by Gage Lee
“Is it slowing down?” Biz asked a few moments later.
“Feels like it,” I said. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m not happy with any of this,” Biz said with a scowl. “But you’re right. Killing those people would have been wrong. And I do feel good. Breathing is way nicer than I remembered.”
That got a chuckle from me, and Biz couldn’t suppress a giggle of her own. We might be headed down into the darkness, but we could get through anything together.
“Here we are,” I said. “Subbasement. Shadows, cobwebs, and creepy noises.”
The lift’s vibration stopped as it glided to a gentle stop. Whatever power the lift had once held was gone now. The square of purple sky above our heads looked awfully small. I hoped Ylor would hear us if we shouted for help.
“I do not like this place,” Biz whispered. “Not in a can, not with a ham, Sam-I-Am.”
“That’s not how that story goes,” I whispered back, but I agreed with my sister. This was a very creepy place. I felt a shuddering sense of dread and pursed my lips. This was a terrible time for one of my vague premonitions of doom.
We stepped off the lift and headed through a shaft of smooth stone engraved with delicate designs. At first glance, it looked like an abstract lacy pattern. Closer examination, though, revealed we were surrounded by carvings of skulls intertwined with thorned vines that ran through their open mouths and gaping eye sockets. Outside the small room that held the lift was a much larger octagonal chamber that seemed to perfectly match the dimensions of the garden on the surface. Its floor was bone white and polished so smooth the silver light cast reflections across it.
Someone had etched a deep circle just inside the room’s perimeter, a ring of creepy symbols inside that, and, finally, an even smaller circle on the other side of the symbols. A pulpit occupied an alcove across from the elevator, a pair of winding stairs circling up to the next floor behind it. I wasn’t sure where that led, but up had to be better than down.
“Let’s get this over with,” Biz said. She took the candle out of my hand. “You go out there and sprinkle the dust around. Leave a trail back to the elevator, and I’ll light it up as soon as you’re done.”
“Seems fair,” I said. “You hide over here like a baby, and I’ll do the hard work.”
“Like always,” Biz said through her grin. “Hurry it up, bro. This place is freaking me out.”
“I’ll be back before you know it.” I hustled out of the lift room. I eyeballed the bag that Ylor had given me, and the voice gave me the details I needed.
>>>New step added to Rise of the Silent Council: Cleanse the Chapel of Containment using the sanctified salt
Sanctified Salt. Fifty measures.
When properly utilized, this salt will banish any spirits, demons, or extra-dimensional intelligences within the area of effect. Handle with caution—sanctified salt can disrupt ghostlight if inhaled, ingested, or absorbed.
Rarity: Epic.<<<
That was interesting. Also terrifying. Ylor wouldn’t have given me such a powerful item if he didn’t think we’d need some heavy-duty firepower to deal with whatever was down here.
Great.
I reached the engraved circle and untied the strings that held the bag’s mouth closed. Rather than upend the sack and risk spilling all the salt in one spot, I scooped out a handful of the tiny crystalsand scattered them around in front of me. I figured I’d walk the circle, scattering salt as I went, then spiral in to make sure I covered the whole floor. And it would have worked, if a big old ugly snake thing hadn’t appeared.
“Who dares disturb my slumber?” the creature bellowed as it materialized at the center of the circle.
The serpent-like creature towered above me. Its head looked big enough to chew the back end off my mom’s Kia Soul without going back for a second bite, and its bowling ball-sized eyeballs burned with anger. Its forked tongue, black and glistening, flickered out of its mouth to taste the air, then disappeared into its snout. Its scales shimmered in the uncertain silver light of the candle in Biz’s hands. Skulls glared from each of the armored plates, their mouths hanging open, eyes filled with white fire.
>>>Yaoguai, Serpent Spirit
Second-level Core
Superior Strength, Enhanced Dexterity, Good Constitution, Inferior Intelligence, Flawed Wisdom, Feeble Charisma
This creature possesses unknown disciplines.
This creature is able to sense targets without sight.
Engage with extreme caution. Threat level red.<<<
Chapter Six
“THAT DOESN’T LOOK GOOD!” Biz’s high-pitched shout shook me free of the yaoguai’s mesmerizing stare.
The creature’s head swayed above me. It had to be twenty feet long, and its entire length glistened. Its skull-marked scales rasped as the monster’s coils slithered on the floor.
“This is no place for humans,” it hissed. “I will leave your bones in the lift to warn the others of your kind of the price of trespass.”
That certainly sounded like a heap of trouble headed my way. The chapel wasn’t wide enough to give me much room to maneuver. I quickly assessed the threat in front of me. I needed a battle plan. Fast.
The interface had already given me a couple of very important tidbits of information. First, the yaoguai’s intelligence was nothing to write home about. I hoped that meant it would be easier to trick because that was my only hope of survival. Its wisdom was also lower than mine, and if my video game experience held true, the yaoguai wasn’t terribly observant. That combination gave me an idea.
I really hoped I was right.
I snatched a handful of sanctified salt out of the bag and held it at the ready in my right hand. I held my ground and took in a deep breath. Ghostlight rushed into my lungs, and the tingle of it flowing into my core raised goosebumps across the back of my neck. I took another breath without shifting my eyes away from the yaoguai. Any second now, I’d find out if my time in the gym had made me fast enough to survive a fight with an actual monster.
“Come on then,” I taunted the giant serpent. “Hit me!”
The enormous snake unleashed a hiss that left my ears ringing and my face covered in a thick layer of slimy spit. The beast reared up until its head brushed the ceiling, then launched itself at me like a bolt of scaled lightning.
I’d hoped to get the big dumb monster to attack me. I just hadn’t expected it to be so fast.
My left foot skated across the salty stone in what felt like horrifyingly slow motion. My right foot slid in behind it, twisting my body to present the narrowest possible target to the striking snake monster.
It wasn’t enough. I needed to move farther to get out of the snake’s striking range. I willed myself to move faster.
To survive.
>>>Activating ghostlight enhancement
Infusing one blade into arm meridians. Strength improved by one rank to Enhanced.
Infusing one blade into leg meridians. Agility improved by one rank to Good.
Ghostlight enhancement has a duration of one minute.
Your core currently contains three blades of ghostlight.<<<
With the snake’s wide-open mouth only five feet from me, heat burst from my core. Golden ghostlight flowed into my arms and legs. My nerves burned with sudden fire, twitching and eager to move. And then, with the snake’s fangs closing toward my head, I moved faster than I’d ever imagined possible.
The snake’s head ripped through the space where I’d been standing, scales slithering across the floor in a buzzsaw burr. The monster had fully committed itself to that attack and couldn’t redirect its snout even after it realized it had missed the mark.
Its scaled snout slammed into the stone wall so hard it cracked the engravings and left a smear of blood behind. The snake’s pupils narrowed to almost invisible slits, and its head wobbled unsteadily on its neck. The yaoguai was wounded and stunned, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
My right
hand shot out toward the snake before it could recoil. The salt that had been clenched in my fist sprayed the creature’s face. I leapt back from the serpent and toward the lift.
“Tell Ylor to get us out of here!” I shouted to Biz.
The snake unleashed an agonized hiss, nearly drowning out my voice. The sanctified salt burned into the thing’s scales like acid. Smoking holes expanded from where the grains stuck to the yaoguai’s hide. One of its eyes was already ruined, and smoke leaked from the goopy crater. Bone peeked through the thinnest armor around its nostrils, and the smooth edges of its lips were scorched into lacy flaps that revealed the gleaming ivory of its fangs. Enraged and half blind, the serpent flung its lower half after me. The coils slid across the stone and instantly began to smoke as they plowed through the salt I’d already spread on the ground. The beast ignored the pain and looped its long tail around my legs like a lasso. A convulsive jerk of its massive body hurled me to the ground with shocking force.
>>>A new discipline, Constriction, has been identified.
Threat level enhanced to black.
You have sustained moderate stamina damage.
You have sustained minor physical damage.<<<
“Get us out of here!” Biz screamed at the purple square of sky above us. “There’s a monster down here!”
If any response came from Ylor, I didn’t hear it. The snake had chosen that moment to bounce my head off the stone again, ringing my skull like a bell.
>>>You have sustained serious stamina damage.<<<
My vision went gray for a moment, then snapped back into vivid color. The snake took advantage of my brief moment on the edge of oblivion to slap another coil around me. The smoke leaking from a dozen places on the serpent’s body hadn’t slowed it down at all. Even its ruined eye hadn’t hampered it.
The crushing pressure around my chest made it hard to think, much less breathe. My lungs demanded another gulp of fresh air. What I really craved, though, was more ghostlight. I’d only just learned what it felt like to be filled with that power. The idea of losing it so soon was too much for me to bear. I couldn’t die, not yet.
>>>You have sustained critical stamina damage.<<<
The salt was still in my hand. The beast’s coils had pinned my arms to my sides, but that was all right. I didn’t have to throw the sand this time. I maneuvered my fingers away from the bag’s neck and onto the seam at its bottom. I tried to turn it over and dump the salt all over the snake, but the half-empty sack was pinned to my side. Trapped between the serpent’s muscular body and mine, the bag was useless.
There wasn’t much air in my lungs. The yaoguai had squeezed most of the strength from my body. In a few more seconds, I’d be out of the fight. My only hope was to get my arm free of the yaoguai’s coils.
>>> Infusing one blade into arm meridians. Strength enhanced by one rank.
You have reached the maximum safe infusion levels for these meridians.<<<
Another wave of warmth gushed into my arms. My muscles swelled and, for a moment, I was strong enough to push back against the constriction technique. It wasn’t much, but my maneuver gave me enough space to free the bag. Its mouth swung down, and the salt poured onto the snake’s scales.
The sanctified grains burned the snake worse than a bucket of hot coals. The creature’s survival instincts must have overcome its urge to slaughter me because it uncoiled the noose around my torso and slithered away. Smoke followed it around the room as it dragged its wounded bulk away. It reared up in a desperate attempt to get its body clear of the burning salt, and managed to smash its head against the ceiling. Fresh blood gushed from the yaoguai’s damaged eye and splattered from its snout in a grisly rain.
“I will return,” the serpent groaned. It twisted its coils into a sinuous figure eight and began writhing in a continuous circuit.
>>>A new discipline, Spirit Retreat, has been identified.
Threat level reduced to yellow.<<<
“No.” I pushed off the floor with my ghostlight-strengthened arm. The instant my feet were planted on the salt-strewn stone, I took another breath.
Then I charged at the yaoguai.
There was no way I’d let the spirit snake slink back to whatever realm it had come from to heal up. It had started this fight, and we were going to finish it.
I leapt, hooked one arm around the yaoguai’s thick neck, and drove a ghostlight-empowered punch into its body.
The blow shattered scales and splintered the yaoguai’s ribs. My fist didn’t penetrate into the meat behind the armored skin, but the strike was powerful enough to take the wind out of my enemy’s sails.
Its body sagged to the floor, and its twining coils went still. The yaoguai tried to raise its head once, twice, and finally lay still. Its tongue lolled from between its gnarled lips, and the tips of its fangs jutted from the sides of its mouth.
The burst of adrenaline that had carried me through the fight faded now that my enemy looked defeated. My arms and legs went weak and wobbly, and my stomach clenched into a tight fist of nausea and dread. The reek of the snake’s still-burning body clogged my nostrils, and the air tasted foul in my mouth. I watched the snake, wary that it’d jump up in a new, even deadlier form like the final boss in a video game.
“Any word from the surface?” I called to Biz. “We do not want to be here when that thing wakes up.”
If it woke up.
Blood ran out of open wounds to sizzle on the salt, and organs bulged through the growing holes in its skin. If it wasn’t already dead, surely it would be soon.
“That was some impressive work out there, bro,” Biz said. “I’d have gone out there, but I was trying to get Ylor’s attention. He still hasn’t answered.”
Great. I had no idea what the eldwyr was up to, but when I saw him again, I planned to wring his neck. It was one thing to send a couple of kids down to your creepy basement hideaway, it was another to leave them down there with a monster that wanted to eat them.
>>>Yaoguai slain.
Three reference points acquired.
Advancement requires ten reference points.<<<
“Give me a minute or two,” I called to Biz. If we wanted out of here, we’d have to find our own way. First, though, I needed to recharge. I’d worry about what the heck reference points were later. “Keep an eye out for any other weirdness.”
“I’m all eyeballs, bro,” Biz shouted cheerily. “Unlike Ylor, who must be blind and deaf.”
With Biz on lookout, I crossed my legs and rested my palms on my knees. This was the pose mom had shown us when she’d tried to teach us to meditate. Back then, it had seemed like a stupid waste of time. Now, though, I was grateful for what I remembered of those sessions. I’d give my mom an extra hug if I saw her again.
No, when I saw her again.
The circulation meditation’s rhythm pulled me away from the gloomy chapel. My thoughts emptied out of my skull, and the tension along with them. A soothing peace fell over me, leaving me alone with the soft, steady flow of air through my lungs and ghostlight into my core. Far too soon, the voice chimed in and interrupted my moment of Zen.
>>>All physical damage restored.
All stamina damage restored.
Core filled to capacity. Do you wish to stop your circulation exercise before ghostlight overflow?<<<
I wasn’t sure what, exactly, “ghostlight overflow” was, but I was willing to bet it wouldn’t be pleasant. I decided it would be wise to stop while I was ahead. Antagonizing my core seemed like a good way to repeat the excruciating pain of the Awakening, and I wanted no part of that. I opened my eyes and was surprised to see the snake’s body had almost entirely burned away. All that remained was the long curves of its skeleton, its heart and lungs, and a few meaty slabs of muscle that still clung to its ribs. The sanctified salt had certainly done a job on the serpent. I needed to get my hands on some more of that, just in case we ran into something else dangerous on our way back to the surface.
I
stood up and shook the last of the salt out of my clothes. All the grains had turned black. I assumed that was a side effect of their contact with the yaoguai. Most of what was on the floor was also blackened, though a few streaks of white salt had miraculously not been rolled over by the snake or tainted by the gouts of its blood that now coated most of the chapel in thick, sticky puddles. Panic speared through me. There wasn’t enough white salt left to cover a dinner plate, much less the rest of the floor. If I’d just failed this task...
“Show me the tasks on my list that are currently opened,” I mumbled.
>>>Current task in progress.
One step known: Cleanse the Chapel of Containment using the sanctified salt.
This task-related item is currently unavailable. Please return to the task’s originator for resupply.
Bonus objectives: Yaoguai Serpent Spirit neutralized.
Bonus rewards: Yaoguai core shell.<<<
Well, that was unexpected.
I wasn’t sure what a monster’s core shell was good for, but if it was a reward I’d earned, I was going to get it.
“Still no answer from Ylor,” Biz said when I stood from my meditation. “No idea what we’re going to do here, bro.”
“I’ve got an idea,” I said. “Not sure if it’ll work.”
First, though, I wanted that core.
I waved the foul-smelling smoke away from my nose and mouth as I traced the length of the yaoguai’s body. I finally found what I was looking for nestled in a small mound of smoldering muscle that could have been the heart. Or lungs. It was impossible to tell what the shriveled and blackened hunks of meat had once been. The core, on the other hand, was plainly visible, and its golden luster called out to me.
The shell I’d earned was about the size of a fingernail, but it weighed far more than its size suggested. I tried to put it in my jeans’ pocket, but it was so heavy it nearly pulled my pants off even after I tightened my belt. I’d have to carry it back to the surface.