Chapter 146: Deeper

The giant leech didn't do anything after Elbek's corpse left its mouth. It tried to crawl toward its prey, but it seemed to have problems moving its body in its stretched state.

Khan inspected the leech for a few seconds and confirmed that it wouldn't attack before moving his attention to the corpse. He had known Elbek for a mere week, so his death didn't affect him too much. Yet, the event still swept his mind with a wave of sadness that he couldn't suppress.

The two girls experienced stronger feelings at that scene. Liiza was relatively better off since she didn't have close relationships with her peers. However, she had known most of the students in the academy for years due to her mother's unique role in the Niqols' society, and she couldn't help but take Khan's hand while her eyes remained on the corpse.

Instead, Azni's world turned upside-down. She had shared countless parties with Elbek, and the boy had even attended many lessons with her.

The Niqols' way of life often put students in front of dangers since the elders made them handle monsters and similar threats. However, the death of a friend remained a tough event to endure. Azni had it even worse since Elbek was her first companion lost in a mission.

The leech screeched as its mouth started to shrink, but Khan promptly slammed his foot at the center of its body. The creature voiced a high-pitched painful cry, but it didn't turn its attention away from its prey. It even tried to rely on its elastic body to reach it, but Khan kept it still.

The cave was so silent that Khan didn't miss Liiza's gulp. He allowed himself to ignore his pretense at that point. He pulled his girlfriend close and wrapped his free arm around her while making sure to caress her back.

Khan wasn't a stranger to death. He had accepted it during the Second Impact, and Istrone's crisis had made him grow used to it. Elbek's corpse only managed to generate sadness inside him, but it didn't stop his mind from gathering information.

Elbek's corpse didn't show any visible deadly injury except for the melted skin. Some strands of white hair and a few patches of skin were still in place and revealed his identity, but Khan didn't manage to find anything that could have caused his death before the arrival of the big leech. Turning the body on the other side with his free leg only confirmed that the creature had killed him.

'We have been lucky,' Khan concluded in his mind after his inspection.

Elbek couldn't be weak since he had earned a spot in that mission. He was still in the first year, but the Niqols didn't use that to describe a student's battle prowess.

The lack of evident injuries confirmed that the fall didn't kill Elbek. The big leech had probably taken the Niqols by surprise while the rivers of ground submerged him. Even Khan would have died in those conditions, so he couldn't help but consider himself lucky to have met only the small versions.

His embrace tightened when those conclusions reached his mind. Liiza had also been lucky, and he couldn't help but feel grateful about that. The girl had continued to stare at the corpse even after Khan had taken her into her arms. Still, she turned her worried gaze toward him when she felt his reaction.

Khan limited himself to move his hand on the back of Liiza's head and pull her even closer. He immersed his face in her long white hair and bathed in her scent. Feeling happy about that outcome wasn't good, but he didn't care. He felt glad that the big leech found Elbek instead of her.

A sob forced the couple to turn toward Azni. Tears had started to fall from the girl's eyes as they remained fixed on the corpse. The scene generated another wave of sadness inside Khan, but he didn't know what to do to console her.

Surprisingly, Liiza made the first move. She left a kiss on Khan's bare shoulder before gently pushing him away and taking Azni's hands into hers. The latter sobbed again when their fingers touched, and she felt unable to oppose Liiza pulling her into her chest.

Liiza was an outcast, but she still knew how to behave in those situations. Also, she could understand Azni's pain, even if it weren't as intense for her.

Khan sighed and placed a hand on Azni's shoulder to express his emotional support. His other hand went on Liiza's head, and she turned to show a complicated expression to him.

Azni continued to cry while Liiza held her. Meanwhile, the latter continued to stare at Khan. No one knew what to do in that situation, but Khan had more experience, so he eventually decided to divert his attention from that sad moment.

The big leech had almost regained its original form during those minutes. It had even shown some agility while stretching its elastic body toward the partially melted Elbek. Its abilities were coming back, but Khan wouldn't let it live that long.

Khan left the two Niqols and pointed the entirety of his weight on the foot keeping the leech still. His other leg bent until his knee touched his chest before unleashing the accumulated power downward.

His attack created a foot-shaped hole that pierced both sides of the leech's mouth. Khan didn't know how tough a creature of that size was, but he saw that it continued to move, so he didn't hesitate to repeat his technique.

The leech stopped moving when Khan removed a quarter of its body. Azni trembled every time an attack landed on the ground, but she didn't say anything. Liiza only held her tightly to make her forget about that event.

Khan's attention moved toward the pile of soil at that point. He checked the hole in the ceiling standing right above it to make sure that no big leech tried to ambush him and moved forward after confirming the absence of threats.

Using his hands to dig through the soil was too dangerous, so Khan performed light kicks that dismembered the pile little by little. A few small leeches reappeared when he reached its deepest parts, but taking care of them while his leg was already in the air was far too easy.

His action wasn't meaningless, and his eyes lit up when he found what he was looking for. A torn backpack full of leeches appeared in his eyes when he reached the other side of the pile, and he didn't hesitate to grab it while killing all the creatures he found.

'Hopefully we can retrieve another one,' Khan thought while emptying the backpack's contents to take care of the remaining leeches.

Azni ended up in that part of the underground structure without her backpack, so it had probably remained above the rocky ceiling that prevented the group from using their Aduns to leave. The trio could only hope to find another one while looking for the other Niqols.

A few leeches came out when Khan emptied the backpack. They ate the pinkish flowers even if their properties made them sleepy and slow. Those simple creatures didn't seem to care about the nature of their food as long as it contained mana.

Khan squashed the leeches quickly and fixed the backpack as best as he could. The creatures had filled it with holes, but Khan had lived in the Slums. He knew how to patch it up through special knots that inevitably diminished its capacity.

Khan proceeded to put the flowers back into the backpack after checking that the knots held strong, and two pairs of hands suddenly joined him. Liiza showed a sad smile when he gazed at her, but Azni kept her eyes fixed on the ground to focus on the task. A few tears still fell from her face, but she was able to suppress her sobs now.

Khan wanted to give the backpack to Liiza after the group finished filling it, but Azni took it without giving any explanation. Her determined face prevented her companions from complaining, so the three left the cave without glancing at the corpse again. The ceiling was even too high there, so none of them dared to suggest climbing out of that hole.

The march through the underground area resumed, but the atmosphere among the group was far heavier than before. Elbek's death had completely changed their mood, and no one dared to speak even if they had discovered a crucial detail of that lair.

The big leech was a monster, and Khan had no doubts about it. The creature was identical to its smaller version. The mutation had only affected its size.

That discovery led to positive and negative conclusions. Khan could confirm that the mutations weren't too scary. A mere change in size was something that he could handle without help. He had even confirmed that his kicks could pierce the leech from side to side.

Still, that weakness led to his negative conclusions. After all, the big leech was too small to cause that mess in the underground world. It didn't make sense for only one of them to create such an intricate and deep structure. There had to be more monsters, and that hinted at the presence of different mutations.

It was almost impossible for mana to cause identical mutations on two different beings. The pack of leeches had probably fed on the same animals and plants, but they remained separated beings. Khan couldn't use the big leech to predict what abilities the other monsters had developed, but he felt relatively sure that all of them would feature increased size.

The mutations had to be different, but they could share similar effects at their base, especially in a pack that had lived in the same environment and fed on the same things. Moreover, the width of the underground structure forced Khan to think that the other monsters had to be big enough to dig something so vast. It almost felt necessary when he thought about it.

The short meetings with small leeches resumed. Those creatures seemed to occupy every soft spot of the underground structure, and the group learnt to recognize them as their walk continued. It felt strange that they failed to encounter other students on their path, but everything became clear when the ceiling above them stopped featuring holes.

Khan had kept track of his movements, and the two Niqols also had a great sense of direction. They could calculate that they had long since circled the areas beneath the flowery regions. The disappearance of holes in the ceiling showed that the leeches didn't dig those parts.

"Maybe they ended up on the other side," Liiza suggested after Khan stopped for the fifth time to inspect the area.

"I don't know how smart it is to continue on this path," Khan revealed. "We know that most of the previous region has crumbled, but we don't know anything about the others. I'd avoid testing their stability."

The group didn't know how much of the land had crumbled after the earthquake. Khan didn't want to go on the regions on the other side of the flowery area only to cause another mess with his noise. He would rather find a way toward the surface in zones that had already stabilized after falling apart.

However, the previous tunnel didn't show any viable way toward the surface. Khan's group didn't explore many cavities, and they had even avoided reaching the end of the path in the opposite direction, but they hesitated to take one of those ways.

The opposite direction led toward the regions that didn't feature cracks on their surface. Khan had avoided them because he wanted to find Liiza, but they also had fewer chances of featuring paths that could lead outside of the underground area. 

Also, finding tunnels that went upward didn't necessarily mean a connection to the surface since those areas could lead to the intact regions. The highest chances of the group were on the already crumbled lands, but that meant venturing through the narrow cracks or directly picking paths that went downward.

"We should go back," Azni broke her silence while Khan and Liiza thought about their issue. "The others would have left signs of their passage on the walls. They must be inside one of the passages that we ignored or…."

Azni didn't need to say that last word. The others' death could explain the lack of tracks or signals left by the others, but she wasn't ready to say that yet, not so soon after confirming Elbek's death.

Khan made a few calculations in his mind again. The underground currents might have led the students far away, but not that far. His group had covered a reasonable distance, so it made sense for the other Niqols to be at their sides rather than forward. A few hours had passed since the fall even. Someone was bound to be awake as long as the leeches didn't kill all of them.

A tedious and slow search started after the group decided to turn. Azni used some petals to leave pink marks on the dark walls whenever Khan explored the caves and passages next to them. Most of them were nothing more than small cavities, but some stretched for a few hundreds of meters before ending into rocky barriers.

Still, the group eventually found a tunnel that led somewhere. The only problem was that it did that through a hole on the floor. Khan wanted to avoid going even deeper but catching a glimpse of a faint figure made him change his mind.

Khan saw a dead big leech on the floor past the floor. The creature seemed almost identical to the monster that had killed Elbek. The only difference was in the black hair growing out of the edges of its mouth.

****

Author's notes: The second chapter might take up to three hours to come out. Hopefully I'll be quick.