M88 (Patreon)

The rescue party, much diminished, had continued down the gargantuan tunnel, ever descending, until they started to notice smaller tunnels branching off to the left and right. Still, the enormous central tunnel continued, but Rorth called a halt and turned to Issa and Morgan to consult. “I’m reasonably sure the left-hand tunnels lead down toward the Rill Catcher and the part of the Deep Down where the original attackers originated. It’s been many years since I was here, though, so I could be mistaken.”

“Well, I’d like to get out of this big tunnel where we can get attacked from the air. Let’s explore down that way,” Morgan said. Issa only nodded and started walking to the first tunnel on the left. Rorth looked at Morgan, and he shrugged, following after Issa. He could hear Rorth directing the rest of the column’s marching orders. He caught up to Issa and said, “Hey, I know you’re in a hurry to get to your dad, but don’t get out ahead of the rest of us, please.”

“I won’t. I just want to get a look in here. You’re right here, anyway.” She didn’t sound irritated, exactly, but Morgan could tell she was riding on raw nerves. He followed close behind her, Bloodfang held in his hand, always hungry for more action. As they walked in the dim tunnel, he let his Azure Sight fade, and the true gloom of the depths hit him. If not for the yellow globes of light some of the soldiers held back along the column, he knew they’d be wading through impenetrable darkness. On a whim, he tried to follow the Azure Paladin's guidance by recasting Azure Sight but funneling the void-attuned Energy in his Core into the spell. Suddenly, everything in his vision flared into shades of brilliant white and gray. He could see every detail in the tunnel, every strand of Issa’s hair, and she stood out in the darkness like a phosphorescent light in a dim room. Looking around the tunnel, Morgan could see bright white shapes of slugs and beetles. He saw a dozen little luminous bodies resembling bats or rodents up a narrow crevice that he’d thought was just a dark shadow before.

***Congratulations! You’ve learned the spell: Void Vision - Improved***

***Void Vision - Improved: Just as the void lacks light, so too does a master of the void eschew the need for it. Shadows, illusions, and even material obstructions cannot hide your foes from you.  You can read a person’s emotions, and as your mastery of this skill advances, you will learn to see the truth of beings and items around you. Energy Cost: 75 per minute while active.***

Morgan waved the notifications away and then looked at Issa. He saw within her bright, luminescent form tiny pulses of blue and red that rose from her chest and went through her head. Instinctually he knew they indicated that she was anxious and under a heavy mental strain. He reached forward and rested his free hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze, and he saw a little pink burst of emotion in Issa’s chest. “This skill is fucking cool.”

“You got a new skill?” she asked.

“Yeah, an upgraded vision spell. I can see everything.” He scanned ahead in the dark, narrow tunnel and knew that nothing larger than a rat was within a hundred feet of them. “I should walk in front. I can see anything bigger than a fly for a hundred feet or more.” She slowed down and let him walk up beside her, but then she matched his stride.

“We’ll walk together.” Morgan couldn’t argue with that, so they continued that way, the tunnel plenty wide for them to walk side by side. This tunnel had a much steeper rate of descent, and they seemed to be wending from left to right, never more than a hundred feet of tunnel visible before a curve obscured Morgan’s view. After about thirty minutes of traversal, they came around a bend, and Morgan saw three large, nearly incandescently bright beings in his Void Vision about fifty paces ahead. He grabbed Issa’s shoulder and stopped her.

“Shh,” he hissed, “three up ahead. Do you see them?”

“No,” she whispered, “Even my night vision spell can’t see that far without more light.” The column was a ways behind them around the curve, so the tunnel ahead was still very dark, Morgan guessed. He could see the shapes of the creatures, and they were reminiscent of the “gargoyles” from above, though they seemed bigger, with longer arms, and he didn’t see wings.

“They look like monsters. Let’s not let them get the jump on us,” Morgan whispered. “Go tell Rorth to hold the column behind the bend for a minute.” Issa looked at him, a wave of purple-red emotion jumping up from her chest, and he said, “I’ll wait for you.” She nodded and slipped around the corner. Morgan studied the creatures while she was gone, ensuring they didn’t move or notice him. When Issa slid back around the corner, she smiled to see him waiting, and he nodded, starting forward, and he felt the buzzing Energy of Issa’s Battle Chant start up as just a low hum that wouldn’t travel far. He watched their heads closely, waiting for them to look his way and notice him or Issa. The two of them glided through the darkness, carefully stepping over loose rocks, their basic ability to move silently once again proving invaluable. When they were only twenty paces away from the creatures, and they still hadn’t noticed him or Issa, Morgan decided to take the attack to them. The creatures were definitely related to the gargoyles - larger, more heavily built, with heavy claws that looked like they could scoop through rock as easily as bisect a person. He squeezed Issa’s shoulder, and then he simply used Hollow Charge to close the distance; not bothering to swing his sword when he arrived, Morgan cast Void Wave, eager to see its effectiveness.

Things were different here, in the real world than in the reality that existed in his or the Azure Paladin’s mind. When he released the wave of void-attuned Energy, the sound or feeling of light and sound and air being consumed was something like a god ripping the fabric of reality with his fingernails - the wave spread out from Morgan, devouring everything in its path until it hit the three large gargoyles. Then, with his Void Vision, Morgan could see the struggles of their individual wills and Energy versus his attack, and the consumption of their matter slowed significantly, but it didn’t stop. The creatures shrieked in agony and surprise, but the Void Wave swallowed their cries in another hair-raising anti-sound. They tried to flee and nearly escaped the radius of the wave, but only because of their momentum; partially dissolved splashes of organs and bones fell to the tunnel floor.

As Energy streamed into Morgan from the destroyed creatures, Issa came up behind him, looking around at the slightly wider section of the tunnel expanded by his Void Wave. The stone had been eaten away, though only a few inches. Morgan wondered if his pulse of void Energy had been a persistent stream or torrent if it could have destroyed more stone. He thought it likely. “Was that a new spell?”

“Yes, when I leveled up above, I had a meeting with the Azure Paladin again. He showed me how to use my void-attuned Energy in some of my spells.” Morgan looked down the tunnel in both directions, noting the light of the soldiers' orbs growing brighter as they came around the bend. Nothing moved or appeared to be lurking the other way.

“I wish you’d left more of them for us to examine.” Issa held her nose as she used her boot to prod the remains of one of the creatures, trying to see if anything useful could be gleaned from the corpse.

“Well, to be honest, I didn’t know how effective that spell was. See anything of note?” Morgan went to look with Issa, noting the sound of running feet indicating at least some of the soldiers were rushing forward to see what had happened. As more light filled the tunnel, he let his Void Vision fall for a moment to see the natural color around him. The slaughtered gargoyles, stinking of raw entrails and their contents, hadn’t managed to keep much flesh on their bones, but he did see a few patches of their skin along their forearms and lower legs. They were gray but a much darker shade than those flying up above.

“Not much left,” Issa said.

“Ancestors! What did you do to them?” Rorth asked as he came running up.

“Void Wave. Let’s keep moving.” Morgan refreshed his Void Vision and walked ahead, letting the others sort out how they’d follow. Issa didn’t waste any words, just falling into step beside him again. Morgan wasn’t trying to be rude, but he felt stressed out by the mountains of dirt over his head and the growing feeling that these weren’t the types of creatures to keep prisoners. They rounded a bend, and suddenly Morgan threw his hand out to stop Issa. Not thirty paces further down the tunnel, he could see the luminescent signature of a dozen more of the large gargoyle creatures. “Shh, I think a cavern is ahead with,” he counted again carefully, “eleven more of those big guys in it.”

The creatures were active, milling about, some moving quickly to and fro and others just kind of shambling around. Morgan gestured back toward the soldiers and raised his eyebrows questioningly. “Yes, let’s wait for them,” Issa whispered. They slinked back around the bend and then waited while Rorth and the others approached, motioning for them to be quiet as they came into view.

“What is it?”

“A cavern with at least eleven of the big guys in it. We should hit them together, try to overwhelm them,” Issa said. Rorth nodded and passed the word down the line - they’d sneak up as close as possible then charge them en masse. Morgan and Issa took the lead but didn’t extend away from the main column; they moved together, slowly, lights out, walking inch by inch, with Morgan in front and then Issa, all the way down the line, holding onto the person’s shoulder in front of them. They’d agreed to ignite their lights when they heard Morgan charge.

Morgan carefully watched the luminescent forms of the gargoyles as he approached, taking one slow step after another. When he was only ten paces from the cavern opening, he picked a cluster of three nearby creatures and charged. This time he didn’t use his Void Wave; he reached out with an Energy Drain, yanking on the dark, toxic power he felt in their Cores, and then laid about himself with Bloodfang. The sword’s solar steel cut through their flesh like paper, notching their bones and sliding out as Morgan stepped, lunged, slashed, parried some claws, then thrust again. He liberally used his sword styles, and as he finished the first trio, he ran to another pair of gargoyles that came in from a side tunnel. All the while, he was aware of Issa’s screeching hexes and the yells, clamor, and bright lights of the other soldiers and hunters engaging in combat.

Just as he’d downed his fifth gargoyle, Morgan turned to survey the battle, and a surge of panic hit him - the cavern they were in was massive, and a wave of luminescent gargoyle shapes was surging toward them from a vast tunnel at the far end. There had to be more than a hundred of the creatures, and lumbering in the midst of the horde were three distinctly larger, brighter forms - gargoyles that dwarfed the “big” ones that Morgan had already killed. “Pull back!” he yelled. “Pull to the tunnel entrance!” He tried to be as loud as he could, but the sounds of combat made his voice seem small. He needed Issa. Frantically he looked around, trying to spot her, and when he did, his heart sank. She was on the far side of the cavern, further toward the horde, pushing a group of gargoyles up a steep tunnel.

He started to run toward her, looking for a target to use Hollow Charge on, but the screaming, hissing throng of gargoyles passed in front of the tunnel she was in, and Morgan knew he’d have to fight through them to get to her. He tried, charging at their flank, trying to push his way through. He unleashed his Void Wave, then an Azure Burst, and finally an Energy Drain targeting more than twenty nearby gargoyles. He’d made an enormous crater in their numbers, but they swarmed over their dead and pushed at him, and Morgan, his big attacks on cooldown and his Energy running down near fifty percent, struggled to hold them off with sword styles. One of the lumbering, massive gargoyles charged him then, smashing into him with a boulder-like horned shoulder, throwing him back, tumbling over the rocky cavern floor. Morgan nimbly found his feet and scanned the scene.

Many of the Ardeni were dead, scores of gargoyles still swarmed over the cavern floor, and he could no longer see Issa in the tunnel on the other side. He’d rolled to a stop near a tunnel entrance, and when he looked up into it, he didn’t see any signs of enemies. He had to get across the cavern to Issa, but could he kill that many gargoyles? Not all at once, he decided. He’d need to keep them from surrounding him and bunch them up. He looked around again and said, “Like in the mouth of a tunnel.” He backed up so the tunnel walls were on either side of him, then he began to shout, forming a Vortex Lance and firing it into the side of the hulking gargoyle that had thrown him. The shot reverberated through the cavern, and the supersonic bolt of Energy tore the hulk’s arm off at the shoulder. It screamed with its wide, dagger-filled maw lifted to the ceiling and then charged toward Morgan, a good portion of the host of gargoyles following behind. “Come on, then! Come and get it!” Morgan roared.