Bastial Energy (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 1)

by Narro, B. T.

  “No,” she began to answer, “that’s not—”

  Terren held up his hand to quiet her. His head shifted sideways as if to listen. Effie strained her ears as well. She heard what sounded like shouts in the distance. They were distinctly not that of a Human and couldn’t be the feeble voice of a Slugari, either. It sounded like nothing she’d heard before—a cross between Terren’s low voice and the aggressive roar of a tiger.

  Krepps, she realized with sudden tension in her stomach. They’re close.

  Another Slugari slithered around the turn in a panic. Right behind it was a Krepp who looked to be at least a whole head taller than Zoke. His massive size froze Effie. He grabbed the Slugari by the tail. Out from his mouth swirled a long tongue that was there and gone in a blink, the Slugari squealing like a baby pig about to be slaughtered.

  When Effie finally composed herself and started gathering the energy for a fireball, the Krepp dropped the Slugari to clutch his chest, falling to the ground and writhing in pain. Effie kept the energy static within her stomach when she saw Terren and Alex run to the incapacitated Krepp and stab him with their swords.

  The dropped Slugari looked around with small gray eyes before it squeaked out something in Slugaren and slithered past them.

  Two more Krepps came around the turn next. Effie cast a torso-sized fireball into the chest of one of them. It disappeared into his flesh, sending his smoking body sliding across the dirt toward Steffen, who released an arrow into his chest. The other Krepp was taken by psyche, his weapon falling to the ground before his claws had even closed around its handle. This time Zoke was the first to drive his weapon into the enemy’s chest.

  They saw a dozen more Slugari before another Krepp. Like the Krepps before, his eyes grew wide in surprise when he saw them, and he was dead before he could draw his sword.

  This continued long enough for Effie to grow confident that nothing could get by them. That is, until a group of five Krepps came through while Effie and the others were still finishing off two others. Some of these new Krepps had bows, and one of them had his yellow eyes set on Effie.

  She hurried to cast before he could pull back his string. Without enough time, she fired only a small fireball that hit him in the stomach. It curled him over and took him back a step, but he regained his posture and quickly readied the arrow before she could cast another.

  She saw that Terren, Alex, and Zoke were engaged with the Krepps behind him. Her heart stopped as the realization set in that there was nothing more she could do before he shot. She caught sight of Alex’s sword slicing across one of the Krepps, and in one motion, his sword came around to take the head off the Krepp about to shoot her.

  There was only one left, and suddenly she felt a strong urge not to see him die. She lowered her wand and found others were lowering their weapons as well. Vithos had his palm pressed against the Krepp’s forehead, saying something in Kreppen.

  They spoke back and forth twice before Vithos thrust his dagger into the Krepp’s chest.

  Zoke translated for them. “There are only a few Slugari still alive out there, too far to make it here,” he said. “And Vithos wanted to know how far Doe is from here. The Krepp didn’t know. I’m not sure why Vithos even asked.”

  Zoke transitioned into Kreppen to say something, but Vithos didn’t respond.

  “Then it’s time we exit,” Terren said, wiping the blood from his sword on the leather pants of a nearby dead Krepp.

  They ran to the Dajrik. Effie figured he must have seen them fighting from where he stood. She found herself wondering what his thoughts were. She hoped observing from the side wasn’t good enough for the Dajrik, that it made him eager to fight, but his relaxed body language told none of that.

  “Hurry,” Steffen said, being the last one past the Dajrik. “They’re coming behind us.”

  As Steffen started transitioning to Slugaren, Effie looked for herself. He was right. There were maybe ten Krepps running toward them. Their speed was frightening. Their strides were long but also quick, inhumanly quick.

  The Dajrik had its massive fingers into the crevice of a plank of wood over the entrance to the thin tunnel. The rocks must have been stacked above it. The Dajrik wailed and grunted as he pushed, but it wouldn’t move.

  “Reela,” Effie called, growing more nervous with each beat of her thumping heart. “Anything you can do?”

  “They’re too far.” Reela’s voice held the same panic that Effie felt. “Vithos?”

  “Too far,” he agreed.

  So Effie readied as much energy as she could, though she knew it would never be enough.

  The Krepps stopped and yelled at each other in Kreppen. Three of them had bows and began drawing an arrow.

  Steffen already had his arrow ready and released. It pierced the chest of one of their archers, who fell with a squeal. Effie cast a fireball right after. The Krepps were so far she had to arc the shot. She was inexperienced with distance casting, so the fireball landed in front of them. It caused an explosion of dirt to splash in their faces, stopping them for the moment but not long enough, for the Dajrik still hadn’t moved the wood.

  The Dajrik was roaring now. It was as one would expect a giant to roar, a mix between a man and a bear. The plank of wood moved slightly, causing some dust and dirt to sprinkle down, but the Krepp archers were ready to shoot now.

  They released their arrows at once. Effie fell on reflex to get low. She felt Alex come down on top of her, either by coincidence or to cover her, she couldn’t tell. The roar of the Dajrik changed into a growl of pain as he staggered back a step. Both arrows had found their way to his body. The archers readied for another shot before the Dajrik could get his hands on the wood again.

  Vithos stormed out, his long hair thrashing back and forth. He was sprinting as if he was running away from certain death, not toward it. Vithos threw his hands out before the archers could release the next set of arrows. All of the Krepps fell to the ground, their bodies curled in pain.

  “Vithos!” Reela desperately cried out to him. “Steffen, tell the Dajrik to wait.”

  “No!” Vithos shouted back. “Leave!”

  Krepps were streaming through the turn by then, too many to count. They flooded into the skinny room like a river bursting through a dam.

  Reela started out from between the legs of the Dajrik, but Vithos raised one hand to her with the other still aimed at the Krepps. “Stop! Go back!” He seemed to be shaking, like he was using all his strength to keep a wall from collapsing.

  Terren sped out to grab Reela. He hoisted her up with an arm around her stomach and dragged her back toward the thin tunnel while she shouted for Vithos to run to them. But the Elf remained, holding his arms toward the Krepps to debilitate them with pain.

  The moment Terren and Reela returned, there was a loud crack from the wood above, and the rocks started coming down hard like a waterfall. The Dajrik pushed everyone back as he too moved away from the hundreds of rocks slamming down in front of them.

  When the sound of stone crashing against itself stopped, it had ended so quick Effie still hadn’t comprehended what had happened. But Vithos is on the other side? How’s he going to get through?

  There was a dust so thick Effie thought it had caused everything to go black. But then she realized the tunnel had just become too dark to see because their only source of light was on the other side…the side with all the Krepps—all the Krepps and Vithos. That’s when she started to realize that Vithos wasn’t coming through, not now, not ever.

  She pushed energy through her wand to create her own light so they could see. The Dajrik walked past them and said something in Slugaren as he pulled the arrows from his stomach and chest.

  “He says to follow him.” Steffen’s voice was a murmur.

  Reela had collapsed to her knees. Effie knelt and slipped her knees in between Reela’s to hug her tightly. Reela rested her chin on Effie’s shoulder and squeezed her as well.

  “We have to go.”
Terren spoke as if he didn’t wish to follow his own order. “There’s still another tunnel to collapse so they can never find the correct route through the maze.”

  Reela lifted her sniffling nose off Effie’s shoulder. “I know,” she said softly and let Effie help her up. When they rose, Effie found Zoke staring absently at the rocks.

  “Vithos…goodbye,” he whispered. “And thank you.” His tone was utterly morose, full of pain.

  It was the first time Effie had heard him say “thank you.” There had been many times she’d expected to hear it from him—after passing him his share of their dinner, after giving him a compliment—but he never said it. She’d figured Krepps just didn’t.

  But now that he had, and for reasons she couldn’t understand, it made her weep uncontrollably.

  Chapter 65: Mazed

  ZETI

  “Paramar,” Zeti called to stop him.

  He ignored her, tramping forward without pause. “The Slugari are nearby. I can smell them.”

  They came to another fork in the maze, maybe the tenth since they’d entered. Zeti had lost track. Paramar sniffed in each direction. “This way, hurry.” He pointed with the light-giving plant he’d picked. It was the only source of light they had, and it was quickly dimming.

  “We’ve gone too far,” she desperately tried to tell him as she held her feet in place. But the moment he was five steps away, darkness fell upon her so thick it gave her a panic like jumping into freezing water. She scurried after him. “Paramar, stop. We’re lost.”

  “Doe sent us after the Slugari that went this way, and we’re going to find them.”

  They came to another fork, this one with three options. Paramar squatted, holding the light-giving plant to the ground. “Do these look like Slugari tracks to you?”

  She squatted next to him, squinting. “I don’t know. This dirt is so tough even our tracks can barely be seen. When that light goes out, which looks to be happening soon, we’ll be stuck in here. We need to leave now, while we can still see our tracks.”

  “I’m not willing to give up on all the Slugari that made it this far.” Paramar’s tone was strict. Anger seemed to have boiled past reason. He let out a loud curse, then said, “They think a maze can hide them? We’ve dug through nearly fifty yards of dirt, and they think we can’t figure out a maze?” He spat.

  “We’ve got them, Paramar, thousands of them. We can let some get away. We need to go back while we still have enough light. Don’t you want to see what happened with the Slugari that went the other way? Surely the Krepps chasing them couldn’t have made the same mistake that we did.”

  They hadn’t searched for the exit; that was their mistake. They were too busy chasing after the nearest Slugari to worry about the ones near the perimeter. Zeti and Paramar were among the first to drop into the cavern, just after Doe. And just like Zeti and Paramar, the next five hundred Krepps to follow were too overwhelmed with excitement to listen to Doe’s orders.

  He’d told them to ignore the Slugari nearby, seek out the ones farthest first, and then come back to intercept the rest. Doe put Paramar in charge of all the Slugari on one side of the breach while he took the other side. The five hundred Krepps split, half following Paramar, the other half following Doe.

  But Doe didn’t realize how impossible it was for the Krepps to simply pass by thousands of fleeing Slugari. The amount of saliva Zeti’s mouth was producing as she tried to ignore their overwhelming scent was enough for a lifetime. As other Krepps around her began succumbing to their urge, so did she and Paramar. They shot, stabbed, and clawed, killing any way they knew how. The Slugari didn’t even fight back, just squealed in terror.

  Before she even was aware what she’d done, her belly was so full of Slugari meat she could barely run. She even vomited but didn’t mind. The Slugari were endless, so she could fill her stomach once again. At least that’s what she’d thought.

  But each time they came to a turn in the cavern, there were fewer Slugari than in the last room. The more they killed and ate, the farther the rest of the Slugari were ahead. Catching up soon became impossible.

  They killed many more before finally reaching the maze and knew hundreds had to have escaped. They had failed Doe, directly disobeyed his order. Now, Paramar seemed as if he would rather die in a pitch black maze than face Doe, but Zeti wouldn’t let that happen, not if she could help it.

  The quiet darkness, the uncertainty of whether she was going deeper into the maze or working her way out, the shame of dying because she was too stubborn to admit she’d made a mistake—she would rather face Doe, albeit only slightly.

  Paramar ignored her, though, running his fingertips along the dirt instead. He was searching for a trail that might not even exist.

  A sound caught her attention. She listened closer and realized it was footsteps, definitely not a Slugari. They had to be of another Krepp. Without pride stopping her, she shouted, “We’re lost in here! Zeti and Para—”

  Paramar slapped a hand over her mouth, and complete silence followed. Whoever the footsteps belonged to moved no farther.

  The light from the plant Paramar had picked outside the maze was dying even faster now. It must have been a fourth of what it was when they’d entered. The light it gave off wasn’t enough even to see whether someone was in the same hallway as them.

  A voice surprised her. “Zeti?” he asked. “Did you say Zeti?”

  A terrorizing chill stopped her from thinking, for she realized to whom the voice belonged. Paramar slowly lifted his hand from her mouth. Quietly, he pulled his sword from the sheath on his belt.

  “Zeti, who else is with you? Is it Paramar?”

  Zeti was too shocked to speak.

  “Yes, I’m here,” Paramar said with angry disbelief. “How did you get by everyone?”

  “A few hundred overstuffed, vomiting Krepps. It wasn’t impossible. Quite difficult, yes, but not impossible.”

  “What about Doe?” Paramar asked. “Did you see him?”

  “No, unfortunately, he wasn’t along the path I took from the other side of the cavern. He and I have a lot to discuss, but that’ll have to be the next time we meet…”

  Silence.

  Zeti took a step away from the direction of the voice but kept close to Paramar.

  “Now, if I cross paths with you and Zeti in this maze, what will happen?” The footsteps picked up again. Neither Zeti nor Paramar gave an answer, just listened in silence. He’s coming closer to us, she realized by the sound of his feet.

  Suddenly, light flooded into their hall from the left side of a fork ahead. The light brightened as the footsteps grew louder. His clawless, pale hand was the first to follow the light around the turn. It held another light-giving plant, much brighter than Paramar’s.

  By the look of it, he couldn’t have been in the maze nearly as long as they had. When he brought the rest of his body into view, she was intrigued to find a smile on his face. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled, if ever.

  “So here we are,” Vithos said.

  Zeti reached a hand toward her bow, but Paramar grabbed her by the wrist. “That won’t help,” he said. “Psyche would stop you before you drew an arrow.” He slid his sword back into its sheath.

  As the three of them stared in silence, Zeti’s wits started returning. I have questions for him, she realized, questions I never thought I’d get to ask. Her heart beat harder against her chest as a nervous feeling swelled in her stomach. Paramar had let go of her wrist, and she replaced his grasp with her own hand. It brought some comfort to hold herself as she thought of what to say first. The most obvious question came to mind then.

  “Where’s Zoke?”

  “I don’t know. We had to separate, but he’s alive.”

  A hurricane of questions swirled around her mind next, but as she thought of them, she realized they each had an answer she already knew. Why didn’t he come back? Because he would have been killed as a traitor. How did he know that? He’s
smart, must have figured it out. Does he miss me as much as I miss him? Paramar can’t hear me ask that.

  “Has he said anything about me?”

  “I have a very good memory.” Vithos paused for a slow breath but held his smile. “Not only do I remember the way out of this maze, I remember everything Zoke said about you. I remember everything he felt whenever he spoke of you. He would die before harming you, Zeti.”

  Vithos confidently walked toward her as he spoke, reaching out his pale hand. “Come with me, and I’ll tell you everything. Even better, I’ll bring you to him. I may not know where he is at this moment, but I’ll find him again.”

  The Elf was so close now that Paramar could’ve touched him with the end of his sword if it had still been drawn.

  “He wants to see you, Zeti. I’m sure you want to see him as well. I know the feeling of being separated from your family for reasons outside of your control. I’ve known nothing to be worse, but I’ve also never known anything to make me stronger than the determination to be with them once again.”

  Vithos was so steadfast it frightened her just to stand before him. If he needed to get by them he would, and just being in his way could be dangerous.

  Her hands dropped to her sides as she began to consider the thought. It was pleasant to think of seeing Zoke again. She could feel hope—the same hope she thought would never return. But then she realized they would only have a few months together before the army of Krepps destroyed the Humans, and she and Zoke along with them.

  Vithos turned to Paramar as Zeti pondered. “What about you, old friend? Will you join us?”

  Paramar spat. “As much as I miss our jokes, I’m the most important Krepp of this tribe, and no joke can be better than Slugari meat.” He squeezed Zeti’s shoulder. “We’re staying. Tell us the way back. We’ll let you by.”