Feeling like he was inside a giant anthill, Mason moved with the small group slowly through the caves. The main passage almost immediately sloped down once they entered the darkness, then curved around itself and branched almost uncountably. Leornal, the ace archer of the roving band, paced behind, while Sentir took the lead, apparently very skilled at detection.

Between them, Torysen took a secondary lead, and Shay and Mason walked side by side, bolstered by the defensive formation. Tory seemed to grow increasingly uncomfortable the further they went without any sign of anything but slick, damp stone walls and maze-like passageways. Nothing seemed to live here, and the whole cavern was devoid of mana, which meant the Darkest Night’s vision was reduced to only the range they were willing to spread their own mana.

“The Trials would not have brought this place here if it were devoid of life. Something is here, waiting,” Sentir said quietly, directing his mana down another side passage as they passed.

“Well that just means we’re walking deep into a trap. It’s fine, really,” Mason joked nervously, eyes darting about at every sound of distant dripping or shuffling from his partners.

Though the hill on the surface was not impressively large, and only constituted a mild detour, the cave system underground was massive. The fact that it was so large made its emptiness more suspicious, and unlike the Biord’s underground city with its hewn walls and decorative tiling, these caves seemed to be natural limestone caves, carved over time by water and the elements.

“What was that?” Shayjol asked, and the entire party silenced.

After several moments of the only motion or sound being Sentir casting about with Mana Sight, they all finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Fuck this world, fuck these Trials. Can we go back to Marra now?” Leornal complained.

“Weren’t you an accountant back on Marra, you old fool? At least here you’re worth something with that bow of yours,” Sentir pointed out.

“When everything wants to kill you, ought to learn how to kill it back, right? Wait, fuck!” Leornal notched an arrow and loosed it before anyone had even turned to see where he aimed.

With a small squelching noise, the arrow lodged itself into a small bundle of white flesh, and Sentir immediately moved to take a closer look, with the rest of the group clustering close behind.

“What the hell, Leornal?” Torysen asked as they all looked at what he had hit. It was a small twisted thing, with oily looking, translucent white skin. Its face was scrunched and buglike, but boasted a tremendous set of teeth, and the claws on both its front and back… hands?... glinted dangerously in the mana light.

Sentir cast mana directly upon the strange creature and grimaced, “That is right unnatural.”

“Disgusting,” Tory added. “Right, let’s turn back now. I’ve never seen mana move through anything like that, and I’m worried to find out how many more of those there are.”

“Um, guys,” Mason started, looking back down the path they had come. Suddenly crawling along all the walls were little spots of twisted white, and there were enough of them to merit a serious threat.

“To me,” Tory said, and the group recentered around her, weapons drawn.

“This way,” Sentir motioned down a side passage, indistinct to Mason’s eyes from any other.

Sentir and Tory exchanged a few warnings between the two of them, and then Tory spoke backwards, “We need to move quickly and avoid engaging. There may be a few hundred of these things, and I’m not sure our small group can take them on at once. I should have had us bring more people once we saw the many side passages.”

“Understood,” Shayjol said.

“We’re fucked,” Leornal added. He maintained a tight grip on his bow, and seemed to be resisting very hard the urge to fire at will at the white things that continued to appear around each corner and behind them.

The fact that they hadn’t attacked yet was unsettling, but the rapid increase in their numbers, when they had been all but undetectable moments before, was horrifying.

The gremlins were crawling closer now, examining, probing the group, even as they moved along the corridors. And though Sentir moved deftly, as if he knew how to take this path back toward the start of the cave, Mason was unsure. Each passage looked identical, and even a prolific mana sight would not be able to distinguish them enough to perfectly navigate an unexplored system of looping, rising, falling, and interconnected passageways.

The group increased their pace, hoping to find a point where these strange creatures wouldn’t crawl seemingly out of the walls themselves, but their numbers only rose higher and higher until finally they heard a hiss, and Shayjol shouted, “Fuck!” as he swung his axe at a gremlin that had launched itself from the roof of the cave right at him.

His attack was strong, and the being was cleaved almost in two, falling to the ground twitching.

Then hell broke loose.

Tory slammed her foot on the ground in a similar way as Geralt had and a crevasse opened up, and from it she pulled stone tendrils which lashed at and wrapped around several of the gremlins that were sprinting up from the sides. Leornal turned behind the group and with a burst of mana launched an arrow that split into twenty shards, each of them lodging into a different gremlin and at least half of them causing a fatality.

Sentir swept his hands forward and a force pressed all the gremlins at the front to the ground, then Tory shouted to follow and, drawing her great, magic blade, she used a move similar to the bounding strike she had trounced Mason with to crush through the pack in the front. Small bodies flew everywhere and the rest of the group rushed to keep up with her, stepping over half mangled creatures and striking out at any that lunged.

Mason had killed three of them with his sword and Focus, but even with the powerful spells of their three guardians, there were simply too many gremlins to keep off effectively. Somehow, one latched onto his arm, digging its nails into the leather jerkin he wore and chomping heavily at it at the same time. Shay smashed it off with his axe and then punted the body away.

Startled, Mason felt himself lose Focus, and he was blinded by the natural darkness of the cave and his poor usage of mana sight. He swore and tried his best to reactivate it even as he moved in the direction he thought the group would be moving.

When his vision returned, they were a ways off, and the gremlins were swarming between them. He considered mana blade but feared that if he used that, he wouldn’t have the mana or stamina to maintain his vision. So he stabbed hard at the creatures and tried to watch his back, his sides, and the ceiling as he moved slowly toward his group.

Leornal saw Mason struggling in the back, and swore again. Using another scattershot, he cleared a path to Mason then swapped out for the long thin rapier that he so rarely used. Its quick thrusts and sharp, piercing tip made quick work of a great many of the gremlins, and in no time he was back to back with Mason as they exerted their strength to hold their ground.

Mason was forced to put away his sword and drew his staff instead. Though its swipes were often non-fatal, it had good reach and was still more than capable of batting the creatures away. Most effectively though, Mason invoked Stamina drain, filling him and Leornal with strength as the fight wore on longer and longer.

The creatures crawling over the floors and walls were not quite as dense as at their peak, but it was clear there were still a great many of them to come, so the two began inching their way down the passageway, hoping to reconnect with the rest of the group before it was too late. Their hopes were dashed minutes later when they saw the path branch three ways, and though there were corpses strewn about that showed the group had gone this way, the masses of gremlins rushing about, lunging, biting, and scratching did not leave enough time for the two to settle on a route.

Finally, Leornal shouted, “Demon, that way!” And, channeling a powerful spell, unleashed a flood of water which rushed down one of the sloping passages and sent gremlin bodies tumbling down its slopes. The path was soaked, but clear enough, so the two sprinted down it desperate for a reprieve.

As they ran, Mason triggered mana sight to improve his awareness, and shortly down the passageway saw something that gave him great hope. There was a stone passage very much like the entrance to the Biord’s caves, and he could just barely make out faint lines of mana running through it. Willing to take the gamble, Mason emptied his whole pool of mana, and watched the door glow under his mana sight before a mechanism turned and the door slid open.

Leornal shouted with glee and they passed through, only for the door to shut rapidly behind them. Beyond the door they were hardly free of gremlins, with five more immediately launching themselves at the pair, but with only a few additional bite wounds and scratches to show for it, the two quickly ended each of their lives.

Mason collapsed back against the door and thanked his staff for all of its many abilities. He looked up to Leornal who rested heavily on his knees, panting and wheezing, and thanked him as well. “I would be dead if not for you, Leornal. You are a truly incredible fighter.”

Leornal looked as if he wanted to complain, but sighed and sunk down against the wall as well. “You did fairly well yourself, and to find this passageway- well, good job.”

Mason shook his head, “No, I think once again, as always, the Staff of Mardun is what made that happen. Geralt had it keyed to all the seals on the Biord city, and I think we’ve stumbled upon one of them.”

Leornal looked sharply at him, “You think we’re back at the Biord’s city? That was quite the march back. I don’t believe we’ve gone nearly that far. And I don’t remember the Biord being quite this disgusting, though possibly as dumb.”

Mason grinned at that, “No, we were only in the castle complex. As I understand it, the city is pretty expansive. It’s possible it runs all this way. As for these nasty things… well, the Biord did say they were under attack by monsters.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “I know there’s not much I could have done differently, but I don’t much like the thought that their whole city might be swarming with these things because of me.”

“I don’t quite understand what mental leaps you’re making to blame yourself for the shit that happens in these Trials, but get over it. This whole world sucks, and everything wants to kill us. I don’t really see a lot of time for pity parties.”

“Would you believe that helps, a little?” Mason asked.

“I frankly don’t give a shit,” was Leornal’s reply.