Chapter 52

Fear…

Rage…

Kill… KILL…KILL

INTRUDER! FOOD! INTRUDER! FOOD!

Riley's ears flattened under the mental assault through the magic, the words hitting like sinister whispers in the dark, crescendoing towards a primal scream.

It was more the sensation of words, the feeling of them, as if the swarn was radiating its discontent through the ripples of magic she was connected to than it was anything logical or coherent.

It bypassed her reason, going straight for the throat of her instincts, pushing her towards fear.

Tobias had gone pale white while Cid grinned manically, holding up two fingers.

It was almost their turn.

"Did you hear that?" She projected.

Tobias startled and almost dropped his sword, jerking back from her.

"Hear what?"

"The nest, I think, is talking in feelings," Riley surmised clumsily.

He looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Never mind," She replied, wrestling down her own fear, trying to control the emotional onslaught she could not ignore.

Cid tossed a final magistone, the largest one Riley had ever seen.

A malevolent boom sent shockwaves rippling through the ground, heralding a massive fireball erupting out of the hole in volcanic rage.

For a moment, the rumbling stopped as the emotional projection devolved into pained screeching.

"It's like that one time at the concert when I forgot my earplugs," Riley rambled to herself, futilely thrusting her paws over her ears.

It quieted, yet the psychic tinnitus echoed through her brain, only to be replaced by a cold, focused malevolence that settled upon her, causing her fur to stand on end.

Cid pointed towards Zorna, sending the beast at an angle in a seeming retreat while he wiped a bit of bug goo off his forehead and ran off into the forest after her.

More creatures than ever, some burned and smoking, erupted out of the hole as a barrage of lighting flashes pulsed through the trees like a strobe effect at their flank.

Trees fell as the mass turned towards the new threat, only for them to be replaced by the blue flashes of Cid's magic a moment later.

"He's like a virtuoso of death; he's painting a masterpiece," Riley's whiskers twitched as she marveled.

The smoking hole yawned open in front of them.

"Do we go?" She asked, looking towards her sorcerer.

"We do," Tobias replied, all the while remaining rooted in place.

Riley quivered, "Well?"

"I'm working up my courage," Tobias insisted, renewing and testing his grip on the sword before letting out a long, staggered breath.

"Ok... I can do this. I can do this; just don't die. There's no shame in running," He muttered under his breath.

"That doesn't work, you know. I could hear you across the clearing if you whispered," Riley wiggled her ears for effect.

Tobias chuckled with laughter, breaking some of his anxiety.

"Ok, Riley, stay close to me, and be ready to cast,"

"Let's do this," She hopped forward just as Tobias began to move, the yawning hole growing wider in her vision.

"It's not a gaping maw. It's not eating me," She chanted like a mantra.

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

"Riley, for the love of the thirteen gods, be quiet," Tobias swore.

"Sorry,"

Entering in, the smell of an acrid sulphuric stench brought her eyes to water and stoked a burning in her lungs.

Tobias covered his mouth with his free hand as the tears streamed down his face. The blue light of his crystal headlamp projecting a ghostly blue glow upon blackened, scorched walls.

The world closed in as they stalked forward, coming to a wide arcing switchback that plunged down deeper into the lair.

Burned hulks of dead drones, still smoking, bubbled and hissed; few were whole. Legs like spears stuck out of walls, next to heads, with their mandible jaws buried, bits and pieces scattered over the floor, many reduced to unrecognizable burned chunks of carbon.

A fine black dust was floating like mist in the air, coating them both.

The same silty dust rose with each hop, causing Riley to leave craters and become covered herself.

"How deep does it go?" She wondered.

"No idea, but I hope not too far," Tobias swallowed hard, moving with his sword out front, projecting a cautious defense.

A snap from behind them caused her ears to swivel instinctively. Riley spun around and fired first. A chaos bolt flew, impacting the wall.

Nothing was there save a fresh hole dug out of the dirt.

"Easy killer," Tobias smiled, then spit, "By the dead gods! It tastes worse than it smells."

The path continued to descend, switchback after switchback; the world cooled. Dugout alcoves began to become visible, interspersed two feet apart, one after another, rimming the path.

"I think that's where they sleep," Riley said, following the tracks from each alcove. Clear, almost robotic paths were punctured into the dirt, showing the path of their travel before moving off to meet their destiny with Cid.

Finally, after one final switchback, they turned, only to find a row of antlions with their mandible, stag beetle jaws, and mantis like front limbs. Yet, these were fiercer, meaner, glistening black with dull red eyes, staring off into nothingness.

Each had their head tilted back, their mandibles resting on the top of their alcove, with their front arms crossed.

Riley cast analyze:

Antlion, Soldier, Insect, 2-3

Guardians of the Antlion Queen.

Weakness to Fire. Wakes enraged.

Buffs: Singular Focus, Hive Wrath

Why do I hear boss music?

"Riley, ready?" Tobias asked.

"Ready," she replied, pulling at her power while Tobias' hand began to glow orange.

Casting as if they were synchronized, a black bolt from Riley flew just as a firebolt erupted from Tobias' left hand.

Riley's sailed left, Tobias' sailed right, each impacting dead on, doing little damage.

As if one entity, all eight snapped their heads forward and screeched in an unholy rage.

Undaunted, Tobias rolled his hand palm up towards the ceiling before drawing his left hand into a fist.

A flame wall erupted around the enemy, tinged with white Fire as Riley felt his pull, hemming them in as they hissed and screamed.

"Riley, try your chaos magic again!" Tobias ordered.

"Way ahead of you," she replied.

One antlion launched its way through the flaming wall, catching as if covered in pitch.

Riley smacked them between the eyes with a bolt of entropy.

Combo action, Critical hit... Flashed through her overlay in a pulse of information just as its head exploded.

"Hold!" Tobias shouted.

Riley could feel him pulling at her power yet again.

A black laced orange flame, the energy crackling around it, sparking rivulets of death, arced across the narrow battlefield, already becoming thick with smoke as another fell.

"We're going to run out of air if we keep this up!" Tobias cried, already choking on the acrid air. Another raced through, slamming its massive body into Tobias, sending him skipping and tumbling back into a nearby wall.

Dazed, he shook his head, pushing himself up on his hands and knees.

"You bastard!" Riley cursed, pulling for the vines, ignoring her dropping mana bar for the moment. Three tendrils rose from the ground, each wrapping around the offending soldier, pulling independently, ripping it in two.

"Are you ok?" She worried, already readying her healing magics.

"Yeah, just roughed up a little." He replied shakily.

Taking position, hopping in front of Tobias, another bout of Righteous flame, followed by a chaos bolt, flew.

It popped, sending fluid everywhere, at the cost of eating much of her power reserve.

Something felt familiar at that moment, a distant memory of her last day.

Dismissing the strange tug of recall, she went to pull again, distracted by the random thought, only to be rewarded with a stab of mental pain and a blinking bar.

"Too much juice. I need a potion! Tobias get up! Cover me!" She cried.

Tobias pulled himself up to his feet and braced with his sword, his eyes falling upon it as an idea raced through his mind.

Riley saw the power concentrate around the hilt, beginning to glow, the leather wrapped pommel letting off a strange and pungent contrasting scent to the roiling black smoke hanging like storm clouds, clinging to the roof of the cavern.

His eyes shifted to the blade, and the power followed as the steel itself burst into flame.

Tobias grinned manically, and for a moment, Riley thought he looked like a young Cid.

He charged forward, cleaving two in half. Scything through their attacking arms and jaws, sweeping in a maneuver Riley recognized as form 1, then braced, holding the sword horizontally in a defensive position.

They couldn't get close as Tobias worked through his forms, twisting and turning like a ballroom dancer, buying Riley time to focus.

Holding her front paws side by side, she pulled at her inventory.

A purple bottle appeared, and, as if ravenous, she pounced on it, working out the cork with her teeth, only to chopstick and roll, choking it down, ignoring the feeling that she might be drowning.

Potion first, panic later.

The purple fluid, mixed with the black carbon soot, left her fur glistening as Tobias dropped yet another fiend, leaving only two remaining.

They dropped back, all as a small earthquake seized the tunnel and, with it, a roar that echoed around them like the cry of death itself.

"What the fuck is that?" Riley cried. Everything inside instinctual was ready to shit itself in fear and run for the entrance.

"Trouble. The queen is coming," Tobias replied, planting his feet, waiting for the next onslaught.