~‌‌ ‌‌2.25 ‌‌-‌‌ A Cat Afraid of Heights ~‌‌

Cavern Underground

4th Lifeday of the Full Moon

“Let’s go, Bob! We need to help them.”

Bob shook his head no.

“What’s the issue?”

“I got scared looking down. It was like my vision reversed zoomed, and the floor got farther away.”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me. An AI playing as a cat is afraid of heights. How? How is that possible?”

Flea walked over to Bob and turned around.

“Hold onto my back and close your eyes.”

Bob climbed up and wrapped his arms around Flea’s neck, his legs locking around his waist. The Gnome walked back over to the edge and grabbed the rope. Pulling it first to make sure the hook was secure, Flea began climbing down the rope. In less than a minute, the duo were on the ground and sprinting towards the Dwarfs.

As they drew closer, Flea recognized them as some of the miners from the prison camp. Jumping onto the back of the nearest Desmox, Flea stabbed into its weak point. As the pink centipede fell to the moss-covered ground, the Gnome jumped towards his next target. From afar, Bob started drilling arrows into each of the small ones.

“Where the hell did you two come from?!” one of the Dwarfs yelled out.

“Here to find their nest,” said Flea.

“That way!” pointed two of the Dwarfs.

“The cave-in was right above their nest. We were able to run out of the tunnel after falling. The others weren’t so lucky.”

“How many of these were in the nest?” asked Flea as he finished off the last Desmox.

“I didn’t see many, but the ones there were two to three times the size of these. There was also a huge bastard, easily three times as large as the big ones. The cave-in flattened a large portion of their brood’s eggs and pinned the huge one who was in the process of protecting them. These dead bastards were the last ones to come looking for us. We haven’t seen any more since we left their nest.”

“Alright, we’re going to try and kill the rest. Did you see any type of portal in the nest on your way out?”

“Nay, a portal to one of the moons would be something hard to miss.”

“Can we get out the way you came?” asked one of the Dwarfs.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to fit,” said Bob.

“Bah, if you survive, please come back for us. We’re going to explore down here. It’s been phases since I’ve seen anything like this. Might find something worth a bit of coin and buy our contracts out.”

“Good luck to you guys then. We’ll come back for you if we can.”

The Dwarfs left Bob and Flea to explore the mushroom forest. Flea removed the six Clouded Cores from the corpses, leaving the other harvesting work for later. Weapons drawn, the duo headed toward the large tunnel the Dwarfs had pointed out to them.

After entering the tunnel and walking for a few minutes, Flea could hear the soft machine gun sounds coming from farther ahead.

“Let me go take a peek. Stay back here ready to fire at anything coming after me.”

Flea called on his [Shadow Meld] skill. Instantly the world around him came alight with soft greys. He could now see clearly in both directions of the tunnel. Around Bob, a bright purple outline showed the reach of the magic lamp on his belt.

The Gnome slowly made his way deeper into the cave, getting ever so closer to the sounds of the machine gun tapping that signaled the Desmox walking around. Concentrating on the sounds ahead, Flea accidentally kicked a small pebble. The sound of it skipping down the cave caused his heart to freeze in terror. Before the stone had even come to a halt, the clinks down the tunnel ceased, signaling they too heard the noise. Moving to the side of the cave, Flea flattened himself to the wall as he held his breath and waited.

Staring down the tunnel, afraid to even blink, the Gnome held entirely still for what seemed like ages but was probably just over a minute. Figuring if they were going to investigate the Desmox would have come by now, Flea let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. Slowly, the Gnome again made his way towards the nest, this time careful of any stones in his path. Ahead, the tunnel turned to an almost forty-five-degree angle to the right. Creeping up to the corner, he found a cavern past the turn. Flea could see five of the larger Desmox making their way around the room. The centipedes seem to be digging out one side of the room and piling the stones on the other side in neat piles.

Looking closer towards the end where the mining shaft had collapsed, Flea could see the head of a massive Desmox sticking out from the rubble. One of its pinchers had been broken off, and overall, it looked to be in pretty bad shape. Flea could see a cluster of shiny pinkish eggs on the ground below its head.

I’m betting that’s the queen and the last of her eggs.

Turning around, the Gnome headed back to the waiting cat.

“Ok, there are only five of the larger ones left. If we can pull them one at a time, we should be good. The queen is currently pinned under the rubble. It looks like she tried to save the last of the eggs and paid a heavy price for protecting the few that remain.”

“Let me try and pull with the Soundless Arrows. They won’t be able to alert the others if they can’t make any noise.”

“Great idea.”

The two snuck up to the corner of the tunnel and waited. When one of the large pink bugs was away from the other four, Bob shot it with the Soundless Arrow. The projectile struck into the side of the creature’s oversized head. It reared back as to roar, but no sound followed. The Desmox didn’t seem to notice its cry go unheard and charged towards its target, who was now running back up the tunnel.

As the creature turned the corner, it immediately charged towards Bob. As the cat slowly backed up while firing regular arrows at it, Flea exited his [Shadow Meld] and jumped onto the Desmox’s back. He deftly slammed both of his daggers into the back of its head, repeating the process when he didn’t receive the expected outcome. The third blow proved fatal as it slipped between the segments and hit the nerve feeding the rest of the centipede’s body. With that, the Desmox crashed to the ground.

“Being inside that soundless space is a bit nauseating. All I heard was the blood pumping in my body,” said Flea.

Bob shrugged.

The Gnome and cat repeated the process with the next Desmox, taking it out shortly after the creature left the cavern. On their third pull, things went pear-shaped. As Flea jumped onto the back of the third Desmox, it bucked back and knocked him across the tunnel. By the time the Gnome got back on his feet, the rune on the Soundless Arrow had lost its power and shattered. The Desmox roared, quite loudly, as Bob drilled arrow after arrow into its head.

As the third died from Bob’s barrage, the last two Desmox came around the tunnel’s corner, searching for their distressed comrade. Bob wasted no time picking out the lead creature as his target and then repeatedly putting arrows in its head. The centipede charged forward, its intentions now solely fixated on the cat. The Desmox in the back, having seen Flea first, scrambled towards the Gnome.

As the Desmox came charging in, Flea threw himself to the right, just barely vacating the spot where the creature’s large pinchers came crashing down. Rolling back to his feet, he first jumped onto the middle of its body and then leaped again onto its head, ready to plant his dagger into the sweet spot of the creature. As Flea brought his blade down, the centipede lurched to one side. The movement was enough for his dagger to miss its intended target and hit the middle of the chitin segment, causing the point of the dagger to slide to the right, leaving nothing more than a deep scratch on the plating. Before Flea could try again, the centipede bucked its body with enough force to send the Gnome flying into the air.

Landing safely on his feet, then turning, Flea watched as the large bright pink bug circled so it could come at him again. The Desmox had to make a large turn to do this. It couldn’t move around as efficiently as the smaller ones can. Sparing a glance down the tunnel, Flea could see Bob was still kitting the other monster, the two combatants growing further away with each passing moment.

Flea swung his full attention back to his target just as it finished turning around. With a savage roar, the centipede came barreling towards him. The Gnome turned around and ran towards the cave’s wall. Hearing it right behind him, Flea jumped forward and kicked off the wall, backflipping up and onto the back of the Desmox just as the creature slammed its pinchers into the ground. Raising both daggers, Flea drove them into the sweet spot behind the head and instantly killed it.

Jumping up, Flea immediately ran up the tunnel to find Bob. Moments later, Flea found what could only be explained as the pin cushioned head of the dead Desmox. Several feet away sat Bob on the floor panting.

“You have any idea how hard it is to see without your damn lamp?”

“Then why did you run away from it?”

Bob shrugged between breaths.

“Just out of curiosity, how were you able to kill it if you couldn’t see?”

“[Predator Eye]; I could see a bit of heat on the arrows. So I just kept shooting them in their general area till I heard it fall.”

“That’s using your head. However, it would have probably been easier if you just worked your way back towards our only light source. Speaking of which, we should keep an eye out for a second reliable source of light.”

Not bothering to loot the bodies, the Gnome and cat walked back to the cavern. Peering inside, they could see no other Desmox other than the queen still struggling to free herself. The queen spotted the two immediately upon walking inside and began to thrash and buck harder to remove herself from the rocks.

“How do we want to do this?”

“Let’s just kill her from afar. I should have enough arrows to finish her.”

“Kill the eggs first; we don’t want them hatching. Boss fights always have mechanics like that.”

Bob started drilling his arrows into the eggs located under the queen’s head. Each egg, around the size of the Gnome’s head, would make a ‘crack’ and then a ‘pop’ sound upon impact. Seeing the last of her new brood being destroyed, the queen went absolutely wild. She violently thrashed her body about, clawing at anything within reach. Her roar was so loud; it hurt the adventurers’ ears.

“I think you better switch to shooting her, Bob. At this rate, she might get herself loose.”

Bob began to fire arrow after arrow at the queen’s head. Every one of them just made a “ting” noise and bounced off. After twenty or so arrows were fired, the duo heard a strange ‘ripping’ sound coming from nearby the queen, then it suddenly stopped. Five more arrows and the ‘tearing’ sound came back. This time, it became clear to the pair the sicking sound was of flesh being torn. The head and around ten segments of the queen tore free, crashing heavily to the ground. The queen had torn herself in two just for a chance at getting to the two killers of her brood.

She immediately picked herself up and scrambled towards the two, but the centipede was very unsteady with just half a body. Flea and Bob quickly split apart. Bob was still shooting arrow after arrow while on the move. Flea focused on finding the right moment to join the fight. Annoyed by the peppering of arrows, the queen chose to follow Bob, who was now running along the cavern’s edge, still trying to keep shots on his target.

Flea made his way around to where the queen had been. Seeing a few eggs left, he quickly grabbed them and placed the items inside his bag. With the four remaining eggs secured, Flea also spotted the large pincher that had broken off the queen. The piece was as long as his arm and had incredibly sharp jagged protrusions along one side. A sharp tip rounded off the deadly looking item. He dropped that too into his bag.

Turning back to the fight, he saw the queen had slowly dragged her way towards the now cornered Bob. Taking out one of the eggs back out, he threw it at her back. The egg splattered on her side, the sound causing the queen to jerk around and to the side so she could see what hit her. Seeing the remains of the egg and the Gnome now holding another one in his hands, she roared in anger and darted towards Flea with much of her remaining stamina.

As the queen was closing in, Flea watched Bob smartly run for the cave entrance.

“Catch!” Flea yelled to his companion.

The Gnome tossed the egg high up into the air in the direction of a wide-eyed Bob. The Queen also came to an awkward skidding halt as she watched the flying egg pass her. Then she skittered after it. As soon as her back was to Flea, he chased after her. While smoothly running apace with her, the Gnome jumped onto a smaller rock, then jumped again onto a taller one, before making a final leap onto her back. The queen continued rushing towards the still airborne egg, paying the Gnome no mind.

The centipede’s back was at least two Fleas broad, head to foot. With so much room to maneuver, getting onto his feet turned out to be a lot easier than he would have thought. At this point, the queen was using what strength she had left to drag her body along. Flea slowly made his way to the creature’s head and then took out the broken mandible piece. The Gnome plunged the business end of the broken pincher into the back of her head. It pierced the chitin plate with ease. Flea pulled it out and drove it back into her head a second time.

That attack slowed the queen to almost a crawl. She had left a trail of leaking blood and guts across the floor wherever she had chased the adventurers. Her acidic blood was so strong it slowly ate away at the sizzling stone. Small amounts of smoke began to rise from the affected areas. Removing the pincher piece, Flea pierced her head again, this time hitting her small brain cavity, killing her instantly.

Jumping off the queen, Flea walked over to the panting Bob and dropped down next to him with his back against the wall.

“That was so intense! I understand now why you humans love playing these games,” said Bob.

“This is nothing. Wait till we find a raid. Imagine fighting something ten, or a hundred times the size of her, with up to two-hundred-fifty others. Now, that’s an intense fight.”

“I can’t wait. I thought we were dead as soon as she tore herself free. My arrows couldn’t even penetrate her.”

“Let’s get our loot and go find the Dwarfs. We should be able to climb up there and get back to the surface,” Flea said, pointing up towards the mining shaft above.

The two rested for a while, then tried to harvest the queen. They found, like the arrows, daggers couldn’t penetrate the queen’s tough carapace. Getting an idea, Flea jumped back onto the queen’s back and pulled out the mandible piece. The Gnome used it to cut away the large chitin segments. After several minutes of work, Flea was able to pull out a transparent, glowing core. With his inventory full, he decided to use it right there. He also pulled out the twenty-nine Clouded Cores from earlier, crushing them as well to make room for the queen’s chitin.

Absorbed 1 Luminous Core

+ 82 Energy

Absorbed 29 Clouded Cores

+ 203 Energy

Flea removed the intact pincher with a bit of force, then gave both to Bob along with the intact sack of venom from the queen.

“I hope this venom will work on Esalune,” said Bob.

“We can only hope that Tenzin gets back soon so we can go with plan a.”

“Alright, let’s hurry and find those Dwarfs. I can hear screams coming from the large cavern where we left them.”