Shadow Sun Progression: Shadow Sun Book Four

by Dave Willmarth

  Allistor straightened back up to find the entire mass of tiny raptors coming at him. One leapt for his face, while others attacked his legs. Several more used him as a springboard, leaping at him, and digging in with their hind leg claws before continuing on to leap over top of the shield wall, landing among the fighters and healers. When one of the tanks tried to prevent a second wave getting past him by raising his shield high, two of the little monsters simply charged underneath, biting and clawing at his legs as they passed.

  In seconds, the entire raid group was chaos. Allistor felt heals wash through him as he cast Mind Spike on a raptor that had its jaws inches from his face. The thing screamed and thrashed, its claws unconsciously slashing his face and neck. Ahead of him, stone spikes shot up from the floor, skewering several of the little monsters before they could leap into the crowd. Fireballs and lightning shot past Allistor even as he stabbed a raptor that was latched onto his right leg. Another sank its jaws into his sword-arm wrist, biting through the leather amor and deep into his flesh.

  He used all the strength he could muster to slam the little beast into the stone wall of the tunnel once, twice, and again until he heard its skull crack, and it let go. His health was down below fifty percent, and it had been a little while since he’d felt a heal. Looking back, he saw several of the raptors rampaging through the center of his group, distracting the healers, keeping them from casting. One of them leapt up and latched on to Dawn’s face, its claws digging into her neck and chest to secure a grip. Her scream was cut short as it flexed its powerful neck muscles, shaking its head and ravaging her face. Allistor cast Restraint on it, and Ramon reached in with his bare hands, prying the monster’s jaws apart and ripping it free, tearing his own skin in the process. He threw it to the ground, and it was stomped into oblivion as Nancy caught Dawn’s falling body. Allistor saw several heals land on her even as she fell.

  Not far behind them, Droban pulled one of the little monsters off a healer’s back, and simply pulled its head from its neck with a quick snap of his bulging forearms.

  Allistor couldn’t do anything to the raptors that were in tight among his people without potentially harming them too, so he turned toward the monsters still ahead. He began to channel Storm, the clouds quickly gathering over the enemy that were trapped on the stone spikes, and those still coming from behind. The first lightning strike burned one of the skewered lizards to a crisp. Within a few more seconds, lightning was filling the stairwell below him, striking target after target and wearing down their health pools even as they were repeatedly stunned.

  He stopped channeling after about twenty seconds, when all of the little monsters below were no longer moving. Turning back, he saw that the raiders had control of the situation again. Several of the tanks had turned and pinned the lizards to the floor, or stunned them with shield bashes. The damage dealers were quickly burning through their enemies’ health bars, while the healers were doing their best to bring everyone back up.

  Except the three who were already dead.

  When the last of the raptors had perished, Selby, Remy, and a few of the others leveled up. Addy and Sydney had stopped singing, both of them collapsing to sit against the wall, their eyes wide and unfocused. Addy had Dawn’s blood splattered across her shoulder and face, and was too dazed to wipe it clean. Looking down, Allistor saw what his interface’s raid icon had already told him.

  Leila, the leader of one of the Strongholds he’d just folded into Invictus, was gone. The raptor that killed her still had its jaws locked onto her neck, her hand gripping a knife that pierced its chest. The teeth still lodged in her flesh and severing her arteries kept the healing spells from being able to save her. One of her people was trying to pry the dead lizard off of her, and Michael bent down to help.

  The next body Allistor saw, lying just two feet from Leila, was one of his own people. A member of Bjurstrom’s regular property acquisition raid team, his name was Scott, and Allistor had only met him a couple of times. A leaping raptor had managed to drive one of its long rear claws through his eye and directly into his brain. Even with all the healing magic available to them, some injuries were fatal, no matter what.

  The last body on the floor brought tears to Allistor’s eyes. He walked over and dropped to his knees next to the ravaged body. Amanda, Nancy, Ramon, Sam, Meg, Michael, all the members of his core group from the Warren that were present joined him, hanging their heads in sorrow.

  There lay George, the old man who’d been running Luther’s Landing, who had joined them so early in the first year of the apocalypse, and helped Nancy to develop the greenhouses that fed so many survivors through that first hard winter. He lay on the cold stone floor, very nearly decapitated. It was clear from the clean wound that he hadn’t been killed by a raptor, but by a stray blow from sword or axe when the monsters sowed chaos within the ranks. Someone had panicked, or simply missed their target, and killed George as a result.

  Allistor didn’t look around to find the guilty party. That could be dealt with later. He laid a hand on George’s chest, and spoke softly. “I will miss you, old man. We all will. You were tough as nails, with a kind heart, and a sharp mind. I hope you’re with Luther somewhere, now.”

  The others hugged and consoled each other, eventually moving aside so that McCoy and his team could put all three of the lost raiders into body bags. They set each bag gently into a side room to be retrieved for burial on their way out.

  Sam pulled Allistor into an uncharacteristic hug, then pushed him out to arm’s length. “He went quick, and he went down fightin’. That’s the way he woulda wanted it.”

  Allistor nodded, knowing Sam was right. George was an old soldier to his core.

  Surprisingly, L’olwyn approached, and offered. “May he awaken in Valhalla, and fight at Odin’s side.”

  Sam grunted in agreement, and Allistor nodded. He had questions for the elf, but it was not the time or place. Sweeping the room with his eyes, he saw expectant gazes directed his way. The raid was looking for him to lead them on, or lead them out.

  “We go on.” He stated. “We’ve paid for this place in blood, and it’s ours now. Anyone who doesn’t feel up to this, and wants to return to the ship and wait, is welcome to do so. No repercussions.” Allistor didn’t wait to see if anyone left. He recast his Barrier spell, and started walking down the remainder of the stairs, kicking each corpse to loot it as he passed. He didn’t even glance at the notifications, keeping his focus on each new step that moved into his line of sight as he descended.

  When they reached the bottom, they found a chamber filled with nests. Scattered around the floor, the nests were made of bits of torn cloth, leathery skin, and bones. Some of the bones were quite obviously human. Dawn mumbled, “I guess we know what happened to the folks who came down here before.”

  Helen kicked one of the nests, dislodging several of the bones, and some egg shell fragments. “A lot of these bones look like they might belong to the raptors. My guess is they’ve been hatching and fighting amongst themselves down here. That’s how they got to such high levels, and didn’t starve.”

  Nobody had anything else to add, morale being low after their losses. Allistor and Logan led the way through the second level tunnels, the group getting back to business. They cleared rooms and side tunnels, finding a few individual raptors here and there, putting them down quickly and without mercy.

  At the far end of the last section of tunnel, they reached a heavy metal door with a padlock on it. Longbeard pulled a hammer from his belt and smashed the lock open with a single swing, the two pieces dropping to the floor with a metallic clang. The old dwarf bowed politely, sweeping one hand toward the door. “After you.”

  Allistor nodded at Logan, who waited for him to get into position, then yanked the door open. The moment the opening was wide enough, half a dozen light globes shot through ahead of Allistor. He cast Flame Shot in the form of a fireball ahead of him as well, then stepped through.

  Another
staircase, cut directly into the stone, led downward into the darkness. Everyone was silent as he listened for more raptor sounds, or any indication of what might be waiting below. Allistor could hear both Fuzzy and Fiona sniffing behind him, but neither made any growling noises. When Fiona sneezed, Allistor looked at the stairs more closely. The dust here was thicker than up on the ground level, and also undisturbed.

  Feeling confident that nothing was waiting to ambush them on the stairs, he started down. The light globes lowered themselves slightly, then pushed ahead of him below the stairwell ceiling as it sloped down. This stairwell was cut in a straight line, and the raiders were able to see much further ahead of themselves than before. Eventually Allistor spied the bottom landing, and an archway with another door. The floor was wet, with puddles here and there, and what looked like a thin layer of mud atop the stone.

  When he stepped off the last stair onto the landing, Allistor’s foot squished and slid slightly. Looking down, he saw that the mud wasn’t really mud, but thousands of squirming worms. He quickly lifted his foot back up, motioned for those behind to hold back, and Examined one of the worms.

  Common Earthworm

  Level 1

  Health: 10/10

  “Relax guys. They’re just earthworms.” He looked across the landing. “Tens of thousands of them, but they’re harmless.”

  “Are we going to have to kill them all to claim this place?” Logan asked from one step up.

  “Are we going to have to kill them?” Dawn asked. “Of course we’re going to kill them. They’re creepy and squiggly, and… and icky!” She shuddered. Somewhere behind her, Meg nodded. Not waiting for Allistor to disagree, she tossed one of her glass grenades out into the center of the landing, where it shattered. A moment later she tossed a Flame Shot spell into the same spot, lighting the napalm that had splattered across the floor. The worms curled and crisped by the thousands.

  The raiders began to cough as the smoke naturally drifted upward at them, the smell of burnt mud and crisped worm carried with it. “Ugh! That’s even worse.” Dawn complained, holding her nose and trying to breathe shallowly through her mouth.

  Allistor stayed where he was, waiting for the flames to burn themselves out, doing his best not to inhale the stench. His mind was pondering a different issue. After a moment, he asked the question aloud.

  “Where’d the mud come from?”

  Logan was the only one who heard him over the coughing and complaining. “What?”

  “Where did the mud come from? Allistor asked louder. “These tunnels were dug more than a hundred years ago. Right into the stone of this hill. We’re far above sea level, so it’s not like the tide washed it in.”

  Logan shrugged, as did several others who’d heard. “Maybe there was a partial cave-in somewhere ahead? Or just seepage from rainwater above, bringing in some mud a little bit at a time?”

  Allistor nodded slightly. “I guess that makes sense. Let’s keep going. This is the last level. We clear this, claim the place, and take our dead home.” He led the way across the landing, stepping carefully so as not to slip on the burnt worm carcasses. The landing ended at another metal door, which was not locked. Once again, Logan pulled the door open, and Allistor pushed through, light globes just ahead of him.

  The floor beyond was also damp, with some kind of fungus or moss growing here and there on the floor and walls. Allistor looked down the corridor for a moment, then said, “Call back your globes.”

  He waited as the glowing balls of white light retreated back into the stairwell. As soon as they were gone, he pulled the door mostly closed, and confirmed what he’d thought he saw. The corridor was glowing a soft shade of blue. It was barely there, just bright enough to keep the place from being totally dark.

  Opening the door again, he said, “Nancy, there’s some kind of glowing blue moss or something in here. Gotta make a good alchemy ingredient, right?”

  He stepped aside as the others filed through the door, moving down the corridor to make room for Nancy. A few of them reached out as if to touch the softly glowing substance, but Nancy stopped them. “Don’t! Colorful things in nature are often poison.” She said as she stepped through the door. Taking a knife from her inventory, she gently scraped some of the substance from the wall into a vial, and stared at it, her eyes unfocusing. A moment later, she said, “It’s as I thought. This substance contains low levels of cyanide!”

  Those who’d been tempted to touch quickly pulled their hands back from the walls. When she noticed the nervous shuffling, and people crowding toward the center of the hall away from the walls, Nancy chuckled. “Relax. It would only hurt you if ingested, or if some fool started burning it, and you inhaled the smoke. Or if it got into your bloodstream directly, somehow.” Looking directly at Bjurstrom, she added, “Or if one were to lick the walls.”

  Bjurstrom put his hands behind his back, an innocent look on his face. “Yeah, Goodrich! No lickin’ the walls.”

  Rolling her eyes, Nancy turned to Allistor. “This could indeed come in handy for several potions. Mostly poisons, but also a cure potion. Let me harvest some more.”

  As Nancy did her thing, Allistor continued farther down the hallway, now casting a light globe ahead of him. The blue light from the moss was enough to keep him from tripping over furniture, but he needed to be able to see anything hiding in the corners. Logan followed behind, and the others spread out, one by one, still sticking to the center of the floor, away from the walls. Several more light globes floated above the line of raiders.

  Which, as it turned out, saved their lives.

  Allistor was maybe a hundred feet beyond where Nancy was working, when someone screamed behind him. Even as he was turning, another scream rang out, then several shouts and grunts of pain. People were pointing up at the ceiling, while others were slapping themselves and gyrating crazily. He was about to run back to help, when something blue dropped right in front of his face. His eyes reflexively followed it to the ground, where it instantly curled into a ball, small jets of something shooting out of it. Allistor thought it was a bug of some kind, and he used Examine.

  Motyxia Scavenger

  Level 10

  Health: 100/100

  The screaming intensified, and Allistor could see health bars dropping on his raid screen. Another of the creatures fell onto his shoulder, and he felt a spray of something on his neck. A moment later it began to burn, and he felt slightly sick. He could see it was some kind of segmented millipede, its body pulsing with the same blue glow as the moss. It had wicked pincers on its front segment, which were now nearing his neck. He quickly brushed it off, then stomped it into oblivion.

  “Out! Everybody back to the stairs!” He shouted, running toward the door and pushing Logan ahead of him. Another of the little creatures landed on his face as he looked up, seeing hundreds of them dropping out of tiny holes in the tunnel ceiling, landing on his people. The one that hit his face rolled off, but not before it squirted him with a noxious liquid. Some of it splashed into his left eye, instantly blinding it. He moved his Barrier spell so that it floated above his head, and elongated it as much as possible. Now about ten feet long, it sheltered him, Logan, and a few others as they rushed toward the door. Many more of the nasty little things were falling to his left and right, hitting the ground and rushing on tiny legs toward his feet. If his raiders had been walking anywhere other than the center line, they’d likely have been buried in the falling millipedes.

  Ahead of him, his people were stumbling, many of them crying in pain as they moved through the door and up the stairs to make room for those behind. The healers were doing their best, but the substance the millipedes squirted them with were both acid and poison. Nancy was passing around poison cure potions to those that didn’t have them, and Allistor pulled one from his own inventory. Before he was even through the door, he greedily chugged the entire vial, his gut feeling slightly better right away. Without the use of one eye, he missed the door on his first tr
y, slamming his shoulder into the frame on the left side. Backing up, he turned slightly and dove through the opening.

  The moment Allistor was through the doorway, Logan slammed the heavy metal door shut, then leaned against it. “Well, that sucked.” He let out a long breath, one hand gingerly touching his face where he’d been hit by more than one of the millipedes.

  Allistor agreed. But not as vehemently as Meg. The woman cursed long and loud, stopping twice to take a deep breath and continue before she finally ran out of colorful words to describe exactly where Allistor could stick things. A few people actually laughed through the pain as her tirade progressed. Sam beamed with pride. “That’s my girl.”

  Dawn, who had recovered from her previous injuries only to have half her face disfigured by the Motyxia poison, grunted as she sat down on a step. “We just got our asses kicked by a bunch of level ten bugs.”

  Meg had a grenade in each hand, facing the door. “Logan, open that thing up! I’ll teach the lil smurfy blue bastards who’s boss.”

  Logan was turning to oblige, when Nancy shouted, “No!” All eyes went to her, and she held up a glass vial with some of the blue mold in it. “Cyanide, remember? You start a fire in there, you create a poison cloud. And who knows whether there’s any kind of vents in there? Or where that cloud might come out?”

  Meg didn’t look like she much cared. She looked at Logan, then glared at him when he didn’t open the door. When he shook his head and leaned back against it, she started cussing again. Sam gently removed the grenades from her hands, putting them in his inventory before pulling her into a hug. Everyone could hear her muffled voice still ranting into his shoulder as he squeezed her tight.