Second Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  The formation’s shape acted to guide the magical power. The different reagents added into the formation altered and changed the magical power that was added to the runes, and linked formations acted in concert with one another. It wasn’t an easy task. Creating a formation was much harder than repairing one that they had at least limited plans for.

  After working on the first formation, Qin’s actions had more confidence. Still, she triple-checked her work, wanting to make sure that there were no issues.

  “Something is heading in this direction,” Yuli said.

  Qin looked up at Egbert, who put away the items he was working with and headed toward Yuli. Qin headed over to Rugrat.

  Egbert moved up behind Yuli. She was lying down in a depression as he looked out over a boulder.

  A hollow. A trace of sadness went through him as he looked at the hollow, recognizing the necklace and staff in its hands. Fizzleuip.

  “It’s a gnome hollow,” Egbert sent to everyone.

  “Hollow?” Erik asked.

  “A hollow is a creature that has lost their personality but is kept animated through Mana. Fizzleuip was an elemental mage. It looks like when he died, his body was kept alive with the power from the floor. He was sent down here to restore functionality to the lower levels. In the chaos, he must’ve been killed.

  “He’s a level twenty-five hollow with lightning attribute. With his different accessories and his staff, his strength isn’t going to be weak,” Egbert said.

  Part of him wanted to put Fizzleuip to rest; another part wanted to let him continue wandering on. It felt almost sacrilege to destroy the body of the gnome who had tried to save his people and the dungeon they had created.

  “Let’s wait him out,” Erik said.

  Fizzleuip continued moving forward, shuffling his feet, stumbling here and there as he dragged his staff. His eyes were hollow, with only lightning flickering inside. His mouth hung open with a silent scream as he shuffled and tripped onward.

  Suddenly, the formation that they had been working on fluctuated.

  Fizzleuip’s head snapped over. Power gathered around him. As he lifted his staff up, a spell formation appeared above him. A much larger and identical one appeared above the formation. As he slammed his staff downward, a bolt of lightning snaked downward in concert with his staff and slammed into the ground.

  The lightning arced and shot through the ground. Rugrat grabbed Qin and threw her into the air as he let out a yell. His hand that was on the ground gave off a burnt smell and smoked before he collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. He locked his jaw down and pulled out a pistol with his other hand.

  Storbon was zapped but far enough away that it didn’t leave lasting damage.

  Tian Cui dropped to the ground, her entire body tense from the sudden lightning.

  Ian, wearing his fully metal armor, yelled through his gritted teeth as the lightning ran through him before the charge ran out and he dropped to the ground, coughing blood.

  The others were far enough away from the impact that the lightning had dispersed before touching them.

  Egbert looked at Fizzleuip. He slumped, the light in his eyes dimming. A hollow capable of magical attacks was rare, but they were easier to deal with than the fighter types. Hollows attacked anything they saw that wasn’t another hollow and were prone to fly into a rage at the slightest noise. They used all of their power to destroy anything that wasn’t a hollow.

  When Fizzleuip used the Lightning Bolt spell, he had drawn on a tremendous amount of Mana, depleting his stores.

  Thankfully it wasn’t a group of hollows.

  Yuli didn’t wait as she stood up. In front of her staff, a spell formation appeared; water condensed and formed a ball before she gestured forward. A stream of water shot out, but it didn’t have the range, missing Fizzleuip.

  Egbert gritted his teeth and moved his hands. Five spell formations circled Fizzleuip. “Activate,” Egbert said.

  The spell formations activated, firing out focused beams formed from flames.

  Fizzleuip let out a moan and lifted his head before he exploded. Arcs of lightning shot out everywhere.

  Egbert cancelled his spell as he and Yuli ducked. Rocks and other debris rained down on them.

  “Target is destroyed,” Yuli reported.

  “Rugrat is hurt!” Qin yelled out.

  Egbert looked over. The girl was in a panic as Rugrat poured healing powder onto his burnt arm and armor and then tossed more into his mouth.

  “Get ready to move! Tian Cui, Yuli—check on the body. Rugrat, Ian—talk to me,” Erik said.

  He was closest to Ian and threw over a healing spell at Rugrat and worked on Ian.

  The wounded were gathered up and treated.

  “Nasty fucking burn. Right hand is useless. I’m out till I can get it fixed. I’m self-healing. Good to move.” Rugrat assessed himself quickly as he was healing himself.

  “Internal bleeding, I think. All busted up. Hard to move,” Ian said as Erik continued to work on him.

  “Storbon!”

  “Boss?”

  “You’ve got point. Egbert, get us to the next formation!” Erik threw Ian and his armor over his shoulders, healing him as he started moving.

  “Shit!” Tian Cui cursed.

  Egbert looked over. He could see clearly in the darkness. Green and black energy entered Tian Cui’s body, a formation appearing at the site it entered.

  “What is it?” Erik asked.

  “I grabbed the staff and I felt like a curse was put on me,” she said, her vision not as good as Egbert’s.

  “Curse of Hollows. It takes effect in a week,” Egbert said.

  “Okay, not an immediate problem. Just gather the items up in your storage rings. Storbon, Egbert!” Erik called out.

  “Let’s go!” Storbon had checked on the other wounded, making sure that they were good to go.

  Egbert took the lead as they quickly headed off. He could hear other monsters heading for Fizzleuip and they needed to put distance between them.

  The sounds of fighting could be heard just a few minutes after they left the formation. With the power being used, Egbert didn’t doubt that they were all above level twenty.

  When they had been hit with the spell, the stealth scrolls had worn off.

  After three minutes, Erik called a halt.

  Ian was able to stand on his own feet and they all used a second stealth scroll.

  They moved to another location clear of beasts before Erik gathered them all in.

  “Okay, we need to head back to the teleportation formation and get out of here. We’ll loop around and go for target seven to get out of here. I don’t like how many creatures are around,” Erik said.

  They changed their heading and ran off to their new target.

  Egbert stopped them as they entered a valley.

  Lightning illuminated the valley, showing rocks all over the place. Egbert felt as if the lightning had gone through him as the sound of the lightning reached them.

  “It’s a minor golem warren. We need to sneak around,” Egbert said.

  There were tens of golems in the valley, all resting.

  They backtracked and went around the valley, crossing the hill to one side. All of them stayed low, hating how exposed they were. They made it past the valley and kept moving.

  They hid and moved, all of them recovered from their previous injuries except Rugrat, who was still trying to repair his arm and internal injuries.

  They made it to the next target formation and settled down, watching the area.

  “What did you get from the hollow?” Erik asked after five minutes of nothing showing up.

  “I can look at the items and I won’t get affected by Curse of Hollows,” Egbert offered.

  “Do it,” Erik said.

  Yuli waved her storage ring and the items fell to the ground.

  Egbert picked up the different items. Th
ere were a number of rings and necklaces but all of them were cursed. Egbert put them to the side as he looked inside Fizzleuip’s storage ring. The ring was cursed as well from being in contact with Fizzleuip for so long, but the contents were unaffected. There were spell scrolls, food, and formation supplies.

  Egbert’s eyes lit up as he pulled a metal tome from within the storage ring.

  “Fizzleuip was sent to repair the formations in this level and the other levels. He has a book on the different formations,” Egbert explained.

  “Qin,” Erik said.

  She quickly moved over to Egbert. She looked to be shaken up, seeing people wounded in close proximity. She took the metal tome in shaking hands as she tried to read it.

  She pulled out a light, only to have Egbert shove it away. “Wha—?”

  “Don’t use light here. It’ll attract more monsters!” Erik snapped.

  “S-sorry,” Qin said as she’d acted without thinking.

  “Use a sheet, put it over yourself and then use a light underneath to read,” Erik said.

  “O-okay,” she said as Egbert pulled out a sheet and put it on her and then put the light-emitting gem inside.

  Ten and then twenty minutes passed.

  “Qin?” Erik asked.

  “It’s filled with information on the formations. There are several different kinds of control formations, so I’m matching them up,” Qin said.

  Another twenty minutes passed before she got out from under the sheet.

  “I need you to carve a line in here with these symbols around it.” She pointed to the metal book’s sheets. Egbert could easily see what she was pointing at and started to get to work.

  Before, she had been working in the dark for the most part; now, with some similar formations written out and notes on them, Qin and Egbert rapidly repaired the formation.

  “We’re ready to restart the formation now,” Egbert reported.

  “Okay, everyone get ready. We’ve got three more formations between us and the teleportation pad,” Erik said.

  They had taken injuries but they were quickly recovering. Although Erik wasn’t as bold to do all of the formations, seeing the levels and abilities of the creatures on the Metal floor, he still wanted to get a few more.

  We won’t clear the floor in one go, but with time and patience, we can. Egbert’s thoughts were in line with Erik’s.

  Qin restarted the formation. As it started to light up, the party was already on the move away from the formation.

  ***

  Storbon and the others had started to get used to the low light conditions. They moved quickly but watched where they were stepping to make sure they didn’t trip or hit something.

  They were running through a depression. Rocks had fallen from overhead, making it hard to run through it in a straight line.

  They were getting close to the formation. Up ahead, there was a small rise that obscured the view to where the formation should be.

  They slowed their pace and checked their gear.

  Storbon looked around at the sides of the large depression.

  Erik made to use his sound transmission.

  A roar could be heard on both sides of the depression.

  “We’ve been discovered!” Setsuko cried out as metal shot out of the ground, creating trees with branches that were as sharp as spear blades.

  Storbon reacted without thought and jumped to the side, missing a metal tree that sprouted below him.

  Erik, Setsuko, Yuli, and Qin dodged or were missed by the metal manipulation spells.

  Beasts that looked like a cross between a hog and rhino appeared on either side of the depression.

  Rugrat and Egbert had been caught up by the magic and were freeing themselves.

  Tian Cui had been hit in the leg and was smacking on the tree to free herself.

  Ian, in his heavy armor and recovering from his injuries, only added to them as he had been hit in the helmet. It saved his life but it was taking him time to get up. He took healing powder and tossed it on the grate of his helmet, trying to get as much into his mouth and nose as his other hand grabbed his sword.

  Yao Meng’s armor had taken the hit but his right ankle was in shambles.

  The beasts all started to inhale as black and silver magical circles appeared in front of their mouths.

  “Move it!” Erik yelled. He glowed with power, the Mana all around him being stirred up. He threw a camelbak tube in his mouth, drinking on a blue solution as he raised both of his hands.

  Mana bolts shot out of his hands one after another, landing on the ground in front of the beasts, breaking their concentration and spell as they were hit with the Mana and the shards of metal thrown up by the blasts.

  Storbon rushed to help the others. He didn’t have any good long-range attacks.

  Yuli waved her staff. A spell formation appeared around the staff before she stabbed it in one direction. A spear of Mana shot out, hitting a creature.

  “Using a spell scroll!” Yao Meng called out.

  Egbert freed himself. Ian and Storbon helped to free Rugrat, his one arm still giving him problems.

  Setsuko was healing and looking after Tian Cui, putting her on her shoulders.

  “Three seconds!” Yao Meng called out as the spell scroll was activating.

  Erik let out a yell as he continued to fire Mana bolts. The beasts were recovering; the damage wasn’t that much with their tough hides.

  Mana gathered around Yuli as she prepared a spell as well.

  Egbert gathered up Qin, who was in a state of shock.

  Ian let out a yell and Rugrat dropped to the ground.

  “Fire Rain!” Yao Meng yelled out.

  A red spell formation appeared in the sky, pulling in a truly massive amount of Mana. Fire started to shoot downward; they were just small red flames but there were thousands of them.

  The rain fell on the ambushers. They ignored the first ones and readied their spells as Erik cut off his Mana blasts.

  “Are we good to move?” Erik asked.

  “Yes!” Storbon called out after a moment. Storbon had been watching the situation while Erik had covered them all.

  The beasts on either side of the valley started to cry out in pain as the flames continued to fall and hurt them, burning into their hides and leaving lasting damage. There was nowhere for them to go as they were trapped in the area of effect spells.

  “Prepare to move!” Erik barked.

  The beasts seemed to hear them. They gave up trying to hold the high ground and charged forward. Spells appeared in front of their faces.

  We won’t be able to stop them now. Their eyes are filled with madness.

  A cornered animal was tens of times more dangerous than one that thought it would win.

  “Yuli, get that spell going! Everyone else, move it!” Erik yelled.

  Everyone started to move, the wounded being carried or helped along as they rushed out.

  The beasts’ spell finally finished. They let out a roar, the magical formation in front of their mouths shooting out metal shards.

  Storbon was between boulders and wasn’t hit.

  Erik slammed into the ground, hit by the shards.

  Storbon moved to help him as he checked on the others.

  Qin had been hit as well.

  Egbert, who seemed to be unaffected, quickly rushed to her side.

  Ian had been tossed sideways. He used his hand to stop his fall. He got up quickly but the way his arm was dangling, it looked to be broken.

  Setsuko shielded Tian Cui but wasn’t hit too hard to make her drop Tian Cui or be thrown back.

  “Yuli!” Erik yelled through gritted teeth as Storbon pulled him to his feet. Storbon didn’t miss the pained hiss Erik let out.

  The beasts were practically on top of her as the top of her staff seemed to detonate.

  A wave of Mana shot out. It was powerful enough to divert one of the beasts. Its
horns stabbed into the beast beside it, killing it.

  Two others were cut down by the wave of Mana, the others suffering massive wounds.

  The blast wave hit the beasts but part of it was shot back. In close quarters, it slammed into the drained Yuli.

  She was tossed backward and slammed into a rock. She dropped to the ground without any movements.

  “I’ve got her!” Storbon yelled out as he rushed forward.

  Rugrat was healing Qin and the rest of the party was retreating.

  “Spell scroll out! Keep moving!” Erik yelled.

  “I can cast four powerful spells but my power comes from the dungeon, so once I use them then there won’t be power from the dungeon core,” Egbert yelled.

  “Get one ready. We’ve just become the main attraction on this floor!” Erik barked.

  The beasts were now in the depression, making it hard for them to see the party among the rubble.

  Storbon picked up Yuli. He threw her over his shoulder, and put a needle in some free skin he saw. He injected it all and ran toward the group, who were rapidly retreating.

  One of the beasts showed its head.

  Ian stepped forward, his shield up as it let out a metal scream. The shards slammed into his shield but he held on.

  Mana glowed around him as he used spells to increase his defense, taxing his wounded body.

  Behind him, Rugrat was stabilizing Qin.

  Rugrat turned and took a knee. Big Momma appeared in his hands.

  Ian stumbled forward as the metal scream ended.

  “Ian, drop!” Rugrat yelled.

  Ian dropped, even with his injuries.

  The beast was just closing its mouth when Rugrat fired.

  The round went into its mouth and detonated inside. The beast dropped to the ground, dead.

  Erik threw out Ranged Heals toward Ian with his free hand.

  “Lightning Descent!” Yuli called out. A spell formation appeared in front of her, glowing pure silver.

  The formation shot out in lightning trails. With the Metal attribute floor, the lightning’s strength was amplified as it traveled through the metal floor.

  The beasts cried out in pain from the attack.

  “Teleport pad. Egbert, have that spell ready. Qin situation?” Erik called out through the chaos.