The world is a pocket of darkness stabbed by paltry rays of light. Seren frantically points front, back and at one side in silence and they brace themselves. The seconds go by agonizingly slowly. Adrenaline scours her veins and the beat of her heart rings in her ears like in a cathedral. They are coming, they are coming they are coming they are coming… Now.

Something clanks against Barrett’s shield and behind her, Nathan’s gun roars, then the wall in front of her collapses and a thing rushes at her with a strident screech. Seren sees the pale glob of a cranium, yellowed talons and too many teeth to count. It’s coming for her face. Panic freezes her spirit and breaks her connection with the paths. The colors mix and match in a psychedelic pattern that makes no sense and as her lower brain takes over, she lashes out.

A kick with her armored boot smashes into the thing’s chest while its weapon, a makeshift spear, scraps against her chest. An instant later another shape extricates itself from the side wall and the first thing bounces back. Seren remembers the eater’s claw on her arm and its fetid breath. No, please, not again.

Never again.

Seren screams in fury and swipes with her blade held in to hands, putting her fear, her hips and her will to live into the strike. A clang of metal later, the thing’s weapon is sent flying but there are still the talons and the teeth. And just a tiny problem.

She dropped the lamp.

In a last ditch effort, her frenetic mind reconnects with enough paths to show her a way and she dives forward, putting all her weight into it. The true steel sword punches into something that hisses and Seren keeps pushing until she’s sure the blade is digging into packed earth.

Something tingles at the edge of her consciousness, embedded here by two months of constant practice. Ah yes, there is another. She refocuses on survival and immediately rolls left, leaving the stuck blade where it pierced her target. She can’t see. She can’t see where her enemy is. She closes her eyes and relies on the paths, just like she had when defeating Nathan’s misdirection. Instinct makes her raise her arms in defense. Something smashes against the reinforced leather and something else draws a fiery line on her cheek. She grunts in pain. She falls backward. Something heavy lands on her torso. With one hand she grips the things wrist. The other hand flays, but she only grasps air.

A flash of light and the red line of Nathan’s monstrous spear slashes obscurity to reveal the same white skull, the teeth and two red eyes flashing with a mad anger. It is enough.

The other hand forms a fist and she punches, and punches, and punches again. There is no technique, only animalistic anger. The bone gives, the creature no longer moves and still, she doesn’t stop.

Seren comes to when her paths scream she is three seconds away from dying.

“Red!”

Seren’s fearful voice is followed by frantic signs. They will come from three directions. As planned, Nathan will cover their back.

Nathan places the Makka in a harness and takes out his gun. This is no longer a brand new Sig. This is a firearm he has fired, cleaned and disassembled countless times. Engravings twirl and dance along the handle and the cannon and although it may not down a Varog on its own, by fuck will it hurt plenty.

Nathan aims the gun at the tunnel, fit firmly planted into the ground. A second later he sees movement.

A pallid humanoid creature with some sort of apron jumps up from a prone position and is just about to hurl a spear when the first bullet catches center mass. The tiny red circle is joined by two others and the thing falls down. Nathan doesn’t see it, he has already switched targets. The small monsters rush forward.

There are definitely more than seven.

Nathan manages to down another, wound a third and shoot a last one in the head before the creatures reach him, in one movement he brings out the spear and swipes horizontally, knocking a club away and slitting the throat of an unlucky thing. It falls with a gurgle.

The Makka starts glowing like ember and the monster just keep coming so Nathan just keeps stabbing, using his superior reach and the Makka’s incredible edge to get in and out. He lets a poorly aimed spear bounce on his shoulder and one of the creatures aiming for his unprotected flank finds itself stabbing at the air.

In only a few seconds, there are five corpses in a circle around him and his enemies step back warily. A grunt of pain from Seren makes him turn around and smack the thing off her, giving her the opening she needs. When he turns around the remaining creatures are in full retreat.

That’s right .

“They’re falling back!”

Garrett doesn’t even sound out of breath as he reloads his gun with practiced ease.

They eye their surrounding warily.

“What’s that rumbling sound?”

It turns out that the tunnels are not, in fact, dug by hand.

“Everyone through the wall, now!”

Seren crawls in first, soon followed by Nathan and finally Barrett who seals the entrance with his shield, and not an instant too soon.

The ground shakes as something massive speeds by. Nathan can only see the flash of obsidian colored shell and far too many legs for comfort. After only a few seconds, the rumbling stops and silence reasserts itself.

“Alright I think it’s gone.”

“Now I see why there are so many side tunnels.”

“Hum guys could you get out if it’s gone? Please?”

They leave the enclosed space to find that the creatures are gone, but so are their corpses and incidentally, Seren’s light. The floor is clean and smooth besides foot prints, as if the strange creature passing by had picked up everything.

“What happens if we meet it again?”

“We run to the closest side passage. I’ll keep them in mind as we move on.” Says Barrett.

“Even if we can kill it somehow, the corpse would still crash into us with that speed. That means if there is no opening we’re screwed.”

“Not if I focus only on survival, that should get us enough time.”

Barrett nods.

“Let’s take ten, drink and eat something and then move out. Seren let me clean that gash on your cheek.”

They all settle down to recover. Nathan wonders if he should ask Seren if she’s ok. He didn’t know she was claustrophobic.

“I just hate caves.”

“Was I that obvious?”

“It’s pretty obvious that you would be worried. I mean, I endangered us all. I just didn’t think it would be that bad. I’m sorry.”

“You’re doing fine.”

They both turn towards Barrett.

“You’re doing fine, kids. Trust me.”

“But I panicked…”

“Let me tell you a story. When I trained to jump with a chute, we had this guy in the squad who was afraid of heights. Harris was his name, I remember. Well, here stands Harris at the top of s platform, ready to jump into a cushion six meters below while shivering like a leaf. The instructor did not egg him. He just stood there and told him: Harris, I don’t give a shit if you piss yourself while you jump, I just care that you do. Now you will do a speech and when I say jump, you jump. My man Harris was confused, “a speech?” , he asked. The instructor just stood there and told him to make it a good one. It could recite a fairy tale if he wanted, he just had to talk. ”

As Barrett gets into his tale, he starts smiling. His pale blue eyes shine in the limited light.

“So my guy Harris starts screaming Lincoln’s famous speech, ya know, the four score and seven years one. He starts getting into it and when the instructor gives the signal, down he goes. From that point on he would do that every time he jumps, getting louder the closer he got to the edge. You should have seen the officer’s face during our final assessment. The whole squad was yelling with him by that point.

Anyway what I’m trying to say is that all that matters is that you’re here and you covered us. Nobody cares that you were scared shitless doing it. We can’t ask for more than you already did.”

Nathan nods in assent.

“Huh. Thanks. I’m not going to start singing but I see what you mean. I think I’m better now.”

“Alright. Shall we?”

They resume their walk. Nathan does his best to keep his ears peeled even though Seren will detect any incoming weird burrower first. He just can’t help it.

They walk for a good twenty minutes and come across a few other circular rooms, mostly empty but for traces of rudimentary camping. Nathan makes sure to mark their entry tunnel and he makes an effort to memorize which one they come from, just in case. Eventually the tunnels start getting bigger, with more regular support beams until at the bend of a curve, they see light.

A strange luminescence paints the walls blue as the mouth of the tunnel leads to a cavern. The sight is absolutely breathtaking.

An area the size of a plane hangar ends with a rectangular opening into a circular shaft so immense they can barely see the opposite side. Mushroom-like growths emit the colorful light they have seen, pushing back the darkness and letting them see that the shaft is dotted with black openings. Even from where they are, they can see that it goes up for at least a kilometer, possibly much more and there is no hint of the sun. Nathan’s mind reels with the realization that they would have to be deep inside the earth for this to make sense, yet the tunnel they followed was mostly horizontal. That can only mean one thing.

“What… How?”

Nathan turns to a flabbergasted Garrett.

“We’re not in fucking Kansas anymore, Toto.”

Although the site itself is fascinating they have a more immediate concern. Seren is pointing at the primitive village nestled in the warehouse sized opening and more precisely, to a gathering of their humanoid creatures smack down in its middle. A relatively tall figure extricates itself from the swarm and walks towards them with confidence. It is the only monster wearing robes and on its head sits a painted cow skull decorated with some sort of pigments and in its hand, a staff glowing an ominous purple.

“Looks like we found the shaman.”

“Should we not engage?”

“No, something is happening and I would prefer not to face the whole village.”

Nathan steps out of the entrance and stares the incoming party down, hands on the Makka and pistol holstered. Seren and Garrett take position around him, ready to leg it to the tunnel’s safety at the first hint of foul play.

Nathan can feel it. Just like his first encounter with the Stalker or Gwahin’s rebirth, now is a moment that will change the course of his story one way or another. This a momentous occasion, a confluence of danger and opportunity. The weave flutters and vibrates in anticipation. A suggestion caresses his mind, a question that can lead to glory as easily as it leads to death.

Are you game?

The answer is clear in his mind.

Fucking bring it.

No amount of tactics and precision will let a mass produced gun kill a fully magical entity. For now, humans are like natives invaded by a superior nation and, Nathan thinks, we all know how it ends. The invaders get land and resources, the natives get the shaft.

This will not stand.

Nathan and the others will be pioneers at the head of a new generation of hunters and this planet will remain theirs. So yes, he will master the rules, he will play, and he will win.

The shaman stops a few meters in front of him and the rest of the tribe’s warriors form a half circle. There must be around twenty warriors or hunters and some of them still bear the stigmata of their first encounter with the group. They eye the humans warily. The other half circle is made up of Seren and Garrett with their hands on their weapon. They stand relaxed without a care in the world, their posture a statement of supreme confidence.

The shaman gesticulates and heckles the crowd with high pitched exhortations. That’s fine. Nathan waits until he’s done and turns to them with a rictus of triumph.

Nathan slowly raises his finger and the tribe’s eyes follow it to the improvised cow pen at the edge of the village.

Then his spear is aimed at the shaman.

We came for the cow, thieves.

Give them back, or else.

The shaman spits a few words and moves forward.

Seren whispers.

“Nathan…”

“Shhh, I know, I can feel it.”

Nathan walks a few steps.

Still he shaman is grinning until, with sudden speed, he brings the staff forward. A ray of purple blasts from it, goes through Nathan and smashes the wall behind it.

Then reality shimmers and Nathan appears a step away, his empty arm thrust forward.

The shaman looks incredulously at the spear jutting from his chest. He falls down without a noise.

Nathan casually walks forward and grabs the Makka. Its engravings shine with the crimson of freshly spilled blood.

“Anyone else? No?

...

...

That’s what I thought”

The crowd parts before them in silence as the trio walks to the pen. Behind them, a light scuffle signals the start of the fight for leadership.

A dozen pair of bovine eyes focuses of them.

“Hum now what.”