by Seth Ring
“Oh S…!”
The warrior’s words were drowned in a tremendous explosion as the roaring flame ignited the cloud of poisonous gas, turning the air in the hollow into an inferno. Had things ended there the two warriors might have made it out alive, but the intense heat from the burning poison cloud triggered another poison gas trap which began to spurt a jet of poison. The gas ignited instantly, the flame flowing down into the ground where the gas was stored, causing an intense explosion that ripped apart the earth.
The shockwave shook the hollow, setting off all of the other traps. As the hollow was rocked with chain explosions and covered in flying shrapnel, the people on the hill glanced at each other, all glad that they had chosen to take a detour. As if they had discussed it, both of the groups of three that were fighting on the side of the hill edged their way further from the hollow, continuing their fight farther up the hill.
When Heuron heard the explosions ringing out from the hollow at the foot of the hill he did not even bother to glance back. Instead, grinding his teeth as he struggled to contain his fury, he stomped on the ground, accelerating with [Whirlwind Step] as he shot up the hill toward Thorn. Not daring to underestimate Thorn, Heuron drew back his crescent axes and unleashed his most powerful attack right away.
[Twisting Crescent Strike]
Sensing the incoming attack from her leader, the warrior facing Thorn could not help but let out a sigh of relief. Thorn had been lashing out with his gigantic metal weapon, forcing her to spend every ounce of her energy dodging. As the wind from the tetsubo’s spikes brushing past her body buffeted her, she had begun to wonder if it would have been better to just take the bolt from the arbalest.
Thorn had been keeping an eye on the rest of the battle as he attacked the warrior in front of him. He had picked up on Heuron’s approach as soon as the bearded warrior began to move toward him, but just as he was going to step back and get out his arbalest, the warrior in front of him pushed forward with her kite shield, forcing him to focus on her.
Smiling grimly, Thorn took another look at the woman who was keeping him occupied. Tanking was a specialized skill that very few players truly understood, but this woman seemed to have the rhythm of it mastered. Every time Thorn began to push forward she would turtle up, avoiding or deflecting his attacks. Yet, when he tried to disengage, she pushed into him, keeping him entangled.
Even when he took a few quick steps back she would stick to him like plaster, maintaining the optimal space for blocking or dodging his attacks. From the corner of his eye he could see Heuron’s axes flashing toward his neck so he threw out a palm strike at the tank’s shield while lifting his tetsubo to block the crisscrossing axe blades.
[One With The Mountain]
Once again the hill that they were on trembled as the force of Thorn’s attack flowed through the tank’s shield and spread into the ground. Using the counterforce, Thorn took two quick steps back as Heuron’s axes screeched against his tetsubo, sparks flying. Grimacing under the power of the attack, Thorn wanted to continue to retreat, only to find his foot hanging over empty air. The relentless assault had driven him to the top of the hill and if he retreated any further he would be in danger of granting his enemy the high ground.
[Akira, heal me.]
[Yes, master!]
Akira had been waiting by the side for Thorn’s command and immediately launched her healing spell. As the warmth from Akria’s regeneration magic filled Thorn’s body, he abandoned any attempt to defend himself and struck out at both of his opponents, forcing them to take a step back. Gathering his energy, Thorn flipped his tetsubo around and lifted his hand up in the air, bringing it down with as much force as he could muster. The large spiky head of his tetsubo stabbed down into the ground, sinking into the top of the hill.
*CRACK*
Spinning his hand around, Thorn gripped the protruding handle of his weapon and twisted as he pulled up, intending to fling a chunk of earth toward Heuron. The spikes of his tetsubo seemed to catch on something, but with a silent growl Thorn sent more power into his arm, causing his tetsubo to rip through whatever was obstructing it. The ground shook as Thorn heaved, taking a stomping step forward to lend power to his attack.
*BOOOOM*
With an ear-rending sound the top of the hill simply disappeared along with the figures that were fighting atop it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
As the earth gave way under his feet, Thorn felt a small weight land on his shoulder. Akira’s tails drifted past his vision as she latched onto his pauldron, disappearing into the darkness with him. Pieces of stone and earth fell around him as Thorn and his two opponents broke through what appeared to be the roof of a large cavernous room. Without time to process what he was seeing, Thorn activated his armor’s [Predator's Leap] ability, attempting to reach the curved wall that was getting further and further away.
The pistons in his armor compressed with a hiss, but when they fired Thorn simply continued to fall. With nothing to push against besides empty air they were unable to send him anywhere. They did, however, draw Heuron’s attention. The enraged warrior reached out one of his crescent axes toward Thorn, trying to attack him while they were in mid air. Blocking the strike with a backhanded slap, Thorn sent Heuron spinning in the air. Risking a quick glance down, Thorn could see the ground rapidly approaching.
A pale blue energy flowed from Thorn’s shoulder to cover his body and Thorn could feel himself lighten slightly.
[Master, you are too heavy! My spell will not work on you.]
[That’s okay, use it on yourself.]
[But then you’ll die!]
[Akira, that’s an order! I’ll be fine.]
Thorn felt Akira hesitate for just a second before she released her grip on his armor and the light blue glow surrounded her. Instantly she began to float, falling as gently as a feather. Happy that she was safe, Thorn saw that Heuron had just stabilized himself. Reaching out, he grabbed Heuron by his leg and pulled down as hard as he could, rolling himself on top of the startled warrior.
Just about to activate one of his wind powers to slow his fall, Heuron felt an incredible force grab his foot and drag him straight down. Terrified, he opened his mouth to activate his ability when a massive fist drove itself into his chest, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Unable to breathe for a second, all thoughts fled his mind as he gasped and wheezed. Before he could recover, he impacted the ground, vanishing into a shower of sparkling lights.
Right above him, Thorn spread his body out as much as he could and activated [Moon’s Reflection] praying that his idea would work. The ground rushed up toward him, a few of Heuron’s scattered belongings still rolling around. Unable to stop himself, Thorn instinctively pushed his hands toward the ground to try and stop himself. As his fingers touched the cracked flagstones they passed straight through, rapidly sinking into the earth. He had been able to recharge his armor’s ability during the rush from the river to the Barrow Hills, and it had just saved his life.
A wave of relief washed over Thorn as he plunged into the ground like a stone dropped in water. He had not tested his armor’s abilities extensively, but by the way the phasing ability, [Moon’s Reflection], was written he assumed that it would work. Glad that he had not discovered he was wrong the hard way, Thorn braced himself for impact and canceled his ability after the two seconds has passed.
He had fallen over 100 feet and despite Akira’s best effort he had reached tremendous speed and his phased form sank nearly twenty five feet into the earth by the time he canceled [Moon’s Reflection]. Instantly he could feel the dirt around him compress as he continued to sink for a few feet, the shock of hitting the dirt around him shaking his body severely.
Letting out a silent gasp once the dirt had compressed as much as possible and he had stopped, he rested for a moment. The shock had not been as bad as he anticipated, but it still left him dizzy. Once his head was clear he began to experiment with moving his limbs. Though the dirt was pack
ed tightly around his body, Thorn found that he was able to push through it as if he was swimming in thick mud.
Crawling upright until he was crouched on his heels, Thorn began to dig out the dirt above him and pack it to the side. Once there was enough space for him to stand up, he took a second to focus on his connection with Akira. He could feel his pet running around the area where he had disappeared.
[Akira, can you hear me?]
[Master? Where did you go? How did you not turn into a pancake? Or sparkles? Do you turn into sparkles?]
[I don’t know, I always lose consciousness before that. Maybe next time you can look for me?]
[What? How would I do that? If you die then I get banished as well. Silly, master.]
[Ah, I guess that makes sense. Hey, I’m about to come back up. Can you let me know if the floor where Heuron died is clear?]
[Um, master, I don’t know who that is.]
[He was the guy with the axes who hit the ground before me.]
[Oh! Yeah! Wait, let me collect his gold.] Lapsing into silence, Akira left Thorn in the darkness, the dull glow of his armor’s eyes the only light in his dark hole. After a few moments, her voice returned. [Okay, okay. Go ahead, master.]
Patting his hands free from dirt, Thorn crouched and then froze. With a sigh he stood back up.
[Sorry, it will be a few minutes, my ability is still on cool down. I need to wait for it to recharge.]
While he waited, Thorn meditated quietly. What he found curious was that when he closed his mind he could sense his connection with Akira clearer than ever. Focusing his attention on it, he felt the connection growing larger in his mind, as if he was zooming into it. All of a sudden a scene appeared in Thorn’s mind. It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at as there was not much light, but after a bit he realized that he was looking at a large room with a few pillars scattered across the floor.
Abruptly the view changed, swinging around and ducking under a pillar as a scraping sound echoed throughout the space. The scraping sound was followed by a deep groan. From the point of view under the fallen pillar Thorn saw a gauntlet rise up and grab on to a statue, a familiar metal helmet following as the woman who had fallen down with them staggered to her feet.
The helmet was badly deformed, and after panting for a moment to catch her breath, the warrior pulled it off and tossed it to the ground. Her deformed chest and backplate soon followed, revealing tight chainmail. Once she had dealt with her bent armor, her hand stopped at her waist where her sword should be. Feeling nothing, she sighed, her shoulders drooping. Stretching out her hands, she began to grope her way forward, searching along the ground for something.
[Akira, make sure she does not see you.]
[Oh! Master, you can see her? How can you see her? Are you invisible?] As Akira spoke, the scene that Thorn was watching swung around, searching the room.
[No, I’m still underground. I seem to be sharing your vision.]
[Oh wow. Hey, that means I can show you all sorts of cool things! Like one time I found a little red and white mushroom house at the top of a tree in my forest. It was too tall for you to climb because you are so fat...I mean you’re heavy, really heavy. So if you could see what I could then I could show it to you! Or that cool rock in the little cave! Or...]
Listening to Akira prattle on, Thorn kept an eye on the heavily armored lady as she slowly searched the darkened room. As he waited for [Moon's Reflection] to cool down he was exceedingly glad that he had been able to recharge his armor’s ability as they ran through the Barrow Downs. Although he had only used one charge in the arena, without the moonlight he would be using his last charge now, and given the usefulness of the skill he would rather have one in reserve.
After a few minutes his abilities were all ready to go so he stood up, patting the dirt above him. Crouching slightly, he took a deep breath. Activating [Predator’s Leap] and [Moon’s Reflection] in quick succession, Thorn shot up through the ground, flying up and out of the stone ground like a ghost. Reaching the height of his leap, he canceled [Moon’s Reflection] and landed stably on the flagstones.
Brushing the dirt from his armor, Thorn took a deep breath. Being trapped underground was no fun, but it was certainly better than smashing to death on the stone floor. Looking around, Thorn could not see much of anything in the darkness, so he got a moonstone out of his inventory. It was much easier to see once the silvery stone cast its gentle light around the room.
A gasp broke the silence, reminding Thorn that he and Akira were not alone. Near the wall, half hiding behind one of the still standing pillars, the female warrior clutched her shield in front of her. She had lost her grip on her sword when she landed and it had clattered into the shadows, leaving her with her shield and a small dagger. She had been searching for her sword when Thorn lifted the moonstone, lighting the whole area and causing her to freeze.
Sensing the tension that shrouded her as she stared back at him, Thorn gently lifted one of his hands, showing his empty palm to try and convey that he was not interested in fighting. The female warrior twitched when she saw his motion and then vanished completely.
[Master, I think you scared her away! But why didn’t she explode into lights? I like when they explode into lights better. Just disappearing is much less exciting.] Akira scampered out from under the pillar where she had been hiding and began sniffing around the spot where the female warrior had been standing a moment before.
[Eh…] Giving his strangely bloodthirsty pet a sideways glance, Thorn shrugged and began to take a better look around the room that they were in.
The space where he stood was wide and circular, approximately one hundred and sixty feet across, with a curving roof that rose to a height of 100 feet. Looking up, Thorn could hardly see the hole where the roof had caved in, dropping them down here. Pillars were scattered around the room in varying stages of collapse, lending an air of decay to the space.
The spot where Thorn and Heuron had landed was clear, with a circular pattern on the stone floor indicating that it was probably used for some sort of gathering. Continuing to look around the room, Thorn spotted a few raised triangular shapes closer to the western wall. Walking over to one of them, he saw that it was covered in intricate carvings.
Closer inspection showed many nature motifs and Thorn could only assume that the carved triangular stone was the casket of an ancient Elf who had been buried here. Strangely, it was much larger than he had expected. The casket was not alone in the room as Thorn counted a total of five of the large stone boxes. They were evenly spaced in an arc around the western end of the room.
[Master, look what I found! There is a great big door here.]
Akira’s voice echoed in his head so Thorn straightened up and walked over to where his pet was jumping up and down. Stepping over one of the fallen pillars, Thorn held the moonstone above his head, allowing the light to spread as far as possible. The walls of the room were covered in the same intricate carvings that he had seen on the large casket. Most of them showed small figures caring for trees and flowers, though there were occasional images of the figures fighting large creatures.
Thorn found Akira standing in front of a set of thin double doors that were close to twelve feet tall. Each door was only two feet wide and Thorn wondered for a moment if he was looking at a window. Dismissing the thought, he reached for the curved handle, finding that it fit comfortably in his hand. He paused as a thought streaked through his mind, but it was gone too quickly for him to grasp. Frowning slightly, he took his hand back.
[Master? Are we going?]
[Hold on, I want to take a better look at those caskets.] Letting go of the door, Thorn turned around and walked back to the center of the room, Akira scampering up his leg and onto his shoulder.
Spending a bit more time examining the stone caskets, Thorn noticed a few things that made him curious. First, the stone that the stone caskets were made from was different than the stone that covered the rest of the room.
It had a particular grain to it that reminded Thorn of petrified wood. Additionally, the carvings showed no signs of chiseling, making him wonder how the ancient Elves had managed to create such a detailed scene without tools. Second, the caskets were completely solid, with no visible top. It was as if they had been carved from a single block, making him wonder if they were coffins at all.
The central casket was about three feet longer and two feet wider than the others. It was also raised off of the ground, bringing it up to around Thorn’s waist. Curious about its placement, Thorn examined the carvings carefully. Just like the other stone caskets, the carvings started at the head with a pair of hands and were mirrored on each side, rejoining at the bottom of the casket. The hands were shown shaping small figures with pointy ears, bringing life to them with a touch.