A shadow fell over the rocks I was clinging to. Wondering when one of the others had gotten above me, I glanced up to glimpse razor-sharp teeth baring down on my head. I kicked off from the wall, the wake of the crabgator tugging me down as one of its spindly legs reached back out at me. I smacked it away with my hand, once again grateful for the gloves.
The crabgator appeared exactly as it had been described in the books–a short, disgusting-looking alligator with pincers and eight spindly little green legs. The mixture didn’t quite work, giving it a somewhat comical appearance, as though it had been lazily designed. Knowing Zenith Online, that probably was exactly what had happened.
The creature used its massive tail to change trajectory, diving down at Sinbad, who pushed off from the cliff and unsheathed his sword in one smooth spin, staining the water with black blood as he sliced it in half. The halves turned black before exploding into ash, leaving behind crabgator teeth for crafting. I plucked them from the water and tossed them into my inventory, waving at the others to continue the descent.
A short time later, Eliza was the next of us to get the opportunity to slice a crabgator into pieces. Followed by Cove, who used a fire spell, and me, who cast transform and watched it drown. We passed nearly a dozen more caverns before Cove waved us all down, pointing at the inscription we’d been looking for.
The tunnels it was for were dark, missing the glimmering light that had been guiding our way. Sinbad and Eliza took the lead, ducking through with no more than a shrug. More reserved, Cove and I swam behind them, using the light from our suits to guide our way. Light flared ahead as Sinbad pulled a flashlight from his pocket, shining the brilliant and painfully bright light at the water ahead. Less than 20 yards up, the underwater part of the tunnel ended, the surface of the water above reflecting the light back into our eyes. Sinbad lowered the light.
Soon enough, we were breaching the surface into the damp, stale air of a cave that twisted into the darkness beyond. Pressing the water from my hair, I handed the breathing device back to Eliza, who tucked it back into her inventory with her own.
“That was a refreshin’ swim, wasn’t it?”
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I rolled my slightly sore arms. “If you say so.”
“It looks like the tunnel continues for a while,” Sinbad said. Even the bright light from his flashlight faded in the darkness ahead.
“The brightest light is found in the deepest darkness,” Cove said philosophically.
Eliza cast him a scandalized look. “We’ve had very different experiences,” she said so matter-of-factly that I couldn’t help but smother a laugh. Sinbad didn’t bother to smother it, laughing freely. The twists of the tunnel and the droplets of water send the laugh back, echoing eerily through the cavern. The laugh tapered off slowly.
“Only thin’ I’ve ever discovered in darkness such as this is evil.” She lovingly patted the sword she had buckled to her side.
With a single shared glance, Sinbad and I clasped a hand on Eliza and Cove’s shoulders, respectively, ushering them forward. “How about we get moving?” Dramatically, they both shrugged off our hands. Eliza eventually fell back to walk next to Sinbad while I somehow ended up with Sinbad’s light, walking up next to Cove. The tunnel was wide enough that we could have all walked comfortably side-by-side, but in an unspoken agreement, we trailed in rows of two, more boxed in in the event of random attacks and glancing around for any engravings that indicated our path forward.
“I spy with my little eye…” Cove started. My vision swirled as I rolled my eyes immediately. “What? It helped pass the time last time.”
“An inscription,” I said, catching sight of a carved sigil on the wall. It looked almost like a torch.
Cove and I stopped to inspect it. Eliza, not expecting the sudden halt, slammed into me, knocking my hand against the wall. My palm sunk inward, my wrist disappearing behind the stone. I yanked my hand back and inched it forward again, slowly watching as I dipped my fingertips through the rock like it was water. There wasn’t even the slightest change in temperature to indicate what had just occurred, the false wall an illusion made from nothing.
“Is this where we’re suppos’ to go next?”
I ran through what I knew of the dungeon in my mind. The main path of the tunnel eventually leads to a seemingly dead end that was actually a doorway only accessible from the other side, meant to be a shortcut back to the main entrance. Side tunnels fragmented out from it, with puzzles leading to treasure, enemies, and, eventually, the boss.
From what I remembered, we’d have to explore most of the interior of the dungeon to access the boss chamber, where the rooks roosted.
Cove reached a hand out in front of him, closing his eyes as he stepped through. “Wait here,” he said.
There was a slight clang followed by a thud before Cove’s hand reached through once more. We backed away, unsure if he could see us as he stepped through, his other hand clasped tightly around a metallic object. He lifted it up, opening his hand to show us a key before vanishing it into his inventory.