller flame devils, with the same angular head and ever-swiveling eyes. It was larger, and the scales armoring its hide looked far, far tougher than those of its lesser kin. A ridge of hard spines crept along its spine, trailing off when it reached a long, thick tail. All four of its feet were webbed and tipped with gleaming, blade-sharp claws.
It was the eyes that stuck out the most, however. They were glittering, gemlike things, catching the light with flickers that drew his attention. One of them immediately swiveled to fix on him, remaining steady and firm even as its head started to jerk around to face him.
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Clay sprinted forward, not wanting to wait for the thing to come back around to face him. The eye tracked his progress, and to his shock a second spray of burning pitch shot out from it. It was spitting at him with its eyes now? He dodged it, feeling the heat as the stream went past him. Then he yelled in fury and charged straight at his opponent, bringing his spear up to strike.
The flame horror had just barely managed to start opening its mouth when Clay hit it. His spearpoint sunk into the monster’s neck, just behind the leathery horns of its head. Orn’s handiwork proved its worth immediately, sinking in deep. He heard a hiss of pain as the blade went in up to the crossguards; the impact of the charge pushed the horror up and off balance.
As it staggered backwards, Clay yanked the spear free to strike again. Pitch-black blood flowed from the wound—and then abruptly ignited. The flame made Clay jerk with surprise, but iron-hard habits from training had him step in and stab a second time, catching the monster in the head. His spearpoint bit deep again, and the monster reeled back, hissing in rage.
Again and again he struck, trying not to notice how close the flames were getting to him. The flame horror staggered and thrashed, trying to regain its balance and lash out at him. Clay jerked back as the thing’s eye spat at him again, and then responded with a broad slash that carved a furrow through its hide that ripped out just short of the wildly swiveling eye. A leg lashed out, and he batted it aside with the heavily weighted butt of his spear.
Then he lashed out with one more strike, stabbing deep into the horror’s flank. This time, the horror half curled up around the hit, and the wounded eye flickered. Clay yanked his spear free and was forced to dance backwards to avoid a sudden flood of burning pitch. He let Heart’s Light die and started the [Chant] for Vanishing Ember again.
The words of the [Chant] quickly died on his lips. Instead of lashing out at him again, the horror only thrashed weakly, surrounded and backlit by a burning pool of its own blood. Its twitches slowed and grew weaker until it finally lay still.
{Flame Horror slain! Soul increases by 60!}
Clay let out a breath, the burning odor of the horror’s death still hanging in the air. It could have gone better, but it definitely could have gone much, much worse.
He looked around, using the [Chant] of Pure Touch to get rid of the pitch that was still stuck to his armor. His ethereal sense told him that the immediate area was clear, but that just meant he would need to push further into the mine to find what he was looking for. The burning remnants of the horror provided enough light to see, but the fire wasn’t going to last forever.
With a sigh, he drew out one of his remaining two torches. He bent to light it from the pool of fire and then braced himself.
One down, at least nine to go.
Clay crouched beside the narrow opening in the rock, his spear clutched in both hands. The horror tore through it a moment later, eyes intent on the torch floating a short distance away. He’d suspended it with Ballad of Air, tossing it ahead of him while he dodged to the side.
Before the horror realized he was there, Clay lunged at it. He drove the spear in up to the crossguards, smashing the horror against the opposite wall. It gargled in shock, and a shining eye began to swivel towards him.
He slammed his right hand into the haft of the spear, ripping the spearblade back along the flank of the horror. Burning blood sprayed out in a wave, turning the narrow tunnel into a sea of fire. Clay tore out the spearblade, and then pivoted to see the horror painfully writhing in its own fiery blood.
With another lunge, he extended the spear as far as it would go. He caught the creature in the neck, just behind its angular head. The lizard made a choking sound, and he twisted the spear to tear a wider hole.
As he drew back, the lizard continued to thrash for a few moments more. Then it went still.
{Flame Horror slain! Soul increases by 60!}
It was his fourth kill of the day. He’d found the thing hiding next to a wall, taking shelter beneath a batch of overturned mining carts. His feigned retreat had baited the thing out from its hiding spot easily; he’d found that the things were incredibly aggressive.
His second kill had been done from a distance; he’d caught sight of another creature hiding beneath the rocks and had used his shortbow to put a pair of arrows directly into its eye. When it had staggered out from beneath its cover, Clay had closed the distance and impaled it with his spear. The thing hadn’t even had the chance to defend itself, not that he pitied the repulsive creature.
The third one had been hiding on the ceiling. It had spat at him with both eyes, and then fallen when he’d responded with the Canticle of Ice. He’d finished it as it lay thrashing in a pool of melting ice and burning blood.
Now, as he stood back from the burning remnants of the fourth horror, Clay suddenly realized that he had no idea what time it was. He had pushed a decent distance into the mines and cleared at least three of the tunnel branches, but he still hadn’t seen the Lair yet. Should he continue looking until he found it?
Clay flashed back to the time he’d intruded on the Lair in the Tanglewood. He pictured the wave of spiders chasing him, and shivered. He would probably be able to kill most of whatever the Guardian sent at him, but if the big lizard came too…
He shook his head. Better to head back now and see how things had gone for the others. Another day wouldn’t hurt their cause, and he needed to reevaluate his plans. Perhaps the [Chants] would have something new for him.
“How’s it going?”
He looked up to find Natalie hovering over him. “Hm? Oh, nothing much yet.” Clay looked back down at the notes that he’d been studying. Then he tapped one brief phrase, one that had so far refused to work with him. “I think I’m about to figure this one out, but I don’t know what it does. All it says is that it is called the Words of Refrain.”
Natalie frowned. She looked over his shoulder and shook her head. “Your Novice friend didn’t have any ideas?”
Clay shook his head. “No. Reading it out doesn’t seem to do anything either. I think I can feel the magic take hold, but it doesn’t bring any activation.”
“That is strange.” The [Alchemist] stepped back and tapped her lips. “Have you tried the reverse?”
He blinked and turned his attention back to the notes. “That’s a good point. Maybe I can…”
Clay trailed off as he ran his eyes over the syllables. He frowned and went back to the start of the [Chant]. “What?”
Natalie peered over his shoulder. “What’s wrong? Is it one of the dangerous ones?”
“No, it’s just…” He put a finger on both sides of the Refrain. Slowly, he counted off the syllables from both ends, until his fingers met in the middle. “It’s the same. In both directions.”
She frowned. “So it can’t be reversed. I guess that means it can only do one thing? That seems like it isn’t very useful.”
Clay remained silent. His thoughts were going back to the discussion he’d had with Syr Katherine. She’d said that the [Chant] that could destroy Dungeons had no reverse. It had seemed impossible to him, but if it was possible with one like this…
{Insight increased by 1! Memory increased by 1!}}
He shook himself. The Refrain didn’t seem like anything that would hold that kind of power, but obviously he was on the right track with how that more powerful [Chant] worked. At the very least the Refrain was firmly embedded in his mind now, for all the good it would do him. He recited it again for the last time, just to see if it had changed. Nothing happened, though he felt the magic activate yet again.
Clay pushed the parchment aside, rubbing at his eyes. He’d already come up with some ideas on how to use what he already had, but clearly there was no more he could do for the night.
The others had done well with their hunts, though they had reported that the number of devils and large ironslimes were becoming scarce. It was hard to be disappointed about that fact; the fewer monsters that were wandering around the area, the easier it would be to put an end to their fight here.
He had been about to stand up when Xavien came over and glared at him. “Sir Clay, I’ll admit that your prank was funny the first time, but enough is enough. I request that you stop using that [Chant] on me. I’m trying to practice.”
Clay frowned, glancing at Natalie. “I… haven’t been, Sir Xavien. Honest.”
The [Orcale] shook his head. “Sir Clay, you’re the only one who knows the Gnat’s Bite. It has to have been you.”
Still frowning, Clay went back over the past few hours. He’d used the Gnat’s Bite on Xavien, true. It had been more of a demonstration to help prove the efficiency of Lawrence’s first [Charm], but he’d only done it once, and then assumed the lesson had been learnt. The only one with even the closest [Memory] to qualify for using it had been Natalie, but she hadn’t bothered learning it yet. “It’s been happening still?”
Xavien straightened up, his irritated expression calming slightly. “Yes, Sir. Seems like every five minutes.”
Clay exchanged another glance with Natalie. Then he carefully used the Words of Refrain again.
The effect was obvious the moment the [Chant] became active. Xavien twitched, making as if to swat an invisible irritant hovering just beside his ear. “Sir Clay! I must protest—”
Clay let go of the [Chant]. “I’m sorry, Xavien. It looks like I might have been using something accidentally.”
“You did warn us about that.” Natalie seemed amused by the fact, and Clay gave her a rueful glance. He couldn’t say much, though; she was right after all.
Instead, he began the [Chant] for Soul’s Shadow. It took the usual amount of time to complete, and then he was cloaked in shadows. Xavien and Natalie both stepped back, and Clay let go of the [Chant].
Then he began the Words of Refrain. The comparatively short [Chant] was complete in what felt like a heartbeat, the words flowing out of him in a rush.
The Soul’s Shadow formed around him again. He looked down at his hand, eyes wide. When he looked up, the others were all watching him now.
He released the [Chant] and then smiled. “Well, that makes a bit more sense. It repeats whatever the last [Chant] was.”
Natalie grinned. “I bet that could really help with some of your longer ones. The Flame-tongued Song seems like it can take forever.”
Clay nodded. “Yeah” He couldn’t help but smirk, thinking of the next day. The horrors wouldn’t know what hit them.
Yet another horror slumped against the stone floor of the mine, pierced by half a dozen spears of ice.
{Flame Horror slain! Soul increases by 30!}
{Achievement Reinforced! Lizardbane: 15% increase to all skills and damage against lizards. Bonus increases to 30% versus Flame Wretches, Flame Devils, and Flame Horrors.}
Clay stepped back and felt something close to disappointment. The horrors had been dropping like flies now. The Refrain made it just too easy to use the Canticle of Ice to impale them from afar, but his other tactics hadn’t made things easier for the creatures. It turned out that the Gnat’s Bite was a devastating distraction to them, which gave him more than enough of an opening to use his shortbow or spear. Half of the creatures hadn’t even managed to leave the cover they were using for their ambushes.
He stepped forward and prodded the thing with his spear. The spiders in the Tanglewood had at least started to set traps for him by the time he’d gotten the [Achievements] for him. Then again, he’d taken them out slowly, over the course of several days. It was only the second day of his invasion of the mines, and they were already being forced to fall back.
Another three branches had been cleared of horrors. One of them had been the main mining shaft, which left only a single branch left. It curved off into the dark, but when Clay faced it, he could sense the power of several monsters waiting beyond it.
It had to be the Lair. He paused in front of the entrance, wondering idly how many lizards were hiding in that single remaining tunnel. For a moment, he was tempted to start his assault now. Distant Whispers could summon the others, and they might be able to put an end to at least one of the Lairs immediately.
In the end, he once again turned to leave. It was too hard to estimate how long he’d been in the mines, and assaulting a Lair while tired was definitely not a good idea. He shivered a bit at the memory of the Broodmothers he’d fought in the Tanglewood. Definitely better to face it fresh.