They ran through the mists for a few seconds, taking on salty water condense as they went, and once they burst out into a sea of bright daylight it was as if they had been out in the rain.

"Ow. Hey, what?" Scratch shielded his eyes from the suddenly intense light. It refracted into the droplets around them and bathed the tunnel in swirling rainbows.

Lydia laughed girlishly and pulled him along, there was a bit of tunnel left to go towards the source of the radiance.

In the walls to either side of them were the remains of old brickwork, all but disappeared into the natural stone.

When they came to the end Scratch's eyes had to get used to the light before he noticed he was standing on the edge of an enormous drop.

"I get to be the one to show you for the first time then." The woman beamed. "The underworld!"

From their perch they looked out over a vast empty space within the earth. The light came from the cave's ceiling, where countless outcroppings of glowing crystal illuminated it with the light of day.

They shone down onto a yellow-white desert, situated more than half a mile below them and stretching out many miles in every direction.

He was dumbfounded. "But this is..."

"Come on, say it." Lydia was happy to astonish him like this.

"Below sea-level isn't it? More magic?"

"No magic. The sunstone you see here keeps the water out." She pointed at the glowing stones in the ceiling, their shine was painfully strong and the air shimmered with a desert-like quality.

He did not point out that that seemed plenty magical to him.

-

The trolls were not on the ledge with them, so natural assumptions pointed to the sandy dunes below. There were enough rock outcroppings and occasional vegetation for them to be invisible from the elevated vantage point without really hiding.

The hobgoblins had already found a path down. The ledge they were on was made out of ancient faded bricks and the crumbling tears and cracks between them obediently accommodated the orange fingers and leather bound feet with grip and support. Quiet and Second had their reservations, they peered over the ledge at the children scaling the wall.

Scratch came up beside them. "Are we going to let them do that?" As he spoke he eyed a relatively large jute bag, tied with string, lying next to

Second's foot, but he didn't make any mention of it.

Lydia smiled without looking over the ledge. "They'll come back."

"If you say so."

She hadn't been the most confident person lately. So if she was certain about this...

Scratch looked out over the sandy dunes far below. "The underworld. So it's just a world underneath yours?"

"You have heard of the six planes."

"I have not."

"We live in what's called the overworld." She gestured in the air, forming a shape only comprehensible to her. "Every part of it belongs to one of the four kingdoms."

"Five kingdoms, love," Lacrima corrected her as she finally joined them on the perch. She looked over the edge at the hobgoblins scaling down.

"Is that entirely wise?"

"They're just about to turn around." Lydia commented. Then she continued. "Above the overworld are the heavens. That's all the blue in the sky. And above even that is the home of the stars. The astral realm. Where the gods live."

"Benesant." Scratch got in edgewise.

"Among others... But one can go down too. First reaching the underworld, that's where we are now. Then the abyss. Then hell."

"Doesn't sound like much of a prize."

"We avoid venturing down too deep."

"Raah!" Ada complained loudly as she dragged herself back up over the edge.

Her uncles tried to pull on her arms, but they didn't have much weight and she swatted them away to find grip herself.

"It just stops! It becomes smooth stone and you can't get a grip."

Lydia smiled knowingly. "We're standing on the underground buttress of an ancient fortress. You were able to climb so easily because it's all ancient brickwork. But the buttress can't go on forever. You found the end of it."

"Count yourselves lucky," Scratch stated, once most of the boys had gotten back up, "if you'd been able to keep clambering, you would have, wouldn't you? And you'd be stuck hours away from any ledge or bottom when your hands got tired."

Constantine looked at his fingers for a moment, imagining the scenario, then he spoke up. "Hey! Lacrima can turn us into birds! Then we can fly down!"

"Oh! Please!" Will was very in favor of the idea.

"How about we try to spot how the trolls got down?" Lydia suggested. "Otherwise we might end up somewhere totally different."

They looked around somewhat aimlessly from where they were standing. Nothing particularly jumped out at them.

-

"Angus was a good tracker. He would have known." Felix sighed.

"Psh, this is nothing like tracking in a forest." Piers challenged him. He had never known Angus but he now felt in competition with him over hunting ability.

"Simple creatures," Lacrima insulted them, "know your quarry. How does a troll move. Huh?"

"How? Ada considered the advice seriously. "Bree sort of... hops around, doesn't she?"

"The arms are bigger than the legs." Will added.

"Then how can-" Just as he had began to speak, Scratch noticed it. The remnants of ancient metal struts that had once served some purpose in the architecture. They were spaced just far enough apart that a troll could swing between them and move to a lower ledge. "Well well well."

"What?" Ada wondered, before she saw it too. "Does it go on like that to the bottom?"

"Probably not. There's a hole in that platform, an old elevator shaft I think."

Without much hesitation, Lydia jumped onto the first bar and acrobatically threw and swung her way across, landing in a bow legged stance at the other end.

She looked down into the square opening, and then gave them a thumbs up.

"That's nice dear! But what about us?!" Scratch shouted at her. None of the hobgoblins would likely be able to follow her act. Though more than a few would be willing to try.

She unhelpfully beckoned for them to follow her.

"Not an older woman like myself," Lacrima mumbled. Then she raised two arms high above her head and began chanting unintelligibly.

"What are you doing?" The goblin patriarch huffed.

"Be quiet, I am performing magic. You wanted a way across, did you not?"

When she lowered her arms, a greenness bubbled up at her feet. Moss and grass inched forward into the air, moving like the arm of a thinking creature. The greenery solidified into a cluster of vines that stretched itself over and around the bars onto the other side, forming a bridge of sorts.

"There, since the need was so dire. Do not expect me to repeat this trick, a witch must preserve her mana."

"Didn't want to fly across, huh?" Trevor quipped.

She harrumphed. "I do not particularly fancy leaving behind my modesty."

He winced, by suggesting she turn into a bird he'd proposed shifting out of her clothing, and now she'd put the image into his head.

-

The hobgoblins went first. One by one they crawled over the vines, each one getting marginally more daring, until Will walked over it with a straight back.

Second pushed Lacrima in the back, making it clear that they would not leave her standing alone on the platform.

Only once she was more than halfway across did he pick up his back and clamber onto the green himself.

The baggage was unwieldy and heavy. He had tied the string around his forearm and wrist and carefully pushed it inches ahead of himself one step at a time.

"Second, what in pete's name are you doing? What is that bag?"

"'S for Bree." He murmured.

Just then the burdensome thing slipped out of his grip and rolled over the edge.

It was so heavy that a single yank whisked him clean off the vine.

"Second!" Of everybody yelling in shock Quiet was the loudest.

But the brother had kept a hold of himself with his other hand, tightly grasping a small leaf stem.

Scratch rushed after him and pulled on the underside of his armpits. "Let go of the bag, Second."

"No."

"Bree will understand."

"No!"

They were both relieved of their strain when the bag suddenly became weightless.

Lydia Harkness was hanging from her legs and lifting it up. She had moved a significant amount of distance in a very short time.

With her help Second was quickly put back in his place. He blushed a little to be touched by her.

"Are we going to be alright?" She asked, picking up the bag. It clanged a bit from metal contents.

"Better than alright, you're a real hero." Scratch sighed.

They gave each other a peck on the lips and she returned to the second ledge ahead of them, with the offending weight.

After that, Quiet seemed deathly pale testing his weight on the plant matter.

Scratch threw up his hand. "Wait. Quiet, we need somebody to keep watch of the entrance. I order you to stay here."

Quiet nodded without a word, but he showed great relief on his face. Second didn't look fooled however, he threw a faintly guilty smile at both of them.

-

"They must have climbed down through here." Lydia explained as the others arrived where she stood. "There is a linear gear here, that's enough grip for a troll.

Second had re-obtained the bag and slung it over his shoulder.

The square hole they had gathered around lead all the way down to ground level, the arches of a gateway to the outside of the brickwork could just be made out. On either side of the long way down were large square outcroppings. A pattern of brass that repeated in the same measured distance every two feet or so.

As she had said, it was a linear gear. At some point cogwheels attached to a carriage of sorts had to have moved it up and down through these vertical tracks.

Trevor limbered up his shoulders, "let's go."

Scratch pulled at the back of his collar as soon as he tried to lower himself into the hole, slightly choking him.

"Hold it right there mister, last I checked your arms are about one-third the size of a troll's. How about you start with a plan?"

Hearing that the other hobgoblins stopped lowering themselves into the hole as well.

"I will not be summoning any more plant-life." Lacrima stated beforehand.

"We can go back to get rope," Ada suggested, "but once we get it...."

Lydia patted her shoulder "It looks like somebody already has a plan."

Second had just put his bag down.

"Are we gonna see what's inside?" Scratch asked.

But he didn't get an answer, instead, Second gestured to some of the ancient wooden beams that were sunken into the vertical brickwork. Then he took some woodworking tools out of his sleeve and strewed them on the floor.

"Hhm? Okay." Will seemingly understood clearly what he meant and held himself in-place in front of the architectural detail.

"What are you doing?" Ada asked.

"We're taking a piece." He answered.

"Will is always helping Second with cutting the wood for tunnel lining, so...." Trevor unhelpfully explained.

Scratch began hand-drilling at various spots in the sides of the calcified wood, under watch of everybody there.

The hobgoblin had a clear grasp of what his uncle wanted and exerted pressure on of its sides.

When Second began to push a hatchet into the holes, forming a crack around the prepared line, Lydia understood what they were doing. "I see.

Constantine, stand on the other side, over there and catch it."

"Okay?"

Out of the larger pillar came a smaller but perfectly straight wooden plank.

The hobgoblins wrestled it between them for the honor of holding it up and putting it aside.

With the same method, three more of such planks were produced.

"It's just to ladder down, you see?" Second explained.

"Wow," Scratch lifted up his eyebrows, "since when did you become a master carpenter?"

Second looked lightly surprised and then lightly angry. "Since when- are you a follower?" He whispered at him.

"What do you mean by that? Hey."

But Second turned his back and occupied himself helping the group put the planks in place.

'Laddering down' was an expression borrowed from the risky business of constructing scaffolding for the large ovens in Lacrima's cavern. It meant taking two planks, securing them in place between the struts, and climbing down, repeatedly moving the upper ones below you and securing them there in order to provide a path downwards.

In this same manner they were able to place the salvaged material between the vertical gears of the elevator shaft and use them to climb down without tiring their arms.

-

After almost half an hour taking and placing planks, the family decided to take a break.

They were still not halfway.

Four planks next to each other made a reasonable platform, such that even the old woman could sit down in a relaxed manner.

"Goodness. What am I doing in the bowels of the earth, chasing after some mid-level monster?"

Scratch had a sardonic remark ready. "You're here to secure a future for the new home that took you in."

"Bree is down here because of you." Second said.

"We might need to trade you for her." Lydia laughed.

"What." Lacrima jumped to her feet, completely caught of guard.

"Lydia... what exactly are you proposing?" Scratch asked reservedly.

"Huh? It was a joke." She looked a little surprised, then pointed her finger accusingly at him. "You make jokes about grave matters all the time!"

The mood visibly relaxed.

"Well it's a matter of setting expectations." He shrugged as if in an insincere apology.

"Papa would do it if he could, you know!" Trevor commented.

"Yeah, if Papa had said it I'd believed it." Felix added. "But Mama has honor."

"Okay. Okay. No more jokes." She patted their heads.

Lacrima had not yet sat back down. "If I wanted to, I could destroy you, all of you."

Scratch sighed. "And, will you?"

"I have not decided yet."

"Well, while you think about it, let's have something to eat. Second, do you have any food in that bag of yours?"

"No."

"What do you have in there?"

"There." Piers, who was eager to show off his tracking ability, had sat staring outward the whole time and now suddenly spoke up, "there in the plants."

He was pointing to a habit of cactuses in the relative distance below them.

"What do you see?" His mother asked.

"There's trolls, there's definitely trolls in there. I saw one move."

"It's a reasonable walk," Scratch estimated. "If we can clear up the misunderstanding quickly, we'll be back up and out by morning."

"It will not be that simple." Lacrima spoke ominously.

After that the laddering went quicker, and soon the floor came to meet them. Remains of what had once been a sophisticated elevator stuck out from the sand.

At two stories high a couple of hobgoblins jumped down eagerly onto the remains. They required some healing afterwards.

On the floor of the cavern one could be forgiven for imagining themselves on the surface.

A desert stretched out before them, other than the one behind them no stone walls were visible, and a harsh sunlight shone down on them.

The goblins and hobgoblins cringed away from the brightness with pieces of clothing and the women's shadows, and even the humans protected their eyes from the glare.

"The castle I grew up in had an underground buttress as well." Lydia sighed nostalgically. "We once snuck out at night to see the underworld. It was farther down than we had expected and was already midday when we returned. My father was furious."

"Some good memories." Scratch remarked.

"Yes. But... these days are happy too."

"It'd put a big damper on these happy days if Bree ended up brood mother for a bunch of- there they are."

The habit of cacti they'd been walking towards provided the shade for a gaggle of trolls. Having come as near as they had they could make out almost a dozen, napping between the greenery.

Having their destination in sight caused the older hobgoblins to break out into a jog, but they slowed down when Bree didn't immediately appear.

The trolls noticed them too. One of them got up and began pacing left to right in front of them, to delineate territory.

-

"Well...?" The witch asked, "surely you had a plan coming here."

"That's the trouble," Scratch rubbed his chin, "this is precisely the kinda thing we wanted to use Bree for."

Not seeing the outsiders recoil and flee at his display, the guard troll became agitated. He roared once more and began running towards the hobgoblins.

"Forward. Shoulder Vice." Ada said in a commanding tone.

Knowing exactly what she meant, Felix and Jasper took in positions before her. They were still holding on to the weapons they had brandished at the lich, and where pointing them confidently at their attacker.

Ada had her leather whip, Felix his pronged Halberd, and Jasper a pair of claws attached to his forearm.

The troll had stormed in expecting them to scatter, but now that they didn't he refused to slow down.

With Jasper right in front of him he leaped through the air, his massive arms over his head.

The boy ducked underneath the force of the massive blow, letting the monster fall into the sharp of his blades.

Yowling in pain the troll touched the ground and diverted itself to the side, avoiding most of the cut, but losing his footing.

The other two exploited the weakness. Felix swiped at his hind legs, while Ada cracked her whip over one of its swinging arms, toppling it.

As soon as the troll's chin hit the dirt suddenly all siblings were on top of it.

Ada pulled the arm that had been caught in her whip of his back and began to tie him up.

Felix had a metal wire around his throat, and various other hobgoblins had sharp objects against the free arm.

"We had to fight trolls all the time when we were stuck underground," Piers said, "it's always this one."

The creature did have a scar just underneath where Felix was currently pulling a wire.

"If he cries the other trolls will come!" Felix said.

"We can defeat one troll," Piers explained again, "but then we flee because then the others come. And there's lots of them."

Lacrima straightened her back with disdain. "Give me its blood."

"There's no time for eating." Piers insisted.

"Its. Blood." She hissed evilly. An ominous magic crackling in the air.

More out of curiosity than fear, Trevor cut the beast- its roar stifled by the garrote- and threw the knife towards the witch.

Lydia caught it in the air, and handed it over in a more conventional manner than a ranged attack.

With no real urgency, Lacrima took the blood off the knife and rubbed it between her fingers. Then she swatted it into the air.

Scratch cocked his head. "What was that supposed to do?"

But the hobgoblins were climbing down from the troll. The monster underneath them had turned completely to stone.

"Wh-..." Scratch was flabbergasted and the witch walked away from him towards the stone beast.

"Now you see the power of blood," Lacrima wagged her finger at Constantine, apparently resolving some earlier argument. "To a user of Guth's magic, it is indeed weapon. One much more fearsome than your swords, and *ropes*."

Constantine was speechless for just under a second. Then he cried out "You gotta teach me!"

Scratch turned to Lydia. "Did you know she could-" but the woman had already caught up with the group. She was throwing Ada into the air.

"You're a knight! You're real warriors! Why did you never show me you could do that?"

Second, too, pulled up his heavy cargo and went ahead. Leaving Scratch as the last straggler in the group entering the cluster of cactuses.

"I'll get a higher view." Using her superhuman acrobatic skill, Lydia Harkness jumped through the air, seeing over the more than man-high forest of opuntias.

Her brood was already swarming through the sandy garden.

If Bree was somewhere between the prickly plants, bruised, beaten, and generally cowed into obedience, they only needed to reach her and heal her ailments before the trolls good and well found out.

Having entered the dense habit, they were spotted by loitering trolls, but the area was unclear and disorienting enough that the monsters had trouble communicating their position and surrounding them.

Sprinting in all directions through the forest startled and confounded the trolls, who were not as fast turning as they were bounding in a straight line.

"I can't see any prisoners or bodies." She said coming down.

"I swear you were in the air for like half a minute," Scratch mentioned.

"Scratch. Focus. We can't stay in here for too long."

Scratch scratched his chin, "she's either not here, or they let her wander around nearby. There should be a way to group up."

"The tree." Second pointed and what might as well be called a tree, for its size. It was a cactus the height of a two story building, towering grandly above the others. It certainly was a landmark to orientate oneself by.

"Ah, a meeting spot," Scratch understood, "let's go because I think-" as he spoke a troll turned the corner around a cactus near them "-that we've been spotted already."

The woman and the goblins ran off in different directions, curving their path towards the appointed landmark. "Keep moving." She told them.

"Attention, attention!" Scratch spoke into his voice amplifying rod while running. "The family of Bree is looking for her. Can Bree come to the meeting spot at the large cactus please? I repeat can- Second what are you doing? Just leave it behind, keep moving."

He never took his mouth away from the rod, so everybody nearby could hear the conversation.

Second had gotten his heavy bag caught on a spike. "I won't, stop telling me to! Why are you always doing what the humans want?"

"Doing what- We're being chased if you didn't notice! Oh good, it came off. Let's go on."

-

Everyone did arrive at the hastily coordinated spot eventually.

The two goblins being the last, seeing Lacrima seated on the back of a petrified troll and many of the hobgoblins panting heavily.

"Bree is not here." Lydia stated stoically.

Scratch rubbed his temples. "Maybe she's already back home, wondering where *we* are."

"Or maybe they killed her." She barked. "We used her for how she was born and she died from it."

"I used her," Scratch put his hand on his chest, and she wasn't born that way, "I'll take responsibility if-"

Just behind where he and Second had arrived a larger cactus practically exploded.

A massive fist burst through the arid plant matter and launched green fiber and spikes into the air.

It was a known face emerging from between the cacti. The largest male troll with the one broken tusk that had brutalized Bree at her first introduction.

The alpha male.

It didn't roar or thump its chest. This time there would be no display or intimidation, he immediately closed in for the kill.

"W-witch-"

"For lasting magic I need a piece of its body." Lacrima explained. "Its blood."

"We only need to draw blood." Felix readied his pole-arm and stood in front of them.

"We've done it twice before." Ada cracked her whip in the air.

But when they attempted the same manoeuvre again, the troll punched the initial attacked into the sand, throwing up a large cloud of it, kicked away the pole arm, and yanked the whip away once it had wrapped around his arm.

The hobgoblins then attacked with a variety of tricks and throwables, but the troll's thick skin seemed impenetrable.

In his mad threshing he hit Felix square in the ribs, sending him flying into a cactus.

One long spike had punctured his stomach, another had missed the back of his neck by a hair.

"How do we-" Scratch was reminded of his own under-tuned threat recognition, "we can't win. We have to run!"

"I'm not leaving anybody behind." Lydia insisted.

Scratch turned to her. "Either some of us survive, or none of us do. Do you really-" As he spoke the troll had leaped towards him and a stony fist the size of his entire body came inches from bursting his skull like an overripe watermelon.

"-think-." Scratch touched his ear. He had felt the draft of a massive object being suddenly yanked away from his skin.

There, seemingly out of nowhere, stood Bree. One arm to her chest, one outstretched in a single continuous arc from her torso.

She had redirected the alpha male's punch with her own.

"Bree!" The children cheered.

"And you thought she was dead." Scratch glanced smugly at Lydia.

"You thought she was a brood slave." She whispered back at him.

"I have been fighting," Bree brought her large arms up to her face, "the whole time."

The alpha male got up and charged at her.

He had the greater weight, but she was able to duck and weave out of his wide swings, landing quick jabs to his torso and face.

As she had been taught, she was boxing.

"The strongest troll is the boss troll." She said, being driven back by a large overhead strike, "if I'm the boss troll, we can all live here. I. Just. Need to. Win."

Much of the troll family had found them by now, they were standing in clear sight between the surrounding plants, but they kept a respectful distance from the leadership struggle.

She caught a hook by grabbing the inside of her opponent's elbow and began punching at his sternum with her other arm.

However, it seemed like her fist was getting more bruised than his chest and he smacked her over the side of her head, throwing her to the ground.

Now that she was down, the alpha male considered his fight with her over. He huffed some sounds at her, that at closer inspection sounded like some kind of language, then he moved towards the intruders again. A bit slower this time, as he had just gotten out of a fight.

The hobgoblins had been healed from any life threatening injuries, but they were not meaningful better prepared for a fight now than they had been a few seconds before.

"Harkness. I will be taking my leave." Lacrima said.

Her clothes fell to the ground as she had turned into an owl.

Lydia grit her teeth. "She's abandoning us."

"She's doing what any of us would do if we could." Scratch relativized.

But as the owl fluttered up to higher strata it was struck out of the air.

-

Even the alpha male was stopped in his tracks gawking at what had just happened.

One of the growths of the tallest cactus now stood differently than it had before. It had moved to strike the flying target.

Everybody around instinctively distanced themselves from the plant as it began to twist and move.

At the base parts uprooted themselves and found balance at other spots. Legs.

All over the tall stem the arms folded out, and from in-between a head was uncovered.

The creature's face was lacking in detail and texture, like a jack-o-lantern cut out of a cactus, with a brightly colored flower directly on the crown.

The troll leader roared aggressively and thumbed his chest.

The living cactus looked at him, screeching back and twenty times the volume.

It stumbled forwards and brought its green leg down on the much smaller enemy.

Instead of dodging, the troll held it back, his hands grasping between the large spikes.

The larger monster clattered and put in its full weight, squashing the troll and piercing it with its spikes.

The struggle hadn't lasted two seconds.

Seeing this the rest of the trolls rushed towards the monster, ignoring the intruders and ganging up on the creature that had killed their leader.

The cactus did away with them rather easily. It would kick trolls jumping at it, impaling them on its spikes and keeping them there.

"Ha." Scratch tried to stifle a laugh, but couldn't hold it in. "Haha! Hahahaha..."

"Scratch, get a hold of yourself." Lydia begged. "You're having a nervous breakdown."

"No I'm not. This is wonderful. We're all alive and the monsters are fighting each other. We can just make a break for it!" He laughed again. "Just when there's no hope, out of nowhere. It's a divine miracle! I'm invincible!"

"Snap out of it!" She tackled him, throwing him out of the path of a spiked arm crashing down.

The plant had bent over its long stem in order to direct its branch at him specifically, and it followed them with its eyes.

The habit was in chaos. Neither troll nor hobgoblin know where to run or where their allies where, jumping from place to place between the random splashes of destruction the monster inflicted on the ground.

Between it all Bree was uprighting herself from the ground.

Jasper had used up his last mana healing her head injury and Second had put down his bag.

When Lydia brought Scratch to them he was just about to open it.

"I tried... very many times." She tried to explain. "To become the leader."

"It's alright. Can you stand?" Lydia asked her.

Second had now retrieved the contents of the bag. A series of steel plates with interlocking shapes and bands of leather.

"Cause the surface is dangerous. There's humans, and the thieves' guild, and the smoke monster."

The cactus looked directly at them. It had uprighted itself and moved towards the small group. Second and Bree were now hurriedly assembling his package and attaching it to her forearms.

"If I put everything I have in a fire spell. We could kill it. But I need to hit the head." Lydia strategized, now seeing they wouldn't be able to flee its range in time.

"What are you two doing?" Scratch asked the troll and goblin.

She opened and closed her left hand. When closed the plates of steel folded over each other to protect her fingers, forming a perfectly square shell.

Second had created a pair of gauntlets for her.

"It was to win against the trolls." He explained as she flexed. "If you smelt it even hotter, it becomes even stronger."

The cactus had breached the distance and brought down its massive limb for an attack.

Lydia tried to grab Scratch and Jasper to jump away, but Bree put her large arms around all of them, keeping them in place.

"But now I know-" the full weight of the monster bashed into them sending a shock wave through the air.

"there's nowhere to run to." The attack had been stopped by Bree's gauntlets, which were the size of a great shield when put together, and couldn't be scratched by the cactus spikes.

With one hand she smashed against the limb, cracking it wide open.

For the first time, the creature screeched in pain. Its insides where as plantlike as its exterior.

It swiped at them once more, but she punched the side of its arm, redirecting its attack into the ground.

"Bree, can you make it fall to the ground?" Lydia asked.

"It's like a troll game," Jasper said, "if you get it on its knees, we win."

"Okay, I will." She breathed in determination and leaped forward.

The monster now tried to avoid her, retracting its leg to dodge her attack.

She she jumped at it it retreated further and further back, until it stepped on top of one of its inanimate relatives.

Not retreating any further it brought its arm down in an overhead swing.

In an extension of the boxer's duck she rolled to the side, avoiding the brunt of the attack but still being caught up in the cloud of upturned sand.

For a second they didn't know where she had gone but she came out flying, smashing into the nearest leg and undoing it of crucial support now that its center of mass had been launched forward.

As intended the creature fell onto the ground, its head a few meters above the actual sand only by its arms.

Its face showed something akin to actual fear when Lydia Harkness appeared in front of it.

She had jumped high up into the air while casting a spell, one arm outstretched behind her.

"Rhada's... Spear!" She yelled triumphantly as a shining lance of red hot fire appeared in her hand and she threw it with all her might.

The plant's head exploded on impact, sending countless pieces of burning debris into the air behind it.

The enormous form sank to the ground, dead.

A strange silence descended upon them, as the screeching had halted abruptly.

Without the source of indiscriminate chaos, it was easier to find one another.

The family grouped together again, including Lacrima, who was back to human and had been given Constantine's over shirt.

"Mom. You killed the tree!" Piers cheered.

"That's impossible," Lacrima huffed, "a greater cactipod should be beyond the ability of anybody here."

"It was a group effort." Lydia stated humbly. "I'm just happy Bree is safe."

"I don't think I can keep on fighting..." Bree panted, looking out over the trolls surrounding them.

"Me neither." Lydia said softly.

"Yell." Second said.

"What?"

"Bree. Yell."

Bree straightened her back and roared like the alpha male used to.

The trolls all bowed their heads.

"I see..." Scratch mused, "proved your strength did you? I suppose that's fair, you did wrestle a tree."

"Do you want to live here Bree?" Lydia asked her.

She thought about it for a moment. "Now way! If there's monsters either way, I'd rather live in the house with bed and water!"

Making their way back they met up with Quiet and explained the situation.

"I think that makes her king of the trolls now," Scratch concluded, "it's a good thing that green thing-"

"It's called a greater cactipod," Lacrima interjected.

"It's a good thing the cactuspod tried to kill all of us."

He became self conscious halfway through his sentence and didn't make any flippant comments about the situation for the rest of the journey.

"You were right," he said to Lydia, "I am always making jokes. I just... I can't take all of this seriously. If I did, I think I'd explode. Every day I see something that boggles the mind. Magical powers, bloodsucking demons, fairies, skeletons, an entire world right under our feet... Any of them alone would- I don't know. I have to distract myself from it all."

"Scratch...." she hesitated saying anything. "You can make jokes if you want to."

"Thanks."

-

When they reached Lacrima's home at the cavern dockyard, the sun was just rising.

"We've been up all night." Ada yawned.

"Fighting for our lives." Piers proclaimed proudly.

"Mostly climbing," Jasper laughed.

"That's a kind of fighting."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"You're fighting gravity."

"Well, you've kept me from my business long enough," Lacrima pouted, "I will be retreating and-"

"Wait a minute," Scratch grabbed her sleeve. "Ada, do you still have it?"

"Have what?"

"The fairy."

"Fairy?"

"The tiny girl!"

"Oh!"

She fished the tube the lich had given them out from her leg strap.

The creature sat defeated in its prison, battered from the constant movement on the hobgoblin's thigh.

Lacrima looked at it annoyed.

"I understand it's an advance scout..." Scratch began.

"I know what fairies do." She snapped.

"Then you understand what risk you've exposed us to without informing us."

"Does it matter? Our contract was never predicated on your consent."

He exchanged glances with Lydia, she was angrier than he was.

"Then I suppose it's time to re-examine our contract."

The bandit leader pulled out a throwing knife. Seeing that the hobgoblins readied their weapons too.

"You bastard. You tricked me into spending my mana." The witch hissed.

"Not so much a pre-conceived plan, but capitalizing on the moment now that it's here. You know how it goes."

The old woman stepped back, but the younger woman put her hand on her shoulder.

"What do you need the steel weapons for, Lacrima." Scratch asked tonelessly.

She grimaced. "I have been building an army."

He laughed a bit, but he was the only one seeing humor in the situation. "An army?"

"The orphans I had taken in, they are under my power. I had planned to march them onto the witchwood in order to reclaim it."

"So you did plan on taking them on yourself."

She looked between the parents nervously. "That's right, if my plan comes to fruition, the fairy queen will be destroyed for you. I only need to redraw plans on how to harvest her feybloom in the coming months."

"Scratch." Lydia said. "We won't have another chance like this."

Scratch touched the side of his nose. "You haven't been entirely hostile with us, have you Lacrima?"

"I haven't."

"In fact. I think you've helped us more than you've asked of us."

"... perhaps."

"I think we can continue being allies in the future."

The group put away their weapons.

If Lacrima really had a plan for defeating the witchwood, that was one more plan than they had.

"Why did you want to destroy them anyway?" Constantine asked.

She sighed. "I do not expect you to understand. Control over great magical resources is something every ambitious witch craves. It's how we decide our status."

"No. I get it. It's the same for everyone, isn't it? Magic or weapons or money, the situation is different, but the wants are the same."

They let the witch go, un-murdered.

Hopefully she would remember this as an example of their mercy, but she might remember it as an example of opportunism instead.

-

Later, when most had gone in for a quick nap and the sun was high in the sky.

All the way at the top of the dungeon, above the furnaces and above the wolf den, laid back on a window frame of the family home, Scratch was communing with Cyclophan, the evil god of guile and trickery.

A thick cigar filled with blue grass gave just the minimum topping of magical power to communicate their thoughts between the two of them.

Did you do this? He asked in a tone as casual as he could muster.

I don't know what you mean.

Don't- He pinched the bridge of his nose. Don't play around right now. You told me before that you can affect the minds of creatures in the cave. Now, did you use the trolls to lure us down?

I did.

Did you get the plant to attack us.

...yes.

Scratch took a deep breath. Why?

You routinely defy and blaspheme me. As soon as you deemed the dungeon suitable enough for your family, you abandoned your purpose to expand it.

So you intended to kill and replace me.

I wouldn't do that.

You certainly wouldn't tell the truth if you did.

The god spat soundlessly. If I have any hope of achieving my ambitions in the time I have left, I need a dungeon master that can see the power of the underworld and is willing to harness it. That's why I brought you below, in order to show you its power.

Power? What power?

The dungeon we have build so far is a channel for magical power. A small trickle that allows me to build up mana for monster evolutions, and the odd dark magic ritual. The underworld is a repository for countless of these channels. If only I could be connected up to it, we could access the strength of a mighty river.

You mean you would.

Haven't I shared generously in my gifts? You hold out on me to negotiate a greater share, but you are in need yourself. A force of trolls and greater curses could protect you against the growing thread of men and fairy. These are things I can provide with a stronger core.

It's not like that isn't true... Why do you want to become so strong anyway?.

It is in my nature to do so.

Uh-huh. He wasn't satisfied with that answer at all. I'll see what I can do.

Greater Cactipod

Family: Plants

Threat Level: C

Reward: 5 gold

Greater cactipods diverge significantly in appearance from their smaller cousins. Their body and limbs are elongated, and they can reach heights of 60 feet. Unlike normal cactipods, they are passive creatures, content to feed on ground nutrients and water, only attacking those that come close.

Greater cactipods choose large cactus habits as their habitat, and are usually surrounded by regular cactipods within the vegetation. They are not the older versions of cactipods and they do not exert control over them.

Cactipod flowers are precious alchemical materials, however, they only bloom once every forty years. Once should not seek out any type of cactipod with the expectation of being able to harvest flowers.