“Always,” she replied with a nod, bouncing on her heels in nervous anticipation.
“If this goes south, I’m going to stick you in a Stone Coffin so that you can get your shield and lance out,” Kyyle offered. “Remember, don’t go past the waypoint marker, or I can’t support you from the mouth of the cave.”
“Understood,” Julia said, shooting them both a look and noting their nervous expressions. “Seriously, you guys need to take a breath. It’s going to be fine.”
Okay, now I feel like we might be jinxing ourselves, Finn thought to himself sourly. He could handle Kyyle’s nervous handwringing, but his daughter’s cavalier attitude made him anxious – it was almost like they were asking the universe for trouble.
“Uh, huh,” Finn replied. “Well, whenever you’re ready—”
Julia must have taken that as the signal.
Before Finn had even finished the sentence, she launched forward.
She leaped into the room and soared through the air in a graceful arc, tucking in her legs to avoid several of the shards before hitting a small patch of free ground about eight feet away. She landed and immediately shifted into a roll, coming up just short of another cluster of glass. Despite her enhanced agility, her progress abruptly slowed from there – the crystals becoming progressively more dense as she crossed the room. Julia picked her way through the haphazard shards carefully. She ducked under a glass fragment, hopped over another, and contorted her body to squeeze through a narrow crack.
Meanwhile, Kyyle was building a fortification in the mouth of the tunnel, likely expecting the worst. The glass coating of the tunnel cracked open, liquid stone drifting through the opening and forming into a sloped wall in front of him. Yet Kyyle’s eyes kept skimming back to Julia, watching her progress anxiously as she leaped, twisted, and spun across the cavern.
“She’s been circumspect about her time with the Khamsin, but it feels like there was more to it than she let on,” Finn said softly as he watched Julia. He’d known she was flexible and fast – but nothing like this. He couldn’t pull off anything close to what she was doing. “Does that look like the result of some sort of basic survival training to you?”
Kyyle shook his head. “No. I think she’s still holding some stuff back.”
The earth mage spared a glance at Finn. “But then again, so are you.” He noticed Finn’s eyes widen slightly. “Oh, come on? Julia’s noticed it too. It’s clear you don’t really care about ruling some videogame city… which begs the question of what’s really at stake here and why you’re in such a hurry to complete this competition.”
Finn shifted his weight, glancing back toward Julia to hide his expression. “I’m not sure I have an easy way to explain that,” he began.
“I figured. It’s why I didn’t ask.”
The pair drifted into a tense silence, watching Julia. Only a few moments later, Finn breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached the center of the room, a small clearing among the field of glass shards. She knelt on the floor and tipped her bag, the crystals tumbling out in a constant stream.
It wasn’t entirely realistic, but the bags were almost like extra-dimensional portals, holding a far larger volume and mass than should be possible. Only a fraction of the weight of the goods translated to the pack itself. They also seemed to delay the decay of organic materials, and minor damage to the outside of the container didn’t appear to have any effect on the contents. They were truly extraordinary.
And the result? They could use the packs to safely store a ton of the explosive fire crystals – enough to blow up a cavern, in fact.
Kyyle’s hands moved, emerald tendrils of energy drifting around his staff. The glass around Julia cracked, breaking away to form a shallow bowl in the floor to help contain the fire crystals. Once she offloaded the contents of the bag and backed away, the earth mage could create a dense shell overtop the newly formed pit – which would increase the force of the blast and add physical shrapnel.
Julia shifted slightly in the small space as Kyyle created the shallow pit, the bag in her hand drooping slightly. However, that small movement was enough to send a single orange-and-red gem tumbling erratically. It bounced off the lip of the stone bowl without detonating but went flying out toward the nearby glass.
Finn held his breath as he saw the fire crystal sail through the air.
Julia darted forward, her nimble fingers snatching at the gem before it could touch a nearby cluster of glass, and he could see her breathe a small sigh of relief.
However, only a moment later, a sharp cracking sound echoed through the chamber, followed by the faint tinkling sound of shattered glass. Finn’s eyes widened, his attention snapping back to Julia. He could see that her sleeve had just barely scratched against one of the glass clusters – the surface having fractured from even that slight touch.
Oh shit.
That was his last thought before all hell broke loose.
The glass cluster promptly exploded, blasting fragments in every direction.
Julia raised her arm just in time, the shrapnel cutting through her armor, but failing to penetrate the skin underneath. However, the damage was already done. Even the smallest glancing blow from the debris caused new fractures to form on the nearby clusters, more glass soon exploding outward in an expanding ring – creating a cascade effect through the cavern. It almost sounded like someone was hosing a glass shop with a machine gun, constant blasts mixing with the chime of broken glass.
Even worse, Finn could see something crawling out of the original cluster.
And it sure as hell didn’t look like an ant…
It was about the size of a basketball, and its body was covered in a dull orange and gray exoskeleton – clearly some sort of insect. Eight tiny legs sprouted from its abdomen and propped up its torso almost vertically. Atop that body sat a head that was all teeth – a gaping hungry maw of razor-sharp fangs. What drew his attention, however, were the arms attached to its chest, scythe-like claws extending away from their surface and tearing at the air experimentally.
Cave Grub – Level 50
Health – Unknown
Mana – Unknown
Equipment – Unknown
Resistances – Unknown
At least, it’s relatively low level…
Although, Finn hesitated as he saw dozens more of the creatures already emerging from their crystalline shells. It didn’t matter if they were individually weak. Levels alone weren’t necessarily an indicator of danger in this world – Finn had spent enough time here to understand that. The horde of grubs was likely more than capable of taking down Julia in her current situation.
Meanwhile, Julia stomped on the grub beside her, smashing its body flat and orange-colored blood spraying from its corpse. However, that move seemed to alert the others, and all the newly hatched grubs turned toward the corpse immediately. Finn couldn’t make out any eyes or antennae, but it was clear that they could sense the blood. They scurried forward in a rush, their claws tearing at the air before heaping onto the body in a frenzy and shoving the ruined flesh into the maw-like openings in their heads.
Within seconds, the corpse had been picked clean, and the grubs were turning their eyes in Julia’s direction and encircling her quickly. She kicked at the small creatures, and one cut into her shin with its forelegs – the blade surprisingly sharp. That single cut drew bright-red blood that dripped down her ankle. The other creatures seemed to sense that, and the frenzy grew as they surged forward toward Julia.
Dread welled in his stomach, and Finn clenched his fists.
Julia was outside the orange circle that denoted his control range – well past his effective range now. His Fireballs would likely decay before they made it that far, and even if they reached her, he ran the risk of hitting the gems at Julia’s feet. She likely couldn’t withstand that explosion, even with her natural absorption.
There was nothing he could do…
Julia hesitated, her eyes skimming
toward him and Kyyle at the mouth of the cavern before her attention dropped to the heap of fire crystals below her. He could almost see her mental wheels spinning. She’d already drawn the attention of at least a hundred of the small creatures – their tiny bodies surging forward in an undulating wave of gnashing fangs and claws. However, the cascade seemed to have stopped for now – the glass pupae no longer exploding. Even so, more than three-quarters of the room was still filled with the glass shards.
She couldn’t blow the fire crystals – not yet. Without a shaped charge, they couldn’t take out the whole room. And if she attempted to run, the horde would likely chase her, stumbling into other clusters and spawning more of the grubs.
And there were still hundreds of glass clusters left.
“Fuck, what do we do?” Kyyle said, his voice sounding harried as he continued to cast, trying vainly to form the shaped charge around the explosive. “We’re not ready to blow the charge yet!”
“Drop her into a coffin,” Finn snapped at Kyyle.
The younger man hesitated only a moment before following his instruction, canceling his spell and Julia soon dropping from sight behind a thick layer of stone that drifted up and out of the ground, sucking her down into the cavern floor. Finn’s last glance at Julia confirmed the fear in her eyes – she knew she was trapped, and any attempt to escape risked them all.
The Stone Coffin didn’t seem to deter the grubs. They clawed at the mound feverishly as though they could sense Julia underneath. Even worse, their forelegs carved at the artificial rock with surprising strength, cutting through the material nearly as fast as Kyyle could reinforce it. Unable to help Julia, Daniel’s flaming form raced back through the room toward Finn and Kyyle.
It has to be sound or smell, Finn thought as he watched the grubs, knowing Julia would be invisible if the creatures only detected mana. Although, that realization didn’t exactly help right now.
“This isn’t a long-term plan!” Kyyle snapped, continuing to channel mana into his spell in order to repair the walls of Julia’s coffin. “I can’t keep this up forever, and I can’t finish setting up the charge while protecting her. What do we do?”
That same question was bouncing through Finn’s head – his thoughts frantic. They couldn’t – he couldn’t – afford to lose Julia here. They were so close to the vault, and they didn’t know where she would respawn. If she died here… they might fail the competition.
Fail to recover Rachael.
Julia’s terrified expression flashed through his mind again. Finn knew what it felt like to be trapped in tight quarters with your life no longer in your own hands. He’d sat there helpless once before, watching as someone with those familiar eyes and auburn hair had been torn away from him. He couldn’t do that again – just watch as those grubs ripped her apart…
His daughter.
Damn it.
His eyes skimmed the room, his thoughts racing.
He needed more time, just a little more time.
Finn’s hands began moving, and he soon let out a hissing breath as he felt fire slide through his veins – it burned him from the inside, the pain a sharp, aching itch. Yet he ignored the sensation and powered through until the world around him began to slow under the effects of his Haste. Kyyle’s fingers were barely moving now, and the grubs were a slow-motion avalanche of claws and flesh as they tore at the mound of stone in the center of the room.
He couldn’t channel this spell forever, and time was still moving.
He needed to think fast.
First, he needed to break the problem up into manageable pieces – define his variables. Kyyle couldn’t stop casting, or Julia would die, so the earth mage couldn’t help him. Julia couldn’t retreat to their position, or she would aggro hundreds more of the grubs. It was also unlikely she could fight off the creatures above her, the grubs practically coating the stone mound now. Finn also couldn’t do anything from his position. Julia was well outside his control range.
Finn’s fingers cut into his palms, drawing blood.
His only real option was to somehow get to Julia and help defend that position. Together, they might be able to kill the grubs without spawning more, the initial cascade having cleared a sizable circle in the center of the cavern. But that also meant he needed some way to get to her without drawing more of the creatures or putting Kyyle at risk. Floating on top of his own metal was out – they had already considered and discarded that idea earlier. The clearance between the floor and ceiling was too small for him to drift across.
His eyes skimmed to the ambient glass shards. Many were disguised pupae for the grubs. But he also knew that quite a few were still normal glass. He didn’t have Julia’s flexibility and couldn’t avoid touching the clusters. There also wasn’t enough time for Daniel to mark them all… but if he was using his sight, he could tell the difference. He could squeeze against the small patches of harmless glass to avoid the hidden pupae. That might possibly allow him to navigate the cavern without spawning more grubs.
The only problem? He couldn’t move and use his Mana Sight at the same time without becoming horribly disoriented…
Finn could feel his frustration grow, but he summoned his fire mana more forcefully, using the burning energy to suppress his irritation and fear. He needed to stay clearheaded – Julia’s life was on the line.
Think, asshole. There has to be a way!
Bilel’s journal entries came to him then. The mage had experienced many of the same issues with the sight that Finn had – complaining of extreme disorientation if he used the ability with his eyes open. The mage had theorized that the sight interfered with the ambient mana in his eyes and surrounding organs, most likely the sinuses and Eustachian tube that ran to his ear canal. That might explain the balance problems.
Finn hesitated. But what if Bilel been wrong?
What if the problem wasn’t an issue of mana interference?
There had to be ambient mana in Finn’s eyes, even when they were closed. He had observed Kyyle often enough with the sight to know that. Maybe it had to do with the fluctuation of mana within the eyes when they were open – as light entered the retina. It would have been nearly impossible for Bilel to observe the mana in his own eyes when they were open, and the sight was active. And, by his own admission, his pool of test subjects had been extremely limited.
If Finn was right, then there might be a way to improve on the sight.
And there was one way to test his theory.
Finn squeezed his eyes shut. “Mashhad,” he whispered harshly.
Then he turned to look at Kyyle. The mage’s eyes were open – focused intently on Julia in the center of the room. Finn could see multi-colored mana drifted through the orbs erratically, shifting and changing rapidly, the shifting pattern more noticeable with the time-slowing effects of his Haste. That seemed to confirm his theory, and Finn swiftly deactivated the sight, trying to preserve as much of his mana as possible.
An idea was flitting through his mind.
It was desperate – insane really.
What if he replaced his eyes with a material with a constant affinity – maybe embed inert crystals into the substance to make the vision even more stable? The wards were designed to target the eye socket. They didn’t need the eyes themselves. Although, he’d need to create enough of a buffer that the fluctuations in his body’s ambient mana didn’t affect his sight and go deep enough to neutralize a section of his sinuses and the Eustachian tubes that ran to his ears…
“Daniel,” Finn barked, the AI spinning toward him. He outlined his plan quickly. “Show me how far and deep I can go,” Finn ordered.
The AI simply hovered there, frozen in place, his body dimming as he observed Finn with what he interpreted as incredulous shock.
“Now, Daniel!” Finn barked. He didn’t have time for doubt.
“Yes… yes, sir,” the AI responded reluctantly.
Daniel shifted in place, scanning Finn’s head with a thin beam of orange li
ght. Immediately, an image was projected into the air beside him, showing a three-dimensional model of Finn’s head and focusing on his eye sockets. The answer to Finn’s question was “pretty damn deep.” And if he went too far, he’d start to affect parts of his brain or might destroy his hearing.
“Sir, this… this is an incredibly risky plan,” Daniel said, sounding worried. “You would need to conduct the procedure yourself, without an anesthetic and in the span of only 30 seconds. You also won’t be able to easily reverse or stop the process. Your chance of succeeding without permanently affecting your mind or hearing is only 1.68%.”
“I know,” Finn grunted, his eyes glowing as he stared intently at the image.
“The procedure would also completely destroy your natural vision—”
“I’m fucking aware,” Finn barked.
He looked at Daniel then, the AI’s form only a dull orange – reflecting his anxiety. Then his attention shifted to Julia, watching the grubs rolling across the stone mound. Putting aside the horror of watching his daughter being ripped apart and eaten or the ever-present risk of a respawn, the grubs would likely target Finn and Kyyle next. It was only a matter of time.
And they couldn’t afford to lose.
Not after coming so far.
Not with so much riding on this…
Desperate flames burned in Finn’s eyes as he turned back to Daniel. “You can assist me. If you tell me when to stop, we can reduce the chance of permanent injury significantly.”
“Sir—”
“We’re doing this,” Finn snapped, kneeling on the stone floor and pulling a few fire mana crystals and two smaller dark metal spheres from his pack, the metal cool against his palms. He channeled more of his fire mana, using the energy to push back at the sharp edge of fear that writhed in his stomach like a living thing.
“We don’t have any other choice,” Finn whispered.
He wouldn’t let her die – not this time.
Chapter 40 - Blind
Awaken Online- Flame Page 41
