A feeling of euphoria overcame her as she stood upon the wall, looking down on the bowl-shaped section of the room ahead. She had solved the puzzle successfully, and – despite her husband almost dying – she felt a great sense of accomplishment. Everything about this place had been a challenge in some way or another; when she – they – finished each one, it felt great. They hadn’t been this challenged in years and it was only when she looked back at their past that she realized that everything they had done before this had been relatively easy. This place was turning out to be a real test of their abilities.
After Moxwell joined her up top, she apologized for rushing ahead; however, she wasn’t overly sorry about it – she enjoyed solving the puzzle too much. He seemed mollified, at least, and took the lead as they made their way cautiously across the stone bowl.
He appeared wary of traps in the center, so he took her on a pathway that was equally between the middle and the sides. She thought this made sense; if anything were to happen, it would probably be in one of those two places. They were halfway across when they heard a faint click from above them.
Moxwell quickly jumped back, placing his body in between her and whatever might be coming at them. Even with him all up in her business, she was still able to see…something…that she had no words for.
Two large thin doors – attached to the ceiling with heavy-duty stone hinges – originally formed a square that centered above the entire bowl. When those doors swung open, a cascade of multi-colored balls of fluff rained down on them. Before she was enveloped in them, she could see purple, blue, green, red, yellow, and orange ones; a detached part of her mind remembered that those were the colors on the foot and hand-holds on the wall they just climbed. Unfortunately, that was all she had time to think about before she was buried in a churning mass of miniature beasts.
While they were fantastically colorful, the little balls of fluff were in actuality tiny, six-legged wolves with sharp teeth and claws. Singly, they weren’t much of a threat; in fact, they were kind of cute because they were all smaller than the size of her fist. A thousand of those tiny wolves was a different matter.
They spilled over her air shield without doing any damage, but as she was progressively surrounded in a sea of biting and scratching it began to take a toll on her barrier. She began to pump more power into strengthening her shield, as the constant barrage was rapidly eroding its stability. Overall, though, she wasn’t in any real danger.
Moxwell, on the other hand, didn’t have a barrier of air surrounding him. Instead, Rosewyn could hear lots of little *tings* as teeth and claws assaulted his armor. The only exposed part of him was his head, but he was able to move fast enough to avoid having his beautiful face marred by the tiny creatures. At least, that was until one of them managed to squeeze through one of the holes in his back that was made by the spikes earlier.
He couldn’t get it out, but he could strengthen his own skin to prevent it from penetrating into anything vital. It took a bit of his power to do that, but he didn’t appear to care as Rosewyn watched him lay about with his sword in a frenzied dance of death and destruction that had balls of fluff flying everywhere.
She wasn’t idle during all of this, either. She moved away from her frantically chopping and slicing husband and created a vortex of air that surrounded her and extended out five feet. The tiny wolves were light enough that they were sucked up into the whirlwind, tens of them at first but then hundreds of other ones slowly joined them. She gradually pumped more power into her creation, widening its area of influence and it picked up speed as it rotated faster and faster with her in the eye of the growing tornado.
Once it reached half the size of the bowl they were standing in, almost all the tiny wolves were spinning around in a colorful display of power and ability. Moxwell had seen what she was doing and moved up to the edge of the room, bracing himself against the wall to prevent being sucked into the powerful vortex as well. When she was sure all that she could reach were inside the miniature tornado, Rosewyn started to compress the whirling mass of air and tiny wolves into a ball above her head.
When they were tightly compacted, she swirled the concentrated air even faster, before she launched it at the far wall. She could’ve tightened the ball even more, crushing everything inside her created ball of air, but she didn’t want to wade through the blood and guts it would have created once it reached critical levels. Instead, the vortex of compacted air and bodies hit the wall in an explosion of colors (although, to be fair, there was a lot more red mixed in now), raining blood and body parts down on whatever was below.
She collapsed to her knees afterward, the strain of using that much power was exhausting. Although she could easily afford to use that quantity of power compared to her massive pool, it was still hard to channel that much into a single thing. Once her breathing settled back to normal, she felt inside herself and realized she used a bit more than she was expecting – she was down to about a third of her maximum power pool.
She pulled out one of the two Power Potions they were provided by Cordpower and gulped it down. As she felt it beginning to replenish her power, she looked over and started laughing.
“Help me with this damn thing! I can’t get it out! It’s starting to tickle now…help!” Moxwell yelled out, as he rolled along the ground in an ineffective attempt to crush the tiny wolf that got inside his armor. It was so funny that Rosewyn couldn’t stop laughing, and she laughed even harder as he stood up and backed up against the wall at a run, hoping to flatten it with that method.
Eventually, he tore off his backplate and tried to grab the wily wolf, who was avoiding his hands while crawling around inside his shirt. She finally took pity on him and snatched it out with a flick of her Air affinity. He grabbed it out of the air in a fit of annoyance and threw it against the wall, where it flattened and almost stuck to it because he used so much force.
“Ha, take that, bastard!” he yelled at the corpse of the tiny wolf, as it slid down the wall.
He sheepishly looked at her, embarrassed at his display of anger, but she just laughed harder. She had essentially just done the same thing, although she did hers without anger or malice. And he wasn’t really angry – more like annoyed at the tiny thing that was tickling him.
He had also been given two Power Potions and he took one out, now having the need of it after everything he used his power on so far. She could tell that it most likely filled him up completely after a few minutes, whereas her own pool was only about 80% full. It had been quite a few years since one Power Potion was able to fill her up completely.
Together, they walked over to the edge of the bowl where they hoped the exit was located. When they reached the edge of the wall, they looked down onto a disgusting mess. The floor, which, similar to the entrance, was about 25 feet down and covered in more spikes. And, now, those spikes were covered in the remains of nearly 1,000 of the tiny furry wolves. Rosewyn was just glad that Moxwell hadn’t tried to run and jump down when they were attacked – that would’ve ended with a nasty surprise.
A very small staircase led down from the top of the wall to the floor, which led to the exit. Moxwell took the steps down cautiously, ever aware that there might be more traps ahead. He especially looked at the spikes on the floor and the wall next to him, most likely thinking that this would be a perfect opportunity to push him off and into the spikes.
There was a trap, but it was something they weren’t expecting. Instead of another spring-loaded portion of the wall trying to push him off, the entire staircase collapsed into the wall, leaving Moxwell to fall straight into the spikes.
Fortunately for his health, Rosewyn was waiting at the top of the wall and was ready when he fell. With a quick but powerfully-directed explosion of air, she caused the area underneath him to propel her husband upwards and forwards, so that he landed in the clear area near the door. He landed on his face as he skidded along the floor, but it was better than getting impaled by stone spikes again.
<
br /> “Why didn’t you do that in the first place? You could have just floated me down,” he said as he picked himself up and felt his face for any damage.
“I didn’t want to use any more power than I had to – we already had to use half of our Power Potion supply, and we still don’t know what this place has in store for us,” she replied as she walked along the wall to where he was standing, “alright, catch!”
Rosewyn jumped off the wall toward her husband, rightly knowing he would easily catch her before she hit the ground. With a quick burst of speed, he aligned himself to where she was going to land and caught her gently in his arms. Well, as gentle as landing on armor-covered arms can be. At least I have my shield of air to cushion me.
She moved her barrier away from her face and gave him a long kiss while in his arms. When she pulled away, she looked in his eyes and said, “I love you, Moxwell. I’m glad your face is ok.”
She smiled when he replied, “And I love you, Rosewyn. Now, as much as I love holding you in my arms, let’s keep going so we can get out of here.”
“Agreed. I can’t wait to retire and spend the rest of my life with you,” she added, jumping down from his loving arms.
“Me neither,” he said, as he led the way into the tunnel connecting to the next room.
Chapter 35 – A small, tiny, little problem
“Did you say Moxwell and Rosewyn?” Whisp asked, a look of worry crossing her face.
“Yes, why? What’s wrong?”
“If they are same ones I’m thinking about, they are legends in the Guardian Guild. I haven’t met them before, but everyone has heard about them. There are so many stories of them fighting against hordes of deadly creatures and living to fight again. They’ve been an important part of why we never had to worry about being overrun by another Beast War,” she replied, with a touch of reverence in her tone.
“So, why do you think they are here now? From what I’ve heard them speak of so far, they were obviously sent by Cordpower. They don’t seem like they need the money or power that they could provide – so, why? Although they did mention retirement.”
“I don’t know. Maybe the Company offered them something they couldn’t refuse. Doesn’t matter though – they’re here and I doubt there is anything we could do to stop them. You’ve seen their power already; if you only knew the stories about them you’d be shaking in your figurative boots. If they are determined to get to you, I’d almost say let them. Maybe you can negotiate or something. They’re supposed to be reasonable – if powerful – people, not like the thugs and criminals you’ve seen so far,” Whisp said with disgust at the two groups that had assaulted Milton before.
She was right – they did seem quite a bit different. Occasionally, they appeared to be a pair of newlyweds that were taking a stroll through his quaint dungeon; mostly, though, they showed their supposed legendary strength by completely decimating whatever he threw at them.
But he wasn’t ready to give up yet. Although listening to their professions of love made him more hesitant to kill them, he still was trying to save himself, as well as Whisp, Brint, and ALANNA. He would negotiate if he had no other choice; otherwise he would do what he could to discourage their advancement though his dungeon.
ALANNA had other ideas, however.
“Oooh, that would be so neat if they were able to help us! Just give them a bunch of your waste water and ask them to join the fight against corporate oppression! They are so powerful that they could help protect against whatever they sent after us! We wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked ever again! Woohoo! Yay!!”
Despite her bubbly attitude and fanciful words, Milton realized that she did have a point. With them on his “side” – at least temporarily – he could concentrate on mining the Quizard Mountains without having to worry about reprisals from the powerful Cordpower Company.
He would give it some serious thought.
As it was, though, he would see how they handled the next few rooms and he would decide from there. He still had some time.
Now, where the heck is Brint?
* * *
Brint was pushing his remaining Combat Units as fast as he could up the sloping hallways that led down to that horrific nightmare. He was limited by the speed of his Quanks, who could only move as fast a swift-walking Proctan. Though he was tempted to leave them behind so that he could escape from that place faster, he didn’t want to risk being without his main defenders if he ran across another Quizard patrol.
Hours later, he was relieved when the connection to The Milton was reestablished and the power to the sensor orbs was reinstated. He knew he was close to exiting now since it wasn’t that far down when they lost power and their light. He slowly turned up the lights again, not caring if it blinded his Units a little – he wanted to see again.
He pushed them harder, encouraging them to pick up a little speed so that they could gather up the drones and their guards he had left up above. He was so anxious he didn’t even think about contacting The Milton about what he saw; he just wanted to get out of that place and didn’t want to think about what he’d seen. There would be plenty of time to recount everything – when he was far, far away.
Once he thought he was close enough, he tried to connect with the Qwizard he had left guarding the mining drones. When he couldn’t locate it, he tried the Quank with a similar result. The drones and equipment were a no-go as well. I must be too far down still – whatever had interfered with the connection to The Milton must still be in effect.
When they could see the glowing red and green lights coming from the cave above, he knew that he should be able to find them at that point. When he tried again without success, he pulled up the Tactical Map and didn’t see them on there either. He could see himself and the Units he had with them, but as for the others – they were missing. As he closed the Map, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding at what they would find.
If they were attacked by another 100 or so Quizards, they were probably overwhelmed. That will set back production by a lot, but I think we have bigger problems now.
When he finally entered the cavern, he was momentarily blinded by the light from the glowing rocks sprinkled throughout. When his vision cleared, his eyes immediately found what was left of the punitive force he had left there.
They were all dead and destroyed, pieces of Qwizard and Quank mixed in with drone parts and the remains of the Molecular Converter. They appeared to have been ripped apart, as if the Quizards that had found them knew about their friends that were slaughtered earlier and wanted revenge.
As he got closer, he could see that even the Generator had been destroyed; it lay on the ground near the wall, all bent and misshapen. Actually, when he got close enough he realized that it was still partially active – he could feel the power hidden inside, but it was so damaged it was unable to connect to anything. He picked it up and looked it over, before putting it in the bag containing extra Power Potions around his shoulder. He would bring it back and see if The Milton could repair it.
He looked around the battlesite and something nagged at him. Something just didn’t feel right, and it took his stressed mind a couple of seconds before it occurred to him.
There were no enemy bodies.
Theoretically, even if they were overwhelmed by a surge of Quizards, his Qwizard alone could probably account for at least a couple up to maybe a dozen before it was taken down. He supposed that the Quizards could have taken the bodies with them when they left; however, the fact that he didn’t see any evidence of where any of the corpses may have lain was worrisome. And the blood was still wet along the floor, and there was only enough splattered around to account for his own Combat Units, and there was no evidence that anything was cut by Quizard claws, and his Quank seemed to be beaten to a pulp and then ripped apart…
This was all going through his head as the realization of his fears roared behind him. It almost seemed to shake the room as much as it shook him. The tremend
ous primal scream was a mixture of a large monkey and a bear, flawlessly blending the two of them together to produce a sound that chilled him to the bone.
Shivering in fear, he turned his head to see one of the nightmarish creatures from down below staring in his direction from the entrance of the cavern. They looked at each other and time seemed to pause as he took in the hulking monstrosity. Now that he could see it closer, he could see that it was indeed over 20 feet tall; although, it was a little hard to tell because it was bent over slightly, resting its front half on balled up fists attached to long arms that were larger than his whole body.
Covering its whole body was a short dark-brown fur, interrupted by a patch of skin on its front that defined its pectoral musculature. Its powerful hands and feet were also devoid of fur, and the lighter-brown color of its skin contrasted with the rest of its body.
From the neck up, however, it had the head of a brown bear with powerful jaws, still stained and dripping blood that most likely came from his Combat Units. It also appeared too large for the rest of its body; although, that didn’t seem to faze it since it looked like it had more than enough strength to support the massive noggin.
Where did that thing come from? Why is it here? How did it get here from down below?
None of those questions mattered, as after the brief moment Brint had to assess the horrific creature it was amongst his Raid Group. Before he knew it, it had closed the 50-foot gap between them and had backhanded on of his Quanks, knocking it against the nearby wall with so much force that Brint could hear its bones crack from where he was sitting on the top of the Quartermaster.
The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2) Page 24
