Killian whipped around, brandishing his razor, ready to fight. His movement had Shan knocking an arrow, ready to unleash violence a moment behind. Relying on his spatial sense to see the surfaces his eyes couldn’t, Killian waited for the attack he was sure was coming. Thirty seconds. One minute. Two.
"What are we waiting for?" Shan asked
"I saw a few of those dog things phase into the ground."
"Hollow Beasts."
"What?"
"Hollow Beasts, since there are multiple different animals, they should be called Hollow Beasts. Hollow Dogs for the ones we have been fighting till now."
"You going to name everything we find in here?" Killian asked with genuine curiosity.
"I'm a ranger; comes with the territory. When you name something, you categorize it, which is the first step in putting it down."
"Damn."
"What?"
"That sounded pretty cool."
"Shut up; nothing's coming, at least for now." Shan said as she released the tension on her bowstring.
Lowering his arms, Killian turned to look back at the screen. No more Hollow Beasts phased into the ground. He thought for a moment why none had arrived in the room they now stood in. He realized that either the creatures entered and left their rooms at a predetermined time, maybe for patrol, or they were attacking other intruders instead of them. Arden and Imari could be under attack right this second. A glance in Shan's direction told him she had come to the same conclusion.
"Does Imari have any communication magic? Some way we could get in contact with each other." He asked.
"No."
"I could teleport us back to my anchor in the room we camped in, but that could very well take us further away from them. I'm pretty sure the circle was designed to send us to random places, so they could be anywhere. What do you think?"
Shan spent a few moments collecting her thoughts before answering.
"If there's no reason not to, I think you should make an anchor here. Then we can teleport back and quickly check if they got sent anywhere we already were; if not, we can come back and quickly but steadily move forward to find out where we are in relation to where we were. You said you can feel where each of your anchors are, right?"
Killian didn’t wait to reply; he just reached his hand out to grab the point in space in front of him and weave his ether into it. Shan kept an eye on the display, informing him that six more of the creatures phased away while he worked. Thankfully it was only more dogs, but he couldn’t help but think that only time would tell when the larger and more dangerous beasts were sent to attack them. When the anchor was done, he called for Shan, and they returned to the room they looted the night before.
--------
The flash of light quickly left Imari's eyes, leaving only darkness in its passing. Getting used to it by this point, she quickly conjured her ball of light, regretting the decision immediately. The only good thing she could see is that Arden was beside her, the other two nowhere in sight.
The thick smell of rot and decay matched the sight of carnage and viscera coating the walls, floor, and ceiling. Cramped cages with groaning Hollows of various forms were squeezed and stacked together. Every single creature was missing at least one appendage, but most were barely held together by what little remained of their bodies. One cage nearby had its occupant held aloft inside by rods pushed through its torso, arms and legs no longer attached, as well as missing a sizeable chunk of its left hip. That was the tamest thing in sight. Barrels of bladed arms were scattered around the room, hooks hung from the ceiling with the shriveled innards of Hollows strung between them, and worst of all, there were a handful of Hollows pined to the walls by their flayed open chest skin, looking like a grotesque version of a dissection board. And every single creature was still alive, if you could call it that.
Imari nearly emptied the contents of her stomach onto the floor, only stopped by the sense of danger she still felt from a few moments ago. Arden came to stand next to her, not dropping his sword or shield to lay a hand on her but providing a comforting and solid presence. Gods, she loved that man.
"I don’t see Shan or Killian." He said
"Yeah, but given that we are together, we can hope they are too."
"I was going to ask if we should stay put or move on, but I don’t think either of us wants to spend a second more-"
The sound of screeching metal filled the room as the blade of a Hollow Dog raked down Arden's armored back. She didn’t see him react with pain, but he whipped around, a glowing red horizontal slash taking the offending arm from its shoulder. She could see more sliding up from the floor, so she continued with what she knew slowed them down, lightning. Imari reached out for the magic, or ether, as Killian called it, from the environment around her and brought it close. She knew this could turn deadly any moment; they didn’t have Shan to harry some of the creatures to lessen the load for Arden or Killian with his spatial sense and that incredible razor. Her spellbook was inside their camp space, but she hadn't truly needed it for a few years now. She flashed through the mental construct she had built in her mind, the place she stored the formulas and circles for all of her spells. Like fingering through files in a drawer, she found the one she was looking for. Bringing it to the forefront of her awareness, she shoved ether into the energy points meant to power her spell. The required amount was quickly reached, and she cast forth her spell into the world.
"Phase Barrier!" She shouted.
She was long past the point of needing to speak the name of her spells; no, this was for Arden to hear and move into position and change tactics. The spell she had just cast created a hemispherical dome of magical force. When cast, she could designate a number of people to be unaffected by the barrier, allowing them to move through it as if it weren't there. If Killian were here, she might not have been able to cast this spell; she hadn't quite memorized his magical signature yet, but she had long ingrained the signatures of her two other friends in her memory.
Arden stepped back until he was fully inside the barrier. Slinging his shield to rest along his back, he grasped his sword in a two-handed grip. The Hollows threw themselves forward only to crash into the dome, its color darkening from its normal faint light blue into a darker blue at the points of contact. Arden wasted no time and began to make great swinging slashes through the barrier and into the Hollows that were right in front of him. Imari watched this for a few moments before she saw three more push through the wall closest to them. Reaching for more ether, she waited for them to fully emerge. When they did, she let loose with a bolt of lightning, focusing on the rune for connection in her mind to allow it to chain and hit all three. Basic elemental conjuring like this was simple enough that she had long etched its formula in her mind; this allowed her to use a spell much like Killian did, simply focusing the spell into existence. For spells etched into the mind, it was possible to mentally add one or more runes to it and change its nature; the limit was only how much the wizard could hold in their mind at once. As the Hollow dogs twitched and spasmed in place, she knew she wouldn’t do enough damage to them without pumping more power into the spell than she was willing. Once again, Imari quickly leafed through her spells until finding the one she needed. Not needing to call out its name this time, Imari cast Wind Cutter.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
This was another elemental spell, but more complex. Her mind quickly built a magical construct meant to pull in and compress air in a three-foot line. She aimed for its appendages with the goal of separating as many pieces from each Hollow as she could. Turning back to check on Arden, she could see he was taking care of his side with no problems, though she nearly lost focus on her spell when she noticed a growing red patch on his lower back. The wretched creature had indeed got him with its surprise attack. Growling in anger, Imari let loose with Wind Cutter after Wind Cutter, the three monsters becoming nothing more than chunks of meat. Blessedly silent meat.
As suddenly as it had started, it was over. Imari waited for Arden to give the all clear before she dropped her barrier. It was a powerful tool, but it required a large amount of ether to maintain and demanded a large amount of her total focus, which is why she only used more simple spells while it was active. With the threat over for the moment, she rushed to Arden's side.
"You're hurt, how bad." She asked in a shaky voice.
"Not much love," he said with a smile. "I'll need a potion, but that should be enough to fully take care of it."
Imari helped him remove his pack and armor, deciding to cast Arcane Wall in a square around them. It was a spell that created square panels of magical force that could be connected along any of the squares edges. It was cheaper than a Phase Barrier but allowed nothing through it. She only created four panels to surround them, leaving Arden to watch the floor and ceiling for danger. The gash was deep, but Arden was right that a potion should completely heal the wound. She had said they shouldn’t try the potions they found the previous night before Teacher could identify them, but she now wished she had one of the blood-purifying potions Killian had stored away. She had no idea if the blades of these Hollows were coated in poison or some disease, but she would keep an eye on him until they could meet back up with the others. With a spare shirt on and his armor back in place, Arden pointed to a door they could see on the other side of the room. Imari nodded; she didn’t want to stay in the room for even a second longer.
As they moved quickly to reach the door, something caught Imari's eye. A flash of light reflected off of something under a table by the door. She bent down, snatching it before Arden opened the door and walked out. It was a small crystal, milky white and glowing with its own internal light. It felt odd; when she made contact with it, she could feel both wonder and disgust move through her unbidden. Like her body knew what it was but her mind didn’t. She shoved it into a pocket for now; she needed to focus on what lay ahead. They needed to find their friends.
--------
Killian and Shan reappeared in the room with the strange display. It was clear that the others didn’t get sent back to where they were before. Killian had sensed the direction and distance of the anchor in this room and was surprised that it was only a floor down. He didn’t know if that was lucky or unlucky; he couldn’t help but think that Arden and Imari had been sent much further below, and they might not make it to them before something bad happened. He quickly squashed that thought; it would do nothing but make it harder to succeed, and his friends were strong enough to survive until they all could meet up.
"I guess we move forward. I'll rely on your spatial sense to keep an eye out for ambushes like before while I do what I can scout ahead. I suggest we ignore anything not right in front of us that doesn’t lead us on a path deeper inside. We can come back and loot when we're all back together."
"I agree, I'll follow your lead."
A quick nod, and the ranger threw the door open to walk into the hallway beyond. Stepping up behind her, Killian focused on his spatial sense, pushing it just a little bit further than he had so far. The headache being ignored, he knew a little pain now would be better than whatever he might miss later on. Nahlen hopped out of the pouch on Shan's back and took to the air before silently disappearing into the darkness beyond Killian's light.
"I'll have Nahlen scout ahead both ways first; we can make a choice on what way to go after I see something to guide us." Shan told him.
Nahlen was gone down the right side of the hallway for around two minutes, Shan's eyes unfocused as she shared her senses with her bonded falcon. Then Nahlen flashed by him and headed down the left side, only being gone for a minute before flying back into the light.
"Left side ends at a latter leading up. Guess that hallway we were in leads to it. That or some weird magic kept us walking in a loop or something. The right path keeps going and has some doors you could see behind as we walk down."
Nodding, Killian stepped up beside her as she started walking. Nahlen took wing once again and headed back down the hall, Shan informing him the bird would stay ahead and warn of anything clearly dangerous, otherwise, she would pop in and out of his senses as they traveled. They kept a fast pace; as they passed one of the doors, Killian would shift the area covered by his spatial sense over to the side the door was on, seeing as much of the room beyond as he could before moving on. Nothing stood out in the rooms until they reached another room with a display. The door was locked, but it was no barrier to the space sorcerer, and the two approached the screen. This time it was dark, but Shan poked around until she managed to find a rune that activated it. The two of them ignored how dangerous what she did was, their combined sense of urgency outweighing any sense of caution, at least partially.
The display filled with squares, some of them showing more beast-based Hollows in their waiting rooms, and some showing different kinds of rooms. Killian pointed to one square in particular; it had a latter against a wall in what looked like the end of a hallway.
"That what you saw?"
"I think. There might be another one like it, but I don’t see any—wait!"
She pointed to a square near the top; it was hard to make out at first due to the size of the square and how far up it was, but Killian lifted himself into the air to put his face right in front of it. Two figures could be seen moving swiftly down an empty hallway as he watched a bolt of lightning lance from one of the figures and a red light surround the second as it charged off screen.
"It's them. Can you make out a pattern for these squares? Maybe we can plot a path to them." He said.
The two of them stared at the mass of squares, their eyes flicking from one to the next. Shan spoke up after a short time.
"I think I got it. See this row, the one with the latter in the corner?" She pointed at the square. In the top left corner he had seen before. "It looks like the squares follow the main hallway before reaching an intersection or other major change in direction. Then it shows the rooms that were along that path up till the next row of hallways. I think I can plot out a route to where they are; the only problem is I think they are moving away from where we are."
"Then hurry; with my blinks, we can make up for any time we lose as they move."
Shan raised her finger as she started to trace the path they hoped would lead to their friends. Killian, in the meantime, walked to another table he had seen with his spatial sense. It was covered with what looked like clipboards with the clip on the sides instead of the top, but there was also a small box hidden under a pile of loose papers. The papers were in a language he couldn’t read; he shifted them with the rest of what they had gathered and picked up the box. It was made of the same stone in the first few rooms, the gray stone beginning to leach some of the heat from his skin the moment it made contact. It was about the size of his hand with his fingers spread wide. He lifted the lid on silent hinges to find a ring the size of his fist made of some dark green metal. On the ring were five small square metal bars the length of his pinky with flowing lines that combined to form different symbols engraved at the end, forming a strange stamp-like end. Killian shifted the box and ring of metal away when Shan spoke up to get his attention.
"Hey, come here."
"Yea?" he asked as he stepped up to her side.
"I think I got it; the only problem is it looks like we will have to go through here." She placed a finger on a square that was completely black. "No idea if it's just not working or if it's just dark in there."
"Doesn’t matter; we can deal with it when we get there. Come on."
He knew he was being a little reckless, but he felt confident in his abilities and more so in the abilities of Blue Feather. The tone in Amy's voice still clung to his thoughts; whatever called the bottom of this dungeon home was enough to upset her greatly.
Whatever it was, he didn’t want the two of them to encounter it alone.