"It's too risky." Lyra said, shaking her head. She'd been tending to Tirus's wound for ten minutes, but had already needed to apply a fresh bandage. While the flow of blood had been stemmed by the application of a thick, viscous ointment from their medical supplies, the progressive darkening of white cloth left no doubts as to the severity of his friend's situation.

"Do we really have any other choice?" Alex said, crossing his arms. "Trust me, I'd ask you to go instead if you could, but with that leg? You're not sneaking around anywhere."

"I told you, give me half an hour. I'm already channeling Life energy. My wound'll be healed soon." she said.

Alex crouched down in front of Tirus, working a Water imbuement on the bandage. It wouldn't do much, but it should help to keep the bandage cleaner for longer, the excess blood washing away onto the cavern floor. His own wounds didn't require any assistance from his power, though they still ached with every movement. The puncture holes didn't extend very deep, fortunately.

"Come on, Lyra, we both know that's too long. How long do you think he has?"

"...maybe an hour. Two, if we're lucky."

"Then I have to go now." Alex said, standing.

Tirus's injury wouldn't allow him to be moved, not anymore. The man himself had passed into unconsciousness shortly after being deposited on the ground, pale and shivering. While Lyra's leg wound was deep, a skilled Augmenter could heal themselves. They lacked the ability to pass that to others like only a Ruler could. That meant their only hope lay in finding Alera. Unfortunately, only Alex could make the journey through the tunnels.

"You'll die, you know that, right?" Lyra huffed, meeting his eyes in challenge. "You're better than I expected, but let's not pretend you could stand up to anything approaching a swarm alone."

"That'd only matter if I intended to fight them." Alex said, tapping the loose stones in his pocket. He hadn't sat idly while Lyra treated Tirus. "I really, really don't. Quick, quiet, and without incident. That's the plan."

"How exactly are you going to find the Sergeant, then? If you hadn't noticed, we've been down here for hours."

"I could stand here and explain it to you, or I could go and do it. I'm sorry, Lyra, but I have to go. Be careful."

Ignoring her response, Alex darted back through the tunnel they'd vacated only ten minutes ago.

***

Absent the reassuring presence of his two Silver comrades, the darkness of the subterranean tunnel network carried ominous threat. Without Tirus, he'd needed to light a torch, and while the light provided was sufficient it lacked the penetrating quality that allowed the faerielights to illuminate even shadowed cracks in the stone. Still, he could see. The activity only reinforced his need to avoid a fight.

His left arm was practically useless. He could move it, blessedly, but the stinging wound in his shoulder limited mobility and prevented anything but slow, cautious movement. That meant the responsibility of holding the torch fell to his right, leaving him unarmed in the event of a fight. Not like he could hold the torch and his sword at the same time. If any of the lurking monsters did discover him, he'd have to drop his light source to the ground and fight in one spot. Not exactly preferable when seemingly infinite reinforcements could be on their way.

His singular advantage came from the jumble of pebbles in his pocket. Lacking the relative sophistication of his first prototype, each bore a simple enchantment scribbled in haste across their surface. Signal stones, he called them. Charged with just enough energy to attract the attention of any nesting Mitovampyria, they were his answer to any living obstacles barring his path. They also formed the crux of his plan.

Earlier, amidst the small conversation they'd engaged in throughout their crawl, the option of signaling Alera had been discussed. A potent Ruler on the cusp of Gold, she'd no doubt identify their power in the underground, and Tirus had noted that was one of the reasons the Sergeant took her along. Reinforcement. When Alera noted a significant expenditure of power, she'd direct him to their location. Of course, with a mine full of natural Rulers, they discarded the idea of doing this purposefully outright.

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Only, he wasn't sure what counted as significant. Did their earlier fight reach that bar? Perhaps. With the number of monsters down here, though, he could only reason that they would be expected to use that amount of energy. It hadn't drained them dry, whittling him personally down to half of his total reserves. The problem came from their injuries, and as far as he knew, Alera couldn't sense that.

Following that train of thought, it stood to reason that Alera - and by extension, Sergeant Campbell - were aware of their battle. Had noted the expenditure of power. For whatever reason, he could only pray that the monster's brethren hadn't taken similar note, but the absence of shrieking echoes filling the passageways indicated that they may have gotten lucky on that front. In any case, Alera knew they'd been in a fight. She also knew it was over, and that they'd survived. Not really a priority case for immediate backup.

The worst case would see the Sergeant and Alera on a lower floor, or already engaged with the Monarch. Alex didn't expect any middling swarm of Bronze and Silvers to pose much of a threat to Campbell. If that were the case, then Tirus may already be dead. He couldn't assume that. Despite their short companionship, Alex found himself increasingly warming up to the other soldier - his jovial, easy-going acceptance won him many points in Alex's books. To see yet another friend die? Not happening.

Two options were available. To hunt through the tunnels, banking on a lucky find, or to signal Alera that, yes, they really did need immediate assistance. In all likelihood, a combination would be needed. He didn't think it likely to stumble over them. Amid the vast network, the odds that they'd converge on a single location simultaneously were vanishingly small. He needed to signal them toward his location. At the same time, he needed to impress upon them the need for haste, something that simple signals couldn't achieve.

All while avoiding a fight he could never win. Because the bats would be drawn by his signals, too.

It struck him that everything had gone wrong even without the presence of the Monarch. They'd come here specifically to exterminate the swarm, after all, and yet their first true fight as a detachment from the whole had seen a deathly wound inflicted on them. A wound he was supposed to prevent. The stakes had changed with the realisation of the Monarch's presence, yes, but this had nothing to do with that. It came down to one constant truth.

He lacked the power to defend anything.

Even if the infestation were more developed than anyone imagined, so much so as to have developed a Monarch, and even though there were Silvers present in the swarm - the reality could not be avoided. Were he not a Bronze himself, but a third Silver in their trio, none of them would be hurt right now. The weak link? Him. Alex grit his teeth. At every turn, the universe saw fit to remind him of his powerlessness.

Even now, skulking through the pitch-black passages, he had to sacrifice speed for caution's sake. Wasted moments that saw Tirus inching ever closer to death. A consequence of his inadequacy.

Branching paths unfurled as he crept deeper into the tunnel network. Where their prior efforts traversed long, singular passages, these were larger. More expansive, and with a greater reliance on secondary corridors that served as off-shoots of the arterial routes. He walked down them, on occasion, only to rejoin at another passageway. He suspected these tunnels formed the central ring of the level, and therefore received greater traffic before the mine ceased operation.

Perfect.

Lacking any wider context as to the mine's structure, something that would have come in handy indeed, only guesswork and estimation remained to him. Plucking an inactive signal stone from his pocket, he set it down in the center of a tunnel and activated the enchantment, returning to his original tunnel and the direct path back to the cavern where the swarm had rested. No matter what, he couldn't compromise their route back, and the stone wouldn't activate for fifteen minutes. He hoped. It really had been some rough enchanting work.

The dearth of monsters surprised him. He'd expected their presence to increase as he progressed through the mine, isolated creatures flitting through the tunnels, but none presented themselves. Perhaps they naturally congregated in the larger caverns, content to rest until the appointed hunting time arrived or the greater swarm were dispatched - as on the third level. He prayed that were true, though it did present a concerning possibility. What were the odds that no such caverns lie between him and the Sergeant?

They could also have been drawn by the Sergeant's energy. No doubt the man could exhibit more energy with a flick of his wrist than Alex could muster in an entire day. Not a reassuring avenue of thought, either.

Setting another signal stone in yet another tunnel, Alex thought he could hear the whispers of howls in the stagnant subterranean air. That would be promising. If anyone was nearby, the odds of his plan working would rise substantially. Meaning the odds of Tirus - and potentially his - imminent deaths would go down.

Shaking his head, Alex patted his pocket once again. Only two stones remaining.

Then, when he set them off, the real trial could begin.