Something was thrown from the bushes, a cylindrical object that gleamed in the fading orange. It felt like it moved in slow motion as it tumbled through the air and landed with a tiny thud. For a moment everything laid silent, save for the crackling embers in the firepit.

A hissing sound sliced through the silence from where the object laid, and then it became a sharp whistle. A cloud of orange dust followed the sound and within a few seconds it engulfed us. The cloud made us cough and fight to get actual air into our lungs. We were covered in the dust and it burned at my eyes and choked my throat.

‘Dark Rain,’ I thought and glanced over to the silhouette of Brandi, who took up position for the spell. The patter of water on the hard ground echoed out. It became a downpour, and it beat the dust down until we could make out the trees again. The dust felt like mud on my skin and I wiped at it as I looked to both girls. They looked in the same shape as me, which gave me a great sense of relief as I turned my attention to the source of the dust.

Brandi continued to cough and spat out a wad of orange to the ground before turning to me. “What the hell was that?”

“It’s spice,” Amber said, and sniffed back. She gingerly wiped at her watering eyes with the side of her fingers. “This is really bad.”

“How so?” I asked as I continued to search the trees for new movement. Amber went to the canister that laid in the weeds and picked it up. She then looked to the rock ceiling, and I followed her gaze. There were dark clouds that created the rain that fell around us, but outside of that rain was a thick cloud of orange that the wind had picked up.

“The spice draws creatures,” Amber said. She lifted the canister and stared at it, her face growing more grim. “In this dust form, it’ll draw just about anything.”

“Is that all?” Brandi asked and stood beside Amber. “Something’s got your back up.”

Amber looked her over and then turned to me. “I’ve seen these canisters before.”

“That’s doesn’t make me feel good,” I said. “Where are they from?”

“They’re used to transport the spice, but these have been modified to expel it.” She tapped a little piece of glass on the side where a spark of magic danced. “These aren’t easy to find here in the abyss. These were brought down from the surface.”

“You think the other parties got hit with these too?” Brandi asked. “Maybe that’s what caused all the others to unleash their magic.”

Amber nodded. I felt my stomach drop as I stared through the haze at the faint flashes of magic. This was an attack on the mages and witches. The beasts that were coming weren’t just being drawn by the harvest. Someone had set this up.

“You mentioned your sister didn’t like us being here,” I said and tried to keep my voice even. Amber seemed to have already considered the idea. There was no surprise in her face when our eyes met. “That she was part of some group, right? You think they had anything to do with this?”

Amber cocked her jaw and tossed the canister between her hands. She thought for a long moment, her shoulders up and body tense. She then sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Yes, it’s a real possibility. The group she’s a part of… they use to be nothing of concern, a nuisance, but for the past few months they’ve grown to be something more. They’ve gained some patrons… they could have purchased these things. It’s not a bad plan, show that the spice is too dangerous to harvest and that we can’t protect them. It’d turn the Wilkit against making it. It’s mostly consumed by those from the surface, so it’s not that hard of a sell.”

“Well, good thing we doused it before—” Brandi broke off and we all turned to the new sound from the forest. The trees cracked and snapped, the sound making its way closer. Leaves were shaking free as something very large and quick came barreling through.

The maw of the creature broke through the brush, wide and full of sharp, angled teeth. I dodged to the right, and the girls went right. The enormous mouth closed on nothing but air, but only by inches. I rolled with the fall and righted myself to be kneeling a few feet from the creature.

Hilgar.

A creature from the lower abyss. It's favorite thing to hunt are humanoid creatures, which among the levels it lives on are vampires or dark elves. They have been hunted close to extinction twice, but somehow always survive and flourish, becoming stronger with each new generation. Being of the electrical alignment, its attacks are usually overpoweringly quick with strong defensive skills.

The hilgar stood twice my size on stumpy legs and was at least three times that in length. The creature was made up of white, scaley skin with red and blue markings near its eyes and along its chest. White, thick fur rippled along its back like the mane of a horse. The multiple golden eyes inset on the side of its massive head rolled until they locked on me. A low, guttural growl came from the creature as it whipped around and charged me.

The ground was slick from the rain, but I still found enough traction to launch myself out of the way as it came rumbling toward me. It turned slowly, but its tail was anything but. I met that tail as I tried to scurry around to get to the girls. It felt like it had hit me with a log and it sent me flying. I landed a few feet from the treeline, gasping and fighting for air. I worried that the impact had broken something, but as I sat up all I felt was a dull ache. I stayed there for a few seconds, waiting for the creature to come finish me, instead it gave a pained roar.

‘Get up,’ Amber called through the mental link. I looked up to see the creature struggling in the muck left over by the rain. At first, I thought it had just gotten stuck, but then I noticed the ink-like hands that were grasping at the creature’s stubby legs and pulling it into the dark water.

Amber made her way over and slid in the water, falling to her side. She pushed herself up and grabbed my arms, pulling me to my feet. “Come on, we gotta get you out of the way. Brandi can hold it for a few more seconds, but beyond that… I don’t know.”

“We’re not leaving her,” I choked out as she wrapped a muscular arm around my waist and pulled me along.

'I’m fine, Aidan. Are you okay?' Brandi asked through the link, a hint of worry in her voice.

“We’re not leaving her, but this thing is smart enough to know you’re the best thing to target. Now, let’s go.” She shoved me forward, and I stumbled into the brush, just barely staying on my feet.

Amber turned back to the creature. Beyond her, I could see Brandi struggling to hold the slowed creature in the grasp of the dark water.

‘We need to keep this thing from hurting anyone,' I said through the link as I racked my brain for some kind of idea.

‘I can’t — can’t hold it much longer,' Brandi yelled through the link.

‘Amber, distract it with your mirror clones,’ I said and looked over my own skills. Amber nodded and three copies of her appeared from the air, as if stepping out of some hidden doorway. They looked at each other and then took off toward the Hilgar. They each took a side and then, as one, they attacked. Their fists slammed into the creature, each one creating a depression in the white skin. The creature roared, and in a movement that seemed too quick, it snatched a clone from its side and bit down. The clone disappeared in streams of smoke from its mouth.

‘Careful, just because it can’t walk fast doesn’t mean everything about it has been slowed,’ I said.

‘Damn thing just can’t give us a break,’ Amber said and I watched her use another of her normal spells, this one broke through the leather-like skin and a spray of blood came from the gash. The creature struggled around for her, but Amber danced to its backside, her clones doing the same and staying just out of reach.

I looked away from her to see a heat haze coming off of the creature. It had taken six or more punches from Amber and the grasping hands continued to claw at its legs, so it didn't surprise to see it using one of its own spells. Why it waited so long to do so was what concerned me.

‘Get back,’ I called, but neither woman listened. They were too focused on doing damage. The heat haze grew with each hit it took. ‘Gods damn it all, will you listen? Stop hitting it and get away from it. Now.’

‘Stop shouting. Just shut up and let me kill this damnable thing,’ Amber said in an angry tone. Her blood was up and it would take something major to get through to her.

‘Stop.’ It was like someone had flicked a switch. Both of them stopped what they were doing, frozen in their last motion. It lasted for only a fraction of a second before they regained their movement and dodged back from the creature. I didn’t have time to consider what had happened as once Brandi’s grasping hands left, the creature unleashed its counter attack.

Ice formed around the Hilgar, a shell of spikes that were as tall as some of the surrounding trees. The very air crackled, as the creature drew the water from it and into the shell until it fully formed around it.

“Neat trick,” Brandi said as she slid to a stop beside me, breathing hard. “Could have got us killed, though.”

“What?”

“She’s talking about making us stop,” Amber said and looked to the creature, her jaw cocked to the side again. “Use that again and I might turn some of my punches toward you.”

“It saved you,” I said in a monotone as I focused on what the Hilgar was doing. “You’d have been skewered by one of those ice spears if you kept going.”

“Yeah…” Amber said. The ice shell crackled ominously. “This can’t be good.”

“Shield spell?” I asked Brandi who straightened.

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’ll stop whatever it’s got planned.”

“Gotta use what we have,” I said and glanced behind us. “There is an outcropping of rock back there. Follow me and use your bubble spell as soon as we’re down.”

“You think it’s gonna explode?” Amber asked as she fell in behind me. The crackling of ice grew louder.

“Pretty sure that’s its plan, and I bet all the damage it took will be returned to us.”

“Well, that’s just unfair,” Amber spat.

We reached the outcropping of rocks. I stopped before the drop and motioned for the girls to get in first. I helped Brandi down and then Amber. I dropped a moment later and just as Brandi got the shield up. It sounded like everything around us shattered. The noise was like a rock through glass, but far louder, and it made my ears ring. When I looked up to both girls, they dropped their hands from their ears and blood dribbled down from Brandi’s and onto her neck.

‘I can’t hear a fucking thing,’ Brandi said through the mental link as she opened and closed her mouth as if trying to get her ears to pop. I pointed to the side of my face where I could feel the blood trickling from my own ears.

‘Don’t know if we’re ever gonna be able to hear again,’ Amber said as her ears flattened on top of her head. It was strange to watch ice and rock smash into the ground without a sound.

‘Worth trying a healing spell on it,’ I said and selected a spell from my bar. A golden light came from my hands and grew to engulf all of us. Sound came rushing back in a painful amount. I squinted and then slowly opened my eyes and looked around. It took a moment to register what I saw above me. A ceiling of ice had capped over the outcropping, following the curve of Brandi’s bubble shield.

“That was insane,” I said. “You think it’s still out there?”

“Only one way to know,” Amber said as she climbed up and pushed against the shell of ice. “I can break through this. The question is, do we want to?”

“We can’t leave that thing out there,” Brandi said. She was wiping blood from her neck and streaking it across her skin. “But I don’t know what we can really do about it. If all our hits made it that powerful,” she pointed toward the ice, ‘then I don’t think we should hit it anymore unless we’re sure we can kill it.”

“Agreed,” I said and motioned for Amber to come back down. “We need a plan.”

“I’m open to anything.” Amber sat down on a flat stone and picked at her nails. “But I don’t know a damn thing about this creature. The fifth never ran into anything like this before.”

“It’s from the lower floors,” I said. “So it doesn’t surprise me that no one here has faced one. You think there may be more than just this one on this level?”

Amber shook her head, her head dropping. “I don’t know. None of this makes any sense. If this was my sister’s doing… they wouldn’t have been able to get something like this here. It’s too powerful and hilgar will kill anything it thinks it can eat.”

“Someone did,” Brandi said. She stared at something that I couldn’t see and then cursed under her breath. “I only have two seeded magics left.”

“Same,” Amber said.

“I don’t think we have time to seed it right now,” I said, and both girls looked at me, eyes narrowed. “Right?”

“Duh,” Brandi said. “But that doesn’t change what we have, and we need to plan around that. I still have Mimic and Living Link.”

“I have Blood for Blood and Keep Coven left.”

“Shouldn’t have used that whirlwind on those stupid creatures,” Brandi said.

“Oh, Sorry! I should have realized we’d be dealing with a creature that has never once set foot on this level. Silly me.”

“It doesn’t matter, you wasted it when we could have used it here.”

Amber crossed her arms, which was a blessing as she looked like she wanted to hit Brandi. “You know, I like you better when your mouth is busy on something other than talking.”

“Same to you.”

“Okay… let’s just take it down a notch,” I said and held out my hands. “You two want to argue, then you can do it later when we’re not about to be killed.”

There came a sound of ice snapping and we all became still. Something was moving above us.

‘Let’s talk this way,’ I said, using the link connection again. ‘We need to think this through. We got a nasty, far too powerful creature out there looking for us. Only a couple seeded magics that are mostly utility ones and no time to reseed the magic we’ve used. That about sums it all up.’

‘Sadly,’ Amber said, and Brandi nodded.

‘Okay, then we’re not completely screwed. I think we can make this work by doing the same thing that creature did.’

‘Uh-oh,’ Brandi said.

‘Why uh-oh?’ Amber asked, and I sent a glare to Brandi who just smiled at me.

‘It’s another of Aidan’s famous plans that usually succeed somehow, despite his best efforts to come up with dumb and insane ideas.’

‘Oh? This should be interesting then.’

I clenched my teeth in annoyance. ‘If you have plans of your own, I’m all ears.’

‘No, no, I wanna hear this,’ Amber said.

I sighed. ‘It’s not really a full plan, but with Mimic we can use the same skill that thing just did. With Coven and Blood for Blood, you both will get a damage buff.’

‘If we both take damage,’ Brandi said. ‘And while I don’t much like the idea, it’s almost impossible to take damage in an ice shell like that. That is, unless you’re gonna beat me up while you’re in there with me.’

‘I won’t be doing that and even if I did, I don’t think the return would be enough.’

‘Then how?’ Amber asked. I couldn’t help the concern that flowed through me as I looked at her. She picked it up in an instant and dropped her eyes. ‘Oh.’

‘If we use all four seed magics, then you’ll both take damage, gain the buff and benefit from any heals I do. Which means that Brandi’s spell will gain power through you.’

‘Wait, you want her to get herself hurt and have that transfer to me, too?’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t want to, but it’s the best option.’

Brandi’s frown deepened, but Amber looked up and shrugged while grinning at me. ‘I can hit it as much as I want, right? I’m in. What are you going to be doing?’

‘Like I said, healing you as much as I can. The damage and healing will transfer between the two of you and the buff counts received damage, not current. With the spells I have, I should be able to keep you two topped up.’

Brandi shook her head at both of us. ‘And what will you do when I’m ready to unleash the attack? I doubt I’ll be able to direct it in any proper way.’

‘We’ll dive back down here? That’s the best I got.’

‘Yeah, this is gonna work out well,’ Brandi said and rolled her eyes. ‘Okay Amber, go annoy it. I’ll start the spell as soon as it’s on you.’

Amber nodded and scrambled up and punched a hole through the ice. I followed her out, sending a prayer to any god that may have been listening.