by Weiqi Wang
‘GO!’ Soarame flashed by in the air, spelling more windblades along his way.
‘Thank you!’ The boy puzzled for a second before he realized that he wasn’t dead, and then triggered his emblem. Right at the last moment before teleportation, he seemed to be suddenly reminded of something. ‘There! The cave…’ Then he disappeared.
Seeing their last prey gone, the wolves became hysterically enraged. Their anger made them forget that they weren’t able to fly — they kept pouncing on the boy in the air one after another, from all different angles.
Soarame, on the other hand, hurriedly flew up to a tree and carved a roadmark. In the next second, he was shocked to find that the wolves were actually climbing the tree, and they’d made it halfway up.
Soarame quickly left the tree, and floated in the air. The wolves pounced on him from where they were on the tree trunk, howling and waving their claws in the air. Although they hadn’t reached him, Soarame still got gooseflesh all over his body.
Soarame finally returned to his anxious friends after nearly an hour, with his heart still fluttering out of fear. It turned out that the mad wolves had been chasing Soarame all this time. Because he had to lose them before returning, it made the poor boy almost lose his direction — it’s not easy to find the way back in a forest, even with roadmarks.
‘Are you serious? That boy would have died if you hadn’t saved him?’ Kardiac barked. ‘The school wasn’t kidding! They really would let us die here! They really don’t care!’
‘Come on! We are wizards and this is a rehearsal!’ Dileys frowned. ‘It’s like every ordinary rehearsal out of campus — who’s there to save you if you are out of campus?’
‘Agreed.’ Catheray nodded. ‘At least we have the emblems. So it’s actually safer here.’
‘No, this place is not safer! I’ve never heard of anyone from a rehearsal who got besieged by so many wolves! Or monkeys! Or god-knows-what-else!’ Kardiac was upset. ‘Are you guys sure that we still want to stay here?’
‘No, we don’t.’ Soarame’s words surprised everyone. ‘We want to go deeper in.’ Soarame looked around his confused friends, and described a detail that he hadn’t mentioned yet — before the last student teleported away, he’d pointed and shouted something.
‘There, the cave?’ Julia frowned. ‘What exactly does that mean?’
‘We’ll find out tomorrow.’ Soarame said. ‘It’s getting dark, so the most urgent thing is to look for a place for the night.’
‘Guys, bad news.’ As they are seeking, Kardiac looked worried. ‘Our food is almost gone… including the last turkey.’
Since the team had left behind most of their food and drink after the monkey battle, they had been saving it as much as possible. However, there were six of them, and they needed to eat enough to be strong enough for battles. For the last few days, they’d been supplementing their ordinary diet with fruits from the forest. If they hadn’t been lucky enough to encounter some turkey-like magimals and catch two, they might have been starving. Even so, they were facing this problem again now.
‘I told you two turkeys were not enough.’ Kardiac complained to Catheray — she and Jemario were very against feeding on magimals, so that the friends only took two.
‘They would have rotted after so long anyway!’ Catheray stepped on Kardiac’s toes. ‘And no one wants to eat that!’
‘No one wants to, I agree.’ Kardiac bickered back. ‘But which one did not?’
‘Enough.’ Soarame hurriedly cut them off. ‘We’ll have to find more food tomorrow, or we’ll have to quit out of starving.’
‘Don’t forget why we are here! Please, everyone!’ Dileys urged. While Catheray and Jemario nodded silently, Julia was sneering quietly, with scorn on her face. Soarame saw that, but he didn’t know what to say. The team then got busy setting up their camps in silence, followed by a quiet night. Everyone started to think seriously about their supply problem — if they couldn’t eat well and keep up their strength, they were risking their own lives. Maybe they could teleport away and escape from the hard choice, but what about Rodka?
The next morning, Soarame’s team gathered at the battlefield of the wolves, ready to fight a ferocious battle and, hopefully, get some food from it. Unexpectedly, the wolves were nowhere to be found, but there were several of their bodies left on the spot. It seemed that these bodies were the result of the previous day’s battle, and that the wolf gang hadn’t wanted to feed on their dead companions.
‘Great.’ Soarame crouched down to touch the wolves’ bodies. ‘I didn’t even realize that they’d killed some of them.’
‘Thank god! Free food!’ Kardiac pondered a bit after saying this. ‘Should we take out the soulcores first? Who wanna do it?’
‘It’s all yours.’ Julia handed over a dagger. ‘Unless you panic again, big boy.’
Kardiac gritted his teeth and did the work. Soarame flew around for a quick check to make sure that they were safe, and then flew towards where the boy had pointed the previous day.
It only took Soarame a few minutes’ flying to spot a cave in the forest — presumably it was the one to which the boy had referred. In fact, it was more like a cavern — most of it was underground. Soarame became more cautious, slowly approached the front of the cave from above, and looked down into the dark tunnel. Although the tunnel didn’t look very steep, it was narrow, deep and winding, so that Soarame couldn’t see what was farther down there. Pondering for a bit, Soarame decided to go back to his team before taking any action.
{Meow! Soar, look up to the sky!} Snower’s mind-talk suddenly came. {Did you see three firebolts in a row?}
{No.} Soarame instantly looked around. {I’m actually in the sky right now. What happened?}
{You didn’t see it? Even from the air?} Snower sounded surprised. {But why do I sense you around?}
{You sense me around?} Soarame was confused. {There’s nothing around me except for a cavern. Don’t tell me you are in there.}
{No, we are in the open air.} Snower said urgently. {Stay where you are, and let me try to find you.}
{Fine, but I don’t think you can find me that easily.} Soarame sighed. {Give me a minute. I’ll bring everyone here.}
‘That’s the cave that you mentioned yesterday?’ The friends saw the cavern soon enough, but they didn’t want to get close. ‘And you think something is in there, so the boy was trying to tell you about it?’
‘It must be. It’s probably about jankide ores.’ Soarame nodded slowly. ‘But maybe the wolves came out of there.’
‘Then what’s the plan?’ The friends looked at each other. ‘Do we really wanna do anything about it?’
The team thus started an intense discussion. Undoubtedly, there would be danger in a completely unknown cavern, especially it’s underground; but they came to seek jankide ores, which they had not got any so far above ground.
{Meow! Soar, Soar! } Right then, Snower’s mind-talk came again.
‘What? You found a cavern too?’ Soarame suddenly jumped up. ‘And you are planning to go in?’
‘They must be crazy.’ Julia shook her head. ‘Soar, you better stop them, it’s not a wise choice.’
‘Too late. They are going into it as we speak.’ Soarame said, with a quickening breath. ‘It’s Ericson’s suggestion, and they are all in favour.’
‘Ericson? A Grade-4 boy?’ Julia looked upset. ‘What kind of team listens to a Grade-4 boy?’
‘Hey, I’m a Grade-4 boy too!’ Kardiac complained. Sadly, he was ignored.
‘They made the decision for a reason.’ Soarame’s breath became heavier and heavier. ‘Snower just had a breakthrough and she powered up because of yesterday’s battle. She’s gained some new skills!’
‘The enhancement spell? Sure, it’s amazing.’ Julia crossed her arms over her chest. ‘But doesn’t that skill have a serious flaw?’
‘No, it’s another new skill — she can locate me now!’ Soarame couldn’t suppress his excitement anymore. ‘
She sensed me through the cavern, and I can sense her too!’
‘What exactly does that mean?’ Everyone was confused.
‘It means they are actually on the other side of this tunnel!’ Soarame pointed at the cavern in front. ‘That’s why they decided to come for us!’
With that, Soarame couldn’t help wondering about what had happened to him a minute ago — he’d heard a strange noise during his mind-talk to Snower. The noise wasn’t loud, but it came from somewhere in his mind, and sounded as though something was broken. Just when Soarame was wondering what that was about, he suddenly realized that something had changed — he could sense Snower’s location now!
After cheering for a bit, the team started to calm down and think. None of them had any idea why this had happened, including Soarame and Snower.
‘And why do we have to go through the cavern to find each other?’ Julia was still worried. ‘Why not above ground?’
‘Good question. Because we have to.’ Soarame cracked a bitter smile. ‘We were all wrong in the first place.’
‘Remember when we first got out of the cave, we realized that there were multiple exits?’ Watching the confused friends, Soarame inhaled a deep breath. ‘It’s more than that — there are multiple caves too. We were teleported to two different caves; this cavern is another different one.’
‘So?’ The friends still didn’t get the point. ‘This is not new.’
‘No. But what if there are multiple valleys, too?’ Soarame’s words made everyone’s mouths open subconsciously. ‘We were wrong because we thought they were in the same valley with us, but they weren’t, ever!’
‘Are you kidding me?’ Kardiac barked aloud after a brief silence of the whole team. ‘Where are they, then?’
‘There.’ Soarame pointed towards east — in the line of sight, there was nothing more than a cliffy mountain around the edge of the valley. ‘They are on the other side of the mountain, and the cavern is the easiest way between us because it crosses it from underneath!’
THE CAVERN
‘Are you sure we don’t wanna spend the night outside, before we go in here?’
In the darkness, Kriagon’s voice echoed.
‘What’s the point? It’s dark either way.’ The team was marching inside the cavern, following Snower’s guidance. They had made an agreement with Soarame’s team that only they would move through the cavern, leaving Soarame’s team waiting there. The reasons were simple: Snower was capable of detecting magimals from a distance.
‘We made the right choice to bring Snower.’ Alicey couldn’t help saying. ‘Let alone the mind-talk and enhancement spell, she can even detect magimals now!’
‘She could always detect living things from time to time, but she couldn’t control it until yesterday.’ Omifo said. ‘That’s why she led us to the beetalbull nest years ago — she was curious to see the lives there, but she was too young to properly communicate with Soar.’
‘Is that so? I’ve been wondering!’ Kriagon was enlightened. ‘By the way, can you light it up a bit more?’ The team were trying to minimize any disturbance to the cavern, they weren’t using a torch but just the dim light from Omifo’s wand, for a bare minimum of vision.
‘Don’t worry, just follow Snower.’ Omifo said. ‘She has the best vision in the darkness.’
‘I know. I’m just feeling claustrophobic.’ Kriagon sighed. ‘I don’t like closed areas. We don’t have space to run for our lives in here.’
‘We can’t plan on running anyway.’ Vivarin said. ‘And who do you think is the easiest one to get if we all start running?’
‘Emm… never mind.’ Kriagon must have had a sad face, though nobody could see it in the darkness.
‘We’d better pray that Snower can really control her detection skill now.’ Ericson said. ‘Otherwise we’ll be screwed.’
‘I know, right? The school is crazy!’ Kriagon complained. ‘They separated us into different valleys, so that we can never unite unless we have a Snower?’
‘I think this is more of the Alliance’s idea.’ Ericson said. ‘Anyway, we should be thankful that the two valleys are adjacent.’
‘Adjacent? Meaning two days in a completely dark cavern?’ Kriagon humphed. ‘I hope Snower really can detect every magimal in our way, and give us enough time to avoid them. If she failed...’
‘Meow!’ Right then, Snower suddenly alerted the team. Everyone instantly stopped talking and hid themselves behind rocks. Omifo withdrew his light spell, and the entire cavern became completely dark again.
{Some magimals are passing by in front of you, but Snower doesn’t know what exactly.} Pipi’s mind-talk came in the next second. {But she said no worries; just keep it down.}
‘Snower, you are amazing.’ Hearing the noises flow by and fade away, everyone was happy. Snower meowed in pride, and everyone continued the journey. Similar situations happened several times along the way, until everyone was tired and sleepy. According to the watch, it was midnight already.
‘Meow!’ Just when they were trying to pick a spot for the night, Snower alerted the team again.
‘Let this round be the last one, then we can have a safer sleep.’ Omifo whispered to everyone. They soon heard similar noises of magimals yawping and passing by, but at the same time there came some mosquitos flying around them.
Piss off! Everyone was yelling inside. Although these mosquitos seemed not to be magimals, they didn’t sound like ordinary ones either — a bite from them might really hurt and even be poisonous. So the friends waved their hands quietly to dislodge them, but they didn’t expect the mosquitos to be so aggressive —
‘Emm!’ One of them bit Vivarin’s neck. Although she was gritting her teeth hard and trying to bear it, the sharp pain still made her let out a muffled screech.
‘WOOL?’ The magimals suddenly stopped yawping and running. They started to make threatening noises in the direction of the friends, slowly approaching them.
‘Damn it!’ Omifo gripped. ‘Are you okay, Viv?’
‘It’s swelling badly, I think.’ Vivarin said. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Not your fault.’ Ericson stood up. ‘Let’s finish this as soon as possible.’
Crackle. Kriagon lit up a branch with his Fire spell, and saw a number of large creatures at a distance. They looked like panthers, but they had scales on their legs, reflecting the dim green light shining form their eyes.
‘Panthuggers?’ The friends were pale as they recognized the breed of the magimals. They were a famous type of panther-like magimals, supposedly Grade-5 equivalent. They were known to be good at Darkness and Wind magic, which made them fast and spooky. Especially in a dark environment, their shadowcape spell could make them disappear and reappear all of a sudden. Their victims were usually dead before they even realized what happened, so even Expert wizards sometimes call them thug-with-daggers!
‘Guys, watch out!’ Kriagon immediately spelled a firewall. A big blast of flame emerged between the panthuggers and the friends, preventing the beasts from sudden strikes.
‘What now?’ At the same time, Omifo cast Light spells to guard against the panthuggers’ shadowcape attack. The Light spells made the cavern look as though it were in daylight, but it might agitate a lot more magimals from a distance, so they had to finish the battle as soon as possible.
As Darkness magimals, panthuggers certainly didn’t like strong light. One of them suddenly waved his claw, sending several transparent crescents piercing through the air —
‘Windblades!’ The friends hurriedly dodged the scattering attack. The windblades cut into soil and rocks, leaving scores of different depths.
‘Snower, we can’t afford to wait!’ Ericson shouted as he launched his counter-attack. ‘Do it now!’
‘MEOW!’ Snower waved both of her little paws and cast a layer of green aura, covering everyone in the team. After that, she pounced at a panthugger who jumped over the firewall, stretching her little but sharp claws.
When t
hat panthugger’s screech sounded, everyone was already engaged in the battle. Thanks to the enhancement spell, each of the young wizards could beat a panthugger 1v1, but it would still take quite some time, which they just couldn’t afford. What was worse was that the panthuggers outnumbered them, so that they didn’t seem to be winning this battle.
‘Ah!’ Soon enough, Omifo screeched painfully as his leg bled. The panthuggers wanted to take down the Light wizard first, so they had sent three to focus on him. Fortunately, Snower pounced along and knocked off one of them, saving his life from their claws.
‘Omi, trigger the emblem!’ Vivarin screamed. ‘You were almost done!’
‘It’s okay, Snower is healing me.’ Omifo’s voice reminded everyone — Snower could heal too!
‘Even so, we are not winning! They are too fast, we won’t finish them before the enhancement spell is gone!’ Alicey hesitated, as if she was making a hard decision. Then: ‘Everyone, come close to me!’
‘One second!’ The friends didn’t know what she was going to do, but they trusted each other and chose to listen. Everyone burst out to knock their rivals away and gather around Alicey. Alicey took out a scroll of some kind, but she didn’t do anything immediately. Instead, she was looking around and waiting.
‘Alicey, what’s wrong?’ The friends were anxious. They had exhausted themselves in resisting the panthuggers’ ferocious attacks from all around, but they were all in a tight circle, with Alicey in the centre.
‘Hold on a little longer, everyone!’ Alicey shouted as they heard noises coming from farther away — more magimals had been agitated due to the battle, and they were coming at them.
‘They are coming!’ Omifo yelled as he saw the incoming beasts yawping for their blood. ‘Get ready to teleport! Alicey first!’
‘Not yet! Hold for a little more time!’ Alicey stopped everyone from triggering their emblems. The friends were frightened, but they stood fast and decided to trust Alicey. Alicey stretched the scroll open with her shaking hands as soon as she saw the new magimals getting close enough, and the scroll burnt itself up immediately —