Chapter 207

Tom stood and watched the rest of his team sprinting over toward them and then down at Harry. He was torn between making the healers carry the hurt man to preserve his own combat effectiveness versus doing it himself to let them travel faster.

It was a borderline decision, but they were in a broken circular. The wildlife that usually existed had long since migrated away from this area. Excluding, of course static ambush predators like the lizards and the earth maggots.

The scouts had been very aware of the risk, and Tom was certain they would make sure that they didn’t run into an ambush point. Given how furiously the others were sprinting, running speed was probably more important than safety. With his mind made up, he crouched and gathered Harry up. The venom must have had some type of paralytic component because Harry was stiff. None of the joints moved. It was like what occurred when rigor mortis set in.

Michael cleared his throat. “Need help?”

Tom shook his head and stood with Harry in his arms. He imagined this is what it felt to hold a corpse. It was undignified, but he shifted the positioning so that Harry rested like a log between his outstretched arms. It was not a great solution, and a little uncomfortable, but given the man’s state no positioning would work perfectly and at least this way he could run.

“Travel fifty metres away from the cliff,” Everlyn ordered via group chat. “And then run parallel to it. In half a kilometre we’ll slow and search for a hiding spot.”

“Do you want us to wait?” Tom asked immediately.

“No. I’ve already scouted, and it’s safe.”

Tom kicked himself. He had forgotten that Everlyn had already run this area both when collecting the scorpoise and then again when she returned to them.

The three of them immediately started jogging as instructed. Tom led the way his eyes searching for a threat the entire time. Running blindly with a helpless load in the underground felt crazy, but for all of her flaws he trusted Everlyn’s judgement on these sorts of things.

She would have calculated the risks and obviously thought that they were low enough that there was no need to link up first. If there were bigger threats, she would have spotted them. As for critters, they were probably still around and, if Tom was being honest, strong enough to challenge the weaker members of his team, but they would have been spooked by the recent melee. None of them would be near.

Apart from the exceptions, he thought, thinking of the lizards. They hadn’t been scared since they had seen the fight as an opportunity, but then again they were alpha predators, not the critters that he had been considering. Tom glanced up and remembered how they had appeared and then charged down the wall. Almost fifty of them and all of them well above the average rank of everything else in the circular. “Do we know if the cliffs are safe?”

“Educated guess,” Everlyn answered. “The uncertainty is why we are staying fifty metres away. Once we reach the target spot Jingyi and I will confirm that there is nothing hostile there.” There was a slight pause. “It should be fine. We saw where the lizards came from. In half a K, we’ll be out of their territory and I doubt there’ll be another aggressive species that close to such a powerful colony.”

“I understand.” Tom said quietly. “But don’t we think five hundred metres will leave us too near the lizards?”

“I don’t think so.” Everlyn pause for a moment clearly thinking it through. “None of them travelled more than two hundred metres from their den’s when they attacked earlier. I suspect that’s sort of the hard boundary on how far they’re willing to travel. Plus, they don’t need to hunt because they all just got a month worth of food.”

“You’re telling me that a monster that big and ferocious is too scaredy-cat to go more than two hundred and one metres from their home?” Keikain asked incredulously.

“Something like that.” Everlyn answered. “The psychology of some creatures is weird.”

“I guess,” Keikain agreed grudgingly.

“You must have seen that behaviour in the tutorial,” Tom half questioned, half stated even as his eyes continually scanned the surroundings to make sure he didn’t walk into anything unexpected.

“Occasionally, but two hundred metres is really short. All the surface creatures I fought that were anywhere near the lizard’s size defended a much larger territory. But that’s the surface. I don’t know how the underground works.”

“Like the surface, just with more extremes,” Clare said quietly. “I hate this place so much.”

They lapsed in silence, and by the time they reached the spot they were targeting the others had caught up to them. Everlyn flashed him a smile and Tom was reminded about how close they had been. Then she and Jingyi made a straight line to the cliff face and then jogged along it.

Without being instructed, the rest of them kept pace with the scouts, though they carefully maintained the fifty-metre gap.

Finally, after another hundred metres Jingyi waved them across. He was standing in front of a small hole at the base of the cliff that was barely large enough to crawl through.

“It’s not much,” Jingyi told them apologetically. “However, the tunnel gets taller after a couple of metres and empties out into a good sized cave. If we’re discovered at worse, it’ll be defensible.”

The scout had not entered the hole, and Tom looked at him, suspiciously. “How did you scout it? How do you know that much?”

“Trade secrets.”

Astonishment flashed across Tom’s face. He had not expected that sort of response. Theoretically, he understood that some people got sensitive about the builds even if it was not something Tom personally understood. “Sorry I.”

Jingyi burst out into laughter. “No, no… It’s fine. There’s no secrets but you should have seen your face.”

Everlyn cleared her throat pointedly.

“Oh, we should.” Jingyi gestured to Rahmat, telling him to enter first, then back at Tom. “To answer your question I can summon a familiar spirit. Currently, the only ones I’ve tamed are a small bird and a mouse. Quite useful for these conditions and because they have such a low energy imprint, they’re almost invisible so they can check places like this.” He patted the cave entrance. “And if there is something nasty inside, I can usually withdraw them without triggering it.”

Rahmat cleared the entrance, and Jingyi waved Thor through next.

“The first cave we found contained a rock elemental.” Everlyn volunteered and nodded back the way they had come. “If I had gone, we would probably have had to fight it.”

“You’re next Tom,” Jingyi said.

Tom went straight over to the hole and placed Harry carefully down on his back in front of the entrance. “That sounds like an amazing purchase… you must have got a lot of contribution points to afford that and your trial sense.”

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“I would like to think so.” Jingyi teased. “But you know we can’t talk too much on specifics.”

There was no need to recheck Harry’s health because Tom had been monitoring it the entire time that he had been carrying the other man in case he had to intervene. It had not been required as Clare and Michael between them had kept healing Harry and had actually improved his overall state during the jog.

Tom poked his head through the hole and saw exactly what Jingyi had described. “And it’s definitely empty?”

The scout nodded. “I think Rahmat would have said something by now if it wasn’t.”

With a shrug, Tom backed into the crevice. Until it was tall enough to stand, this was going to be awkward. He gently lifted Harry by pushing his arms under the other man’s armpits with Harry’s head resting on his shoulder. It was beyond uncomfortable and he started wriggling himself backwards.

Michael spotted his difficulty and immediately got down on his hands knees and lifted Harry’s legs over his shoulder. His efforts effectively pulled Harry’s lower half off the ground and made things substantially easier for Tom. After two minutes of backing blindly, the tunnel’s height increased and Tom was able to stand.

It was now much easy to move, and carrying Harry between them they were able to easily manoeuvre down another thirty metres of tunnels before emerging into a large room.

It was weird.

The cave was kind of like a forest in miniature.

The roof was covered in light crystals that made it seem like the midday sun was shining down upon them. It warmed Tom’s skin like the summer sun used to. Then there was a stream that was a foot wide and ankle deep. It flowed through the centre of the room with lush vegetation on either side. That water source combined with heat from the crystals made the cave both warmer and more humid than outside.

Finally, there was the plant life. Nothing over his knees but it was lush and varied with hundreds of different coloured flowers. After a moment of hesitation, Tom stamped a section of vegetation near the wall down and lowered Harry to rest on it. The vegetation was also strange. It wasn’t only grass because there were bushes that looked like miniature bonsai trees, then miniature ferns, and a variety of broadleaf weeds.

His spear appeared in his hand as he studied the strange environment. Despite the abundant flora, there were no noticeable animals to be seen. Neither his spark domain, with its limited range or his earth abilities could sense as much as a fly, let alone a larger organism like a mouse.

To his senses it certainly felt like they were by themselves in the room.

Subconsciously, he stood back-to-back with Rahmat.

The others made their way through, and he could see the same suspicion in all of them when they saw the nature of the cave.

Neither Everlyn nor Jingyi reacted to the vegetation when they entered though he noticed Everlyn smile at their defensive circle around Harry.

Her indifference confirmed his intuition that the two of them had already discussed what they were going to see before they committed to entering. While they did not visibly react in surprise, it didn’t stop them from pushing forward with their eyes on high alert.

With none of the plants growing higher than knee height, they could walk effortlessly through the underbrush. They spread out quickly, carrying out what Tom assumed was a significantly more detailed sweep than what he had done with his magic skills.

“Definitely empty.” Jingyi said when he came back over to them.

Everlyn was still studying the area with a disgruntled expression. “The lack of potency is surprising. The growing environment is perfect, but none of this is even tier one.” With her dagger, she cut a chunk of plants out and then tossed them aside. “Soils good too. It’s concerning.”

“Must be something cleaning it out regularly.” Jingyi said. “Means this is not a long-term stay. We’ll wait for the next wave to pass and then follow like we’ve been doing.”

“Hopefully we’ll get ten hours in?” Keikain suggested.

“At least.” Jingyi agreed. “We want to get somewhere we can solve your problem as soon as possible.”

“How long do you think we’ll be here?” Michael asked while crouched down next to Harry.

“Probably twenty minutes,” Everlyn answered. “The next pack is due in five, and our plan is to follow immediately behind it. Unless,” She walked over to Harry. “You need longer to get him back on his feet.”

“Twenty should be enough.”

Gingerly, everyone sat down on the grass. It was quite comfortable, but then again he had been careful not to sit on any of the mini trees.

“That fight was intense.” Rahmat turned to face Everlyn. “I couldn’t believe how quickly you took down that first lizard.”

Everlyn partially blushed. “Well, I burnt my most powerful cooldown and… If I’m being honest… Tom contributed a lot to that first kill.”

Rahmat appeared confused and glanced between the two of them. “How?”

“I can answer that.” Tom held out his hand, and they all studied it curiously. “If you look carefully, you can see a small ring.”

“I hadn’t seen that before.”

“I got it from a single person, single attempt trial I dispersed on the third day.”

Rahmat whistled. “That would have been a proper blood bath if others had found out about it.”

“Yes, I went in not expecting rewards but to stop everyone fighting over the right to go. Once in I had good or bad luck depending on how you look at it.”

“Bad, except you survived, which makes it good,” Rahmat clarified.

“Something like that,” Tom agreed. “It got me this. It’s a powerful artefact that allows me to destroy someone’s fate reserves, links and any built up protections. It leaves whatever it hits materially weakened.”

“Yep, Tom used that,” Everlyn confirmed. “The affected lizard was then a hundred percent subjected to my fate. It died when the part of the underground that it was gripping crumbled.”

Keikain snorted in laughter at that.

“Which caused it to fall.”

“Underground crumbling,” Keikain repeated it like it was the funniest joke ever.

Everlyn ignored him. “Then when it was out of position, I got a lucky blow in.”

“Convenient, the super hard rock of the underground failing at exactly the same moment.” Keikain muttered. “That’s like a billion to one.”

“And not something we talk openly about.” Tom reminded him. “No one here should be confused about how fate works in fights. You must have all experienced it hundreds of times in the tutorial.”

“And that ring just supercharges its effectiveness against one monster.” Keikain said.

Tom nodded.

“Guess that’s good, and it came through against the lizard.”

“Yes, it is. As for you, mister.” Everlyn said, chuckling. “I noticed you produced a secret spell you hadn’t told anyone about.”

Keikain waved his hands furiously at that accusation. “It wasn’t a secret. I just haven’t had a chance to use it in front of you.”

Everlyn laughed. “It’s perfectly fine. And formally thank you for the save. When you asked me to lead it over that area, I was expecting an earth spike to strike it. I figured that would probably slow it enough for me to get a few hits in to defeat it. But then…” She clapped her hands hard. “That goddamn shark or whatever it was modelled off, leapt out of the rock and bit the lizard almost in half. Unexpected but awesome. I owe you one for that save.”

“Well, the spell’s low-leveled so it reflects what’s in my inner imagination. I was always fascinated by great whites, so that is sort of what you got.”

“Well, it was certainly effective. Thank god for childhood movies and Keikain. I know you’re limited down here, but you did really good. You communication was top-notch and while you only had a few shots to fire, you did them all at the right time. We might have lost someone if you hadn’t pulled out the magic you did.”

“Personally, I was impressed with Thor,” Keikain volunteered. “Oh, and useless of course with his extended dance with the lizard.”

“No,” Everlyn interrupted firmly. “Don’t use that term.”

“Why?” Keikain protested. “I’m his friend now.”

Tom felt like screaming at him that he was not. That he was an evil murderer who had cold heartedly butchered his companions and Tom would never call Keikain a friend, but acknowledge he couldn’t. Rahmat knew but not the others and if he went on that type of rant then everyone else would find out.

He physically bit his lip to stop himself from saying anything. The intense pain stilled his mind but didn’t reach his face.

“He doesn’t deserve to be mocked.” Everlyn continued.

Tom could taste copper in his mouth. He wished he was back in the tutorial with Pinkwing because this was all too exhausting. He breathed in deeply. “Everlyn, it’s ok. Keikain can call me that. He has earnt the right.”

“Thank you Tom.” Keikain licked his lips. “Everlyn’s got a point. I’m not going to use the term again… you’ve earned my respect. After all, you stopped me from getting my head chopped off. Thanks for your understanding. Useless. Oh no I said it.” He bit his fist in mock anxiety, then he chuckled. “Once is all I need. I swear I’ll never call you useless again.”

Rahmat was glaring daggers at the earth mage. “All jokes aside, Thor was impressive.”

“It was only because it was a favourable match up for me,” the big man said modestly. “Once I got used to their pace, all I had to do was to time my blows properly that were too light to resist.”

“Still,” Rahmat grinned at him. “You were an absolute machine. Your battle awareness was really impressive.”

“I have a trait.”

“What type?” Jingyi asked.

“It’s a party battle awareness one.”

“You bought something to help in team combat?” The scout asked in surprise.

“Yes, what’s with that tone?” Thor demanded defensively. “Existentia was always slated to be a larger team effort. It was logical to purchase something to help.”

“Nothing…” Jingyi waved his hands. “I mean… It wasn’t an insult. I’m impressed you went down that path because from what I’ve observed most people went with selfish options.”

“Oh.” Thor looked pleased. “I had lots of experience fighting solo. I figured something for group engagements was sensible.”

“Smart,” Jingyi agreed.