Chapter 115: Tunnel Rats
It was a kind of strange twilight gloom down here, getting darker the closer you got to the island. Tom wasn’t quite sure what to make of it; it felt weird. It was definitely awe-inspiring and oddly terrifying to be looking up at what was essentially a flying mountain. In fact, it felt claustrophobic somehow. It didn't help that much of the island above was covered in darkness, so you couldn’t see what was hiding in it. And there were a lot of holes spread around seemingly randomly in clusters almost as if termites had infested the stone.
Looking down wasn’t any better; the vast ocean was visible through the clouds here and there, but it was ridiculously far down to the point Tom found himself clinging to Jacky as he stared down. He damn near shat himself when she lurched to the side with a cry of “Oh shit!” before catching herself, laughing hysterically. Quite a few others joined in with the laughing. ‘Really not the time for this,’ Tom cursed annoyedly.
“What’s the matter? I didn't think you were scared of water,” Sapphire chuckled.
“It’s a little further down than usual,” Tom replied, making sure not to look down. "Who made those mines anyway? Old ruins?” he questioned, cleverly changing the subject.
“Don’t really know. There are a few ruins on the island, so maybe there was more here back in the day. Dad certainly thinks so. Long gone now though,” Dakota replied, looking at him knowingly.
“Maybe they too were scared of heights,” Jacky replied, laughing at her own joke.
“Yeah yeah, real funny. Hopefully the tunnels will make you a little less chipper.”
“I ain’t scared of no hole in the ground!” ‘Yeah right.’
Glira had come out to meet them, leading them back to the cave where the enemy had apparently been tracked to. Tom couldn’t help but feel there were a lot of places where the enemy could hide around here, and who was to say this was the only hell hole around.
The cave had an opening leading straight up before turning nearly ninety degrees into the main cave, which was lit by torches. It looked like a well-sheltered and easily defensible position. Judging by the charred corpses that were still strewn around as well as the marks on the walls, a valiant but futile defense had been fought by the darklings. There were also two corpses of younger-looking bat night terrors not even half the size of the ones they had fought before, assuming those were full adults.
“Nice for you to join us, you look terrifying,” Major Jortun greeted them as they disembarked in the cave, the other two dragons nowhere to be seen.
“Oh it gets worse,” Jacky added. “Put the mask on.” Tom complied, putting on the face mask and clicking down his fancy night-vision goggles. “It’s a human skull. It looks fucking scary right?”
“That is indeed disturbing. Don’t startle anyone down there please, we don’t want friendly fire. The others are busy beating the shit out of them. Quency, go tell them to stop gassing, backup’s here.”
One of Glira’s crewmen gave a nod before running off down one of the huge connecting tunnels. “It’s quite the system you have got down here,” the major continued, gesturing for them to follow him. He certainly didn’t seem concerned to Tom, lending more credence to Sapphire's idea that this was just to learn about how they fought.
“So where do you need me?” Jarix questioned, looking hopefully to his mother. ‘You little rascal,’ Tom cursed, looking back at the dragon.
“They can’t even use me down here, go back and do your job. There you might actually do some good,” Glira replied in a rather annoyed tone. Tom couldn’t tell if it was because of Jarix or the fact she perhaps hadn’t seen much action today. It had the desired effect though; Jarix looked almost betrayed for a moment before his face turned sour.
“Fine. I’ll see you back there... Murder the fuck out of them,” Jarix half-shouted at Tom and the group in a very loud voice. ‘Someone wants revenge,’ Tom thought to himself, nodding at Jarix.
“Can do,” Jacky replied with evident excitement, though the more Tom paid attention there was a cold determination creeping into her voice, to the point he had no doubt she intended to uphold that promise. This might be a stupid idea, but these were the bastards responsible for both the destruction of Hylsdal and all the deaths at Deriva after all. They deserved to be wiped out, and they would be. “This time you stay behind me.”
There was no room for argument in her voice either, Tom just nodding, taking a deep breath. ‘Time to see if this works,’ Tom thought to himself, bringing up the newly shortened shotgun. He had no clue how tight it would be down there, but a scoped rifle was likely not suitable. A sawed-off shotgun with both slugs and buckshot through… that was a different story. Better on the ears too for that matter.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Saph let out a shivering sigh as they made their way down the narrow corridor. She fucking hated this: it was dark, it was cold, the walls were wet and the floor slippery. They had torches, but that was it. Their little group had been joined up with much of Glira’s crew, Major Jortun being in command. It had been a bit of an argument, but in the end Jortun had won by virtue of him lacking swordsmen. He also had fewer people even after they split off elements to help the dragons guard the entrance cave. Ray and Tom had argued for not taking any torches, but the major and Dakota had overruled them. Saph didn’t mind being able to see, so she was quite happy with the torchlight, not to mention the bit of heat coming off them.
“This seems too easy,” Dakota stated, clearly on edge.
“What can I say? Don't catch Grevi on a bad breath day,” the major replied, not sounding worried in the slightest. “How’s our tracker doing?” The major, Dakota, Balethon, and one sergeant called Tubs were in the lead, sword and shield at the ready. The second line was Jacky and three of Glira’s crew, carrying halberds and spears. Then came Saph, Ray, Tom, and Twitch the grenadier as the ranged combatants, with more of Glira’s swords and shields in the rear.
“They have come through here that’s for sure,” Balethon replied.
“You said that 10 minutes ago,” Tubs protested, sounding a bit less carefree than the major.
“Well it was true back then too.”
“I would retreat too if the tunnels started filling with gas,” Dakota added, peering down the tunnel.
“THERE!” Ray let out, losing a bolt over the heads of the ones in front, the audible ping of the bolt striking metal coming back up the tunnel. “Shit!”
“How many?” Dakota questioned.
“Just one, it peeked around the corner.”
“That’s… okay,” Jortun replied thoughtfully. “Next time just tell us what you see.”
“Sorry.”
“Think they are laying an ambush, boss?” Tubs questioned. The major let out a chuckle.
“Of course they are. They have likely run out of orders to follow. I’m willing to bet they have either been told to defend something, or just kill as many of us as possible. So ambushes galore,” the major replied, still not seeming worried as they began advancing down the tunnel again.
“Great,” Saph let out. This was exactly why she hated fighting in tunnels, especially if she didn't know them. And thanks to the lack of light, even Ray was outshooting her…
“About here will do. Twitch, you’re up,” the major ordered, the formation coming to a halt. The grenadier made his way to the front line, opening up his satchel bags.
“What’s we cooking today, boss?” The rather singed-looking dragonette replied, Tom taking an evident interest. Saph made well sure to keep her distance ‘cause that looked like it had gone wrong before.
“Blitz. I don’t wanna suffocate down here.”
“You gotz it,” Twitch replied, getting out a metal ball and beginning to fiddle with it. He took out a small glass cylinder of what looked suspiciously like blitz powder, slotting it into the device.
“You are not gonna throw that, right?” Tom questioned.
“Why not?” came the confused reply from Twitch.
“Have you at least discharged it first?” Tom pleaded, Saph taking another step back.
“Dis what?”
“That is blitz powder right?”
“Yes, goes boom when it hits, I show you.”
Saph could hear Tom swallow as he put his hands over his ears, and she instinctively followed suit. Twitch fiddled with the metal ball a bit more before nodding at Jortun, receiving a nod back. Saph made ready to ‘help’ the ball just in case the throw was off, but despite appearances it would seem Twitch could at least throw the thing.
It definitely went boom too, the orb exploding the second it touched the floor. The flash of light blinded Saph slightly even through her closed eyelids. “Charge!” Jortun ordered once everyone got the fingers back out of their ears.
It wasn’t exactly an ordered advance as they stormed into the opening. The tunnel led into a small cave. The entrance was lit by torches on the wall leaving the rest of the room in darkness. It positively screamed trap, but hopefully, the grenade had done its job. Saph began scanning for targets immediately as the ones in front dealt with the scout that had been spying on them. That is to say they finished off the half-dead corpse that was screaming in agony. Then came the return fire, as the blinded darklings opened fire from the darkness. If not for the fact she was currently getting shot at, she would have laughed at their lack of accuracy. Only a single arrow bouncing off Dakota's shield, the rest missing completely.
Jortun decided this was still an unfair fight, so he threw his torch at the enemy. Dakota followed suit, and they hunkered down behind their shields to begin the advance on the enemy archers. Sapphire Crouched down behind the little shield wall to pop up and fire and she did not miss, dropping a target with a shaft to the throat. Tom had warned her that using the grenades inside the tunnel would be incredibly dangerous, and there were no important-looking targets around, so regular arrows would do. Ray also fired, as did the members of Glira’s crew that were carrying crossbows, and they did score some hits collectively, though seemingly no immediate kills.
That changed as Tom joined in, rising to his feet next to Sapphire and crumpling in some poor fucker’s chest, everyone flinching at the loud crack. Jacky also joined in, standing tall in the face of the enemy, advancing with the line as she let loose with her revolver, recklessly firing away. Saph wasn’t sure if it was on purpose, but it certainly got the enemy’s attention, as all fire shifted to Jacky. It would seem their eyes were recovering too, as more and more hits started bouncing harmlessly off Jacky's armor.
“Come on then fuckheads, kill me!” Jacky shouted as the revolver clicked empty, Tom grabbing her by the shoulders trying to pull her down. “I fucking dare you!”
“Get down you idiot!” Jacky did, in fact, get down, much to Saph's relief as she drew another arrow. From what she could see they were dealing with no more than a handful of darklings here, and the swords had closed enough that they were switching to blades themselves. Saph checked behind them real quick, making sure that the rearguard was keeping their backs clear before she fanned out, Ray sticking close to her.
“Hold fire, Ray,” Saph ordered, worried that her aim might not be quite good enough to avoid nailing someone in the neck, and she had just managed to reload.
“Okay,” Ray replied, clearly with genuine fear in her voice.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“It’s fine, it’s just a few of them,” Saph tried as Dakota reduced the enemy’s number by one. The darklings seemingly agreed that they were fucked, as they began falling back to another tunnel on the far side of the room. Saph put an arrow in the furthest enemy. “See? We go this.”
“They wanna cork us up in the tunnel!” Dakota let out.
“Let them. Twitch, prep flash, half charge!”
“Tom, can I?”
“No, not in here. We'd all be jelly,” Tom snapped as he donked a shot into the wall.
“Fine,” Jacky relented as she brandished her halberd, coming to Dakota’s aid.
Saph kept firing on the retreating enemy, bouncing a shot off a breastplate, cursing herself as she drew again. Jacky took out her pent-up frustration by completely demolishing the face of the darkling who was sparring with and already losing to Dakota. The enemy apparently decided it was time to fall back now, disengaging from combat and flat out running for the tunnel. Saph nailed another one in the back, but the fucker kept running until Tom blew a hole in its leather armor, dropping it to the floor dead.
“Room clear,” Jortun went as he dispatched his target. The remaining enemies made it into the tunnel. “Hurry it up, Twitch.”
“Yes, boss,” The walking bomb responded, running up next to the opening and throwing the firebomb down the narrow corridor before retreating. Sapphire felt the hit to her chest as the fireball shot out of the opening and into the room, coming close enough to singe Jortun and some other guy ever so slightly.
“Fucking hell Twitch," someone protested. Sapphire was just focused on trying to breathe through the smoke that had billowed out after the explosion, her eyes watering. For a second she considered whether or not getting out of here was the correct course of action.
“Why the fuck did you do that!?” Tom demanded between coughs.
“To smoke them out,” Jortun replied coughing into his elbow. “I said quarter charge, Twitch.”
“No boss, half charge.”
“You did say half charge,” someone else echoed, Jortun shooting them an angry glance.
“Tubs you’re on point, go flush 'em out. Single file.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
‘Who the fuck uses incendiaries in a tunnel!?’ Tom cursed as he tried to rig up something to breathe through. The smoke wasn’t that thick, but it had a nasty sulfurous taste that he was sure wasn’t good for you.
Jacky didn’t seem to mind too much though. Sure, she was coughing too, trying to wave away the smoke, but she did have a smile on her face. She didn’t look happy though, it was more… manic, as she wiped off her halberd on the guy whose face she completely wrecked. ‘Best for her to get it out,’ Tom thought to himself, honestly feeling a little scared.
“You sure they are still following old orders?” Dakota questioned, looking to the major. “That looks like planning to me.”
“If not, then where is this commander of theirs?” Jortun replied, still not sounding worried. Dakota didn’t look convinced, but she held her tongue.
The major had some of his people move up and go down the hallway to kill off the enemy wounded. The screaming was nasty, the distorted pitch of the darklings not helping Tom’s mood right now. He topped off the shotgun and made ready for shit to go wrong as he moved up behind Jacky.
“Don’t go running off on me now.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” came the reply. “We’ll make them pay together.”
That was when Tom heard a rather odd noise, Jacky picking up on it first, looking around. ‘What the hell is that?’
“Ritual!” Dakota shouted out as the screaming from the tunnel started, followed by the desperate cry of “Witch!” before that voice also descended into incoherent screaming. Tom had no clue what he was supposed to do in this situation, so he grabbed Jacky by the shoulder, leading the seemingly equally confused dragonette out into the middle of the room to give him a shot down the tunnel where the screaming was coming from. Jacky caught on to what he was doing, leveling the halberd at anything that might be coming out of there. The guy who had been at the back of the little column came running out, dropping to the ground and beginning to roll as some of the other Royal Guard started to douse him with a white powder. The screaming from the tunnel came to a stop, leaving only the poor fucker that made it out.
Looking down the corridor the torches had gone out, so Tom lowered the NVGS and was greeted by the dissolving corpse of what had been their vanguard, currently being eaten away by acid of some kind.
“They were sprayed,” Dakota shouted out, noticing what Tom and Jacky had done. “Get back.”
Tom couldn’t see anything worth shooting at, so he did as he was told, Jacky hesitating for a second before following suit. “Twitch, another one,” Jortun shouted out, the demolitions expert getting to work immediately. Then their rearguard added their voices. “Pjeltor!”
Tom had no clue what that meant. As he turned to look, a crossbow was loosed back down the route they had come before a large spider-looking creature slammed into the two guards who were holding the entrance. The two women were pushed back as they braced against their shields, but they held the thing off. A second of the creatures came crawling along the ceiling at incredible speed, Tom firing and missing the first shot at it. The creature snapped to face him, its cold compound insect-like eyes staring down at him as it leaped in the same near-instant motion. Tom had to admit he froze for a second there as Jacky shoulder-checked the charging creature, the sound of the pjeltor’s extended fangs snapping echoing throughout the cave. That apparently made Jacky enemy number one, as the quick and nimble creature darted around her, trying to outrun her guard. It damn near succeeded too, as it paused, ready to leap onto her. Tom fired the second shot, nailing the fucker in the side, tearing it open and sending green goo flying everywhere as it screeched in agony. Then came Jacky's halberd, also slamming home in the creature's side, pulping what was left.
“More of the fuckers!” one of the women holding back the first one shouted as they stabbed and slashed at the first one, dealing some serious damage despite the creature's rapid dodges. Tom looked up to see the third one already skittering along the ceiling before it just fucking exploded with a boom that made his ears ring and sent him ducking for cover along with everyone else in the cave. Sapphire was readying another arrow, of the regular kind this time, for the first one. The rear guard got it though as it attempted to retreat, driving a sword thrust home before tag-teaming the beast. They raised their shields again, so Tom assumed there were more on the way. He opened the shotgun, the spent rounds ejecting as he and Jacky made their way over to help just as the fourth Pjeltor made its appearance. It might be fast, but leaping down at them from the ceiling meant it couldn’t dodge as Jacky deftly ran it through with the Halberd.
“I don’t like spiders!” Jacky half screamed as Tom slammed the gun shut again.
“How the fuck do we deal with the witch!” Dakota shouted out.
“You burn it,” Jortun replied as Tom looked back at them to see Twitch was done with his next concoction.
“Saph, here now!” Dakota ordered, snatching the ball from Twitch. “As far down as you can!” Twitch looked like he was gonna protest, and Saph definitely wasn’t happy either as she took the bomb.
Jortun and Dakota moved to cover her, stepping in front of the corridor, Sapphire chucking the grenade like a baseball pitcher keeping her eyes on the ball. Tom held his breath, fearing it would explode in her hand. The enemy reply came in the shape of a stream of what must be acid shooting out from the corridor, the stream moving unnaturally through the air. Jortun stepped forward, shield raised, scribed runes burning as the stream fell harmlessly to the ground and began to eat away at the stone. Then a firestorm erupted anew from down the corridor. The three of them did their best to jump out of the way, Jortun going right and getting his left side bathed in the stream of flame, roaring out in pain. Dakota and saph went left, ending up better off, though Dakota’s face ended up burnt from having her shield too low. Ray sprinted over to the two of them, dropping her crossbow as she kneeled next to Dakota pouring water on her face.
“Dude!” Jacky shouted, snapping Tom’s attention back to the threat they had to their front. “The fuckers just keep coming!” A point which was quickly proven as an overenthusiastic spider fly thing leapt at her and was slammed to the ground with the halberd. Tom brought up the shotgun and reduced the thing's head to pulp, swinging back to the entrance and slamming down the goggles. He sorta wished he hadn't done that, as the tunnel was best described as ‘furry.’ He fired the second shot into the mass of creatures, going for a quick reload. Looking back up, they were gone, leaving a clear if slightly messy corridor…
“Uhh Jacky… Where did they go?”
Two guards in front of them looked at each other after a second of waiting for something to happen. “Think the piece of shit ate it?”
__________________________________________________________________________________
“Forwards, kill it!” Jortun ordered as he rolled around, trying to pat out the fire that had caught his cloak.
Saph had gotten back to her feet and was currently helping Ray with tending to Dakota. They already had her helmet off and were pouring cold water onto the burn wounds. “She’s hurt bad,” Saph shouted out. It looked nasty, but wasn’t gonna kill her at least. 'Because of your idiotic fire bombs,’ she cursed to herself. This shit didn't happen with Tom’s equipment. Well, at least you knew that was gonna happen with his stuff, and he warned you.
“No, I’m not. Get off me,” Dakota demanded, reaching for her helmet again. “We can’t let them get back up down there. Jackalope!”
Saph looked up to see that at least the pjeltor had stopped coming, which was something. Jacky hurriedly made her way over as Dakota made it back to her feet. Ray looked like she really wanted to object, but she kept quiet.
“What about you old man, still kicking?” Dakota questioned, looking at the major, who had definitely lost his nonchalant demeanor.
“Yes,” came the quick reply as he got up.
Dakota looked back to them. “Tom rear guard. Keep this place clear. Jacky on point, your armor can handle the acid, give her the soda. You sprinkle it on the thin patches. Don’t bother with the large ones, we don’t have enough,” Dakota ordered. The other guards looked to Jortun, who nodded his approval.
“Her on point then us two. Sapphire behind that, one of those nasty arrows, please. Everyone get your feet dusted first too,” Jortun added, seemingly psyching himself up too.
“We need to get out of here, quick,” Tom stated in a worried voice, looking at the gathering smoke around the ceiling. It had gotten real hot here too.
“Agreed, we’ll hurry,” Dakota replied.
Jacky moved in front of the corridor, halberd leveled at the foe, though nothing bad happened, so she began the advance. She did her best to give them some safe ground to tread on.
Sapphire had to take a second to piece herself together before going in. This was not pleasant in the slightest. It was fucking horrible, in fact. She could hardly breathe, it was extremely cramped in here, she had just burned Dakota’s face, there was acid on the floor, she didn’t have boots on and three Royal Guards were very dead already. At least Balethon had been enough of a coward as to not catch the major's eye for point duty. Ray looked like she was on the verge of a breakdown and didn’t even try to follow them down the corridor. Something Saph was very grateful for. She should not have been here in the first place. And Saph kinda wished she hadn't gone either.
They didn’t have enough soda to just cover the floor, so they would need to be nimble on their feet, Jacky strewing it where the acid was thin. Saph muttered a few prayers as she tried to avoid stepping on the bad patches, tiptoeing down the corridor. ‘Please don’t burn, please don’t burn.’
Jortun seemingly got his foot burned, the major letting out some restrained muttering as they carefully stepped around the poor fuckers that took the brunt of the attack. Their armor was melted into them to the point you couldn't even tell where the helmet stopped and the face began. Sapphire retched, trying not to puke and looking away. After that though, mercifully, the floor was clear and they picked up the pace. They needed to hurry in case this witch was only down and not out.
They emerged into a much smaller room which was filled with thick smoke, everyone ducking down to avoid it. Even so, Saph was really struggling to breathe by now, her lungs burning like fire. There were small bundles of cloth strewn around, and a single dragonette clad in dark robes lay on the floor in the center, badly burned to the point Saph couldn’t even be sure this was a witch or just a mage that had been charred beyond recognition. It was a woman though, that was for certain. The darklings that had made it down the narrow tunnel were strewn about on the floor, seemingly dead too.
“Well, she’s done for,” Jacky let out, poking the witch with her halberd. “Do we take her?”
“Don’t touch her, who knows what she is carrying,” Dakota replied.
“Chop off her head… just in case,” Jortun countered as he opened one of the charred bundles. “Young night terrors. See if you can find one in decent shape. The academy is gonna love this.”
Most of the young ones were badly burned, but they made very sure they were indeed dead, taking the most intact specimen. Jacky made sure the witch wasn’t coming back to haunt them with a big swing, kicking the head away from the body.
“Why is the smoke going through the stone?” Balethon questioned. The guy had moved to the far wall, watching it closely. Before he got a response, he stuck his hand through the wall. “Uhm… guys?”
Jortun didn’t respond, just walking over, bracing his shield and sticking his head into the wall as if it wasn’t there. “Clever fucking bastards.”
“We need to move it,” Dakota went, suppressing a coughing fit. Sapphire definitely agreed with that part. It was unbearable in here, and she could feel herself getting light-headed.
“Agreed, we'll come back for this when the smoke has cleared. Let’s move,” Jortun replied, stepping back through the illusion. Dakota led the way down the corridor, Saph following closely. She needed to get out of here now . It was too cramped, and she didn’t like this. She didn’t like this at all. She couldn’t even take a deep breath to calm herself down. Then a gauntleted hand gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder as she stopped staring at the ruined corpses in the middle of the corridor.
“Hey, you got this.”
Saph took a second to compose herself, closing her eyes. ‘War is death, death is life. But with life comes eternal strife. So fight for life, for it is right.’ She was Sapphire Rayland and she quite possibly the deadliest archer alive now and she was not afraid of some godforsaken tunnel, she had this. “Thanks, Jacky.”
Making it back into the larger cave, Jortun gave the order for general retreat; it was not safe to be here. They had to wait for the acid to burn out and the smoke to clear before retrieving the bodies. For the first time today, Tom seemed relieved as they quickly cleared the bodies of the pjeltors, hurriedly making their way down the tunnel, heads on a swivel looking for more of the many-legged beasts. Sahp had been perfectly fine to only see those things as figures before, and she definitely didn’t need to see any more.
It would seem the pjeltors had been under the control of the witch since they didn’t even catch another whiff of them. Saph didn’t even know that was something you could do, but it would seem that with her death the spell was at least broken. After around ten minutes of walking, they made it to a larger cave with fresh-ish air, stopping to tend to their wounded. Pablo, the poor fucker who survived the tunnel ambush, was in bad shape. One of their rearguards had ended up with a puncture wound on her hand when a pjeltor bit down on her sword. They had tied off the hand immediately, but she needed urgent care if she wasn’t gonna lose it.
Dakota’s face also needed tending to, Saph cursing as her tail touched the ground sending a sharp hit of pain running up her spine. Looking back it would seem she had not gotten that out of the way quickly enough, a large blue burn mark spreading up the side of the tip. ‘Oh dammit.’
There were plenty of unwounded hands to help out though, so she set about tending to her own tail. They needed to get back to a healer quickly since Dakota was not able to work on her own face. She instead went to work on Pablo and Jortun, doing what she could. Jortun had two conventional healing potions with him. He gave one to Pablo in the hope that would keep him alive long enough to get back to the entrance cave with the quick patches Dakota had made, but they had to move it.