After around twenty minutes or so, Elmar gestured for them to follow him. He had all but two others turn off their headlamps. Elmar would take point while the other two with active lights would follow just behind. The rest of them would follow after.

  To Aria’s annoyance, Elmar insisted she be in the middle of the group. No doubt this was his way of protecting her. She’d called him out on it, and the older elf had responded with a chuckle, “Of course! Do you have any idea what your mother would do to me if she found out I allowed her daughter to get hurt?!”

  She couldn’t argue with him there. Her mother could certainly be terrifying.

  Their footsteps echoed in the tunnel as they searched for Ether rich veins, crystals, or other ores. Aria made sure to keep an ear out for any danger. They walked for who knows how long before taking another break.

  Nothing of note had occurred.

  So far, she thought.

  She noticed Elmar walking up to her, and she faced him curiously.

  “Aria, might I ask something of you?” he seemed nervous as he spoke.

  That doesn’t bode well… she sighed, “You may.”

  “Do these tunnels seem… strange to you?”

  “How so?”

  Elmar stopped to shine his light around the walls, scanning them, “These tunnels don’t seem to be natural caverns.”

  “I agree. Though they don’t seem to be man-made. I suspect some kind of wildlife is the culprit for this.”

  “Then we are of the same mind,” Elmar took a deep breath, “if the wildlife was behind these tunnels, then there may be an entire network.”

  “Perhaps. If we’re lucky, then it will only be animals.”

  Elmar frowned at that remark, “Only animals? Do you suspect that Ether Beasts made these?”

  Aria was quiet for a moment before answering, “It’s a possibility.”

  Elmar swore under his breath, “Winds! Maker have mercy on us. If it’s merely animals, we may have a chance… but an Ether Beast? That’s a death sentence!”

  “Do you know how to use Ether?”

  The older elf only hesitated briefly before answering, “Yes. A bit. I’ve been trained in secret, but haven’t been able to learn much. You?”

  Before Aria could answer, Elmar chuckled and shook his head, “Never mind. Stupid question. Considering who your mother is, of course you know.”

  She smiled a bit at that, “Do you know if any of the others can use Ether?”

  Elmar shook his head sadly, “I’ve already asked. It seems we’re the only two Ethereans in this group.”

  “Two is better than one,” Aria pointed out, “I’d been prepared to be the only one in the group.”

  “As was I. I feel a bit more at ease knowing you’re with us,” Elmar smiled.

  “Likewise.”

  The remainder of their break was passed in silence.

  A few minutes later, everyone gathered together and continued down the tunnel. Now knowing that Elmar was an Etherean like her, Aria felt a bit more comfortable in using her Ether to enhance her senses. She mostly focused on sharpening her hearing, and only did so whenever they stopped as to not burn through too much of her leaking stores.

  Some time later, they’d made some progress into their task when one of the two elves announced, “Hey! I think I see something.”

  The group stopped. One of the elves with an active light was facing one of the walls. Now that it was lit up, Aria could see a difference in coloring along the surface.

  “What is it?” one of them asked.

  Elmar approached and studied the wall, “It appears to be a vein. It’s about time. Let’s get a sample.”

  Two of the elves stepped forward with their pickaxes and began to chip away at the ore vein. Aria and the others picked up the samples that fell and put them in their bags.

  “What kind of ore is it?” another one of them asked.

  Elmar shrugged, “Beats me. They don’t tell us those sorts of things.”

  They continued their march, making sure to take note of their route and mark it on a map they made as they went. A few minutes later, they ran into their first crossroad.

  The tunnel split into three ahead of them, providing three different paths they could take. As they debated which one to traverse, Aria thought she saw a light down one of them.

  She squinted and burned some Ether to enhance her vision. She gasped.

  The group stopped, and turned to face her.

  “Aria?” Elmar asked, “what is it? Did you notice something?”

  She nodded and pointed down one of the tunnels, “I see a faint light down that one. It looks to be… orange? Yes, a reddish orange color.”

  The group all looked down that tunnel, squinting and trying to see the light she mentioned. Some of them looked skeptical, and one of them voiced to her, “Are you sure? I don’t see anything.”

  Aria nodded, confident in her senses.

  It was Elmar who spoke next, “You heard the young lady. I’d rather make a choice already than stand here and debate the matter. Let’s go!”

  The group obediently followed Elmar and Aria down the tunnel she picked.

  It only took about a minute of walking before the light became visible to the rest of them. And it took several more for them to enter into a massive cavern, even bigger than her former sanctuary, filled to the brim with Ether infused crystals, lighting up the entirety of the area.

  “Whoa…” one of them gasped.

  Though the others all looked stunned, Aria only felt melancholy. This only reminded her of the loss of her former training grounds.

  Elmar was the first to break out of the stupor as he turned off his now unnecessary light, “Alright everyone! As pretty as this cavern is, we need to collect some samples! See if you can find any veins here as well.”

  The group split up into twos. Aria noticed that Elmar had chosen to accompany her.

  “This was a good find,” he complimented.

  Aria shrugged, “I simply got lucky. I noticed something in the darkness and then used Ether to enhance my vision. Didn’t you see the light coming from here?”

  To her surprise, Elmar shook his head, “No, not at all. You noticed this without Ether? Your natural eyesight is keen, even for an elf.”

  Aria flushed, and tried to hide her embarrassment over the compliment by taking her pickaxe and chipping away at some of the crystals. She paused for a moment, wondering if she felt some vibration.

  Noticing nothing of note, she shrugged and continued to work. After mining some samples, she and Elmar began to walk around to look for any visible ore veins.

  As they walked in concentrated silence, Aria thought again that she felt a vibration. She frowned, and told Elmar, “Wait a moment.”

  She closed her eyes and covered her ears as she burned a bit of Ether to slowly enhance her sense of touch. It was then that she finally realized that she hadn’t, in fact, imagined the vibration at her feet.

  Her eyes snapped open, and she next enhanced her hearing.

  Nothing.

  She burned more Ether.

  Still nothing.

  She hesitated, then flared the enhancement for just a brief moment.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  It was then she heard it.

  It sounded as though the earth was being moved, only it was clearly not an earthquake. It was the sound of digging. And whatever it was, it was huge…

  And moving its way towards them fast!

  Aria shut off her hearing, and she yelled out to the others, “Something is coming! Prepare yourselves!!!”

  She turned to Elmar, who seemed alarmed at her outburst, and snapped at him, “Get the Ether within you ready! And breathe some in while you have the chance.”

  Elmar nodded, trusting her judgment, and began to breathe in Ether. She did the same, thankfully the area was rich with the power, if the infused crystals were any indication.

  It took only a few seconds before the vibration and sounds of digging reached the others.

  Despite looking scared, to their credit, they had all heeded her warning. They had pulled out the pickaxes and were ready to fight whatever was coming their way. Aria prayed that it was merely a wild animal and not an Ether Beast.

  The ground erupted at the feet of one of the elves. He cried out as he was sent flying.

  The thing was enormous, easily towering over them all with claws that looked sharp and tough enough to break apart concrete.

  It looked to be a gigantic worm, only with arms that ended with sharpened claws. Because of course they had claws.

  “I believe we found the maker of the tunnels here,” Elmar pointed out.

  “Let’s just hope its alone,” Aria responded before mentally adding, and that it’s not an Ether Beast.

  The gigantic worm did nothing at first as the group studied it, hoping it would leave them be.

  Only the creature seemed to have woken up choosing violence. It abruptly turned to the dazed elf whom it had sent flying with its entrance, and cut him into multiple pieces with one sweep of its sharp claws.

  The dead elf hadn’t even had the chance to scream before he died, but the other one who had accompanied him certainly did as he too was cut down.

  Two dead already… Aria grit her teeth, you’ll pay for that!

  Only two elves had beaten her to the creature. They dodged the initial swipe of its claws, which easily sliced through the hard ground as though it was cutting through butter. The two elves got close, and both rammed their sharp pickaxes into the creature’s sides.

  The gigantic worm let out a roar, sounding as annoyed as it did angry.

  Aria and Elmar both gasped as they sensed the usage of Ether. She used some of the power to enhance her vision, rendering it visible to her augmented sight.

  And she saw an aura of Ether begin emanating from the beast.

  No…. Aria realized with horror.

  She and the others saw as the gigantic mouth of the worm began to glow before suddenly erupting and shooting out white hot flames at the two elves who had attacked it.

  “NO!” Aria screamed.

  But it was too late, as the two elves screamed in agony as they were burned alive. It took only seconds for them to be turned into charred corpses.

  Everyone stared wide eyed and slack jawed at the fire breathing, giant worm that, despite its lack of eyes, looked far too pleased with itself for having now killed four of them.

  “E-ETHER BEAST!!!” cried out one of them.

  That one and their partner were the next to die as the Ether Beast turned to shoot out another blast of flames at them. The flames came too fast for them to dodge, and they too were burned to a crisp.

  The temperature in the cavern had gotten noticeably warmer, and reeked with the smell of burnt flesh.

  The Ether powered worm turned to another two, ready to either charge at them or blast more flames.

  I won't let it! Aria thought.

  Using Ether to enhance herself physically, she charged at the Ether Beast in a burst of speed. The creature seemed surprised to find one of them could use the power like it could, and Aria took advantage of that to swing her pickaxe and bury one of the ends into its large body.

  In what was to others a blur of motion, Aria repeatedly took out and stabbed the giant worm three more times before it realized what was happening and angrily shooting flames at her. She simply back flipped out of the way as the blast hit where she’d been a moment ago.

  It looked ready to go after her, only it reared back and let out a pained squeak as Elmar had buried his own pickaxe into its large body.

  While he kept the worm busy, Aria turned to the remaining two elves, “Get out of here! Elmar and I will keep it busy, so go!”

  They hesitated for a moment. She glared at them, “Both of us can use Ether, so we’ll be fine! Can either of you two use the power?”

  Both shook their heads.

  “Then go! You’ll only get in the way here.”

  Thankfully, they did, as they turned to run back towards the tunnel they’d come from.

  Aria turned back to the battle to see that the Ether Beast had sent Elmar flying back. It turned, seeing the two fleeing elves. It must not have wanted any survivors, because it looked ready to chase them down.

  Not while I’m here, she thought with a growl.

  She brandished her pickaxe and charged at the beast. However this time, it was ready for her, as it turned faster than she’d been expecting and swung at her with its claws. Aria ducked and slid under the swing, feeling the air being cut by the unusually sharp claws.

  Snapping back to her feet, she moved in a burst of Ether powered speed to stab the creature a few more times with her pickaxe. This time, the creature returned down the hole it had come out of to escape, but not before Aria nailed the thing where she imagined one of its eyes would be if it had any.

  That had been satisfying.

  Elmar was at her side as they both tried to use their Ether enhanced senses to hear and feel where the Ether Beast was as it dug underground.

  “How much Ether do you have?” Aria asked.

  “Not too much,” Elmar said in between heavy breaths, “how about you?”

  Aria checked her Capacity, “I’m already down to half of what I had. To the void with these collars of ours!”

  “Agreed. What’s the plan?”

  Aria raised a brow, “You’re asking me?”

  “I haven’t been trained to fight like you clearly have. At least, nowhere near to the same extent.”

  Aria thought for a moment, “can you hold it off for a bit?”

  “Gonna refill your Capacity?”

  “Yes. Though it’ll take us too long to kill the voiding worm with these pickaxes. We’ll run out of Ether before we can finish it off, and that’ll be the death of us.”

  “So what do you propose?”

  “I’ll use the Ether I gather to cast an Art and take the foul thing down in one hit!”

  Elmar laughed, “Of course you can use Arts. Your mother taught you well. Alright, we’ll go with your plan!”

  “Here, take my pickaxe. I won’t be needing it for the plan.”

  He took the weapon from Aria, and brandished the two he now had.

  They shifted their focus to breathing in more Ether as the creature decided on its next avenue of attack. This time, it appeared out of one of the walls a fair bit above the ground, out of their reach.

  It was a rather smart move for the creature. At least, it would have been, had neither Aria nor Elmar been Ethereans.

  Elmar let out a yell as he charged towards the giant mole. The Ether Beast shot out a few fireballs from its mouth like a cannon. The tenth generation elf gracefully dodged the blasts and the ensuing explosions.

  While Elmar had the beast’s attention, Aria began to cast an Art, “Oh winds! Hear my plea and alter your natural flow…”

  The beast seemed to sense the buildup of Ether coming from her as it turned its head to try to shoot a blast of fire at her.

  That gave Elmar the opening he needed to leap up with all his might and bury both pickaxes into the worm. It thrashed in pain, giving Aria the opportunity to continue her invocation, “...come together and form a blade to cut down my foes…”

  The Ether Beast managed to throw off Elmar, and returned to its hole. Aria could sense the creature digging around, making its way towards her.

  She continued to invoke her Art without ceasing, “…slice them apart and tear them asunder…”

  “Behind you!” Elmar yelled out, wincing as he tried to get up from the ground where he had fallen hard.

  But she already knew that.

  The Ether worm erupted from the ground, its mouth beginning to glow. Only it was too late, as Aria sharply turned, her hand and arm extended to mimic a blade as wind began to swirl powerfully around it.

  “Wind Blade!” Aria finished her invocation as she made a slicing motion with her hand as though she were swinging a sword.

  A barely discernible green tinged wind in the shape of a blade sliced through the Ether beast, bisecting it into two diagonally at its chest. The energy that had been building in its mouth suddenly died. The two pieces of the worm that had killed six of Aria’s group slid apart and fell with a large and wet thud, a pool of blood already forming on the ground.

  Aria was breathing heavily as she took a moment to make sure the Ether Beast was dead. She’d heard how some type of worms could regenerate when cut into two. Thankfully, the creature’s corpse didn’t so much as twitch, and she no longer sensed any Ether from it either.

  She checked her Capacity. She was out of Ether. The Wind Blade Art, along with the effects of the collar, had drained her dry.

  She fell back on her rear as she tried to catch her breath. She turned to see Elmar limping towards her, wincing in pain but grinning.

  She gave a tired smile back.

  It was over.

  A fireball shot past Aria and engulfed Elmar in an explosion of heat, killing him instantly.

  Aria’s smile melted as it took her a moment to process what had just happened.

  “...Elmar…?”

  When she saw his charred remains hit the ground and crack apart, she finally processed what occurred.

  She snapped her head towards the tunnel where they had come from, and saw another, even larger worm crawling its way towards her with malicious energy. Aria saw the blood caked on the creature’s claws, and knew it had killed the two she had ordered to leave.

  She turned back to briefly look at the burnt corpse that had been Elmar.

  Aria was alone and out of Ether.

  She was going to die.

  Tears began to fall from her eyes. Not for herself, but for her fellow elves whom she’d been unable to protect. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, and shakily stood up to face the new Ether worm.

  If I’m going to die, I’m going to die fighting!

  The giant worm’s mouth flared and began to glow. Aria prepared herself to get ready to dodge, though she knew that even if she survived, she wouldn’t be able to avoid damage. The beast shot out a large fireball, and she moved as fast as she could to dodge it. The force of the explosion sent her flying and the flames singed her skin.

  She hit the ground hard and she rolled along the ground painfully. Her ears rang, and her vision was blurry. Every part of her body hurt from the singes and impacts. The creature regarded her, as if surprised she was still alive.

  It looked to remedy that as it began to charge another blast of fire in its cavernous mouth. Aria managed to get to her knees as she stared defiantly at the beast. It shot out another fireball, and knowing she wouldn’t be able to dodge again, she shut her eyes tightly and accepted her fate.

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