Camille jumped when the ground shook again. “What was that?” she asked for the second time. Zack probably didn’t know any better than she did, but his tense expression didn’t help her nerves

She’d read about earthquakes, but those mostly happened on Norinthia’s eastern shore, more than a thousand miles from here. Questers’ Valley hadn’t had a real earthquake since . . . well, probably since before the elves wiped out the poor gnomes.

Daudilus started barking again, but the sound was more deliberate than before. He gestured frantically with his canine head, and his blue eyes seemed to urge them back toward the door.

“You’re right.” Zack gathered up the last two mana spheres and tossed them in his bag. “Let’s go.” And with that, they all backtracked through the library.

Camille wanted to grab a few gnomish books, but she didn’t have a way to carry them back through the tunnel. She also didn’t want to risk slowing down the others. If Zack Farron was worried, then she should be terrified.

They reached the door a second later, but a swarm of quartz beetles blocked their path. The creatures were slightly bigger than raccoons, with shells like boulders, and mandibles half as long as her forearm.

“Get back,” Zack said to Camille. He raised his blade and fell into a defensive stance between her and the giant insects. Daudilus growled and fell into place beside his master. His silver hackles rose, and he looked ready to pounce.

Were they really going to fight right now? Quartz beetles shouldn’t be aggressive like this. Maybe they—

“Camille!” Zack’s voice cut off her thoughts. “Draw your weapon and take cover.”

Oh, right. She reached into her purse and pulled out the black handgun. Then she ducked behind the nearest bookcase, watching the scene unfold between the gaps.

More vibrations rippled through the stone floor, sending loose pebbles skittering across the ground. The crystal chandeliers flickered, and the beetles rushed forward.

She braced herself for a violent crash, like two armies on a battlefield. Instead, Zack swung his blade in a low arc, knocking two of the creatures off their feet. He kicked a third with his boot, and it landed on its shell with its belly exposed. Daudilus roared as he closed in for the kill.

Camille averted her eyes from the gory details. She couldn't bear to see Zack plunging his blade through the carapace, or Daudilus yanking off limbs as if they were chew toys. How had she let Zack talk her into this? Each crunch and snap made her stomach churn, and she fought to keep her lunch down.

It was almost scary how well those two moved together—killing with no hesitation, as if this were just another Kragday for them.

She wiped a sweaty hand on her skirt, readjusting her grip on the handgun. It still felt uncomfortably heavy in her hands, and a part of her feared she’d do more harm than good if she pulled the trigger. Better to stay hidden for now. Zack had given her this weapon for emergencies, not to play hero.

Just then, a smaller beetle bit Daudilus in the leg, and the husky howled in pain. Zack leapt to his friend’s side, smacking his blade on the beetle’s shell. The carapace didn’t break, but the creature turned its pincers on Zack.

Daudilus recovered with shocking speed, hurling his body at the beetle’s left flank. The creature tipped on its side, and Daudilus drove his fangs into its belly.

Another beetle leapt through the air, colliding with Zack’s chest. His blade clattered to the ground beside him, and he fell back, striking the stone floor. Camille gasped as Zack pushed the mandibles away from his face. Daudilus barked from across the room, but she couldn’t see him from this vantage.

The floor shook like a war drum, echoing ominously through the room. Were those footsteps in the distance? Camille’s stomach tightened even more. Zack and Daudilus must have sensed the danger, too. That was why they’d been so eager to leave before.

Adrenaline propelled her forward, and she left her spot behind the bookshelves. She switched off her handgun’s safety, and her vision narrowed on the beetle’s thrashing form.

Come on, Camille, you can do this. Her finger inched toward the trigger, but her hands were shaking too hard, and her target was more than ten feet away.

She’d have to get closer.

Camille rushed forward, driving the gun’s barrel into the beetle’s side.

Bang!

She jumped at the sound, and the recoil almost sent her weapon flying from her hands. Fortunately, the beetle looked much worse, and Zack tossed aside its limp corpse.

No sooner had he broken free than he rolled backward, grabbed his fallen blade, and rushed to Daudilus’s side.

Her left eye caught a blur of motion as another beetle closed in. Camille’s heart threatened to leap out of her chest, and her arm trembled as she raised the gun again.

Bang! Bang!

The first shot embedded itself in the stone floor. The second hit her attacker in the shell, and the creature scuttled back into the library. Daudilus chased after it, half-running, half-limping on his injured leg.

Poor Daudilus. They’d have to take him to Doctor Gilder after this.

The husky caught up with the beetle in two heartbeats, then he hurled his body into the creature’s side, like a semi-truck smashing into a smaller car. The beetle rolled over on its shell, and Daudilus bit him hard in his carapace belly.

The creature thrashed on the floor before its body went limp. Then Daudilus licked his lips clean and stood tall over the creature’s corpse. His fur glimmered in the light of the crystal chandelier, and he wagged his white tail in triumph.

Another beetle screeched behind her as Zack plunged a blade into its belly. With that done, he wiped the sweat from his brow and jogged over.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Camille looked him up and down. She saw a lot of green ichor on his vest, but no blood. “Are you okay?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“Yeah,” Zack said through several deep breaths. “Thanks for the save back there.”

Camille forced out a weak smile, then passed him back his handgun.

“You sure?” he asked her.

Camille nodded. “Better to quit while I’m ahead.”

Zack shrugged as he accepted the weapon and returned it to its holster.

“What about Daudilus?” she asked. “His leg . . .”

They both rounded on the husky. The sphere in his chest glowed with pale blue light, and ambient mana swirled around him like a whirlpool. The light spread through his body an instant later, pooling into his injured leg.

Finally, the skin reknit itself, and wound closed with shocking speed.

“Daudilus?” Zack knelt on the stone floor and examined his paw. The blood remained, but the wound itself was long gone. “Did you just . . . level up?”

Daudilus shrugged a canine shoulder. She’d never seen a dog do that before, and it was by far the strangest thing she’d seen all day.

And what was a ‘level up?’ Camille vaguely remembered that term from Zack’s old roleplaying games, but she couldn’t reconcile that with the real world. Maybe it was a joke.

The cave rumbled again, but it wasn’t quite as rough as before. Zack put a finger to his mouth and crept toward the library’s entrance. Camille and Daudilus followed close behind, avoiding the dead beetles and green ichor in their path

The sound faded over the next few seconds, and Zack stuck his head out into the corridor, glancing left and right. What was he looking for? What sort of creature could shake the ground like that?

A bone-chilling roar erupted from the depths of the cave.

Zack cursed under his breath and grabbed Camille by the arm. “Run!” He pulled her out into the corridor, took a hard right, and they bolted back the way they’d come. Daudilus charged ahead, and she struggled to match their frantic pace.

Giant footsteps pounded the stone floor behind her, and Camille tripped when they reached the stone staircase.

Zack whipped around to face their attacker "Keep going!" he shouted at Camille. In the same moment, he yanked his gun from the holster and unloaded several shots behind them.

Camille glanced over her shoulder, and a massive troll filled the tunnel. It stood well over eight feet tall, and it had to duck its head to avoid the ceiling. Thick muscles covered its gray arms and chest, and its eyes shone with feral intelligence.

Zack fired another shot, and Daudilus bit the sleeve of Camille’s sweater, pulling her onward. She stumbled up the staircase to where the tunnel narrowed into the smaller chamber. She and Daudilus leapt through the narrow archway, collapsing in a heap on the stone floor.

They lay there for several heartbeats, breathing hard and covered in sweat. Or panting, in Daudilus’s case. Zack rushed through the archway behind them, spinning around just in time to see the troll lunge forward. Its massive body collided with the doorway, and she felt the vibrations deep in her bones.

Zack fired his remaining bullets into the troll's chest, each shot echoing off the stone walls. Camille winced at the noise, but she couldn't look away.

The troll roared in pain before finally taking a step back. It stared at Zack for several heartbeats, then its wounds began to close. Each bullet popped back out of its gray flesh, clattering to the stone floor with a metallic ring. The troll's flesh knitted back together, leaving no trace of the damage.

Right . . . trolls could regenerate. It was one thing to read about that in a book. Quite another to see it shrug off six bullets before your eyes.

Zack led her to the other end of the chamber, past the control panel and the three false doorways. Camille clutched Zack’s arm and braced herself for another attack. The troll could never squeeze through that archway, but it might still cause a cave-in.

Instead, the creature turned and lumbered back down the staircase.

Camille blinked at the sight. “Is he giving up?”

“It was a she, he said. “And trolls are territorial. They won’t chase you forever.”

“Oh.” There was a long pause while the footsteps faded down the hall. “Was it, um, self aware?”

He shook his head. “Some of them are smart, but not that one.”

“How can you tell?”

“You can see it in their eyes.” He gestured to his own face for reference. “And a smart troll would have explored that library by now. That one never thought to push open the door.”

She gave a slow nod and glanced around the room. Zack retrieved a canteen from his backpack and passed it to her without comment. She took a good long swallow, then he retrieved a small metal bowl for Daudilus and filled it to the brim.

“Sorry,” Zack said once they’d finished off the water. “I didn’t think we’d run into anything like that.”

“But you and Daudilus fight a lot? Up in the mines, I mean.” Camille already knew the answer, but she’d imagined it would be less gruesome. And to think, those two came out here alone, with no car, and no way to contact the town. What if something happened to them? How long would it take the town to start searching?

“Caves like this are rich with ambient mana.” Zack pulled out an old white rag and wiped the ichor from his blade. “That attracts a lot of monsters. But no . . . we usually fight them one at a time. I’ve never seen a troll in the wild.”

He eventually got to his feet and eyed the other tunnels.

“I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day,” Camille said.

A small frown crossed Zack’s face. “I was hoping to loot some stuff while we had your truck.”

Daudilus let out a low whine. Camille looked down at the husky, and he shot a longing glance toward the other tunnels.

“Oh, come on,” she said. “Whose side are you on?”

He lifted a gray paw and thrust it toward Zack.

Camille blinked at him. “Okay, we seriously need to get Daudilus checked out. He ate some mana and now he’s smart? That’s not normal.”

“Hey,” Zack said. “Daudilus has always been smart.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Who would we go to?” he asked. “Doctor Gilder? He knows nothing about dogs, and even less about mana spheres.”

“Well, I don’t know.” Camille stared down at Daudilus’s chest, but the blue glow had long-since faded. “But what if that thing is dangerous?”

“He just healed his wound,” Zack said. “Seems like the opposite of danger to me.”

“Sure, but what if there’s a cost? Like, what if it shaves time off his life?”

Zack frowned at that. He clearly hadn’t considered side effects, or that these mana spheres might be too good to be true. Even Daudilus’s blue eyes widened in alarm.

“I’m sorry.” Camille knelt on the ground and scratched the husky behind his left ear. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She also felt guilty for ignoring him these past few minutes. If he’d just become self-aware, then that must have been a lot to process. In fact . . . should she even be scratching his head like this? Was that too condescending?

Daudilus leaned into her touch and licked her fingers. Self-aware or not, he was definitely still a dog. And a good one at that.

“Okay.” Camille glanced back and forth between them. “How about this—I’ll go back to the library and do some research, and we can go from there.”

Zack gave a slow nod. “Works for me, I guess.”

Camille gave Daudilus another long pet before getting to her feet. Her knees had finally stopped shaking, but she couldn’t truly relax until she was home. A warm shower would be nice, too. She hadn’t gotten that dirty, but it would still make her feel better.

“Also,” Camille said. “This should go without saying, but no more playing with the spheres.”

“Oh, yeah.” Zack face took on a guilty smile. “Of course.”

“For Titans’ sake, Zack! You weren’t planning on eating one, were you?”

“Not exactly.” He gestured at Daudilus. “But, I mean—it gave him superpowers.”

Daudilus bobbed his head enthusiastically.

Camille pointed a stern finger at the husky. “Don’t encourage him.” Then she rounded on Zack. “Promise me you’ll wait till tomorrow? Please?”

“Sure,” Zack said. “I promise.” He shot another longing look down the other corridors. “I guess we should probably head back to town, then.”

“Right,” she said. “But what’s the plan for Daudilus?”

“What about him?”

“People are gonna notice if he keeps nodding and shrugging like this.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Zack turned to meet his husky’s eyes. “You can pretend to be a regular dog for a while longer, right? At least while we’re around other people?”

Daudilus nodded once as if they’d just made a deal.

“Good boy.” Zack scratched him behind the ears and grinned at Camille. “See? Everything’s gonna be fine.”