80: A God’s Rage
It was impossible to tell what the room had once been used for. Time had ravaged everything that might've existed in here, save for a small rusty iron table. There was, however, an arched doorway.
Tentatively, we approached and peered outward. The light of our lantern stones revealed a chaotic cave system of wide chambers connected by thin passages and choke points. However, it was open enough that in a few directions, you could actually see pretty far into the gloom.
Interspersed between all the drunkenly tilted caves were a whole host of smashed and broken stone buildings. There was a whole city down here, crushed between titanic boulders and covered in calcium carbonate deposits. A whole city, stripped of organic material by the ravages of time, so that only the fossilised bones remained.
There were, however, traces of the life that had once inhabited the strange settlement. Nearby, a skeleton was sitting with its back to a wall, old armour hanging loosely around its frame, and further away a mangled tree had formed the basis for a stalagmite, its trunk and roots having been replaced by mineral deposits.
“It looks like this place was forcibly shoved underground,” Paisley observed, her voice low.
She wasn’t wrong. For one thing, the ground wasn’t even— in our current chamber, it sloped up so that we were looking downhill at a slight angle. In the next chamber, the floor tilted at an angle perpendicular to ours. The most obvious indicator that the city had not been built down here, was that every single building was smashed and broken, to one degree or another.
“Yeah, it's like the earth just opened and swallowed it, then only half chewed it before it came to rest down here,” I said, matching her low volume. This area felt like a tomb, and I definitely wasn't going to be the one to disturb it.
My attention fell on a pair of skeletons further away, also sitting with their backs to a ruined section of stone wall. They were locked in an embrace— holding one another in a peaceful fashion that had me wondering, were they alive when the city was buried?
“Well…” said Paisley. “How do we move forward?”
Standing in the centre of the chamber now, we looked out at the three options— four, if you counted the way we'd come from. One was smaller than the rest and seemed to constrict further as you went in, so I turned my attention to the other potential paths forward.
A shadow flitted across our line of sight down one of the larger passages, and I almost jumped out of my skin. As it was, my sword came out of its sheath unbidden, but eager to fight.
The sound of my sword coming free caused Paisley to stare hard into the same hole I was. “What is it?”
Taking hold of my katana, I peered into the darkness. “A shadow spooked me, and my sword got excited.”
“Just a shadow, or—”
The answer presented itself before she was finished asking the question. A crossbow bolt whirred past, passing between our heads like an angry insect. Steelfeather Guard leapt into being in front of both of us as I swept my arm through the full activation move, and just in time.
Two more bolts pinged off the metallic feathers before it dissipated, and it was enough for us to rush for cover. We chose to hold either side of the opening between our chamber and the next.
“What are they?” Paisley asked, trying to peek through the opening.
Sheathing my sword so it didn’t get in the way, I ducked my head briefly into the hole and activated my inspection tool. I caught a good look at one attacker, and my eyebrows shot up in surprise.
Back in cover I shot Paisley a look. “Rackids. Those weird alien looking creatures that attacked our camp that one time.”
“What, really?” Paisley poked her head into the hole for a second— narrowly avoiding a bolt to the face when she immediately pulled back. “What the heck are they doing here?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. Let's kill them.”
She grinned and nodded. “I'll cover, you rush.”
Nodding, I counted down quietly, then with an abrupt burst of speed, I twirled through the opening, ribbons trailing behind. In tiny form, I dashed and ducked under a sudden gout of green energy. A mage had taken a wild shot at me, but my instincts carried me out of harm’s way.
Five rackids were arrayed within the large chamber. The chamber itself was much as the one we’d left— mostly stone and cave, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and stalagmites growing over ancient stone buildings. The Rackids were an ugly species by my human reckoning, with limbs slightly too long, and with one too many joints in strange places. Their feet had horrific raptor claws, and their hands weren’t much better— except, obviously, they could hold weapons and use them just fine.
Paisley was impressively quick on the draw, her lips pursing into a quick, piercing squeal. The mage’s far-too-human features widened with fear— brow plates shifting beneath loose skin. A red shard of magical death took its head off, showering the cave with a puff of blood. No gore, though, that was too far. Funny how one of the easiest ways to remove ugly gore was to increase the violence to the point that the target was obliterated. The game didn’t have to stretch believability too far when it was Paisley doing the killing.
Even before the blood particle effects had faded, I was moving, and unlike a several recent fights, I decided to stop holding my biggest ability for the ‘right’ moment. I caressed the air over the hilt of my katana, as though running my fingers over the delicate petals of a flower. My sword quivered, ready to come free from its home with permission this time, and after a single heartbeat, I swept my arm out in a wide arc. As soon as I began to move, transparent green clones of me jumped free from my body and lunged, sweeping through the remaining four Rackids.
Two had crossbows, and they died first, hacked into dissolving chunks by three shadows each, while the green blade of energy released from my sword leapt across the chamber. It bit into a third rackid that was trying desperately to gather sunlight energy into the tip of its staff. It died before its spell could release, and the energy faded. All that remained was one tanky rackid, looking extremely pissed off. Paisley annihilated it with a lazy snap of death lightning.
Breathing hard from the sudden exertion, I ran my eyes over the bodies of the two casters— the only bodies that still had pieces visible. The healer—at least, I think it was a healer—was slowly sizzling as my corrosive faerymic magic worked on it. Wait, ah shit.
Pulling my braid around, I carefully extracted the class item feather from within it and swapped it with the necrotic faerym tooth. Thankfully, the game had considered scraps of flesh to be dirty and not part of the tooth, so it was shiny and clean— ready to be woven into the tip of my braid. I swung my head experimentally, then chuckled when I saw it come free and clatter to the ground. If I wanted something heavy like a tooth to be in my hair, I had to do a little carving, maybe give it some holes to weave my hair through. For now, I decided to place it between two layers on my Salablen Warpriest’s Glove. It fit snugly, and its buff appeared in my character sheet.
“God, this dungeon is going from weird to outright bizarre,” Paisley said while I equipped the Soldier’s Amulet that we also got from the dragon boss.
I had a little internal giggle over the fact that even when Mheitai had told me off for not equipping the new gear, I had still gotten distracted and forgot to do it.
The immediate difference in stats when I put on the necklace was wild. With a single item, my Strength and Stamina almost doubled, while my Resolve was boosted from around three or four, to fourteen. I swayed as I got used to the new stats, then when Paisley gave me a knowing look, I grinned.
“Okay, looks like the game wants us to head through that opening there,” she said, gesturing. “Judging by the wisp that's dancing around over there.”
Following her pointed finger, I saw that there was indeed a wisp down the passage. It had a slightly different hue to the one up top, so it probably wasn't the same one.
“Gosh, I really hope this dungeon doesn't go on much longer, I'm getting a little tired,” Paisley said as we carefully entered a new chamber.
“Yeah. I don't know what I was thinking, trying to tackle this place on my own. I should be focusing on levelling up. I'm glad I asked you to come along,” I told her.
I'd only done one proper quest since I started this character, too. I was so distractible.
