“Fuck” Mig said, his mouth slack-jawed as he and Aj watched their only route back to Rojasroc collapse.
Aj was too stunned to really do anything, not that there was anything really to do. The tunnel back to Rojasroc had collapsed incredibly violently and fast and the aftereffects of the overwhelming sensation of being watched were still fresh on his psyche. He felt like he was standing here naked in this freezing room.
As Mig began to futilely claw at the collapsed tunnel, the seriousness of his situation really set in for Aj. They were stranded out here in this deadly environment with no food, water, or warm clothing. In simpler terms, they were completely fucked. Aj did what he always did when dealing with the unknown and asked Kit his opinion.
“Kit, what do you think?” Aj said…. but after a few seconds, he felt no stirring in his heart. Kit wasn’t responding to his question. Aj could still feel him in there, but it seemed that he was too tired to respond, which was completely new for them. Now Aj had to add extreme loneliness and increased danger to his problem list. Without Kit to look out for him he was as good as mantis food. Mig could hold his own, but what could Aj do without Kit if more Underworld creatures appeared?
“We need to decide what we're going to do,” Mig said, suddenly pulling himself together and looking back towards Aj.
“What happens if we go the marked route and follow the other group?” Aj asked he wasn’t eager to encounter them, but it sounded a lot more welcoming than another mantis ambush.
“It’s complicated,” Mig said, pausing and looking down. “If you’d have asked me yesterday I would’ve said Trace would’ve accepted us with open arms. But I think after my fuck-up in the training yard he’d be really unlikely to help us.”
“What exactly happened between you and that guy you fought at the yard?” Aj asked partly because he was genuinely curious and partly because he craved a distraction from this decision. Mig kinda scrunched his face, giving the appearance that just thinking about the incident riled him up.
“The guy I was fighting is named Lucas. We got along well at first when Trace introduced me to the group, but the next time I saw him he had completely flipped and started being an ass. Acted like he was better than me and started talking bad about my family. I brushed it off, you get used to that shit when you're a commoner, it’s as much a part of living as smelling a rank fart.” Mig paused before continuing,
“The real igniter was when he took a cheap shot on me during a drill. We were all taking turns attacking a dummy, then retreating before the next person attacked. Trace said it was supposed to raise teamwork. Anyway after my turn attacking, I retreated backwards into the group and he caught me with a sideways blow to my ribs. Knocked the wind right out of me, felt like a sledgehammer hit me. By the time I’d gotten my wind back, it was after my turn and Lucas’s friend canceled the drill because I “ruined the flow of combat ”. Afterward, Trace moved on to the next group and we went to individual training. Lucas got in my face and I lost it.” Mig finished, while looking at the wall, to Aj it felt like he was looking at something much farther away. Aj wasn’t really sure what to say but tried to think of what he thought Kit would’ve said in his place.
“That sucks man, this Lucas guy sounds like a prick,” Aj said.
“Yeah for sure, but it wasn't just him. I think that friend of his, Julian, really had it out for me. He really pushed for Trace to drop me from the group. I don’t blame Trace for giving in.” Mig replied
“I let Trace down when I hit Lucas, he had my back before then and defended me being in the group. I made it too easy for them…. I think that if we show up and explain why we’re forced to ask them for help, Trace won’t back us up. At best we're forced away, at worst Lucas and his friends kill us for collapsing the only known tunnel back to Rojasroc” Mig said pointing to the collapsed tunnel.
“So we try the other tunnel then, maybe we can find another way back to Rojasroc,” Aj said full of hollow confidence.
“You, uh, you don’t have to stay with me Aj,” Mig said looking up now at Aj. “I guarantee they won’t ask more than a few questions if you show up there asking for their help alone. The Tiermons would love to get a wounded sovereign indebted to them.” Mig finished.
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“Nah I can’t do that, I owe you” Aj replied shaking his head “I’m part of the reason you’re in this mess,” Aj said.
“Are you sure?” Mig said, letting out a suppressed laugh “I feel like you're a little more than only part of the reason I’m in this mess” Mig finished semi-jokingly. Aj let out a good laugh. He hadn’t done that since he and Kit got into this whole Underworld mess. It felt good to get rid of all that tension.
“If you’ll have me, I’m coming with you Mig,” Aj said with a soft smile, before making his face very serious. “I’ll be helpful man, I promise”
“Okay,” Mig said reaching his hand out for a handshake. “Let’s do it or die trying”
The two of them shook hands and started heading down the tunnel.
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“ALRIGHT EVERYONE GROUP UP FOR THE BATTLE DEBRIEF” Trace yelled to his group in the cavern.
“First before anything else, anybody with wounds not tended to yet?” Trace said. Davish one of team 1’s mid-liners raised his hand in response. “Marsh get over there and tend to Davish, EVERYBODY we are going to be making this call after every battle to make sure we all stay alive! But please! Before harvesting the corpses tend to yourselves and allies as I’ve gone over before!” Trace finished, yelling for emphasis several times. The majority of the group nodded in response.
“So anybody, what did we do good and what did we do bad?” Trace asked after waiting for Davish to be tended to. The fifteen other members of the group looked around at each other in silence for a few moments until one of them spoke up in response. The one that Trace knew would speak up.
“We reacted to the ambush quickly and effectively. With quick callouts from Trace and I our front-line repositioned and fought the enemy head on, enabling our back-line allies to evade the enemy and start attacking from a safe distance.” Julian responded in his shiny dark gray armor. “As for what we can improve upon, I believe that at least one of the mid-liners in team 2 should have assisted team 1 after the first mantis was slain by team 2.” Julian finished.
“Good, Lucian, that's accurate, but not exact,” Trace said giving Julian a false smile before yelling once again. “EVERYBODY HERE! Doesn’t understand the true danger of the Underworlds. The Underworlds are trying to kill you! Let me make that clear! And it doesn’t stop until you’re dead or back in your sheets at home! When you think you’re safest is when the Underworld will rip your god-damn heart out! When the ambush came everybody should have acted swiffer! When in their death throes the Mantises thrashed out we should have been ready! Nothing is as simple as it seems here in the underworlds and you need to be on high alert at all times!” Trace took a deep breath to continue his very loud lesson
“None of you are as paranoid as you need to be to survive, before we entered this open cavern I was waiting for an ambush. When the ambush happened I was waiting for an ambush and right now as we are talking…. I’m waiting for an ambush. You need to be evaluating these scenarios every second even in your sleep! Will this drive you crazy? YES! But my job is not to keep you sane it’s to train you to survive against the overwhelming odds.” Trace said meaning every word. He saw Julian scowl in response to him blowing over the boy’s remarks, but Trace didn’t care. His job was to make sure that the young sovereign survived and became a force of nature. Not coddle him.
In reality, Trace thought the group handled the ambush quite well for having such an intense first real fight. He’d trained many other groups that would’ve lost at least one member to an ambush of that caliber, even with his intervention. Though Trace felt prepared, this underworld was more dangerous than he’d expected, but that had its upsides. In his personal experience the more dangerous the underworld the better loot in it. He had a feeling that if this group stayed on its toes they’d come out of this not only more experienced but also with their pockets full. He just had to make sure as many of them as possible of them survived, especially Julian.
After giving a few more pointers to the group as a whole, Trace finished the group debrief and started giving individual pointers to each member of the group. He could tell that Julian was only half listening when he received the advice, but Trace didn’t push it. The purebloods were rarely corrected or talked down to, he didn’t want to earn any more of the boy's ire unnecessarily. He gave the group a good 20 minutes to rest before forcing them to continue. An open cavern like this was no place to camp, it was too full of false safety.
After exploring for a few more hours Trace noticed something on the wall that gave him goosebumps. With a handwave, he called the group over to him and pointed to what he’d noticed. It resembled a cold metal vent about 4 feet wide, it was set about five feet high and two feet deep into the wall itself. Upon further inspection, it was covered in intricate spiral engravings which were marred in several locations by footlong slashes into the metal of the vent. As if something with a long blade had slashed its way either out of or into the vent.
“This is it boys!” Trace said excitedly “I can’t think of anything more exciting for a first venture into the Underworlds than a 2nd Generation Predecessor Dungeon!”