Book 5: Chapter 40: Into the Fortress

Book 5: Chapter 40: Into the Fortress

Cold pinpricks spread across Elijah’s face as he looked up at the sleet falling from above. It was such a curious thing, experiencing natural rain in the middle of a subterranean cavern, and he couldn’t explain it. His scientific mind tried, but nothing he considered really made sense. It wasn’t that difficult to create weather in an enclosed space, but scaling it to the size of the cavern was where his rationalizations fell short. That left him with the same explanation he’d used to explain hundreds of other experiences he’d encountered since the world had changed.

Magic.

“You’re really weird, bro.”

Elijah glanced back to the shallow cave, where he saw Dat staring at him. The others were huddled around a campfire, their eyes locked onto him. They’d been resting and healing for some time, but even so, everyone still looked exhausted.

“What?”

“That rain is freezing,” Sadie said. “And you’re staring at it with this odd expression like it’s the most fascinating thing in the world.”

“I mean...it’s a subterranean storm,” he said. “That’s pretty interesting.”

“It’s weird, bro.”

Elijah frowned, then glanced at Kurik. The dwarf just shook his head and said, “Can’t disagree with ‘em.”

“You all don’t think this is cool? Come on. It’s raining underground! And these plants are amazing. They’re actually two organisms living in symbiosis. Or the ice is more like millions of tiny organisms mixed with inorganic material that form a network –”

“Wait – the ice is alive? That’s awesome, bro.”

“Right? I thought I was going crazy there for a second,” Elijah replied, feeling some level of vindication.

“You probably still are,” Sadie said. “Dat’s just being nice.”

“Seriously?” he asked, fixing his eyes on the Witch Hunter’s pudgy-looking face. Dat wasn’t fat – not precisely – but his face had a roundness to it that made him look that way.

Dat shrugged. “Nothing wrong with being nice, bro. And it is interesting, the way you described it.”

Elijah sighed, recognizing pandering when he heard it. “You’re all missing out. Don’t you ever look around and just appreciate the world for what it is? The setting of my first tower – at least part of it – was underwater, and you wouldn’t believe how beautiful the bottom of the sea was. I mean, it was really deadly, too. And I couldn’t cook my food for the whole time I was in there...”

“How long?” asked Sadie.

“Uh...a month or two, maybe? I don’t know. It all blurred together, especially after I got digested by the whale. Tracking time is kind of difficult in towers.”

“You spent months inside of a tower?”

“Uh...yeah. But that was just my first time through,” Elijah admitted. “I was a lot quicker in my second one, and I got through the third in like a day. But that was because the elves I was with got bitten by vampires, and there was a timer before they were converted. So, I had to do a speed run.”

“How many towers have you conquered?”

Elijah shrugged. “A few? I also ran the first one multiple times,” he answered. “It was the hardest, but I’ve gotten it down to a science. I can get through it in a day if I don’t get too sidetracked. But it doesn’t give as much experience as it did the first time, and the rewards kind of suck now.”

“This place is huge, bro.”

Elijah said, “I know. It’s positively labyrinthine.”

“Don’t need no fancy words to know it’s big and complicated,” Kurik muttered.

“That’s what labyrinthine means.”

“If you say so,” the dwarf growled. He’d been in a surly mood ever since he’d revealed the nature of his class, and it didn’t seem that anything but time would lighten that load. Still, Elijah resolved to offer his ear to the Sapper once the challenge was complete. He might not be able to come up with any real solutions to the dwarf’s unease, but he could at least listen. Sometimes, that was the best anyone could do.

Regardless, the group spent the next few hours exploring the halls. As Eliijah had noted the first time through, the architecture was about as simple as it could get, with nothing but straight lines and sharp edges. There was a utilitarian appeal to it that he couldn’t deny.

Gradually, they mapped the area, encountering more guards along the way. After fighting the elite yeti patrols, the weaker versions were comparatively easy to deal with – at least so long as they all kept their wits about them. If they lost focus even for a moment, that would change. Normally, it wouldn’t result in immediate injury, but one mistake usually caused a cascade of errors as everyone tried to adjust.

So, by the time they reached another set of gates – this pair was far more elaborately carved – no one was in a great mood.

“Open it now?” Elijah asked.

“Might be risky, bro,” Dat said, reaching out to touch the giant stone doors. They were at least twenty feet tall, and the carvings along the surface depicted more of the muscular, four-armed creatures Elijah had seen in the frescoes that decorated the cistern he’d recently visited.

As soon as Dat touched the doors, a heavy grinding sound emerged from the edges, and they began to swing inward.

“I didn’t do anything!”

On the other side, a trio of yetis – each one larger and more heavily armored than any they’d faced before – stood. They seemed very much surprised to see the newcomers, but that lasted only a moment before they hefted their weapons and charged.

Unsurprised, Sadie leaped forward to meet them head-on. At the same time, Dat did the opposite, retreating while bringing his crossbow up. It was a move they’d practiced dozens – if not hundreds – of times, and that experience stood them in good stead. Meanwhile, Elijah and Kurik enacted their own well-learned strategies.

Even as a glowing Sadie met the trio of yetis – each one almost twenty feet tall, and with enough muscle to make them look bulky – with a furious horizontal slash from her sword, Kurik and Dat peppered the enemy with arrows and crossbow bolts. At the same time, Elijah aimed for the rear-most monster and cast Snaring Roots.

Vines of organic ice erupted from the ground, snaking around the creature’s feet. Those tendrils weren’t strong enough to resist the yeti’s strength, but were more than capable of tripping the monster. As Sadie clashed with the other two, the third fell on its face, where even more roots snaked around its body and wrapped it in a cocoon of icy vines.

Elijah cast Healing Rain, then Soothe, on Sadie. It was just in time, too, because only a second later, she took a vicious club-strike to the head. Elijah winced at how quickly her body whipped around from the momentum of the attack. But Sadie was made from strong stuff, and she shouldered the blow with only a stumble. Whatever aftereffects she might’ve been forced to endure were mitigated by Elijah’s healing.

Meanwhile, Kurik and Dat utilized every ability in their arsenal, piling the damage onto the nearest yeti. Its armor was durable enough, but it could only stand up for so long against such a barrage. For the other, Sadie used Blade of the Avenger, and a giant sword burst forth from the ground, slicing into the yeti with contemptuous ease. However, unlike the other instances where Elijah had seen her use the spell, this one didn’t result in a yeti’s immediate death. Instead, it only injured the huge creature, slicing off one of its legs.

Elijah cast Snaring Roots on the now one-legged monster, and it fell to the ground just like the other. So, for a few seconds at least, the group only had to deal with a single opponent, and they overwhelmed the thing in short order. The next to die was the one Sadie had injured. It put up a decent fight, but being unable to stand made its position quite precarious.

The third ended up being the most difficult to kill, and it took almost five minutes of combined attacks to finish it off. They managed, but not without some difficulty. And in the aftermath, as Elijah healed the wounds they’d incurred, Sadie fixed Dat with a glare and said, “From now on, don’t touch anything.”

He opened his mouth as if to offer a retort, but then looked at the dead yetis before saying, “Good idea, bro. No more touching.”