As Arx bolted for the door, I immediately thought to warn her of the floor hazard, however I was still too out of it to do much of anything save wince as her foot came down on the pressure plate. The resultant dart appeared with a thwick at her ankle as if by magic, delivering its payload of corrosive poison.
I felt her cry of anguish almost as if it were my own. She had not been awake for more than five minutes, and already she had suffered a horrific injury while carrying my useless ass. But self-recrimination would not get us anywhere. I might have lacked the strength to stand, but I was still the healer. I could do at least this much.
So before she even had the chance to stumble, I allowed my Status conversion aura—the appropriately titled That Only Makes Us Horny—to spread forth. The act sent me reeling. Normally, the ability required next to no effort on my part, but in my current condition, it was all I could do just to remain conscious. Never mind converting poisons into Emotional Ailments.
Arx careened into the wall before she could steady herself, the poison already blackening her ankle like meat left to rot. However, with my aura up, it did not take long for the effect to halt. And for other much more useful things to build.
“Good…” she breathed, clutching at my thigh.
A moment later, Lynnria caught up to us.
“You hit the very first one?!” she yelled before quickly yanking the dart from Arx’s ankle. “Mercy’s Hands! We’re dead. Beyond dead! Donum couldn’t heal a fly’s leg right now. And even if he could, the maze out there is pitch black, heavily trapped, and there’s a crazed golem headed right for us!”
On cue, the wooden creaking again drifted to our ears. We might as well have been standing on the bow of the ship, it was so close.
“I—I’m fine. Feeling better… already,” Arx argued, ignoring it.
“Oh, so you can string more than two words together now?” Lynnria ranted. “I’m sure that’ll be very helpful once that ceiling starts coming down. It took us hours to get through this maze. Hours! How do you expect to carry him through all that now?”
Arx chuckled throatily. “Children… not bark… elders.”
“What is that supposed to mean? We’re about to be crushed, and you’re spouting platitudes?!” Lynnria yelled.
My lilim did not bother answering. Instead, she just shifted her weight onto her already much better-looking ankle, demonstrating her readiness through action rather than words.
Lynnria blinked in confusion. “How… how did…? Some kind of Poison Resistance?”
The ceiling rumbled. It was getting worse, and we were wasting time.
I waved my hand weakly to get their attention, then pointed down the way. “S-secret door. Hu-hurry…”
Arx immediately perked up on hearing that and started away, but Lynnria was quick to dash that hope.
“It’s gone.”
“Gone?” Arx repeated, but she did not slow.
“Yes, gone. Disappeared. I don’t know.” Lynnria gestured ahead of us and to the right. “It should have been about here, but it closed on us somehow when we weren’t looking.”
Arx tutted. “‘Snails. Must remember… block open doors. Dungeon plays tricks.”
I moaned feebly in reply. Noted.
“I haven’t been able to sense any magic here, either,” Lynnria continued. “So even if we tried repeating—”
The three of us froze, listening. The wooden creaking had morphed into tangible footsteps. It was almost on us.
The girls tensed for combat. Lynnria had her wand at the ready, and Arx eased a scimitar from the belt at her waist. It was a battle we could not win, but that did not mean we would go down without a fight.
But before the automaton appeared, its footsteps stopped. There came a long moment of silence, interrupted only by one low rumble from the weakening ceiling. Then an ominous step hit the ground. Then another. Then more.
But… away from us. And rapidly accelerating.
A chill ran down my spine as the implications of that rammed home. “Uh oh…”
Abruptly, there came a horrendous scraping sound followed by a thud. Two more followed in its wake. Then countless others. Each punctuated more by the vibrations they sent through the ground than by the sounds themselves. The hourglass had emptied.
My already taxed mind lurched into overdrive, every thought turned toward our survival. Lynnria had been right about one thing. We would not get far as we were. I needed Energy and, while the Status conversion cycle had lurched into action, Arx would have to fill up completely before I saw any bleed-off.
I extended a frantic arm. “Meat!”
Lynnria, understandably distracted by the oncoming disaster unraveling behind us, ignored my plea and fled into the darkness. For all her talk of hopelessness, when the choice comes between certain death and almost certain death, a person’s survival instinct will leap for the long odds every time. Arx followed not a moment later.
Then the archway was crushed behind us, and I suddenly found myself agreeing with them rather completely.
What light had followed us from the now intangible crystal was quickly subsumed by the rubble falling around it, and by the time we turned the first corner, it might as well not have existed at all. We were running blind.
I quickly summoned the Words to Unclothe the Darkness, but despite being quite proficient with the spell, I simply did not have it in me to cast it. I could scarcely get out a single syllable through my wheezing.
“Meat,” I said again, panting into Arx’s ear.
“You said that before. What kind of—?”
She paused and, for no reason that I could discern, darted to the left. The change set us parallel to the sounds of blocks falling, as if they had altered course along with us.
“You’re saying the baby Dolilim has rations?” she continued, as though never having left off. “Then how can you still be so weak?”
Baby Dolilim? It was not a description I was in any rush to apply to the girl even if it was becoming increasingly apt. She had to be fishing for information.
“Poisoned.” It was only one word, but it conveyed a lot of what needed to be said.
“Ah.”
She skidded to a stop for half a heart-beat before turning right, again setting the collapse to our backs. This time, the sounds did not match our flight. It seemed a different section of the maze than ours had been slated for initial demolition, giving us a moment of respite.
But then I realized that despite the lack of any kind of light and multiple turns, we had not so much as brushed against a single wall. I did not even know if we were still following Lynnria.
“How… doing? Where?”
“Just following the sour milk, Dearest,” she explained to my unarticulated questions. Then, most likely realizing how meaningless that would be to me, she elaborated. “Fear, I’m sure. And you can feel the air pressure change whenever there’s a turn. I seem to be much more sensitive to it now than I used to be, but it’s an old Quester’s trick. I’ll teach you sometime.”
Teach me? I chuckled weakly. That was certainly an optimistic outlook. Still, I appreciated it. My spirits needed the touch of confidence in the face of encroaching doom.
Even so, I was still pretty sure that Lynnria was choosing paths at random. We needed to catch her. And quickly.
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
But more importantly, there's those all-important advanced chapters, Patreon exclusive character art, and even the occasional poll to influence the direction of the story.
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
As Arx bolted for the door, I immediately thought to warn her of the floor hazard, however I was still too out of it to do much of anything save wince as her foot came down on the pressure plate. The resultant dart appeared with a thwick at her ankle as if by magic, delivering its payload of corrosive poison.
I felt her cry of anguish almost as if it were my own. She had not been awake for more than five minutes, and already she had suffered a horrific injury while carrying my useless ass. But self-recrimination would not get us anywhere. I might have lacked the strength to stand, but I was still the healer. I could do at least this much.
So before she even had the chance to stumble, I allowed my Status conversion aura—the appropriately titled That Only Makes Us Horny—to spread forth. The act sent me reeling. Normally, the ability required next to no effort on my part, but in my current condition, it was all I could do just to remain conscious. Never mind converting poisons into Emotional Ailments.
Arx careened into the wall before she could steady herself, the poison already blackening her ankle like meat left to rot. However, with my aura up, it did not take long for the effect to halt. And for other much more useful things to build.
“Good…” she breathed, clutching at my thigh.
A moment later, Lynnria caught up to us.
“You hit the very first one?!” she yelled before quickly yanking the dart from Arx’s ankle. “Mercy’s Hands! We’re dead. Beyond dead! Donum couldn’t heal a fly’s leg right now. And even if he could, the maze out there is pitch black, heavily trapped, and there’s a crazed golem headed right for us!”
On cue, the wooden creaking again drifted to our ears. We might as well have been standing on the bow of the ship, it was so close.
“I—I’m fine. Feeling better… already,” Arx argued, ignoring it.
“Oh, so you can string more than two words together now?” Lynnria ranted. “I’m sure that’ll be very helpful once that ceiling starts coming down. It took us hours to get through this maze. Hours! How do you expect to carry him through all that now?”
Arx chuckled throatily. “Children… not bark… elders.”
“What is that supposed to mean? We’re about to be crushed, and you’re spouting platitudes?!” Lynnria yelled.
My lilim did not bother answering. Instead, she just shifted her weight onto her already much better-looking ankle, demonstrating her readiness through action rather than words.
Lynnria blinked in confusion. “How… how did…? Some kind of Poison Resistance?”
The ceiling rumbled. It was getting worse, and we were wasting time.
I waved my hand weakly to get their attention, then pointed down the way. “S-secret door. Hu-hurry…”
Arx immediately perked up on hearing that and started away, but Lynnria was quick to dash that hope.
“It’s gone.”
“Gone?” Arx repeated, but she did not slow.
“Yes, gone. Disappeared. I don’t know.” Lynnria gestured ahead of us and to the right. “It should have been about here, but it closed on us somehow when we weren’t looking.”
Arx tutted. “‘Snails. Must remember… block open doors. Dungeon plays tricks.”
I moaned feebly in reply. Noted.
“I haven’t been able to sense any magic here, either,” Lynnria continued. “So even if we tried repeating—”
The three of us froze, listening. The wooden creaking had morphed into tangible footsteps. It was almost on us.
The girls tensed for combat. Lynnria had her wand at the ready, and Arx eased a scimitar from the belt at her waist. It was a battle we could not win, but that did not mean we would go down without a fight.
But before the automaton appeared, its footsteps stopped. There came a long moment of silence, interrupted only by one low rumble from the weakening ceiling. Then an ominous step hit the ground. Then another. Then more.
But… away from us. And rapidly accelerating.
A chill ran down my spine as the implications of that rammed home. “Uh oh…”
Abruptly, there came a horrendous scraping sound followed by a thud. Two more followed in its wake. Then countless others. Each punctuated more by the vibrations they sent through the ground than by the sounds themselves. The hourglass had emptied.
My already taxed mind lurched into overdrive, every thought turned toward our survival. Lynnria had been right about one thing. We would not get far as we were. I needed Energy and, while the Status conversion cycle had lurched into action, Arx would have to fill up completely before I saw any bleed-off.
I extended a frantic arm. “Meat!”
Lynnria, understandably distracted by the oncoming disaster unraveling behind us, ignored my plea and fled into the darkness. For all her talk of hopelessness, when the choice comes between certain death and almost certain death, a person’s survival instinct will leap for the long odds every time. Arx followed not a moment later.
Then the archway was crushed behind us, and I suddenly found myself agreeing with them rather completely.
What light had followed us from the now intangible crystal was quickly subsumed by the rubble falling around it, and by the time we turned the first corner, it might as well not have existed at all. We were running blind.
I quickly summoned the Words to Unclothe the Darkness, but despite being quite proficient with the spell, I simply did not have it in me to cast it. I could scarcely get out a single syllable through my wheezing.
“Meat,” I said again, panting into Arx’s ear.
“You said that before. What kind of—?”
She paused and, for no reason that I could discern, darted to the left. The change set us parallel to the sounds of blocks falling, as if they had altered course along with us.
“You’re saying the baby Dolilim has rations?” she continued, as though never having left off. “Then how can you still be so weak?”
Baby Dolilim? It was not a description I was in any rush to apply to the girl even if it was becoming increasingly apt. She had to be fishing for information.
“Poisoned.” It was only one word, but it conveyed a lot of what needed to be said.
“Ah.”
She skidded to a stop for half a heart-beat before turning right, again setting the collapse to our backs. This time, the sounds did not match our flight. It seemed a different section of the maze than ours had been slated for initial demolition, giving us a moment of respite.
But then I realized that despite the lack of any kind of light and multiple turns, we had not so much as brushed against a single wall. I did not even know if we were still following Lynnria.
“How… doing? Where?”
“Just following the sour milk, Dearest,” she explained to my unarticulated questions. Then, most likely realizing how meaningless that would be to me, she elaborated. “Fear, I’m sure. And you can feel the air pressure change whenever there’s a turn. I seem to be much more sensitive to it now than I used to be, but it’s an old Quester’s trick. I’ll teach you sometime.”
Teach me? I chuckled weakly. That was certainly an optimistic outlook. Still, I appreciated it. My spirits needed the touch of confidence in the face of encroaching doom.
Even so, I was still pretty sure that Lynnria was choosing paths at random. We needed to catch her. And quickly.
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
But more importantly, there's those all-important advanced chapters, Patreon exclusive character art, and even the occasional poll to influence the direction of the story.
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
