Goosebumps were crawling across Alisson’s skin.

Wind rushed and howled over the area, swaying the leafless trees. There were no birds or bugs, just the chilly wind biting at Alisson’s cheeks. The hive was before them. It was hard to believe that this was really the place. The hill from which the hive was suspected to be in didn’t look special. It looked like a pile of dead earth, and nothing more. The clouds were thick in the sky, and although the sun was nowhere to be seen, the brightness of the clouds almost made Alisson squint. The way the wind blew and rustled the barren forest around them, it was akin to someone breathing in and out, he could almost hear the pulsing exhales of the wind in the distance.

The hive was unmoving with death, yet still alive, seeming to pulse with wind’s howls as its breath.

Alisson, and all the adventurers, were expecting heavy resistance in and around the hive. But this, this was completely uncalled for. There was not a single breathing soul in sight other than the adventurers. Two teams. That was all. The third, Mystic, had stayed back to protect the horses and serve as a fall back and as reserves as need be. It’d been several days since they handled that breach earlier in the expedition, and since then the adventurers had been harassed left and right by the usual tunnel trash. If one were to only see today’s events though, they would conclude that there were no beasts, or any life in general in the area.

For being a place that was supposed to spew drowths of beasts out onto the surface, it was hardly that.

But this subversion of Alisson’s expectations only made him more on edge. The heavy wind was bad enough, the dead sight of the earth was unnerving and the chilly clouds only made it worse. Despite it being midday, everyone’s breaths were visible. Like the very air had no life, no heat, to it. It was most like the feeling when trying to sleep on a windy and dark night, and having the inclination that something was watching you. You imagine a face or eyes, peeking at you from a window at your back. A prickle on your back that stiffened your breathing and tightened your gut.

“Alavier – Look.”

Him and Celis were rather far from the rest of Crimson, so when Celis said those words to him, nobody else heard them. When Alisson looked to Celis, she was pointing at the hive with one finger. Alisson followed her finger, and scanned the pockmarked hill once more, scouring over every nook and shadow.

“What is it?”

Alisson finally asked, having not seen anything out of the ordinary.

“Something was…something was watching us.”

Celis said quietly, half in disbelief and half in an unnerved panic. She was probably just being paranoid. A rock or lump of dirt can be much more than it really is when fear is in the air.

“We’ll be fine Celis. Don’t lose your head.”

Alisson said after looking to Celis and then back to the hill. Celis was quiet after that. After seeing Celis’s unease, Alisson was filled with a resolve to be stronger. That same feeling of dragging weight resurfaced momentarily, and Alisson clenched his hand.

He didn’t know why he felt this way. Insecure? Driven? Regretful? Something had infected his mind ever since he’d had that dream. He didn’t like the feeling, and neither had he ever had it before. Alisson didn’t think such a childish seeming emotion would ever affect him – But here he was, under some sort of mental affliction of helplessness.

“There’s the scout team, hold.”

The leader of Auburn said. Because the only noise was that of the overbearing wind, everyone heard him clearly. A few scouts from each team went on ahead to recon the interior. Not only because it was good practice. But because everyone was doubtful that this barren mound of dirt in the middle of some forest would really be a supposedly large hive. The couple magicians in the two team detachment had blown a hole in the hill, and everyone had been waiting for some sort of counter attack, a large inundation of beasts, like poking a bee’s nest. Seconds had passed, then minutes, and still nothing came from the hole. So, it was decided that the rogues and rangers would go ahead to peek their heads in, of which the scout team included Patsel and Amelathet from Crimson.

The scouts had then returned. They could be heard loud as day from the gravel ground, covered with dead leaves and sticks, snapping and breaking with each step.

“So? Anything?”

Dane asked as the scouts neared.

“Nothing. Not even a whisper.” Amelathet shook her head. “But there are tunnels that the mages’ spells exposed, this is definitely a hive.”

A moment of silence passed after Amelathet’s report.

“Hmm…This might be a blessing in disguise everyone.” The leader of Auburn put his hand to his chin. “This area is definitely it. All the reports point here, and the other adventurer teams sent before us went missing here too. It looks to me that that mound over there might be an old or unused part of the hive. We might be able to sneak our way in without much fuss using it.”

“Shit, just think of that; we walk right in, destroy the central superstructure, and then just walk out.”

One of Auburn’s adventurers voiced what everyone was thinking. It was certainly a salivating idea.

“Well it’s not like we’re going to go poking our nose in every crater in the ground. Come on – Form up and let’s get this done.”

The leader of Auburn concluded, and everyone nodded resolutely. The chilliness of the wind and the breathing of the hive for a moment faded from Alisson’s mind as a sense of comradery and brotherhood filled him. It didn’t last long though. He was a Sidonian, not a human.

Along that line of thought, he had the sudden urge to hug and curl up next to Celis. As his sole ally here, it was a thought that for a moment had him drooling in ease without worry. It was like that time he had been outside Tsuhara’s bath. The motivator then and now was the same. A chill of cold and lonesomeness, it was not a yearning, rather it was something that pushed.

Alisson had that train of though all within a second before promptly purging it from his mind when another gust of wind bit at his cheeks and his ears.

“Alright, our team will take the vanguard. Dane, you can be our rear and mid-guard. That okay with you guys?”

The leader of Auburn said, and Dane nodded his head.

It made sense to put Auburn at the front. Unlike most adventurer teams, they pooled their contract money, and all of them had uniform gear – They all wore matching steel plate, they looked like knights. Even their ranger and their mages wore steel. And unlike most teams, Auburn had a whopping nine members. They were followed by Crimson with seven, and then by Mystic with four.

They looked more like a platoon of knights then a team of independent warriors.

Auburn’s warriors formed up in a wedge, and behind the wedge their supportive members were protected. Behind these members, Rei, Dane, and Alisson acted as both the vanguard of Crimson and mid guard of the entire group. Behind them, were Patsel, Celis, and Berein. Amelathet lagged behind the rest at the rear.

The bravest adventurers, were the ones at the front, and the one at the back. Auburn’s leader was quite courageous for so easily volunteering to be in the front, even given the practical reasoning of their tougher armor.

So, organized with overlapping fields of protection and vision, the group of sixteen advanced in the hole that had been blown open by the mages. The earth was still smoking a little from the spells. There was an array of mage lights, ahead of and behind them. They saw for dozens of meters down the tunnel in both directions, but the bright lighting didn’t hide the fact that it was pitch black within the hive. The light of the sky soon disappeared, and the adventurers were engulfed by an everlasting twilight.

It was quiet. Nothing but the footsteps of the adventurers was heard. On paper, the tunnel looked normal, natural, and simply was made of plain rock. Only experienced adventurers would notice the traces of the hive – the black roots buried within the walls and the black dust floating through the air were the most obvious. Even in the middle of the formation, Alisson was still in thorough unease; He could only imagine how Amelathet felt, being alone at the back, so easily could she be picked off, and the same could be said for team Auburn.

“Remember. This is a Class V hive everyone. It’s much larger than the norm. We might be walking for a few hours so get comfy.”

The leader of Auburn said at the front of the group, and no one challenged his words. Gradually the tension of the initial insertion dulled, and the adventurers started to quietly chat amongst themselves as they moved through the hive. Everyone was still looking forward and fully expecting beasts to attack; and if anything, it would’ve been calming that beasts attacked. The lack of beasts was more unsettling than anything – Alisson understood where the chattiness of the force had come from.

“Ever been in a hive?”

Berein asked Celis and him from behind.

“No. Never.”

Alisson replied, his eyes still sharp and scanning the walls of the tunnel. He was told that there were beasts that could blend in with the environment due to camouflage, and Alisson had been paranoid since the adventurers had told him about it. The time of unease and silence outside the hive on the surface – It had been a perfect moment for such beasts to strike. They hadn’t. And now Alisson was left with a subverted expectation of paranoia.

“Well you’re pretty calm for your first times.”

Berein replied. Alisson didn’t answer back. He wasn’t exactly in a chatty mood.

“But that’s weird right? Four full teams, never heard from again.”

Patsel said to Dane.

“Remember, two were only three striped, and the other two were four striped. They shouldn’t even have been near the hive on their own.”

Dane remarked.

“Still…there’s nothing here…nor on the surface, what’s to stop them from coming close to the hive without knowing it? And after that, just what took them out in the first place if there’s nothing here?”

Dane gave Patsel an evil eye.

“Stop saying that there’s nothing here, Pat. This is a hive. Get your head on straight.”

Patsel fell silent.

An hour had passed since they’d entered the hive. It had passed quickly, and they’d made good time down the main tunnel. Yet, there wasn’t a single beast. The adventurers were soon all doubtfully chatting about whether or not this really was a hive thanks to the lack of action. As time went on, these conversations that had shifted from something to take the edge off to something festering fear, the adventurers gradually died down. The force had gone completely silent before Alisson had even realized it. No one wanted to break the ice and so the only sound was once again solely the adventurer’s footsteps, echoing through the tunnel.

Over time, Celis had strayed nearer and nearer to him, breaking her position from far behind him, and now she was much closer. Alisson let out a deep burst of air through his nostrils and he turned to Celis, and lowly growled,

“Get back in line.”

It seemed only Celis had heard those words, and no one even looked to Alisson when he had spoken them.

“Don’t you hear it, Alisson?”

Alisson stared at her and then looked away, physically dismissing her words.

Celis reluctantly slowed her pace and lagged behind Alisson until she was back where she was supposed to be.

Alisson looked back down the tunnel and in doing so felt all of the sudden lightheaded.

There was something else to the tunnel, something abnormal, something unseen. He knew for a fact that a simple tunnel would not be so ominous to him – Surely Alisson was more steeled a man than that. It was not the winding turns and steep downward decline, barren of any other intersecting routes, and it was not the ever-increasing density of the dust in the air or the black roots in the walls, no. He couldn’t quite put his mind on it, even though his head by this point was throbbing with a heavy headache. Something at the back of his head, at his ears, pulsing and running through him, that was it.

When Alisson realized this, he suddenly became acutely aware of some sort of sound. He could barely hear it, yet it made his eyes cringe and his ears ache. It was a constant screech, like ultrasound, at an extremely high frequency. But, it was very quiet, and only in seconds past had Alisson realized it.

The sound kept increasing in volume, and with it Alisson’s mind felt heavy, and his body slow and hazy. His eyes were flickering. When he looked around in a daze to the rest of the group, he realized that everyone was moving at a slower pace than normal. People had their hands on their heads, massaging their temples, or were cringing their eyes with scowls. Everyone was slowing down, and the once organized advance of the adventurers was reduced to a snail’s pace as everyone hobbled on uneven footing.

“Let’s...let’s take a break for a minute...I’m feeling a bit fatigued...”

Dane mumbled, and the people that did hear him nodded lethargically. Alisson’s eyes widened.

“No! Let’s a get a move on! We have to move quicker through this area – it’s not safe here!”

Alisson whispered in a rush with as much energy as he could muster, but it was no use. Instead of dropping to the ground for rest, the adventurers after hearing Alisson were unsure of what to do, and were standing still. It was then he realized that mid formation had halted, and that Auburn was still lifelessly advancing, without the support of Crimson.

Alisson was grinding his teeth, the high frequency and yet barely noticeably hum was pulsating through him, and he could barely think straight. Someone bumped into him from behind, and when he turned, he caught Celis in his hands as she fell to the ground.

“Celis-!”

He shook her, but it was no use. She was out cold, her body had completely fallen onto Alisson’s. He let her down onto the ground. He was about to call to the adventurers, something, anything to get them to move out of this place, when he noticed Amelathet out of the corner of his vision. She was still moving forward, but because Crimson had halted she was approaching Alisson. She was holding her wolf ears down with her hands, cringing in pain when she stumbled to her knees.

“Get back on your feet!”

Alisson commanded as he rushed toward her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. But, just like Celis, she too went limp and her eyes were dull as she collapsed to the ground.

Alisson stared in disbelief for a moment. He then had the creeping thought, the sudden light of clarity; Why was no one else saying anything or coming to help? When he looked around, he got his answer. Berein was on the ground, Patsel was out cold, and Dane was on his knees. Rei was the only one still standing in Crimson, and she was looking back at Alisson in a panic. Auburn’s supporting members had also fallen, and the warriors in the wedge at the front were still moving, but with such slow motions that they hadn’t moved but a foot forward since the last time Alisson had looked – They were more like zombies than conscious team members.

It was then that Alisson saw it , far down the tunnel, at the very edge of the mage lights that had been deployed ahead of them. It was a large shadowy humanoid figure, about as tall as the tunnel ceiling. Because of the poor light and the blackness of its body, it appeared more like a shadow then a physical entity.

Alisson was surprised at himself, surprised that he wasn’t leaping to his feet, rousing the adventurers, and preparing to do battle. But, with one final and painful pulse of that high pitched and dull noise, Alisson’s shoulders slackened, and he fell to the ground, like the rest of the group had already done.

...

“Fwah...Er...”

I groaned as I regained consciousness.

“Good mor...ning...huh?”

My quiet self-talk was interrupted when I opened my eyes, and saw only black.

Right, I was...I was with Alisson and the adventurers in the hive.

I scramble to my feet, with such haste that I felt lightheaded.

W-where the hell am I? Where’s Alisson? Where’s the rest of the force?

I can only see the dull outlines in the darkness of the towering walls of the hive on all sides of me, but the blackness was so thick I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me. On the ground, all around me, I can see what looked like the scars of battle. Blood was on the ground, scratches and cuts were carved into the stone recently...and there’s bodies too. To my relief, when I neared one of them with my weapons drawn, I saw that it they weren’t adventurer corpses, but beast corpses. They had black fur and had long limbs and small heads, like gorillas or apes.

Clearly a battle took place. When? The last thing I remember...I was...I was just entering the hive...I could’ve sworn I went further in...and how did I get knocked out too?

Ugh...

I grabbed my head and shook it back and forth.

I feel like crap. Like somebody punched me in the back of my head.

For a long moment I stood in the darkness. I was too intimidated to move. There’s no one around. I can’t hear a thing, and I can’t see a thing either.

I swallowed hard.

It was just too scary. I couldn’t move. I wanted to collapse and huddle down and bury my eyes in my arms to reject it all.

I’m all alone, in this darkness...with who knows what at the edge of my vision.

I, I need to move. I need to find my team. I need to find Alisson. I’m already in the middle of this, there’s no reason to be scared. There’s nothing I can do to change my position unless I act.

Even after rousing myself, the best I could do was to stand deathly still, clenching my fists and tightening my eyes. Finally, I breathe one last breath of reluctance, before taking a step forward, and opening my eyes. I don’t have any way to light up the area unless I start a fire with my tools. Alone like this though...it might be better to stay in the dark. There’s a certain safety to it compared to holding a beacon of light and standing out.

The only reason I was able to move, I remembered that time on the plain...with the fog all around and with Alisson nowhere in sight. I fell to my knees then, about to cry in despair. That can’t happen again. Alisson might be on the brink of death somewhere, and it might be that I’m the only person left alive that can help him.

I’m, I’m his back-up. Even if I know he hates himself for needing the help of others.

There were two directions in the tunnel. I probably collapsed forward judging from my posture. From this, I pick the direction that I was heading before, and start walking deeper into the hive. I sifted along the walls, trying to keep my presence quiet. I tried to not breathe loudly, but trying to stifle my breath only made me out of breath and I breathed harder. Along the wall I crested, as quiet and slow as I could, wary for any noise or motion in the dark.

I suddenly heard a scamper, the noise of something sprinting on four legs. Down the tunnel in front of me, somewhere in the darkness. There were numerous sets of scampering legs, evidently the beasts that made the noise were heavy from the weight of their footfalls.

There’s...there’s so many of them-!

I started breathing heavily and my heart started to race. In these halls of darkness and nothingness, actually hearing something, even if it was the most mundane enemy, was terrifying. Not to mention if it was a swarm of them.

I looked to my baselards in my hands. There was in an inlet in the wall next to me. A sudden thought popped into my head. Reluctantly, I sheathed my weapons. I sifted through the dark toward the inlet, and crammed my body into the small crack in the wall. It was a tight fit, but I was able to stuff myself in sideways.

If I’m found out, I’m done for in a place like this.

I try to slow my breathing and calm my body, but consciously doing so only leads to the opposite effect, and I’m quickly on the path to hyperventilating from my fear. As the scampering gets nearer and more pronounced to be the horde of dozens of huge beasts as I inferred it was, I clamp my hands on my mouth, and slam my eyes shut.

I hope for the best.

Now with my eyes closed, I saw not even the outline of the wall before me. My entire sense of awareness was locked away, except for my hearing. I heard them. Dozens? Hundreds? There were too many sets of scampering legs to count. I only heard their drumming footfalls. The beasts running by through the tunnel were silent otherwise. I felt the wind of their rushing bodies fly past me.

My heart had slowed to a crawl, and my breath was all but out. I was about to pass out from hypoxia when the scampering of the horde finally passed. For a few more seconds I listened to them gradually fade away in volume as they sprinted down the tunnel away from me.

Finally, my body acted on its own and I let out a large gasp as my hands dropped from my mouth and nose. I fell out of the inlet onto my knees, gasping for breath.

A few seconds passed as I calmed myself down. When my breathing finally stabilized with one last sigh, I looked up around at the surroundings.

I didn’t expect to see anything. It was an action driven by paranoia and thus I knew consciously that there was nothing I was going to see. I was wrong. I saw eyes on me. A single pair, belonging to one of those black furred ape-like monsters from before. Its eyes were black, but I saw them by the glints they had, glints that were staring directly at me.

My eyes widened. On my hands and knees, I did nothing but stare back at the beast mere meters away. I swallowed hard.

It suddenly turned away and dropped onto all fours and followed the tunnel along with the rest of its horde. It soon audibly disappeared, and I was left speechless, staring at the beast that had once been in my sight. The sudden thought that there were many beasts of the passing horde that had stopped and that had stared at me, fully knowing that I was there, made me gulp down a knot of anxiety.

I shook my head, and got to my feet. Now what? One way, a massive horde of beasts have just gone, and the other, a massive horde of beasts have just come from. Those beasts must’ve either been leaving the hive, or heading toward the adventurers to attack them. Or...

I remember the picture of my unconscious body in the middle of the tunnel.

If I hadn’t moved…then…I would’ve been caught in the middle of that swarm with no way out…

I clench my teeth, and finally start walking again, in the direction that the beasts had come from. Every step my body was filled with more doubt and more fear. Doubt that Alisson would be this way, or that I should even be trying to look for him at all. Fear made my legs progressively heavier with every step, and walking quickly became a chore.

With every single physical and mental aspect of my being weighing me down, I still trudged forward. My vision was hazy for sure, but even I wouldn’t miss the spark of light that suddenly appeared down the tunnel.

I jumped in hope for the best, and I quickened my pace. The light was bluish, meaning that it was a magic light. The light splashed around the corner of the tunnel, and when I neared, I realized it as a four-way junction. I turned the corner, full of expectation and with an almost smiling face. I returned to my prior lethargy when I saw the source of the light.

It was just a lone, singular, mage light. Nothing more. On the ground, there was blood, a hell of a lot of it. Most of it was red.

I breathed a burst of air through my nose and gave my baselards a reassuring twirl within my fingers, and continued down the tunnel that had the mage light in it. The tunnel I now followed was on a steep incline down, and I had to try quite hard to stop myself from losing my balance and stumbling down.

I was so focused on trying not to fall down the slope that I almost didn’t notice the sound. When I heard it, I froze, and my sweat turned cold.

It was a breathing sound, very distinctly that of a large, panting beast. A moment passed and it became apparent that the breathing wasn’t coming from behind me like I feared, and my body subsequently uncoiled out of a modicum of tension.

I squinted my eyes, trying to make out anything, but it was no use. All I saw was the black downwards slope before me. I must’ve sat there for a solid minute, awaiting in uncertainty about what action to take and at the same time hoping that the noise would just go away. I swallowed. The deep and methodical breaths, down the tunnel ahead of me, were not going away. I tightened my grip on my baselards, and pushed forward at a snail’s pace.

Tip, toe. Tip, toe.

The deep breaths became ever louder, and the slope ever more inclined. Until I finally came across the source of the breathing. With its back toward me, the same kind black furred tall and gorilla-like beast was a mere meter in front of me. I could barely see its outline in the dark. Its breath was ever more loud and more defined. It sounded like a man with the plague, breathing through a holed and raspy throat, already in the process of dying.

It was just standing there, staring down the tunnel, facing away from me. On this sharp incline, even though it was so tall, I was above it slightly. I waited there for a long moment.

…I…I have to remove this obstacle.

I bring my baselards up to the ready, and creep nearer, cold sweat rolling down my forehead. I held my breath as I neared but a foot away. Despite me barely being able to see what I was killing, my training took over, and I leapt into action, like a python surging for prey. Its head was small, and it had no neck. Nevertheless, I still targeted the area below its head on instinct. I reached over onto the other side of the beast, and pulled back in a slice with my baselards, tearing through its collar area. I followed up my strike by impaling the back of the beast’s head with my baselards, and then giving it a kick firmly in the back. My kick sent its limp and heavy body rolling down the incline of the tunnel, and out of sight.

I stared for a long moment. There was no blood, and no sound of the beast dying. Though I still heard one thing. The breathing, panting, rasping. It was no longer coming from the beast I’d killed, but down the tunnel, from a numerous few places. It was then I saw the glints in the darkness. The same glint that I saw before when I noticed one watching me.

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There was four of them, they had all turned, and although they were too far from me for me to see their outlines, I saw those white minuscule glints in their blackened eyes, set right on me.

After a moment, the glints of light surged for me. I only saw the black melding within itself, but never the bodies of the beasts for their fur was black and their movement deft.

“W-sh-shit!”

Completely overwhelmed, I fell backwards, raising my baselards and preparing as many spells as I could. The steep incline served as my advantage. All four of them were below me, and scattered in their position throughout the tunnel. They wouldn’t be attacking all at once, and that was my saving grace. The first beast leapt at me before I was ready, and although I was backing up as fast as I could, it was no match for the slender beast twice my height. I felt a punch on my chest which blew the wind out of me. The beast’s fingers seemed to be clawed, but thankfully my armor took the brunt of the attack, and reduced a disemboweling force to a simple bruise.

I pushed my pain aside and let loose the few spells that I had prepared in my short time since I’d seen the beasts. My yellow flurry of but two spell types eviscerated the first beast, and its body was sent the other direction and away from me; rolling down the slope in two pieces. My spells illuminated the tunnel with their bright yellow incandescence, shooting down and revealing my enemies in the few seconds that they were corporeal. The second and third beasts met with similar effects as the first had, and were sent stumbling down the incline. The fourth was the farthest away, but my barrage and available spells were already dry. I scrambled to my feet, and, using only the glints of the fourth beast’s eyes as my direction, I jumped forward through the tunnel. Thanks to the incline, I was sent through the air, and right into the top of the fourth beast. Having my baselards ready like a pike man meeting a cavalry charge, my entire weight slammed into the beast. It didn’t die right away, but that was no matter since I managed to knock it off its footing, and it fell backward.

As the beast slid down the incline, lashing out at me fruitlessly, I ripped through its head and its throat with my baselards until it finally went limp. By the time it died, the incline had also leveled off, and the sliding body of the beast had halted. And so I stood up, over the corpses of the five beasts that had rolled down the slope.

Filled with adrenaline and still terrified, I quickly pointed my baselards at every single beast, and systematically shot a Pict spell through their heads. The spell’s lives were short, and so were the bright flashes of illuminating light that accompanied them. It felt like I was living in a flipbook animation for a few seconds.

I stood over the corpses, at the base of the slope for a long minute, breathing deeply. The noise of the beasts’ breath was all gone. When I looked back up the slope, I saw the slight blue of the mage light from before, the light was wrapping around the top of the tunnel. From the base here, I can see how far the slope was…I didn’t think it was that far up…

I was about to set my sights back to the front of the tunnel when I saw something up above, at the top of the slope, peeking over.

image [https://imgur.com/zfdBEfO]

image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/634750095577055232/1226964003918708797/darkoneVER2.png?ex=6626ae46&is=66143946&hm=11395f37efa0744b92c629a74ac7c078f48f7741f6dc5b469c55388d82d39b29&]

A large figure was watching me.

The mage light suddenly flicked off, and the top of the slope was returned to darkness. I stared in shock for a moment, before swallowing hard. I turned and quickened my pace down the tunnel.

It was only when I heard the bellowing and crashing footsteps that I broke into a run. Whatever it was, it was barreling down the slope, and coming right for me. I was pushing my legs as hard as I could, cringing my eyes in fear. There something wrong with that figure. Something wholly terrible that made me run without even thinking.

To my own surprise, a liquid was accumulating at the edges of my eyes.

I…I just want to go home…

The bellowing only increased in volume. It sounded like a human man was screaming out, either in complete rage or like he’d just been mortally wounded. The noise and the footsteps came ever closer, and my eyes tightened ever together. It was only when I heard an explosion in front of me that I peeled them open in a brief flare of hope.

Spells. Human ones. Just around the corner, a hundred meters away.

I broke into a smile without even knowing, and my earlier fear and fatigue seemed to evaporate. The thought of being near someone else, anyone, even just one of the adventurers, immediately made the darkness of the tunnel easier to deal with.

Just a little more-!

When I rounded the corner, almost falling over myself, I saw a few mage lights accompanied by spells flying through the air. A battle was taking place between a few adventurers and the beasts I’d been seeing thus far. The battle was already coming to a close.

Alisson, Rei, and Berein. At their feet were dozens of the black furred beasts.

I could still hear the crashing footsteps behind me, so I dashed to the group in utter relief.

Before I was able to reach Alisson to hopefully fall into his embrace, a quaking rumble disorientated me, and I stumbled to my knees. A few rocks fell from the ceiling of the tunnel behind me, then a few more, then boulders and large chunks of dirt and gravel collapsed down.

I backed up on instinct, thinking that I would be caught in the falling debris. By the time the tunnel was collapsed, the dust was thick in the air, and I could barely breathe.

“Ferris-! You’re alright!”

I heard rushed footsteps behind and I turned to see Berein and Alisson. Berein was smiling happily and Alisson had let out a sigh of relief.

“We thought we’d lost you. Everyone got separated somehow, but you’re the last one to meet up with us.”

Berein explained, covering her mouth with a hand from the dust.

“What exactly was following you?”

Alisson asked me before I could respond to Berein. He was suspicious, and dead serious. His attitude was a little disheartening, I was hoping that he’d be more warm…but this is a dangerous situation…I guess I’m just being stupid for expecting comfort in a place like this.

“I don’t know…something tall…took up the whole tunnel.”

I shook my head.

“Well, whatever it was…it just collapsed our way out.”

…

Celis stared at him with wide eyes in disbelief.

“Come on, the rest of Crimson is up this way!”

Rei called to the three of them, urging them to move. Alisson extended his hand to Celis, and pulled her up from her feet. The four of them broke into a sprint further down the tunnel. There were numerous branching pathways, smaller than the main tunnel but just as dark. There were mage lights just floating through the air aimlessly everywhere, the casters of them long having been preoccupied with matters other than controlling their lights. Throughout the tunnel, there were a great deal of beast corpses from the very mobile battle. Him and Rei could only do so much without giving ground; they were not frontline fighters.

“What’s going on?”

Celis asked him.

“Ambush. The force was split. We need to catch up with them.”

Alisson said tersely.

Alisson had met up with a few members of Crimson and Auburn, completely unaware of what had happened other than the fact that everyone had seemed to have been knocked out somehow upon entering the hive. They were ambushed by a swarm of the black furred humanoid beasts, what the adventurers said were hive Guardians. As the battle progressed, more and more adventurers rendezvoused from the noise of battle, and the scale of fighting increased. Eventually the beasts had shown their plan; groups of concentrated Guardians broke through the walls of the hive, and had separated the force. Him, Berein, and Rei, were at the rear, and had been pushed back down the tunnel. The rest of Crimson was further up ahead, and Auburn was up at the front, far ahead of Alisson’s group.

Up ahead were explosions, and sounds of fighting.

The four of them quickly entered the battle. Dane, Amelathet, and Patsel were being overrun by a large swarm of beasts. They were enclosed on all angles, and without the large area of effect spells of Rei or Berein, they’d resorted to using magic imbued items similar to Alisson’s knives.

Berein held back to charge spells, and him and Rei charged right into the mass, both armed with bucklers. Celis followed close behind to support.

The beasts were focused on the encircled members of Crimson, and as such had their backs turned to him and Rei, allowing them free rain to pincer the beasts. Rei unloaded her attack spells from her short sword, each one vaporizing one or two beasts with their wispy trails and blue explosions. They were easily able to cut down a great number of beasts before they’d even been noticed, and by the time the beasts had turned to engage, the encircled members of Crimson focused their attention on attacking the beasts closest to the side of the reinforcements.

The beasts quickly disintegrated against a two pronged attack by the adventurers. When one side of the beasts were dealt with, and Crimson was reunited, all attention immediately shifted to the other side of the tunnel. Now with the full combination of Crimson, and with Berein launching off her heavy spells into the fray by this point, the rest of the beasts were dealt with quickly. The ones that didn’t perish were quick to run off into the side passages and into the holes in the walls. The only ones that never ran were the hive Guardians, they fought fiercely until inevitably perishing.

When the fighting was over, and corpses were strewn across the ground, Dane turned to Crimson with a blood splattered face.

“Good you showed up when you did, they had us on the ropes.”

Rei nodded resolutely in response.

“Alright Crimson, let’s catch up to Auburn – It sounds like they could use our help right about now.”

The members of Crimson all nodded. They were not as enthusiastic as they normally were, and none of them were smiling except for Dane.

Patsel was quick to heal the wounds of Crimson whilst they were on the move. Alisson himself had taken only a scratch here and there, and to his approval, Celis was also mostly uninjured. Amelathet and Patsel himself, the two most non-combat orientated adventurers in Crimson being the scout-recon, were the most battered, but it was nothing the third tier healing from Patsel couldn’t fix.

As they made their way further down the main tunnel of the hive, Alisson couldn’t help but be terrified and amazed at the same time. The beasts were very obviously using surprise tactics against the adventurers. The way they split the force was not a coincidence. The Guardians seemed to be the most intelligent, but even then, Alisson couldn’t comprehend that the beasts were so organized in their precise strikes. Whether they were really just that intelligent, or if there was some higher being at play directing the defense of the hive, it didn’t change the fact that he and Celis were going up against a very disciplined, and a very organized foe. If it weren’t for the manpower and large area spells of the adventurers, whether it was from the items or casters, Celis and him would’ve been overwhelmed long ago. Only Dane with his massive shield and the large swinging motions of his mace looked wholly comfortable fighting dozens of beasts at once on his lonesome.

Alisson had had to of considerably sped up his rate of killing enemies to keep up with the battle. There were just so many, and each one was a powerful foe on their own. He hated to admit it, but Rei was far better at killing swaths of beasts than he was; especially since she had her perfectly suited attack spells, whereas Alisson couldn’t risk using any of his largely Sidonian arsenal of spells. She was very good with that short sword of hers. The downsides of having such small weapons were obvious, the reach and cutting power were considerably worse. But by contrary, she was much faster in her attacks, and killing speed in hordes like these were what mattered more than sheer power. That was why Dane, with his massive mace, would be at a disadvantage if he didn’t kill multiple beasts with a single strike.

With the sounds of fighting and spells nearing ever closer, team Crimson was close to regrouping with team Auburn.

“There they are!”

Amelathet said, racing ahead of Crimson as a few members of Auburn came into view.

Though, there was something odd about the tunnel ahead. Amelathet figured that out too late.

“It’s a-!”

Dane reached out, and grabbed Amelathet by the scruff of the neck, he easily lifted her up off her feet with a single hand.

With Dane halting, the rest of Crimson came to a stop behind him. It at first looked to be stupid, their allies were not a dozen meters away and the reinforcements were prematurely coming to a slow.

“Berein, light.” Dane said as he set the wolf-kin down behind him.

Berein stepped forward, and illuminated the area immediately in front of Crimson with a bright light. With the light, it became apparent; The floor of the tunnel before them was missing. It was hard to see in the dark, but it looked like the floor had collapsed, and it had left a large part of the tunnel untraversable. The broken floor led to only blackness. Either the drop was unfathomably large, or there was an entirely different cavern below.

Either way, there was no way to jump over a hundred-foot gap. A couple members of Auburn on the other side of the gap were wrapping up a skirmish with some beasts. Darkness obscured the rest of Auburn, but it was evident there was more fighting beyond them.

“Hey!” Dane clasped his hands over his mouth, “You guys alright over there?”

One of the members of Auburn noticed Dane and called back,

“We’re fine! Damned floor just gave out from behind us! We’ll keep pushing down this tunnel – You’ll have to find another way around! Mystic is coming to help – We’ll get this damned hive destroyed don’t you worry!”

“We’ll try to meet up with you then – Godspeed!”

The member of Auburn visibly nodded, and then rushed down the tunnel, and into the darkness, and out of sight. Dane turned back to the rest of Crimson with a furrowed brow.

“Well, now what?” Amelathet asked with angst.

“Just what I said. We’ll have to go a different way around. This looks like the main tunnel, so the central structure should be in Auburn’s direction. We’ll have to hope one of the side passages heads in the same direction.”

"What about our flight scrolls? We can just fly over can't we?" Amelathet tilted her head in suspicion.

Dane shook his head, and pointed to the black void.

"It's too far a horizontal distance for comfort. What's to say we won't be attacked by beasts or dragged down into the void? I don't like it."

Alisson hadn't thought of that, and for a moment he was terrified of the thought. Though after calming down, he thought the risk was well rewarded - Reuniting with allies in a place like this far outweighed danger in Alisson's opinion. But if Dane said so, Alisson couldn’t very well argue with command.

Rei suddenly shoved past Alisson, to come face to face with Dane.

“Don’t be a chicken. Patsel, scrolls. We’re getting over to Auburn.”

Dane piqued his eyebrow in a moment of askance, but sighed in resignation.

“…There’s no convincing you is there? Mm, not like I had a chance to knock some sense into you I guess. Berein, Patsel, do your thing.” Dane apparently caved to Rei’s brazenness.

He motioned to Patsel and Berein, who hadn’t moved on account of not wanting to step over Dane’s leadership. Berein stepped forward, and nervously looked over the edge of the tunnel.

Berein suddenly lifted a hand to her ear before anyone could respond.

“Mystic is using a wide area message spell-”

Berein lifted her hand up and a small light formed. From it emitted highly static and garbled words, though they were still mostly understandable.

“ - - - Team Mystic locked and ready to roll! - - - As soon as everyone is - - - -side! - - -”

The ball continued to emit static for a time before Berein clenched her hand into a fist, canceling the spell.

Reinforcements. Alisson felt a wave of relief even though Mystic was only a few people strong. Though, the few members of Mystic were great fighters from what Alisson had heard.

“They must be right above us if we can even hear them at all. With Mystic coming in and Auburn pushing toward the central structure, this hive is already as good as dead.”

Rei concluded.

“Then let’s hurry – We don’t want to miss out on the action, do we?”

Dane flashed a smile, his earlier tepidness seeming to have evaporated on account of the good news. Patsel handed Berein a few rolls of paper from his backpack, to which Berein muttered some inaudible incantation to each before ripping them in half and placing a hand over each member of Crimson systematically. With each scroll, an aura surrounded each of them, and Alisson suddenly felt weightless, like he could float of his feet at any moment.

“Ever used flight spells?”

Berein tilted her head to Celis and himself.

“I have, but never in a real sense, only for training purpose.”

He wasn’t lying. He’d been trained mildly in flying, but he’d never used it in actuality. He knew for certain that Celis hadn’t ever flown, but she wasn’t one to be scared of these sorts of things, Alisson knew that for sure.

“This one though,” Alisson flicked his head to Celis, “Hasn’t ever flown.”

Berein smiled and extended her hand to Celis.

“I’ll show you the ropes then.”

…

Eh…Can’t Alisson show me? If he’s not offering to help, he mustn’t be too confident in flying then…

I frown. Whatever. I can’t expect Alisson to literally hold my hand through everything. I grab onto Berein’s hand firmly. The rest of Crimson began to take off around me, and were already floating above the void. Alisson gave me a look before floating off his feet for himself. He twitched slightly in his gentle rise, evidently unused to it.

“As long as you keep your body upright, there’s nothing to it.”

Berein said encouragingly.

“Now, just think about going up, imagine your feet no longer being on solid ground.”

I looked down to my feet nervously. I closed my eyes and did as she said. Before I knew it, there wasn’t anything below my feet. I opened my eyes in a gasp and a shock ran through my heart. I was an inch off the ground, and so was Berein. I’ve known about flight spells, but actually flying like this is a majestic sensation – even in a place like this.

I continued to float upward…a little too upward. W-wait I’m actually to going to bump my head if I don’t stop-! I thrashed side to side in a panic.

“Calm down, just think about centering yourself.”

Berein was directly in front of me, but I hadn’t noticed in my brief episode of desperate flailing. I was embarrassed to be so helpless in the presence of someone who wasn’t Alisson, but the fear of my life overtook my woes and I calmed myself as best I could, and tried my hardest to descend, and center myself on the same level as the rest of Crimson.

I opened my eyes from a cringe, to find myself level, and I sighed in relief.

“Alright. Let’s get going already.”

Rei said gruffly.

“I say we send some lights below us and find out if there’s anything there…”

Patsel said, eyeing the black void underneath.

“If there is anything there…” Dane eyed Patsel, “The lights would only tick them off to our presence, and our chit-chat isn’t helping either right about now.”

Patsel froze up in realization and Crimson was silent from there on out. With Berein ahead of me, holding my hand, the seven of us gently and slowly floated through the tunnel. With even the steps of the adventurers missing, I slowly began to be able to hear my own heartbeat, and the slight squelches of my stomach and my throat. The saliva in my mouth was suddenly the loudest thing in my ears. It was deafening. So much so that my ears were starting to hurt.

Time dragged. Soon, Amelathet voiced what everyone was thinking.

“I though it was only a few meters…what the hell is taking so long?”

Amelathet sounded fatigued. When I tilted my head and looked past Berein, I saw only black down the tunnel. There was no landing where the we saw the members of Auburn. I noticed Amelathet’s ears were flat on her head, and she was cringing, as if in pain. It was then that I noticed that my ears were tingling.

The feeling was oddly familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I’d felt it before.

“Calm down. I’m sure it’s just a few more meters.”

Dane said, dismissing Amelathet’s worries.

“All kinds of stuff happens with vision in hives, one second you can see dozens of meters ahead, the other second, the dust and darkness has thickened, and you can’t even see your nose.”

Berein sent a few mage lights farther ahead of us. As they continued down the tunnel, it became apparent that there wasn’t any landing for at least a few hundred meters.

By this point, we’d been flying for almost five minutes.

“Tch. Let’s quicken our pace, come on!” Dane spat.

The tingling at my ears was now causing me to cringe in pain, and it seemed like the other adventurers, Alisson included, were under the same ailment. The group flew faster, and Berein’s grip on me tightened as we sped down the tunnel. As our speed increased, I realized what that tingling sensation was at my ears. It was a high pitched drone.

“The spell runs out faster like this – We can’t keep this up for very long-!”

Berein hissed in fright.

“Stay cool – We’ll make it!”

Everyone was talking far louder than they should’ve been, but the noise screeching at the tips of my ears was making it hard to hear. All of a sudden, auras of grey and white started appearing around the adventurers, blinking rapidly.

“We’re running out-!”

“Just keep going!” Rei shouted in response to Berein.

Crimson was now speeding down the tunnel, something akin to a jog’s pace as the flight spells weren’t all that fast. Regardless, I was close to falling over if it weren’t for Berein’s grip on me.

Then, it happened. That weightless sensation I had – It disappeared. I suddenly felt like the heaviest thing in the world.

One by one the same happened with the rest of Crimson.

“Patsel!”

“Right!”

An array of green circles appeared below us.

“Lights, now!”

Dane ordered again, and Berein summoned and sent a dozen mage lights directly below us as more and more of Patsel’s slow-fall rings formed below.

Despite having sent a large number of light spells, the floor came faster than expected. Thanks to the lighting, I saw the floor clearly, and thanks to Patsel’s spells, we weren’t going to have a very hard landing.

…

Alisson dusted off his cloak while he got to his feet.

“Everyone alright?”

The members of Crimson were all around, getting to their feet as well. When Alisson looked, he saw that Berein was still holding Celis’s hand. Celis was quick to recoil her arm from Berein, averting her gaze with a frown.

“Great. Just great!”

Amelathet grinded her teeth.

“Easy. There’s no use in getting angry.”

Dane calmed the immediate tensions of Amelathet.

Alisson looked up, and saw the rings of green from whence they’d fallen. The drop was higher than it felt, thanks to the slow-fall spells. It had to have been at least a few hundred meters drop. The environment was the same as the previous tunnel above, simply this time it came with solid ground. The ceiling however, was missing, and the walls at their sides simply extended indefinitely upwards.

“At least that fucking noise is gone.”

Amelathet spat. Alisson realized with her words that indeed his ears weren’t hurting anymore. Evidently whatever the group had been hearing, was much more impactful to Amelathet. Berein’s lights expanded and soared down the tunnel in both directions. It seemed perfectly straight.

“Should we use our flight spells again?”

Berein suggested.

Dane shook his head.

“We’ll wait until we can see a definitive floor above us – there’s no point in using up more scrolls only to have them run out again. We can’t use our scrolls so willy-nilly. We only had fourteen – enough for two rounds for the whole team.”

They only had one round of flight left, and it seemed Dane was far more frugal with them now.

“For now, let’s get moving the direction of Auburn. Hopefully this tunnel ends, so that we can follow up the wall up to a floor above with our last flight spells.

Everyone nodded, and they set off at a quick pace, down in the direction that Auburn had been heading. Gradually, as the initial rush of adrenaline from the flight spells wearing off faded, Alisson began to calm, and take in the surroundings.

The tunnel was far smaller, and far dustier.

“It’s quiet…I wonder if the beasts aren’t attacking because were not as much as a threat as Auburn is to the hive.”

Patsel mused.

“They can’t be that smart…no…I think this side passage isn’t used very much…”

Rei said, her eyes sweeping over the walls of the tunnel as they passed.

“What makes you say that?”

Alisson asked.

“Look.” Rei lifted her shorts sword to the walls. “This texture…it’s not natural like the rest of the hive…” She shook her head. “There’s just something wrong with it.”

Alisson couldn’t hope to have the years of experience the adventurers did to have such a gut feeling, but he saw where Rei was coming from. The walls were not smooth, rather there were waves and curves in the stone. Nor did the tunnel have a single stalagmite or stalactite – It was oddly uniform in its cylindrical cavity all the way through.

Alisson’s thoughts were interrupted when Amelathet at the head of the group suddenly rose her hand in a fist, and laid her other hand on her falchion. Crimson halted immediately and the atmosphere of the team suddenly became much more serious.

“Something ahead. It’s noisy.”

Amelathet’s ears were twitching atop her head. Alisson silently pouted, unable to use his Opensen to have some semblance of hearing like her.

With her words, Amelathet silently crept forward into the darkness, alone. Crimson held fast, staring down the tunnel with merciless faces, expecting anything. A minute passed as Amelathet had gone investigating. Then two. Then three.

Crimson didn’t move a muscle.

After almost five minutes of complete silence, Alisson heard faintly, distant calling. He recognized the shouting as Amelathet, and her calls became louder as she neared. It wasn’t only her calls that Alisson began to hear, but a deep rumbling. It was only when she emerged from the darkness, at a full sprint toward Crimson, when Alisson was able to make her out.

“Down-! Get down! It’s a Basilisk!”

The rumbling noise was directly behind her. The source of the rumbling came barreling through the darkness a mere second after Amelathet had. At first Alisson thought the darkness itself was moving, but it immediately became apparent that that wasn’t the case. It looked like a wall of black flesh, squirming its way through the tunnel like a snake. It was large, and took up the entirety of the tunnel’s width and height.

The world moved in slow motion as the large snake-like beast barreled toward Crimson. Alisson acted without thinking, and was about to tackle Celis to the side of the wall when he realized for himself that he’d been too late – For Celis was already pushing Alisson off his feet. The prospect that Celis had acted faster than him left Alisson frozen, and blank.

…

Come on you big lug! Go!

With one last push I sent Alisson stumbling into an inlet in the tunnel wall. He was bewildered at me. I pushed the shocked sight of Alisson out of my head and looked back to the rest of Crimson with the few milliseconds I had left. Amelathet had dived, tackling Patsel to the ground to the side. Rei and Dane were already hugging the walls, staring at the incoming beast with bated breath. Berein however, had only just lifted her foot to move out of the way.

No one would blame her, a magician, for not being able to move as fast as the rest of us. I reached out, and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, and yanked her into the inlet with me and Alisson. It all happened so fast, it was less a cohesive evasion and more a scramble. Together, me, Alisson and Berein all fell over each other just as the massive earthworm came barreling through the tunnel with the velocity of a mage rail.

I felt it pass before I saw it, the gust of air from its movement was overwhelming, enough to blow a man over. The mage lights were engulfed by the beast, and the area was cloaked in blackness. Even in the pitch black, I could still very easily see the rushing flesh passing mere inches from my face.

What was also mere meters from my face was Berein’s chest. With Alisson behind me on the ground and Berein on top of me, I was sandwiched in thanks to our scramble. Well, it was better than being a pancake.

A half a minute passed as the – what did Amelathet call it, a ‘Basilisk’? – rushed by. With the speed it had, and yet still having its body moving down the tunnel, it was evident that the Basilisk was not only massively wide, but unfathomably long as well. Finally, the last of the Basilisk passed, and its rumbling slither died off in the distance.

“Guah…A Basilisk in such shallow waters…They’re usually a lot deeper underground…”

Berein grunted, standing up and dusting herself off. I turned to Alisson, and extended my hand. He stared for a moment, still with wide eyes and a blank face. He shook his head and promptly grabbed my hand, and pulled himself up. I looked at him skeptically for a moment. Alisson looked away guiltily.

“I-I’m sorry I…I didn’t expect that you would…”

His words trailed off.

“Huh?”

I tilted my head with an almost disgusted facial expression without thinking.

“I-it’s nothing.”

Alisson followed up quickly, and looked away from me. I opened my mouth to speak when I was cut off.

Amelathet had suddenly locked her head down the tunnel, her ears up and alert, with her eyes dilated vertically. Every single member of Crimson, despite having just re-centered themselves, immediately became tense. Amelathet was the canary, if she made even the slightest motion like that, it meant that trouble was coming. Berein had re-deployed some mage lights, so we could see a good distance in both directions of the tunnel – But nobody saw what Amelathet was supposedly ticked off by.

“The floor.”

Amelathet said tersely and quietly. She then looked back to the rest of Crimson, with wide eyes.

“The floor is falling in the Basilisk’s wake!”

“Move! Follow the Basilisk!”

Immediately Dane commanded, and everyone broke into a sprint down the way we’d come. It looked stupid – An entire team retreating for no apparent reason. I soon caught onto what Amelathet had heard mere seconds after we started running. A crackling rumble. It was as she said, the floor was coming out from under us in the wake of the massive beast. It became evident that we were running for our lives.

The noise was catching up. It was faster. On instinct, I careened my head around. Other than the darkness of the tunnel at the edge of our mage light’s radius, I saw what Amelathet was talking about. The floor of the tunnel was quite literally falling. In staggered checkered chunks, the rocks and gravel that made up the floor were systematically dropping away, and revealing a black void beneath.

Just run!

I shook my head and looked back down the tunnel. Tch! Crimson is too slow! Me and Alisson can sprint way faster than all of them except Amelathet.

Even so, me and Alisson do not hold back our speed, and we’re at the head of the group with Crimson. The both of us know very damn well that going into the same grave as these adventurers is not worth it. Despite these thoughts of escaping in the wake of the deaths of the rest of Crimson, that quickly becomes impossible.

Like I said, the floor was caving out faster than we could run.

“Son of a-!”

Dane, at the back of the group, was facing away. He looked to have been trying to save Patsel, but the floor fell before he was able to, and now the both of them were falling into the void. The floor under Rei was gone. And the floor under me and Alisson was cracked.

To hell with this!

I draw my stilettos and lunge for the sides of the tunnel. I accidently bumped into Berein as she was running forward and I was now running to the side. Without thinking I grabbed onto her hand. Even though the entirety of Crimson was about to die, I didn’t for one second want to shove the adventurers to the side and break me and Alisson’s cover. In retrospect, it wasn’t the greatest idea I had ever had.

My stiletto bounces off, right as the floor under me breaks. And with that, I’m left falling into the void, with a stiletto that can’t pierce the rock in one hand, and a sack of deadweight in the other. I was just about to let go of the dead weight when-

“Good effort!”

Alisson said, grabbing onto my hand and stopping me from falling into the dark void below. When I looked up, I saw Alisson holding onto the wall of the tunnel with one hand, and grabbing me with the other. He must’ve known that the wall would’ve either been impenetrable or that it would’ve broken if we we’re to try and ‘ice pick’ our way out of this. He’d spent his time looking for a rock to hold onto while my dumb ass was trying to stab a wall of solid rock. Amelathet by this point was the only one running, but she too quickly succumbed to the same fate as the rest of Crimson had – Having the ground under you quite literally disappear.

I was surprised, and at the same time more disappointed of myself, when I saw that she too grabbed onto nearby wall like Alisson had, and she easily kept herself up.

I looked down the other direction of the tunnel.

Patsel and Dane were no where to be seen. Rei was…holding onto the tunnel wall too! God damn it! Was I really the only one who was so stupid to mess that up!?

The tunnel became silent as the rolling thunder that was the falling floor sped of into the distance. Amelathet and Rei were on the walls, Alisson too. Below Alisson, me and…oh right I’m still holding Berein. I pulled her up surprisingly easily, either because she doesn’t weigh much, or I’ve just gotten stronger than I thought.

With my help, she managed to climb up my body and came face to face with me. She was staring at me with a red flushed face.

“Well? On with it!”

I say impatiently. I don’t know what’s her problem.

Berein immediately took my words to heart and scrambled up to Alisson, putting her boots directly onto my shoulders. She then got hold of the wall like Alisson, and Alisson started to pull me up.

“What’s the call captain?” Amelathet asked Rei, who was now in command with the absence of Dane.

Unlike Berein, I quickly scramble up Alisson and firmly grab hold of a rock jutting out from the wall. Finally not facing a wall, I could see the remaining members of Crimson all in my sight; Rei and Amelathet were on the other side of the tunnel, so between us was a massive ravine of what was once the ground of the passage.

“Captain?”

Rei wasn’t responding, instead she was locked onto the void beneath us. She pointed a hand down, and launched off one of her attack spells. All five of us watched the wispy blue bolt soar down into the void.

But,

It exploded. There was a ground. Granted, the explosion was so far down that it was about the size of my pinky. Rei cuffed her spare hand over her mouth.

“Hey! Dane! Pat! You guys alright down there?”

She shouted into the void. A few moments passed in silence. Rei shook her head.

“No good, the distance must be too great.” She looked to the rest of us. “We’ll have to find some other way to find out if they’re alright.” She glanced back down to the void with a clenched fist. “We’re not leaving them behind.”

Darn. Maybe me and Alisson should just launch off a barrage and make the rest of them fall, and then we can shimmy our way across the wall and to the intersection back a ways, and then get the hell out of here. Hm. I think Alisson feels the same…

Without thinking my hand starts glowing yellow.

Alisson suddenly grabbed onto my shoulder with one hand and squeezed me tightly. When I looked, I saw him giving me a death stare. I saw him mouth out the words in Sidonian:

We need Crimson for Freigat!

My eyes widened and I suddenly became terrified of Alisson. His face was one of pure scorn and disgust, like he was ready to push me off into the abyss.

“Good idea Ferris – Set up some lights Berein –”

Rei was cut off. A blur shot up throw the dark void. It flew up and hit the ceiling of the tunnel, before igniting into a blue flare and falling back down into the void. Everyone looked at each other for moment in silence.

It was one of Patsel’s magic imbued arrows.

Rei waved her hands down, and Berein nodded. Berein cast a dozen mage lights, and sent them directly down into the void. The first few did little more than be blots of light in the dark; but as soon as the rest reached the ground of the void below, they all fanned out across the ground in an organized sweeping pattern. Sure enough, one of the lights illuminated two figures waving their hands to get our attention. Rei looked back up to the rest of us.

“Pat’s alive. That means he can use his slow-fall spells and we can get down there. I don’t know how they’re okay after making such a jump, but we’ll have to roll with it.”

After Rei finished her sentence, four green circles swished into existence. They were in exact accordance with the mage lights that Berein had directed to float in the middle of the void. They were Patsel’s slow-fall spells.

“That’s our way down.” Rei shrugged with a devious smile.

“Tch…Time’s like these I wish I had a flight spell…”

Berein muttered, eying the drop. Most of the adventurer mages had the flight spell, but by contrary they didn’t have the powerful artillery spells Berein had; which is why she was Crimson’s only combat mage – She was all the firepower the team needed.

“The fall will still be hard, even with Pat’s spells.”

Rei said, and everyone nodded in response.

“Alright.” Rei took a deep breath. “I’ll go first.”

With that, she prepared herself for only a moment, before jumping toward the slow-fall spells. They were placed periodically throughout the void in increments. Even with them and the mage lights, I still couldn’t see much and she quickly disappeared below. Amelathet looked at us, and flicked her head before doing the same. Alisson looked to me, and then jumped as well. I followed quickly in his wake.

The blackness surrounding me on all sides was a strangulating sensation, despite the fact I was falling with air rushing by me.

***