Chapter 15 It’s Death.
Aria, Claus, and Isaac were walking down yet another tunnel as had been their habit for only the gods knew how long. They had taken a few breaks for one reason or another but this time something happened.
“SHIT!” Aria yelled and turned to look at Isaac in a panic. “Do you have anything proving that the body you found belonged to that cartographer?” Isaac looked back over his shoulder to see her face.
“Yeah, right here.” He responded and pulled the badge out of mid air. He tossed it to her and she caught it mouth agape. “What? Is there something on my face?” He asked, questioning her look of shock. Then it dawned on him. He had just pulled something out of his Inventory right in front of them. “Your eyes are playing tricks on you. Whatever you think just happened didn’t.” He explained in a very matter of fact tone that left nothing up for debate.
“Uh… Um… Okay?” Aria stammered out while staring at him in utter bewilderment. “C-Claus can you put this with the Basilisk eye?” She asked and handed it to him. He nodded and placed it in one of his backpack’s pockets.
“When did you get the basilisk’s eye? Also why do you need it?” Isaac asked curiously.
“Um… Claus got it right after the battle. We need it for proof we fought it so the guild will pay for its death.” She said, still reeling from the magic that shouldn’t be possible she just witnessed. “Isaac, is that the power that damaged your magic circuits?”
“No.” Was his only response.
“You have another secret power?” She pressed.
“Yes.” He responded.
“And you didn't think it might be relevant.” She asked, tension in her voice.
“No. It wasn’t relevant. None of my ‘secret powers’ would have helped at all in any of our previous fights. Not even the one you just saw. There is a reason I’m carrying the dragon head on my backpack.” He explained in an even voice and then started walking.
“Oh.” She said just as much to him as to herself. “Sorry Isaac. I should have trusted that you had used everything in your power when all of our lives were on the line.” She apologized. He just nodded and kept walking. Aria and Claus hurried to catch up and the trio, plus Chris, continued on their journey.
—
It had been a few hours since the Inventory incident and conversation was back to normal. They were all getting tired. They found a small cave just large enough for them to cram into in order to sleep. They set up their bedrolls and just as Claus and Isaac were about to go to sleep they heard something.
“What was that?” Isaac asked and looked to Claus for an answer. The larger man just shook his head.
“No idea.” Aria said and crouched down while peering around the corner.
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“I’ll go take a look.” Isaac said and got up. Shadows covered his boots and he took a silent step out of the cave.
“Alright. But regardless of what it is, come back and tell us, even if it's something you know you can kill easily.” Aria instructed.
“Okay.” Isaac said and nodded without turning back. He crept forwards down the tunnel into the darkness that for him wasn’t even a hindrance. A few hundred feet down the passageway he found what had made the noise that none of them could really place.
What he saw was a massive open cavern. The cavern must have been over a hundred feet wide and three times that deep. The ceiling was at least a hundred feet up at its highest point. The ground was covered in hills of broken bits of stone and a few boulders, some near each other while others were spread out randomly.
As large as the cavern was, Isaac had barely noticed. He was more focused on the creatures that were residing inside it. A large group of maybe seventy bipedal creatures with slim limbs, pot bellies, and weirdest of all, fish heads, were just milling about. They looked to be about four feet tall and armed with primitive weapons and wore only loincloths.
The creatures had bed rolls made of an assortment of hides and skins tossed about the cavern and were driving stakes into the stone to set up some kind of poles. Isaac made himself invisible and got closer to hear what they were saying.
Their language skills left much to be desired and he could only get out a few words. None of it really meant anything to him so he started back. That was when he heard something that he did understand: “Attack tall ones. Am excited.” Isaac paused and looked back. He saw one of the fishmen talking animatedly with another one.
The second fishman agreed and also said he was excited. Isaac was getting low on mana so he hurried back towards the cave careful to not disturb the rocks too much lest he be found out. Once back at the camp he explained what he had seen and heard.
“Wait wait wait Isaac. You could understand them?” Aria asked. Isaac just looked at her incredulously and nodded slowly. “Isaac they don’t speak common. They only ever speak their own language. It’s a point of pride for their species. You shouldn’t be able to understand them.” She explained now whispering as not to accidentally attract unwanted attention.
“Huh.” Was Isaac’s only response.
“Let me try something.” Aria said. “If you can understand this you have a translation ability.” She continued.
Isaac just raised his eyebrow and said: “Okay? Are you alright Aria?” Isaac asked, thinking that she had lost her sanity in transit.
“No. Listen to me Isaac. I just spoke to you in elvish and you responded in elvish.” She looked at him excitedly. “I had my suspicions when you said you understood some of what those ogres were saying before. There was always the chance either you were mistaken or they were raised somewhere where that kind of behavior was encouraged. This however, this confirms it.”
“Okay. That’s nice and all but I think we have a bigger problem. Are they violent?” Isaac asked.
Aria nodded her head a few times in total certainty. “They will try to eat us, or enslave us. They never deal or barter with anyone. There’s a reason they all only live down here now. The rest of the mortal races drove them to the brink of extinction because they tried to fight all of us at once.” She mentioned off handedly like going to war with the rest of the world and living to tell about was some trivial matter.
“So what do we do?” Isaac asked. “Like I said there’s like seventy of them.”
“We sleep and figure it out tomorrow.” Aria said. Claus nodded and laid down.
“What? There’s an army of savage fish people not even a thousand feet away and we are just gonna go to bed?” Isaac asked, now really concerned that she had lost it.
“Yeah. We are all too tired to try to fight or sneak around them. After some rest we’ll put our heads together and try to come up with a plan.” Aria decided.
“Verywell.” Isaac said then sat on his bed roll. “Turn around and don’t look. I have ‘secret power’ stuff to do.” Isaac told the other two. Aria raised an eyebrow but they did as he asked. Well Claus didn’t have to do anything as he was already fast asleep.
Isaac sent a pulse of his dark mana through his body to feel how healed his mana pathways were. Just as he thought they had fully healed. He then spent the next few minutes burning more of his insides. He needed to expand his range of death mana use on his own body so he could heal more than just his hands.
Once he was done he opened his eyes and saw that Aria was still facing the other way and Claus was still fast asleep. “Thank you.” He said.
Aria nodded and looked back towards him. “That was some bone chilling mana you were giving off. Not very much of it, so I doubt anything more than a few dozen feet away could have felt it, but I did.” She spoke seriously.
“It’s death.” Isaac told her but did not elaborate.
Aria nodded then asked: “That’s what it felt like. That’s what damaged your mana pathways right?”
“Yeah. I can’t use it right until it can flow through my whole body without killing me or something.” He explained and then laid down to go to sleep.
“I see.” Was all she said. Aria went back to looking out of their hiding place. A few hours later she woke Claus who then woke Isaac after his shift was done. Once rested it was time to plan.