Thankfully the inside of the Predecessor Stronghold was much warmer than the cold tunnels they were just in. They were still cold, but Aj didn’t feel the chill in his bones anymore. On the downside, the black metal vent was just too short to walk comfortably. They had to walk hunched over and crooked the entire time. It made it hard to feel prepared for an attack being all compressed, and they had no idea how dangerous this stronghold would be. Mig had said that as long as it wasn’t a Third Generation Predecessor Stronghold then they’d probably be alright. He and Kit had no idea what that really meant but so far Mig hadn’t led them awry yet.
“I see a bigger room up ahead,” Mig whispered from ahead of Aj. Aj was relieved at the news..The thought of standing up fully after 15 minutes of walking bent over sounded delightful. Aj tried to convince himself that this room would be boring, mantis-free, and a safe place to rest, but he just couldn’t do it.
Mig slowly crept into the new room, scanning the room for movement and hiding creatures. After two good turns of his head, Mig motioned and Aj followed him into the room. It was a much taller square room about twelve feet in height and width. There was a large door on both the right and left walls made of glassy black stone. Surrounding the doors in the indented frame each door had three dark sconces which jutted out from the frame on either side. Illuminating the room with green flames.
There seemed like there used to be a door on the wall opposite where they entered, but it looked like it had been almost completely destroyed. There was still an indented frame of the same black glossy stone, but the two sides of the door had been chopped apart and broken down. A few pieces of the door were still intact, hanging in chopped mismatched groupings on the stone frame, but the majority of what remained of the door layed on the ground in front of it in separated chunks. The whole sight of the broken door and the thought of something strong enough to break apart four inch thick stone gave Aj a sense of unease.
“Hey, look in the corners of the room,” Mig said pointing. Aj looked and saw black stranded clumps piled in each corner of the room. They varied in length and size, but if Aj had to guess they looked like collections of mantis shit. There was no doubt now, the mantises were for sure using these vents and even if they got lucky with what generation stronghold this was, it was still just as dangerous as the outside.
“Are we fucked?” Aj asked Mig flatly.
“Not necessarily, I don’t think they’ve accessed either of these doors to the left and right,” Mig said, walking close to the left door. “If we can find a way to open it, we may have finally found a place to rest.” Mig finished, full of hope.
Aj shrugged in a half-sincere agreeance, sure the idea sounded nice, but how were they going to open the door if the mantises hadn’t already? He walked close to the wall and examined it along with Mig. Etched into the stone wall was what looked like a maze full of twists and turns. It originated from the bottom of the door and ended at the top
“Oh we got this easy, you just hug the left wall until you get to the top,” Kit said to Aj mentally, Aj nodded in response. But was it really that simple? Aj shrugged and touched his finger to the start of the maze and the bottom of the door. As he did the etching of the maze began to glow with green light. Aj began to trace his finger up the maze, carefully avoiding touching the walls of the maze and focusing to make sure he didn’t lift his finger from the door. He wasn’t sure of the rules of this or how the fuck it worked, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.
Before Aj had even made it a quarter of the way through the maze, it suddenly changed color and began pulsating a bright blue before the light dissipated in total from the maze. Aj kept his finger pressed to the maze, stunned and not knowing what had just happened. Had he made a mistake?
“Hey!” Mig said alarmed and pointing at the broken-down door to their right. Aj turned and saw what Mig was worried about. Behind the door frame, there was suddenly a swirling portal of white and blue. Mig watched it grow in size until it was over four feet tall. He could just make out from beyond the growing portal the dark blue carapace of a mantis.
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“What’s the move?” Aj said only letting 10% of his panic show. Mig didn’t instantly respond; he was too busy looking all around the room and the way they came.
“They’re faster than us and can fight better in the cramped vent, our best shot is to try to make a stand here or find a place to hide,” Mig said in a rushed reply, he looked up at the sconces and ceiling. “We could climb up, but there’s no place to hide, same thing with the corners, SHIT!” Mig continued, his panic bleeding into his speech.
“I’ve got an idea!” Kit boomed into Aj’s ear.
“What you got?” Aj replied to Kit, with only a slight reservation. He figured that Kit would bring up being fully unleashed and honestly given the gravity of the situation he was heavily considering it.
“You guys climb up those sconces and we’ll make a web of vines up there for you guys to hide,” Kit said
“We?” Aj replied confused
“Yeah man, I think I’m figuring this out. It works better if you are aware of and can help guide the process” Kit replied mentally. Aj wasn’t sure what he really meant. He’d felt the sensation of warmth and movement when they fought the mantises, but he wasn’t sure that he’d really done anything to help. He was pretty sure it was all Kit. Regardless if Kit thought they could do it then it was worth a shot.
“Mig, thoughts on me making a place to hide above the portal with my vines? I don’t know how much time we have, but we should be good” Aj asked.
“You can do that?” Mig asked his face very serious.
“Ye-Yeah I can do that,” Aj said trying to sound confident. Mig looked at the sconces and the space above the door again before responding.
“The best idea we got then, it’ll have to work,” Mig said assuredly. He gave Aj a single nod before beginning to climb the sconces on the frame of the left door. Aj rushed over to the right door and began climbing too, his shoulder aching as he pulled himself up on the sconces.
“Okay, feel the beat of your heart. Really focus on it” Kit said mentally. Aj tried to do as he was told and focused on his heart only. It was hard given the pain he was in, the tension of the moment, and the staring to keep his body up on the glossy sconces.
“Take a breath man,” Kit said mentally to Aj, reassuringly calm. In response, Aj took in a sharp inhale before letting out a deep exhale followed by a deep and long inhale. Aj felt it in that moment. The beating of his heart. He could feel something else too. An echo radiating out after every heartbeat.
ba-dum Sssshlp, ba-dum Ssssslp, ba-dum Sssssshlp
The echo after each heartbeat sounded to Aj like the soft, whisper-like sound of roots pushing through soil.
ba-dum Sssssshlp, ba-dum Sssssssslp, ba-dum Sssssssssshlp
The echo continued after each heartbeat, growing longer, radiating farther from his heart. Aj pushed it along, willed it to flow outward farther and farther away from his heart. After a few more beats he felt the echo reach his hands and feet and finally leave his body entirely.
“Fuck yes man” Kit excitedly whispered in Aj’s head. “I got it from here man, just keep focusing”
Aj did nothing in response, only continued what he was doing and focused on the echo of his heart flowing outward and outward.
ba-dum Sssssssshlp, ba-dum Ssssssssssslp, ba-dum Sssssssssssssshlp
“You’re good man open your eyes” Kit whispered.
Aj opened his eyes and was shocked at what he saw. He and Mig were both lying in a dark vined nest pushed only inches away from the ceiling of the room. Aj had no time to ask how long he had been focusing or how he even got up here from the sconces before a wave of fatigue hit him. He felt as if his entire body had suddenly gone limp and numb. The only sensation he felt was pins and needles in each of his appendages. As he laid there struggling he caught Mig’s eye. To Aj, he looked surprised and impressed. Aj tried to make that thought comfort him while he was attempting to stop writhing in pain.
Aj wanted to scream as he heard the tell-tale “tinks” of bladed legs hitting the metal floor beneath them. The mantises had entered the room.