“So uh, about that…” I began, but Clara pushed me aside, readying her new weapon.
“Can’t we just go around?” The Architect asked, curiously, pointing at the wall to one side with his Stoneshaper.
“No.” Clara stated firmly. I gave her an incredulous look.
“Clara, we have literally no reason to fight that thing,” I pointed out, “The Architect is right.”
“No.” She replied again, and I realised she was shaking with anger. Shooting a hesitant look at the door, which thankfully had yet to be smashed open I moved to her side.
“Clara?” I asked. She didn’t look at me but answered in a low, barely controlled voice.
“That thing killed half of our squad before we even got to the city. That gash on its face is from where Bron…” she trailed off, barely controlling her voice, but took a deep shuddering breath. Before she continued I interrupted.
“Alright then, Architect, get ready for a fight.”
“What? This is sentimental lunacy-” The Architect began to object, but I turned and shot him the most earnest and menacing look I could muster. In my present state, constantly burning in the green light, it was clearly effective, as the Architect swallowed his objections and produced his poker instead. With a nod to him and Clara I snapped my blade open and desperately fought the urge to immediately plunge it into Clara’s waiting back. With a snarl I told myself, or at least the darkness inside, that soon we’d be killing the deep stalker, and it relented, allowing me some small measure of focus so long as I was concentrated on killing something.
“Let’s do this.” I snarled, my voice taking on a sinister rumble, which caused Clara to shoot me a nervous glance, but then she nodded and engaged her blade fully, the light curving out into an unusually designed blade the size of a shortsword, but thinner, with a slight curve to the blade. It seems at some point she’d been thinking about how best to use the enchanted weapon, but there was no time for contemplating that as she threw open the door and charged through.
I followed swiftly and found her already locked in combat with the stalker, darting and rolling past its huge paws the size of my head as it constantly rumbled and growled, snapping and slashing with its terrifying teeth and claws. I darted in and attempted to slash at its hindquarters as Clara drew its attention away, but had to jump back as it spun and lashed out, its claws passing mere inches from my flesh. The thing was fast, as it never even gave Clara an opening, spinning back to her as quickly as it had turned. Despite this, Clara danced in, gracefully spinning as she avoided its return swipe and returning with a lash of her own. With a flash she cut into the leg of the creature, but was stopped short of severing anything vital by a snap of its huge maw forcing her back.
I stepped up once more, gesturing for The Architect, who had joined the fray, to circle around to the other side, and we attempted to pincer it between us. It batted The Architect away, sending him crashing against a nearby pillar, and I winced, praying it hadn’t hurt him too badly, but it gave me the opportunity to strike. I sunk my blade into its hindquarters, and it let out a roar of pain. Clara used the moment’s distraction to create some distance between herself and the deep stalker, and I saw her plan. More importantly, I saw how I could improve it.
“Clara! Steps!” I shouted, and her eyes widened and nodded as she began to run towards the beast. With my free hand I grabbed the Stepmaker from my infinite bag and quickly thrust it at her feet. As she ran, steps formed beneath her feet, almost causing her to stumble but giving her increasing amounts of height. The cavern’s ceiling wasn’t that high, but it was high enough, and as the beast whirled on me she came crashing down, Kirana thrusting down into the beasts skull as if she were some kind of avenging angel, a meteor from on high crashing down into her foe. Its flesh sizzled and the stalker let out one last rumble before all was silent.
We stood there briefly, breathing heavily from the fight. I shot a glance over to The Architect, who was thankfully picking himself up and dusting off his tiny clothes with a harumph of annoyance. I looked back to Clara, who cracked a grin, and before long we were once again laughing hysterically.
“You primitives are strange,” The Architect shook his head and opined, just loud enough for us to hear. Clara and I exchanged another look which set us off laughing even harder, our voices echoing through the tunnels. Eventually we got control of ourselves and caught our breaths.
“Better?” I asked Clara, dimly growing aware of a rumbling in the back of my head.
“Much,” she replied simply. The rumbling grew and I swallowed deeply.
“Great, let’s get moving,” I said, gesturing for her and The Architect to move towards the upwards-sloping tunnel we’d intended to use prior to the interruption. They did so, but stopped and looked back in confusion as I didn’t move, barely trusting my limbs. The growl in the back of my head threatened to overwhelm everything, and my fists clenched and unclenched as I desperately tried to contain the overwhelming bloodlust I felt.
“Please just go. I’ll catch up in a minute.” Clara’s eyes widened and she took a step back towards me, but The Architect grabbed her arm and pulled her away. Wordlessly they left and I cut loose, hacking and grasping and tearing into the body of the stalker, dead but still warm. I lost all sense of myself, the bloodlust overwhelming me, somewhere inside I prayed that it would be enough to satisfy the hunger, denied the kill it lusted for by our strategy. What felt like hours later, I regained control, the body of the stalker mutilated and torn apart almost beyond recognition, and I promptly vomited. My hands, my clothes, almost every other area of my body was completely coated in blood. Innards lay around the cave, crushed and slashed, it was like a scene from a nightmare. Somehow despite all this, I felt better. The relief of having satisfied the hunger after my night of temptation was like relieving a building pressure in my skull. I pulled out a Watermaker and cleaned myself off as best I could, my clothes still stained with blood, but the pressure set to an almost-painful setting meant I could blast my skin clean quickly enough. With that done, I moved off to follow my companions, finding them in another small cave a short distance up the tunnel.
“Better?” The Architect asked, echoing my words from before.
“Much.” I replied, meeting Clara’s eyes, or trying to at least as she immediately looked away. That hurt more than I liked. I’m not sure what I would’ve seen there; horror? Pity? I’m not sure what would be worse. I cleared my throat.
“Let’s move on then.” The darkness laughed at me and let out a rumbling sigh of satisfaction.
-Thank you, monster.- It chuckled, and settled back into what felt disturbingly like a comfortable nap after a satisfying meal. As uncomfortable as pleasing the darkness made me, if it meant the thing left me alone for a while, I could make my peace with it.
We walked in silence for an indeterminate amount of time after that in blessed silence, passing through various caves and passages, each time taking whichever sloped upwards. Thankfully the majority were empty, though we did pass various oddities - more glowing fungus we studiously avoided, the occasional strangely beautiful underground stream - even a waterfall at one point. Even more thankfully in that time, nothing lept out to attack us, a few smaller inhabitants quickly skittering away from us in the dark away from our blinding light, dim as it was. We walked and we walked, and though it may make for a better story, the only danger we encountered for what must’ve been a few hours is one that is ever-present in the dark - that of getting lost and separated. Eventually though, our chosen tunnel of the moment began to curve increasingly sharply downwards, so I held up a hand, bringing my companions to a halt in the narrow shaft and feeling the burning pain of their light drawing closer behind me.
“The tunnel drops quite a lot here, I think this is where we have to start the digging part of the plan.” As confident I was that it’d work, I’d still rather have just followed a tunnel up all the way to the surface. With a nod, The Architect pulled out his Stoneshaper
and with a flick of his write instantly formed a small indentation in the rock, even faster than I’d seen him do it previously. As if sensing my question, The Architect answered it without even turning around.
“No need for precision, speed is more important,” he said, gesturing to the walls of this small new cave with far rougher edges than the smooth stone he’d used before. While Clara and I inspected his handiwork, The Architect got busy, carving out a good 10 metres of shaft upwards in a matter of moments. He looked back at me expectantly.
“Well?” he asked, and I just gave him a puzzled look, drawing a complete blank. Clara sighed and either intentionally or inadvertently mimicked my call from a few hours before as she gestured me into the hole with a needlessly sarcastic flourish.
“Dav. Stairs.” I preferred the epic teamwork of its prior iteration to her hurtful exasperation, but I slapped my forehead and pulled out the stairmaker from one of my many pockets. Not as quickly as The Architect, but steadily thanks to my borrowed memories and recent practice, I pulled stairs out of the walls of the shaft, forming a spiral staircase leading upwards. The Architect immediately began to ascend as the steps formed, pushing the ceiling ever upwards. As surreal as this method of travel was, its effectiveness was undeniable. For hours more we continued our walk, slowly ascending the stairs, The Architect first, with me just behind and Clara a few steps back for safety. This continued for what felt like at least a few hours of extreme boredom before The Architect stopped sharply, almost causing me to walk into him.
“I am nearly unable to continue.” he panted, and I realised that his long nose dripped with sweat. I moved back a bit, nobody wants to get caught by a nose-sweat drip, but looked at him with concern.
“Are you ok?” I asked, somewhat redundantly, I could see that the constant effort had taken a lot out of him. I hadn’t realised that there was a personal strain involved with long periods of device usage like this, but then I’d also never seen anyone carve a straight shaft out of stone for several straight hours before.
“Merely growing tired,” he stated, his hoarse voice belying the first part of that statement, I could tell he was exhausted already, and probably had been for a while, but always pushing himself to go further.
“I wouldn’t mind a break from these damned stairs,” Clara piped up from behind us, slumped against the wall. “It turns out walking up stairs for hours is… pretty good training,” she finished, panting. I realised that my unnatural advantage had once again caused my companions to push too far and sighed.
“Guys, you don’t have to keep pushing yourself like this. Say something before you get to this state, please!” I begged, but they just gave me strange looks. Clara rolled her eyes before closing them, resting her head against the wall.
“It’s not because you’re freakishly energetic, it’s because I want to get out of this damn cave,” she said, “Not everything is about you, Dav.” I grinned sheepishly despite the fact she couldn’t see me with her eyes shut and forced out a joke.
“Really? Because it certainly feels like it most of the time.” I postured and scratched my chin in a way that I thought made me look contemplative. Clara snorted at me but didn’t open her eyes, stretching out her legs as best she could in the awkward space. I turned back to The Architect, who had perched on his step above me. “Can you make us a place to rest again?” The Architect shook his head in reply.
“I’m afraid I stopped paying attention after the first hour of monotony and just kept pushing up,” he hung his head in shame, “My lack of foresight is unbefitting. I apologise.”
“Don’t sweat it,” I shrugged, “we can just take a break here and try to push through to a cavern or something if needed.” The Architect raised his head and I saw an idea forming in his eyes in the painful viridian light. “What?”
“There is a cave just beyond that wall,” he gestured across from us, “I had not intended to break through to it as it was not in our way, but perhaps I could break through to it and we rest long enough to secure it and bring up walls once we’re inside?” I frowned slightly.
“Could we not just make a place to rest here and seal it up later?” I asked, looking around us. The shaft was small but probably had enough space for us all to lie down if we got somewhat cozy.
“We could, but I believe Miss Clara would object.” he replied. I looked back at her and she looked at the ground shamefully. “Her breathing has become increasingly agitated as I narrowed the shaft we’re climbing, which leads me to believe that she is already uncomfortable in these confines.”
“Clara?”
“Yeah… sorry… not so great with tight spaces.” she shrugged apologetically, and my mouth hung open for a moment. Since beginning our journey through the tunnels we’d been stuck in all manner of tight spaces and narrow passages, and not once had she complained or hesitated. “I can deal with it though.” She stated, but looked at the walls of our shaft and shuddered, almost imperceptibly. I turned from her, my mind made up. I wouldn’t put her through another night of that.
“A short break, then through the wall we go then.” I stated, and The Architect nodded. I wasn’t looking at Clara, but my keen hearing picked up a small sigh of relief. I pulled out some rations and sat on the steps. Looking to the Architect I gestured to his light with a tired wince as he brought it just a bit too close as he also sat down, and sheepishly he moved it away, turning it down again. It worried me that I was getting used to the constant pain of being in the light unless I got too close or the light became too bright, but it beat the alternative of not being able to stand within a mile of the others.
After they had caught their breath somewhat, The Architect raised his hands and the stone flowed away, revealing a surprising amount of light as we broke through into the cavern beyond. Glowing lichen covered the walls, and luminescent fist-sized mushrooms of every colour grew on every surface. I’d never seen anything like it, and by the gasps of wonder from the others, neither had they. I moved in first, squeezing past my diminutive companion. It’s a sad fact of the dark that where there’s light, there’s danger. I mean, where there’s dark there’s also danger, but light too. Alright, never mind, bad lesson. As I moved through the breach made by the Architect, the mushrooms swayed like grass in the wind. I pushed through them, doing my best not to trample any underfoot. I realised as I walked that not only could I see myself, but the light of the mushrooms did not burn me. I laughed aloud as I realised this, and turned, still walking backwards.
“Look! The light doesn’t burn or blacken my skin!” I crowed, “Looks like it’s just those damned green lights!” I grinned broadly, and Clara smiled back. But then suddenly her look of shared elation turned instantly to shock and fear, and quick as a flash she drew Kirana, her sword taking the form of an elegant sabre.
“Dav! Down!” she yelled, rushing towards me. My happiness had made me lax, I suddenly became aware of the lumbering groan behind me and the rushing of air, and dropped just in time for some kind of large appendage to rush through the air where my upper body once was. Before I could turn to face my attacker, a leg the size of my entire body swung into me, kicking me clear across the cavern and smacking into the wall. Pain rippled through me, even with my body being stronger. If I’d been a normal man, I’m pretty sure that would’ve been it for me, my bones shattered and skull broken into a thousand pieces, but as I was it was probably just going to leave a nasty bruise. I lay there for a moment, stunned, unable to formulate a coherent thought. Then, the voice pushed through my head
-Up.- it snarled, and I staggered to my feet. -Be less pathetic. Fight.- That wasn’t very nice. I found my blade already unfolded in my hand, and groggily wondered when I’d retrieved it. Looking up I saw a little man dancing around with a sparking fire poker and giggled. What a funny little man. A pretty lady waved a pretty sword around in sparkly patterns as she danced and spun around her partner, a big white human-shaped thing without a face, its limbs all big and stumpy instead of feety an
d handy. What a silly looking thing, like someone had made it of clay and not finished. As it slammed its arm down, crushing yet another patch of glowing mushrooms and sending spores into the air, the cavern shook with the sheer power, barely missing Clara as she danced and weaved to the side, slashing in at its arm, leaving a deep, glowing gash in its pale hide. I squeezed my eyes shut as it somehow let out a moaning roar with no mouth, the sound sending sparks of pain through my head, and I did my best to gather my thoughts. I could almost feel myself healing, an unpleasant crawling sensation inside my skull, accompanied by intense pain, but after a few seconds I could think straight again.
“Damn you Dav, get involved!” Clara was shouting, and I opened my eyes to see her still battling the creature, much more horrifying than silly now that I was thinking straight. Clara was still a sight to behold, avoiding every swing by the width of a hair as she flowed like water around the creature’s attacks, but I could see she was flagging. Our short rest wasn’t enough to bring her back to full form, and as I ran towards them I could see her getting slower with every evasion. The Architect darted in as she almost took a hit that almost certainly would’ve snapped her body like a twig, jabbing his weapon into the beast’s arm and sending through a pulse of electricity. The creature’s muscles spasmed and contracted, pulling the blow short at the last second and giving Clara the opportunity to escape. I took advantage of the opening and slashed my sword at its almost-featureless head, seeing now I was close the slits in its oval mask that could likely be its eyes, and I did my best to cut at them, but they were just too high. Even hunched, the creature was several feet taller than myself, and I was only able to slash across the lower part of its ‘face’. It still reared backwards with a muffled moan, and my attack did minimal damage to its skin.
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