Chapter 85 - A Draining Experience

  We hadn’t gone very far before we noticed the path ahead of us had some sort of illumination in the distance. Whatever it was we were headed toward, there was light, at least. The others wouldn’t be reliant on their glow sticks to see. The march was slow, because we were being extra cautious in our approach. All of us were worried about potential traps or hidden monsters ready to leap out and grab us, so we moved with perhaps more care than was actually necessary.

  In my mind, it was worth it, if it got us all home safe when this was over.

  “Is it just me, or is the passage getting warmer?” Marion asked.

  I was feeling the same thing. “I don’t think it’s you. It’s heating up in here for sure.”

  We kept moving, slowly making our way down the grey hall toward whatever awaited us ahead. Finally, the passage we were in just ended, the walls stopping at the edge of a much larger cavern. Where the corridor we’d been following was clearly manufactured somehow, with its seamless stone walls and ninety-degree corners, the space ahead looked natural.

  That was no guarantee it actually was natural, of course. If magic could produce a building like the one we’d seen, the portal, and then that passage, it could certainly build a natural-looking cavern, too. But it looked just like I’d expect a regular cave to look.

  The walls were rough, with jagged edges. Stalactites dangled from the ceiling high above us, dripping water onto stalagmites growing from the floor below. The roof had to be thirty feet or so up, which made me feel much better. That extra space would give me a lot more room to maneuver with my Flight power.

  I didn’t activate the spell, though. The height of the cavern meant I could fly, but it meant anything else living there might be able to as well. I figured it wasn’t a smart idea to call down the attention of every living thing in the room, at least not until we were ready for it.

  Above the stone, covering almost every surface in the space, was a wild variety of fungal growth. Slime molds, cap-headed mushrooms, fungi with twisted branch-like tendrils, flat growths spreading from the cave wall like steps, and a wild variety of other fungal types were spread everywhere. A good chunk of them were bio-luminescent, too. That’s where the glow we’d seen was coming from.

  Some of the fungi were waist high on me. Between the stalagmites and all the growing stuff, a large chunk of that room was hidden from view. I didn’t like it.

  “Anything could be hiding in that mess. What’s the plan?” I asked Alex over my shoulder. I’d paused at the entrance because this totally looked like a trap to me. I couldn’t tell for sure, of course. It wouldn’t be a very good trap if I could. But there was definitely something in there waiting to eat us or otherwise do something terrible.

  “Dara, how’s your mana?” Alex asked.

  “Almost topped off,” she replied. “You want me to torch the place?”

  “Maybe,” Alex replied. He stepped up alongside me, then past me, taking one step into the cavern, then a second. He reached down and touched the floor. “This place is wet. I’m not sure fire will burn them enough to matter.”

  “Lightning might,” I pointed out. The moisture would help conduct the electricity.

  “Good call, but we’ll want to be careful. The floor in the passage is damp, too. We don’t want the Lightning Bolts to fry our own people,” Alex said. He turned to the rest of the party. “I want everyone except Cameron and I to back up about twenty feet. We’ll fly, so we’re not in contact with the ground, and blast the place twice each. As soon as you see our second Lightning Bolts, it’s safe to come forward again, so rejoin us as quick as you can. I figure by then we’ll probably need backup.”

  “You don’t think the Bolts will be enough, boss?” Ruiz asked.

  Alex shook his head. “I wish I did, but no. Whatever is down here will probably be tougher than most monsters on the surface. Even a direct hit might not take them out. A little jolt might wake them up and get them moving, but I doubt it’ll take down anything that’s out there waiting for us.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  The rest of the team backed up a good way. Then, Alex and I took to the air, each hovering a few inches above the stone floor. I glanced his way. He saw me look, and gave me a nod, raising his hands toward the room beyond.

  I mirrored his movement, then summoned the power to cast Lightning Bolt.

  Both our spells launched at almost exactly the same time. Brilliant blue lightning shot through the air, arcing as it reached deeper into the cavern. Alex’s bolt crossed the entire space, slamming into a wall on the far end with enough force it blasted bits of rock from the wall. My spell blew apart the top of a stalagmite.

  Each impact sent more strands of electricity racing along the damp walls and floors. Fungi burned, sending up plumes of evil-smelling smoke.

  Belatedly, Alex turned to me. “Gas masks. Just in case.”

  “Right,” I replied, pulling mine up to cover my mouth and eyes.

  The masks weren’t perfect. Whatever those spores that killed Roberts had been, they grew everywhere they touched. They’d sprouted on his exposed flesh first, then spread all over. But that hadn’t killed him quickly. If we ran into that, odds were good Marion could get to us with Cleanse in time to save us.

  If it got into our lungs, I figured our odds of survival dropped quite a bit.

  As the electricity faded away, the last arcs vanishing, I realized something out there was moving. “Alex, you see that?”

  “I do,” he replied.

  Whatever it was, it was headed straight for us, barreling through the fungal underbrush. We stood our ground together, hands still ready to blast whatever was coming our way.

  Then they were out in the open. There were six of the things, all tier four. They looked like brownish balls, about the size of a beach ball but leathery in appearance. Whatever the things were, they were rolling toward us, bouncing over little bumps on the cave floor and jostling one another for position, like each one was eager to be the first to arrive.

  Alex reacted before I did. He fired a Lightning Bolt at the nearest ball, and it exploded. I blinked. I hadn’t been expecting that! Scraps of the creature flew a few feet in all directions, and the air was suddenly filled with glittering golden spores.

  I changed spells on the fly. I’d been planning to hit one with a Lightning Bolt, too, but seeing the results of Alex’s spell, I thought better of it and cast Drain Life instead. They were alive, right? So I figured Drain Life ought to work on the things. I reached out my right hand, aiming a finger at the next puffball in line.

  A tendril of dark energy shot forth from my hand, reaching out toward my target. The spell hit. The ball was wreathed in darkness for a moment, then the power withdrew again, surging back toward me. I hadn’t been wounded when I cast it, but I knew from the ‘memories’ the spell had granted me that if I had, half the damage I’d done to the creature would have been sucked back into me, healing me.

  That was useful, and now I was doubly glad I’d socketed those stones. I was ready to smack myself for not testing the spell sooner, but it was an excellent power to have in my arsenal. Sure, I had Regeneration to heal me, but it was slow. Even with Natural Armor protecting me, there was a limit to how much damage I could take. Drain Life gave me a way to heal myself on the fly.

  The creature wasn’t down, but it was badly hurt. While I waited on the timer to recast Drain to wind down, I blasted another one with Lightning. I figured since we already had spores everywhere, it was better to take these things down than stand around waiting for them to reach us.

  “Masks on!” Alex shouted as loud as he could. I hoped the others could hear him, because those spores were everywhere by now. I felt them settling on my skin and hoped these were the sort I had to breathe in to have problems with.

  He cast another Bolt, blowing another of the balls apart and seeding the entire area with even more spores. I understood his reasoning. We didn’t know what other attacks these things had, and once they were on top of us, we’d get to find out the hard way.

  About the same time, Drain Life came back online, and I cast it on the one I’d already hurt. This time, the spell finished the thing off, withering it away into a dry husk. There was no explosion of spores, which I saw as a small plus, but the air around us was already full of the stuff.

  More worrying, this time Drain Life did restore some health to me. It seemed I’d developed a rash on my exposed skin, and the Drain helped me recover from that. Not good news for the others.

  I raised my voice to warn them. “I’m taking damage to exposed skin from the spores. If it’s getting through my Natural Armor, it’s probably a bigger threat for the rest of you.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” Alex replied, his voice pained. When I glanced over at him, I saw bleeding sores erupting from his forehead, neck, and hands. Any bit of exposed skin was starting to weep fluids.

  There were still two of the things left, and Alex wasn’t in any shape to tackle them. I was, though. I dropped my Flight spell and rushed forward, kicking one as hard as I could. The impact blew the thing apart, and I got a full dose of the spores at point-blank range. The skin on my hands went red in an instant, like I’d been in the sun too long, but between my Armor and Regeneration, it seemed I was able to keep most of the damage at bay.

  I fired a Drain Life at the other one, which slowed it down and healed my wounds. It kept moving toward me, rolling sluggishly now, like it was almost out of steam, winding down.

  “Lights out,” I snapped, casting another Drain as soon as the timer was up. This one finished the thing, avoiding anymore spores being released. I heaved a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. My hands were already starting to tingle again.

  I turned back toward the rest of the party, worried for my friends, but was utterly unprepared for what I saw.