Chapter 20

Not knowing what to expect he looked downwards. His mind conjured the image of a creature of nightmares, potentially something like the dersbrawk but more blood-thirsty. Another steep slope greeted him followed by a different higher ridge.

Adrian glanced back at the octopods, and they were moving constantly, their tentacles writhing together like a wall of serpents. Their eyes watched him, their beaks clicked, but they did not cross the line.

What the hell?

What he was observing wasn’t obedience it was fear.

Adrian looked down the next ravine, the brief rest let him catch his breath. He couldn’t leave now, no matter how unnerving the situation. He thought about his teleporter pad. Maybe he could retreat and try again, but even as he considered it, he knew the method he utilised this time would not be available for a second time. Towards the end of the run, the octopods had already been wising up to his techniques. They had shown a willingness to elevator smaller octopods into the air to search the top of the upthrusts of crystal. If he left, the next scout would be harder and if they worked out that he was using the uooTalica groves, then he was never getting this far again.

Adrian dropped his battle wraith form. If there was an unknown threat out there, then he needed to see it before it saw him.

His Ambusher’s Set was replaced with the camouflage armour. It felt ridiculous making that trade when over a thousand eyes were staring at him. The eyes behind him bored into him with a mixture of equal parts fury and hunger. The glares were so intense they were like a physical pressure.

Despite that, the camouflage suit gave him the best chance against what was out there. The tiger snake that could not be seen by Magic Focus had been the one that had almost killed him. Adrian hoped to flip that on its head and be that invisible monster slipping through the defences arrayed against him.

The switch completed, he moved down and then bit by bit crept out of the sightline of the massed force behind him. A sense of relief washed over him. It was ridiculous, but the massed octopods glaring at him were unnerving. He fell into his careful routine, the agonising slow movements that this suit required. The only difference was that his head was on a pivot, searching for an enemy or a trap or anything suspicious. There was a reason the octopods had stopped.

Everything was coming up blank. There was nothing in his domain and even the enhanced perception earned from the training facilities was strumming away and failing to pick up anything.

Adrian had reached the current bottom of a lopsided terrace and started moving upwards, again. On the map, he was getting closer to the centre. At most, there could only be a couple more ridges. He licked his lips. Soon the mystery the octopods were protecting would be revealed, and then he would run. This time, when approaching the crest, he crouched down and slid up slower than normal. His domain stretched out, trying to find the threat that he knew was out there. The octopods had not refused to enter the area for no reason.

Adrian froze.

There was a monster beyond the ridge, only two metres down from where he had been about to poke his head over.

Too close. His range was supposed to be thirty metres, but this thing was only six or seven metres away. There was a lot of rock between them, but his domain should not have ignored it. Frozen, Adrian examined what his senses were telling him. Only the passive observation skills were active, sound, interrogating strands of air, fluctuations in magic, vibrations of all those different sources combined in his interface and shot out a result.

Adrian forced himself to keep breathing. His domain had failed because the creature had not moved the whole time he had been sneaking up. Not even to breathe. It was not an octopod or really anything he had seen before. In his domain, it felt like a trolley-sized snail with a multi-jointed branch-like limb coming out of the top of its shell.

Adrian was not fooled. This creature was what the octopods were afraid of. It might look like a snail, but it would be deadly.

Adrian really wished he had Jaracol to help guide him. Something told him that the interface would probably know what he was facing and would have given him appropriate hints, mainly either stop being a wimp, sneak or run past as fast as possible. The simple fact was that Jaracol wasn’t available. Despite being here exposed on this ridge literally kilometres deep in enemy territory doing the system’s bidding, the system would not relax its rules. Jaracol, no matter how much he wanted it to be otherwise could not help.

It was simple. This creature was dangerous.

Terrifyingly so.

He inched backwards, intending to go sideways to get some space before taking another peek and getting visual confirmation of what he faced. Every foot was positioned perfectly to be soundless, and he repositioned ten metres over. Then carefully he peered over the ridge, all of his muscles straining with the effort of moving so agonisingly slowly.

Zxeatra Italraca Stage 4 Guard

The Zxeatra Italraca are a species evolved upon Alpha worlds. Stage 4 guards are ferocious fighters using their whip-like appendage to destroy most foes, but they usually exhibit multiple magic skills. Their shell makes them nearly immune to both magic and physical attacks.

They had their own name. Adrian knew by now what that meant. Then the additional information from his skill flooded in. They had incredible straight-line speed. Physically, Adrian suspected he could defeat them, but not quickly. He would need to blunt or cut off their main appendage and then kill the monster by targeting that hole in the shell while tanking or avoiding whatever magic the creature could bring to bear. Alternatively, he could attack via the feet, which were currently hidden by the shell. Of course, with his magic or Mind abilities, the fight would become significantly easier.

Will it see me?

No answer.

Adrian stretched his Mind ability. What level of perception did the strange creature possess? Would it see him if he tried to sneak past? Unfortunately, neither the identification nor the massive amounts of knowledge he had consumed gave him an answer. Feeling ridiculous, he kept his motions slow as he crawled forward over the ridge and down.

Off to the side, there was another monster. It zoomed through the air, ludicrously fast before landing without even a puff of air. That was the straight-line ability that his identification had triggered on. Based on what he had just observed the creature could instantly switch from not moving to travelling at over a hundred kilometres per hour and then grind to a halt just as quickly and it was not restricted to forward or back, it could go in any direction. The shift he had witnessed was it going sideways.

Adrian studied them. Given their weight and armour… Oh… it was deadly. If it rammed him, ouch.

He put his head down and focused on his movements. Five minutes later he reached the bottom of the ravine. Crawling like this was a slow process, but if it let him finish his mission safely, then it was worth it.

Adrian assessed his task. He was getting closer. Once he got to the top of the next ridge, he expected to finally see what they were facing. The zxeatra were interesting, but they felt like a different type of guard rather than the boss monster

Alarm bells went off.

Adrian almost jumped and abandoned his stealth.

A zxeatra crested the ridge before plunging toward him. Combat options flowed through him, internal haste activated and a step formed. It landed two metres in front of him.

The front of its shell pointing at him, the weird appendage out of the top of the shell stretched above it and he was comfortably in range of a nasty serrated blade on the tip of its arm.

Zxeatra Italraca Stage 4 Scout

The Zxeatra Italraca are a species evolved upon Alpha worlds. Stage 4 scouts are lighter than guards and tend to be more mobile, with higher levels of perception. Offensively, they have similar abilities to guards, but a slightly thinner shell makes them susceptible to attacks that can break their shell.

His senses warned him he was being actively examined.

Fuck!

Adrian exploded forward using his spear lunge technique even while enhancing the spear with Phantom Blade. He targeted the base of the limb, where it connected to the shell. The spear tip hit hard. There was resistance before it punched through. However, given his mission, there was no time to get bogged down in a fight. He yanked his weapon clear, twisting the weapon as he did so in order to do extra damage on the way out.

The zxeatra hummed with energy.

Switching armour, b attle wraith, step, step.

Almost instantly, he was halfway up the slope. Behind him, a concussive blast of air and a wave of heat chased him as the scout unleashed its magic. The spear used its supernatural control over air and the energy generated by the scout was repurposed to propel himself forward. For a moment, it was like he was surfing and then it petered out and he ran. Maybe just seeing the zxeatra would be enough for the system, but he was cut off and there was no way to tell. His gut told him that a guard and a scout were not an answer. He had not seen anything that the system would class as abnormal yet.

He powered forward over the ridge.

Step.

Behind him, there was a crash as a big shell, larger than the two earlier ones, crashed into the spot he had just vacated.

Adrian stared in shock. His brain struggled to comprehend what was in front of him. The top of the mountain was an inverted cone. It looked like a giant drill had bored a hole through the centre. There were also zxeatras everywhere. It was like he was standing at the top of a funnel with snails defending that central opening.

It was alien, eerie and artificial.

The rock was perfectly smooth. One step, without resorting to magic, and he would slide all the way down and plunge to whatever was hidden below.

The geography was even more unnatural than the ridges and metal seams he had viewed getting here. That expanse of polished surface was terrifying.

Stage 4 scout, Stage 4 Guard, Stage 3 Guard, Stage 3 Mage Support.

The stage threes were bigger than the stage fours and on the other side of the hole beyond where his identification could reach there were even bigger shells. Too far away to confirm, but primal fear ran through him. The stage fours were slightly below him, the threes above, but the bigger shells… He shuddered. If size represented stage, then there were stage twos and ones out there. The twos were at least as strong as the Bird and maybe even more, and the ones, while possibly not matching the wyrm would be close.

And there were so many of them.

Just like with the octopod, the attention of all of them turned to face him.

Was this the evidence he needed?

Adrian didn’t know what he was looking at. The force he was staring at was easily strong enough to crush Wangaratta. That would cause it to be classed as a local threat… as horrible as it sounded, it wasn’t a threat that the system would be interested in. But in his Magic Focus, the hole glowed almost like a star. There was something at the bottom that was using magic and Adrian wished Jaracol could advise.

Was this what the system needed to see or did they need more?

Forward?

Back?

Even with internal haste, he was out of time.

In that half a second, he had paused at the top of the ridge. He saw dozens of them move. They would vibrate and then shoot forward like a billiard ball and then stop on a dime. They were coming for him.

Retreat or advance?

He needed to know what was down that hole. They were defending something, and he was going to find out what.

Battle wraith.

Step.

The shells reacted the instant his feet landed on the smooth surface and he started sliding. Abruptly, there were almost twenty flying at him.

Step.

A shell that was zooming past on a different trajectory changed directions less than a metre away from him. Evasion kicked in, but there was nothing he could do to dodge it. The shell struck him.

Specifically, the shell that proved to be anti-magic along with hard, hit him with a combination that countered the partial permeability of the battle wraith form.

Adrian was sent flying away. Tumbling to the ground, disorientated, but it was a pretty simple equation. Go down.

Step.

In his domain, shells zipped through the area he had vacated. They were everywhere in front of him, moving so fast that he wasn’t sure he could step through safely.

Jump. Wind gust

He was airborne.

Shells flew past with their massive arms that ended in nasty blades, trying to swat him out of the air. Shadow evasion had him jerking every which way even as wind gusts yanked him around. Unceremoniously propelling him up, down to a stop, right, then left. His reserves were getting sucked out of him as his automatic Shadow Evasion and the spear worked in concert to keep himself alive.

Then the attacks stopped. For a moment, he didn’t understand what was happening, but then he realised he was out of the funnel and above the ominously symmetric hole.

Wind grabbed him and then he was free falling. With a curse, he rotated to face downwards to see where and when he was going to land. It was deep, a spectacular view. Perfectly smooth walls, each of them over a hundred metres away from him. The drill hole descended for at least a kilometre.

As they got closer to the ground, the spear drew more energy, and the air thickened, slowing him. Five metres from the floor the weapon cut its power, and he fell the rest of the way under gravity. Adrian relaxed his body like a cat and then rolled to disperse the force.

He spun, looking for enemies, and didn’t spot any of them. Only then did he truly look at where his impulsive leap had taken him.

A massive artificial hole in the ground that ended in an even larger cavern that was the size of a number of football fields and at least fifty metres high. It wasn’t symmetric, and this cave might well have been natural. There was a single notable feature in the immense space, which was a constructed tunnel leading away from the side. That exit was literally a perfect half cylinder and reminded him of tunnels that went under the Yarra but those were four-car lanes and this might have been enough for six. When he switched Magic Focus on, that tunnel was blinding and the glow from it was what he had seen from the top of the mountain almost two kilometres straight up.

Jaracol? Now would be a good time to cheat again.

Silence greeted him and he wondered if he had done something beyond stupid. It was an impulsive decision to come, but he had made it under the expectation that the interface would have stopped him if it was a mistake, briefly forgetting that Jaracol wasn’t available. There was no safety net, and he had plunged down over a kilometre. It was possible that the boosted teleporter plate would not work from this deep underground.

Adrian looked around. The zxeatra from above had not followed him, just like the octopods… The fact that they had stayed above the hole did not make him feel safer. This was all too weird even for him.

For now, he was safe and rather than proceeding he switched armour and sat down. With his eyes watching the tunnel, he let his mana regenerate. After about seven minutes, he pulled out the teleporter plate and checked it. There was a connection to the other plate, but it was too tenuous for him to use.

Panic flared.

Adrian pushed it down. Hopefully, this was like mobile reception. If he explored, maybe he would find a spot where the reception was better. Worst-case scenario, wind gusts could propel him high enough to use it. With a grimace, he got up and started pacing around to see if there was a spot he could get better reception, so to speak.

The connection was variable. He would take ten steps and then check. When it diminished, he backtracked. Eventually, it stabilised and he kept moving till he found a green crystal seam that went up to the surface. The teleporter connection to it wasn’t just stable it was strong. Adrian touched the crystal curiously, but it was just shiny rock and identification and Magic Focus told him nothing. Despite that, it was clearly some sort of teleporting boosting cable. Like a lot of the stuff he had seen, it looked artificial.

Leaving the teleporter plate on the ground, Adrian oriented to face the mysterious tunnel. He did not want to go, but since he’d set up his exit strategy, he might as well get the last piece of information.

With full mana and his bulky stealth suite enabled, he moved slowly towards the tunnel and its brilliant, intense magic glow.

When he reached it, Adrian was not surprised to see an even larger zxeatra than any he had seen yet positioned halfway down the tunnel. This one was the size of a small truck. Its single appendage soared to the ceiling. Simple geometry told Adrian that it could squish anything trying to pass it with that arm. Not that it would stay still. Adrian knew how fast those things moved. If it squashed him against a tunnel wall there would be no surviving, personal shield or not.

The tunnel had a gentle curve to it that hid what was truly happening. Somewhere beyond the monster blocking the corridor, there was an intense glow that was also in the visible spectrum. He could see the glow just out of sight around the tunnel bend.

That glow was familiar. It reminded him of the imp portals just far, far larger.

Zxeatra Italraca Stage 1 Guard

The Zxeatra Italraca are a species evolved upon Alpha worlds. Stage 1 guards are between class 3 and 2.

The one he was looking at was only class three. Only! As powerful as the wyrm. The wyrm had been deadly. Adrian was stronger now, but he could not fight the monster in front of him straight on. It would literally squish him and there was nothing he could do.

Passively he examined it, but no neat breakdown of stats was supplied to him.

Should he run?

JARACOL!!

Absolute silence greeted him.

HELP ME!!

The interface was gone. There was no advice available to help him understand this situation.

Had what little he observed been sufficient to identify this as a world threat or not? What did it mean that a class three monster had been put on guard duty? Was that fact enough? And was that light behind it sufficient for the system to create an identification of a portal?

Humans would never get this close again, Adrian was sure of that. They would adjust their routines to stop anything from slipping by again. This was a one-time opportunity. Did the system need to see more? Or did it need him to run now and ensure what he had observed so far reached them?

As if hypnotised Adrian shuffled closer.

With every step, he stared at the monster with horrified eyes as he moved each half a step forward. It was still almost hundred metres away, which was hundreds of these small half steps, but when it noticed him how fast would it move?

He remembered the smaller ones zipping past him. Did the large ones travel faster or slower? Would he be reduced to a bloody paste against the wall without even registering the danger?

Another half step.

The guard had not moved.

His blood was thundering like booming drums. It was so loud that he felt certain that it would hear him.

That glow. He had come this far. He had to find out whether this was a threat to Melbourne. Or he could run.

His feet were indifferent to the thoughts in his head. They kept carrying him forward with every metre closer, representing a reduction in time when it moved. He knew he should lower his eyes, but he couldn’t tear them away. All that practice he had done had proved that looking at something seemed to alert them. Logically, he should study the ground.

But if he looked away...

Smack! He could just imagine being squished without even seeing the danger coming. Domain could… no he needed to watch the enemy. It was too powerful to look away from.

Closer and closer. He was halfway there. Hugging the edge of the corridor hoping that whatever was behind the monster would be revealed before he got within range of its limbs.

It was possible the twist of the tunnel meant that he could already see further than when he started. He was halfway to that incredibly powerful guard.

Another step.

He was getting so close.

Adrian froze. Just visible was another shell.

Zxeatra Italraca Stage 1 Mage

The mage version of the zxeatra italraca focuses on large scale magical effects. Stage 1 mages are between class 4 and 2.

Potentially less powerful than the guard, not that the reduction mattered. All he could see was part of its shell. That mage must be the source of the glow he was seeing.

His feet kept him moving forward and his mouth was bone dry and it felt like his heart beating so fast he was going to explode.

More and more of the shell was exposed. If he could just sneak a little further and he might be able to see what it was working on.

Adrian’s eyes flicked back to the guard, and he almost squeaked.

It had moved.

It was moving!

Its limb was waving back and forth. It did not know where he was… but it knew something was here.

Jaracol? Now is the time I need you.

Continue sneaking, explode forward, or run?

What do I do?

There were no answers forthcoming. The wall that the pill had built was absolute. The arm was moving like a giant antenna and was probably being used for the same purpose. Sensing the surroundings. It could sense him if he got any closer, Adrian knew that in his core. Even if perception was its weakest attribute, it would still be high enough to see him.

Adrian forced himself to stop creeping forward. That way was death. The only thing to consider was whether to spring forward or to run already.

The mage was doing something and if it was a global threat, then he had to buy time for the system to respond. Maybe the sixth aid, whatever it was could stop extinction level events or just the system itself. Yet it would do nothing if it did not know. Adrian was convinced that it was a portal glow he was seeing and if it was a world ender once it came through there was nothing the system would be able to do. Instead, it had to be stopped now before the portal let it through. Had he seen enough?

No.

Yes.

No.

There was no way for him to know, but Adrian knew something terrible was happening. He just couldn’t tell if he had seen what the system needed.

Emily is so going to smack my head for this.

He was committed. He should already be dead, but for Jaracol’s sacrifice. If the interface could do that for him, then he could do this for the world. The real question was how to go about it.

He would need battle wraith form.

He would need Ambusher’s Armour.

He would need to go in and then out straight to the teleporter.

Adrian remembered the information the badge had shared with him. That gem and how the system would pick up so much more than he could. He only needed a glimpse of what was there, and then he could run. There was no requirement to pause to get a positive identification.

Decision made he studied the route.

Currently, he was going around the outer curve, but that was wasteful. He would go on the inside. It might only reduce the metres he needed to travel slightly but… He would chain the steps till he saw the portal or whatever else was there and then run.

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