The call of the last Ash Reaper had not been a sonic attack. It had been a message to its brethren, of which there were many. They came flooding in from all five other tunnels, including the one the first had been in. Since covering five directions would be exponentially more difficult, the team moved into their original tunnel. That way, they only had to block attacks from one direction.

This turned out to be both a critical advantage and completely superfluous at the same time. It let Cat arrange her soldiers into a single defensive wall covering an entire attack angle. On the other hand, the Ash Reapers simply phased through the walls and went around heer soldiers to attack everyone else. They showed up individually, but the collective whole formed a tidal wave of shadows wielding innumerable ashen claws.

The spectral soldiers were a bulwark, unflagging and unbeatable to the monster horde. Every single Ash Reaper that tried to attack them died within seconds to attacks they couldn't avoid with their incorporeal forms. Unfortunately, the monsters were abnormally smart for being below the 10,000 IP threshold. Many charged in blindly, but more than a few caught on to the dangers Cat's constructs represented and circled around.

Cat stayed glued to her soldier's backs, ironically being the most vulnerable of them all. Everyone else was trying to find some method of attack that could deal with the tangible enemies. To that end, Caeden finally tried to employ the higher forms of Forged Infinity.

The shrouded weapon was intrinsically linked to Caeden, created through a process he did not understand in a series of improbably specific and entirely unique circumstances. A transforming weapon like his was unheard of, and several facets of its existence were a continued mystery to him, such as its ability to spontaneously change size and weight. The most mysterious of its many oddities was the alien consciousness living in the hilt-shaped weapon.

Caeden was mentally connected to that consciousness and was, as far as he could tell, a representation of the weapon's will. Which was disturbing, as his most consistent sensation from it was an endless thirst for combat. Forged Infinity desired challenges and endless battles that lasted days or weeks on end. If he was honest, Caeden was more than a little scared of it. Fortunately or unfortunately, the consciousness provided a useful, nigh-on invaluable utility. It could tell Caeden what version of itself would be effective in his fights.

In this instance, it pinged him to move over to form one, the blade. Then to 017, which shortened the long weapon from five feet to two. Finally, he got 176, which didn't seem to change the shape of his weapon until he noticed a thin, almost invisible coating lying over the red edge of his blade. When he went to attack an Ash Reaper, instead of passing through, it connected immediately. Whatever that coating was nullified their intangibility.

Despite his sudden ability to actively participate in the fight, there were problems. His shrouded weapon required him to invest energy from both his shrouds into it to fuel its transformations. This usually wasn't a problem, as he could load up shroud into it ahead of time for later use. Caeden would funnel his shrouds into the hilt whenever he was at full capacity. This had given him a huge repository to draw from during combat, more than enough for anything he'd ever need. Or so he thought.

Each level of Forged Infinity, from single digit to double to triple, came with a radical increase in the cost of those transformations. Going from 000 to 001 was negligible. 010 was on a completely different scale, dozens of times more expensive. Still, with how much shroud he constantly funneled into his weapon, Caeden had never felt in danger of running out. That changed when he unlocked triple-digit transformations.

Caeden had spent a decent amount of time using and cataloging the transformations of Forged Infinity. He had yet to create a complete, comprehensive list for several reasons, one of which was the astronomical cost of triple-digit forms. They seemed to come in three varieties. Everything above 100 either started adding complexity to the weapon's form, gave them temporary single-use attack powers, or generated esoteric energies and added them to his current weapon form. 176 was the latter.

All three types ate up absurd amounts of power, dwarfing the single and double-digit forms. The complex transformations were the most cost-effective but the least impactful. The single-use attacks were absurdly powerful but required a giant burst of energy and then dropped back to the equivalent double-digit form. The ongoing effects were possibly the worst, though. They created a continuing cost to Forged Infinity's energy reserves, constantly draining away.

To put it in perspective, to maintain 176, Forged Infinity was using the shroud equivalent of tens of thousands of IP every minute to keep this effect. Caeden had stocked the hilt with nearly a million IP worth of shroud at this point, but the drain was eating that reserve up at a worrying pace. A single-digit form might cost him a couple of IP at most, and only once. Double-digit would cost perhaps a few hundred IP.

It was only a matter of time before Caeden's only effective weapon was shut down, and he was back to being useless with a depowered hilt. The Ash Reapers continued to show up in droves, and Caeden wasn't sure he could outlast them.

More than that, they were all taking hits. Claw swipes landed hard and often. Caeden and Erik were handling it, Caeden with durability and Erik through regeneration, but Lily was forced to form an ice cocoon and essentially remove herself from the fight just to survive. Cat was huddled behind her soldiers, hunkering down and waiting it out.

The pressure rapidly mounted as more and more Ash Reapers appeared, and their options dwindled down to nothing. At this point, Caeden was trying to look for a way to get everyone out. They weren't going to win this fight.

Then things changed.

"The Mouse looked upon the Beast, bound in string, and declared, 'How the mighty have fallen to such simple plans."

Threads of white energy sprung up all around, hovering like a cage ready to snatch up every Ash Reaper in the tunnel, dozens of them. Every individual fiber shimmered as if surrounded by a heat haze.

{Mouse Trap}

Like its namesake, the technique snapped shut around every monster, rendering them helpless. None of the shadow creatures seemed capable of turning intangible and passing through the string. And Erik was standing in the middle of it all, a shit-eating grin on his face. "Man, I'm glad I got to use that! Did I look heroic? I totally did, didn't I?"

"What the hell was that?" Caeden went around stabbing all the captured monsters as quickly as his heavily enhanced speed could handle. Tied down, they were easy pickings.

"It was a surprise! I've been working on my martial arts in secret so I could swoop in and save the day whenever we got pinned. It worked!" Erik started doing some weird victory dance that looked borderline physically impossible, considering the man's extreme flexibility. "See, I told you it wasn't so bad."

Everyone locked eyes on Erik instantly.

"Erik, I swear to Shroud-"

The whole mountain shook.

"Oh, come on!" Erik stared at the quivering walls, shouting over the deafening fumble of the ground all around them, shifting under immense forces.

Blaine, sitting the fight out as an observer, moved for the first time since the fight started. His eyes shot open, and more shroud than Caeden had ever seen burst out of him in a raging storm of red and black energy. Swords began to materialize, blasting off down the tunnels so fast the air screamed and broke at their passage, producing sonic booms loud enough to compete with the mountain coming down.

The Swordmaster's face contorted in absolute concentration, a snarl affixed on his face. "Shit. Shit. Shit." He stared blindly forward; no doubt focused entirely on his aura. The rumbling lessened before slowly coming to a stop.

Blaine spoke through gritted teeth. "This whole section of the mountain tunnels just completely destabilized. I'm holding it, but I can't maintain this for long. I don't-"

Blaine's expression turned grave, with a hint of grief even as the floor beneath the team and the tunnel above them both simultaneously gave out. Caeden could have made it to solid ground. So could Erik. Lily might have managed it. Cat absolutely would not.

So they all fell in together.

Erik worked fast, catching everyone as they fell into a black abyss that had likely not been there minutes ago. He grabbed everyone and stitched them all together, pulling four falling figures into one mass. Caeden followed up just as fast, his fingers flickering across the controls of Forged Infinity as rocks threatened to come crashing down on them.

From his short blade back to 000, then 002, then 029, then 299. 002 created a buckler shield, which rapidly expanded to surround them all as the dial rolled on. 029 was Forged Infinity's largest form, a giant shield ball that wrapped around the entire team. 299 went a step further, reinforcing the shield ball into an impenetrable mass of shroud-reinforced metal. Caeden was confident the entire mountain falling on them, which it apparently was, wouldn't put a dent in this form. Getting out of it under several tons of rock was an entirely different problem.

Erik and Caeden's quick reactions were their saving grace. Not even a moment after the shield ball finished its transformation; they could hear rocks slamming into the outside of their haven. Their momentum shifted, causing everyone to be flung against one side of the ball, which started spinning under the force of the hits it was taking.

After taking a foot to the face and an elbow in a more uncomfortable place, Caeden yelled at Erik. "Do you mind?!"

Immediately, they were all suspended on strings of glowing white shroud inside the shield ball, held perfectly in place even as the movement of their impromptu vehicle grew more erratic. They could all feel the momentum shift and change, trying to pull them into the walls and each other. Erik's shroud wouldn't let it happen.

So they rode down into the bowels of the mountain, safely confined inside Caeden's shrouded weapon. Their fall extended much longer than Caeden would have expected. It felt like hours but was probably only half of one. Still, that kind of distance put them deep beneath the mountain. Very deep. It was impossible to get a completely accurate estimate, but they had to be miles and miles below the continent, even though they started halfway up the mountain.

The ride down was made in relative silence, no one quite sure what to say or do. This was an insane situation, as their day went from a casual stroll in the mines to pitched battle with them on the losing side to the whole damn mountain coming down around them, only held up by the efforts of a True Shroud Swordmaster exercising the maximum extent of his power. Holding up a mountain was much, much harder than bringing one down, especially if you were trying to keep the internal structure intact. Their sensei had no power to spare on protecting them.

When they finally stopped, it was with a massive splash. They had landed in some kind of underground reservoir. Rocks continued to pelt down on their shelter for minutes afterward, but it eventually stopped. Caeden and Lily used their auras to check that it was safe to leave before Caeden collapsed the shield, letting the water rush over them. The shield ball did not float, weighing several tons in its reinforced form.

They swam to the surface just fine, everyone being a capable swimmer. It was a skill Cat and Lily had from childhood but a more recent addition to Erik and Caeden's skillset. The Turtle Fortress had a pool, and they had time to spare, so why not learn to swim? The arduous process of forming muscle memory was made easier by infusing their bodies. Both had picked up the skill quickly and easily by essentially using their shrouds to cheat.

Breaking the surface of the water revealed nothing. They were in a pitch-black underwater reservoir. Caeden's aura revealed their surroundings to him before they ever left the shield ball. The water they splashed down in was much closer to a small underwater lake than a simple pool or reservoir. Spanning almost a half-mile across and some thirty feet deep at its lowest, it was a large amount of water. The cavern it was in was equally large, with a cavernous ceiling now sporting the gaping hole they had just fallen through.

The lake and the cavern it occupied connected to several tunnels, some of which were underwater. Caeden felt confident that they had fallen into a natural cave system lying underneath the man-made pathways of Under Reach. How they would get back was up for debate. Ascending through the gap they had entered was the most expedient answer and the most reliable, but also the most dangerous. It had already proven to be unstable after all.

Before he could contemplate other options, there was a flash of light. A warm orange glow crawled in from one of the tunnels by the rocky lake shore, set part way up the wall. The glow came from veins of energy coursing through the black stone that made up the mountain crawling along the walls and continually spreading outward.

Caeden sighed. "Who wants to bet the glowing ominous energy veins have something to do with the mountain trying to kill us?"

Everyone raised a hand.

"Who wants to give it a look?"

No hands.

"Who thinks we should anyway?"

All hands slowly rose in the air.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."