As the children moved deeper into the dungeon, Charlie realized it was only getting stranger and stranger. The odd decorations that he saw on their way to the initiation earlier with Sophia and Kyo dwelled compared to the things he saw now.
Beds, complete with tucked in blankets and pillows, hung upside down from the ceiling. At regular intervals, there were mirror frames on opposite sides of the wall. But only one mirror had glass in it at a time. The glass would shatter, and then the pieces would float across the hall to snap firmly into place within the other mirror frame.
It looked dangerous, but the mirrors always halted their back-and-forth exchange as the children passed.
Charlie thought it was very polite of them.
The dungeon was still fond of its stairways, now the stairs no longer stopped after a few steps. Instead, they took up nearly the entirety of the dungeon’s hallway itself. They rose all the way to the ceiling, where they ended, with nowhere else to go. The children skirted past the stairs in the openings on either side of them. Charlie found it all very strange.
What was the point of all these weird decorations? It was like the dungeon had lost its mind or something.
Kashak led the children. A handful of spear wielders trailed behind him. A few more lingered toward the rear of the group, watching their backs. At first, Charlie had found that strange, but they had since passed several tunnels leading to new sections of the dungeon.
There wasn’t any telling what lurked down them.
Luc and Florence walked with the younger children, corralling them, and keeping them safely in the center of the group. Lyra held him, as usual, and his floating, transparent temporary core rested atop his belly. It had somewhat gotten over its fear of Lyra. But anytime she moved too quickly, the core would roll closer to Charlie’s face for protection. It was really strange, and he wasn’t sure what exactly the core’s purpose was.
The children came to a stop at an intersection within the dungeon. There were three alternative paths, one to either side and one leading further ahead. Lyra joined Kashak at the front of the group. “What is it?” she asked.
Kashak knelt, studying the dirt. Charlie leaned over and saw a trail of footprints. They seemed to head down the straight path. Kashak shook his head, turning toward Lyra. “They’re moving too fast and we’re moving too slow. They came through here a while ago. If we continue at this pace, they’ll reach the center of the dungeon before we catch up.”
An alarmed expression flickered across Lyra’s face for just a moment before she caught herself and straightened up. “Their legs are smaller than ours. They won’t be able to keep up if we try to move faster.” She pointed her head toward the smaller children.
Luc overheard and moved to join them. “What if the hunters go on ahead? The rest of us will move at our own pace. I know you want to keep everyone together, but we have to stop them as soon as we can! Kyo’s counting on us!”
Lyra shook her head. “No. That would leave the more vulnerable children with no protection. I can’t keep them all safe myself. We have to keep the Scalers in mind.” She froze. A thought occurred to her.
Her eyes locked in on Kashak. “Kashak, what if we cut through Scaler territory? We’d have to move even more carefully, but Tomas always said he believed there was a faster route somewhere through there. If we can find it, we might be able to get ahead of Brel and the other guards and set up an ambush. It’s risky, but with all of us together, they might be too intimidated to mess with us.”
Kashak sighed. He turned to look at the other hunters, and then at the smaller children. “It took all of us to capture the Scaler that escaped. It was hard. But we pulled it off because it was on its own. Separated from its kin. If we move through their territory, it won’t be that way. They’ll travel in larger groups. Even Tomas wasn’t willing to go into their territory. It’s risky, Lyra. Even for me.”
“We don’t have a choice. You just said we can’t keep up at this pace, and we can’t leave the younger children behind. We’ll move through as a team. We can take the safe route back after we get Kyo. We’ll stay quiet, and avoid any lizards we come across,” Lyra said.
Kashak looked over at Luc, who nodded his encouragement. “Alright. We’ll try it.”
It was nice to see them working together. But Charlie wondered if this was the best idea. He could talk to Lyra about it, but he didn’t want all the other children to learn his secret, too. Merlin wouldn’t be too happy about that. Still, he needed to know what they were up against.
Kashak led the children down the tunnel to the right. They had the smaller children bundle together and hold hands as they walk. The hunters with spears spread out in a circle around them.
Those without them stayed inside the circle with the other children, but looked around, providing an extra set of eyes and ears. Some of them had ripped a few of the blinking lamps off the walls and now used them as makeshift clubs. They wrapped shirts and other extra garments around the lamps to keep the flickering lights from being annoying. Others had table or chair legs.
Charlie had to give them to credit, the children were resourceful.
“Lyra, what do you know about the Scalers? How dangerous are they? What can they do?” he thought spoke to her. He still wondered how she was able to hear him. But for now, he was just grateful that she could.
Lyra looked at him, then around at the other children. She bit her lip. “Little ones, listen up! Do you all remember what we said about the lizards? What we have to look out for?” she asked.
Sophia made her way to join Lyra. She exchanged eye contact with Charlie. He smiled at her. She blinked in surprise, then looked at her feet as she walked, a smile on her face as well.
A little girl called out an answer. “Scalers can climb on the walls and attack from anywhere! They have sharp teeth, long claws, and a really big tongue that shoots out!”
Lyra patted the girl on her head. “Very good, Josephine! Anyone else?”
A little boy raised his hand. “Some of them have these big fins on their head like this!” He curved an arm on either side of his head and made a weird face. “The ones like that can spit something that burns you really bad. Tomas always said to run away from those!”
“That’s right! If we see those, stay close to me. I’ll use my hex to keep the acid from hitting anyone. Okay?”
The smaller children shouted a chorus of agreements. Kashak glared at Lyra over his shoulder.
She held a finger up to her lips. “Remember, we have to be quiet,” she told the children.
Charlie smiled. Lyra was fantastic with the other kids. They were lucky to have someone like her to keep an eye on them. He gave her a little thumbs up. She’d found a way to communicate with him without giving away his secret.
Scalers were unpredictable, and some of them could shoot acid. He needed to keep that in mind. Lyra’s water elemental hex wasn’t the only defensive option. He could create walls too! But…he wasn’t sure how Lyra would explain something like that.
If it came down to protecting the children, or keeping his powers a secret, he wouldn’t hesitate.
He would fight with everything he had.
They moved like this for a while. The dungeon got narrower at first and then opened up. They crossed into a new section of the hallway that was two times as large as usual. “We’re officially in Scaler territory from this point forward,” she whispered, looking down at Charlie. He nodded at her.
He turned to watch the hunters up front with Kashak and Desmond. They moved slowly now. Kashak was vigilant. His head slowly swiveled, searching the walls and ceilings for any sign of Scalers. It would be harder to track the lizards down than it was to track people. Since they could climb on walls. The children had to keep their eyes focused on many more areas at once.
“Arh.” The noise echoed through the hallway.
Kashak held a hand up and the others stopped. Desmond turned to look at the hunters in the rear. They signaled it was clear. He turned his focus back ahead and squatted next to Kashak.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The next section of the tunnel was eerily dark. They hadn’t needed the lamplight for a while, but suddenly it was almost impossible to see up ahead.
They stood there, frozen for a while, but no new noises followed the first. Kashak pointed to two hunters, motioning for them to join him. He held a hand out towards Desmond, instructing him to keep an eye on the others. Kashak held his spear in one hand. In the other, he reached back and held a hand out toward one of the lamp wielding boys. The boy handed it over.
Kashak unwrapped the lamp, letting the shirt wrapped around it fall to the floor. He stepped forward, a young man on either side of him. Armed only with three spears and a blinking lamp to guide the way into the darkness ahead.
Charlie squinted. Why exactly was the hallway in front of them so dark? Axel said it was common in dungeons for light to still reach human eyes.
So why couldn’t they see?
“Arhhhhhhh,” another Scaler cried. This one sounded closer. Kashak and the other two boys stopped creeping forward. One of them swallowed, looking unsurely over his shoulder at the other children.
Kashak threw the lamp forward into the pitch black.
It flickered as it rolled.
On.
Off.
On.
Off.
On.
It came to a stop flickering on to reveal hundreds of Scalers on the ground, as well as clinging to the walls and ceilings.
They screamed as one, a chorus of terrifying screeches.
“ARHHHHHHH!”
The boy on Kashak’s left backed away. The other, on his right, whipped his head back around to face the Scalers. A wet spot formed on his pants.
Kashak shook his head. “Lyra! Run!” He screamed.
The lamp flicked off, plunging them into darkness.
And then the Scalers swarmed.
Desmond cried out. “Hold them back!”
The children with flickering lamps quickly unwrapped them and held them high to illuminate the room.
Droplets of water splashed Charlie’s face as Lyra summoned a hex. He could barely hear her chant, over and over, it was muffled by the cries of children and shrieks of lizards. Burst of water shot forward into the swarming mass of Scalers.
Charlie scrambled up, hearing a commotion from behind. He looked over Lyra’s shoulder.
More Scalers had flanked them.
They were surrounded.
Spears flashed as the hunters did their best to ward the lizards away. Claws scraped against them.
Luc waved a flickering lamp around with his good hand to help the others see.
A Scaler from above shrieked and leapt on him.
It took him down below the mass of screaming children.
This was it.
Charlie needed to fight.
But it was difficult to see with limited light. “Core! Light, please!” he cried out, hoping it would understand him. The transparent core shot into the air, illuminating the immediate hallway. Several Scalers all looked up at the light, distracted, and shrieked toward it. Others ignored it, locked in battle.
He searched for the immediate threats. First, he needed to get some control over the battlefield again. There would be too many to stop otherwise.
Transfer! Dungeon Manipulation!
Two large block walls slowly descended from the ceiling on either side of the gathered children. It left plenty of room for the children to move while also carving a smaller battlefield out from the larger tunnel. The children were still in danger, but this would limit Scaler reinforcements at the very least.
Florence swatted the Scaler attacking Luc away with a chair leg. It leapt to the ceiling, retreating. She screamed, a surprised victory cry, and went to help Luc up.
A splash of liquid hit her in the face.
She screamed again.
This time, in anguish.
Lyra turned toward Florence, a horrified look on her face. “Florence! I didn’t see it…I didn’t see it…” she stammered.
Charlie shrieked.
He looked up and saw the spitting Scaler on the ceiling above. He swatted a hand toward it, activating his ability again. A portal to his dungeon opened and a pillar shot out of it.
It crushed the Scaler into the ceiling.
It rocked back and forth, pinning the creature against the ceiling over and over until the crunching of bone became a mashing of paste.
Charlie was angry now.
He started with the ones on the walls and ceilings. They were the easiest to target without worrying about harming the other children. The hunters would have to protect the children on the ground. Many Scalers sat back. Even with their overwhelming numbers, they looked for openings. It was a good thing too, because if they had simply swarmed the children, the battle would already be over.
He tried something different. The pillars were effective at crushing them. But they were too small. Targeted attacks weren’t as effective here. He needed to wipe as many out as possible. He stretched two hands apart to help him visualize it.
“Transfer! Dungeon Manipulation!”
Two large blocks of dungeon material appeared on either side of the dungeon’s ceiling wall.
They came crashing together. Crushing the Scalers as they went.
Charlie clapped his hands together, over and over, in unison with the collisions.
More blocks, more claps, more explosions of rock as they rammed into each other.
The rocks dissipated as they fell from the ceiling to prevent them from hurting anyone.
The other Scalers realized their numbers were taking rapid casualties.
A deep, warbled cry came from somewhere beyond one of the rock walls Charlie had created.
“Arcaa!” Even muffled from behind the wall, it was an earsplitting noise.
The wall Charlie created that led deeper into Scaler territory suddenly cracked, a hole opened, and the Scalers stuck within started to retreat.
The problem was some of them took children with them.
They dragged them, clamping down on arms or legs and pulling them away.
Charlie reached out to attack.
Warning. Dungeon Integrity at 4%. The dungeon is on the verge of collapse.
Charlie gasped. Not now…he had to save them. But…Bleedy and Mousifer were inside his dungeon. If the dungeon collapsed now, they might die. Parent said he could increase their chances of survival, but he didn’t guarantee it. But what should he do then?
Lyra screamed.
“Emerald Hex Elemental!” she shouted. Water shot forward and pierced the brains of several Scalers. They went still, the children they were dragging with them scrambled away.
Some reached the group.
Others got caught by new lizards.
Lyra used everything she could to stop them.
Little Josephine cried out as a lizard reached the opening in the rock wall with her in tow. She looked directly at Lyra, screaming, and dragging her fingers through the dirt.
And then she was gone.
Her scream continued on the other side. Muffled by the wall. Lyra shook her head. “No…”
Charlie’s rock walls crumbled, his connection to them severed by his weakening dungeon integrity.
On the other side of one lay Kashak. A clawed, bloody mess left behind on his body. There was a large pile of Scaler corpses all around him. Some had crushed heads or necks, others looked like something had punched clean through their bodies.
A single Scaler stood over Kashak, facing towards the large swarm.
“Arh!” it screamed toward the others.
Lyra gasped and lifted her hands to attack.
But Charlie cried out. “Wait! It’s protecting him!”
Lyra turned to look at Charlie and then back at the lizard before them.
It was the Scaler Kashak captured.
The same Scaler Charlie set free.
“Arcaa!” The loud, reverberating scream came again from deeper into the dungeon. Charlie covered his ears.
The swarm turned back and fled deeper into Scaler territory.
Charlie looked around. Luc knelt beside Florence. She wept loudly, covering her face with her hands.
She wasn’t alone. Many of the children cried.
The hunters and spearmen fell to their knees. Beaten and exhausted.
Scaler corpses lay strewn all around them.
Thankfully, it looked like none of the children were dead.
But plenty were missing and injured.
The Scalers had escaped with Josephine, and several other children as well.
And to Charlie’s horror, he realized he couldn’t find Sophia either.
The Scaler protecting Kashak bit at his pant leg and dragged him slowly towards the other children. Desmond flung his spear to the ground and hurried to Kashak’s side.
Charlie sighed. He felt like crying too.
He hadn’t been able to save them.
This was horrible.
He’d lost Sophia.