Chapter 70 Only One Way
The ball slowly stopped spinning in place. “Did it give up on us?” Eric asked only for Wo Lu and Lenna to give him sharp looks. “What?” The man looked like he had some combat experience but not much. His reddish-brown hair was caked with gray stone dust and his brown eyes looked back and forth between the experienced adventurers.
The ball of guts slowly started to force itself into the tunnel like dough through a tube. The ribs of the consumed Ori-Masa extended from the mass and dug into the floor, walls, and ceiling of the tunnel to help pull itself towards them. “That’s what.” One of the more experienced guards grumbled.
“You freaking jinxed us again!” Ellem yelled from his position on the lead wagon next to Isaac and Aria. “I’m gonna make you eat a wasp so your tongue can’t make words anymore.” He threatened.
Isaac reached out and summoned Kahtesh. “Someone take my dragon to the back and help clean up the Ori-Masa. We’re going to have to pick up the pace.” Isaac ordered.
“I’ll go.” Aria said. “I don’t really have anything that can help here. At least not until I can get more mana back.”
Isaac nodded. “Kahtesh. Listen to Aria and make sure to only hit Ori-Masa.” He told the small dragon which looked up at Aria expectantly.
“Okay… Uh, Kahtesh, right?” She looked to Isaac for confirmation. Isaac nodded so she continued: “Follow me.” She told the dragon and jumped down to start walking back the wagon train. The little dragon trotted along obediently.
“Lenna, come sit here and rest a bit.” Isaac ordered and then looked at the dark skinned human wizard. “Keith, you too. We are going to need a lot of fire out of both of you so get as much mana back as you can.” Keith looked reluctant to follow Isaac’s orders but then saw Lenna climb up onto the wagon with her platinum adventurers’ badge hanging from her neck and obeyed. Isaac hopped down and walked over to Wo Lu and Claus.
“Any good ideas?” Wo Lu asked.
Isaac shook his head. “Not really.” He stared at the mass slowly getting closer to them. They backed up a few more steps as the wagon continued to slowly move. The horses that were pulling the wagon were turned around but it didn’t look like the same was true for the rest of the wagons. That only served to make shifting the wagon train even more awkward. It did keep the horses from freaking out at the monster though so it was worth it. Isaac glanced at the guards. “You all move to the back and help get these wagons moving faster.” Isaac directed them.
One of the guards looked at Isaac. “It looked like that thing was after you.” He commented.
Isaac nodded. “It’s attracted to my stunning good looks.” He replied sarcastically.
Another guard nodded along with the first. “Seriously. That’s what I saw too.” He argued.
Wo Lu cut in: “It doesn’t matter. Either way we have to go this way. Either way it will be a problem.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“What if he teleported to the other side and waited in one of the other tunnels until we got past?” The first guard commented.
“He just showed up and bailed us out of a siege and you want him to be bait?!” Ellem shot back.
Isaac shrugged. “He’s right.” An orange, vein, tentacle, thing reached out towards Isaac but he just backed up again. “This thing is definitely after me.” He looked back at the wizard sitting cross legged in the wagon. “Any ideas mister wizard?”
Keith met Isaac’s eyes. “Tunnel Horrors are drawn towards large bursts of mana. You definitely brought it here.” He looked over at the monster. “That,” He gestured at the mass trying to drag itself into the tunnel. “I have no idea.”
Wo Lu’s eyes narrowed at the creature. “Maybe a curse.” He guessed. “You killed them now their corpses are trying to kill you?” He didn’t sound very convinced of his own postulation.
Isaac shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He replied while staring at the monster and taking another step back with the rest of them. “I think it is reacting to something.” His gaze bore through the monster like if he stared hard enough it would give him the answer. “Maybe the death mana?” He guessed. “Mana density, divinity, death mana, Ori-Masa kill count,” He shook his head. “I can’t think of any other reasons.” He looked between Claus, Wo Lu, Keith, and Lenna. “Anyone else?”
“Death mana is the only option.” Lenna replied. “It is the only thing you and Kahtesh share.”
Isaac nodded in agreement. “Let me try something.” He said and vanished.
“I-” Lenna began but sighed. “Don’t get yourself killed, again.”
—
Isaac had another one of his hair brained ideas. This time he was going to try and see if the monster that was obviously attracted to him could sense him even when he was invisible. He teleported behind it while Invisible to see if there was any change. Nothing happened so he walked closer and closer until he could almost touch it. “You make no sense.” Isaac spoke silently to the monster. It was then that he noticed where the chitin ring-like plates of the Tunnel Horror had gone. The monster had been using them as supports to maintain its structure. Now that it was trying to squeeze through the much smaller hole the rings were being shifted back into roughly the shape they had been before the worm was devoured.
“I wonder how mobile you will be in that form.” He thought aloud silently. Isaac got some distance and then turned his shadows into death flames and watched the monster. It stopped. A few moments later it started trying to force itself back out of the tunnel and towards Isaac. “You are a persistent bastard aren’t you.” Isaac sighed. “I could really use something flammable.” He looked through his Inventory while the mass of guts tried to extricate itself from the tunnel entrance. “Money, weapons, a compass that always points towards civilization, lantern, clothes, food and water, some random potions… wait, that might just work.” He pulled out a potion and read the label ‘Wallwalking.’ He nodded. “Just might work indeed.”
The monster was doing a much better job of withdrawing itself from the tunnel than entering it but it was still a slow process. Isaac downed the potion like a shot of awful tasting alcohol. It tasted tangy and bitter with a bite on his tongue and made his throat feel like it was lined with mucus. Isaac pulled out his waterskin and tried to wash out the taste to little effect. “Never again. Next time I am going to figure out how to get Kahtesh to drink it.” He said with a cough.
The magic of the potion spread and diffused across Isaac’s entire body. That was when he realized a problem. The potion made him stick to even sheer surfaces. Specifically on the bottoms of his feet and his palms. The problem was his boots. With only his hands available he would have to scale the walls with nothing but the surface area of his palms as a connection. “Whoever thought this potion was a good idea needs to rethink life.” He grumbled. He tossed the empty bottle and it vanished into his Inventory.
Isaac walked over to the wall and tried to pull himself up with only his hands. The feeling wasn’t pleasant but he powered through it. It felt like his own weight was trying to tear the skin off of his palms. He realized only once he was ten feet up, and the monster had finished extricating itself from the tunnel, that the cavern’s height could only protect him if the monster didn’t have any other tricks. With everything it had shown up until that point, Isaac was sure his idea was a wash. “Only one way to find out I guess.” He grunted and pulled himself higher.
The monster approached Isaac at a faster rate than anticipated. It was in an egg shape as it hadn’t fully reformed into a sphere. It rolled sideways at him and he was forced to teleport away. The more it rolled the more spherical it became. “This was a dumb idea and I regret everything.” Isaac spoke to himself as he teleported out of the way of the monster right up to the ceiling and tried to hold on. A piece of stone came off in his hand and the other lost its grip due to the accumulated stone dust on it. He started to fall. He could only sigh as he teleported back to Lenna and staggered from the sudden transition from falling to standing. He tried to brush his hands off on himself but he was still covered in blood. He sighed deeper than last time as the small chunk of stone that was still attached to his hand fell and broke on the ground.
“Didn’t go well?” Lenna asked rhetorically.
Isaac gave her a flat look as the monster slammed back into the tunnel entrance raining stone dust from the ceiling. “No. No it did not.”