Chapter 22

  Very Lovely, Lots Of Heavy Breathing

  The tracks left behind by dozens of goblin feet were not easy to miss. However, someone had periodically shifted the dirt their steps had been left in, creating gaps in the trail. Mor looked back at the adventurers who followed behind her.

  “This way,” she said as the path picked up to the right.

  She definitely couldn’t trust them, even if one of the males had removed the arrow and healed her shoulder. No, acts of kindness are methods of control and manipulation. Don’t fall for these adventurers’ tricks. I’ll get them to where I agreed to take them to and run. Honor the deal and then get out of here, that’s the plan.

  The goblins had travelled a shorter distance than expected, after all of her time tracking her little claw-footed quarry, the last series of tracks had taken less than an hour to end. The only problem with that is the way they ended.

  Like most goblin tracks she’d seen, they went on until they stopped, vanished. “This is it, they went underground here somewhere,” she informed her captors, and then she braced for the strike to her jaw that her master might have chosen to gift her for the lack of details.

  It didn’t come. Only one of them could understand her, which still didn’t make sense, but that must have been enough for them to start making their plans.

  Most of them were ignoring her, but not the one called Mark. He’d leered at her every moment of their walk, and he did so still. I’ll need a distraction to escape. As soon as there are no eyes on me, I will be gone. Although… if they are after this kobold, and I can steal him away from them. I could return to the tribe as the new Master of the Hunt. New plan? Mor thought, weighing her options as she waited to see what the adventurers would do next.

  “Wait… Camp…,” one of them said. Not enough to get a whole lot from, but this was what she had to work with for now.

  They were planning to sit around and wait. Boring, but I’ve got no better ideas, other than searching the area more thoroughly. It was probably just understood that they would do that, too. While it turned out that she wasn’t wrong about it being boring, and they’d in fact also attempted an unfruitful search, there was just an uneasy feeling she couldn’t shake.

  As the sun made its daily trip across the sky, Mor couldn’t take her eyes off of the shadows. Under every tree and large rock was a potential enemy more frightening to her than the threat the adventurers posed. She thought of her mentor covered in moving shadow, and her skin prickled.

  * * *

  The sun had sunk behind the tips of the trees hours ago and none of the party members from either group had found any other clues. Even though Mark complained a lot about the lack of clues, they needed to stop and rest. Eric turned to the people who followed him now and said, “Listen up, we’re gonna build a bonfire at the center of camp and keep it fed overnight, and buddy up on guard duty so nothing can sneak up on us. I’m gonna lie down early to try to get some sleep, and then I’ll pull a double shift to round out the numbers for the third and fourth watches.”

  Mark sneered, “I’m not your friend; I’m here for revenge, not to follow you. My brothers and I will do what we want. Who do you even think died and put you in charge of us?”

  Sir BlackDagger turned to where the other group of players sat separately. He stood tall, stepped forward, and looked down into Mark’s eyes. With a voice as steady as iron, he said, “Jason did. Now I’ve got even more numbers on you, but I don’t need to be an enemy. Mark, Neal, Raj, I’m sorry about your friend, truly. We’re all going to have to trust each other and work together. We’ll all have each other’s backs, now. No one else dies, got it? That is unless you challenge me.”

  The three of them stood silent before him, stunned by his statement. Mark’s eyes narrowed, his breaths going rapid as he snarled, “Screw you!”

  He lunged forward at Eric with his long dagger half drawn. Midstep, as he prepared to cut Sir BlackDagger down, he was struck squarely in the chest by a Shield Bash. He was knocked back into his friends, who caught him before he could fall.

  “Do not test me!” Eric warned the other group.

  “Come on, we need to calm down, mate. This won’t end well, and it won’t solve our problems,” Raj said, even-toned.

  An elbow went up, slamming into Raj’s nose. As an incensed Mark flung himself back towards his armored would-be commander, his blade blasting out a wave of light as electricity enveloped its length. “Everybody stop telling me what to do, and you never should have said his name. You can apologize to Jason when you see him.”

  The intensity of the light sank low on the blade and rushed towards the tip as Mark flung lightning at his opponent.

  Eric rolled to the side, the blast of lightning striking the place where he’d stood. The explosion of earth sent dirt and plant debris in all directions. That force also sent Eric rolling farther than intended, and he fought to catch his hands and feet on the ground to right himself.

  Mark was already rushing him. Still crouched on one knee, he threw his blade up blocking the first strike and the second.

  As his party began circling, Eric shouted, “No one interfere!”

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  He parried the third strike and slashed across the frat leader’s thigh. Mark screamed in pain and sent out his response with another lunging stab at Sir BlackDagger.

  Shield Bash. He activated the ability against an incoming attack and flung the blade from Mark’s hand. Rising to his feet as he held the tip of his blade to Mark’s throat.

  “Slicing your throat might not kill you outright, but it would be a critical injury. You can’t beat me. I don’t want to kill you, but if you are a threat to the group’s safety… I will not hesitate a second time, and I won’t stop short of a killing blow. Your friend is right, you need to calm down.”

  The other player just stared back with rage in his eyes.

  Eric’s mind was racing. Am I actually going to have to take a life here? I don't want blood on my hands, but the first priority has to stay firm. Keep the party alive, no matter the cost.

  They stood, the length of a blade between them as friends watched in silence, waiting for Mark’s next move.

  A rumble sounded from all around them.

  And the ground trembled beneath their feet…

  “Again?! Come on!” Eric shouted. The ground shifted. He stepped back from Mark, sheathing his blade as the vibrations attempted to shake his footing.

  “Everyone hold onto something!” he commanded, keeping his eyes on Mark as he searched his peripherals for a tree to grab onto. With a boom, sections of the ground began sinking. Feet slid against tilting earth as whole sections slanted downward around him.

  A hole opened up between him and Mark, but the lightning-blade user’s footing was even less sure than his own. Mark was sliding towards the center of the opening fast. Eric threw his shield across the ground and down the fresh slope of earth toward the hole, hoping it would be large enough to cover its mouth. It slid into place just as Mark rolled onto the metal surface.

  The next moments felt like a test of their ability to handle stress, as everyone waited for the vibrations to cease.

  Mark and Sir BlackDagger held eye contact as the world became steady. Heart pounding and breaths still coming a bit short from the tension, Mark started laughing. Eric felt that tension snap, and he couldn’t help himself but join in the awkward laughter of having survived a close brush with danger. “Are you hurt?” Eric asked.

  “Only my ego. I apologize, I let my anger get the better of me. Your choice of words did not help that,” he replied.

  “I’m sure they didn’t.” Eric sighed, and said, “I shouldn’t have been so cold. I’m sorry for that. Now stay still while we get some rope.”

  The rest of the adventurers had gathered near the outer edge of the area now comprised of angled chunks of dirt and stone.

  “You guys all good? That was insane!” Beatrice shouted down to them.

  Stabitha called out, “Did you guys kiss and make up already? Why are you laughing down there?”

  Eric shook his head, and said, “Yes, it was very lovely, lots of heavy breathing. Now somebody get us some rope so we can get out of—”

  The world shook again and the area of slanted earth stretched wide. The ground of the entire clearing angled in large slabs of jagged broken rock towards the center. The shield fell away beneath Mark and he followed after.

  Sir BlackDagger watched as friends and allies slid past him, and the heavy, fur-covered body of a capybeara came rolling towards him.

  The shouts of people falling filled his ears as the air was knocked out of his lungs by a slamming impact with Doggy. Unable to breathe in or scream out like the rest, Eric fell, silently, into the hole after the others.

  The impact came far sooner than expected as he banged off of a slope of damp earth. Momentum carried him further, rolling downhill into the pile of other players. Followed by Doggy, who slid into his side, smashing him against someone else. It was too dark to tell who he was crushed against. His eyes strained to stay open as a lack of oxygen racked his lungs with angry need, until finally, a gasp.

  ManaSniperBob came in clutch, with taser-like sparks leaping between his thumb and forefinger, he lit a torch he’d pulled from his inventory. The tunnel lit with regular-old orange-y torchlight. As everyone else was untangling from each other and pushing themselves to their feet to join Bob in standing, he said, “Goblin tracks.”

  * * *

  The trees around the tower’s base were thick with ropey vines and ivy. The tower stretched high above, visible through breaks in the canopy. He’d run the whole way here.

  I forgot how fast we could be, and I barely feel tired. He let himself grin at the thought. Having spent more time on Earth than he had in his birth world had cost Wolf a part of himself that he had let fade from his mind.

  He closed his eyes, took a breath in, and he focused himself on the present, on the task at hand.

  Clawing and tearing away at the plant life that blocked the straightest path to the tower, he pressed forward. Wolf was almost done with his job and then he’d return to Lana’s side. Sunlight stretched from beyond the horizon, and sent the last tendrils of daylight from below the treeline as the moon swam through the sky to replace it. In that dim evening light, Wolf heard a booming crack emanate from the tower. For only a heartbeat, the ground shook.

  He approached the Black Tower with the caution any object of immense power warranted. Huh. She was right; I mean of course she was right, but this is weird.

  An area the size of one of the trees he stood below was comprised of dark green bricks, run through with veins that were a strange shade of greenish-blue that someone else would have a weird and specific name for.

  He pulled a flask from his inventory, and crept towards the bricks. Scratching tiny grooves of green chips and dust from the tower, he collected what he could into the flask. His fingers and hand were now coated in a sprinkling of green dust that made it seem like he’d gotten just as much on him as he had into the flask. Just a few ounces was all she said she’d need, though. It was all a part of her plan, he just didn’t know the details.

  Screwing the cap back onto his flask and dropping it into thin air, he stored it securely into his inventory.

  He pulled his messages up, and sent his report back to Lana, saying, “Alright, mission complete. I have the brick-dust from Nik’s portion of the tower; you can send me the coordinates to the next location.”

  Before he received a response, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

  A coldness filled the air, and a flicker of movement in the corner of his peripheral vision had him leaping backward. A black claw slashed through the air, inches from his throat.

  He pivoted and leapt to the side, landing low and springing forward.

  Wolf ran, even faster than he had on his way here. This wasn’t about keeping up a pace; this was a matter of outrunning death. Leaping from tree to tree, racing along the ground and flapping heavy wings through the air, a mismatched pack of shadow beasts gave chase.