10

Sion, Scima, Eva, and Anima begin to walk through the tunnels of the goblin nest. Although Sion and Scima feel cramped in the space, feeling the need to duck their heads to avoid exposed roots in the ceiling, for the small stature of the goblins, the tunnels might be quite spacious. The farther they get from the entrance, the more the light dwindles. As shadow begins to overtake light, Scima opens his palm, and a bright orb begins to illuminate the tunnels.

They come across a lone goblin drawn to the light. Both Sion and Scima take a quick step forward to defeat it before it can do anything.

Scima draws his blade and tries to swing, only for it to get caught in the dirt wall. Scima clicks his tongue as he looks at the goblin. Meanwhile, Sion lunges straight forward, his arm outstretched ahead of him. He lowers his body to plant his hand on the goblin’s head. Sion slams the goblin into the dirt face first, burying its mouth. Sion takes a step forward and stomps on the goblin’s back, blue light pushing inside. Sion nonchalantly takes another step off the goblin, leaving the body to lay there. Scima sheathes his blade, annoyed, and begins to follow after him.

“Sorry, I overestimated these damn tunnels.” Scima kicks the wall, leaving a small impression in the dirt. Sion grabs the dagger from his waist and holds the hilt out to Scima.

“You can borrow it again.”

“I’ve got a sword this time, I don’t need it. I won’t make that mistake twice.” Sion sheathes the dagger once more.

Anima looks at the goblin corpse as she and Eva pass it. She was already shocked at how quickly Sion defeated it, but she’s in even more disbelief when she can’t see a single injury on the body.

“Sion, what did you do?”

“Soul magic”

“Wow, that’s amazing. I’ve never seen it before.”

As they walk, Scima moves his sword to his other hip. The tunnel makes a sharp turn ahead of them, obscuring the path from them. They round it tentatively, only to find a small group of goblins just ahead, already beginning to charge. Scima moves first. He unsheathes his sword with a wide arc. Light shoots out from the tip, creating a large slash ahead of him. Sion sees it coming and falls to the ground to avoid the slash. The goblins are too slow to do the same, and are cleaved apart at the chest. As Scima follows through with the strike, his blade slams into the corner beside him. All around them, a straight line has been carved into the dirt tunnel. Scima removes his sword from the wall with a grunt. Sion looks at him almost dejectedly.

“That almost hit me.” Scima responds without any remorse.

“You dodged. I needed enough space to kill them all.” Sion sighs slightly as he continues onward.

As they walk, the group begins to grow weary. They tire of the tunnels, of the monotonous and dull brown walls encasing them without even a single branching path to grab their attention. When they see a pair of goblins facing away from them, their eyes light up, wanting anything that might break the monotony.

Sion and Scima move quickly, breaking away from Eva and Anima. When they’ve reached the goblins, their targets have only just begun to turn. Scima draws his sword and quickly lunges forward. The blade sinks into one goblin’s chest, piercing its heart. Sion grabs the skull of the other goblin, flooding it with blue light. Both goblins collapse onto the ground quickly.

Behind them, Anima turns to Eva.

“Looks like we won’t have much to do.” Eva keeps her gaze focused on Scima and Sion ahead.

“As long as I’m behind him, I can’t imagine Scima would let either of us do much of anything.” Anima looks curious.

“Why is that?”

Before Eva can respond, Sion and Scima start running back to them. Sion fell behind Scima, seemingly preoccupied with something in his hands. When Sion and Scima rejoin them, something strange occurs. The dirt falls away beneath them, two separate pits forming underneath their feet. Walls of dirt form around the perimeter, preventing anyone from grabbing at the edge and getting out of the trap. In one pitfall is Sion and Eva, Scima and Anima in the other.

The dirt is oddly smooth, more like a stone than anything. On his side, Sion twists awkwardly and tries to punch the wall. His fist collides with the dirt, but it feels like a hard stone instead, showing no sign of damage. Eva resigns herself, trying to push against the smooth wall as it begins to curve outward in an attempt to minimize any damage. On the other side, Scima draws his blade and tries to stab into the stone, only for it to be bounced off ineffectually. Anima casts a spell, shooting three vines out towards the walls. Much like Scima’s sword, the vines can do nothing, and they both brace for the fall.

Sion gets up from the ground and stretches. The area around him is pitch black. His body feels a little sore from the fall. He shakes himself off, assuming there’s dirt on him. A small fire appears in the air near him, cupped in Eva’s hands. She looks at him in the darkness.

“I suppose this is the first time we’ve spent time alone together,” she says dryly.

“You’re right.” The flame grows brighter in Eva’s hands.

“Did you find something just before we fell?” Sion begins to look at the ground around them. He picks something small up off the ground and returns to Eva.

“We found this attached to one of the goblins.” Sion opens his palm under the light of the fire, displaying a strange object. It’s clearly a small rock of some kind, but with a flap green skin attached to it. “It was stuck to the goblin’s chest.”

“Like a growth?” Sion nods his head. “How strange.”

“Yeah. Me and Scima thought we should leave and bring it to the guild if we could.”

“That is probably the best thing we could do.” As Eva starts to ponder how they could reunite with Scima and Eva and return to the surface, she has a realization. “What do you and Scima plan to do when we return to the surface?” Sion looks confused. “You violated a guild order and trespassed into this nest. They’ll want to capture you and have you punished. If they try to punish you through Dracabana, I may be able to gain you clemency, but if they go to Saturngranum instead, I don’t know if I could.”

“I see. We hadn’t planned anything.” Eva sighs deeply.

“I should have expected that from Scima, but do you really just do what you first think of without thinking about the consequences.”

“I do what’s right.”

“And that’s why you do things as foolish as sneak out of the castle to go fight criminals?”

“I couldn’t let Scima do it himself.”

“You have a mission from the king himself to enroll in Sagax Academy, so please stop getting yourself in these sorts of situations.” Sion looks at her with resolve.

“I have a duty to reach out for others before that.” Eva sighs again.

“Why do your senses of duty make you act like this? There’s still only one path, so we ought to keep walking until we find something.”

Sion nods and the pair start walking forward.

Scima grips his blade tightly and begins to swing at the dirt wall behind him. Despite having been so hard when he tried to pierce it, the wall is nothing more than ordinary dirt once more. He carves away some of it in frustration. He then looks around at the darkness surrounding him, then creates a ball of light at his fingertip to illuminate the space. He sees Anima sitting against one of the walls of the tunnel. She winces at the sudden harsh light.

“Thank you.” Although she clearly meant nothing by it, Scima still decides to pretend he was somehow slighted.

“Hey now, no need to take that sort of tone.” Eva tightens up with discomfort.

“What should we do now?” Scima looks ahead unfazed.

“We just keep on walking until we find something, and hope we find the others. But first, let’s take a break.”

“Alright.” Scima sits against the wall opposite Anima. The tunnel is still narrow, leaving little distance between them. Anima is still tense and uncomfortable.

“Sorry that you’re stuck here with me…” Scima is surprised by the sad timbre of his own voice, and he quickly tries to cover it up. “I’m sure you would have loved to be in this sort of situation with Sion instead.” Anima gets slightly flustered.

“Huh? That’s not…” Scima had just said whatever came to him first. He hadn’t expected to stumble onto anything real, and can’t help but to want to keep pushing it.

“It’s fine to admit you’ve been charmed by him; secret’s safe with me. And he’s quite a gallant man, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn you’re not the first.”

“I said it’s not like that!”

“Alright then. While were on the topic though, would you like to hear about Sion’s love affairs?”

“No!”

“Look, I’m not judging you for winding up with a crush after an hour. There are swathes of worse men you could pick than Sion.”

“It’s not even a crush. It’s just the tiniest bit of interest.”

“So it’s still at an even lesser degree for the moment.”

Anima goes silent for a few moments to collect herself.

“Scima, Sion told me that you three are going to Sagax. That’s not normal at all, so can you tell me who you really are?” Scima clicks his tongue now that his fun seems to be over.

“I think it’d be alright… Lady Eva is the princess of Dracabana.” Anima’s jaw drops.

“P-princess!? I feel like I must’ve been so disrespectful today!” Scima laughs.

“And I’m her personal knight. But your beloved Sion is just a normal person. Well, that’s not right, but you know what I mean.”

“Why is Sion with you two?”

“Because he’s strong enough and he put in the work to prove himself.”

“Have you known him long?”

“Let’s see… We first met Sion… Nine days ago, I think.”

“You’ve only known him for nine days? And you decided to do something like this because he said he would?”

“Me and him, we’re brothers in arms now. And Sion doesn’t have a monopoly on acting like a fool.” Scima looks down the dark path leading further into the nest. “Well, that’s enough of that, so let’s get a move on.”

Scima and Anima stand up and begin walking, only the small ball of light in Scima’s hand illuminating the path. They soon come across an intersection, three branching paths ahead. Scima and Anima step closer and try to see if they can find anything that sets the paths apart.

Failing to do so, Anima crouches and holds her hand out near the ground. A magic circle forms at her hand, and three snakes then fall out of it. As Anima stands back up, the snakes start to slither into each tunnel. Scima watches them as they leave his light.

“So that’s what makes you a tamer. And the vines are just a nice bonus?” Anima nods as they stand around in the intersection and wait.

A few minutes later, one of the snakes returns to the intersection, followed shortly after by a second. The two snakes dissipate, and Anima and Scima begin to walk into the last remaining pathway.

They come across three goblins soon after entering the path. The goblins turn and charge when they notice the light from Scima’s hand. Scima places his hand on the hilt of his sword, readying himself to attack the moment the goblins enter his range. Before they can come that close, however, three vines shoot out from Anima’s hand. They wrap around the goblins’ bodies and bind them in place. The goblin’s struggle against the constriction, but to no avail.

All the tension leaves Scima’s body. He walks up to the bound goblins and cuts off their heads. He looks back at Anima.

“It really is a nice bonus. That seems way more useful than a couple of snakes.”

“In a fight.”

Scima and Anima keep walking down the path. They soon come to a large opening, the first of its kind they’ve found in the nest. The walls of the opening appear harder and rougher, like it’s been lined with stones. In the center is a lone goblin, its appearance obscured by shadow.

Scima throws the ball of light towards the goblin. When the light hits it, its strange form is revealed. Its skin is covered in a layer of rocks, some growing further out at its shoulders. Another two growths of rock grow out of its temples like horns. It opens its eyes, revealing two glowing green orbs surrounded by yellow sclera. Scima smiles wildly.

“So that’s what that was!” Anima looks at him worried.

“What what was?”

Without acknowledging her question, Scima dashes forward. Even as he runs towards it, the strange goblin does not move. Scima draws his sword as he runs and slashes at the goblin. His blade clangs against its skin, his arm reverberating from the force. Scima dashes backwards before the goblin can counterattack, but it doesn’t make any attempt to do so. Scima then thrusts towards the goblin’s eye. He strikes it, but the eye too is hard, and he cannot pierce it. Green sparks come off of the point his blade and the eye meet. Scima again backs away, but the goblin still hasn’t moved.

“Scima, what is that thing?” Scima clicks his tongue.

“No idea, but there’s something up with this nest.”

Anima shoots off more vines. The goblin’s eye seems to twitch as they approach, and a wall of rock appears to block their path. Scima clicks his tongue again.

“So that gets it to do something? I’ll crack this damn thing’s skull open!” Scima places his sword in his sheathe and gathers his power.

He unleashes the light in a single swipe, a blinding beam of light following after the tip of his blade as he drags it through the air. The light makes contact with the goblin. When it disappears and the goblin comes into sight once more, Scima grins. The goblin has raised its hands to cover its eyes, a large gash in its rock skin.

Scima dashes forward. A large rock forms underneath him, pushing out of the ground to stop his advance. He coats his sword in a layer of light and brings it down on the rock, cutting it. As Scima moves forward, vines appear under the goblin. They emerge from the dirt and wrap around the goblin’s ankles, then quickly shoot outward to bind its wrists.

Scima jams his blade into the wound he made. He starts pushing down on the hilt, trying to lift the rocky exterior from the goblin’s body. The goblin struggles to break free of the vines and push Scima away. At last, Scima begins to peel off a section of rock. It takes the skin under it with it, exposing a green underside of the rock and the muscle beneath it. The goblin begins to bleed out onto the rocks covering it. Scima hacks away the rest of its armor, cutting into its flesh as he deshells it. When the goblin falls limp, just barely held up by the vines, Scima had carved away half the rock covering the goblin’s head, a small bit of skull now revealed.

As the vines retreat into the earth and the goblin falls to the ground, Scima and Anima continue walking.

Sion and Eva walk through the narrow tunnel. It’s even more cramped than the tunnels they fell from, the ceiling slowly closing in, forcing Sion to bend just to be able to continue. Beyond just the size, the quality of this tunnel feels different to those higher up in the nest. The dirt feels less tightly packed, the walls and ceiling less able to maintain their shape. It feels as though the tunnel was made quickly.

The tunnel keeps growing tighter as they continue. Eventually, Sion and Eva come across two goblins. Although the goblins can fit comfortably, Eva has now begun to need to duck, and most of Sion’s back now touches the ceiling. Sion tries to move to attack, but cannot do so with so little room in the tunnel for his body.

As the pair of goblins begin to move closer, Eva gets her hand in front of Sion. She shoots a ball of fire at the goblin’s feet. When it collides with the ground, it bursts into a large orb, engulfing both goblins completely. Sion winces slightly from the heat. When the fire extinguishes, only two charred bodies remain.

“You’re strong.” Eva laughs gently.

“Yes. You would never know if Scima had his way, but I’m more than strong enough to handle a few goblins.”

As Sion and Eva continue on, the tunnel keeps getting smaller. It reaches a point where even goblins wouldn’t be able to pass through it, both Sion and Eva forced to crawl to proceed. Even then, the tunnel keeps growing tighter. Sion begins to start using his magic to push the dirt out of their way, trying to make the tunnel just the slightest bit more bearable.

Sion feels relieved when he clears the path of the tunnel and it opens up suddenly. He and Eva step into a large chamber. Eva sends a ring of fire around the circumference, illuminating the space. In the center is a brown-skinned goblin, its skin speckled. It looks as though it could be made of dirt itself, but it clearly begins to move as the light fills the room.

“This goblin is strange, but it doesn’t seem like it has to do with that rock.”

As he says that, Sion makes a fist, wisps of blue emerging from the sides. He throws the rock from the goblin’s skin. It cuts through the air quickly, flying towards the goblin as it raises its arms. It pierces through the goblin’s shoulder, forcing one arm back down.

Sion begins to run towards the goblin. He suddenly gets knocked off balance and trips, falling to the ground. The ground beneath him is rippling from where the goblin stands. As he tries to stand back up, the ripples intensify and quicken. Whenever he adds a new point of contact with the ground, he can feel it fail as he ripples reach him. He looks back, only to see Eva wholly unaffected by the rippling, perhaps due to her distance from the goblin.

Eva shoots a thin beam of fire from her hand. It hits the goblin directly, singing its chest slightly. As the goblin gets struck, it loses focus on the rippling for just long enough for Sion to stand back up. Sion begins to continue walking. Prepared for the ripples now, he keeps his balance as they start again. Sion calmly comes close to the goblin. Just as he begins to lunge at it, the ground gives way, as it had when he and the others first fell, in a circle around the goblin.

Sion instantly grabs onto the edge, near where the goblin is standing, but the dirt he clings to becomes loose. As he falls, he pushes his fingers into the dirt, beginning to hold himself in place, only for the whole wall to become loose. Sion finds himself stuck in a deep pit.

The goblin turns its attention to Eva now that Sion is far out of the way. Eva begins to move sporadically and without much pattern, attempting to throw off any new pits the goblins might be planning to create. She forms a whip of fire in her hands. She begins to lash the goblin, gracefully dodging as sinkholes appear beneath her. Each strike of her whip creates a new burn mark on the goblin’s skin, and spurs it to greater desperation.

Although the goblin cannot do anything to her, Eva cannot approach or safely let up her assault. If she were to do so, she believes the goblin would catch her in a pitfall in much the same way it had to Sion. Her whip loses no intensity as the battle prolongs, but the goblin is slowly growing sharper, each pit slightly closer to her feet. As she runs, Eva twists her body and spins, dragging the whip along after her. She feels it slam into the goblin. As she continues to run, she notices how large a burn she left on the goblin’s temple, and that it has stopped creating pitfalls for the moment.

Eva raises a hand and fires a blast of flame at the goblin. The goblin is engulfed completely as it begins to flail about trying to put out the flame. In its panic, it even comes close to falling into its own depressed ring. However, even this flame was not enough. The fire goes out and yet the goblin still stands, even charred. The goblin almost seems to smirk about its own survival.

A hand suddenly appears from within the pit that grabs the weakened goblin’s ankle. As Sion pulls himself out of the pit, he tosses the goblin in behind him. The goblin plummets as Scima and Eva continue on through the tunnels.

“Scima, Anima, are you alright?”

Sion was the first to spot the others. The two pairs reunited in front of a path leading away from either of their starting places. Scima responds to Sion lightheartedly.

“We had a ball. We killed whatever that rock thing is too. But I’m sick and tired of these tunnels, and it seems like we only have one way left to go, so let’s get a move on.”

Nobody has any reason to disagree. The reunited group turns towards the path and begins to walk down it.