"They don't think we're going to fall for that trick, do they?" asked Flynn.
Terran eyed the darkness deeper in the cave. "It's tempting, and I don't think it's a trick."
"I don't want to go back there. They'd have me rotating over a spit if they could. What do we do now?" asked the lynx.
Terran used the tip of his staff to scratch an itch on his back. "Nothing's attacked, yet, but we should keep our guard up. Maybe nothing will come and we can sneak back through the mine."
"Ha," said Flynn, crouching on his heels and running his finger through the rock dust on the cave floor.
Out of the corner of his eye, Terran spied a section of rock in the wall that glittered with interior light. At first he thought it was gems stuck in the wall, but as he neared he sensed it not only with his eyes, but with his innate ability to find deep stone. It was a small location, no bigger than his fist, that glowed with light. No one else seemed to notice what he was seeing. He reached out, and as soon as his fingertips brushed the sparkling stone a message came through his interface.
You have collected an exquisite deep stone essence.
Georealm Champion Path unlocked!
"Whoa," said Terran, drawing Flynn's interest. He was about to reveal what had happened, but realized it might not be a good idea since his friend still lacked a class. Instead he was reminded of a thought he had earlier. Terran furrowed his brow. "Back in the mine, when you were juggling the mage lights, did you feel anything the moment you dropped one and it rolled across the cave, revealing the spying Kappers?"
"Feel something? Besides the shame of missing an easy catch while I was juggling?" asked Flynn, scratching his jaw and shaking his head. "I never miss a catch like that."
"No," said Terran. "Not that. Something I've noticed that happens with you sometimes. You'll make a mistake, but it proves fortuitous. Like when you fell on the gristlehound and the spear on your back killed it, or when you knocked over the logs, revealing a hidden weakness beneath the gate. It's not luck, but it's like that, it's like you're a…"
"Useless player, haha, jinx, we both said it at the same time, you owe me a beer or something," said Flynn, making finger guns at Terran along with mouth noises.
"Wait," said Terran, eyes wide. "You're right."
Flynn screwed up his face. "I was joking. Or didn't you hear me?"
"No, a jinx. That's what you are," said Terran, snapping his fingers. "No, not just a jinx. A Jinx."
"Now who's the crazy one?" said Flynn, raising an eyebrow and gesturing towards Luna as if to say, What about this guy?
"No, maybe that's it. I'm serious, Flynn." Terran could barely get the words out as his mind whirled. "You said it yourself, you only came here because of me. But this game works on intention, just like my first day when I learned the Stone Touch spell. You've never committed to being here, you've never intended to do anything, except be Flynn. But you're super talented at a lot of things, even if you don't mean to be, and now the game has interpreted that as a Jinx."
"I'm not so sure about that," said Flynn. "And believe me, I appreciate it, but I'm just no good here. Does that make any sense to you, Luna?"
The lynx was staring into the back of the massive cave, her whiskers twitching and tail swishing. "Uh huh, yeah, whatever you say."
"What do I even do with being a jinx?" said Flynn, kicking a rock across the ground. "I haven't been given any spells or abilities like you have. I think you're just making something that's not there."
"It's Jinx, not jinx," said Terran. He was about to launch into further argument when Luna crept forward, keeping low to the ground as if she were stalking a preacher bug in the forest. He lifted his staff, keeping it near his face in case he needed a quick spell.
The ground rumbled. Enough that even Flynn noticed. Terran checked behind him where the Kappers had fled, but turned back quickly when his friend sucked a breath through his teeth.
At the back of the cave, a smothering darkness coalesced, swallowing the pale mage light that flickered across the walls. A high frequency grinding, as if someone were gnashing their teeth in his ear, made him squint. Luna shook her head violently as if she were trying to break something loose.
"That noise is making me sick," said Flynn, holding his stomach as he raised his mage light higher.
In the span of a few seconds, the darkness billowed forward, quickly overtaking them. Not even his Theris Stone could penetrate the black cloud, leaving him blind to what approached. Luna bumped into his leg, and he nearly blasted her with his staff.
"It comes," whispered Luna.
Terran was about to ask her what she meant when he heard the ear-rattling grinding of bone on bone.
Chapter Fourteen
The crash of glass and a round of cursing from Flynn revealed his location as he tripped in the darkness. The Grinder grew near, its awful keening leaving Terran nauseous and dizzy. The cloud of darkness felt like being smothered in black ash. If they couldn't see this thing then they were doomed.
He lifted his crystalline staff and unleashed a Vocal Slam, focusing on the darkness. He caught the right note, and the reverberation rang through the cavern, driving away the darkness. As it blasted to wisps of blackness, he realized that it was a kind of smoke rather than a true lack of sight, which was why neither his Theris Stone or the mage light worked.
Battle Song (CHA) 13 - skill
You showed that cloud of smoke who's boss.
Terran nearly regretted his cloud-clearing spell as the Grinder came into view, revealed by the fleeing darkness. It looked like a mangled, pieced-together version of every nightmare he'd ever had. The enormous head had double-hinged jaws, the rib cage was peeled outward, and the knees bent the opposite way they should have as it stomped forward. Scales, torn leathers, and other junk hung off the Grinder like sloughing skin, and beneath the chest cavity was a pulsing ball of crimson light.
The Grinder - level 20 [elite]
To die to the Grinder is to live with it eternally
Terran brought a stone wall into existence, only to have the creature smash it down with a fist. As the Grinder marched into view, an elongated tail, made of vertebrae and ending with a stinger, came into view. It went after Luna, who dodged around a stalagmite, barely avoiding the tail, which smashed through the upper part of the stone.
Sensing the creature had an earthen base, Terran let loose a Sonic Disruption, leaning back as if he were the lead singer in front of a massive audience. The vibration slammed into the Grinder, rattling its bones, dealing damage, and turning its attention to him.
"Maybe not a great idea," said Terran as it surged towards him.
He fled the creature, using the uneven landscape as a way to create distance between them, but it followed relentlessly. Spotting stone protrusions on the roof of the cave, he knocked them loose with another Sonic Disruption. The falling stone cracked across the Grinder, only slowing it a bit before it continued.
In the brief pause, Terran dug deep, producing a massive stone wall in an instant, blocking the creature from further pursuit. He knew it wouldn't stop it long, but it gave Terran a moment to catch his breath and to really look at the creature, which was like nothing he'd ever seen before. He wasn't sure how it could even exist, looking more like the construction of a mad mage than a living, breathing creature.
Flynn plinked arrows at the Grinder from a ledge on the far side of the cavern. He wasn't dealing a lot of damage, but he was at least trying.
Does this creature seem strange to you? he asked Luna through their telepathic link.
Yes, she responded, and I smell coffee in here.
As the Grinder broke through the remaining barriers, Terran started to get a picture of what was really going on. But he wasn't ready to test it yet, because he hoped to get Flynn to acknowledge his abilities, even if he couldn't see them yet.
I'll worry about the Grinder, you check the back of the cavern where it came from, said Terran.
He didn't
wait for Luna's acknowledgement, as they'd been fighting together long enough he knew they partnered well. As he glanced across the cavern at Flynn, who looked almost bored as he fired arrows at the boney backside of the Grinder, he knew he had more work to do.
The Grinder knocked the last pieces of the wall away with its stinger tail, roaring silently, which made Terran's head hurt even though he couldn't hear anything. Before the creature could regain its momentum, he blasted it with another Vocal Slam, this time trying a different note, but it barely damaged the Grinder, and Terran had to flee his spot as its tail smashed into the rocks. As he checked back with the creature's health, he saw it slowly regenerating, which was a problem. They weren't doing enough damage to outpace its heath regain.
Something strange back here, said Luna. A weird wall.
Weird?
Sort of like what you make except I think it's made of bone, she responded.
With that Terran was sure he knew the source of the Grinder, and maybe a way to eliminate it without having to kill it.
"Flynn," he shouted across the cave, "get its attention, lead it over there where Luna's at."
"And do what?" he asked, raising his bow. "Let it kill me?"
"I want you to climb that stone wall," said Terran as he created another barrier for the Grinder, forcing it towards Flynn. The creature smashed the wall, sending rock shards all over Terran.
"I thought we were trying to kill this thing," said Flynn as he ran up to the stinger tail and stabbed it with his spear.
"We are," said Terran. "Trust me."
But the Grinder kept wanting to come after Terran, so he fired off a series of Sonic Disruptions, trying different notes until he found one that made the Grinder noiselessly shriek, its double jaws clacking together furiously. When it tried to come after Terran, he hit that same note again, forcing the Grinder back, then the creature noticed Flynn stabbing its stinger tail.
"Oh crap," said Flynn, scurrying away as the Grinder focused its attention on him.
"Run, Flynn!"
It looked like Flynn was going to be able to stay ahead of the Grinder, climbing over rocks and dodging the piston-like fists, but he missed a jump and the stinger tail knocked him head over heels into the far wall, though not the one Terran was hoping for. It was hard to see the bone wall, as it was hidden by black smoke, making it look more like dense shadow, but bits of it stuck out of the cloud.
When Flynn didn't get up, Terran worried.
"Flynn, get up! Hurry!"
His friend stumbled to his feet, delirious from the impact.
"Now climb! And use your Jinx abilities," said Terran.
"But how?" asked Flynn as he leapt onto the wall, which was angled enough that he could make good time up the slope.
"Just imagine it like a chaotic, destructive force," said Terran. "But you have to want it, and you have to want to be here."
As the Grinder stomped towards Flynn, Terran was sure that his friend was going to get splattered. There was really nothing he could do, arms spread, nearly motionless, an easy target for a big creature like the Grinder. Then as the tail flew unerringly at Flynn's back, the stone ledge he was pulling on broke, and he fell away. The tail readjusted, but overcompensated, hitting the weird bone wall in the back, shattering it, sending the smoke into a big cloud.
Go through the hole, said Terran.
As he fired a Vocal Slam at the Grinder to distract it from killing Flynn, Luna dodged through the opening. The Grinder lifted its fist above Flynn, who lay prone on the ground. His friend covered his face with his forearm and cradled Skully with the other.
Then the Grinder dropped its arm at its side.
Found her, said Luna.
Terran jogged past the bone construct, helping Flynn to his feet. He looked quite confused until they entered the next cavern to see Luna standing over a fallen zythri, teeth bared against her throat.
Chapter Fifteen
The Shade had billowing clouds on her shoulders, an elaborate bone headdress, which was currently knocked off-kilter, and the pale, almost translucent skin of her kind. But there was also something quite different about her. While the other Shades had narrow facial features, hers were broad, almost human like, despite the other differences.
"Darkness Sighs, right?" asked Terran.
The Shade on the ground nodded grimly.
"Call your construct off and we won't kill you," said Terran.
Darkness Sighs closed her eyes momentarily and the Grinder marched past them, down a tunnel. In the span of a minute, the enormous creature was gone.
"I am at your mercy," said Darkness Sighs, her lip twitching with anger.
"Can I let her up?" asked Luna, teeth still bared, growling slightly.
"Can you behave?" Terran asked the bone-witch.
When the Shade nodded, Luna backed away, and to Terran's surprise, Flynn hurried forward to help her up, but Darkness Sighs knocked his offered hand away. She stood apart from them, arms crossed.
"What now? Do you kill me? Or expose me to the council? I'm sure they sent you here," said Darkness Sighs.
"Not the council," said Terran. "Your father."
Darkness Sighs flinched and looked away. "Is he well?"
"Honestly, I don't know. You Shades are rather mystifying to me," said Terran.
Darkness Sighs narrowed her gaze at Flynn. "What is with your companion?"
Flynn's jaw was slightly open, his face slack, emotion bursting behind his eyes. Terran didn't understand until he took a second look at Darkness Sighs. While the other Shades were rail thin, as if they existed on a diet of shadows and ennui, Darkness Sighs had a shapely, almost human figure, and beneath the elaborate headdress, she was quite beautiful.
"You don't look like the other Shades we've met," said Terran, trying to cover for his friend.
"I'm Skully, and this is Flynn," he said, holding up the skull, then blinking hard and shaking his head. "I mean, the other way."
When Flynn glanced his way, Terran tapped on his own jaw, which reminded his friend to close his mouth.
"What is this?" asked Darkness Sighs, chest expanding as she was drawn towards the skull.
A stupid grin plastered itself on Flynn's lips at her interest. "I took it off a particularly fierce enemy upon our first days in this land."
Terran stifled a grin, but couldn't hold back a small snort, which brought a look of terror to his friend's face. The actual battle had been quite comical, as the tree had fallen on him, and the skeleton had crawled through the branches until Zara killed it.
"Yes, yes," said Terran with faux enthusiasm. "If it hadn't been for Flynn, we would have all died."
"May I?" asked Darkness Sighs, holding out her hand until the skull was placed reverently in it.
She caressed the skull like a long-lost lover, and Terran thought that Flynn might tip over he was leaning so far forward.
"Quite an exquisite specimen," said Darkness Sighs, furrowing her brow. She closed her eyes momentarily. "The former owner was once a berserker, killed many foes in the Endless Desert."
When she handed it back to Flynn, he looked like he was deciding between kissing the skull and kissing Darkness Sighs.
"You're not the assassins I was expecting," said Darkness Sighs.
"We're not assassins. We came to kill the Grinder," said Terran.
She sucked in a breath. "So they still do not know I am alive?"
"No. In fact, your father thinks you're dead," said Terran. "Can you explain this deception?"
Darkness Sighs went inward. Her eyes rounded with sadness. "Can I explain in my abode? I have coffee brewing."
"What about the Grinder?" asked Terran.
She held up her hands. "You have bested me." She glanced speculatively at Flynn. "And I would like to find an end to my exile."
A short distance away they entered a cavern that was infinitely more homey than the Final Tomb above. There were plush carpets, soft couches, lab equipment, and enough materials t
o fill a wizard's tower. The enormous bone construct sat in the corner like a sad golem, arms over knees, as if it were being punished for its transgressions.
She caught the look on his face as she poured four cups of coffee, setting the final one on the ground for Luna.
"My mother had Offworlder blood," said Darkness Sighs, taking a sip to stare into the distance. "It's been a blessing and a curse. I derive my powers from that lineage, but it's made me a target within my society."
"I saw the murals," said Terran. "And I understand our appearance in this world creates chaos and war."
"We're not that way," said Flynn. "We're trying to help."
Darkness Sighs leaned against a green couch and took a sip from her mug. It was a rather strange sight, considering the elaborate headdress.
"My ancestor, the Offworlder, was named Saelvian the Healer. She did many great things in her time for my people, but her presence amongst us drew in the other forces, attracted the presence of the gods of war and chaos. The effects of her blood had disappeared for some time, but in me, there was no denying that I was a descendant of the Offworlders. The other high priests said it was a warning, a prophecy that the cycle would start again, and here you are."
"What then of the Grinder? Why did you attack your people?" asked Terran.
"I didn't," said Darkness Sighs. She gestured towards the room. "When my powers began to develop, I knew that the others would fear them, so I made this place my abode, my home away from home, where I could experiment with this bone magic. Unfortunately, while most miners never dared venture this deep, as the wurm tunnel kept them away, occasionally my construct was spotted, and legends grew about its terrible presence in the mines."
"Then who killed the miners?" asked Terran.
Luna had wandered to a group of barrels, sniffing the containers. The lynx looked back to Darkness Sighs, who was watching her passively.
"It was the Kappers," said Luna.
The bone-witch lifted her mug in salute. "You are a keen observer. In those barrels is the mixture that I use to create the clouds of darkness. It uses old coffee grounds, other alchemical materials. The Kappers stole some of my barrels, used them to hide their attacks. Since the black clouds were associated with the Grinder, I worried that my creation would be found during the investigation, and I would be blamed, so I volunteered to fix it, thinking I would only have to destroy my creation to end the rumors. I didn't realize that the Kappers had been planning to take over the mines for a long time. They covet the emeralds and other precious materials found here, and they are cunning trap makers. Once they had established themselves in the mines, I couldn't fight my way back. I've been stuck here since."
The Ghost Tower: A LitRPG Adventure Page 11