Liza put a hand on Mateo's shoulder. "We're not going to fight a dragon."

  "Wait," Hanna said.

  "Not you, too," Liza groaned.

  Hanna shook her head. "No, that's not it. There is something else. It's... my shadows are trembling, like they are reacting to something."

  "The dragon couldn't be responsible for the blood in those tunnels," Luke said, pointing back over his shoulder with his thumb.

  Nate glanced back, a nervous glint in his eyes. He'd placed himself between the group and the enormous cavern, his large shield seeming small against the massive form of the flying creature back on the other side. "We really need some light," he said.

  Everyone looked over to Liza, who shook her head. "My light wards can't get stronger than this. We're already standing out like a beacon with the light we do have."

  The screams from the dwarves kept going, but the flying creature didn’t seem to be attacking them.

  "Penny?" Luke asked.

  "A lightning bolt won't give us much light to see by."

  "A flash might just be enough."

  Liza nodded. "Please."

  "Fine," Penny sighed.

  Pierce the black beneath the stone!

  Show the shape I fear to know.

  It's in here… So let it be shown!

  Lightning cracked through the enormous cavern. For the briefest of moments, a scene of horror unfolded before their eyes. The dwarves weren’t fleeing from the dragon. They were trying to get away from a mass of writhing shadows, streaked with glimmers of white, set upon the far cavern wall. It lashed out with long, tentacle-like, undulating arms of darkness, slamming them into a settlement of buildings cut into the wall of the cavern, obliterating stone like it was nothing.

  Airborne Cave Lizard. Level ???

  Deep Dweller. Level ???

  "They’re fighting," Penny breathed as the light disappeared.

  A roar rang out, sounding almost like a whimper. Pain. The dragon was in pain.

  "Does that mean the dragon belongs to the dwarves?" Mateo asked. That half-mad glint was still in his eyes. He wanted to fight the dragon.

  "Hush," Liza said, eyes glazed over. "I’m getting tons of messages."

  "What are they saying?" Luke asked.

  "Several parties are in the tunnels. Like ours. I think everyone is coming here."

  "Dwarves approaching," Nate said.

  "We should go," Penny said, turning to glance over her shoulder to the tunnel they'd just emerged from. "Right?"

  Hannah put a hand on Penny’s arm. "Wait."

  "What’s going on?" Nate asked, fidgeting as the fleeing dwarves approached, their red eyes swaying in the darkness.

  "It’s the shadows. That Deep Dweller thing," Hannah whispered. "I don’t think what we saw just now was its main body."

  "What are you talking about?" Luke asked. "That thing was huge, almost as big as the dragon!"

  "There’s more of it," Hannah said, peering into the darkness, shuddering. "We shouldn’t go back through there."

  "Then we’re trapped," Nate said, his voice high and trembling.

  "We'll move to the side," Liza said. "You saw the dwarves? They weren’t soldiers. Not these ones."

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  "The poor dwarves are fleeing," Mateo muttered. "I have no quarrel with them."

  Luke looked from the tunnel to the approaching dwarves, then to Hannah. "So are we supposed to just let them run in there and get slaughtered by whatever is making Hannah’s shadows tingle?"

  "Do you have a suggestion somewhere in that accusation?" Liza asked.

  "What if we collapse the hallway like Mateo did before?"

  "That'll cut off our escape path," Penny said.

  Hannah shook her head. "This is no escape path. Not anymore." She turned to Liza. "We need to tell the others to get out of the tunnels. It’s not just this one, I think."

  "If we can’t enter the tunnels," Luke said, pointing into the darkness, "that town is the only thing left. And we’ll have to fight a dragon…"

  "And the Deep Dweller," Nate added.

  Light appeared at the far left end of the cavern, far in the distance. It was warm and steady. Luke recognized it.

  "Mila," he whispered. His sister had entered too.

  Another light shimmered even farther back, one he didn’t recognize.

  "There are a lot of Integrated coming," Liza said, a thoughtful look on her face. "Maybe we can do this. The dragon and the tentacle thing are fighting each other. If we play it just right… maybe we can kill them both off."

  "A devious plan!" Mateo cried. "A thousand pinpricks can fell a giant!"

  "Um… the dwarves?" Nate asked.

  The dwarves were approaching at a steady pace and would soon arrive where Luke and the others were standing. Liza pursed her lips, glanced around at the group with a hint of nervousness, then set her jaw.

  "We are not collapsing the tunnel. We might need it to escape later." She held up a hand to stop Hannah’s protest. "No matter what’s inside."

  In the distance, a shrieking hiss sounded, followed by another roar from the dragon. Liza waved the group to the side, away from the tunnel. With that done, the Warder used a barrier ward, surrounding the party in a bubble-like, semi-translucent construct. It would hold the dwarves out for a moment if they tried to attack, she explained.

  "Let me talk with the other party leaders and coordinate this thing."

  Luke stood in silence, watching Nate track the coming dwarves with his shield. Thankfully, they’d been right. The approaching dwarves were not looking for a fight. Their shrieks and screaming were genuine, and some continued into the tunnel Luke’s party had exited, while others found other openings in the cavern wall that'd been obscured by the darkness.

  Soon, the fainter sounds of dwarven screams changed in tone.

  Hannah shuddered. "They’re dying."

  "Why?" Luke asked. "Did… whatever is in there let us pass?"

  "It wasn’t in there then," Hannah said. "At least not so I could feel it." She turned to Liza. "Did you tell the other parties to leave the tunnels?"

  Liza nodded without speaking. A moment later, she frowned and nodded to herself again. "Lee and the others have left the dungeon. And we have confirmation that the communication gems we found work through the portal."

  "You can talk to people on the outside?" Luke asked.

  Liza nodded. "Seems that way."

  "Good riddance," Penny said, referring to the torture guy. "I mean, the DIA should keep an eye on him."

  "Okay, listen up," Liza said, dispelling the barrier ward. "We are going in. We'll work together with the other parties. Luke, I suspect you’ll be busy soon."

  Four other sources of light, four parties, moved toward the town, and the two massive beasts fighting.

  "We’re just charging in?" Nate asked.

  Liza cleared her throat. "Seems like you’re not the only one excited about the prospect of killing a dragon. We’re going now. Go, go, go!"

  She gave Mateo a gentle push forward, and Nate a more forceful one, setting them both into motion. As they ran, messages filtered in from the gem in Luke's inventory. They were about as useful as you'd expect.

  Missy: "Whoa, those things are huge!"

  Nymh: "Keep quiet and let the party leaders deal with communications!"

  Missy: "Eat my farts, lady!"

  The ground was smoother in this cavern than the one before it, but there were still enough rock outcroppings to make the going a little difficult in the relative darkness, and the clumps of fleeing dwarves didn't make it any easier. Other groups, farther ahead in the distance, pulled away from Luke's party and approached the fight between the two behemoths. Spells of all colors of the rainbow lit up the darkness in a dizzying display of power. Most were directed at the easiest target, the dragon, but few of them hit the mark and even those who did, managed little in the way of damage.

  Luke drew in a gasping breath even as they ran and nudged Liza's shoulder before pointing. "We should be attacking the void thing first! It's stronger than the dragon!"

  "I was just thinking the same thing," Liza said, nodding.

  The winged lizard ripped and tore through tentacles. From what Luke could see, its attacks weren't having much of an effect. The Deep Dweller's limbs re-grew in an instant, and the torn-off ones that fell to the cavern floor began moving on their own, attacking dwarves that’d fallen behind.

  "The main body," Hannah said, panting.

  "You have to hit the middle of it?" Penny asked.

  "No," Hannah said, "this isn't its main body. It's an offshoot. The monster itself will be deeper in, somewhere beyond that stone wall."

  "How do you know?" Nate asked.

  "The shadows," Hannah said, hesitating a moment. "They whisper to me, telling me things."

  That made Luke think of Mia, an association he did not like.

  "What else do they tell you?" Liza asked, slowing as they approached.

  "Not much," Hannah said, shuddering a little. "But I don't think we should try to kill the Deep Dweller. It's strong."

  "We'll leverage the dragon's power, like we planned," Liza said.

  Hannah shook her head. "The dragon is an ant compared to that thing. And I think it knows that."

  Luke watched the fighting more closely, and perhaps Hannah was right. The dragon moved through the air like a fish through water, lithe and graceful, moving this way and that, attacking reaching tentacles while avoiding others. Those it targeted were the limbs reaching for fleeing dwarves.

  "Right," Luke said, "it's buying time for the dwarves to run."

  At that moment, a rising tentacle from the Deep Dweller reached and grabbed the dragon's hind leg, pulling it off balance as it slammed another tentacle into the dragon's side with enough force that the resulting wind whipped up dust and dirt all around them.