Diving Deeper

I watched for a few minutes as the wolves exited the cage and excitedly jumped on Aesandoral. She squealed with delight, scratching behind their ears and under their chins before the creatures noticed the rest of us.

Remaining tense, I continued to observe them hesitantly. They sniffed and rubbed against Rionriv and Sharzin, who gave them pats and rubs in return. That was when I finally drew their curiosity, and they approached me.

The large creatures stepped closer before doing as dogs did, stretching out their paws in a bow. Tails wagged excitedly as they lay down, awaiting my approval.

I waited, watching for a time before finally leaning over to touch each. At that moment, they pounced, knocking me to the ground and burying their cold noses against my face. Long tongues lapped at my cheeks and lips as I sputtered spit while struggling to remove them.

“Enough.” I coughed as the triop giggled. “Enough. You’re good dogs. You can stay. You can stay!”

With introductions over, Aesandoral called them back, and I pushed myself up, beginning the process of cleaning my wet face before examining the space. The room that housed our newest companions was more than simply a kennel. It was also where a hole in the floor led to the next level of our adventure.

After checking in with each other and having Aesandoral issue a series of commands to her wolves, it was time to continue to the next section. We descended the roughly fifty to sixty carved steps before reaching a tunnel collapse that would force us to detour along this area’s small subterranean stream.

This is where things began to go awry.

As we carefully made our way down the slippery streambed, there was a quiet squeak, followed by a startled yelp as one of the wolf pups slipped into Rionriv. And that was all it would take down the algae-covered path to once again throw a wrench into the plans.

Before we knew it, our whole set of dominoes was zipping along the hundred-foot slip-and-slice, banging into walls and cutting ourselves on rocks before sliding to a stop.

Reaching the end of the path, we piled on top of each other, coming to a rest near the center of a large dome-shaped room. The ceiling twinkled like starlight as subterranean glow worms cast a faint green bioluminescence from their sticky, silken threads.

“Everyone okay?” I asked quietly into the triop’s minds as I glanced at each of them through the faint light that bathed their faces.

“I’m good,” Rionriv replied, the chill settling in my mind. “No thanks to the wolves.”

“Hey, the pupper slipped.” Aes spoke aloud.

“Shh—” We collectively quieted her, but it was too late.

Bzzzzzzzz—

Through the dim light, I could see a dozen pale cave corgsquitoes peeling from the walls and beginning to buzz towards us from all directions. Most of their bodies were frail, ours probably being the first blood they had sensed in a while.

The more dangerous threats of this level usually didn’t travel so close to the bandit lair, and vice versa. This meant that this space was where the bloodsuckers resided.

“Light them up!” The words flowed from my lips, reaching into my bottomless bag.

I grabbed my last Phyllis Brand Daylight Orb, having lost the first to the tower collapse. Activating it, I spoke a phrase Phyllis had given me and tossed the orb into the air. It locked into place, hovering fifty feet above my head, and followed me like a magical drone as I moved.

Aesandoral and Sharzin began their barrage, taking up position along Rionriv in a triangle formation with me at the center. This wasn’t exactly according to plan, but we had discussed several backup scenarios in the event that things went wrong. Luckily, this was exactly one of them. It was a Rionriv plan and, I had to admit, I was a fan from the minute she came up with it.

Watching in awe, the triop shot arrows and slung spells at high speed, all the while I stood back, keeping the light still. But I sensed that something was wrong. The wall was shifting at the edge of our little bubble of light.

No, that was incorrect. It was something crawling on the wall.

Oh, fug, we attracted the crocmaws.

“Tee-Two. Tee-Two!” I yelled out, our code word for a sudden change in plans.

Aesandoral glanced towards me and traced my eyeline to the edge of the light.

“Gott’em.” She cried out.

I watched as the tip of her arrow glowed red hot before cutting through the arcane daylight and, in a fiery explosion, tearing into the darkness.

A bipedal monster with scales and a long, vicious snout blasted forward into the radiant glow of my orb. As the creature bounced against the stone, it released a blood-chilling shriek that echoed through the darkness as it expired.

But there was no time to rejoice. Within moments, guttural growls began to echo from Rionriv’s direction. Then from the tunnel nearest Sharzin and Aesandoral. We were surrounded.

“Iz?” Aesandoral’s quavering voice asked. “What do we do?”

“Ri?” I asked, unsure myself.

“Why are you asking me, oracle?!” She snapped.

The plan had been to simply bypass the beasts. Use an explosion to collapse the tunnel and trap them in their nest instead of dealing with them. But now we needed to face the entire bask of crocmaws.

Okay, think, think, think. The crocmaws are down here, in the water. Carnivorous and extremely dangerous. Scaled bodies. Powerful bites with a deadly saliva. They’re like comodo dragons. But. They’re. Here…because—? Wait, it wasn’t the arrow!

“Go forth!” I yelled as the orb of light pushed fifty feet away from me in Rionriv’s direction.

A pair of crocmaws were immediately bathed in sunlight and began to shriek as the radiance burnt their flesh. A trio of arrows and a single beam of fire struck the monsters in an instant.

I watched as they buckled, their flesh sizzling in the light.

“They’re weaker in the sunlight!” I yelled out in confirmation.

Sharzin suddenly cried out in pain. As I turned around, I first noticed her at the edge of our luminous bubble. The minute I had moved the orb, the monster had taken the opportunity to strike.

Bah-dump! Bah-dump! Bah-dump!

My heart raced as I watched blood flowing from her shoulder and down her leather armour. The grey-scaled snout of a crocmaw held the rogue firmly in its razor-sharp teeth.

The creature and I locked eyes, and I knew if I moved towards it, it would retreat with my companion in its jaws.

Reaching into my bag quickly, I withdrew one of the potions we had looted from the previous level. It was a clear bottle containing a deep blue liquid that resembled storm clouds. Within that, a single spark of electricity disappeared and reappeared, looking for an escape from its prison.

With a glance at the faded text, I was able to read the words ‘Lightning Dash.’

I don’t know for sure what this does, but if I had to guess from writing this story, it should help.

With a satisfying squeak, I removed the cork and chugged the bottle. An electricity surged through my body, not too dissimilar to all the times Rionriv had electrocuted me. But this was different. I didn’t feel attacked. It was more like I was becoming the lightning.

Electricity arced down my legs to my feet, where I felt a foreign magic building with explosive potential. Whatever it was going to do to me had taken effect.

Dropping the bottle, I raced forward. With a clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning that was me appeared behind the crocmaw. The glass shattered to the ground only after I began my strikes. Two to the side, a sweep of the leg and a roundhouse kick to the neck.

The creature fell, limp, taking Sharzin with it. Or it would have, had I not caught her in my arms.

“Sharzin, you okay?” I asked, placing a hand on her shoulder before using my magic to heal and detoxify the wound.

As the injury glowed, the putrid saliva of the crocmaw was pushed out of the healing flesh and dripped to the stone floor.

“Y-yeah, thanks.” She said with a small nod.

“Iz!” Rionriv called out as she reached a hand before her. “Whatever you just did, do it again.”

I watched as a creature was now able to lunge towards Aesandoral, who had wandered towards the edge of the light. I repeated the technique, dropping another crocmaw. And then I did it once more to another that had wandered close enough to the dimmest corner of our bubble.

“Ri, is that enough?” I asked, jumping back to her with a thunderous clap.

Rionriv ignored me, standing with her hand outstretched, finishing a sigil of electricity that hung in the air. It crackled with energy as she smiled deviously at it.

I now understood why she had insisted I take the potion to begin with. The real reason why she wanted me to kill those crocmaws with it.

“Did you just…recreate that potion into a spell? By sight?!”

“Yes,” She muttered, reaching both hands forward and touching a pair of glyphs within the design. “But mine is better.”