NOVEL NEXT Book Four: Expansion - Chapter Sixty-Nine: Alarm
Gazing at the ‘wall’, I realise that I can easily identify where the material changes from the stone protrusion which we struggled to climb around, into…something else. What fills the circular space between the protruding stone is a solid piece of some dark brown substance. It seems to be bound to the stone in some way, and certainly looks to be fixed solidly in place.
Tentatively reaching out to touch it, I am prepared for anything to happen. I even pull out my shield in case it explodes or turns into some slime monster and tries to attack me. More likely is that it will be poisonous on contact, but I have confidence that I will be able to deal with it in that case easily enough.
In the end, it’s none of those. Instead, it just…does nothing. It seems completely innocuous. After very lightly brushing the surface of the substance, I prod it slightly, then harder when it doesn’t react in any way. It’s cold, so I suspect that it isn’t living, whatever it is.
Instead, though it’s quite hard, it’s not like stone. Instead, it’s more like…a car tyre. Trying to make the tread of a car tyre yield to the pressure of a finger is difficult, but it doesn’t feel as impossible as when touching stone. That’s what this is like. Though there is no real give to it, it feels like there might be if I could apply enough pressure. Though, since even as much pressure as I can apply with my enhanced strength doesn’t make the smallest dent, I can’t help wondering at the strength of the beast which must have put it here.
Otherwise, the surface is pretty smooth, with only a few bumps and bubbles in it which might indicate that it was once liquid or something like that. It’s not immediately poisonous on contact, nor does it seem to be a slime monster – I should be rather relieved at that.
I do feel something slippery on my fingers which at first I think is poison. Then, when I see the gleam of it on my fingers, and the way it’s quickly absorbed into my skin, offering me a short-term significantly heightened Energy absorption rate, I know what it is. So this whole substance is saturated with liquid Energy? Or is it weakening and starting to leak Pure Energy?
I grow emboldened, moving from touching it tentatively with a finger to brushing more than one finger, and then to running my hand over the substance. As was indicated in the memories from the scouts, there are three large, round shapes embedded within.
Touching the shapes in turn, I find my eyebrows drawing together a little. Is it my imagination, or are they slightly…warm?
The lumps are large, about three times the size of my head. If these are eggs, then surely they indicate that the adult would be very large indeed. On the off-chance, I try to cast an Inspect at them, but it is inconclusive. Using Inspect Environment, I’m curious to see that the three orbs become ringed with gold. Or is that just the substance itself? Certainly, it seems to gleam with the hint of gold all over. Interesting.
As if my actions are some sort of cue, I abruptly feel a wave of alarm and urgency crash into me from Shrieks’ side of the Bond. The emotions are intentionally conveyed – it’s a signal.
“The others are under attack,” I tell my group, though they are probably already aware. “It’s most likely the creature.”
For a moment, I hesitate. Should we stay or should we go? If we had been still in the initial tunnel, we would have gone to help immediately. If we were already working on the problem and had a solution in front of us, we agreed that we would continue working and the outside group would try to delay the attacker as long as possible so we could finish the quest.
However, this is neither of those situations. It will take us a while to reach them even if we set off immediately, and we haven’t even begun to try to find a way of unblocking the Energy stream.
In the end, I make up my mind based on what seems the most urgent. The blockage doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, nor does it appear to be unstable in any way. The situation my Bound are in is likely to be far more pressing – Shrieks wouldn’t have sent that much emotion unless he was genuinely alarmed by the opponent.
“Come on everyone, we need to get back to the tunnel mouth as quickly as possible,” I tell them grimly.
There’s no discussion, no argument. Instead, we work together quickly and efficiently to get everyone out and then start making our way back through the tunnel. This time we’re not trying to be stealthy, quiet, or otherwise undetectable. That means we can move a lot faster. Hopefully it will be fast enough.
The journey back seems to both fly by and take forever. My mind is focused on the fight ahead, frustration going through me at the lack of knowledge of what we will be facing; what several of my Bound are already facing.
I’m actually slightly glad that it happened now: I can’t imagine choosing to continue working below when I had no idea how many were being hurt or dying above me. So even though it’s annoying to have been disrupted so early into our explorations, I’d rather waste a bit of time than a single life that our intervention could save.
As soon as we come into range, I reach out to my Bound to get more of an idea of the situation we’re running towards. Sirocco is the one to answer, and from the images she sends, I can see why: she’s the only one who is not actively involved in the battle. I send her gratitude for her scouting, and reaffirm her decision not to risk herself at this point.
The image which she sends to me makes my heart briefly skip a beat. It’s something that wouldn’t look out of place in a fantasy book from Earth. Something which has captivated the imaginations of humans since time immemorial.
It’s a dragon.
Or at least, that’s what it appears to be. From above, Sirocco sends me a picture of it: a reptilian body with a long neck and tail and bat-like wings. Other pictures of it show it from different angles. It has vicious fangs and long menacing claws on both front and back feet. Its back feet look designed for grabbing and snatching, carrying its prey away.
My stomach sinks within me at the thought that it might have already carried one of my Bound into the air with it, though Sirocco quickly reassures me that that’s not the case. Instead, from what she sends me, it appears that my Bound are very sensibly staying hidden under cover of the trees and undergrowth around as much as possible.
Unfortunately, its advantages don’t stop only with the physical. It has some sort of breath attack, though not fire as I would have imagined of a dragon. I don’t know whether that’s a good or bad thing – if it had had fire as an attack, potentially I could have turned it back on its wielder. On the other hand, perhaps it could have done that to me if it was more powerful or its mastery of its ability was greater than my mastery of my Skill.
Either way, it’s irrelevant as the attack seems to switch between a billowing mist and a stream of liquid which seems to be based on acid or something of the sort. The latter seems particularly powerful too, as can be seen of what happened when Lee and Thorn were unable to avoid it completely and were caught in the barest edge of the jet. Only Tarra’s healing potions were enough to prevent them from dying what looked to be like a very painful death, and even then, apparently they’re out of the fight for now. Two fighters down, when that wasn’t even a full hit with the attack!
We’re getting close to the end of the tunnel and already I can start to hear the faintest echoes of noise. This close, more of my Bound start chiming in with what they’ve experienced of the fight so far. They’re scared, willing to fight, yet not wanting to suffer what they saw Lee and Thorn suffer.
I do my best to send positive, optimistic feelings down the Bonds to each of them, or the equivalent in words depending on who I’m talking to – if they start breaking and running then this battle will definitely be lost.
The only really good thing about the fight so far, from what I can see, is that the main objective of the dragon isn’t to hunt the fighters outside. Instead, it appears to be just desperate to enter the tunnel, and it’s only fighting with my Bound because my Bound are stopping it from doing so.
It’s a pattern which has repeated itself several times now. The dragon sends out a nasty breath attack at anyone in sight, which makes everyone scatter and run to hide behind trees and rocks to keep out of the attack’s range. The dragon then banks and lands in front of the cave and starts trying to go in.
At which point, knowing that we’re inside the tunnel, my Bound start attacking it both at range and running in to attack at close quarters, clearly offering it more of a threat than it can ignore. The dragon takes off again, and once more sets out to drive away my Bound.
The problem is that this situation isn’t tenable. The area is becoming littered with pools of corrosive acid and caustic mist from the dragon’s breath attacks, and the dragon itself is clearly becoming more and more agitated. I’m worried that it may decide to change strategies – that it might decide that the little flies are worth squashing before it attempts to enter the tunnel.
Already, its use of teeth, wings, and tail mean that two more of my Bound have come close to death, only Tarra’ healing potions helping them cling to life. With the killing-machine’s sights set on them, I doubt my Bound will hold out for long.
Even worse: with the Pure Energy tunnel blocked, our only source of air is from the very area which is becoming more and more impregnated with corrosive mist. I fear that it won’t be long before we start being forced to breathe it in and that won’t do any of us good.
On the upside – the only one I can currently see – the dragon hasn’t yet shown any control over the earth, though that’s rather unexpected considering how the tunnel was made. Maybe it just hasn’t yet revealed all the abilities it has. That’s worrisomely likely, considering how powerful it probably is – just something else to keep in mind.
My brain races with ideas and I shove my thoughts down the links to the Bound with me who are likely to be able to offer some strategic advice. As we cover the last few metres of tunnel, we brainstorm ideas, thought racing across the network far faster than speech, urgency lending us wings to our heels.
Hold on, I tell my beleaguered Bound. We’re coming.