The chira landed hard on the floor, stone cracking beneath its weight and mandibles clacking in a sound disturbingly close to a laugh. Then it crouched down as air swirled faintly around its limbs. And this ti when it charged, it wasn’t just sheer speed. It moved in a blur, and earth aether wrapped its long claws, hardening them and coating them just like Tom-Tom did with his soup ladles.
Everyone rushed at the threat now, weapons, arrows, glyph crystals and spells flashing outward to stop its advanced. It wove through their strikes like a practiced duelist, its movents slightly jerky but unmistakably effective. It used Holly’s footwork, Kate’s swordplay, and even Eric’s feints. Coupled with its monstrous strength, it was less a beast and far more like a nightmarish reflection of their own squad's skills.
As they t once more steel clashed and shields cracked. Aether energy erupted in explosive detonations from nearly every mber of the party. But within short order the squad was forced onto the defensive, every mont becoming a frantic scramble to keep from being carved apart.
The chira blurred forward, its limbs a storm of slashes and jabs. Garret’s shield buckled as a piece of it was broken free and launched away to crash across the stone floor. Ghrukk powered up even further with his augntor spell, his aura turning into a burning shadow-fire storm. He contorted the flas with his will and sent them in a concentrated beam that seared the cavern walls crimson, only to see the chira deftly dodge the spell entirely.
The dodge brought the Chira into the range of Henry, who slamd shoulder-first into the creature while his vines wrapped around his body, dragging it off its rhythm. His fists, wreathed in rippling water aether, bombarded its torso, forcing it back step by grinding step.
“Go!” Henry bellowed, his mouth releasing spittle as he bore down on the beast. “I’ve got the bastard!”
Rynel shot an aether-charged arrow from his bow, the string singing from its release. The projectile struck its forehead and burst, injecting a corrosive dark energy that clung to its eyes. Henry was sent flying as the thing kicked and thrashed in about in a blind anger shorty after.
Selka tried to close in from behind while it was distracted and caught a strike across her face from its tail for her efforts.
At the sa mont Doran and Sarson ca in together as a pair, hamr and sword striking in tandem, but both were knocked away as the beast released a shockwave of air forward from its body reminiscent of Alex’s [Flare] spell. It was still blinded from Ryenl’s arrow, though, giving them a possible window.
Alex wanted to seize the mont, but knew it still wasn't the perfect ti. His eyes flicked between Kate and Holly, who were already circling wide around the beast. “Hold on. On my mark! Ready yourselves!” They both paused their approach at his command.
The humanoid chira shrieked, its mandibles clattering like a dozen snapping jaws. It reset its stance, tensing its legs under its chitinous fra, then launched upward in a blur of air aether. Ghrukk followed with a powerful leap of his own and t it midair, both of them crashing together like colliding teors. The impact bood across the cavern, showering stone fragnts from the ceiling.
For a second it looked like Ghrukk’s orkish strength might overpower it, until the creature twisted with a grotesque flexibility and one clawed hand caught him under the ribs. The Ork’s roar turned to a gasp of pain as he was hurled across the chamber, his massive fra slamming into the far wall hard enough to crater it.
“GHRUKK!” Myrae scread.
But Alex had no ti to worry about his team’s injuries. He brought his hand down to the floor, aether surging through his channels. “[Earth Bind]!”
Blue chains erupted from the ground, spectral links snapping shut around the chira’s limbs as it landed from its mid-air exchange. For an instant, the beast froze under the spell, twitching against the binding’s grip. Its mandibles twitching furiously as it strained.
“NOW!” Alex roared.
Holly blurred in, wind spiraling around her as she dashed forward. Her blade cut in a flash of compressed air and sliced cleanly into the joint at the chira’s left leg. Chitin split and purple-black blood sprayed like molten tar.
Kate was already there as well, her own blade stabbing deep between plates of chitin and fla erupting from the wound in a violent torrent. The sll of scorched flesh filled the chamber as the creature convulsed.
Before it could recover, Zach’s shadowy form blinked into existence behind it, his spear driving ho into the opposite side of Kate's attack. He twisted the weapon hard, ichor spraying as the chira shrieked in seemingly two voices at once.
Rynel released another arrow a half-second later. It streaked like a cot into the creature’s chest. The impact cracked chitin with a sharp report, dark-attuned energy leaking from the fracture.
The squad scattered back on instinct as they judged the creature’s wounds, and they cleared its reach just in ti.
A nother compressed shockwave shot from its body and the bindings of Alex’s spell shattered. The chira dropped to the stone landing on all fours, then rose once more with a disturbing graceful calm. It looked down and flexed its damaged leg as if testing the injury.
Then its head snapped up with eyes that blazed with alien intelligence.
Eric, Henry, Cole, and Lance surged at it, their bodies all glowing with white-yellow outline Peter’s buff spell. With Peter's assist, strength thrumd through their veins, every swing carrying twice its usual weight and power.
“HAAA!” Lance’s saber slashed in a high trajectory. Henry followed with his halberd, Eric ca next with a palm strike that crackled with lightning, and Cole’s strike landed last, a crushing overhead smash that would’ve split stone in two.
Steel and spell crashed into chitin with deafening force. The humanoid chira staggered, driven back as cracks further spiderwebbed across its armor. But it didn’t break.
With uncanny reflexes, it had rolled its torso with each follow-up strike, minimizing the damage of their blows. Kate’s flas still smoldered in its torso and blood still leaked from its leg. But, sohow, the thing endured the onslaught, retreating step by step instead of collapsing.
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And when it finally attacked back, its strikes were more controlled, smarter than before.
The humanoid chira’s body blurred faster than its hulking fra suggested it could. Sarson rushed in and raised his shield just in ti to catch a downward slash. The impact split the steel face clean down the middle, sending shards of tal into his face. The follow-up blow slamd into his ribs, hurling him back and coughing blood. But if gave the others ti to retreat a few steps
Doran shouted at the beast as glyphs flared along his hamr-face. He struck across the beast’s side and the weapon crunched deep, carapace and blood bursting. But the chira twisted its arm and raked its claws across the Dwarf's exposed thigh. The wound spat crimson, forcing Doran to limp as he staggered away.
Lance ca back to cover the dwarf's retreat with a desperate saber thrust. For a second it looked like the strike might land true but the chira pivoted, caught his arm in an iron grip, and slamd him bodily into the stone floor behind him. Its tail whipped down and slamd onto his chest for good asure. Lance’s pained cry was cut short by the sickening crack of bone before he managed to roll away, clutching his arms against his chest. He quickly back-scooted across the ground in an attempted escape.
Cole was the last to stand ground when they others pulled away. His body and weapon still glowed with Peter’s buff. He swung with everything he had, water aether contorting into a focused spike at the head of his hamr. The chira caught the haft mid-swing, pulled him off his feet, and slamd its elbow into his chest. The breath left him in a broken gasp as ribs buckled. When he was thrown backward, he was caught in Rynel’s arms, whom had ran forward to soften his landing.
The squad reeled from the brutal fight. They each were landing hits, but sohow, it was like they were still losing.
The humanoid chira straightened. Body-fluid of varying kinds dripped down its leg and torso, but its movents were still strong. It advanced on them, its still mandibles chittering a wordless mockery of speech.
Sarson and Garret roared, the remains of their shields slamming into the beast side-by-side. The impact rang like a bell. Together they held it back the best they could. Every strike the beast landed shook them and sent the pair back a foot or two. Their feet carved trenches in the dirt, but they didn’t give up. At least not until its tail took their feet out from under them, tossing them both on to their backs at the sa ti.
Sarson bared his teeth, hair plastered to his forehead. “You want through?!” he shouted even from his back. “Co through !”
The beast hissed, raising one hooved foot for a killing strike—
—but Selka intervened. She slid from shadow to shadow, daggers flashing in lines of pale silver. This ti when she attacked, her blades landed. The sharp edges bit into exposed chitin seams and cracks, ripping open gashes that the other left behind. She moved to its back before it even registered she was there, twin slashes carving luminous trails in its body before she darted away again.
The chira shrieked in fury. Its leg whipped out in a savage back-kick that caught only air. Selka had already retreated.
Alex took the montary distraction to burst in from the chira’s right, his fist wrapped in a roaring storm of azure aether. A [Flare] spell detonated point-blank, blasting against the creature’s chest.
At the sa mont, Eric appeared from the left. He slamd it into the chira’s opposite shoulder, bolts of white-hot energy tearing across its carapace. The twin impacts rocked the beast sideways.
Alex didn’t give it space to recover. The mont the chira reeled, he surged forward yet again in a combination of punches. He flowed between stances of his martial art in furious speed, fists hamring in brutal rhythm. Each fist detonated like a thunderclap, driving the beast further away on stumbling legs.
Eric was at his side the whole way, every strike of his lightning-charged palm syncing to Alex’s blows like drumbeats in a war march. Sparks and azure explosions lit the cavern with each impact, the two of them striking as if they’d trained the sequence for years.
Holly darted in to assist. She slashed across its thigh in a blur, a gust trailing behind her blade to deepen the wound. Zach appeared in her shadow, his spear jabbing clean into its abdon and twisting hard before he blinked back out of reach.
The creature stumbled to a knee, blood dripping in rivers now. Its chest was already cracked from Rynel’s earlier shot and Kate’s piercing thrust.
And that was when another arrow sailed in, whistling over Alex’s shoulder. Rynel’s aim was perfect as always. The shaft buried itself into the sa fissure of its torso as before, splitting the fracture wide open with a sickening wet crack.
The beast lurched. Its mandibles opened and guttered a low cry.
Then a brilliant glow of a projectile pierced the cavern.
CRACK!
The sound was deafening. Louder than any bowstring, or any spellfire Alex had heard before. The chira’s torso exploded inward, fragnts of chitin and sprays of goo bursting across the chamber wall and pooling on the floor. The creature convulsed violently before collapsing in a crumpled heap.
For a mont the squad stood frozen. Everyone bloodied and breathless, watching the carcass twitch a final ti.
Alex turned, heart still hamring, and found the source of the defeaning shot.
Devon stood there, both hands wrapped around the stock of an arcane rifle still glowing faintly with searing blue runes. Smoke curled from the barrel, and his eyes were wide with the mix of fear and exhilaration. The new weapon’s design was sleeker and more compact than before, far more refined than when Alex had barrowed it.
Alex raised a shaky thumbs-up. Devon grinned back at him sheepishly. “Told you I would be able to fix it.” He yelled.
That broke the silence spell.
The healers rushed in all at once. Myrae darted from the back with her bandoliers of vials, her hands calling shimring healing light to life. Cole popped corks off potions with his teeth as he handed them out, while Allie’s arms were already pouring yellow healing aether into Sarson’s chest. Colors of every shade erupted in the cavern: golden light pouring into Henry’s torn ribs, verdant sprays knitting Doran’s shredded thigh, red draughts were flung into Lance’s mouth as he groaned in pain.
“Drink this!” Allie barked, practically slamming a vial into Ghrukk’s hand.
“Don’t move!” Myrae snapped at Doran, who was still trying to push himself up despite the bloody wound in his thigh. Selka muttered a curse as she stitched a gash with her own strange glowing thread.
It was chaos, spells and potions flying like confetti out of a holiday cracker. But it was life-giving chaos. And minutes later, as the last glimrs of the healers’ magic flickered against the cavern walls, Alex finally let himself breathe.
Then the sound ca.
It was familiar faint skittering at first. Echoes rolled down the stone tunnels like claws dragging over porcelain. The noise grew and multiplied until it was a chorus of scratching legs all around them.
“Shit,” Holly spat, wiping blood from her cheek.
“They know where we are,” Eric growled. “We have to move.”
“Go where?” Doran snapped, clutching his bandaged leg. “Which tunnel—?”
“This way! Here!”
All heads turned. Tom-Tom, shaking from fear but with still calm eyes, pointed a trembling claw toward a narrow crack in the cavern wall. It looked barely wide enough for two n abreast, partially hidden by large rocks. His voice carried with surprising certainty. “That way. Safe. I can sll it.”
Alex hesitated for only a fraction of a second. Then he nodded. He rembered the kobold’s nose in the Garden and how it had saved them from wandering aimlessly in the maze.
“Good job, Tom-Tom,” Alex said, clapping his shoulder. The little Kobold hadn’t helped in the last fight. The little lizard having stayed in the back where it was safe. But he didn’t begrudge the little guy for it. He was the weakest of the group, and wouldn’t have been able to help against that beast anyway.
“Everyone, move. Carry those who need help. Now.”
They all set into motion. Sarson’s weight was slung between Selka and Garret, both of them gritting there teeth as they dragged the armored tank forward. Ghrukk limped heavily, leaning on Zach while Myrae floated a slow healing stream of aether into his body to steady his stride. Lance was half-carried by Henry, his arm thrown over the taller man’s shoulder.
The tunnel mouth lood over them as they ran into its depths, shadows pooling all around them.
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