Chapter 40: Ice to Meet You

Victoria's spiked barrier chipped and shattered ice as it drove forwards and then wavered and dissipated with a crackle as the elementals proved to have too many hitpoints to crush against the wall in one go. The elementals in question looked like frill neck lizards which I took as a pretty clear sign that they weren't affiliated with the cult of the worm, even if the Caterpillar creatures apparently were.

The other sign was the assortment of frozen Derro scattered around the tunnel, little faces trapped in rictuses of murderous rage and hate. I dropped my darkness spell and scooted backwards, checking my status as I did so. "Frozen status afflicting both legs, estimated duration 30 seconds." Farrah shattered one of the lunging creatures with her axe and it lost all momentum, falling straight down in little crystal shards of tinkling ice.

Out came old faithful, I'd certainly come a long way with my reagents considering I'd started with untreated fish oil and now had access to demonic blood but sometimes the classic spells were good enough. Flame surged from a basic wax candle and melted an ice lizard into a limbless lump of ice that awarded me with 2 points of experience.

That was surprising, 2 exp meant the system considered these things about as threatening as a single Derro warrior. A foreboding crack joined the roar of flames echoing through the tunnel an instant before the deactivated elemental exploded into shards of ice that ripped at my companion's flesh while narrowly missing me on the ground.

"Hold off on the fire Jack! Elementals react violently to elements of the opposite polarity" That explained the lack of A Victoria-Powered microwave beam melting or superheating the little bastards. Electricity was also out because my teammates were too close to the arc and I didn't use poison for similar reasons of drifting aoe. That left one good option so I selected from my umbral spells instead, igniting the strange black flame with a touch and then rapidly burning through the candle with four successive casts of Shadow Dart. The individual projectiles of shadow-stuff punched satisfying holes through icy carapace and used 50 percent of my mana while also healing my wounds with the dripping mana-laden wax.

The tunnel was crawling with the lizard-like things now and I could see the remnants of prior conflicts, Derro and other subterranean things lay frozen in irregularly-shaped prisons of ice, my eye caught on a particularly odd ice-prison and redoubled my desire to survive. The ice was cloudy, impossible to make details out inside of but it clearly contained most of a derro and the outside was clearly changing, all of the sculptures were somewhat asymmetrical, frozen protrusions sticking out at odd angles but those were only in their beginning phases. The one I had seen was almost complete, the Derro inside had been absorbed into the ice, only a few disconnected limbs and organs remained suspended but the icy cell had reshaped itself into a reptilian form that looked far too familiar to me.

Farrah kept swinging her axe, Merri remained down on the ground with a sheen of frost covering her form and I advanced to cover her as one of the creatures turned its impassive gaze to focus on her. I'd gotten significantly better at sword fighting, i'd lose against anyone with a degree of training in the weapon but against say... a construct designed to kill paralysed foes rather than engage in one on one combat I comported myself nicely.

The lizard's reach was simply too short to strike me without taking hits and its magical nature only allowed it to move with grinding, crunching slowness instead of my comparatively fluid dodges and after a short duel it shattered on the third strike of my blade. I made sure not to touch the frosty vapours that issued forth out of fear of incapacitation and pulled Merri back as Luna regained her feet and engaged the newest attacker.

The elementals were coming out of a fissure in the cave's wall, i assumed it was newer than the rest of the complex and that these creatures were coming in from ruins that would seem familiar to both Luna and myself. The assumption was based on how similar the little monsters looked to the undead saurian creatures she and Balthazar had called Rotscales. These things had been essentially an extinct race for longer than anyone could remember and now only their constructs, summons and traps remained.

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I let go of Merri with one hand in order to point at the fissure and Victoria threw up another barrier, this one wasn't spiked but it rippled with bands of energy that functioned as reinforcement for the barrier while putting a halt to any further reinforcements coming out of the fissure. I just kept dragging Merri to safety and my companions finished off the remaining foes until the experience was awarded and split amongst us. I received a nice lump of 7 experience points which I certainly appreciated while the rest of my party seemed similarly unsurprised at their own rewards.

"She's still down is she?"

Farrah was using a piece of dead elemental as an icepack for one of the more severe bruises she'd picked up, Victoria had kept pumping mana into the barrier until the enemy retreated and Luna had proceeded to playfully mock the paralysed demoness. "What's the matter? I figured a creature as frigid as you wouldn't have any problems with a couple icicles."

I shook my head in mock admonishment. "It's not her fault, she's already cold-blooded so it doesn't take much more to tip her over into statue territory."

Merri suddenly spasmed and flipped up onto her feet, she hadn't been hurt by the elemental's attacks, just paralysed for a few minutes. "Congratulations, now you know my weakness. I'm sure this won't come back to bite me." I looked over at Victoria who shrugged. "Neither of us really have frost-based attacks, you're fine, especially if you don't betray us."

Merri grinned sardonically. "We'll see how things shake out when we find that little friend of yours. If it looks like he's going to break under pressure and become a vessel for my old boss then we'll have problems, if not I'm happy to part ways amicably enough"

There wasn't so much to say after that, I still had too much trust for the demon but she'd come through enough times when I'd needed it so I was content to continue working with her to save my friend and our other dubious ally.

As we continued through the tunnel Luna gestured back towards the fissure the Rotscale Elementals had ambushed the Derro kill squads from. "That fissure might be the back way into the dungeon we first tackled." I'd had the same thought, it meant we had a possible way out if things went badly and we couldn't find a tunnel or cable car out of the subterranean labyrinth we now found ourselves in.

We continued on and the terrain slowly changed from rough stone back to the deliberately carved Derro workmanship, countless slaves had toiled to build tunnels from cavern to cavern in the endless hunt for sacrifices and slaves, any trace of the original dwellers destroyed by the conquering cultists from even deeper below. Etchings into the rock were coloured with blood and ochre, representations of the two worms and the caterpillar thing that fuelled everything. Idly I wondered if we could harness the green strain to keep the lights on above or even if I should use the circlet to welcome the grey strain into my own body. I dispelled the notion as quickly as it had come, that way laid madness, I was sure of it. I did not discard the magical item though, even if some part of me recognised the little voice as the same one that had driven me to alcoholic despair and drudgery back on earth and would love nothing more than to turn this wondrous second chance full of opportunity and privilege into yet another downwards spiral.

"We're kind of like a real team, we brave the frost monsters for you if you'll soak up the worm poison for us. What we really need to tie it all together is a proper healer instead of relying on my incense"

Merri curled her lip but I suspected there was a genuine satisfaction beneath that mocking smile. "Relying on my blood for your spells and my senses for your own navigation you mean."

I shrugged. "Something like that, yeah."

Luna hissed and we all went quiet as we heard the same thing she did. In the distance, difficult to gauge approximately how far away due to the twisting tunnels of rock we heard a gong, the sound reverberated for a long second and then was struck again and again as some kind of high-pitched instrument joined the call to prayer.

Merri confirmed what we all knew and then we continued in somber silence, we were almost at the city's outskirts, almost in a position to scout out the Derro plantations before deciding on our plan of attack. That gong meant only one thing however, sacrifices had been chosen from the slaves currently available and would soon be fed to the great worms that dwelled beneath the city looming on all our horizons.