Chapter 54

Riley stirred.

"My side hurts." She complained, only to become aware of the fact that she was being held tightly.

Tobias stroked her ears back, "Easy now."

His tone dripped gratitude as he squeezed.

"I'm ok, I think, but that hurt a lot!" Riley pressed close to his chest.

The dead body of the queen occupied the space across from them, the littered remains of the soldiers were spread around them, and Tobias was sat in the dirt with the smoldering remains filling the upper quarter of the chamber with smoke.

"I heard your bones crack, twice, then you went down. I can't lose you..." Tobias shook.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" Riley trembled, confused by the strange reaction.

He smelled like fear and stress, his skin a pale ashen white. Something in the mix of smells made her heart race and urged her paws to twitch.

"Adrenaline?" She thought to herself while she nuzzled his hand in a show of support.

"Let me try to move," Riley asked as Tobias gingerly sat her down.

"Just go easy," he insisted.

Riley hopped, only for the stitch in her side to protest in warning pain; gingerly, she tried again, only to the same effect.

"I can move, so let's get out of here. I'm gonna be slow, but being able to breathe would be nice," Riley joked.

Tobias' color brightened as a grin chased across his face, "Let's go."

He turned, then stopped, his gaze falling back on the queen.

"We should check her lair first. If there's eggs or larva, they need to go," His look hardened as he pulled himself up, drawing his sword while staying low, out of the smoke.

"How are we going to get there?" Riley scanned, but the body of the fallen queen, parts of her still burning, blocked their path.

"How's your magic? Are you up for a cast? Barring your roots, I could hack my way in," Tobias suggested all business.

Riley checked her bar and saw notifications blinking, waiting for her attention.

"I've got some juice left, " To her surprise the bar wasn't blinking, showing about half full.

"Go easy, nuance your cast, but if you can compress her body against the wall and clear us a path, I'll handle the rest," He offered.

"You sound more like a mother than a sorcerer," Riley snarked, pulling at her power, "Nuance, I can do that!"

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"One of us has to be the responsible, sane one," Tobias grinned.

"Hey!" Riley willed the tree roots to descend down through the thick smoke, bidding them to wrap around the limp body of the queen.

Already mangled and torn, more ooze leaked out as they wrapped around her, the pressure only increasing as the sound of something hard yet fragile under tension began to creak within the quiet of the artificial cavern.

With a snap, the body flattened, sending a gush of green liquid everywhere as it tore. The goo surged, splashing the walls and Tobias before slamming into Riley like a wave.

"Oh God! It's in my eyes! It's in my everywhere!" She instinctively shook, pawing at her face for dear life in a desperate groom as Tobias wretched.

In a panic, she watched her health bar, watched for new prompts, but all remained quiet, as she felt the fluid running down her ears like the separate globs were having a race.

Riley joined Tobias in a chorus of hacking and retching, which only made her ribs scream, robbing her of all joy.

"What's this?" Tobias reached out into the goo, pulling up something glistening in the light of his crystal headlamp.

A golden torc, covered in slime, with a deep gouge cleaving it almost in two, dripped in ichor.

"Oh God," Riley exclaimed, forgetting about her own trouble, as Tobias' look hardened, hooking the torc through his belt.

"Let's finish this; these creatures have caused enough damage," he trudged forward.

Bones littered the ground, partially eaten corpses of men, women, and children were everywhere, along with animals, many of which Riley had never seen before, including the pieces of a hen-sized creature that seemed more like a dinosaur than a bird, feathers, covered scales and claws, chasing over a reptilian muzzle devoid of teeth but instead consisting of white hard plates protruding down into a snarl.

"Oh God," Riley echoed herself, "I don't want to get sick again. It's like a jigsaw puzzle from a horror movie in here."

Behind the corpses were rows of eggs, some twitching.

Tobias, pulling at his power, rolled his right hand palm up towards the ceiling, pushing a flame wall.

The eggs began to cook and pop. Rotating his left hand up in the same familiar gesture. The flame wall increased its span, forming a semicircle around them, catching clothes and immolating bodies. The heat boiled the green fluid from the queen draining in from the chamber outside.

Riley felt the tug; the orange flames gained a whitish hue while she watched both their mana bars drop as the bones and eggs flashed to ash.

"Let's go find a lake, a tub, anything, "Tobias turned, and trudged wearily out up the slopes, only to find Zorna waiting patiently, with Cid standing beside.

"Queen eliminated?" Cid asked, without preamble, or seeming concern, he was similarly dripping, and disgusting.

Only the kraus seemed clean.

"I envy you," Riley projected to all. Zorna's head turned in marked curiosity before barking.

"We killed her and destroyed the eggs. This was inside," Tobias unhooked the golden torc from his belt and passed it over.

"We'll be able to bury something of them at least, poor bastard," Cid patted Tobias on the shoulder.

"Right now, sir, all I want to do is rest," Tobias sounded beyond weary. His words dripped with exhaustion and something deeper Riley could not place.

She pressed up to his legs in familiar support only to be rewarded with more pain.

"She's hurt," Cid observed.

"I heard a bone in her side snap. Her healing magic snapped it back, but I don't think she's at a hundred percent," Tobias explained.

"Hey, I'm right here. I broke a rib, at least, but I'm ok. It's just a little soreness," she deflected.

Cid knelt down and unceremoniously poked her in the ribs, feeling through her skin, getting under her armor.

Riley's face twisted into a snarl as she jerked back, emitting a pained squeal, "Hey! That hurts!"

"You don't minimize your damage. Your team needs to know if you're compromised," Cid snapped, "We'll fall back to the Cathedral and assess."

"Yes, Sir," Tobias replied with his clipped, efficient tone, but as Riley watched, she knew it was a feint.

"Can we talk about what's bugging you when we get back to the church?" Riley projected towards Tobias, leaving Cid out of it.

"I'm ok; I just need some time to think," he deflected, the words echoing within her head.