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Fighter

Page 19

by Isaac Hooke


  The Paragon nodded. “Yes. But this Balor has hidden itself within a vessel: a man. We cannot sense the demon. Am I correct in assuming that since you are chieftain, you are also the most skilled in the Scent?”

  “You are correct,” Jephestaus said. “However, I cannot help you.”

  “Then at least permit someone less skilled in the Scent to help,” Iridaceae said.

  “No member of my tribe will help you,” the chieftain said. “I am sorry. Now you must go. You draw attention to us, with your height.”

  “The Balance of our realm may be at stake…” Iridaceae said. “If this Darkness takes hold, Paragons might fall. If we fall, the lesser races are next.”

  “Lesser races.” Jephestaus almost spat the words. “Your attitudes never change. See, this is why we cannot help you. No, Light Being, it is your job to see to the Balance of the realm, not ours. We are your slaves no longer. Now good day.”

  With that, Jephestaus turned about and began to march back.

  “We will have to find another tribe,” the Paragon told Malem. “One more amicable to working with us.”

  “Can’t you force them?” Aurora asked. “You’re slightly bigger…”

  “I cannot,” Iridaceae said. “We have laws against it.” She thought for a moment. “There is another tribe of Trabeculae half a day’s march to the east, if I’m not mistaken. Let’s go.”

  But then the ground began to shake.

  The trio of Trabeculae looked about in confusion, and then the chieftain shouted something, and broke into a run alongside the others. They were racing back to their camp.

  Malem saw them then. These towering, alligator-like creatures with the tusks of boars, rampaging in from the west. Most were about twice the size of the Metals, while the largest among them reached to the thighs of the Paragon.

  “They look like a cross between alligators and boars!” Gwen said. “I’m calling them alligaboars!”

  “Call them what you want,” Xaxia said. “It’s not going to change the fact that we’re in deep shit!”

  “Looks like my presence has drawn a few hungry denizens of the Light Realm,” Iridaceae said. “Get ready to fight. Protect the Trabeculae!”

  22

  Malem mounted Lantos and drew Balethorn.

  “We should flee,” Aurora said.

  He shook his head. “No. Besides the fact it’s wrong, maybe if we help them, the Trabeculae will help us.”

  “It’s not wrong to save our own skin!” Aurora said as she dashed onto Sylfi’s back with Wendolin.

  Three mini-Balors erupted from the ground, and charged the incoming alligaboars. The monsters plowed through them, and dove at Iridaceae.

  She punched them aside with her fists, which glowed a brighter white than the rest of her body—this time becoming almost blinding to look at. The monsters flew away, landing on the ground, only to get up again a moment later. They shook their heads, and rushed her anew.

  The dragons had taken to the air, and released flames at the monsters. The lit-up beasts snapped at them with their jaws, but the dragons simply flew higher, beyond their reach.

  Malem joined in the assault, and flew close enough to an alligaboar to swipe his blade at its eyes. The creature snapped at him, and Lantos dodged out of the way, flying higher.

  Some of the smaller alligaboars rushed past Iridaceae and the dragons, drawn by the movements of the retreating Trabeculae—evidently seeking easier prey. The monsters quickly closed with the camp, and thrashed through the silver huts, uprooting them, impaling and swallowing squirming Trabeculae along the way.

  “Protect the Trabeculae!” the Paragon said.

  Malem steered toward the village, along with the dragons.

  When he arrived, Malem realized smaller, opportunistic creatures traveled on the backs of the giant boars; spider-like things with sideways-opening maws located directly underneath their thoraxes. These monsters, about three times as big as ordinary men, were leaping down in waves to wreak further havoc among the camp. They could scoop up individual Trabeculae and devour them in moments. Though once individual spider monsters had eaten, they seemed to be sated, and they retreated into the surrounding grass, or climbed back onto the backs of the alligaboars.

  A spider monster was chasing a pair of Trabeculae that Malem assumed were a woman and child, as the former held the later in her arms as she ran.

  Malem swooped low, and leaped off Lantos to land on the back of that monster. He plunged his sword through its torso upon impact, and the spider screamed, before collapsing. Malem rolled off the body, withdrawing Balethorn as he leaped to the ground—the blade gave him no stamina for the kill.

  Around him, vines grew from the ground and snatched up spider monsters. Light whips appeared from above, and wrapped around others. The flames of the Metals burned groups of them. Aurora’s mini-Balors had apparently survived the assault by the main alligaboars, because they joined in the fight a moment later, bashing aside the spiders as they made their way through the camp.

  Sylfi and Brita had leaped onto the back of an alligaboar and were raking their claws across its back, while biting into its head.

  A mother wailed above a fallen child, but Weyanna approached and launched healing magic; as her white mist entered the child, the child stood, and the mother shouted for joy, scooped up her child, and joined the others who were running from the camp.

  There must have been a mage among the Trabeculae, because lightning bolts fired from a location on the far side of the silver huts. These bolts downed the spiders in waves.

  Another mage summoned an earth elemental, and it arose from the ground. It was huge, almost the size of a Metal, and it turned to meet the closest alligaboar.

  Near the elemental, Malem spotted Jephestaus—at least, he assume it was Jephestaus, as the Trabeculae wore that familiar necklace of sharp teeth, one that Malem had yet to see on anyone else. Jephestaus was surrounded by two spiders, and was trying to keep them at bay with a strange weapon: essentially a barbed sphere at the tip of a chain. Jephestaus would kick that sphere out and bash a spider in the mouth with it, before pulling it back to repeat the process.

  Malem dashed forward. He reached Jephestaus, and hit one of the spiders from the rear, chopping off its leg. It spun about to meet him, but he was already dashing forward. Underneath the creature, he struck out rapidly, swinging his weapon in an arc, and cutting through all four legs on that side. As the upper body toppled on one side, he was there to meet the descending mouth with his blade. Balethorn stabbed straight through its thorax, covering Malem in yellow blood.

  He slid out from under it before the spider collapsed entirely. Meanwhile, Jephestaus defeated his own opponent, and then gave Malem a look that could only be one of thanks.

  Jephestaus turned around, and ran toward one of the silver huts. Inside, Malem could see a small Trabeculae lingering within. Malem joined him.

  But then the ground began to shift. Another earth elemental was emerging.

  Unfortunately, its appearance seemed to trigger a collapse of some kind. The silver hut was swallowed.

  Jephestaus clattered frantically, and raced forward—the chieftain was swallowed in the collapse as well.

  Malem turned around, and summoned Lantos. He saw Aurora there, not far behind him, wielding the pike one of her fallen mini-Balors had dropped. She was defending against one of the spiders.

  He hurried toward her.

  “Run!”

  But it was too late. The ground gave way, and he plunged downward with Aurora in the resultant landslide.

  He felt Lantos still incoming above him, but he told the animal to retreat—he didn’t want the pegasus to die, too.

  He was surrounded by darkness. A circumstance not entirely unfamiliar to Malem: his life had been dominated by the dark. But soon, he would no longer have to worry about that. He would suffocate as the earth filled in around him. He wanted to send final messages to those connected to him, but he didn’t have th
e heart. They were occupied, as far as he could tell, their energy bundles intent with concentration—no doubt from facing off against the alligaboars and spider monsters. He still felt Aurora beside him, somewhere in the dark. It wasn’t really a consolation that they would die together. In fact, he felt only regret, at what could have been between them. There was so much that remained unsaid. So much he wanted to do, not just with her, but life in general.

  As he wallowed in self-pity, he realized he was still falling.

  Why aren’t we dead? Aurora asked.

  Good question, he replied.

  The soil around him began to slough from his body in chunks as he continued to descend. And then the darkness lifted.

  He was plunging through some underground cavern—a brightly lit cavern at that. He only had a moment to orient himself, and then he hit the ground.

  He didn’t die.

  He and Aurora had landed on a steep, mud-covered slope; because of the angle, he hardly slowed, and the mud helped cushion his impact. He continued sliding downward with Aurora. Ahead, he could see Jephestaus.

  Shrubs began to crop up amid the mud, and their branches clawed at him, slowing him down. He almost had Balethorn torn from his grasp, so he quickly sheathed the weapon, and shielded his face as those shrubs scratched at his exposed flesh—his dragonscale armor safeguarded the rest of his body, for the most part. Aurora’s robes seemed to be doing a good job of protecting her as well.

  The shrubs increased in profusion as trees began to crop up. He steered between those boles by shifting his weight, and the positioning of his legs, until finally he came to a halt.

  Aurora stopped not far from him. She still held the mini-Balor’s pike close to her body in a white-knuckled grip. Malem couldn’t see Jephestaus through the thick undergrowth around him, but he sensed the Trabeculae nearby.

  Malem glanced up. The roof of the cavern was very far away, almost like a sky. He couldn’t see any sign of the sinkhole that had brought him here. In the distance, farther along that roof, a bright globe shone like a mini sun, brightening the place. Unlike on the surface, this time that brightness hurt his eyes when he looked directly at it.

  “What the hell is this?” Aurora asked, standing. Her crimson robes were black, covered in mud. She used the pike like a staff to steady herself on the angled surface.

  “I don’t know,” Malem replied. His dragonscale armor was also coated in mud.

  “Can you reach the others?” Aurora pressed.

  He could sense his companions above, past that roof on the surface beyond. They weren’t all that far. Certainly not past communications distance.

  Gwen, are you there? he tried. Weyanna? Sylfi? Brita? Wendolin?

  He glanced at Aurora. “They’re not answering me. The roof must be interfering in some way. Let’s find the chieftain.”

  Malem used his sense to guide him toward Jephestaus. He detected other small energy signatures nearby, none matching the monsters he had found on the surface, nor the Trabeculae, however.

  When he reached Jephestaus, he discovered the chieftain was wound up in the branches of a particularly profuse shrub.

  “You,” Jephestaus said.

  “Me,” Malem agreed. “Don’t be afraid… I’m going to cut you free.”

  He drew Balethorn and proceeded to cut through the undergrowth that bound Jephestaus. The Trabeculae stood, and flexed its exoskeleton, which was no longer iridescent, covered in muddy patches as it was. Those mandibles bit together when Jephestaus flexed his leg beyond a certain point, and Malem assumed it was the equivalent of a painful flinch.

  “Where are we?” Malem asked.

  “This is the underworld,” Jephestaus said.

  “How do we get back?” Malem asked.

  “We must climb the slope,” Jephestaus said.

  “That will be kind of hard,” Aurora said, gazing at the slick surface that led upward.

  “There are paths,” Jephestaus said. “Or at least, there used to be…”

  “Great, let’s look for them,” Malem said.

  “Not yet,” Jephestaus said. “First we must find my son.” He was picking his way down through the foliage, scanning the undergrowth for signs of passage.

  Malem came to his side. “Your son was in the hut that was drawn under by the collapse?”

  “Yes,” the Trabeculae said.

  “I’m Malem, by the way.”

  “And I am Jephestaus,” the Trabeculae responded.

  “I know,” Malem said. “I think… I think I’m going to call you Jack for short.”

  Jack shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

  Aurora joined Malem, and cursed softly whenever a small branch snagged in her hair, or upon her robes.

  “What happened to the actual hole?” Aurora said, gazing at the distant rooftop. “Did it seal behind us or something?”

  “Very good,” Jack said.

  “Why?” Aurora said. “How? I’ve never heard of a collapse repairing itself like that.”

  “It’s the nature of the soil in the Light Realm. Ever shifting and ever flowing, so that if a hole to the underworld develops, the surrounding soil quickly fills the gap.”

  “Good thing we fell through entirely then, rather than being stuck in the sinkhole while the gap filled…” she said.

  “Good thing,” Jack agreed.

  “Why aren’t your companions trying to get to us?” Aurora asked Malem. “They can sense you’re alive, I assume?”

  He nodded.

  “Then they should be digging…” she continued.

  “Maybe they are,” Malem said.

  “An earth elemental caused the collapse?” Aurora asked Jack. “If so, your friends should summon another. Create a new sinkhole.”

  “It wasn’t the earth elemental,” Jack said. “The sinkholes open randomly every five to ten years. It helps when there are a lot of heavy monsters rampaging in one place like that. I’ve seen five such holes in my lifetime. And plunged through one. Well, two, now. There it is!”

  Jack dashed through the foliage, and emitted a clattering sound in his native tongue.

  Malem and Aurora followed behind him. Soon they came alongside a trough of trampled undergrowth, marking where the hut had no doubt traveled through the foliage. Ahead, he could see the remains of that hut. It had crumpled after hitting a tree.

  Jack searched the wreckage. “He’s not here.”

  “What about your wife?” Aurora said. “Or whoever else lived with you?”

  “Wife? Else?” Jack seemed puzzled. “I do not have a wife. There was no one else.” He was searching the foliage, looking for further signs of his son.

  Malem kept an eye out as well. As a man who had lived in the woods for half his life, he had some tracking ability, after all.

  “No wife?” Aurora said. “Why?”

  “We reproduce by budding,” Jack said.

  “Oh,” Aurora said. “Where’s the fun in that?”

  Jack shrugged. “There is no fun in reproduction. Only duty. And caregiving.”

  Malem carefully sifted through the foliage, peeling back the branches so as not to disturb them.

  “Here,” Malem said, pointing out a small tunnel that had been cut through the undergrowth by the passage of some creature. The uppermost layer of foliage had shielded it, which was why Malem hadn’t spotted it right way.

  Jack came over. It extended its mandibles, and leaned forward, as if sniffing. “My son went this way.” Jack proceeded to follow that tunnel, sliding the branches aside as Malem had.

  The trio proceeded forward, moving quickly. Malem knew the importance of haste: whatever had taken Jack’s child wouldn’t tarry long before eating it.

  If it hadn’t already.

  So far, there wasn’t any blood, or any other signs the child had been devoured, but that didn’t mean Jack’s son lived. Jack might be smelling a corpse, for all he knew.

  The trees thickened around them, and Malem heard strange calls issuing f
rom the forest around him. He still sensed relatively small energy bundles hidden within the jungle, none of which matched the Trabeculae. He was able to break a few of them, and they proved to be rodents of some kind, so he sent them ahead to search. They moved far slower than Malem and his two companions, however, so he abandoned them shortly thereafter.

  He occasionally used Balethorn to hew branches from his path when the foliage became too thick. Aurora followed close behind him. He was a little leery about letting her follow him like that—all too easy to stab him in the back, after all—but he sensed only concern from her at the moment. She wanted to find this son as badly as Jack did.

  And then Malem felt an energy source that was close to Jack’s. Weak, though still alive. Next to a more powerful energy bundle.

  “Found him,” Malem announced.

  23

  Sword in hand, Malem led the way forward through the foliage, doing his best not to break too many branches—which would give away their position.

  He reached a clearing. The surrounding trees had been gnawed away, reduced to stumps; at the center, the wood was piled in a conical shape, forming a dwelling of sorts. Wrapped around the logs forming that dwelling were several large, white worms. They lounged beneath the rays of light emanating from the top of the cavern. He realized it was not a single, powerful monster he had detected, but several lesser creatures—though still strong in their own right.

  There was no obvious entrance, but there were gaps in those logs, which no doubt allowed the worms to enter the dwelling. Those gaps gave Malem a view of the interior: two smaller worms had wrapped their bodies around a small, unconscious Trabeculae, and were apparently sucking its blood, judging from how his sense of the child continued to weaken.

  Jack emitted a hideous scream, and dashed forward, weaponless. He grabbed a large worm and ripped it from the dwelling, tossing it aside. Then, Jack shoved one of the logs away from the structure and hefted it over one shoulder, swiveling it in place until he removed it, and let it topple to the forest floor behind him. Then he latched onto another log, intending to move it as well and clear a path to enter, but before he could do so, other worms enveloped his limbs.

 

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