Chapter 34 - Unexpected (Patreon)

The tunnels grew warmer as they descended into its depths. Celaine’s idea of a brisk walk clearly didn’t match up with Hump’s, but each time he tripped, she caught him without complaint, dragging him on into the darkness.

Hump still felt the effects of his time practicing River and Waves. He no longer felt like he was freezing, and the uncontrollable shivers had stopped, which was always a nice thing. More importantly, he had some essence. It wasn’t much, but down here it was the difference between being defenceless and able to fight. The technique might not offer him the immediate power that an elixir could, however it was natural power, like concentrated rest. His core had relaxed, the essence that coursed through the rest of his body was absorbed, and he was feeling better.

They made fast progress through the dungeon, at least it felt fast. While he could hardly make out one shadow from the next, Celaine picked their path with ease. He felt himself pulled left and right down a twisting web of tunnels, yet still the sound of their kobold pursuers followed.

“This isn’t working,” Celaine said finally, scratching a marking on the wall before scribbling it out frustratedly.

She’d been marking the path as they went, leaving descriptions of their direction. While she kept the markings apart so that the kobolds couldn’t simply track them, it clearly hadn’t been enough. At the same time, if they didn’t leave markings, it would be impossible for him and Celaine to find their way out afterward. Or if luck were with them, for Vamir and Bud to arrive with reinforcements.

“What do you suggest?” Hump asked. “I don’t like our chances in a fight. Not down here.”

“Agreed.” She paused, staring at Hump in a way that made him nervous. Though that might have just been because her eyes were all he could see.

“What?” he asked.

“You won’t like it.”

Hump sighed. “I’m not sure things can get much worse.”

“Good,” she said. “Then you stay here. I’ll backtrack a bit and leave a bunch of markings to lead the kobolds astray.”

“No,” Hump said. “No, definitely not. We shouldn’t split up, that’s a terrible idea.”

“I don’t see much choice,” Celaine said. “If we keep going, they’re going to catch us.”

Hump rubbed his face and let out a breath. “If they caught you—”

“Trust me, they won’t catch me,” Celaine said. “I’ll be able to move more quickly on my own. I’ll lead them up one of the side tunnels and then hide in another until they pass. You’re off the main path here. stay here and stay silent and nothing will find you.”

Hump frowned but nodded. “Be careful.”

“I will be.”

Then she was off. Two footsteps, then silence, leaving him alone in the dark.

Hump’s heart raced as he sat there in the dark. It wasn’t like he was defenceless. If anything came his way, he’d have a spell waiting for them. After that he’d have to figure out what he’d do next. They were a long way underground now, yet it had only grown warmer and more humid. Time was hard to track, but Hump thought it must have been a good two or three hours since they’d first fallen into the tunnel.

It wasn’t long before he heard the kobolds once more, hissing orders at each other and running through the tunnel, their footsteps quiet echoes, almost like raindrops. Hump huddled against the wall and clutched his staff to him. His heart thundered as they drew closer, the echoes making it impossible to judge the exact distance. The footsteps paused, and voices chittered back and forth. But they never arrived. Soon the sounds grew distant. They were leaving, following the path Celaine had laid out for them.

Only once they were out of earshot did Hump slump to the floor and relax. He tilted his head back against the wall and tried not to think about the fact an entire crag was above his head right now. There was nothing for him to do in the darkness, so once more he turned his attention inward, envisioning the River and Waves. Though this time he wouldn’t allow himself to fall into a trance. Instead, he just practiced the same technique the old man had always taught him, letting his fear and anxiety dissipate into the river’s current, gone with the waves.

Footsteps sounded nearby and Hump shuffled to his feet, staff at the ready. He felt calm, his emotions collected as a wizard’s should be. Now that he wasn’t suffering from essence overuse, there was no excuse for letting his fear get to him. If they were to get out of this, he needed his mind to be focused.

He waited in the shadows silently as the footsteps drew closer.

“It’s me,” Celaine said, her voice barely a whisper.

Hump lowered his staff. “How did it go?”

“Good, I think. I left decoy markers all the way along the tunnel. It’ll be a while before they figure out we took a different path.”

“Then we better make use of the time we had,” Hump said. “I don’t want to go through that again. Here.” Hump extended his hands, wiggling his fingers at her and smiling smugly.

Celaine grabbed his hand and yanked him back on route. “You’re lucky I’m nice.”

They continued walking and it wasn’t long before a glimmer of warm light crept up from the ground ahead of them; the faintest red glow that seemed to emanate from the stone itself. “Am I going mad, or is the tunnel starting to glow?”

“You’re not going mad,” Celaine said. He could hear the disbelief in her voice. “Can you see now?”

“Just about.”

“Good. Then you can let go of my hand.”

“That’s alright,” Hump said casually, “I don’t mind.”

Celaine glanced over her shoulder and glowered at him. He could see the tight smile on her face.

“On second thought,” Hump said, letting go reluctantly. “Your hands are a bit clammy.” They weren’t. Her hands were as lovely as they come, and the moment her touch was gone he found himself disappointed. Pathetic, you just met her. Don’t go swooning.

“I’m starting to think we’ve made a wrong turn,” Hump said. “This is feeling more and more wrong the deeper we get.”

“They all lead down,” Celaine said, frustration clear in her voice. “I’ve been trying to take the high ground, but they all head down again eventually.”

“Like veins to a heart,” Hump said.

“Mhm,” Celaine said. “It’s like we’re walking within the body of some giant beast.”

“If dungeon cores are sentient,” Hump said, “then I suppose we are.” He placed a hand on the tunnel wall. It was warm to the touch, and he could feel essence pulsing within.

They moved faster now that Hump could see, following the passage as it wound its way down. The grey stone changed gradually, becoming lighter as they walked. Thick red veins pulsed in the walls, and soon, they were walking through a tunnel of pale red and translucent stone. Thin veins of essence ran through the walls, connecting to larger, thicker veins that glowed with red light.

It led them to a small dome-shaped chamber. A place of nightmares.

Positioned around the chamber’s edge were large, translucent eggs. They protruded from the ground as if they were swellings, bursting from the stone. Each was almost as tall as a person, with a crystal outer shell that contained essence water within, stained red by the dungeon’s essence. And suspended within were the still developing bodies of kobolds. A thick vein fed each of them, connecting them to the ground.

“This is amazing,” Hump said.

“You’re kidding,” Celaine retorted.

“You can’t tell me this isn’t fascinating,” Hump said, as he walked up to one of the eggs, reaching out with his hand to touch it before stopping himself. He pulled back his hand. “Look at them! The dungeon is creating life right before our eyes. Sure, it’s man-eating monsters, but it’s still amazing.”

The amount of essence coming from the eggs wasn’t anything extreme, but it was constant. He’d heard many different versions of how dungeons created their monsters, but never seen it for himself.

From Celaine’s face, she clearly didn’t think so. “This must be why they chuck all the leftovers down here. Fuel for the dungeon.”

“Yeah,” Hump said. “Amazing, but grim.”

She moved to search the room. “There’s nothing else here. Should we destroy them?”

“Not if we want to avoid getting eaten by kobolds,” Hump said. “These shells are made from crystal. There’s no way we could do it quietly.”

Distantly, Hump heard the kobolds let loose a chorus of excited clicks and chitters. “Sounds like they figured out your decoy.”

Celaine frowned back at the way they came. “I’d hoped it would keep them longer than that.”

And then the tunnel trembled. Thunder boomed. And Hump heard the sound of steel.

“What the hell was that?” Hump asked.

Celaine caught herself on the wall and stared down the passage. She didn’t answer.

“Celaine?” Hump asked. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she said, obviously distracted. “That’s… Hump, you should stay here and stay out of this. I need to go.”

Hump stared at her, taken aback. He blinked. “Are you kidding me? Go where? There’s nowhere to go.”

“Trust me,” she snapped. “I don’t have time for this. Leave!”

She bolted. Of course she bolted…

“Wait,” Hump called. He drew in a breath and gave chase. She was faster, but it wasn’t like he could lose her down here.

The red light continued to grow brighter as he ran. It pulsed in the walls like pumping blood, and through the stone, he saw dark shadows like veins.

When he caught up to Celaine, she was standing at the end of the tunnel, staring out into a domed chamber beyond it. Hump walked up to her side, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. He stared around the chamber in amazement. It was as tall as a cathedral, completely dark other than the dull red light that pulsed in the walls. Large boulders were scattered throughout, fallen from the jagged roof above. There was a hole in that roof, and beyond that, Hump recognised the green crystal glow. It was the hole in the kobold shrine.

Hump’s stomach sank.

A podium rose up from the ground at the centre of the chamber, surrounded by jagged rocks as if it had torn its way out of the ground, coming to just above waist height. On it was a perfectly spherical crystal as large as Hump’s head, pulsing with the same red light as the rest of the chamber.

The dungeon core. They had found the dungeon heart!

Which meant…

Celaine’s eyes were on something to the right. The ground tremored again, and once more the air boomed. Hump felt it reverberate in his chest, and with it his heart beat like drums.

A dragon lumbered into view. It was bigger than a troll, bigger than two trolls. Larger than any monster he had ever seen. It was covered in grey scales, so dark they were nearly black. Bat-like wings rose from its back, spanning the length of its body again, red and veiny like the walls. Something held it to the ground, pressed down like an angry cat, unable to strain free.

“Celaine,” Hump hissed. He took a perilous step forward, legs shaking. “We have to go.”

She didn’t answer.

“We can’t do anything against a bloody dragon!”

“A wolf dragon,” Celaine whispered. “At least, what’s left of her.”

“What do you mean?” Hump stared at it again. It was difficult to see it from this angle, with its tail end towards them, but as it writhed beneath whatever force held it, he saw the ribs protruding from its chest. From within its chest, its core shone with a sickly green, burning brightly even in its eyes.

“It’s undead,” Hump said.

The dragon strained again, managing to push itself up from the ground and scuffle across the ground back toward the dungeon core. With it out the way, Hump saw Kassius and the black paladin. Both of them alive and well—better than that. They seemed completely unharmed. Kassius strolled after the dragon with a calmness that no man should have in the presence of a dragon. He carved markings into the ground, his sword tearing through the stone as easily as butter. The dragon roared again.

Hump was elated. He almost cried out before thinking better of it, not wanting to distract Kassius and get him killed.

“Stop!” Celaine screamed, drawing the dagger from her belt and rushing into the chamber. “Get back, Kassius. Get away from her!”

“What are you doing?” Hump roared. He dashed forward, grabbing Celaine and pulling her back. “We need to—”

The dragon whirled on them like a snake, suddenly free from whatever had held it. Its mouth opened; green light bubbled at the back of its throat.

And then the world erupted in emerald flame.