“It’s good to be wary of the dark. Only the very stupid or brave and stupid charge in.” She turned her head towards Troy and Maki. “Looks like they had a crystal mage create light sources.”

  “How can you tell they are created?” Rook asked, flicking the crystal with his fingernail.

  “They’re orange,” Troy said, walking beside him. “These are near perfect as well. Best not see what else this crystalmancer can do.”

  Rook regarded the orange crystals with a welcoming smile. It was as if the crystalmancer placed the stones willy nilly. Some were directly on the path, forcing them to step over, and others were on the ceiling. At the edge of the tunnel, there were two separate doorways. Item Auctions, Other Auctions, and another that was written in a series of scribbles.

  “We..we need to go into this one,” Maki said, pointing towards the last tunnel. “It says temple in Udak’ith language.” She didn’t explain further.

  Rook took the charge, down the lit tunnel, and into the depths. Walking in silence, Rook made a habit of keeping a pace count for every hundred meters traveled. The air was rich with the stale smell of the cave and became progressively colder as they descended the slope. His pace count told him they walked about sixteen hundred miles into the cold earth.

  “Alright, stop,” Jody said, speaking for the first time in a while. “Don’t move, candidate.” Jody walked in front of Rook, pulling a blue crystal from under his cloak, and crouched. “It’s warded,” he said, blowing on the ground. “By the looks of it, you’d have been fried by flames.”

  Rook’s heart beat like a hammer when he saw the silver ward writing on the ground. It looked like chalk, barely visible to the naked eye, yet somehow Jody found it, from behind him. Jody touched his axe to the ward, and there was a small pop.

  “Continue forward, candidate,” Jody said, chuckling to himself, as if he were teaching a kid how to ride a bike.

  Rook stopped when rhythmic humming filled the air. He called for the group to halt and did a SLLS check. Taking a short halt, he noticed the dull babbling of a stream. The stale air that now had a hint of copper, and the humming waned and halted like the words of a prayer.

  “What are you doing?” Troy asked, seemingly half annoyed, half curious.

  “A SLLS check. It’s silly, but it helps me focus on what I can see, hear, and smell. When I was in my old military job, we did this a lot.” He thought about it for a second. “Well, while training, anyway.”

  “Never heard of it, but it sounds like scouting. I’ve not done it, but maybe ‘cause we keep war foxes with us for scouting missions.”

  “You were in the Legion?” Maki asked.

  “Yes, I was drafted into the Empire’s Legion. Growing up in Maldoon, you either become a killer hiding in the shadows. Or a killer hiding in yellow armor.”

  Rook understood the sentiment. He joined to avoid an inevitable stale life in Pineville. He often wondered what would’ve happened had he gone to jail that last time. Had his grandfather not called in a favor? They traveled further, deeper into the depths of the underground until they met a door made of stone and coral.

  “You wanna check the ground again? Or do you wanna go forward into oblivion?” Jody asked.

  He leaned down and blew on the ground, just as Jody did. There were the faint chalk lines of a ward. Rook waved Jody forward and pointed at the ground. The dwarf nodded in approval, then touched his axe to the ground, dispelling the ward.

  They continued down a sloping path, further underground, and Rook bristled at the cold. Damn, note to self, grab a cloak or something. Rook stopped, holding his hand up. The path cut into two ways, a perfect Y. On the right, there was an open space, and within it, guttural speech that Rook couldn’t understand.

  “What’s wrong?” Troy asked.

  “There’s something to the right. I can’t understand it, but people, or something, are talking,” Rook whispered back. “We’re going to have to clear it if we want to move forward.”

  Rook opened the quiver on his belt, ready. Troy motioned for Maki to come forward. The Uldannish woman crept forward and listened to the noises. A loud roar echoed in the cavern walls. Rook’s heart skipped a beat, and the deafening sound jarred his teeth. What the fuck. The Uldannish woman’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head.

  “They have a sellifar,” she hissed. “We can’t fight that alone.”

  Jody’s face cracked into a smile. “Perfect, haven’t seen one of those in quite a while.”

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  “What’s a sellifar?” Reina asked, with a groan. She rested her hand on the hilt of her blade.

  “Depth diver.” Troy’s face was pale. The warrior drew his blade and rolled a shoulder. “I can go in first.”

  Another Roar sounded out; it was almost an anguished cry of defiance. A noise like a cornered animal.

  “No, I will. Just be close to me and rush to the right, I’ll take the left,” Rook said, blowing out a breath. “Everyone else, rush in behind us. Reina, take the rear security and block the door.” Rook stood by the entryway, gesturing Troy to stand in the space behind him.

  When he was trying to teach Soldiers the correct way to enter and clear a room, he’d spend the whole day. But here, facing whatever the hell was in the room, he didn’t have that. He couldn’t explain how to stack in a room, button hooking, or any other techniques. He could only hope to God that they could react with swift violence.

  “Now,” Rook hissed, rushing into the right and surging his Attramancy.

  There were seven cloaked figures pulling chains in the room that stretched into a purple swirling vortex. In the middle of the cavern was a large chasm, where seawater rushed in. The smell of the sea mixed with the damp cave smell, as the figures yanked and grunted. At the end of the chains was the sellifar. It had the head of a plesiosaurus. An elongated green neck stretched out, and massive jaws lined with rows of jagged teeth snapped at the nearby robed men. A man in the middle spoke in the language Rook heard in the hall. The beast roared again, its black eyes wide with fury.

  Troy rushed to the left as Rook took the three men on the right. With a flick of his hand, a bearing sailed towards the furthest man, sending him to the ground. The chain went slack, and the sellifar slipped deeper into the vortex. The middle figure looked at the fallen comrade and yelled something, breaking the concentration of the chanting man in the middle.

  The sellifar roared again, and the room filled with bright red light. In the middle of the sellifar’s jaws, raw untamed energy gathered, and Rook’s hair tingled with the static.

  “Oh by the Maker’s beard!” Jody said, with an almost bored sigh.

  A blue orb flew from behind Rook and struck the sellifar’s red energy blast, fizzling it. The beast roared as its gathered energy was turned into motes of grey light.

  “That was a close one,” Jody said. “You may resume the killing.”

  The vortex is slowly encircling the sellifar’s neck. But to the credit of the middle chanter, he resumed his chants, reopening the portal, despite the killing beside him. Rook used another two bearings to drop the figures on the right, striking one in the back of the head and the other in the neck.

  Maki ran towards the chanting figure, tossing her sword into his ribs. He dropped to a knee and looked up at her, screaming something in that language. His speech was cut off by a swift chop of her black blade. The vortex began to close shut, once again slowing, encircling the sellifar’s bulging neck.

  The cave lit again with red light, and Rook aimed and surged his Attramancy, but grew weak in the knees from mana usage. He didn’t realize it, but the blue bar was blinking rapidly. To his right, Jody’s axe lit blue and he swung it through empty air, sending another blue orb towards the sellifar’s open jaws.

  Its roar of anger abruptly stopped as the vortex strangled it. The beast’s eyes went wide for a moment as the vortex cut into its neck, through skin, muscle, and finally bone. The vortex closed, shutting off the flow of seawater and sending the sellifar’s large head to the cavern floor, with a crash.

  Attramancy increased to level 30

  +12 experience gained

  276 of 400 experience until level 8

  “That was impressive,” Reina said, scribbling something down in her journal.

  Rook leaned over her shoulder and gave a low whistle. In the book was almost a half page of notes, including a rough outline of the sellifar’s head.

  Jody placed the axe beneath his cloak and smiled at the group. “That was a close one, that blast would’ve torn a chunk out of a mountain. I don’t even want to know the damage it’d do in this small space; had they not had a silencer, this mission would’ve been over a long time ago.”

  “They are channeling Nelios’ power to summon,” Maki said. “We have to hurry.”

  They continued down the hallway, first taking the right of the Y. The path led to a dead end, so they went left. After a few minutes of walking through the cave tunnel, they came to a door. Rook froze in place, listening to the chanting and rhythmic pounding from beyond the door’s threshold.

  “What is this place?” Reina whispered, feeling the doorframe. “It’s old, ancient almost,” she said, her words trailing.

  “It’s the temple of the Udak’ith.” Maki stepped forward. “Inside, they have the child.”

  “How can you be sure?” Troy asked, standing beside her.

  “They are chanting about sacrificing the child to the leviathan.”

  Rook’s heart lurched into his throat. They’re going to sacrifice a baby? Maki stepped to the frame and twisted a portion of the shell. The door grinded and the wall shifted. The door lowered into the ground, revealing rows of chanting figures. A few robed figures swayed with the chanting, interlocking arms around an altar on a platform. The smell of the sea filled the air, and the chanting voices grew in tempo. What the fuck? The temple was a large room that felt old, as if it was built are the beginning of time. On the wall above the altar was a design of a large serpent attacking ships, carved into the stone. The Leviathan.

  A robed figure broke formation, limping over to the altar. “The child is on the altar!” Maki hissed, drawing her obsidian longsword. If he is asleep, he cannot command the Udak’ith. He must be woken up.”

  Rook’s command presence activated, and the calm, analytical version took over. “Let me get close and take out the leader.”

  “Be careful.” Reina’s voice trailed behind him, barely audible over the beating of his heart.

  The figure removed its hood, revealing a fish-like face with bulging black eyes and a mouth full of needle-like teeth. This thing’s related to Maki? The unsightly fish creature made goblins look like Johnny Handsome. The thing marched towards the altar. Fine. Continuing forward, it raised a dagger. Upon closer inspection, a small bundle was laid on the platform altar. Not fine, definitely not fine.

  “Remember, you’re not Dracosbane, so don’t rush in like a fool,” Jody said.

  Rook gave a small grunt of acknowledgment and opened his quiver. Two shots, just in case. Creeping closer to the procession, Rook took both shots and sent the balls towards the Uldak’ith. The ball struck the figure in the back of the head, sending it stumbling over the edge of the platform. One down, like forty to go.

  The chanting stopped, and the Udak’ith faced Rook.

  “Fuck.”

  The Uldak’ith faced the intruders. The nearest one let out a low-pitched growl. “Ghee haw.” The Udak’ith exclaimed like a cowboy. If the thing wasn’t so ugly, it could be cute in a rabid dog kind of way. The others Udak’ith began repeating the Uldak’ith phrase until the temple chamber sounded like a cattle ranch.

  Rook drew his mace and readied himself for the incoming wave of attackers. No way these cowboy fish goblins are going to kill me. The corner of his eye caught a flash of white and he ducked. Just in time to narrowly dodge a projectile soaring above his head, a black spear collided with the stone wall ahead of him. That’s how it is?

  Udak’ith Spearman

  Level 6 (Copper)

  I have to thank Reina later for her nearly passive Identify skill. The Udak’ith spear user ran forward with a dagger now, clearly intent on killing him and presumably taking his spear back. It came only to about his chest; therefore, the reach difference would be in his advantage. Let’s test out the new block skills. Focusing on the shoulders, he saw the rotation. It was going for a slash to his belly. Not today, fish boy.