by Nic Weissman
“How are you feeling, Samar? It's been a while. Have you noticed any improvement?” asked Ithelas.
“I'm afraid not. My leg remains asleep and I still feel a little weak and dizzy,” said the elf.
“Samar is not well. In fact, I do not think she's in fighting condition. You have to do something, Ithelas,” Thost requested.
“I agree. If she hasn't improved, we can probably expect her not to do so for one or two days. We do not have a lot of time and we need the whole group in good condition. Samar, I'm giving you a potion,” Ithelas said.
The elf reluctantly accepted, but eventually took the bottle that the cleric gave her. Then they waited. A while later, Samar began to feel her weakness vanishing and stood up vigorously. She made several push-ups with her knees and finally confirmed that she felt perfectly again. With a smile she picked up her bow and prepared an arrow.
“Should we continue?” she said to the others as she walked by the last path they had yet to explore.
“Give me a second. I'm really thirsty,” Erion said.
They agreed that it was a good moment to drink, and also took the opportunity to eat something quickly. Then Ithelas threw a spell on his father, explaining to the others that it would give much more strength for a few hours. They should be prepared for what might come. The cleric also enchanted some stone projectiles that he could use with his sling and then took it with both hands, ready to use it at any time.
“I know that the mushrooms caught us a little by surprise, but aren't you making too many preparations?” Mithir asked.
“We don't know what awaits us in the cave, and the fact that it continues to decline makes me uneasy. I don't know why. I want to be ready,” said the cleric.
“Just be careful not to consume all your spells early. We haven't even reached the castle,” Mithir said.
It was a good point. Ithelas knew he had to be careful or very soon he'd be limited only to helping the group with his mace. They set off again, Thost in the front. The cave was in complete darkness. If not for the lights they had, they couldn't even see five fingers under their noses. The cave became more and more wide and finally stopped descending.
After walking for a while they began to hear a few screeches of many creatures. Mithir, carrying the magic light on his cane, asked them to stop. Then he moved a couple of steps forward and with a gesture increased the intensity of his light for a few seconds. They could see a much greater distance, perhaps twenty steps. During those few moments they could make out a huge scrum of small black rats. There must have been a couple hundred of them and they headed towards them in a chaotic but determined way. The rats occupied the entire width of the cave so it would not be possible to avoid them. The shrieks had increased their volume and frequency. The rats were accelerating.
“I think they're hungry,” Samar said.
“It's possible,” Thost admitted. “This may be a more dangerous situation than it looks.”
Mithir began to murmur and made gestures. He was preparing a new spell; one he hadn't done in quite some time. With the last of his gestures, the magician pointed to the bottom of the cave from where the rats were approaching. The intensity and frequency of the screeches began to decline; now they heard, only, a few isolated ones. Mithir started walking and asked with a gesture to follow him. Soon they had reached the group of rats. The vast majority lay on the ground, motionless. Only a few were moving, jumping or surrounding their companions.
“Are they dead?” Ithelas asked.
“No, just asleep,” said Erion, who had already seen the same spell in action in the past. “We must move away as soon as possible for them to lose our trail.”
They began to cross the field of rats careful not to step on any. It was very difficult but with small jumps they were making it. The rodents appeared to be asleep and none of them woke up, not even when they accidentally stepped on their tails. The animals that were awake watched them closely, but none of them dared to approach them. They now probably felt inferior, after seeing their reduced number. Soon after all they had crossed and were on the other side. They set off again at a good pace, trying to leave behind that area quickly. None of the rats that were awake tried to follow them.
The cave had several twists and led them now slightly upward. A myriad of whitish stalactites hanged from the ceiling of the cave on this stretch, where the rock walls took capricious and complicated forms. The cave began to expand again and the air seemed heavier there. After walking for a while longer paying a lot of attention, the cave returned to have a more uniform structure. The climb gradient was now more pronounced. The cave had halted its winding turns and ran straight up. A bit later, they all rose snorting or breathing hard.
The evening had begun. It was hard to know what time it was exactly, but their guts seemed to clearly indicate that it was later than the lunch hour. They stopped for a moment to drink some more water. The temperature had risen considerably. The heat seemed excessive for a shadowy underground place like that was. Erion wanted to think that this indicated that they were near the exit but he didn't want to get his hopes up.
They continued walking and the temperature continued to rise even more. That level of heat wasn't normal for a place like that. The cave now was about five steps wide by four steps high and the ground was leveled again. The cave's walls showed numerous openings, such as mini tunnels, which were more than a step high. It would have been possible for them to go through them by ducking and moving forward in a very uncomfortable way, but no one was interested in trying it; so they continued along the main cave hoping to reach the exit soon.
They began to hear strange clicking noises, difficult to compare to any other sound. They looked forward and there were two strange beings ten steps ahead; the best way to describe them would be upright ants on two feet, almost the same height as a human being. Their heads were crowned with two antennas that occasionally moved. Their strange jaws opened and closed constantly. They had huge and opaque black eyes that totally lacked any expression. Their four arms were busy carrying different weapons: knives, swords and a spear each.
The "ants" prepared their arms and threw their javelins. Samar dodged the one heading towards her, thanks to her incredible agility. Mithir wasn't so lucky and took a direct hit in the abdomen. The monsters were very quick and agile and apparently very skilled with weapons.
Ithelas helped Mithir and took the spear out. He had a large wound that required immediate attention, but Mithir moved him away when Ithelas was going to start curing him, with an urgent gesture. Samar drew her bow but her arrow rebounded on the ant's back. It must be really hard. This fight looked bad. Mithir prepared a spell and everyone could see how his outline blurred considerably. It was perfectly visible, but his figure was not well defined; he was like... unfocused. Ithelas said a quick prayer. The magician could recognize a double spell that would give them, at the same time, a slight advantage in attack as well as a small penalty to their enemies. Erion fired his crossbow and, although he hit his target, the arrow once again bounced off. Finally, Thost raced with his bastard sword and shield and launched against the two enemies. If the arrows weren't useful, it was better to engage in hand-to-hand combat soon.
Samar aimed again with her bow and they watched as this time she tightened it to the maximum with great effort. Samar moved aside to avoid Thost, who was about to reach the enemies. She shot, but once again the ant's hard shell prevented the projectile to nail itself.
“Why don't you put them to sleep as you did with the rats?” Samar asked the magician, frustrated.
“I've exhausted the magic of that kind that I could use today. In addition, this spell only works with weaker beasts. I don't think that it would work against those two,” clarified Mithir.
Thost came by the first ant and, before he could even raise his sword, the monster threw a three punch combination with its three arms that still carried a weapon. He stooped the blow with the short sword, but the other two arms were we
aring long knives and both crashed into the knight's body. The first tore his chest and, though his clothes were damaged, the chain mail had protected him from any injury. The last knife, however, managed to open a wound in his left shoulder.
Erion left the crossbow, drew his short sword and threw himself into the race to cover Thost's flank. The knight wouldn't last long by himself against those two monstrous warriors. Thost then threw two very powerful blows. Ithelas' empowering magic was probably still active. The first hit the ant with a brutal force in one of its arms, breaking it off with a great snap. The ant somehow managed to stop the second blow by crossing its sword against the knight. The monsters also had a huge force.
Ithelas finally decided to magically cure the magician. The wound was still bleeding and there was no choice but to act. The magician did not object this time. Again, before Erion could manage to reach and attack the second ant, it stepped forward and launched a combination of blows with a blistering pace. Erion dodged two of them barely, but the third hit him squarely. The blow sent him flying backwards onto the floor. Although Erion was very agile, it was impossible to dodge so many arms that fought together with such skill. The ant seized the moment and moved, threatening to finish off Erion, who was slightly stunned. That's when Samar, who had assembled her bow again, shot again, this time hitting the ant in the middle of one of its eyes. The monster gave a shrill, eerie cry, which must have been heard throughout the cave.
Erion used the time to stand up and take a dagger from his belt. He couldn't waste time looking for his short sword, which was lying somewhere in the floor of the cave. The wounded monstrous ant gave small hesitant steps backward. Erion jumped on it and stuck his dagger in its remaining good eye. It was a risky move but the ant couldn't stop the attack and suffered another fatal wound. Before Erion could take the dagger out, the monster got rid of him in a blow that set him back a couple of steps. Fortune wanted Erion to fall on his own sword; as he felt the cold steel on his shoes, he seized the moment to pick it up again.
Thost continued to struggle against his rival; they exchanged a string of hits. The knight managed to stop one of the attacks with his shield, but received two wounds in his side and, again, on his left arm. Ithelas began to bleed from the wounds as knight received them. The damage transfer spell, which made that some of Thost's wounds end up in the cleric's body, was still active. Thost struck with great strength and reached its enemy in the leg and abdomen. The blow bounced of its abdomen, apparently without consequences, but the shell that covered the leg was cracked and his opponent began to move with a slight limp.
The ant that had been blinded was not, however, out of action. Somehow, it could feel his away, and seemed to be able to know the location of its partner because it positioned itself at its back, protecting it. It still had its weapons, as if threatening whoever got close. The antennas on the ant's head moved incessantly, perhaps trying to sense movement nearby. Erion moved decidedly with his short sword, hitting the creature's chest, but its hard shell seemed to be no match for the blows that the young man could make. The ant threw a pair of slashes in the air, which Erion managed to dodge only barely. The monster was far from being helpless.
Multiple clicks began to be heard at the end of the tunnel, behind the group. Mithir, Samar and Ithelas turned and saw a group of about five or six ants approaching, armed like the others. This group also wore a steel helmet that protected their heads. The helmets had two holes through which the antennas protruded, but, moreover, were similar to those of any knight. The situation was becoming mortally dangerous, even desperate. Without a second thought, Mithir conjured his fireball against the new group that appeared from the rear. The ball hit one of the ants that was walking along the center of the cave. The impact of the violent explosion covered the entire width of the tunnel. All of the ants received severe burns, but none seemed to be mortally wounded. After hesitating for a few seconds, they continued to advance, albeit a bit more slowly.
Ithelas then began a prayer that sounded somewhat overwhelmed. Samar saw how the helmets of two of the ants began to get bright red, as if they were glowing. Both monsters started screaming desperately. They tried to take the helmets off, but the heat seemed to have attached to their bodies and all they managed to do was burn their hands too. Among the fireball and this new spell, an unpleasant smell was beginning to be felt throughout the cave.
Samar reached into her quiver and took out the special arrows that Mithir had given her. She placed one of them in her bow and, after pointing with extremely care, shot. She managed to go through a thin opening in the hull that facilitated visibility. The cry of the ant and its movements seemed to indicate that she had possibly reached one of the huge ant's eyes.
“Mithir!” she said almost desperately.
With a simple gesture of the magician, something happened under that helmet because they saw as the dead ant collapsed after hearing a horrible snap. Strange green and viscous juices gushed from the bottom of the hull. Although the helmet wasn't broken, it had been strangely deformed, bulging out in places. Despite all this, three of the six ants of the group continued to advance towards them and were only six or seven steps away.
Meanwhile, the fight continued between Thost, Erion and the two ants. Thost received two more wounds in his left arm and felt it unresponsive. His arm went limp, helpless, and he couldn't hold the shield. This left him more vulnerable. Besides being skilled, the ants had military training and knew how to find their opponent's weaknesses. The knight, enraged, threw two punches on his opponent and managed to disable one of its arms. Similar to what had happened to him, its arm hung motionless from the ant's body and failed to continue holding the sword. But the arm that had carried the spear before, and was free since then, picked up the weapon with a sigh. It still had two arms and two weapons with which to fight. This was becoming a nightmare.
Erion tried again to throw a couple of attacks on his rival. But he failed to cause any damage and, once again, could barely avoid getting hit by its counterattacks. The young man saw how the situation in the rear was even more desperate. This could be the end of them all.
Although this wouldn't happen if Mithir could do something about it. The magician prepared a new spell and the entire space of the cave, separating them from the group of ants in the rear, was covered by a kind of glossy fat. The ants began to slip and three of them fell. They got up again with great difficulty, but in every step they took they had a great risk of falling. The monsters were moving slowly.
With the injuries he was suffering, Ithelas could barely stand. He had no choice but to use a healing spell, that although didn't make him recover completely, if did manage to significantly improve his appearance. Samar understood that they had to seize the opportunity. The ants coming from the back would reach them at any moment and that would be the end for them.
“Follow me!” she screamed at the magician and the cleric. “We should reload and try to overtake the front ants; and then try to escape.”
She said it loudly so Thost and Erion could hear as well. In one of the movements they had rehearsed, Samar asked the knight and the young man to get down. Although for a while this would leave them unprotected, the elf would have a clear line of fire. As she walked, Samar placed another chalked arrow in her bow and, as the knight crouched, fired almost point-blank at the monster. Samar had tightened the bow with all her strength and managed to penetrate the shell in the lower abdomen. The body of the monster was a bit narrower there and Samar rightly held that the shell would also be less thick there. Still, a shot with less tension, or made at a greater distance, would have failed to penetrate. The wound itself did not pose a deadly situation for the ant, but those arrows were special.
With a new gesture from the magician, they all saw, suddenly, the arrowhead increasing enormously in size. It should be about six fingers wide. Probably the steel tip would weigh more than a half arrobe. It was more like a catapult projectile, of those used in a siege, than a conven
tional soldier one. Moreover, as the projectile had suddenly expanded from inside the monster's body, it should have caused enormous damage. The ant fell to the ground dying, but not dead.
Thost started screaming angrily and then raced forward passing between the two ants. They all followed. The monster that had fallen on the floor no longer had a chance to cause more problems. Its companion, however, was throwing punches and slashes in the air, on both sides, as it perceived that its enemies passed within its range. In the process, Ithelas and Erion received two wounds in the shoulder and abdomen respectively, but nothing that was severe enough so they could not keep running.
Finally, the group had managed to overcome their enemies and leave them behind. They ran with determination and anguish through the cavern that was beginning to ascend again. They prayed not to find more enemies in front, because the group was too battered to be able to survive something like that. Noises in the background, behind them, seemed to indicate that they were still pursuing them.
They ran and ran for a while. The violent rise in those dark and warm tunnels was leaving them breathless. They realized that the tunnel's structure changed again. It was wide again, but now the rock was uniform. They no longer saw the openings on the walls they had found in the cave inhabited by the monstrous ants.
They continued running with renewed resolve. Samar saw a slight flare at the bottom. The total darkness began to yield to become soft lighting. At the end of the cave they managed to see an opening where daylight came in. They were at the limit of their endurance but they had little to go; fifty steps later they had reached the exit.
The opening of the cave was to the side of a cliff over the valley, about ten or twelve steps high. They had to descend carefully, although the trek was short. Finally, they reached the valley. No trace of their pursuers could be seen. They were safe. Or so they hoped.
*******
Ro'khar was preparing his morning tea when someone knocked on the door of the warehouse. He went to see who it was. On opening the door he saw a carrier that delivered him a note, pointing to three carts that were located outside the door. Ro'khar couldn't believe his eyes. Another delivery! The three carts were loaded to the brim with merchandise. The young man did not know what he was going to do with all that. The warehouse was packed with goods.