Serena pulls Elle away from the rubble tumbling into the pit that Thermal just discovered accidentally. A metal pipe barely misses the rift-diver as she stumbles into the traveller’s arms. It’s hard to guide Elle around the falling debris, but she manages to keep them from being hit with the worst of it. The sound of clanging metal rings in her ears.
“What’s going on?! Are you all okay?” A hunter shouts, distant voice coming closer to them.
Serena yells back, “There are traps in this room! Thermal fell down! Be careful!” Considering the huge pile still pouring into the hole, she doesn’t know if he can even survive the onslaught. Worry stabs at her heart despite his general dickishness.
Two hunters use their powers to push back the scrap heap, preventing more rubble from falling. For a few seconds, they can only hear the final crashes of debris at the bottom of the pit. Then they hear Thermal’s panicked voice. “I am trapped! Can anyone help?!”
Serena peers over the edge. A blue forcefield pokes out of the wreckage, thankfully protecting the man from head injuries. From her position, she can tell that there’s more to the lower area. “We’ll come down in a jiffy! Are you okay?”
He replies after a moment, “I fell down at least twenty arm spans, so no!”
“Why didn’t you float yourself down like last time?!”
“Then I would have been crushed to death by the debris! I cannot cast Slow-fall and Forcefield at the same time.”
Elle pipes up shakily, “Sounds like you missed a day in wizard training.” Letting go of Serena’s arm, she dusts herself off. “Who set this trap here? It’s so out of the way from the main area; people coming from the secret entrance would be the most likely to fall for it.”
Serena glances around the cavern, far more wary of their surroundings now. “Yeah, this is weird. Thermal, if we get you back up here, would you know what these runes mean?”
He replies, “If someone can heal me, perhaps. I dislocated my knee in the fall.”
“...Fine, we’ll come down there to help you out. Any monsters down there?”
“I don’t know; I’m buried under rubble!”
The traveller cusses under her breath, “A crap sandwich up the ass. Okay, we’re coming!” She sets up a rope for them to climb while Elle finds a hunter who can heal. It’s hard to find a secure column to tie the rope around, so she asks someone to keep an eye on it. Trusting the others to guard the top, Serena, Elle, and a healer named Sanu climb down to help Thermal.
As they descend, Serena looks around for possible dangers. The cavern at the bottom is surprisingly narrow, only wide enough for two people walking side-by-side. They are right next to the wall on one side while the other end leads to a tunnel which looks scarily like the ones made by great worms. If one of those comes crashing into here, they’re pretty much fucked.
Serena gets to the bottom first and carefully finds a more solid area of the pile to perch. Instead of heading directly to the mage, she scans this mysterious passageway in greater detail. There are thick roots stretched along the walls and floor, extending beneath the pile and wrapping themselves around Thermal’s forcefield. Since the only light comes from above, they’re hard to see from far away. Serena swallows her fear and points them out to the others. Plants growing so deep underground must be magical, and she doesn’t like their odds of a quick getaway.
She avoids rusty steel bars which stick out of the rubble as she makes her way to the top of the forcefield dome. Looking through the blue forcefield, she sees Thermal at the bottom of the pile with tree roots wrapped up his legs to his torso. He looks up at her, visibly nervous. “You will need to move the debris before I drop the forcefield. Otherwise, I will be buried.”
Serena sighs, “Yep, we’re on it.” She starts pushing the scraps away from the forcefield, hopefully making the pile safer when the forcefield disappears. Half of a vase rolls down the small hill and smashes against the ground. Serena immediately looks down the tunnel to see if anything reacts to the noise, but nothing happens.
Moving to help her, Elle comments, “Maybe we should avoid hitting the roots with this stuff. I don’t trust them not to come alive and kill us or something.”
“Good point, that wouldn’t be a good way to go…”
Even with Sanu helping, it still takes them about fifteen minutes to safely position everything. To his credit, Thermal doesn’t complain or freak out the entire time. When it’s all done, they’re immediately hit with another problem. How should they get him out of the roots?
Sanu frowns. “If he drops the forcefield, those roots will probably wrap around him. He can’t jump with his leg like that.” They can now clearly see Thermal keeping weight off his left leg which is bent at an unnatural angle.
Thermal grimaces in pain, sweat running down his face. “We might have to risk that happening. Please be careful cutting me out. I am uncertain how dangerous this plant is.”
Serena thinks back to an old adventure when her team travelled to the old Halagrad tree a few days out of town. She remembers that the tree stood taller than the temple in her town and housed animals larger than her. If the smallest bit of damage hit the roots, they would attack and call upon the tree’s inhabitants for help. Since this is a narrow cavern, there’s no place to go but up if the roots attack them. “Let’s try to make room for Thermal to wiggle out. I don’t want to trigger a defence mechanism if we hurt the roots.”
Elle studies the roots too. “Hmm, could we pull him up with a rope as soon as he drops the forcefield? And then drop something else so they grab it instead? Backup plan is we pick up Thermal and run.”
“I can cast Firebolt if necessary,” Thermal offers. “I apologise for this inconvenience…”
Serena shakes her head begrudgingly. “It’s fine.” Thinking back on past missions, she finds it easier to be patient considering all the stupid mistakes her team made. “But we can’t drop anything because it’ll hit him on the way down.”
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Elle smirks and taps her head. “I can open my inventory below him as we pull him up.” Her impish smile makes the rift-diver look very cute, and Serena can see all of the freckles on her face despite the dim lighting.
“...Yeah, that might work.” She says after a pause, remembering that she should respond.
Sanu coughs, “Or we can ask Alon who’s a telekinetic for help.”
“Right, good point.” Serena pretends she didn’t forget the other hunters were above them.
They get into position and signal to Alon to lift Thermal. Staying on the surface, Alon raises the mage to the top of the forcefield closest to Serena. Extending a hand to her, Thermal raises his eyebrows. “Are you prepared to catch me?”
She rolls her eyes. “Alon’s holding you up. I think I’ll be fine.” Serena does reach her hands out though, noticing the nervous edge in his eyes.
“Very well then. I am dropping the spell.” The blue forcefield disappears.
Serena grabs Thermal’s hands just as a flash of brown whizzes beneath him. The roots snap together like a mouse-trap and twist together. Upon finding nothing, they relax back on the ground. Then everything goes dark.
She grunts as she suddenly feels Thermal’s weight on her. “Huh?!”
“Sorry, I need to find my footing!” Thermal shifts and tries to stretch his legs to the top of the pile where Serena is standing.
“Is everyone okay?!” Elle asks. “The hole got blocked off!”
After a moment, he manages to get himself beside her on the scrap heap. A small flame appears on his finger and it lights up a small area around them. At the crater-like bottom of the pile, the roots look normal and peaceful, lying perfectly still on the ground. Thankfully, the pile has stayed relatively stable, so the group breathes a collective sigh of relief.
Elle squints at the ceiling. “It’s not an illusion. There’s rock about a metre thick perfectly blocking the hole. I wonder if that’s from the runes carved into the wall…”
Thermal nods. “From a quick glance at a distance, it looked like runes for a portal which piqued my curiosity. I am both irritated and impressed by the trickery.”
Sanu grumbles, “This was supposed to be an easy job… Whatever, may I fix your leg now?” He heals Thermal’s leg, and the cracking sounds of bones shifting into place fills the air. “I can heal the damage done to you, but I can’t replace the aura you lost in the fall. Be careful when casting spells.”
Elle summons her flashlight, providing a better view of the tunnel at the end. It’s pitch-black, but nothing seems to be moving within it. “I guess there’s only one way out… I don’t want whoever set this trap to come to us. If worse comes to worse, these narrow walls and roots will screw us over.”
Serena grips the hilt of her knife. “Yeah, let’s not step on the roots.” She hesitates, thinking her next idea over. Since her mother was a nymph, Serena can talk to trees, but she doesn’t want to alert it to the group’s presence if it’s a monster. She decides to play it safe for now given that it didn’t seem very friendly.
Once Sanu finishes healing him, Thermal checks his leg and then nods with satisfaction. “Well then, there is no choice but to go forward, no?” The four climb down the scrap pile and start heading down towards the tunnel. They carefully step over and between roots, sticking close to Elle since she’s holding the flashlight.
Serena barely has to pay attention to her footing, already used to moving stealthily. However, the rest of the group makes her nervous since they come close to tripping multiple times. She readies one of her throwing daggers for anything that’ll pop out at them.
Elle comes to a dead stop when her light finally shines into the tunnel. White spider webs coat the insides, hinting at the battle ahead of them. She lets out a shaky breath. “I sense two giant spiders hanging from the ceiling. They’re the size of large dogs.”
Serena lowers her dagger. “I think it’d be better if we could take care of them from outside the tunnel. Thermal, do you have enough magic to help me aim my crossbow?”
He replies, “Yes, but you will have to be fast. I imagine they may react quickly to the light.” They practised this manoeuvre yesterday in the gym, so it’s easy for them to set up. Elle raises her javelin as Serena readies her crossbow.
“3, 2, 1, go!” Serena feels Thermal’s magic tug at her crossbow up slightly to the left as a speck of light in the distance forms her target. She releases the arrow.
Two screeches pierce her ears. Elle’s javelin completely pierces through one. That spider drops to the ground with a thud, but its eight legs still flail. The other skitters towards them with Serena’s arrow sticking out of it.
Serena shoots another arrow at it. The spider wails as the arrow stabs through an eye. Thermal stumbles back and tries to put some distance between him and the monster. He doesn’t make it very far, because he needs to avoid stepping on the roots. Sanu raises an axe and stands his ground.
Elle summons her old javelin and fires it at the spider. This one doesn’t go all the way through, and the spider jumps at them with a vengeance. Serena manages to totally dodge it, but Elle gets a nasty scrape down her side. Her aura protects her, but the rift-diver winces from the force of the swipe.
Thermal and Sanu can’t move without tripping, so they end up staring the spider in the face. Sanu swings at the spider, but his axe bounces off its carapace. Thermal points at the spider and blinds it with a searing ray of light.
It’s distracted. Serena takes a running leap at its back and plunges into it with her dagger. The spider gurgles. Black blood splatters onto her clothes as she repeatedly stabs it. Thermal draws his rapier and tries to find a weak point in its carapace.
They hear another thud and a dying screech from the other spider. While Serena distracts one spider, Elle has moved closer to the tunnel and dropped her bowling ball on the one lying prone. Its legs twitch once more and then stay limp. Serena smiles at her quick thinking.
Sanu’s axe finally connects with the last spider and slices a leg clean off. It tries to bat at him, but Serena’s last stab into an open wound finally does it in. The spider slumps to the ground, and she calmly slides off it.
Thermal pants heavily, “...You fought well, Serena. Might I ask you for a lesson after this mission? I have not frequently used a sword for true combat.” They only practised magical attacks yesterday, because there wasn’t enough time to improve everything.
During the fight, Serena noticed that Thermal seemed hesitant with melee combat. There were slight pauses where he flinched from approaching attacks or he didn’t know what to do with himself. She replies, “I don’t mind helping you out after this, but I think you should focus on your spellbook and stay back for now. Play to your strengths until we’re out of danger.”
Thermal nods stiffly, “Yes, that might be for the best.”
Standing at its entrance, Elle peers through the tunnel. “I don’t sense any more monsters for now. Should we continue? There’s some light up ahead.”
They dust themselves off and head through the tunnel. While Serena doesn’t care about the webs, she sees Elle tug at her collar and brush off her hair several times. She squeezes the rift-diver’s shoulder reassuringly, and the other woman seems to relax a bit.
The light at the end of the tunnel glows a faint blue, but it isn’t bright enough to give them a clear view. When Elle’s flashlight finally gets close enough to the end, Serena blinks at the eerily intact city sprawled across the cavern below them.