I stumble up to my feet on shaky legs. Seriously! What’s up with me and falling from high places!? First the flight spells cancel on us, and now the floor comes out from under us.

Again, I had Patsel’s spells to thank for cushioning my fall.

I look up, and see the green pulsating circles disappear. They were the only light source in the sky, the rest was black, I couldn’t even see my own hands or nose. There was an odd sensation I felt immediately though. Some sort of slime-like substance was on my face, and it felt like I was standing in mud.

My brief lapse into the twilight blackness was ended when several mage lights flew over head, and shinned light directly into my eyes, causing me to cringe. I looked to my hands, and saw that the once gray steel of my gauntlets was now a slick black. Thick globs of some sort of dark sludge were running in between my fingers and falling to the ground, the same could be said for my cloak and any part of me that had touched the ground. I was quick to wipe my face as best I could, but evidently this slime stuff left smears everywhere it went.

The ground under me was less a solid and more like a liquid.

It looked like I was standing in a sea of black, viscous oil, the same stuff that had been splattered all over me in the fall. With the mage lights above shining light over the immediate vicinity, I could see that the same could be said for the rest area surrounding me. It was an unnerving sight, and to think that the landscape would be the same for the rest of the area – past the burning lights. That curtain of black that the lights created was more intimidating than the darkness itself; the fact that I could see clearly all around me were light began and ended…and just how defined that line was.

The air here was thick, and hard to breathe. It was like the mud beneath my feet was in the air itself. All the same did it further dull the mage lights.

I quickly slugged my way through the black sludge up to one of the few bumps in the land, free of the sludge. The dirt that made up the small hill was just as black, and had an innumerable amount of debris buried within it. I could only imagine where the hell any debris would come from in this place.

It wasn’t hard to link up with the rest of Crimson, we all knew where we were jumping from. Everyone was stepping through the rivers of black sludge as if snow were up to their chests. Despite it only being a few minutes, everyone was already covered in the black goop, even Alisson had a smear across his cheek.

Crimson was quick to form a defensive circle, and everyone but me and Alisson launched up bright flares to illuminate the area further. The flares were shot up with the same explosive bravado that I’d seen in earlier battles, but now, they looked more like stars in the sky rather than beamingly bright suns.

“…What the hell is this place Rei?”

Dane muttered, looking at the area surrounding us.

“I have no idea. We have to be at least a kilometer underground, under the rest of the hive.”

Dane clicked his tongue.

“We can always use our flight scrolls to fly back up in combination with a heavy attack spell from Berein to break us out and back into the tunnels above. But…” Dane pondered for a moment, itching his stubbled chin. “We might be able to use this as a shortcut – Find the central structure of the hive, and uppercut it right in the gut – Assuming we can locate the hive from under it that is. Berein, send some lights in the direction of the main tunnel.”

“Am I a chandelier or a magician?”

Berein quietly muttered to herself as she rose her staff. A convoy of a few dozen lights streamed from her staff. Despite soaring away in a long line, the lights barely illuminated much of anything. The flares above were the largest source of light, but they were steadily losing altitude, and their hissing noise was fading in strength with time. As the convoy of lights moved on, they illuminated the same looking surface for miles on end, and it became apparent that this expansive cavern really was just an empty void of black sludge and rotted debris.

Everyone was locked onto the lights, hoping that they’d light something up resembling a hive structure, until Dane sighed.

“…We’ll just have to approximate-”

He was cut off by the emergence of a new light source, slightly left of Berein’s lights, and in the ceiling high above. Streams of multicolored lights rained down from the ceiling of the cavern.

“Those are Auburn’s spells!”

Berein yelped in surprise.

“Are you sure?” Dane questioned.

“Yes, I recognize them.”

Berein nodded confidently.

“They must be attacking something – But what could be the target of their spells all the way down here? There shouldn’t be anything in this cavern – Adjust your lights Berein.”

Berein nodded and rose her staff in response to Dane’s command. The convoy of lights split up and started sweeping the area around where Auburn’s spells were pointed at. Her spells by this point were kilometers away, and they were but glowing specks of dust. Despite this, it was easy to see what they uncovered on the receiving end of Auburns spells. Berein’s mage lights, a few dozen in all, swarmed around it. But even with all the lighting spells, the shear scale of it prevented the lights from illuminating all but a tiny portion of it.

“…That has to be the largest hive I’ve ever seen…” Berein said, her mouth agape and her eyes wide with shock, “…that anyone’s, ever seen…”

Berein’s lights circled around a large bulbous spire. It stretched from the base of the cavern’s floor, and evidently pierced the ceiling above. Due to the distance, I couldn’t make out much more than its general silhouette.

“Well, there’s our target.”

Dane broke the dead silence of Crimson with his usual optimism.

“Your strongest spell should be able to do a number on it, right Berein?”

Dane kept speaking despite his team’s shocked expressions.

“I…no…it’s, it’s way too big…even if I used all my mana…”

Her face was one of wide-eyed terror.

“Well, you miss all the shots you don’t take, come on. There’s no sense in not trying.”

Dane continued to speak in his same, energetic manner.

“Dane, don’t you see how large that thing is? Do you know how much resistance a hive of that size can put up?”

Amelathet asked, agitated. Dane turned to her with a suddenly serious expression.

“We all know damn well that that hive is way over our paygrade.” His eyes sharpened at Amelathet. “Do you think that’s going to stop us?”

Amelathet bit her lip and looked away with angst. Patsel was frowning at Dane, evidently on Amelathet’s side. Dane sighed.

“What do you think Rei? You are the bravest one here after all.”

Rei had been silently standing on guard with her eyes shut until now.

“We could easily turn tail and fly out of here from where we came. But, we only have seven flight scrolls left. If another basilisk comes or if the hive pulls one of its tricks and we end up falling down here again, we’d be stranded.” A moment of silence dragged when Rei sighed and continued, “But, a fast-march over there will be faster than trying to go through the mess of tunnels above. That, and from what I see, there’s nothing down here. The hive probably hasn’t placed any protection here because it didn’t think that anything would survive the fall. We’re already in the best position we can get to uppercut the hive and support Auburn, if we can’t destroy it now, there’s not much the city can do until other Five-Stripe teams can get back from Freigat.” Her eyes sharpened and swept over Crimson, like she was ready to bite anyone who opposed her.

No one dared challenge Dane’s decision after that. We set off at a brisk pace toward the central hive, slugging through the swaths of black sludge. The mundane and dead landscape was complemented by the lightshow that was Auburn’s spells a few klicks in front of us. The spells would rain down in quick bursts, before dying down and cloaking the massive hive in darkness. Then seemingly at random the barrage would restart, and then end, and then kick up again, over and over.

The bipolar-like fire discipline of Auburn’s mages was probably the result of combat. They’re probably fighting off horde after horde of Guardians and other beasts and firing off their spells at the hive in between the fighting. The quick and choppy nature of their spells means that the fighting over there is vicious. The most we can do from so far away is just lug it, and hope we get there in time to support them. But, from the fact they’re not retreating to wait for us or Mystic means they’re at the very least confident…or so backed into a corner that attacking is the only thing they can do.

What kind of crap does my master get me into…I’ve been to dark places, but this is by far the largest expanse of darkness I’ve seen. Who knows how far this cavern goes on for, and who knows what it even is? It’s not exactly an anomaly though, tunnels and caverns are common underground, it’s the black sludge and rotted debris that’s unusual. It’s definitely an unsettling environment, but with other people here, including Alisson, I’m not all that scared.

…

The distant explosions of spells, they were faint, but they were increasing in volume with Crimson’s approach. The lightshow of spells, flicking on and off, was the only source of light outside Crimson’s perimeter of floating mage lights. Alisson’s eyes darted between every bump and hill in the terrain, less in fear and more in a subconscious action. From how the adventurers were acting, it seemed like no one thought anything would be down here, and for good reason; The cavern was the definition of barren. Alisson and his apprentice knew better, much better, from their experience.

The Great Ipithid Plain was barren with only grass as well, but it still yielded that unscrupulous fog and those shadowy figures come the darkness of night. With Alisson having only recently realized his string of recent failure, from being beaten by Davy all the way back in Foksly to succumbing to Lavjoure, Alisson’s fist was clenched tight, and he bit his lips. Nature was not something you could prepare for, and Alisson repeated in his mind that if the entirety of Crimson were to suddenly all have heart attacks and die, including him and his apprentice, there was nothing he could do to combat that. That was simply powers of the same realm of that fog and those shades – Far above Alisson, or any sentient being for that matter.

Despite all this, Alisson couldn’t stop thinking about it – What had happened up above in the tunnel with the so-called Basilisk. Celis had acted faster than him. By the time he’d turned to her, she was already pushing him out of the way. Such a trivial thing it was, but Alisson was wrapped up in it. It only added to that paranoia he had, that he was losing something, that he was degrading into something useless, something of no worth. Something that didn’t belong to stand tall and proud.

Alisson shook his head.

Everyone was silent, but it wasn’t that familiar deafening silence that prevented anyone from speaking with a blanket of invisible pressure; The atmosphere was light. But that could change in a matter of seconds. Still no one knew what happened at the entrance of the hive, how everyone’s memory had suddenly stopped working and how everyone had blacked out and were left scattered. As time passed from when the force had entered the hive, so too did any reason or evidence of what had happened.

Crimson was slogging through the sludge in one of the lapses of Auburn’s barrage, so when a blinding light suddenly formed in the distance, Alisson was forced to squint and cover his eyes. A bright yellow flare, akin to the sun, had suddenly materialized up at the ceiling of the cavern, where Auburn’s spells had been coming from. The light was not just a little more bright than a common spell, no, it created long stretching shadows from even the slightest bump in the terrain, and the hive was turned into but a black outline against the shining light.

image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/634750095577055232/1226964034511966320/cavern3.png?ex=6626ae4d&is=6614394d&hm=519133f1489f926295aa09c9c676fbb3da43eb1f0d645040bc41b8dc85bc6a14&]

In the brief moment that Alisson had his eyes open, he spotted two other massive structures in the cavern similar in size to the hive that had been illuminated by the bright light. Alisson could only make out their general shapes, the light was not strong enough to actually reveal much else other than that.

One was tall, and perfectly rectangular, it reached about the halfway point between the floor and ceiling of the cavern; and it was to the left of the hive.

The other was like the hive in its bulbous and organic shape, though like the first structure, it did not pierce the ceiling like the central hive did; rather it was shorter and wider, though still on the same scale to be considered colossal.

The members of Crimson were quick to close or block their eyes from the blinding yellow light. The bright flash ended just as quickly as it started, so when Alisson creaked open his eyes, he saw in the distance, a bright yellow spear impaling the hive.

It was quite large, large enough for Alisson to make it out despite the distance. A cloud of dust was kicked up due to the massive spear, and it obfuscated both the spear and the effect of the spell from view.

“…What the hell was that?”

Dane asked, mildly worried.

“That was one of Auburn’s spells, their cleric is one of the best attack mages in the city – I know that specific spell – It should have the force to blow a hole through the walls of a Pūshkinskaya.”

Berein answered. Alisson didn’t pay much mind, instead, he was focused on when the sound of the spell would come to them.

About ten seconds to Alisson’s count, and the sound of the powerful spell reached them. A holy hum, then a hard metallic clang that echoed through the cavern.

Ten seconds. Three for a kilometer, that meant the hive and Auburn were about three kilometers dead ahead. The other structure that had been illuminated by the spear in those brief moments were now completely invisible in the darkness, but they seemed to be about the same distance from Crimson, so perhaps three or four kilometers for them.

The measurement system used by humans was different than the one used by Sidonia, Alisson was quick to convert his mental math before he spoke.

“The hive is about three kilometers away judging by the noise; let’s get a move on.”

“Woah there Alavier, hold your horses…” Dane extended his arm and held Alisson back, to which Alisson frowned but obliged. “Did anyone else see those landmasses to the right and left of the hive? It wasn’t just me, right?”

The members of Crimson nodded.

“Alright. We’re splitting up then.”

Alisson’s eyes widened.

“What? Why?”

He lashed out, immediately opposed to the idea. Dane rose his eyebrow at Alisson, but then saw the frowns of Amelathet and Patsel, with their arms crossed. He sighed.

“We have an opportunity – Berein is the only one that can realistically damage the hive. The rest of us aren’t needed. To that end, I’d rather split up so we can investigate this cavern. There’s nothing down here, for the time being – It’s the perfect chance to recon the area.” Alisson frowned deeply, but everyone was too focused on Dane to notice. “The Guild will want a full report on this. We have standing orders as adventurers to recover information about the underground and about beasts.” Dane’s eyes sharpened. “Even one solid answer is worth a few paychecks. You understand? Document everything you find. If the locations are really only a few kilometers away, we should be able to make it there and regroup here within an hour or so.”

Everyone was silent for a solid minute after Dane’s orders. This. This was probably why Dane had been made the leader of Crimson by the Guild, Alisson thought. Crimson was one of the teams that were formed by and maintained by the Guild, it was partly why him and Celis had transferred in so easily. The members of teams like Crimson came and went, and if members perished, more would simply be transferred in. The Guild was quite authoritarian in that sense. Though there were some teams that operated without the Guild, though they usually lost members and disbanded well before reaching the higher ranks.

“No. I don’t like it. Not in a place like this. You said to not underestimate and say nothing is here.”

Patsel shook his head, Dane frowned in response.

“Fine, you can continue with me and Berein to the hive then. Hopefully with Berein’s spells, we should be able to finish off the hive, with it gone, we can search the area more thoroughly and at our own leisure.”

Dane said, ignoring Patsel’s rebute.

“And if you can’t destroy the hive?”

Amelathet asked scornfully, an eyebrow raised.

“We’ll regroup and fly out – There’s nothing to it.”

Dane replied. Rei shook her head, an action that was simple, but coming from someone so unexpressive and serious, it silenced everyone immediately.

“I don’t like it either. It’s stupid – Why don’t we take out the hive, and then we’ll have all the time in the world to explore and document or whatever.”

Rei waved her hands, as if waving away the authority of the Guild. Dane was silent for a moment.

“We don’t know when we’ll have the chance to take a look at those structures again – What if Berein and Auburn can’t destroy the hive? What do we do then? Run away having done nothing down here? No.” Dane shook his head. “It’s better to be proactive. I’d rather split up and make use of my members than have everyone clump up for no reason only to pull back and fly off.”

Dane’s attitude was a far cry from his usual jubilee. The way he was talking, describing the hive, before it was like he thought there was no way the hive couldn’t be defeated, but now…

Alisson’s brow furrowed. Dane knew much more than he was letting on. What the hell was he thinking? Alisson suddenly felt he was in danger, either by an inept commander or by a schemer; and his mind immediately flew into a combative and aggressive state, as if he was in the middle of battle.

Alisson briefly considered giving Celis the signal to slaughter Crimson and steal their flight scrolls so that they could escape. Their safety was far more important than any humility. Killing Crimson and retreating all but guaranteed their safety. They could always find another team, closer to the date of the next expedition into the hive.

Alisson’s hand gripped Enhérejär.

Gradually however, Alisson mentally cooled down, and breathed a large breath of air.

If they said Crimson was killed in battle, and that only him and Ferris – Two new faces with zero credibility – were the only ones to survive, he was sure more than a few people would put two and two together and have very real suspicions.

Alisson bit his lip.

It was better to just go along with this. Besides…

He eyed Rei, and Berein. Rei would be a challenge to kill, and Berein would be able to cast a flight scroll and then either escape or blow him and Celis to smithereens from out of reach. There was no place to run or hide down here.

So, like that, Alisson resigned to Dane’s orders. Alisson opened his mouth, but Rei spoke first.

“…Fine…whatever you say. I’m just trying to be careful, here I thought you all enjoyed a sure-lived life.”

Rei said after her moment of silence, wherein Alisson had gone through the mental motions of slitting every member of Crimson’s throats in the time it took her to respond to Dane. Rei’s eyes were dark, and it sent goosebumps down Alisson’s spine. She looked like the manifestation of Alisson’s thoughts to turn on Crimson.

Dane apparently, was not intimidated. Perhaps this was just how she was.

“Alavier, Rei, go take the left structure. Ferris and Amela, you can handle the right. We’ll regroup back at this point within an hour, and if the hive goes down, we’ll meet there. If you run into any resistance,” He paused and raised his finger, “And I mean anything, retreat right away, you got that?”

Celis squirmed uncomfortably.

“Um…um…”

Dane rose and eyebrow and leaned toward Celis.

“Hm?”

“C-can I go with my brother?”

Dane frowned.

“No. In fact just for that, I’m keeping you two separated heading forward.”

Celis’s mouth opened in surprise of Dane’s verdict. Alisson however understood the leader’s thinking; it was important to separate personal relationship and allied comrades while on the field for effective unit cohesion. Though Alisson was still miffed with Dane’s overall decision. If Celis hadn’t acted like that, Alisson could’ve perhaps swayed his mind, but now that was off the table.

“Grr-! Damnit! Why are you acting like all is said and done? I haven’t agreed to this-!”

Amelathet rose a clenched fist at Dane. Dane looked at her with dark eyes, and muttered quietly,

“…I thought you said you needed all the coin you could get.”

Amelathet’s eyes suddenly widened and she looked away with a frown, clearly in submission. Him and Celis looked at one another for a moment in blank confusion.

“Come on. Let’s get going already.”

Rei shoved past Alisson whilst yanking him with her, almost pulling him off his feet. After stumbling for a moment, he frowned and followed.

…

With Berein having attached a mage light to both me and Amelathet, the immediate area was bright, and visible. It’s not like it really changed anything though. Past my mage light’s area of luminosity, were merely the outlines of the terrain. Me and Amelathet had been silent since we’d split up with Crimson. Auburn’s spells were still firing at the hive, though their tempo had slowed. Either they were facing heavier resistance, or their mages were running out of mana.

The corner of my mouth was twitching.

I hate this. I don’t appreciate how lightly the adventurers are taking this place. They seemed more angry at each other than worried about the environment. Me and Alisson are caught in the crossfire of these greedy adventurers, and whatever the hell this place is. Split up, and caught out in the open, completely vulnerable. Any number of things could go wrong. I have this sudden paranoia now that I’m not next to Alisson, a paranoia that wasn’t there before. Not only for my own life, but for Alisson’s as well. What if Alisson gets worn out fighting beasts, completely cut off and alone from me, and succumbs to fatigue as what happened before with that hero?

The thought lingers in my mind more strongly than ever. A wafting notion that the next time I see Alisson he’ll be minced up and in pieces runs through my mind. He wouldn’t run either. I know he wouldn’t. All that crap about him not performing as well has before that he was talking about, my fear is that he’ll do something stupid; Something unlike him. I’m not there to stop him if he does.

I take a deep breath and try to relax. He’s not completely alone, he has that Rei adventurer by his side. According to Alisson himself, she’s easily the best in Crimson. Ah…but what difference does that make? She’s a human…She can’t be counted on. She’s a shield first a foremost for Alisson. That’s all. I have one too. And right now, she isn’t looking too good.

Amelathet was in front of me, her hands clenched tightly, she looked like she was twitching. I don’t know why she’s so ticked off, and it’s not my place to know about her psychology. I shouldn’t waste brainpower trying to focus on the why. However, it would be in my best interest to have an ally that’s in a stable state of mind. I’ve been working up the courage in my head for the past fifteen minutes, reminiscent of having to confront Alisson a week ago. Even now, I feel a knot in my stomach that prevents me from speaking out. Thankfully, the task isn’t as daunting as working up the will the confront Alisson, since I don’t know her as well, and she’s just some adventurer. It somehow feels easier to speak with strangers.

I speed up my pace briefly through the sludge and lay a hand on her shoulder.

Before I could lay a finger on her though, Amelathet turned and grabbed my wrist, furious.

“What?”

She spat, anger seething from her teeth. I thought fast.

“I just wanted to talk.”

I put up a shaky smile. She stared at me for a moment, before her eyes softened and her hand loosened with a sigh.

My fake smile turned into a real one. Acting gets you really far. I was betting on the fact the adventurers just see me as a little girl, and smiling too…That’s probably not a sight they could be angry at. Hmph! Am I cute or what!?

Nope. Bad thoughts. I can’t say stuff like that, or I’ll turn into some sort of megalomaniac.

“…What is it?”

Amelathet asked after her sigh.

“I was just wondering why you were so mad at Dane.”

She turned away and started walking, I quickly followed.

“I’m not mad at him...”

Amelathet said quietly, sounding far more mature and melancholic.

“I just, I just don’t want to die in some hell hole. A lot of people are relying on me back in town, and, I just can’t die, for their sakes.”

She fell silent.

“That’s a lot of responsibility to have. Me and Alavier don’t have anyone else like that, just each other.”

…That’s a lie, right? I, I hope not. Alisson probably has plenty of people back home that would actually care if he died…me though?

…There’s really nobody.

Amelathet didn’t respond for a while.

“You must’ve been through some tough stuff to be so mature for your age…Here I thought I was the young prodigy.”

I couldn’t see her face, but I could see her wolf ears laying flat over her head.

“So…mind telling me what Dane meant back there?”

I couldn’t care less about what Amelathet has to say. I just need to take her mind of being angry, so that she can hopefully be more scared of this place and thus more alert. She proved me and Alisson wrong in thinking we had the best senses out of the adventurers.

Her jumpiness isn’t something to be made fun of like that idiot of a leader Dane was doing…It’s a useful trait for a scout. A trait that I can use.

“Meant by what? Oh…that…”

Amelathet’s shoulder’s slackened.

“I…Don’t tell anyone I told you this, okay?”

She looked back at me expectantly, I nodded.

“The Guild pays big money for artifacts and information, anything we find might double our pay and then some. You’ve probably noticed already…” She tapped the back of her hip, where her falchion was sheathed. “I don’t have much in the way of gear.”

“…Something leeching away your contract money?”

I took a guess.

“No, no. Nothing like that.” Amelathet shook her head. “I’m saving up coin to build an, an orphanage, back in Pūshkinskaya.”

A moment of silence passed before she quickly added,

“D-don’t laugh, please.”

I tilted my head.

“There’s nothing to laugh at. I think that’s admirable.”

My words made Amelathet smile slightly.

“Ha…I haven’t heard that before…Everyone I’ve told have just laughed me off…Some urchin who grew up in the slums wants to do something like that, it’s funny to them. Back on the streets of Pūshkinskaya, it’s a dog-eat-dog world. Everyone has it out for each other, kids have to act like cut-throats to make it week to week.”

She paused for moment; I saw her shoulders quiver.

“I’ve done a lot of bad things, I just don’t wanna see anybody else have to.”

I get the feeling Amelathet is impure. It’s not a logical deduction, just my Sidonian gut.

“You’re a lot kinder than you let on.” I say.

“…Soft is the word, that’s all. I know many of the residents in the slums by name, everyone is just terrified of being eaten in a beast attack, when the monsters break through the defenses, and inundate the streets, there’s nothing you can do except run.”

She shook her head.

“I’ve seen it myself; those people have no protection, no weapons, nowhere to hide…It’s always a killing frenzy. The blood runs through the streets and slums, but the stench doesn’t go away for a few weeks after the attack…”

I didn’t know what to say, so I kept quiet. Thankfully though, it seems she’s suddenly much more talkative.

“You might not believe it but…Patsel grew up in the slums too, I didn’t meet him until I got into adventuring but, he agreed to help me out with the orphanage. You’d never be able to tell thanks to his attitude though, he acts like a noble and he’s always so kind.”

So it seems they have a thing going on. I frown, jealous. I had a feeling, b-but it’s not like I care.

“Do you have anybody like that?”

Her question temporarily made my brain freeze. I spat out the first thing that popped into my head.

“My brother I guess…”

“Really now? You seem way too cold to him if that’s the case.”

In front of other people, I’m not comfortable, okay? It’s much easier to be open when it’s just the two of us. That’s why I’ve kept quiet the past week. I don’t need to talk if other people already are. If you don’t have anything smart to say, don’t say it.

I didn’t respond, but thankfully Amelathet kept on talking.

“You need to be more warm with that kind of stuff, you can’t be eluding yourself right up until confession.”

“Confession?”

I ask blankly.

“Yeah, when somebody confesses their love. I think it’s stupid, I don’t see why people aren’t just straightforward.”

I pondered her words for a long moment.

I wonder how much Alisson knows about me. Does he know that every time I see him I want to hug him? Does he know I see him in such a strong regard? Does he know that I love him? If he does, he’s keeping it very well hidden.

I shook my head. I follow this train of thought too often. Does he or does he not? If only I knew.

I opened my mouth to reply when Amelathet suddenly stopped, and I almost bumped into her on account of her speed.

“Do you hear that?”

She whispered to me, a hand resting on her falchion, her ears twitching and alert.

“Hear what?”

I whispered back, laying my hands on my stilettos.

“That!”

Amelathet blurred to the left. I heard what she was talking about, when it came soaring out of the blackness in front of us and into the bathe of our mage lights. The noise was a drone, a buzz, akin to an insect. I didn’t have time to get a look at it when the figure slammed right into me, pushing me off my feet and into the black sludge below.

I just barely managed to keep my head from going under and thus suffocating; But, I was pinned down. By six legs. I opened my eyes, and I thought for a moment I was reliving some childish nightmare. It was a large bug that was pinning me to the ground, with three legs on either side of it, and two pairs of buzzing wings. It was purely black, though its exoskeleton shined in the light.

I tried to struggle, but it was no use – This thing was strong, and big, as large as I was.

It shoved its head at me, from which a telescoping mouth opened and a roar was let loose at my face from its split mandibles. I didn’t have time to flinch – over its head, it lifted its abdomen, from which some sort of ovipositor or stinger shot toward my forehead.

Without thinking I tilted my head to the side, and its tail crashed mere inches from my face into the sludge. It lifted its tail in a flash, about to attack once more when –

A falchion tore through the middle of its thorax, severing the bug in two. Green slimy fluid splattered across my face, and guts fell from its insides.

I was quick to push away the limp but heavy body and get to my feet.

“What the hell was that?”

I yelped as I drew my baselards. Perhaps this is just some sort of beast me and Alisson have never encountered, but one that is known among adventurers.

“No clue!”

Amelathet said, digging around a pouch on her hip in a panic. As she did, I heard that same buzz, that drone, as before. More were coming.

With black goop and green guts splattered across me, and with the hulking and still twitching corpse of the massive insect next to me, things had certainly escalated within a matter of seconds. Amelathet lifted her hand into the sky, and shot up a flare. It exploded into a bright star, high in the sky.

Our area of vision increased tenfold. At the edges of the light, I saw blurs and moving figures, teetering in and out of the light. They were flying all around us. Within a few seconds the number of bugs increased from a few to a few dozen, and the drone of their fluttering wings quickly became deafening. With all of them circling us, it looked likr a tornado of black bugs was on at the very edge of our vision, right next to the light.

“What do we do?”

I ask, eyeing the circling insects. Each one was as large as I was, and there were dozens of them.

“There’s no retreating from this like Dane told us. These don’t seem to be beasts, they don’t remind me of them, just wild animals. And it looks like they’ve found some prey.”

Which means they’re probably not being directed by the hive as a coordinated defensive effort against us. Amelathet had a hand stuck in her pouch, and the other gripping her falchion.

The bugs started to tighten their circling tornado around us like a snake coiling in on prey. They were now all visible in the light. There were many more than just a few dozen – Their swarm blotted out our vision – I can’t see past them because of how many there flying around so densely packed.

“Ah shit…”

Amelathet muttered, withdrawing three small bags from her pouch. Those are magic imbued items, like Alisson’s knives. The adventurers have so many of the damn things, and they use so many too – Half their contract money must go toward expenses on them.

This is dicey, I’ll say that. Whatever. If it turns south, I got some great bait standing right next to me. I’ll shoot out her legs and leave her if I need to. Or, I’ll kill her myself so that I’ll have free rein to use my attack spells, without her squawking to the rest of Crimson. I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.

“We’ll be fine.”

I say, and tighten my grip on my baselards. Amelathet exhales a large breath in response.

“Alright then…On my mark, we’ll make a hole, and run like hell…”

The insect-nado continued to tighten around us. I could feel the wind from their circling splashing across my face and ruffling my hair.

Then, without warning, Amelathet tossed her three little bags at the swarm with a single hand.

“Mark!”

The pouches glowed red for a moment in the air, before exploding in three fiery puffs of smoke. The swarm surrounding us immediately broke their encirclement and every single one soared straight for Amelathet and I. They did this despite those magic items blowing away sizeable chunks in their numbers because of how densely packed they were, they seemed unfazed by this.

Amelathet followed up her three explosive items by throwing another pouch into the ground directly below her. The pouch exploded immediately into a cloud of smoke. Though thanks to the bright flare above, and the quick movement and fluttering wings of the bugs, the smoke did little to conceal us.

As the rays of the flare shot through the smoke around me, the first bug entered my attack range. Then another, then a dozen more.

I was quick to step forward into the charging insects, with my full body I was able to easily sever a bug in two. It isn’t too hard when they’re essentially generating all the momentum I need to kill them by flying at me. The bugs were immediately all around me, but I checked their speed with my evasive agility, stepping into and around the bugs, cutting through them when I met them head on and dicing through their sides when I stepped around them. It was more like a target drill than a real fight. If they weren’t flying at me like this, I don’t think I’d be able to pierce their exoskeletons this easily.

The smoke from Amelathet’s smoke bomb was already dissipated within a few seconds, the rushing insects simply scattered the air too much for it to remain coherent. I know she wanted to use the smokescreen to escape, but there’s way too many of them for that. If I’m not killing, I’ll be overwhelmed. Well, in normal terms, I already am, having enemies literal inches from me at any given moment.

So much for your tornado you damn bugs. I’m more one than you’ll ever be-!

“S-shit!”

I was thinning them out. I was winning. My ally on the other hand…

I looked over to Amelathet, she was being grappled by a pair of insects, blood was running down her forehead. Not the bugs’ blood of course. That stuff is already covering the both of us.

Well, so much for Amelathet. Bye bye. I guess.

In that brief moment that I was looking over at her though…

“Guah-!”

A bug slammed right into me, knocking the wind out my throat. I spun on my heel and sliced of the bug’s head without even looking. It was pure luck that I even hit it. In that time however…

“Tch-!”

Another bug slammed into me from my side with its ovipositor. It punctured my armor, but didn’t draw blood.

Son of a bitch!

I turned in a fit of anger and caved in the bug’s skull with my gauntleted fist before falling off my feet. To my own surprise, the bug’s head crumpled like wet paper under the weight of my punch. This is what I get for even thinking of that stupid human during a fight-! I lost my tactical momentum! With a swarm of enemies like this, it’s not something easily reclaimed!

For the second time, I was on the ground. Now with bugs coming in from all angles, the writing was on the wall. If I try to get up, I’ll be impaled. If I try to roll, I’ll be able to live a little longer, though I’ll be putting myself at a guaranteed death – Where the hell do I escape from when I’m on my belly with enemies literally on my back!?

Almost without thinking, I rose my hands up. A tiny yellow blot was on each of my fingers.

My hastily put together barrage was poorly aimed, and consisted of my weakest spell. Though, I scrambled together as many spells as I could.

All of a sudden, it was like a wave of yellow had suddenly materialized and exploded outward from me in all directions. The weak spells did little to the bugs’ tough exoskeleton, but it did do one thing. It slowed them down, slamming into their bodies and ever so slightly pushing back against them. That split second I’d bought, it was good enough for my need.

I scrambled to my feet. In doing so, I grabbed onto the surging ovipositors of one of the closest bug, pulling myself up and toward it. When I passed it, I sliced through its abdomen. Another bug was directly flying behind it, so I sidestepped around it and grabbed onto its fluttering wings. With the both of us moving in opposite directions at high speeds, an immense force killed my momentum and almost yanked my arms out of their sockets. Too bad for the bug though, its wings were far less durable than my shoulders – The wing I’d grabbed hold of was ripped from the bug’s body. It collapsed passed me and directly into the ground.

I had my opening. The bugs had all just surrounded me, all concentrated in a dense swarm while I was down; But now that I’ve managed to get out of that pickle, there wasn’t a bug in sight. Well, apart from the mass behind me, all slamming into each other, bewildered about why their prey had suddenly disappeared. Well, those, and the four bugs currently lifting Amelathet off her feet while rapidly impaling her with their ovipositors.

Three options.

Number one. Run like hell. Not smart. The bugs right behind me will regain their senses and chase, and they’re far faster than me with their flight.

Number two. Focus on destroying the bugs behind me now that they’re in a daze and confused from my breakout; killing those bugs should open up my escape by clearing the battlefield. Since those other four are preoccupied with Amelathet, I shouldn’t have to worry about them.

Number three. Focus on the four bugs dragging away Amelathet.

I had a serious decision to make. Was risking my life really worth some adventurer?

Nope. There’s no reason to.

So then why am I running forward and launching spells at them you ask?

Well, I don’t know. Ask me later.

Despite my impulsive decision, my Pict spells only manage to kill two bugs, the ones that were stabbing Amelathet over and over. The other two that were more focused on grappling with her suddenly stop struggling and their wings start fluttering harder. With Amelathet now freely wrestling her body back and forth in the cradle of the two bugs, they ascended quickly, and evaded the dozen or so spells that I’d launched off for the remaining two bugs. I continued to launch spells, but the distance increased rapidly between me and them, almost every single one missed and the only one that didn’t hit Amelathet squarely in her stomach. Within a second of me making the decision to save her, Amelathet vanished right before my eyes, as the bugs flew out of the range of the flare, and were enveloped in darkness.

Without missing a beat, I turned to meet the dozen remaining bugs with zero hesitation, as if Amelathet had never existed. A few bugs were charging me, though with the distance I’d gotten from them, it was easy to sidestep dice through them like the others. Again, I grabbed onto the ovipositor of one and sliced through it while pulling it toward me. The rest of the bugs took to the sky again, uninterested with me, and flew off in the direction that I saw Amelathet whisked away from.

I didn’t wait around. I leapt up into the air and pounced on one of the bugs that was still alive – The one who’s wings I’d ripped. Once it was dead, I scanned the area for any other signs of movement. But, other than the distant droning, the area was suddenly quiet, and as still as it had been before the attack.

I let out a large sigh of exhaustion, my fatigue from exerting myself finally catching up in lieu of my adrenaline. The area was filled with the massive insect corpses. The battle had only lasted all of a minute, but there were at least two dozen bodies. Amelathet had actually killed a decent amount of them. But, she got pinned down, and was fighting while mostly stationary. An unavoidable mistake from someone who doesn’t have the willpower and experience to charge into the face of death without a death wish. She must’ve been in close quarters with the bugs for the majority of the fight, until she got overwhelmed, and now she’s been carried off. It looks like they were in the process of killing her, but whatever I did made them run.

“…Shit.”

Finally, I cursed out after almost a full minute had passed since the battle’s conclusion.

I know what this is. I’m not going to be fooled by beasts after what happened up in the tunnel. Those bugs may not look it, but what they did was an intelligent action. By all accounts they should’ve fought to the last if they were truly a hive-minded swarm but…They retreated, with a live prisoner.

They knew. They knew they couldn’t beat me. I would’ve been able to easily mop up the rest of the bugs.

So, they ran off with bait as soon as they saw I was protecting her. They’re luring me in.

A normal person in a sane state of mind probably would laugh off my thoughts but, that was just my mind, running through tactical thought.

First I think of three different routes of engagement after breaking free from their encirclement, and here I am thinking about the motivations of a swarm of bugs without even putting my mind to it. It’s not only my body that’s gotten stronger, that’s for sure.

So, it looks like my best course of action is to retreat, and regroup with Crimson and Alisson. Alisson mostly. Now I have an excuse to run away to his side after all…

No, what’s annoying is that Crimson will probably want to go after Amelathet. It’s stupid, but that’s how humans are. They won’t question my not chasing her, as I’m pretty sure they’d see the logical assessment of me not being strong enough to singlehandedly waltz into the unknown; So it’s not like I’d be ostracized for not going after her, getting reinforcements before engaging stronger odds is just basic combat etiquette. After all, Dane specifically told us to pull back if we met anything hostile.

I turned back toward the way I came. I saw the two sets of mage lights in the darkness like specks of dust. Closer was Dane’s group, farther away was Rei and Alisson. They’d’ve seen the flare, they at the very least know something is wrong with my group.

However, I can’t step forward. A single flash is lingering in my mind, pasted right over my eyeballs. Alisson’s scornful look of disdain, and his words:

We need Crimson for Freigat!

In that moment I was frozen stiff like a statue, unable to think or move. I realized then why I had acted to save her, why I had even looked to her in the middle of combat.

“…Yes, master.”

I said to empty air, with a blank and monotone expression. I turned the other way.

…

“It’s quiet. I don’t like it.”

Rei said, her eyes sharp and splashing over the terrain.

“Agreed. I don’t know what Dane was talking about back there, any place like this should be treated as hostile.”

Alisson said, in a match to Rei’s cold attitude.

“That’s just him…always bending over for the Guild. Though, he’d never put our lives over the mission, no matter what he says; He’s a big softie in the inside.”

“What makes you say that?”

Alisson asked quizzically. Rei shrugged in response.

“I’ve known him a long time. He’s not some greedy bastard, and he isn’t an idiot, but I still don’t agree with splitting up like this. “

“Greedy?”

Alisson asked, confused.

“He wants us to scout out the structures, and find information. In other words, recover artifacts and info that will net us extra pay from the Guild.”

“I see.”

Alisson too had to agree, splitting up like this was foolish. Concentration of forces was usually a rookie mistake, having all your units in one area, clumped up, not doing anything, was something leaders who were scared did. It was better to split up an army across a battlefield, set up a net of defenses rather than a mass, and take control of the battlefield; there was a reason armies usually deployed in horizontal lines and not squares.

However, Crimson was no army. It was a group of seven strong. Granted they were all individually strong, but no amount of quality can make up for some advantages of having numbers; Alisson knew that all too well as a Sidonian. But, having so little people, splitting up in a place so dangerous shouldn’t have been an option.

“Heads up.”

Rei said quietly.

Even in the darkness of this cavern, it wasn’t hard to see the towering structure before them. Berein had only attached a mage light each on him and Rei, the structure before them was but a black outline.

It was however, a perfectly rectangular outline. Whatever structure this was wasn’t natural, rocks didn’t produce such straight and tall formations. Which meant this was either something made by beasts, or some other intelligence. Or maybe it really was just a product of nature, one that was unexplained. Alisson wasn’t in a position to theorize however, he’d know more when they got close enough to inspect the material.

“How much you wanna bet this is one big rock?”

Rei asked quietly.

“I wish.”

Alisson muttered in response.

With their weapons drawn, they both crept nearer to the structure. It was tall, Alisson would say it was as tall as the Rolaign, and as wide five as normal houses. The sheer size of it became ever apparent with each step through the sludge – Him and Rei were like ants in the face of this.

“Halt.”

Rei lifted her buckler armed hand in front of Alisson and he stopped dead in his tracks.

“We’d be exposed walking right up to it like this –”

She waved her shortsword forward, and the mage light hovering over her shoulder suddenly shot forward toward the structure. Understanding the motive, Alisson did the same with his light. Him and Rei were suddenly cloaked in black; Their only light sources soared off in front of them, and reached the wall of the structure within a few seconds. Now that the walls were lit up, Alisson saw the material and texture of the structure clearly. It was blackened, and looked like melted clay – Like something had covered the structure or that perhaps the structure itself was melting. It was a minor effect – not so much to disturb the over all outline; However, it looked brittle – Like if Alisson were to punch it then it would simply shatter and collapse.

It suddenly popped into his head.

This looked like volcanic ash, what was it, pumice?

It wasn’t exactly how Alisson remembered pumice looking like, but it was the closest thing he knew of. He wasn’t exactly sure of its specifics, but it was the only thing his mind was drawing up.

“Doesn’t look dangerous, come on.”

Rei flicked her head at Alisson, though he could just barely make out the motion in the pitch darkness they were engulfed in.

They quickly approached the base of the structure, and were reunited with their light sources. Rei walked right up to the wall of the structure, a wall that towered over head for hundreds of feet. She reached out her hand toward it-

“Are you sure about that?”

Alisson asked quickly. Rei gave him a look.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

With that, she laid her hand on the structure.

“…Feels like stone, nothing out of the ordinary.”

After Rei said that, and seeing that nothing bad had immediately happened as result of touching the wall, Alisson too laid his hand on it. She was right, nothing but cold stone. Alisson gave a tap to it with his knuckle. It felt hollow, or perhaps very light – Perhaps this really was some sort of pumice covering.

“Look there.”

Rei raised her shortsword over toward a part of the wall that was unlit. Alisson squinted.

“…What is it?”

Alisson asked after not being able to make anything out.

“Right…”

Rei turned to him and lifted a finger to her eyes. Alisson noticed immediately. Her once blue eyes were now emitting some sort of icy glow, visibly shimmering.

“My own spell, a night vision of sorts.”

“Sounds useful…”

Alisson muttered. He’d be able to see better in the dark with his Opensen, but obviously he couldn’t do that.

“Not like it’s much good in the pure dark though – All night vision, spells, creatures, all it is is just reflecting existing light to illuminate what you’re looking at.”

Without the mage lights right next to them, she would have just as good a sight as Alisson, is what she was saying. Yes, there was no way to turn up the brightness on the surrounding area so casually if the area had no brightness to begin with.

Rei waved over a light to where she’d been pointing. It illuminated an indent in the wall of the structure, some sort of inlet that was perfectly rectangular. It only reminded Alisson of one thing.

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“…A door?”

“Might be, let’s check it out.”

Rei hopped off an elevation they were on and started walking toward the inlet along the wall.

“She really has a small sense of fear…”

Alisson muttered to himself, following in her wake. The sludge kicked up by all their movement was certainly annoying. His boots looked black and so was the bottom of his cloak. It was all soaked in that viscous and muddy substance.

They quickly reached the inlet and stacked up on either side of it. It was the only thing carved into the structure, but even it looked like it was melted, or covered in some kind of solid that had once been a liquid; The inlet was as old as the rest of structure.

Nodding to each other, both him and Rei turned into the inlet, and crept forward, weapons at the ready. There was nothing blocking their path, just more darkness.

“It looks like it leads into it, maybe there’s an interior to this thing.”

Rei whispered, and Alisson nodded in agreement. She flicked her head and Alisson followed close behind. The ground here was also covered in a black sludge but there was a difference – Beneath all the sludge and rubble was a definitive and flat floor. It was so flat that it couldn’t be natural. Eventually the corridor they walked opened up into a larger space. It was dark and musty here, like no living thing had ever walked this ground.

“Alavier, light up another mage light, and send it around.”

Alisson nodded, and deployed another light spell, then directed it forward in front of them. He moved it around the space, then against the walls and ran it along the ceiling. For a straight minute him and Rei stood still, watching the light illuminate the interior.

It was empty. There was nothing here but rubble and debris floating through the sludge on the floor. However, the ceiling was only a few meters above their heads – Not like the towering height of the structure would suggest.

Right before Alisson was about to pull his mage light back toward them, he saw something, another inlet.

“There.”

He pointed, and Rei nodded. They both advanced through the empty space. Thanks to the walls enclosing them in, and the oddly low ceiling, a feeling of claustrophobia ran through Alisson. That, and tight quarters created many shadows. Paranoia bit at Alisson’s sides and at his back, every black corner, every dark void could yield something. Alisson felt the need to sweep everywhere over and over again with his two lights, and he was inwardly begging himself to deploy a dozen more lights. He had to restrain himself, however. Going mad in the dark was not an uncommon ailment when one was underground, and magic lights were not free.

Again, they stacked up on the inlet. Alisson sent a light through. They both watched as the mage light soared down a long and dark corridor, until it reached the end of it. What it illuminated was something Alisson squinted at to make sure he wasn’t seeing it wrong.

But, sure enough, his vision was correct. It was a stair way. The shape was exact. That meant one thing.

““This structure is man-made.”

“Humans were here.””

Rei and him concluded at the same time, and they promptly looked at each other upon realizing that they’d both spoken at once. Rei rolled her eyes and flicked her head, starting down the corridor.

“Explains the low ceiling. This is a single floor. This isn’t some natural structure, this is a whole damn building.”

“Something so tall? That can’t be.”

“Mm. Who knows. Maybe explorers were here before us and set up those stairs, or maybe this used to a be a normal sized building and maybe something happened to it.”

Alisson sighed.

“Well it’s too early to make any theories.”

“For sure. One can wonder though.” Rei replied.

They reached the end of the corridor where Alisson’s light was waiting for them. It was a small rectangular room. On either sides, there were more inlets; However these did not lead anywhere, some sort of barricade was blocking each one. Alisson neared one of them. He reached out and ran a finger over it.

“Rust?”

Underneath all the dust and the dirt, was corroded metal: Steel. It was slightly orange, green, blue, but in such putrid tinges it almost made Alisson gag. A thick layer of corroded dirt was now on Alisson’s index finger. It seemed like Alisson’s touch had vaporized the already brittle material. Whatever the metal barricades in the inlets were, they definitely looked as old as the surrounding structure.

“What is it?”

Rei asked from behind him.

“They might be doors to other corridors. But…” Alisson glanced over all the inlets a last time. “It seems whatever door handles or opening mechanisms they had are long gone. What about the stairs? Are they useable?”

The stairs were looked to be made of the same material as the surrounding wall, it was more like a melted stone. Despite the age of the material, the design was straight spiral all the way up.

Rei looked to the first step beside her. Without a word or inch of hesitation he firmly planted her foot right onto the step. The stairway suddenly groaned with strain, from both where Rei had stepped on it, and from other places further up the flight. A layer of dust had been shaken off by Rei’s firm step, rays of light from the mage lights shot through it.

Rei covered her mouth from the dust and said,

“Seems sturdy enough. Let’s see how far this thing goes.”

Him and Rei cautiously stepped up the first few steps. The flight groaned and more dust was shaken off from further above, but it didn’t look like it was going to collapse anytime soon, so they continued.

On Rei’s command, Alisson cast a light spell and sent it up the shaft ahead of them.

“If we’re lucky, these stairs will lead right up to the top of the structure, from there, it’ll be a cinch to fly out of here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I don’t know if our flight spells will be able to take us all the way up and out of this place, there’s only a certain distance the flight spells can take you up. Ours are military grade – The kind aerial mages use on battlefields, those things can go up to clouds, so we should be fine, but you never know.”

For being so headstrong, Rei was certainly not stupid if she was doubting every component of the mission. It was a good trait to have – To not be completely reliant on something. Plenty of people place all their hope and faith against a wall, only to have that wall crumble the second they have to use it to keep their balance.

As they both continued to ascend up the stair way, the groans and whines from the strain of the stairs echoed through the shaft.

“There, there’s our second floor. Looks like this really is just one big building all the way up.”

They reached a landing in the stairway, and sure enough, there was an opening to another floor.

“I’ll keep heading up, do a sweep of the floors as I do, Alavier.”

Alisson nodded, and stepped toward the long corridor to the second floor. He sent his two mage lights ahead of him, his third was still rising at a fixed pace ahead of Rei. So, as the steps of Rei climbing the stairs faded behind him, he was enveloped once more in the darkness. The corridor ahead was barren, the space it opened into however was unlike the first floor’s emptiness. There were walls separating the second floor into rooms.

With his eyes sharp, Alisson advanced in a mute silence through the rooms. Piles of ash and dust were in corners, mangled bars of metal were strewn about, and various other unidentifiable pieces of debris littered the floor. It was far more crowded than the bottom floor with the amount of junk laying about; Alisson had to take effort to step over and around obstacles. He didn’t want to touch something that he didn’t need to.

From the Guild’s perspective, this place would be a goldmine. He could imagine that future expeditions would be sent and perhaps even a research base established if humans had truly been here at some point.

In his silent walk of the floor however, one thing caught his eye. Alisson froze dead in his tracks.

Directly below him, in the sludge and dust, were foot prints.

The prints were not human. They were too large to be, and the shape wasn’t quite right.

Due to the sludge and debris, he wasn’t sure if they were fresh or hundreds of years old; either were possible.

Alisson cautiously stepped over the footprints, eyeing them as he went. He kept on seeing more prints, they were less pronounced, but now that he was paying attention, Alisson noticed them more often. The rest of the second floor was uneventful, more of the same tight rooms and crowded debris. Alisson made his way back to the stairs and ascended. Up above, was a small light source, it was probably Rei, hundreds of feet above him by now. After about five minutes with the only sound being his own steps on the cold stone of the stairway, he got to a landing that led to the third floor.

Alisson found it hard to step forward down the corridor that led to the third floor. With no one at his back, he felt exposed. That, and he couldn’t stop thinking about those footprints. It didn’t matter if they were hundreds, even thousands of years old, the signs of life in a place like this, it gave Alisson the impression he wasn’t alone. On that thought his stomach tightened.

Alisson realized he’d been standing still, staring at the darkness, too afraid to move forward.

He shook his head, quickly whipping an insult at himself. He sent his lights ahead of him, and stepped forward. Being enveloped in the darkness endowed a strong sense of protection. He didn’t feel exposed like he did standing in between two bright mage lights – No, it felt far safer to be in the dark, and to be looking on, toward the illuminated area.

He reached the end of the corridor and entered the rest of the third floor. It looked the same as the one below – Cramped rooms, junk scattered everywhere…Footprints…everywhere…

Alisson felt as though there were a knot in his throat as he stared with wide eyes toward the floor of the room in front of him. There were three doorways in that room excluding the corridor to the stair shaft, the thought of merely standing in the middle of that room was suddenly terrifying to him.

Realizing that he was being overcome by fear once again, Alisson frowned deeply, and his mouth quickly curved into anger. He grinded his teeth together, and swallowed that knot in his throat, and continued forward.

His grip on Enhérejär tightened subconsciously. Alisson didn’t realize however, that the reason behind this was because it was shaking, if ever so slightly.

He got to the center of the room he’d been fearing, and sent his lights down every doorway methodically. The two on his left and right were dead ends, so he continued forward, with his mage lights firmly in front of him. The rest of the third floor was uneventful, though it had many dead-end empty rooms. Alisson found his way back to the stairway, and once again ascended for almost five minutes before reaching the fourth floor. Upon reaching the landing, he saw that there was a door between the shaft and the rest of the floor, it looked to be the same as the doors he’d seen down by the bottom of the stairs. Alisson tried pulling them open, to no avail. They’d need some heavy spells to blow open these doors – He didn’t think his Pict or Pictun spells would be able to pierce it. His Pictunee spell perhaps, but the spell was so thin and needle-like that it wouldn’t do much good.

Alisson headed up the stairs once more to the fifth floor.

This floor was completely open as the first had been, Alisson found that out right away with a quick sweep of his lights. There was a hole in the ceiling, and much less junk, but over all more of the same minus the walls. There were large holes in the floor, as well as the one in the ceiling – Alisson didn’t exactly trust the structural integrity of the floor. He didn’t feel a need to enter the floor proper to explore it either, so Alisson turned and ascended the stairs once more.

By the time Alisson stepped into the corridor leading to the sixth floor he was feeling quite steeled. Despite the appearance of more footprints and those damningly tight rooms, Alisson advanced without much fuss. He just kept his lights ahead of him, and didn’t think about it. The rooms of this floor were like a maze, and even ten minutes into roaming the halls, Alisson hadn’t found a dead end. He decided to keep to the right of the wall for good measure to not get lost.

Alisson’s eyes widened and his body froze.

Alisson had heard a single noise. One of flesh hitting stone, like the footstep of a very large and barefoot person. His eyes frantically darted at the darkness far ahead of him, past the lights, searching for anything. He spotted a hole in the floor, peeking out into the light. From this hole, a hand reached up, and grabbed onto the floor. Before Alisson could see anything else, his two lights, suddenly faded. Their time had simply ended, but Alisson, in the heat of the moment, immediately jumped to paranormal explanations for the sudden loss of his lights.

More noise was heard, and it was evident that whatever had grabbed onto the floor was pulling itself up; right onto the floor that Alisson was on.

Alisson’s mind froze right then and there. He was left standing dumbfounded in the middle of a room, in the pitch darkness. He couldn’t see his nose, he couldn’t even see his own eye lashes, only black. But, he could hear. He could hear quite clearly that whatever had lifted itself up onto his floor was now limping in his direction. It was bipedal, and very heavy from the sound its steps made.

Alisson was snapped out of his trance and he blurred into action. He rose Enhérejär deftly when –

“No, do not.”

With those words and a sudden flash of white in Alisson’s head, Enhérejär pulled back on its own will. Almost robotically, Alisson obeyed his weapon, and stepped to the side and pushed up against the wall. He held his breath. The creature approached nearer and nearer, quite slowly for how many steps it was taking. Alisson was shaking with cold sweat on his skin, but he trusted Enhérejär. He tightened the grip on his weapon like his life depended on it.

Then, it, was but an inch away from Alisson. He could hear as much. It had stopped. Alisson’s heartrate quickly exploded out of calm. He’d hoped it would’ve kept on limping past him, but now here it was, directly in front of him. It didn’t change anything, but Alisson shut his eyes.

He could hear it breathing. He could hear its breaths, inhaling and exhaling, clearly it was much larger than he was for its breaths were larger and crackled with strain. He got the impression that it was staring at him, examining him, peeling him apart from the outside. Alisson tightened his eyes.

All of a sudden, the thought popped into Alisson’s head. All at once, he remembered it, the unnamed forest of black. This place. This place was no different. This creature before him, was of the same breed.

With that conclusion, Alisson’s mind suddenly faded from emotion. He assumed a state of lackadaisical deathliness, akin to the environment. He opened his eyes, and exhaled heavily, right at the creature who was so close to him. However his mind was deathly empty, and uncaring. His body itself had within the span of a few seconds, transformed from a living breathing being into something similar to the stone wall at his back.

After a straight minute, he heard the creature turn, and limp the way Alisson had come from, toward the stairway. It was quickly out of earshot, but Alisson still remained unmoving for quite some time. It might have been a few minutes, or perhaps even half an hour, he wasn’t telling the time.

Then, he exhaled, for real this time. Life returned to Alisson all of a sudden and he began to think.

“Thank you, Enhérejär.”

He whispered, and ran his offhand over the blade of Enhérejär, caressing it. He probably would’ve died if he hadn’t remembered his time in that forest. All that training his sister had forced him to partake there. She was preparing him for times like these. He’d been so stupid up until now – Those shades on Ipithid, everything of that breed, he already had the skills to deal with them. He hadn’t made the connection between the two, between his experience in the forest, and of other events of the same plain of nature.

He a took a few deep breaths, and he was calm. After comparing this place to that forest of black, a forest that he regarded as his second backyard, he suddenly felt much less scared here.

However, a thought suddenly and randomly appeared in his mind. A sudden desire to snuggle up with Celis befell him. A nice warm bed in a safe and protected room. It was so out of place that Alisson was left blank for a moment.

He shook his head, but noted that he felt suddenly far warmer.

The rest of the sixth floor was uneventful. He managed to find his way back to the stair way through following on one side of the wall. As he was walking through the corridor, he couldn’t help but notice the fresh steps on the floor that weren’t there before. Alisson had the thought that perhaps that creature, that vision, that, being, had went to Rei.

He looked up the stair shaft, and sure enough, he didn’t see his light. It had ran out.

Just like his own two did prior.

He realized that he’d walked through the sixth floor in utter darkness, without giving it a second thought. He shook his head, and deployed three more mage lights. He sent one up the stairway. Rei had her own flares. By extension, if the mage light next to her had died, then she surely would’ve lit them. Though there were no lights up above. Alisson frowned. He didn’t want to have a death on his hands. Rei was an excellent fighter – He wanted to have her by his side in Freigat.

He cuffed his hands over his mouth when he remembered that creature from before. Would it come if he shouted at the top of his lungs? Would it be agitated? Or perhaps…it was already on its way thanks to Alisson deploying his mage lights. If Rei were one of his 51st, he would be able to silently communicate with her via the telepathy spell, but as it stood, there was no way to alert her of that being roaming the halls.

Whatever. If it comes back, I’ll extinguish my lights, and stay calm.

Alisson thought to himself. But, things of that breed were anything but predictable, that was rule one of living out in the fringes. There was no guarantee the same key would fit two locks.

“Tch. The hell with it.”

Alisson cursed is own indecisiveness and cuffed his hands over his mouth once more with renewed vigor.

“Rei! Are you alright?”

He shouted. He waited a straight minute. Nothing. Surely she would find some way to reply. Five full minutes passed. Alisson bit his lip, and started ascending the stairs once more. Dane had told them to retreat if they met anything hostile, but as it stood, that creature didn’t seem hostile – But again, that could change.

Alisson quickly reached the seventh floor. With how much space there still was in the shaft, there must have been dozens of floors, fifty, sixty, perhaps even a hundred – Alisson couldn’t tell due to the darkness.

Alisson stared down the corridor to the seventh floor.

“Alavier!”

Alisson heard faintly.

“Alavier! Where are you?”

Without thinking, he activated his Opensen.

“Come on, don’t be like this.”

Alisson’s ears twitched. Alisson snapped his head to the landing above, at the eighth floor. There. Her voice was coming from the eighth floor.

“I’m coming to you; Stay put.”

He shouted on instinct, and quickly deactivated his Opensen.

It was a gutsy move, using his manifestation so brazenly. But Alisson was not in the mood to bumble about and flounder what might be his easiest way to regroup with Rei. Alisson ascended up the stairs at a quick pace until he reached the eighth floor. He could see footprints down the corridor, those these were definitely human, they had to Rei’s. She must’ve come looking for him for some reason. There was some sort of light coming from the eighth floor, some kind of blue, oozing around the corners of the tight rooms. Alisson quickened his pace through the floor.

Five minutes passed in silence as Alisson swept the eight floor-

“There you are!”

Two hands grabbed onto his shoulders and he jumped in terror. He tried to turn to Rei, to really make sure it was her and not some trick, but he couldn’t. Her grip was stronger than his entire body.

Another girl that can break my arm…

“R-Rei. You nearly gave me a heart attack. What’re you doing here?”

She released her grip and Alisson turned, sighing, with a hand on his heart.

“There’s something you need to see, come on, quick.”

She flicked her head at him and walked off in front of Alisson. Alisson nodded and followed in her wake.

“Why didn’t you have any lights?”

Alisson asked, both in suspicion and in annoyance.

“Oh, yours is still up there, somewhere. I heard noises I didn’t exactly like. I didn’t want to be a beacon without backup.”

Alisson nodded.

“About that…”

“Here.”

Rei cut him off, grabbing him by his collar and rounding a corner with him in tow. That blue oozing light he’d seen, he hadn’t noticed but Rei had been leading him toward the source of it this whole time, and now the blue light was quite bright. He saw the source of it right away. There was a hole in the wall, a large one, like an entire chunk of the building was missing. Standing at the edge of the broken floor, looking out, he could see the rest of the cavern. Though this was a high vantage point, the cavern was of course pitch dark, he didn’t see anything except blots of light. One was a group of three specks near the central hive. They had to be at least a kilometer away. That was Dane’s group.

The other light source was the brighter one. It was a flare, high in the sky, two kilometers away; where Celis’s group should’ve been. Those flares were like second suns when one was under one directly, but at such a distance, the flare was pitifully small, but the light was still bright enough to bleed all the way to the insides of the building.

Alisson squinted.

“Somethings not right about that flare.”

He muttered. Underneath the basking glow of the flare, were dozens of black dots, moving around the flare like a tornado. The black dots kept increasing in numbers, and the flare’s light was diminishing and diminishing with every passing second.

“Ferris and Amelathet, they’re surrounded. All those black dots you see. They look like, huge bugs, or something…”

Rei was squinting too, but when he looked at her, he saw that her eyes were shimmering.

“Another spell?”

“Telescopic view, very useful.”

She replied, nodding her head.

What’s up with Rei and her having these spells that I’ve never heard about? Her spells seem very useful – Why aren’t they widespread?

Alisson pushed the musing out of his head.

“We need to get moving.” Alisson said, looking back to the flare. “The two of them aren’t going to last long alone like that.”

Celis will. She’s my apprentice.

That Amelathet girl however…Celis wouldn’t stick her neck out and risk her life to save another adventurer in that situation. He didn’t want Crimson to lose any members. If even one adventurer perished – The whole team might be put on hold for the expedition into Freigat until a new member could be found.

“Right, exactly my thoughts.” Rei replied, nodding. “Let’s go. We’ve seen enough here for an inconclusive report. And besides…” She turned, her eyes narrowing. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

They walked through the halls of the eighth floor, with Alisson’s two lights beaming right nearby.

They were just about to enter the corridor to the stair shaft when behind them a shriek of metal sounded.

“Who’s there!”

Him and Rei turned in a blur, their weapons glowing with spells. Alisson saw immediately what had made the noise. Out of the shadows walked a humanoid creature, the same that Alisson had seen before. It had stepped on and snapped a metal bar in two with its step.

Before Alisson could think, there was another set of footsteps, two in fact.

Alisson turned back toward the corridor to see two creatures similar to the one behind them walking toward him and Rei at a calm pace. Rei shoved her back against Alisson’s, and the both of them stared down the approaching beasts from either side.

They were standing like an ape would, with their arms out on their knuckles. Their arms were very long however, so their backs weren’t hunched over, rather they were upright. Alisson couldn’t see their upper bodies due to the light. They had not the pale skin that Celis had said Sequiturs had, not the rotten flesh of beasts, not the black fur coats of Guardians but something different. They looked very much like Guardians, but their fur was much more patch work, there was pink and white flesh here and there, and some sort of hard exoskeleton was bare on parts of their chest and arms, like bone or something. In some way, they looked dignified compared to a Roamer.

“I’ve got the two in front-!”

Rei lifted her shorts sword and stepped forward around Alisson. Alisson lifted Enhérejär out in front of Rei. The motion was so quick and precise, that she halted immediately and shot a glance at Alisson in surprise.

Alisson wordlessly extinguished his lights.

“What the hell are you-!?”

He sifted closer to Rei in the pitch dark, and laid a gauntlet over her lips even though she was taller than him.

“Shh…”

He silenced her with an almost inaudible shush. His mind was empty and blank; Rei’s however, was not. He could tell as much from her shaking and tense body. Then, he saw it. He saw her heat, her life, like a red flare, like a burning flame. The color surrounded her like an aura in the dark. It was in his mind, and perhaps hallucinatory. This is what they saw. Alisson concluded. He grabbed onto Rei with a tight grip.

“Die.”

He spoke in monotone into her ear. Her eyes widened at him. His stare outlasted hers, and she broke eye contact with him, and looked away. A few seconds passed with no change as the beasts approached from either side of them. Their heavy footsteps created vibrations in the ground that became louder as the distance closed.

Then, gradually, that red glow around Rei dulled and dulled. She took a deep exhale, and her muscles loosened. Alisson saw this and let go of her. Within the next minute, Alisson could see no color. Him, Rei, and the three creatures before them, were all black. The creatures had halted by this point, mere inches away from him and Rei. He could hear the deep breaths of all three of those beasts, he felt the rush of air on his face from each of their exhales. He then heard a deep growl, like a pained whimper, from one of the beasts, the lone one that had come from behind. Alisson and Rei, in response, still did not move.

The same creature continued emitting odd growls and whimpers and crackled sounds for some time, him and Rei sat idle all the while.

Finally, after giving one last weak snarl, the beast turned. With it the other two followed – They walked right passed him and Rei, and took the sides of the other creature. Soon, all three of them were gone, having disappeared into the darkness in both vision and sound. A minute passed in silence. Rei suddenly let out a deep sigh, and with it her life returned to her body.

“You can be pretty scary, you know that?”

Alisson shrugged with a blank face. Rei looked at him in scrutiny for a long moment before exhaling heavily.

I don’t know why people always say that…I try to be as nice as I can…

They made their way to the stair shaft; Wary of running into more of those creatures, they did so in pure darkness, without any light. The descent down the stairs was quiet, but oddly it dragged on. Alisson hadn’t realized just how far up he’d climbed until the descent back down. They reached the bottom of the stairway unhindered, and quickly made their way to the exit. Alisson sighed upon reaching the outside. He was expecting something to happen – The door to be blocked, more of those creatures, some sort of infinite space, anything. But here they were, outside with not a scratch on them to prove that they had encountered anything in the structure.

“Amelathet and Ferris are a few clicks this way, we can regroup with Dane on the way to them – It’s no doubt that he probably saw the flare too.”

Alisson nodded in response to Rei’s remarks. Now that they were outside of the structure, Alisson deployed a light. Already have his mana was gone thanks to all that damned lights he’d been having to cast.

“Alavier. Send your light forward. Now.”

Rei said in monotone. Her head had suddenly locked onto something in the distance with the advent of Alisson’s light spell. Alisson did so. Rei sifted nearer in a blur and pushed Alisson down to his knees with little effort. With a hand grabbing his shoulder, she then pointed forward.

His light had revealed a slight elevation a dozen meters away. Atop it were a dozen figures standing tall. Black fur and long limbs, small heads; it was a pack of Guardians.

“I think all of them are for us. It’s a damned strike group sent by the hive.”

Rei whispered, agitated.

“Well there’s no use in hiding. They know where we are.”

Alisson said, and tightened his grip on Enhérejär. The Guardians were all facing them, he didn’t know why Rei was trying to ghost them. They could probably see in the dark just fine.

More Guardians stepped up behind the others, and it quickly became evident that this a was coordinated attack.

“Alright…get me a second to fire a flare.” Rei said, a hand already in a pouch of hers.

“I am no apprentice to buying time.”

Alisson stood, and prepared to lunge into action. The closest Guardian directly ahead of them broke into a sprint. The rest followed quickly thereafter.

Alisson took one step forward.

Only one, because something interrupted his line of sight. A blur dropped from the sky, landing directly onto the spine of the foremost Guardian.

It was one of the creature’s from before, from inside the structure.

Its weight was enough to kill the Guardian immediately as it was twice its size. It then reached out, and grabbed onto the nearest Guardian with both its hands. The creature ripped it in two with its hands alone, pulling it apart side from side within a heartbeat. Alisson’s eyes widened.

Two more of those mystery creatures dropped from the sky on either side of him and Rei, and charged forward. The ensuing few seconds were a blood bath. A single twist of a forearm snapped a Guardian’s head sideways, a single punch flew through a chest. In the direct light, Alisson could now see the beast’s upper bodies. They had long necks and pink fleshy faces and bald heads. There heads were oddly human, minus the fact they had large black eyes and a massive jaw filled with sharp teeth.

Alisson saw with his own eyes one of these creatures grab hold of a Guardian, lift it of its feet, and bite off its head.

They completely ignored him and Rei. It seemed this new breed of beast was far more interested with the advancing Guardians.

There were sounds of fighting all around. It was evident battle had erupted all around the structure between these two kinds of beast. It seems the Guardians had him and Rei encircled.

“What in the…”

Alisson was left paralyzed. Beasts, killing other beasts? This wasn’t right.

“Come on! Kill your light! Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Rei grabbed onto Alisson’s shoulder and pulled. Alisson snapped out of his trance. He extinguished his lone light, and the battlefield was left black. A war in pure darkness now raged all around them. Him and Rei scrambled through all the chaos, taking the opportunity to escape.

In his retreat, Alisson couldn’t help but think that the beasts fighting against the Guardians were not beasts; There was a reason the Guardians hadn’t attack while him and Rei were inside the building.

…

“Arooo…aroooo…”

A yellowed haired wolf-kin rolled around on the ground, in deafening pain. Her sides had been pierced repeatedly by large bugs with their sharp stingers. Blood had long stopped flowing, but the pain was still there. She didn’t know where she was. She’d been grabbed and taken, and then dropped into some hole of darkness.

She was afraid to set a light to see the surroundings. She was afraid that more bugs would come. She was afraid of the dark. But mostly, she was afraid that she was going to die. Her howls were not pleas of pain, but rather scourges of resignation.

“Arooooo…”

Her eyes were lifeless, and tears were running down her face. Even though that she logically knew that she was not dead, her mind had fallen down a spiral of depression thanks to the mere possibility of death. Her mind was far more fragile that she thought it was, and she was inwardly cursing at herself in a desperate attempt to wave it away and uncloud her vision; but her shock and trauma was not going away. The pain was fresh in her mind. The physical pain in her sides, and the pain of seeing all those faces fade from her mind.

Her reasonable thought was not dead. It was tricked. It was rolling back and forth in an alley, beaten senseless and was hopelessly crying out for help to no avail under a grey sky with buildings looming on either side of her. Defenseless, scared, bloodied, and left utterly defiled and defeated.

“Ar-ar-arrroo...”

She breathed in quick gasps of air. Only now did she realize that her howls was but her crying. On that thought, her mind suddenly came back to itself. A glint returned to her eyes, and her face regained a blank surprise at itself.

She went from total despair to mild confusion within only a minute. She looked at her hand that had been holding her side. Her hand was shaking, and her vision was hazy. She couldn’t see her hand; Obviously, it was too dark. Her hand loosened and her body untensed. For a long moment she sat in blank indifference. It was much easier to lay still, and limp.

A single noise shocked her to life. It was a crackling click, one of an insect’s mandibles. Amelathet’s eyes shot wide.

This was real life. She wasn’t dreaming, she was in danger.

Her heart quickly began to beat faster and she struggled to get to her feet.

“Maybe I’m still just a pup-!”

She said to herself as she shakily stood. Unable to see a thing and with enemies approaching, she reflexively reached into her pouch for an item to light the area. When she did so, she almost cut herself. The reason being that her fingers were locked around her falchion with an iron grip without her even realizing it. She smiled to herself – She hadn’t lost her weapon.

Amelathet threw three small bags with a single swipe of her hand. They flew for a time before stopping in place and suddenly setting ablaze. This orangey glow of flame quickly turned into three stationary orange magic lights, all around her. Before she had time to examine the surroundings, Amelathet heard a loud screech of pain. She snapped onto the source of the sound with dilated eyes, clenching her falchion.

On the ground not a few meters away was a tossing and turning body. It looked like some kind of spider. Its flesh was peeling and burning away from its body in large scraps of black ash. The parts affected had one thing in common – They were all touched by the rays of light from Amelathet’s stationary lights. There was another scream behind her, and then another, when she looked, there were dozens of these bugs that were howling out in pain and burning alive. Amelathet’s eyes widened. She’d been in the middle of dozens of bugs, and that was enough to almost make her sick.

She in was in some kind of interior space, some burrowing looking chamber that was modestly large. The walls had a faintly green tinge, and their fleshy texture made Amelathet nauseous. Even the ground she walked on was very squishy, like it could pop in a drowth of water any second. There were pock marks of black on the walls, though upon a second look, they appeared to be passages leading out of the chamber, and perhaps to other chambers.

These bugs surrounding her showed a definite semblance to the ones that had attacked her and Ferris. They were noticeably smaller, lighter, and had no wings.

Amelathet after a quick second of thinking, sprinted away to the wall. Surrounded by screaming bugs like this was not good. They would attract unwanted attention, and she couldn’t possibly kill them all to silence them. She impaled the wall with the falchion, and began to climb up with relative ease. The wall bled a viscous liquid from where the falchion cut. With her speed and adrenaline, Amelathet easily managed to get up to one of the openings in the wall. It was small, but big enough for her to stand, barely. She clambered up, got to her feet, and sprinted down the weaving tunnel for a time, hearing the deafening squeals of pain behind her. She dug into her pouch and fumbled with a carved wooden stick, quickly lighting it. The small amount of light just barely lit the floor a but a few feet in front of her. The light source was attached to the item, so she had to hold it with her offhand.

It was as soon as she started to calm down that she heard another noise right in front of her in the tunnel. It was familiar. Amelathet immediately recognized it as the fluttering wings of another one of those flying bugs from earlier. From the sound, it was only one, that she could handle. She gave the falchion in her hands a twirl, and continued forward in her dash. As the bug approached, she leapt, and sliced forward into the darkness. Her hearing hadn’t failed her. The bug was right where she thought it would have been, and her blade effortlessly cut through its center, killing it instantly.

With both parties oncoming to each other like that, the power of momentum sealed the insect’s fate. She didn’t stick around to glance behind her, and kept on at a brisk pace.

All she could think was to run. She didn’t know where she was, and that was a terrifying weight on her mind. As Amelathet ran, she thought through the happenings of the day, as just having awakened mere minutes ago, everything was quite hazy. They were sent to attack a hive, but in the midst of it, Crimson fell down into some cavern.

Crimson. Amelathet suddenly remembered all their faces. Right, then she was sent away with Ferris to investigate that bulbous landmass. Partway through, they were ambushed. And now here she was. There was only one real thought to where Amelathet was, and she had a lot of evidence to support it. She was in their nest. The bug’s nest. From these winding passages, it’s evident they’re for flying creatures, as Amelathet could barely keep up with the intense incline and decline of some of the twists and turns. The chamber further back where she awoke in, that must have been a room for the young or something of that nature. These bugs probably took her for food for their young. Amelathet clicked her tongue. Just thinking about it made her wounds ache more. She gradually slowed, and took a knee, breathing heavily. Her gloves were covered in her own blood and various substances. Her sides however were horribly mangled. That was an understatement. She almost didn’t believe her own eyes when she put her light closer to examine her wounds.

She suddenly wondered just how in the hell she was even conscious or had been able to sprint and escape that bug infested hellhole. The more she thought, the more pain returned to her. The bleeding hadn’t stopped as she thought, rather there was just so much black goop and dirt covering her wounds that it was absorbing and masking her blood loss. Amelathet suddenly felt dizzy. Her head began to spin. She stumbled off her knees and onto the side of the tunnel, clutching her sides. Her shoulder’s slumped and she suddenly felt much weaker.

Amid the sudden bout of pain and weakness, Amelathet suddenly found herself smirking.

“So this is it, huh…?”

She almost laughed to herself as her eyes fluttered to a close.

…

“Rei, Alavier. What’s your status?”

Dane called out to them.

“We’re fine.”

Rei responded for Alisson. The two of them had sprinted for the better part of half an hour across the dark cavern, and had managed to catch up with Dane’s group. For some reason, their group’s lights had been retreating away from the central hive. Upon nearing, Rei and him set up a few lights as to not alarm the group.

“Good hits on the hive. Did you manage to crack it?”

Rei asked. When him and Rei were dashing to Dane’s group, they had a great view of the light show that Berein put on. Large winding purple lances had smashed into the hive, exploding with Berein’s usual magic thorns. From the looks of it, Alisson already knew the answer to Rei’s question.

“No, it’s like I didn’t even scratch it.”

Berein shook her head glumly.

“That hive isn’t something we can take down. I saved the rest of my mana after I saw that my first strike didn’t do a thing.”

“Have any word on Ferris or Amelathet?”

Rei asked. Dane shook his head.

“Nothing. We saw the flare, I’m guessing you did too?”

Rei nodded.

“After Berein launched off her spells, we were engaged by Guardians, and then by some sort of flying beast, they look like bugs, a hell of a lot of them.” Dane noticeably had more blood on his armor than last time Alisson had saw him. “How did your scouting run go?”

Rei shook her head.

“I’ll explain later, there’s nothing you need to know at this moment. Let’s just find Ferris and Amelathet.”

Dane nodded, and flicked his head, signaling for everyone to follow.

“The place where we saw their flare is a good place to start.” He grunted. With the quick exchange over with, Rei and Alisson rejoined Crimson.

As of now, Alisson was quite confident that Celis was alright. She wasn’t an idiot – She wouldn’t be taken down by a swarm of bugs and if anything unnatural heckled her, such as those creatures from the building, she knew how to handle herself. The question was, where was she? Were the two of them fighting or bumbling around in the dark? Unlikely. The both of them know full well that as long as they have a light source in the relative open, then the rest of Crimson will be able to come to their aid in a place like this. Only a few reasons existed to why they didn’t have any lights up.

They don’t want to signal their position to something potentially dangerous that they have encountered, or that the two of them are dead.

Actually…

Alisson’s brow furrowed. Celis didn’t have any way to make lights. None. She had no items that Alisson knew of, and she didn’t have the mage light spell. Amelathet could be dead, and Celis could be left without any means of light. Well, were that the case, Celis could easily use Amelathet’s items. The fact that she wasn’t however, implies that Amelathet’s body is not near Celis, for some reason or the other. If that’s the case, and Amelathet was killed and Celis had to retreat for her own safety, then she’d be heading to the rest of Crimson, which had a dozen mage lights surrounding them in a large perimeter – They were not a hard target to miss.

It’s only a matter of time…

Alisson thought, though it was brow raising how long Celis was taking if she really had retreated on her own. Along the way to where they’d seen the flare, numerous Guardians attacked from Crimson’s rear. Thanks to the wide range of mage lights, they were easily spotted and Crimson was able to handle them with ease thanks to their low numbers. Though, with every strike, their numbers were increasing. Auburn had long withdrawn from combat, that much was evident by the fact their barrage had halted long ago. The beasts that were defending the hive from Auburn, were now most likely headed for Crimson. The thought of thousands of Guardians dashing across the floor of the cavern, in utter darkness, toward them, was a little terrifying. The fact that Alisson could look out into the dark behind them, and were it not for the thick black, see beasts running toward them from kilometers away, was almost enough to break his calm.

Though, ever since his revelation, of how this place was so similar to the forest where he trained, Alisson was oddly relaxed compared to the rest of Crimson. Whereas their eyes darted from shadow to shadow, Alisson slowly swept his head from side to side instead. The roles had switched from whenst they’d first fallen into the cavern.

Eventually, Crimson reached the last place they saw Celis and Amelathet. It was easy to confirm – There were dozens of bodies strewn about, all being those bugs that Dane was talking about. Alisson examined them with interest. Fighting airborne enemies was a novelty, and these bugs looked physically strong as well given their size. But, insect beasts? That was new. Alisson had only ever encountered beasts that were mammalian in nature, but perhaps that was due to Alisson spending all his time on the surface, and not underground.

“There’s no sign of them here.”

“Not here either.”

Crimson, after splitting up for a moment to search the area, turned up empty handed.

“If there is any blood from the two of them,” Alisson started, “It would be minute given that we can’t see any.”

“Then they’re not dead.”

Berein said sternly, clutching her staff and straightening her back. She looked like she was pleading for Alisson to reaffirm her statement. Perhaps she had some sort of relationship with Amelathet that Alisson didn’t know of. Alisson shook his head in response.

“The amount of bodies doesn’t match that swarm we all saw when the flare was up. It’s a long toss from how many there were flying about.”

Alisson said, eyeing the corpses.

“That’s because the battle ended due to a retreat. I saw it, a bunch of them pulled off at the end. They headed that way.”

Patsel said, pointing. Him and Rei hadn’t saw that part – They were descending the building’s stairs, because by the time they’d exited, the flare was already gone.

“That’s the direction of the landmass that the two of them were sent to investigate.”

Rei said, staring off into the darkness.

“Exactly. How much you wanna bet the bugs came from that direction too?”

Dane said, smirking. Patsel stepped in quickly.

“We’ve spent enough time here. Let’s move already.”

He was plainly a bit on edge with his frown and quick words. Dane frowned at him.

“Don’t let your feelings cloud–”

“I know! Let’s go!”

Patsel shoved past Dane with a scowl.

“If we can’t find them, they’re deaths are on your hands.”

He spat as he walked by Dane. The rest of Crimson was left staring at each other in the wake of Patsel’s sudden outburst. Alisson was blankly indifferent, though Dane and Rei looked on with frowns of disappointment. Berein however had her shoulders high and silently glared at Dane with a frown, a glint in her eye.

So, Crimson continued, leaving the corpses behind in a tense silence.

Alisson sighed. This is why Alisson reserved his emotions for when a leader made a decision, and not when the outcomes became apparent. In his mind, the second a leader makes a call, is the second those outcomes come into being. Dane looked to have obviously done a bad job of instilling that separation in his men, that much was evident with Berein and Patsel’s attitudes. Not many humans surpassed Alisson in leadership skills. Charisma perhaps, but that he could always fake. Alisson mostly always knew what the best course of action was to take in leadership, the question for him was mostly if he could pull it off or not.

Minutes passed, and they were attacked by another wave of Guardians. The numbers were almost overwhelming this time. Alisson could only evade so much when there were so many enemies. He couldn’t very well leap over a Guardian to stab them in the back with five more waiting with open arms behind the first. Facing off one of these beasts head to head was a pain – They were very durable, their fur hard to cut, their movements trained, and they would very routinely sacrifice an arm to stop a blade. Alisson, using Enhérejär, had to fight very back and forth with this kind of beast, it was less like dicing through a swarm and more like facing off against another swordsman.

But, despite the Guardian’s best efforts, the battle ended with minimal loss to Crimson.

“Hmph. Let’s wrap this up soon. I don’t want to find out how many more are coming in the wave after this, and who knows how many after that.”

Dane said, lifting his mace over his shoulder. Alisson nodded. They were on a time limit. The numbers of beasts were growing exponentially with every wave. Soon, they’d have no choice but to use their flight spells and retreat.

Alisson looked into the black before him.

Celis, where the hell are you?

…

Two more! From behind!

I dive over the rushing body of a bug. I’m not able to capitalize on my evasion thanks to a pair of bugs soaring at me. I’m just barely able to turn around on my heel and slice through one of them, evading the other. Before I can stabilize my footing, I can already hear three more coming in from all my angles. Without thinking, I dive forward into the mud, narrowly dodging the pincer. I roll to my side to evade a stinger that had been aimed to my head. I got to my feet in a flash and impaled a baselard into the head of the bug that had tried to pierce me while I was down. Its body went limp and I shoved it toward the three that had tried to pincer me, slightly disorientating them. I rushed forward toward the three in the shadow of their kin’s corpse, and like a cobra I struck out with a fast lunge, impaling the head of a bug. I sidestepped to dodge one whilst dicing it in half through its abdomen. The remaining bug tried to retreat but I lunged out, and grabbed onto its back. I wasn’t nearly strong enough to hold it back, and I was pulled of my feet with it, but nevertheless I still got closer to it. I was able to slice of a pair of its wings on one side, and the bug collapsed into the mud with a heavy thud. I quickly descended upon it, and eviscerated its upper body with a barrage of slices.

I stood up, my eyes narrowing. One last bug charged at me, the one that I’d dodged in the beginning. I easily turned to meet it, bobbed under its grasping legs and cut off its stinger. It too soared straight into the ground, unsure of how to fly with the sudden change in weight. I placed my boot directly over its back, and stomped down with my other on its fragile head. Even with its head crushed underfoot, its wings twitched by my sides.

For that brief moment, I had a second to breathe.

A massive second wave was forming up, and was about to attack in a few seconds. But that was eons from the present thanks to the adrenaline running through my body.

I’d been ambushed right outside their nest. The towering, fleshy bulbous walls of their nest were not but meters away. It wasn’t exactly easy to fight in the dark, but thanks to the distinctive and loud buzzing they made, it wasn’t hard to know where they were. My current objective: Survive. After that, scale the nest. All the bugs have so far come from the top of it, so there must be entrances I can use up there. The prospects of finding Amelathet are looking more and more grim by the minute. If I don’t return back with her alive in my hands to present to Alisson, I’ll be failing his orders. I tightened the grip on my baselards.

Either way what happens, I already have a pretty good way of what to do with this nest.

I’ll burn it. Down to the ground from which it was erected. The material it’s made of seems flammable, and I just happen to have a firestarter.

Burning this nest will be twofold – I’ll both be securing our withdrawl by killing the source of the bugs, and the light from the flames will be an ample beacon to let Alisson know where I am.

The second wave of bugs flies through the air to meet me. They took a second to form up, to organize a coordinated attack on me. They’re better off not giving me a second to breathe easy.

I raise my weapons toward the encroaching swarm, coming in from all angles. There had to be at least a couple dozen of them. My baselards were wafting a yellow aura, and at their tips were large blots of yellow. My hands and gauntlets can store more mana than my weapons; but, I have a tiny idea.

I launch my barrage of spells. The larger Pictun spells take out a bug each, but the smaller Pict spells is little more than a heavy punch against their hard exoskeletons, and only serves to disorientate them. I have to spread my spells thin, in order to not let any side of the enemy get off easy. About a quarter to a half of their numbers perish in my strike. With the remainder of my spells, I point my baselards at the closest bugs, and fire. This side is the one I choose to make my break through in. I charge forward, now dry on spells, toward the weakened side of bugs. Staying in the middle of their encirclement is death.

I lunge forward, and cut through a bug that had had a couple Pict spells slam into its wings, making its body drop harmlessly to the ground. My blades slice through its abdomen like butter. It even makes a distinct sizzle, and the exoskeleton of the bug where I’d cut through it was boilingly hot. The reason being was because of having fired my spells through my baselards. My blades were now simmering with a sheen of heat from all the mana that had passed through them. The added heat seems to do wonders against the bugs.

One more!

I turn, and dice through one on my side.

Another!

I roll under the body of the last and spring up, my blades flowing through a bug’s body vertically as if there were no resistance.

Backside!

I land, and quickly turn to extend a baselard out. A bug flies right by my side, cutting themselves in two on my blade.

Like a serene river, with my new found heated baselards, I ebbed and flowed around and through the dozens of bugs. They came from every angle, and in turn attacked in every angle.

With one last slice, the last bug dropped dead to the ground in two pieces, it’s legs still twitching. I stood still for a moment, my ears sharp. I heard nothing, so I sighed in a moment of respite. Well, now time for some climbing…

I looked to my side, and reached my hand out, and walked forward. The reason being was because the nest didn’t make any noise. I have no idea where it is. Funny right? I can slash my way through a swarm of flying bugs but yet still cannot see a stationary structure. Eventually, my hand touches something. Its fleshy, and slightly moist.

Well, this is it. I raise my baselards and impale the nest, and pull down to test its integrity. Thankfully, it’s weak enough that I can stab it, but not so weak that it’ll rip apart with my body weight. It helps that I’m so light. Although maybe I’ve actually gained weight due to my added muscle mass…

I switch to my stilettos, just to make sure that the sharpened blades of my baselards won’t cut through the nest under my body weight. That’d be bad.

I shake my head, and start the long climb up. From what I remember in that brief flash about an hour ago, this thing is pretty tall. It doesn’t help the fact that it’s also very uneven, and bulbous, making it hard to climb. Nevertheless, I scramble up as fast as I can. I know the bugs know damn well that I’m here; they’re just organizing another defense party is all. I can’t waste this lapse in combat – I don’t want to be engaged while I’m so exposed.

Just as I have that thought though, I hear the droning buzz of wings above. I frown. This, won’t be good…

I force my body to climb faster. My muscles howl with throbbing pain and burn with fatigue, but nevertheless I push up as fast as I can, panting through my mouth. The droning gets exponentially louder.

I point a stiletto up mid climb, and fire a Pict spell upwards. I see the burning yellow spells soar up above me, illuminating the greenish wall of the nest as it went with its laughably tiny radius of light. It reaches the ceiling. The ceiling ebbs and flows around it, and the Pict spells is engulfed in black, nowhere to be seen.

Yep…that isn’t the ceiling…that’s the whole swarm…

No way. No way. No way. I am not fighting a swarm of enemies while suspended on a vertical wall! Even if I used the rest of my mana, I wouldn’t be able to kill them all – I only have about a quarter left thanks to the fighting throughout the day. I set my head squarely on the nest wall in front of my face. Well, it’s better than nothing.

I sheathe a stiletto and draw a baselard. As the swarm descends to my position, I frantically claw my way through the nest walls, dicing and slashing at it with my baselard.

Come on, come on…

There’s a lot of gunk behind the fleshy outer wall. Like it’s a bird’s nest or something. All of it is very degraded, and it’s obvious that’d the debris here used to form the wall has been here for centuries. I do a lot of digging. But I don’t find the perennial gold that is a way out of this horrible situation. The first of the bugs near but meters over my head.

Tch-! Screw it!

I sheathe my stiletto, draw another baselard, and force my entire body forwards into the ripped wall of flesh. I flail my arms wildly, all the while unspoken amounts of garbage consume my full body. Eventually, I break through. I fall with nothing under me for a straight few seconds, terrified that I might just hit the ground and die in the dark. Thankfully, the ground comes quickly, quick enough to where I don’t sustain any injuries. The floor was fleshy, and cushioned my fall. I was inside.

I scrambled to my feet, and shot my head all around, only to see black, as usual. I fired off a few Pict spells in every direction. Sure enough, the nest was not hollow, I was in some sort of smaller chamber within. It had numerous holes like swiss cheese on the walls, most likely for the bugs to fly through. I heard buzzing wings above. It sounds like they’re going to follow me.

Well I’m sure as hell not staying here!

I dash forward and climb to the nearest hole in the wall. I clambered up quickly, just as I heard the first of the swarm start to fill into the chamber behind me, pushing their way through the hole I’d made. I got to my feet and sprinted forward, periodically firing off Pict spells to make sure that I didn’t run face first into a wall. I could hear many insects buzzing behind me in the tunnel, their tunnel. An idea popped into my head. I drew a baselard, and as I ran, I cut the wall to my side. Sure enough, the fleshy wall gave way easily, and out from the gash poured a viscous green substance, complete with debris. At first there was little effect other than slowing me down. However, as the wall was further cut and the gash in it further extended, the amount of crap that began filling the tunnel was substantial. I could tell, because I felt the liquid start to race at my feet, even as I was running away from it. In the distance, far down the tunnel, I see a light. That’s new. Why the hell would there be any lights down here? My eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, see even the Pict spells as suns, so a little glow down the tunnel is easy to spot.

As I sprinted toward this newfound light source, I noticed that the drone of bugs were gradually being muted. The liquid at my feet was also incredibly thick, and almost went up to my ankles. I decided it was a good time to stop cutting the wall; Else, I might end up drowning myself.

I finally reach the light source. It’s another hole, into another chamber. I quickly leap into it. Before I hit the ground, I can see the entire chamber. That was thanks to a triplet of orange lights, scattered around. The floor was filled with what looked to be burned and charred insects, though they were much smaller and did not have wings, like they were cockroaches or spiders.

I hit the ground with a heavy thud.

“These lights…”

I stand tall, my eyes wide. A smirk appears at my face. It was not a smirk of hope, but rather of greed. The glint in my eye made that clear.

She’s alive, or at least, she was here. Question is, where did she come from, and where did she go? I look up. The first is obvious. There was a great hole in the ceiling. The bugs must of dropped down here from a larger upper passage. Then where did she go?

Before I could answer my question, from the shadows a bug leapt at me, shrieking it’s insect snarl. On instinct I sidestepped and stabbed it through the gut with a swiftly drawn stiletto. I drew my second stiletto and impaled its head. Its body fell limp by my side.

Bastard…it wasn’t using it’s wings on purpose. It looked to have been tending to the dead bugs on the floor, the ones that looked burnt to a crisp. The burns on the bugs were all facing the sources of light in the chamber. It looks like they couldn’t take the light. That combined with my little baselard trick earlier…I think I can assume that these bugs are pretty weak to heat. My idea of making this whole nest a bonfire immediately looked more appetizing. Now then…where is she?

As I began walking toward the center of the room, I heard more buzzing, this time from above. It was evident that more were coming, either in pursuit of me or in response to all these dead bugs. I scanned the chamber; every inch was splashed over in my vision. I was about to curse out in anger when I saw something that caught my eye. In the mud underfoot, were footprints. Fresh ones. They lead from the center of the room to the wall, to where I noticed the obvious cuts of someone stabbing the nest for leverage in climbing.

My chest almost surged in happiness at the sight of this lucky break. I could almost imagine the sight of me dragging Amelathet before Alisson proudly. I scrambled up the wall in the wake of the tracks, and entered what looked to be the same hole that Amelathet had. The floor of the tunnels were not as muddy, but it’s evident that she continued this way. As I took my first step down the tunnel, dozens of insects suddenly poured into the chamber I’d just been in from numerous passages, but mostly the larger top one at the ceiling.

I immediately started to sprint. They were on to me quick, and almost caught up to me before I’d reached my full speed. Once again, I tried collapsing the tunnel behind me in a bid to block them away. At this slowed pace though…They’ll catch up to me.

I turned and fired off the rest of my mana down the tunnel. My barrage slammed into the leading bugs, pushing them back. I just need to buy time until the tunnel starts to flood-

“Ugah-!?”

I suddenly trip forward on something. I’d been looking behind me, so I hadn’t been able to see what was further down the tunnel. I quickly reorient myself, to see a body lying against the nest wall. It was Amelathet, her eyes gently closed and her mouth parted, looking as though she was catching some beauty sleep. But, her face was pale, and her sides were soaked with blood. Most of all, she was covered in mud and sludge. The reason I could see anything at all, was because of a small wooden stick on the ground that was shining dully.

My mind erupted with the premature euphoria of a mission accomplished.

As soon as it does though, a bug slams into me, pinning down my arms and raising its ovipositor over my head. For a second, I thought that was the end. Thankfully, my training took over. I pushed my hips upward and twisted my body. The stinger missed my a hairbreadth and the insect was off-balance for a moment. A moment that I used to break out of its bind and grab onto its stinger with both my hands. I pulled its stinger my head, and its body followed. I quickly got to my feet and stabbed down with my stilettos into its head. I didn’t have the time to confirm my kill. Many more were behind me. I stood and turned in a flash. I threw a stiletto forward at the first bug I saw since it was in my hand and I wanted to switch to my baselards. My thrown stiletto flew cleanly through the web of the bug’s wing, sending it tumbling passed me, completely disorientated and flightless. I drew a baselard with my free hand, in the same motion stepping forward and bisecting a bug’s abdomen.

There was a massive flood coming. Of both liquid and bugs. It looks like my trick to collapse the tunnel worked again, as there are only about a dozen bugs down the tunnel that I can hear. The rest must be trapped behind the collapsed passage. I need to kill these bugs to secure my escape, grab Amelathet, start my fire, and get the hell out of this tunnel – All before my self-made flood drowns me in debris and sludge. I stepped forward over Amelathet’s limp body, dicing through bugs one after another. They were quickly dealt with. In a cramped area like this, they really have only one direction, and their advantage of mobility is nullified. If there were exponentially a lot of them though, I’d get overwhelmed. But a dozen is nothing if you can kill a few in less than a second.

As soon as the last bug was dead, I turned back down the tunnel and sprinted to Amelathet. I grabbed my stiletto that I’d thrown, pocketed the wooden glowing stick – I didn’t have any other light sources – And then finally scooped up Amelathet herself in a fireman’s carry. She was heavier than I was. Taller too. She weighed me down. But she was the objective. I sprinted, huffing and puffing, my muscles feeling as though they were going to pop from exhaustion. But with a flood of debris just meters at my back, I wasn’t stopping anytime soon. Finally, I came to a six-way junction. Tunnels lead in every direction, including down and up. I decided to go straight, and hopped over the hole in the ground. With that junction, the flood should hopefully be halted a good bit.

I reached what appeared to be another chamber. Eager to escape the winding tunnels of the nest, I entered. This chamber was far dustier, and less moist than the rest of the nest. I took the moment of silence to sigh, and mentally recuperate. I shakily set Amelathet down, to take a look at her condition. I unclipped my gauntlet, and pulled it off. I placed my bare and clean fingers on Amelathet’s muddied neck.

Her chest was not bobbing. There was no pulse. Her skin was cold.

She was dead.

With wide eyes I swallowed a knot of disbelief. I grab the wooden stick out of my pouch that I’d pocketed earlier, and brought it to her. I saw that her sides were gnawed and holed, like swiss cheese. Other than that though, she looked intact other than a few cuts and wounds.

“Tch-!”

I quickly scramble to action.

“I’ll kill you if you die! You hear me!?”

I haven’t come this far only to have a corpse on my hands. No. No way! I’m bringing back Amelathet alive to Alisson. Her heart has stopped. Her current blood loss is minimal. Probably because she already has lost most of her blood. I have a small amount of mana left, enough for just a single healing spell. It can stop the blood loss of her sides when I do get her heart started. I quickly start pumping her chest with my hands. I part her lips with my fingers, and blow air into her mouth.

After a few cycles of this, I place my ear against her chest.

“Shit-!”

I rip the pouches off her hips, and dig through them frantically in search of any first aid items. The only thing other than bandages I come across is a pair of steel needles, held together by a metal wire.

My eyes light up.

This is a common magic first aid item, shock electrodes. I quickly unbutton Amelathet’s jacket, which is already ripped to hell and back. I gently stab one electrode above her left breast, and the other under her right arm, on her side. I was trained on how to use these, Alisson even has them on the mounts. I just hope I remember correctly what to do. I activate the imbuement spell within the needles. The spell within the steel needles is just a weak thunder spell, very weak. Amelathet’s corpse suddenly convulsed, her muscles reacting to the shock. I quickly followed up the electrodes with another round of blowing air down her airway. At the same time, I started casting my healing spell on her, fully draining me off my mana in the process.

I sat there for a long minute, thinking through what I was doing to her over and over again in my head. Until,

She convulsed one last time. This time, she coughed out a mouth full of blood, sputtering. Right after, she inhaled a large breath of air and her chest bobbed. A smile came to my face. I laid my fingers on her neck. A steady but weak pulse greeted me. I blew one last breath of air into her mouth before backing off and sighing in relief. She was unconscious, and barely on the line of life and death, but she was alive; and presentable to Alisson.

There wasn’t any alcohol to disinfect her wounds with, so I started wrapping up her sides with the bandages I’d found right away. Oh well. As I was wrapping her wounds, I smugly thought to myself that this was the second person I’d rescued from death. This time though, I successfully resuscitated someone. Once I’d used up all the bandages, I brought the wooden stick-light over Amelathet’s body again. As I did, I suddenly realized her chest was bare, and I averted my eyes with a blush. In my adrenaline filled frantic first aid, I wasn’t embarrassed, and correctly so. Now that she’s over the hump though…

I grab her torn jacket and tie it over her chest. I can’t very well bring her back to Crimson like that…I wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea is all…

As I was scanning the rest of her body, double checking it for any other wounds, a hint of light splashes across my vambraces. In that moment, I saw myself for the first time in a while. Blood runs down my left vambrace. My eyes widen in shock. I didn’t even know I was injured. I brought the light closer to myself, and quickly saw that that wasn’t the only wound. My right thigh was bleeding, my collar had been scratched, there was a large cut across the side of my head – It seemed many of those close calls I had weren’t actually ‘close calls’.

I, I can’t believe I didn’t notice…W-what the hell is wrong with me?

I stared at my hands. They were shaking. They hadn’t stopped shaking since I’d set Amelathet down. I thought it was from the terror of Amelathet dying, but it turns out it was because of my own mortality.

I, I should’ve really used that healing spell on myself…

I couldn’t feel a thing. There has to be so much adrenaline flowing through my body right now for me to be so calm and yet so battered. A rock welled in my stomach. Not from a physical pain, but an existential dread, fearing when my body would run out of adrenaline and whatever else there was, that I’d be screaming out in pain, and collapse, dead, now that my task was done.

I looked to Amelathet. The way she was against the wall when I found her…The same thing must’ve happened to her…

I stared at her for a long moment with dull eyes. A drone sounded down the tunnel I’d came. That brought me back to life quickly.

I’ll, I’ll just have to forget about my wounds, for now. I just need to get to Patsel. He can heal me and Amelathet, no sweat.

I swallowed hard.

Well, I need to get out of here. Judging by this chamber’s dusty and old nature, it’s quite unused. So, it might be on the outer edges of the nest. I can’t imagine a chamber like this would be in the middle of a bug nest – It doesn’t look like anything’s walked or flown here in years. Well, if not, I’m screwed. I can’t fight a swarm. Not in this condition, not while having to protect Amelathet. I dig through Amelathet’s pouches again, this time looking for another kind of item. I sort her items into two categories, useful and not useful. Well, all of them are useful, just not for what I have in mind.

I set my eyes squarely on the wall of the nest to my side. Time to start digging. I am not going through a maze of tunnels to try and find a way out. No way. In my hand I clutch a dozen items of Amelathet’s. All of them are attack orientated spell-imbued. Amelathet doesn’t have many support items. Of them she had a Tier One healing spell, which I used on myself of course.

I stood with a fist full of various items. Most of them were small rods or pouches. I made some incisions in the wall with my baselards, attempting to strategically soften up the wall. I took a few steps back for my own safety.

One at a time, I loosed their power at the wall. The first few spells did little, but over time the fleshy wall of the nest started to give way. The liquid within the nest started to spill out across the floor, and ran in between my legs in a small flood of viscous debris. The flood continued to increase in height as more and more of the wall tore away in the face of explosion after explosion.

The droning I heard from before hadn’t let up. I heard it down the tunnel that I’d came from, the one that I’d collapsed with a flood. My guess is that the bugs are swarming all around it trying to clear out the passage to get to me. I just have to hope I can bust through their nest before they do.

Without giving a second glance, I toss a bag at the wall. It glowed blue before exploding with no affect, instead it released a bright flash of light, blinding me momentarily. I cursed out. As a minor magic user, I can’t tell exactly what spell is imbued in an item, only the general gist. Another pouch, another explosion, another rod, another piercing blue spell of some kind. I’m quickly running out of the items to throw at this nest.

I thumb the last rod I have, biting my lip and staring out into the large gash I’d made in the wall. The viscous sludge was up to my shins. I raise the last item, quickly saying a prayer to Sidonia in my head.

I use the item. After a moment, a thin undulating snap of orange shoots toward the wall, like a bolt of lightning. As soon as it impacted on the wall, it exploded with a thundering crackle. Sludge splattered across my face, but I couldn’t exactly tell thanks to me already being drenched in the stuff. My eyes were sharp as I watched the dissipating smoke.

My mouth drops open.

“I…I did it?”

I gasp out.

In front of me, I can see clearly the wall has been punctured. The smell was not the tinged stuffiness of the nest, but rather a definite nothingness that was far easier to breath. I, I didn’t actually have much hope…I…

I found myself smiling all of a sudden. In before I heard a loud crash, and the drone of bugs suddenly became much clearer. I shook my head, and sprinted to Amelathet. I quickly dug through a bag on my hip, and withdrew a few metallic objects.

Click…click…click…

“Come on…come on…”

I fumbled with the firestarter in my hand, scraping the flint and steel contraption together. Sparks started to fly as soon as the first bugs soared through the passage and into the chamber I was in. I ignored them for a moment, clicking my tongue.

“There!”

I say to myself as flame suddenly erupts from one of the sparks that had landed on the wall. I couldn’t start the fire on the floor because…you know, the flood and all. I stood and cut down two bugs in a flash with my baselards. There was one more I could see, but I didn’t want to wait for it to close the distance and have more bugs enter. I grabbed Amelathet’s falchion. It took a second because she was clutching it tightly. I rose it and threw it at the remaining bug. The falchion twirled through the air and stuck straight into the bug’s head, killing it instantly.

“Bullseye…”

I muttered to myself as I lifted Amelathet up. With more bugs just about to swarm into the chamber, I hoofed it to the hole I’d made. The fire I’d started was already engulfing the chamber behind me as I jumped out, holding Amelathet tightly.

…

“Ior! There’s no end to them!”

Dane shouted. Crimson’s line had been over run. The vanguard had been swarmed by bugs and Guardians at the same time. Patsel and Berein were just barely holding their own. Patsel was so far the most important member of Crimson – His explosive imbued arrows cut down swaths of enemies. Add to that that he fired them off three of four within a couple seconds…Well, the numbers of the beasts were reduced by a large margin. However, he was running out of his imbued arrows, and the swarms of Guardians were not letting up.

This must’ve been the pressure that Auburn had been under. The difference was that they had more members, and they had heavier armor.

Unbeknownst to Alisson, the tides of battle were about to change.

Crimson was caught in the middle of two opposing sides. The bugs came from the front, and the Guardians, the rear. However, at the sides of Crimson, where these two factions met…

Alisson saw out of the corner of his eyes, a Guardian ripping apart a bug with its bare hands. Next to it, a Guardian was being swarmed by half a dozen insects, all of them piercing the beasts rapidly as its movements slowed. Over the course of a minute, the Guardians suddenly were far more interested with the bugs – The majority of their forces went around, completely circumventing the adventurers, and attacked the bugs. The insects were pushed back within the matter of a minute.

“Look! The hive Guardians are attacking the nest!”

Berein said. When Alisson careened his head for a moment, he saw it. Dozens of Guardians scaling the walls of the nest with their large leaping bounds. By this point the area was heavily illuminated with flares and mage lights, so it wasn’t hard to see.

“Looks like we really screwed up whatever balance there was in this place.”

Alisson heard Rei comment quietly.

“Torch and burn any beast that moves that’s the way to do it!”

Dane remarked, swinging his mace and crushing a Guardian’s spine. Even though a large number of Guardians had been rerouted to attack the bugs, more were flooding in from the darkness to take their place and attack Crimson.

“If this keeps up, will have to abandon any idea of rescuing them.”

Rei said coldly. No one challenged her words.

Alisson fought with a blank face. Where was she? Where the hell was Celis? Shouldn’t she have regrouped with them by now? The idea creeped into his head that perhaps she really had been killed. Maybe he was just being in over his head, maybe Celis was far weaker than he thought, maybe that swarm of bugs really did kill the both of them, and Crimson was jumping at shadows.

In the middle of his thoughts, a splash of acid came barreling toward him from out of the darkness. He easily evaded, and the blob hit the back of a Guardian, disintegrating it in seconds with a bubbly hissing noise. He knew immediately what the source of the acid was.

“Enemy artillery has arrived!”

He sounded off to the rest of Crimson. As he did, he saw out of the corner of his vision, floods of beasts coming out of the darkness and into the light of Crimson’s flares. These were not Guardians, but rather the regular abundance of beasts. Among them were Shamblers, that much was obvious from the acid, though they seemed to be holding back, and out of the light.

“And tunnel trash…” Dane muttered. “That’s it. We’re pulling out.”

He flicked his head to Patsel. Patsel’s eyes widened. In that moment, it looked as though Patsel accepted that Amelathet was dead, and that there was nothing they could do to help. Seeing Patsel’s reaction made Alisson look at himself. Why wasn’t he sharing a similar expression? Why wasn’t he feeling anything?

Alisson turned back toward the oncoming swaths of beasts, raising Enhérejär to the ready with a cold expression. Patsel handed Berein the flight scrolls. Alisson let a burst of air through his nose.

Celis was dead. Move on. Continue the mission.

He pushed it aside, and gripped his weapon tighter. His training made him incapable of any grief in that moment.

A Guardian approached. Alisson thrust forward into its head before it was able to react. Three Roamers neared. Alisson flicked Enhérejär at them, the blade splitting and peeling away from the hilt, piercing the three beasts’ heads simultaneously. A bug approached from his backside. He turned and leapt, swinging his whole body at the beast. It was bisected midair.

An aura of white suddenly surrounded him, and instead of falling, he remained in the air. He was stunned for a moment, before realizing that a flight spell had been cast on him.

“Alright! Let’s get the hell out of here! We only have one chance at this!”

Dane said, flying past Alisson. Alisson floated, motionless, his face blank and his mouth agape. Now that it was actually happening, his mind was frozen.

Why? Why should he listen to the adventurers? Celis could still be alive –

“Alavier! Are you deaf or something!?”

Rei called to him from above. Dane floated down to his side. Alisson quickly looked to him.

“They’re dead. Come on.”

Dane said plainly.

“We don’t know that. I, I want to see with my own eyes-”

Dane slapped him across the face with his gauntleted hand, and all of sudden Alisson redoubled his thoughts.

I’m playing the fool! This is just what it feels like for your emotions to cloud your mind-! Feelings attempt to twist reality into logically making sense-!

As he sat there, for that split second in clarity, he saw out of the corner of his eyes, a dot of blue. His eyes widened and his head locked onto it. Out of the darkness, dozens of meters away, was Celis, grasping Amelathet in her hands.

“There…”

Alisson battled with himself, for a moment completely convinced that what he was seeing was nothing but a specter, an illusion, either fabricated by the beasts or by his mind.

“What?” Dane tilted his head.

Alisson made up his mind quickly when he saw her face. It couldn’t be an illusion. She was covered head to toe in filth and muck. The blue hair he’d seen before, it was actually tinged a dark green thanks to some sort of liquid.

“T-there! They’re there! Come on!”

Alisson soared past Dane, ignoring why he’d seen Celis in his head before he saw her with his own eyes.

He weaved past beasts leaping up at him from ground level. Attack spells suddenly started showering the area – It was covering fire from the rest of Crimson. Celis jumped up and around beasts, spells impacting mere meters away from her and blowing away beasts. Numerous dozens of attack spells exploded around Celis, it looked like she was running through a warzone. Alisson heard the nearby buzzing of bugs closing in on him. Unlike the beasts, the bugs could attack the adventurers while they were in flight.

Celis leapt over a beast, into the air and toward him. Alisson reached Celis, and extended his arm to her. Without his order or permission, Enhérejär peeled away out of his hand, and wrapped around Celis, ignoring the fact she was filthy. Dane was by Alisson’s side. It looked like he’d followed. With Alisson lifting up Celis, Dane grabbed Amelathet by her collar. Within a couple seconds, the two of them were soaring into the air, attack spells shooting past them, covering them from both beast and bug alike.

“You have your optimism to thank for these two.”

Dane remarked, smiling.

“That was stubbornness back there. But this,” He looked down to Celis, being carried like a princess, “…This is luck.”

They arrived back at Crimson’s altitude, much to the smiling relief of Patsel and Berein. Rei however, was scowling.

“I hope you enjoyed your little detour – Let’s go! The flight spells don’t last forever!”

She was right, they may not make it out, but the jubilee of seeing Celis before him crowded his right mind. He couldn’t stop looking down at her, like she’d disappear if he were to take his eyes off her. It wasn’t after a few seconds that he realized that she was smiling back up at him. He quickly looked away.

***