The distortions didn’t intensify evenly as they stalked towards the source. It shifted now and then as if the source itself was moving. They were following something or someone moving in the same direction, towards the doctor’s chamber.
This source was not as powerful as Rika. Her distortions reached beyond the chamber walls. This one was strictly limited to the chamber walls, and it only filled a portion of the chamber. It was still something they couldn’t win against. There were no other climbers on this road in this ‘midnight’ hour. If this were a human, they were up to no good having that much Aura out when everyone else was asleep.
“This is weird,” Elena whispered as they crouched behind a rock. “We have to see what it is before it sees us.”
Arcen peeked over the rock, making sure he remained hidden behind a huge leaf looming over them. He could only see in near complete darkness. This was a chamber full of huge, thorny vines. It would’ve been hard to see anything even if this place were well-lit.
Weren’t there creatures here?
Arcen couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but he had seen huge anteater-like things on these vines when he was heading towards the base camp. Things like that couldn’t move without making noises, but he heard no creature sounds either.
He slid back down into a crouch. “I thought you said you know what this is?” He asked in a whisper.
“I thought I did, but I’m not sure. There aren’t many people here with this much Aura. All of them are up there right now,” she said, pointing at the ceiling where Rika went. “I thought maybe it was that crazy shark guy,”
Arcen’s stomach lurched when he remembered that gray-skinned lunatic who killed the Meronolith Queen out of boredom. Running into that thing while traveling with a twelve-year-old was simply unfathomable. He didn’t stand a chance, even with that Nostrum team.
Elena was powerful enough to hold her own against the King, but she wasn’t going to be nearly-three-hundred-million Aura powerful.
“Oh fuck no. We should go back then,” Arcen said, almost forgetting to whisper.
“I can talk us out of a fight if it’s him. I’ve done it before. He’s just bored. Fighting us won’t be fun for him anyway.”
Arcen remembered what that lunatic said about the egg after Morgav spilled its details. Tymon had said something to the effect of wanting to eat the black egg just to see what it tasted like.
“I didn’t tell you this,” Arcen whispered, grabbing her shoulder. “Morgav slipped up and told him about the egg. That fucker said he wanted to make an omelet out of it or something!”
Elena gasped, hand over her mouth. “Oh shit! I need to hide this then!” She said, patting the egg.
Arcen nodded, more out of concern for their safety at first. However, as he continued nodding, he realized what he’d just stumbled into. He’d accidentally talked her into doing what he wanted her to do.
If Tymon’s around, she’s going to be separated from the egg!
“Where are you going to hide it?!” He asked, heart pounding in his ears.
“I don’t know. This floor’s not good for hiding things. There are just too many people,” she said in a hushed voice. “I’d have to climb down, or up.”
“Not up!” He said, shaking his head.
“Down then,” she agreed. “Anyways, what I was trying to say is, I don’t think that’s Tymon.”
“Why is that?”
“This Aura’s too low. It’s higher than a hundred million for sure, but it's lower than Tymon. If he were here, we’d have known it much faster. It wouldn’t have taken this long for him to see us either.”
“Maybe he lost a bunch of Aura?”
“He climbed down because he was bored. There’s no way he lost like a hundred million Aura fighting anything below us.”
I’ll have to get the egg off her with Tymon as the excuse. I’ll have to convince her later.
“Alright. Any plan now?”
“Just one. I’ll light things up with a big Radiate, and we’ll see what happens,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “Get ready to run if it goes wrong,” she added, slowly raising herself over the rock.
She counted down with her fingers.
At the end of the countdown, she pointed her hand over the rock towards the ceiling. A light flickered into existence, illuminating the general direction of the source of Aura distortions. It was nothing like Arcen’s small candle worth of Radiate. This one was as bright as a flare, hard to even look at in this deep darkness.
Whatever it was, it howled.
It sounded like something between a horse and a tire screeching on asphalt, but in a much lower pitch. It dragged on and on, the creature not even pausing to breathe. This unpleasant sound echoed on chamber walls, distorting even further as it bounced through the mess of thick vines all around them. Arcen could point in the general direction where it was, but it sounded like it was coming from three different directions.
“That’s not a guy!” Arcen said, more than ready to run all the way back to the base camp.
“Yeah. Definitely not,” Elena agreed. She nudged his elbow and pointed at something that he failed to notice right away. A dead anteater was ripped wide open on a huge vine in the distance.
There were a few other spots just like it in the area Elena’s light illuminated. Their blood glistened on the vines, bodies torn to pieces with entire chunks missing.
So that’s what happened to them!
Arcen shook his head aggressively. This creature had killed the entire chamber. He didn’t know how this could even be possible in the chamber that is right next to base camp. He thought all major threats on this floor had been cleared already.
Elena crouched out of her position, back towards the path. They had to run, and in this chamber, that meant sticking to the cleared path. It would be stupidly easy to end up trapped in these thorny vines. Arcen followed her, sticking close to the ground on all fours.
It was easier to see what lay ahead from the main path. Elena’s light was hovering above a small clearing in the vines about two hundred meters away. There was a black mass there moving erratically. It was moved more like a ball of tar with legs than a creature with any sort of limb structure. It wasn’t that big either; it looked like it was about as tall as a human.
Is it spazzing out because of the light?
He squinted, trying to make out what was happening. The creature had two very long legs at the front and two smaller ones at the back. It was hopping around in its weirdly smooth tar-like way as it chased something in the clearing. The light itself didn’t seem to bother it beyond the initial surprise. The thing it was chasing was much smaller. Arcen couldn’t see what it was, but from the belated movements of the beast, whatever it was chasing moved at least twice as fast, weaving in and out of the mess of vines all around.
Maybe an Anteater baby or something?
Those creatures hadn’t been that fast. They were docile and slow, which is the only reason they had been left alive near the base camp chamber.
Elena moved towards the creature instead of backing away. He grabbed her coat, trying to pull her back. This child was going to get them both killed. She flipped around and had a deep frown on her face.
Something’s wrong.
She placed her finger over his lips and turned back around, stalking towards the creature on her oily feet.
Arcen set his eyes back on the creature. He didn’t want it to go anywhere he couldn’t see.
What even is that shit?
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
REVEAL
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He waited patiently for the tower to tell him what it was.
The tower didn’t.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ACTIVATION FAILURE ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ INFORMATION ╰︶
????
REVEAL FIRST RANK
OUT OF TARGET RANGE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
What is this? There’s a range?!
It hadn’t happened to him before. He’d never used a skill on something that was this far away.
Is that why she’s moving closer?
That didn’t make any sense. Her Radiate was more powerful than his. Her Reveal had to be the same or better. She was moving towards it for some unspecified reason. Arcen hesitated for a moment, hanging behind in relative safety. He didn’t have a oil based waterslide to get out of a mad chase with a weird tar dog. He needed to stay as close to the chamber’s exit as possible.
He checked his numbers again. He hadn’t seen them in a while.
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ GOLD ─╮?
╰ 100,000 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ AURA ─╮?
╰ 2,869,065? ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
His gold was on his belly, and he had his three contracts to get out of a chase. Worm Pit could slow the damn thing, Mirage Blade would do nothing but give him a confidence boost, and Ball Lightning could keep that thing electrocuted until he could run out of the chamber.
He slapped his cheeks gently, breathed out through puffed cheeks, and followed Elena, crouch walking like a crab. She had already covered about a hundred meters through the vines.
She turned back for a moment when she felt him drawing near. He expected her to tell him to go back, but she did the opposite. It was obvious this was too close to even whisper. She pointed at the creature three times, urging him to do something about it.
It was much clearer now. Elena had used two other Radiates around it while Arcen was busy crab walking.
The creature had only reacted so strongly to the first light that flipped the darkness into light. It hadn’t noticed or cared when she put two more around before the first disappeared. It was pretty dumb for a creature with space distorting Aura. Arcen was more terrified now. A rabid alien pit bull, somehow stronger than the Meronolith Queen. He felt fear, adding more liquid to his bladder.
Grabbing onto a vine with trembling hands, he used Reveal again.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
REVEAL
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
This time it worked, and Arcen immediately wished it hadn’t.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ACTIVATION SUCCESS ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ NAME ╰︶
????
MERONOLITH MAW
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SPECIES ╰︶
????
MERONOLITH
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SENTIENCE ╰︶
????
33%
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TRAITS ╰︶
????
SWALLOW
??
SPEED
??
REGENERATE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DOMAINS ╰︶
????
RED COURT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ AURA ╰︶
????
148,903,222
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Fuck that shit, I’m getting the fuck out of here!
The word ‘Meronolith’ scared him more than the numbers did. He knew what those things had in store. He only knew it too well. There were things here on this creature’s cursed biography that he needed to think about later, but right now, he wanted to be literally anywhere else.
The escape plan was botched now that he saw it up close. There were only two ways they could go. They could go forward towards the doctor’s chamber, or they could retreat to base camp. Whatever they did, this thing was small enough to fit through a chamber veil. If they got into a chase, this thing could follow them wherever they went.
Base camp was the safer bet, because the climbers could team up to beat it dead. Doctor’s chamber was several more chambers away, and they had no climbers in them at this time. There were other things to consider as well, like how many people would die the moment they entered base camp with this thing.
Arcen rubbed his face, trying to think of a way out. Elena shook her hand before his face, trying to get his attention.
“M…E…R…O…NO…LITH ?” Arcen spelled with his lips, making sure she saw exactly how scared he was.
Elena shook her hand, dismissing it with a click of her lips. She pointed harder in the creature’s direction. She was spelling something out, too, a much smaller world with an ‘E’ sound. He couldn’t read it off her lips very well.
He turned back to the creature, eyes narrowed. There was something else here that he wasn’t seeing.
Should’ve brought binoculars into this shit. Or a sniper.
Leaning forward, he caught a glimpse of light dashing through the vines. It was the creature that the Maw was chasing all this time. It didn’t look anything like a baby anteater.
Arcen’s stomach dropped when he realized what it was.
“Oh my god, Jelly!” he whispered aloud. Elena slapped his shoulder, pointed at herself, and pointed at the creature, telling him she was going to go there. She pointed at Arcen and signaled in the direction of the clearing.
She’s going to distract it. I have to go get Jelly. Got it.
He threw his thumb up, shaking all over. He was scared, but he wasn’t scared enough to leave that blue little shit to dance with this infernal hell dog. He’d throw three million worth of lightning balls at it before he let that happen.
Elena jumped up and dashed forth on a stream of oil. She had poured out several liters in milliseconds, coating her from head to toe. The Maw turned to her in a single jump and gave up on chasing Jelly.
The creature opened its mouth, and it was all mouth. A mouth running around on four legs. It had circular rows of teeth rotating inside it in alternating directions. The screeching sound was coming from those teeth clashing against each other.
Elena aimed a fire hose of napalm at its gaping mouth as she dashed in a semi-circle, retreating back towards the far corner of the chamber. The Maw took off in an unhinged run across the vines, hopping off all and any foothold it could find. It was terrifyingly efficient at running, and it closed the gap with Elena in seconds. Arcen had a fraction of a second to make a decision.
He tossed his hand towards the creature as gold veins appeared in his eyes.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
WORM PIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
The pit decimated the vines around the creature in a big circle, cratering the floor beneath its feet. Worms burst forth from the soil, gnawing at its thin legs.
Elena dashed away faster with the opportunity given, circling back towards the rear end of the chamber where she could escape back into the base camp.
Arcen was closer to the forward exit. Getting off his feet, he ran towards the clearing as the Maw’s deafening cries filled the chamber. He knew the Worm Pit wasn’t enough to kill it.
He also knew it had the Red Court domain in some way. This cylindrical dog wasn’t capable of speech like the Queen was, but it had that domain for a reason. He didn’t want to find out why.
The Maw freed itself from the worm pit before Arcen could get to the clearing. Elena came in clutch, firing her laser-like napalm beams at it from several different angles as she circled in the distance. The black flesh of the Maw melted with her attacks, but it regenerated even faster than the queen did, as fast as it was when Arcen was King. The Maw even left pieces of itself behind as it dashed towards Elena, again catching up to her in about ten leaps.
She tossed a series of Radiates all around as she dashed back around in Arcen’s direction.
“Jelly! Come here!” Arcen yelled, unable to take his eyes off Elena for a second. This thing was too dangerous for her to handle by herself, even if she volunteered as the distraction. “Jelly!” He yelled, raising his hand again. The Maw was about to leap at Elena off a twisting end of a vine.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
BALL LIGHTNING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
It appeared quite a ways away from where he wanted it to be, but it didn’t matter. The creature was still in range for lightning bolts. The first burst of bolts electrocuted it off the vine it was about to leap from.
Elena used some sort of contract of her own right at that moment. The one that paralyzed the target. He remembered how it arrested all his movements before she made him a pancake with another deadly attack.
This time, she opted to make as much distance as possible instead of going for a killing blow. It was the right choice, one that wouldn’t have occurred to Arcen as the right move. She couldn’t do anything about a hundred and forty million Aura with a killing blow. It would be like punching a rock for no reason.
Turning back, Arcen rushed over to the middle of the clearing, looking around for any sign of Jelly.
His heart raced, imagining the worst. He didn’t know what to tell Zuhara if he wound Up injured. It wouldn’t be his fault, but he felt bad nonetheless.
“Jelly, where are you?” He yelled into the vines, hands cupped around his mouth.
“Jelly?”
He heard her squeaky voice much closer than he thought.
In fact, it came from his left shoulder.
He almost twisted his neck turning around. Sure enough, Jelly was right there sitting comfortably as if nothing had ever happened. She was nibbling on some sort of yellow stick.
“Tassi! he he!” She said, patting the nearest tentacle.
Un-fucking-believable. Was she just playing chase?
He grabbed her, stretched her out, and checked her for any damage. There weren’t any. She looked as brand new as a freshly caught jellyfish. She giggled as he checked under her flappy ‘clothes’ for any hidden wounds. She was completely fine.
“You’re a goddamn asshole, Jelly,” he said, putting her back on his shoulder.
“Asso!” she repeated, getting back to munching on her yellow stick, whatever it was.
Elena was coming in hot, with the Maw chasing behind her. She had circled back towards the forward exit and was closing in like a missile.
Arcen started running like a madman. He had to close the gap before Elena did or risk getting ground to paste in that creature’s mouth. He had no contracts to make locomotion any easier or faster. Cursing all the gods, he slid and weaved through vines back into the main path. He could hear the creature’s feet rattle the ground beneath him.
Elena dashed above him over the vines, sliding along a thick, wax-like oil trail that formed beneath her feet. She blanketed everything behind them in a thick layer of napalm.
There was a loud crack.
Arcen flipped back around, ready to use another contract. Elena landed next to him, stumbled, and ran towards the chamber vei,l which was about a hundred meters away.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
WORM PIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
The Maw sank into the ground yet again, this time into a pit coated with burning oil that riled up the worms. It howled as its legs collapsed. Arcen saw a glimpse of red in its mouth.
He knew what came next. He had to throw everything he had at it before he was caught in it. Red Court was a death sentence.
“Fuck no! run!” He yelled, tossing Jelly over his shoulder towards Elena.
He raised his hand, pointing at the ground before the Worm Pit as he brought his other arm around to shield his eyes.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
BALL LIGHTNING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
Jelly just wants to have fun.
Next chapter on Monday.
Regular reminder to rate/review if you’re enjoying the ride!
Advance chapters on
