The cavern was significant. Roxanna had a thought that it was at least large enough to accommodate the hospital wing she ran. She paused at the thought, it seemed out of place. With a bit of consideration, she drew her mind to a comparison with the Und Varden common room, it was probably twice that size.

They all had some experience fighting this kind of battle from other games, and Ramal’s conclusion that they needed to use hit and run, harrying tactics was unanimous.

“It’ll probably come straight for me,” Dnoeth said, looking at Roxanna. “Don’t you think?”

“That’s a safe assumption.” She replied. “I expect it’ll obsess about you. Possibly to the point of ignoring us. And if so, we need to recognize that and use it to our advantage.”

“That may be so. But we need a plan that will work even if it doesn’t,” Ramal said. “This cavern is good for me. But it’s not ideal for either of you. Getting close enough for either sword­­”–he nodded to Roxy­–“or claw strikes”– then Dnoeth–“in here is likely to end with one or both of you dead.”

Ramal cast a look up the shaft, Roxy and Dnoeth did the same in response. “Honestly, this fight is beyond us.” Ramal said, and their eyes returned. “Aside from a level gap that’s so big we can’t even identify it, none of us have battle experience with our new weapons. Least of all you Dnoeth, since everything you’ve got, except for that shield, is completely nonstandard.”

“Aegis” Dnoeth corrected.

“What?” Ramal’s brow wrinkled, then it connected. “Oh, right. Aegis. Fine. The name is irrelevant, it’s for blocking shit. And blocking a swing from that beast is bad for keeping your brains inside your head. So don’t try and do that shit.”

Dnoeth chuckled. Ramal did not. He stared Dnoeth down, apparently wanting that ridiculous quip to be taken seriously. “What the hell Ramal, you can’t say something like that and expect me not to laugh. But I get it, duck and weave. Float like a butterfly and run the fuck away. Chill, ok.”

Ramal just nodded. Then shot him a half smile. “What else can that what-zit do?”

“It’s a Battle Cyff.” He said and pulled the dark buckler from his hip, equipped it, then touched the edge to a pair of pouches hanging on his left thigh. Scales poured out and up, defying gravity. They rapidly spread out then merged together as they dropped into place. In moments Dnoeth was holding a large rectangular shield.

Roxanna was impressed, which wasn’t new, most things about Dnoeth’s abilities to manipulate Daedrium were impressive.

“It also has a bladed Aegis form that’s a mix of offense and defense.” As he spoke, the shield shrank to half size and three horizontal blades appeared across its surface.

Dnoeth looked over the top edge. “That looks useful, it would have been great against those wolves.”

“True,” Ramal agreed with a nod. “You’ll have to practice with that form, it’s a good close combat mix of offense and defense. Still not going to help much in this fight though. Got anything else?”

Dnoeth smiled. “I’ve got a pure offensive form. Let’s see what a Glaivis is.”

The blades flattened and slid to the center where they merged and began extending out from the edge straight out from Dnoeth’s knuckles. Scales that formed the outer edge of the shield broke apart and moved toward the extension. In collapsing rings, other scales followed. The shield appeared to fold inward and gather about a central ridge, before flowing out in pairs, adding to the length.

The Glaivis glistened and flowed like mercury at the edges as more and more scale pairs were added. Dnoeth felt the weight shift and the Cyff grip design began to make sense. The extended weight was levered into the forearm cuff. With it he had leverage to swing the weapon.

In just a few breaths the Glaivis was revealed to be a four-foot-long, handspan-wide great-sword. It had a slight inward curve, was double edged and covered Dnoeth’s hand and forearm with an integrated, pear-shaped buckler.

“Impressive, now that’s a weapon you can use.” Ramal approved. “You might consider shifting it to your right hand though.”

Dnoeth swung the Cyff tentatively and found it relatively natural to yield lefty. Still it wasn’t as clean or powerful as it would be right-handed, and he decided to take Ramal’s advice and switch. The process was a bit awkward as the Glavis wouldn’t hold form when the Cyff frame didn’t contain Dnoeth’s web of bonded Daedrium.

He ended up storing all the scales in their pouches before switching hands. Fortunately, activating it cross body was simple enough and in no time Dnoeth held the Cyff in Glaivis form on his right arm.

After having seen the demon fall more than two hundred feet and survive without any apparent ill effects, they didn’t harbor any hope that the fall would kill it. What they weren’t sure about is if it could track them. If so, it would probably follow down the shaft immediately.

If not, they’d have a bit more time and might even have to get its attention somehow. In either case they felt the need to hurry. There was no telling what it would do if left in the ventilation hub. Maybe it would stay trapped, but Dnoeth doubted it.

There were a number of tunnels connecting to the cavern, one every forty feet or so. They picked three in a row and each went down one, Dnoeth left, Ramal center, and Roxanna right.

Roxy jogged down her tunnel while paying careful attention to the walls and floor, on the lookout for any branching passage or small crawlspace that might be useful. In her head, she slowly counted to one hundred. Ramal’s mapping skill allowed him to tell elapsed time. She and Dnoeth didn’t have anything like that, so they were left counting Mississippi’s.

She saw a change in the tunnel ahead and sped up. It was a Y-fork, each new passage angling off at forty-five degrees. She took the left route and keep jogging. The passage continued straight until, at ninety-three Mississippi, she came to a four-way intersection.

Roxy turned left, back toward Ramal’s passage; she had a gut feeling it was right. A few paces later she hit one hundred and knew she should turn back. It was the smart move and what they’d agreed on. But her gut urged her on, so Roxanna kept running.

Ramal raced down the passage at a breakneck pace. His scouting ability pulling in information in a wide arc all around him. Both of the moving dots that represented Dnoeth and Roxanna stayed within range for the first twenty seconds of his sprint before they went too far.

He reached an intersection. The main tunnel continued on, but two others split off at forty-five-degree angles. He pushed onward. The tunnel was long and straight after that, and his timer reached one hundred without any other changes. Annoyed, he decided to go a bit further.

Twelve seconds later, it paid off when a large cavern opening appeared at the limit of his detection capacity. Ramal skidded to a stop. It was too far to investigate now, but it was exactly what he was hoping for. Spinning about, he headed back.

Roxanna came to another intersection just about where she’d expected to reach Ramal’s tunnel. A small chime and system notice got her attention. She smiled, and turned left, now knowing for certain that was the way back to the main cavern. Her sense of spacial awareness had sharpened. She was headed back to the cavern for sure. She jogged onward and opened her system notice.

Congratulations, you’ve unlocked a new skill: Mapping– The mapping skill will allow you to create maps of the places you travel and store them for future use. You may access these maps at will and also maintain a map in your vision for quick access. Experience gained: 1000

Achievement earned - The hard way – A real woman doesn’t need a teacher to learn new skills, she can wrench the information she needs directly from the quantic soup of life. Experience gained: 500

When Roxy reached the main cavern, she was surprised to find herself alone. It didn’t last long, as Dnoeth followed her out of the central passage soon after with a big smile.

“Just unlocked the Mapping skill,” he said. “And the left passage connects to the center.” He looked about. “Where’s Ramal?”

“Not out yet,” She said. “Congrats on mapping. This must be a good place to work that particular skill. I got it too.”

Dnoeth’s head turned to catch the beating of sprinting feet echoing from the center tunnel. The two exchanged a concerned look. It was probably Ramal, but he was running awfully fast, fast enough to be concerning. They both dropped into fighting stances, weapons raised.

Ramal emerged, flushed and slightly winded, but otherwise unconcerned. “Good response,” He grunted with a nod. “Did those tunnels connect?”

“Mine did,” Dnoeth replied. “I hit a fork that split the main tunnel and a bit later an intersection. I went right both times and it brought me back to this one, the tunnel you went down. I also picked up mapping.” He tilted his head to Roxy. “And so did Roxanna.”

She nodded at Ramal when he turned to her. “Yep, here too. Apparently, these tunnels are good training for the mapping ability.”

“That’s great.” Ramal replied. “Did your passage connect back too?”

She nodded. “Mirror image of what Dnoeth described, these passageways must have some symmetry to them.”

“Good.” Ramal nodded pensively. “And now that you both have the ability to create maps. I want to try sharing data. Do you both have basic mapping?”

“I think so, my skill name is just mapping,” Roxy replied.

“Me too, mapping,” said Dnoeth.

“Ok, my skill is bit more advanced, it’s actually one of my equilibrium abilities, so I want you both to try sending your map data to me. If I’m understanding this system, it should work the same way that scrolling through system data works. Instead of scrolling up or down, pull up your maps and focus on scrolling out, toward me.”

Roxanna lifted a brow in question but did as Ramal had recommended and had could feel the map flip through space to him. “Got em.” Ramal said. Then he nodded slowly. “This is good, we can work with this.”

He bent a knee and started scratching lines in the rock with an arrowhead. “C’mon, here’s the plan.”

Dnoeth stood alone, just off to the side of the square hole in the hub ceiling, trying to calm his breathing. His head, the only unarmored part of his body was covered by his bonded Daedrium. Chunks of thick stone from the ventilation hub occasionally smashed to the ground, shattering upon impact. The warbling screams of one seriously pissed off demon carried all too clearly down the shaft.

With one final deep breath, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled at the top of his lungs. “Hey fatso! I’m down here!” If this didn’t work, he would have to unpack the elevator and ascend until it did.

Moments later, the horrible chitters stopped. Dnoeth took a step back and held caught his breath. Chunks of smooth grey stone continued their intermittent and explosive collisions with the dark rock floor. His Cyff, in bladed Aegis form, he held to shield his eyes from the flying debris, while staring over it at the opening and straining sensitive ears. He hardly dared breath for the noise.

Summoning his courage against a hammering heart, he yelled again. “Yeah you! You big dumb-dumb! Come and get me!” It was, admittedly, not his most inspired taunt. Dumb-dumb, really Dnoeth? he thought. The answering howl reverberated much louder. His whole body shivered in fear.

“Ok then. Not much for banter,” he whispered, trying to reduce his held tension. It helped a little, but he still began to sweat. Walking backward, he glanced across the cavern to the unexplored tunnel where Ramal’s shadowed form stood, his bow down, but ready with Daedrium arrow notched.

The big man nodded at Dnoeth and stage whispered, “We got this.” Then he faded back into the darkness.

The falling chunks of stone had stopped and now the constant air flow in the large chamber stilled. A quite roar, like an approaching train, built slowly until it filled the space with imminent dread. Everything began to hum, shaking dust and pebbles free.

The demon shot out of the opening and slammed down like a ten-ton cannonball. It was instant chaos as rock exploded outward from the impact. The ground shook violently and Dnoeth fell to his knees. Chucks of stone ricocheted off his raised Aegis. A loud secondary crack jerked his attention left, and Dnoeth watched as a car-sized boulder broke from the ceiling. It crashed down feet from the entrance to the third tunnel.

Rising to one knee, he slid himself back toward the first opening with one eye on the ceiling. Another crack sounded, thankfully not above him. On the far side, another boulder fell and crashed down. Dnoeth saw through the billowing dust cloud that it was close to Ramal’s hiding spot and a flash of dread seized him. Had it blocked Ramal in?

No, he could see the dark of the tunnel around the enormous rock. Relief allowed him to refocus on the center of the cavern. The tremors were settling now, and he tentatively regained his feet just inside the tunnel opening. The formerly smooth floor was a chaotic mess of rocks with barely a free spot to step, in the center of it all, there was now a small crater.

A black mound of pebbled demon flesh set in the crater, unmoving. For the briefest moment, Dnoeth wondered if maybe the fall had been too much for the beast and he took a step forward peering around his Aegis. The demon shivered, then its legs started to move.