Dario shot up with a start, but Nika held up a hand, gesturing to be quiet. They both looked at each other in silence for a few moments, bodies tense, until another bestial howl sounded, followed by two more, each sounding like it came from a different location.

  “I’ll go take a look,” he mouthed, the words coming out as a quiet, breathy whisper.

  Nika looked at the way they’d come in, through a barricade of broken stone, then gave a shake of the head.

  “Too loud,” she whispered back.

  Dario was confident in his ability to move with stealth, but moving over that much debris was not without risk. If those howls came from some kind of hunting hound, they’d probably have good hearing.

  He looked around the room, considering. They had gone quite deep into a complex of collapsed living quarters to make it harder for anyone to find them. There were some upper rooms which they hadn’t yet explored, so he pointed up to signal Nika and then crept onto an old table and hopped up to pull himself into the room above, as the old wooden ladder the inhabitants must have used in the past had long since fallen apart.

  The next level was surprisingly intact, with easy stone steps leading up to a low-ceilinged attic. Dario in the lead, they both crept silently through the dark space until they reached a thin ray of ochre light coming in through the ceiling.

  “Can you make that wider?” Dario mouthed, bringing his fingers together before moving them out in an opening motion.

  Nika nodded, lifting a single finger to the tiny hole in the ceiling and began the slow process of scratching off layers until finally, more of the pillar’s light was coming through.

  Now it was Dario’s turn, poking a thin, shiny metal rod through the hole. It was just a simple way to make things a bit easier for him. The metal rod was already picking up reflected light from outside, so all that was left to do was to adjust that light for distortion and make it larger.

  A view of the outside slowly appeared underneath the rod as a pane of dim light hovering in the air. It only showed stone walls and rubble, so he turned the rod and adjusted the view until they were able to scan the streets outside.

  A flash of white caught his attention and he twisted the rod again, then adjusted the image for a closer look. It showed a lean dog sniffing at the ground, a thin band of smoke twirling around its long legs and torso. Both its fur and the smoke were white as chalk, though the ochre light of the moss-covered pillar made it look more like a sickly yellow.

  They watched for a while, until it seemed to pick up a trail, letting out a short howl followed by a series of sharp yelps before moving in the direction of the entrance to the building.

  Dario figured they must have left enough blood and sweat behind for the dogs to sniff them out, though it would take them a while to navigate the blocked passages they’d left behind. Actually, he wondered how the dogs would get past the piles of rubble, it’s not like they had hands to dig…

  “You have the trail? Excellent. Such good little hunters you are. Soon, you’ll be feasting on their fear.”

  Dario stiffened as Uso’s warbled voice sounded in the distance, cold fear bubbling up in his stomach and coursing through his veins. His eyes flicked over to Nika and he had to bite down a curse. He could see her gathering her Ki, the way her jaw was set and her eyes were hardening - she was looking for a fight.

  “Nika, this is not the time to fight. We have to get out of here,” he whispered urgently. She didn’t look at him, but he could hear her grinding her teeth. A trickle of bright red Ki appeared from her chest. That one wasn’t hard to remember. Anger.

  “This is not the time. We aren’t ready,” he tried again, trying to put as much conviction in the words as he could. Her eyes flicked over to him and he held her angry gaze, letting his own frustration come through. “We can use this. We can sneak out and get to the dome while they’re in here.”

  “Chiiildreen-”

  He nearly flinched at Uso’s taunt, thinking Nika was about to storm off, but he forced himself to remain steady and hold her gaze, until she finally gave a sharp nod.

  “Don’t forget your uncle Uso. It’s been so very long since he listened to those lovely stories,” the old demon continued, voice like the rasp of metal on stone. “He’s hungry for more. Staaarviiing-”

  Dario squeezed his eyes shut to suppress a shudder while Nika got to work quietly opening a hole in the stone ceiling. He decided against using his last two traps here, since it wasn’t likely to help much. Speed and stealth would be best, for now.

  It didn’t take long for Nika to open a hole and slowly lift herself through. Dario was right behind her, popping his arms out and beginning to push himself carefully up. His head swiveled around to scan the surroundings, but none of the beasts were nearby, likely busy entering the complex from the entrance a block away, which would put them well out of sight.

  But when he tried to pull himself all the way out, he found that the hole was too small for his waist to fit through. He frowned as he sucked in his breath and pushed harder, but the only thing that changed was an increased pressure on the lower part of his belly.

  Oh no.

  Dario’s eyes widened and he began to squirm, trying to wriggle himself out of the hole. Nika’s head snapped back at the sudden noise, eyes flicking to his belly and her eyebrows lifting as she realized what had happened.

  “Are you serious?” she mouthed.

  “What? You’re the one who made the damn hole!” he hissed back, squirming even harder as he pressed his hands down on the roof without result.

  Nika was shaking her head as she moved back to grab him by the hands and begin to heave. It took three pulls to finally get him through, the sudden force bringing him flopping onto the roof as a few pebbles clattered against the stone.

  They both froze, looking around anxiously, then letting out a silent breath when no beasts came running. Dario wove a working of light Ki around them, making them look like shadows as they quietly dropped themselves down from the roof and began to sneak down the street.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Distant sounds of yelping and howling and the never-ending taunts from Uso kept them on edge as they flitted from doorway to doorway, sticking to the shadows, careful not to make any noise.

  It was only because they went through the city with slow caution, that Dario spotted the dark feline lurking in the shadows of a distant house. Once he’d seen that one, they made their way inside a building and onto a higher floor to get a better view of their surroundings.

  “They must have known we were coming back here,” Dario said quietly as he marked at least three cats, patiently waiting in different spots around the half-collapsed dome they were planning to enter. “The cats weren’t so clever before. It was easy enough to give them the slip, at least. But the big guy seems to have gotten them to follow orders somehow, just like with the hounds.”

  “We may need to adjust our plan.”

  “Yep,” Dario nodded, “looks like it’s time for a good ol’ diversion.”

  Nika looked at him, cocking an eyebrow. “What I meant to say was we should draw up a battle plan. A few of these cats will not be enough to hold us back, if we strike quickly and decisively.”

  “Sure, but they’ll be on our asses soon and if we don’t manage to open any mystery doors, we’ll be completely trapped there. The battle plan can still be our fallback.”

  Dario noticed how her eye twitched slightly when he said ‘asses’, but she did eventually give a slow nod.

  “I suppose it would not be cowardice to thin their forces and prepare ourselves… What exactly do you propose?”

  They spent some time brainstorming a new plan, which was relatively simple: draw all the enemies away before sneaking back into the Cupola. Nika had brought a scent-covering artefact, which they’d be able to use once to cover their trail for at least a day.

  So they changed direction, turning as if to head out of the city and back to the cave where they’d entered. It wouldn’t even have been a bad plan, to rebuild their tower and quickly try to escape. The only problem was that they still weren’t clear on how to pass the requirement, but he was betting that the crazy parasites didn’t know that and would just dumbly follow the trail.

  They left sweaty and bloodstained clothes hidden somewhere on the outskirts of the city, before washing themselves off and using a scent-covering artefact that Nika had, then looping around to return to the institute.

  Nika had insisted that a diversion itself was not enough, but that they had to prepare for battle as well. In a large square across from the institute, she’d spotted several opportunities to use her new abilities to create some traps. But first, they had to wait for the hounds to catch onto the false trail. They used that time to work on getting stronger. Nika spent all her time going through the strange, black book she’d found, often muttering about its brilliance, while she held out a hand and sometimes managed to make a pebble tremble.

  Dario had no idea what she was trying to do and was too focused on himself to ask. He sat with his back to the wall, legs stretched out in front of him and eyes closed as he guided a small orb of light to the very edges of his seams. After a few attempts, he’d gotten the hang of it and now green tendrils of plant Ki were squiggling through the narrow seams in his legs, following after the small motes of light Ki.

  The bits of light energy were small enough that they could pass where the thicker bands of plant Ki could not, so that when the plant Ki gave chase and pushed in deeper like roots digging for water, the result would be an expansion of his seams. Once he had two thick strands of green Ki pushing further down his legs in the direction of his feet, he began the fine work of drawing out thinner tendrils to dig out branching paths.

  It was a lot less painful than the cruder hammering method, but that was not to say it was comfortable. Dario grimaced and shifted, feeling like a bunch of tiny maggots were digging through his legs. He had to fight to keep his hands by his sides, clenched in tight fists, resisting the urge to scratch violently at the constant itch that ran deep in his legs.

  When he couldn’t take it anymore, he would switch to practicing another technique: layering defensive Ki over the skin.

  Nika, being an expert in this, had shared many useful tips for how to channel the aspect of hardness, but it wasn’t helping him so far. Her preferred mental images of pickaxes and chisels chipping away at hard aura to bring it under one’s control seemed to work fine for her cultivation of minerals and stones, but it did nothing for his attempts with the plants. Extracting hardness, even from the aura he harvested from the core of the thorny plant, was proving even harder than bringing the power of heat out from his light Ki.

  When there was no progress at all on the hardness, he’d taken to practicing on the aspect of pliancy instead, using images of scraping and cutting off tough fibers of Ki. It would be good at defending against blunt force, while weaker against the cut of a blade.

  But in the little time he had, there was no progress to speak of. It was clear that this little project was going to take a much longer time.

  They lost themselves in the training until a series of howls sounded in the distance. Dario met Nika’s eyes, the two of them nodding at each as they shared a look of determination.

  The dogs had found their lure. It was time to set their plan into action.

  ***

  Now that step one of their plan was complete, the next step was to prepare the surroundings, after which they'd draw away any lingering beasts around the institute before sneaking in again. That meant it was Dario’s time to shine. Quite literally, in this case.

  “You may be some form of parasite-infested demons, but I’m betting you’re still little kitties at heart,” he muttered to himself as he looked at two of the cats from a hidden alley by bending the light.

  In front of him, an image came into being, first as a rough smear of light, but as he worked each part became sharper and more distinct. After a few minutes, the work was complete: staring back at him was the shape of a big fat rittel.

  After a frown of concentration appeared on Dario's forehead, the image of the scaled rodent scurried out of the alleyway and onto the large square in front of the institute. There, it ran in circles, slowing down slightly as it sniffed the ground, before speeding up on its way to the next alley. He smiled as the first cat leapt down from its perch and chased after it, the other two not far behind.

  Dario turned his head back to flash Nika a smirk that clearly said ‘I told you so’. Her lips tightened slightly but she gave a sharp nod and then they moved on, two shadows silently dashing over the open square, pushing up against the walls of a huge building that stood across from the institute.

  Nika had chosen this building for its wide ceilinged walkway, which was lined with pillars that supported the entire front side of it. She had said it was ‘obviously teetering on the edge of collapse’, though it wasn’t at all obvious to Dario. He attached one of his explosive traps to a pillar that she indicated at an angle where it wouldn’t easily be spotted, while she went around weakening some other critical pillars.

  Once that was done, they snuck back into an alley and silently made their way through the streets that surrounded the large square. She tried to force him to memorize the lay-out, but when it became clear that wasn’t going to work reliably, they settled on putting markings on some corners. They snuck through tunnels and half-collapsed buildings, where Nika again went around laying her hand on the stone in places and concentrating before nodding with satisfaction.

  Even the slightest clatter of a pebble had Dario wincing as he tiptoed ahead of Nika through a narrow corridor. For all the woman’s impressive strength and nimbleness during battle, stealth was clearly not her strong suit. The longer they moved around like thieves, the worse she seemed to get at it.

  Still, they moved slowly and he kept them well covered, drawing the light away so that they blended into the shadows. But when they were heading for one of the final points they’d prepared in advance, they came across a hound. It was another weakened piece of wall, but this time one that faced a street, meant for quickly creating an exit. Nika punched through and at first he’d felt a flash of relief when no more beasts were waiting for them, until they came onto a broader street, one where the remaining buildings were mostly intact.

  The pillar’s ochre light came from behind the tall buildings, casting long shadows on the worn stones. One of the pale dogs was lit by that eerie light, standing between the lines of shadow in the middle of the street - right in their path.