Riftside 3 - Chapter 23

With the last of the Glowcrest Emmets twitching in its death throes, I jogged over to retrieve Blisterbrand, plucking it from the dust with a satisfied smile. It had done its job well. I gave it a twirl, splashing fire and acid across the ground, just for fun, before I swiped it into storage.

“Tell me more about this colony, Roq. With what they spat on Knut, these could be what got our scouts,” I said, turning to where Eryn sat with Knut and Lan, waiting for the paralyzing toxin to release its grip on the big guy. My brother was still breathing, and his heart was beating, but that might be due to his vitality. “What did you learn from your… snack?”

“It was more of a zesty appetizer, really,” Roq said, his tone now grave and serious. “But it was enough. These are not solitary hunters. They are from a hive. It is a single, unified consciousness directed by a queen. Like a Hive Mind monster belonging to the Hive Mind. That nest, that colony… It's a budding army. If we allow it to grow, it can threaten Dawnwatch.”

“Why?” Lan asked. “It’s just big bugs.”

“Digging bugs,” Knut wheezed. “Might pass by defences. If hundreds come, Sentinel Station falls. First Steel should hold, but monsters through portal is bad.”

“You are right, brother,” I said. “We have to deal with them.”

“Are you insane?” Nabeeh asked, her hands on her hips. “An entire colony? We just found this spot and have no idea what they’re even capable of! The smart thing to do is go back, complete our quest to report it to Edwin and the Guild, and let them assemble a proper force.”

“We are proper force,” Knut rumbled, as he regained feeling in his arms and sat up. “We hunt. Is what we do. We found threat, so we end.”

“Knut’s right, we can’t just leave it,” I said. “But Nabeeh has a point. We don’t know their numbers. We’d be walking in blind.”

“So we’re running away?” Lan spat, her voice dripping with contempt. “I thought you’re supposed to be some great leader. They’re just bugs. Let’s go kill them.”

“This isn’t about being scared, little storm, it’s about being smart,” Eryn said, her voice patient but firm. “Rushing in is how you get a party wiped out. We need a plan before we commit to a battle.”

“The plan is easy,” Roq said. “We annihilate them. Grind their chitinous shells to dust, and feast upon their acidic hearts. This is no challenge, it is a buffet. And I am starving!”

I held up Roq for silence.

“We’re not running, and we’re not charging in blindly,” I said, my voice taking on the tone of command I’d learned from Edwin. “We are adventurers. We are the first line of defense. Our job is to find threats like this and neutralize them before they can menace the town. We’re finally a full party, so we’ll investigate. We’ll scout the colony, assess its strength. We don’t commit to a full assault, but we are not walking away from this. These things were barely yellow-rated. Worst case, we outrun them. And what if the scouts were captured and are still alive?”

“We don’t leave our own behind,” Eryn said.

“Besides…” I looked at Knut. “You carrying?”

Knut’s grim face split into a wide grin. He patted his left wrist, atop the spatial tattoo. “Last Glowcap in Dawnwatch. Cost me full Mind Gem. Farming parties say patch empty now.”

A single Glowcap.

A last resort.

I nodded.

“That’s good enough, I guess. We move.”

*

“My kingly senses, honed by centuries of command, tell me the colony’s entrance is just over this hill,” Roq announced with smug certainty.

“The tracks, which are physical evidence rather than ego-fueled guesswork, lead in the same general direction,” Arclight said. “A coincidence, I am sure. But if you’d looked at the—”

“You dare question my navigational prowess, bow?! I could lead this party blindfolded through a blizzard!”

“You are a hammer. You are always blindfolded.”

“War hammer. Get it right, you fiddling stick.”

Their bickering was a familiar soundtrack as we crested the small, dusty hill. The view was a sweeping panorama of these bad lands, stretching to a distant, hazy mountain range. There was no sign of any kind of entrance, if anything, the hill looked to be barren.

Arclight let out a mental sound that was the auditory equivalent of a smug, satisfied cat stretching in a sunbeam. 

“As I was stating before I was so rudely interrupted, the tracks do not stop here. They continue on, towards the mountains. If you could read them, O King of Getting Lost, you would know this.”

I could feel Roq fuming. 

“It should be here! The vibrations in their dirt, their queen’s commands… all signs pointed here!”

I sighed and walked to the center of the hilltop, stomping my foot. The ground felt solid. 

“Maybe it’s below us?”

“Unlikely,” Arclight said. “The tracks show a steady stream of traffic away from here. This is merely a hill on their way.”

Frustrated, I rested Roq’s head on the ground, leaning on his haft like a weary traveller.

“Ash. Jump,”  Roq said with a rumbling chuckle.

I looked at Eryn, who just shrugged, a bemused smile on her face. With another sigh, I bent my knees and pushed off the ground. I got pretty high, testing my new strength.

But when I landed, the world dropped out from under me.

The solid earth was a lie.

Baked dirt shattered under my weight and I plunged into darkness, the surprised shouts of my party fading above me. My stomach lurched, and I flailed, but there was nothing to grab onto as I crashed through something that gave way with a series of wet, popping sounds.

I landed hard on a soft, yielding surface, but the impact still sent a sickening crack up my left leg. Pain, white-hot and immediate, exploded from my shin.

A wave of humid, acrid air, thick with the smell of ozone and rot, flooded my helmet.

“I told you it was here!” Roq’s triumphant laughter was the only thing I could hear over the ringing in my ears.

I looked up. A ragged hole of blue sky was framed by the concerned faces of Eryn, Knut, Nabeeh, and Lan.

“Ash! Are you alright?” Eryn’s voice was tight with worry.

“Fine!” I said. “Just… a broken leg. Nothing a little Blood Forging can’t fix.” I swiped Roq into my storage, and the familiar, comforting warmth immediately spread across my shin.

“What do you see, brother?” Knut called down.

As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I cursed. 

“Riftrot.”

I was in a vast, cavern. The floor, walls, and even parts of low-hanging ceiling were lined with hundreds, maybe thousands, of leathery, translucent eggs, each the size of a human head. Green light pulsed from within them, the same bioluminescence as the veins on the ants. The soft surface I’d landed on was a cluster of them, their shells now ruptured and leaking a viscous fluid.

“It’s a breeding chamber,” I shouted up. “A massive one.”

“Can you climb out?” Eryn asked.

I looked around. The walls were smooth and slick. 

“No. No handholds. But I see a few tunnels leading out.”

“Worry not!” Knut’s voice boomed. “Always have rope in spatial!”

While they prepared to haul me out, Roq finished his work. The sharp agony in my leg faded to a dull, throbbing ache. I pulled him back out.

“An easy fix,” he said dismissively. “Merely a fractured tibia. Nothing for a master soul forger like myself.”

The rope snaked down, and Knut stood at the edge, ready to pull.

“We found the nest. An army waiting to be born. Now is the time for destruction.”

“If this entire hill is filled with those ants, we should get reinforcements,” Nabeeh’s voice floated down. “It may be too much for the five of us.”

I considered it. It might sound smart and safe, but who knew how long these took to hatch, or if they would even be here when we returned. Leaving this place felt like leaving a lit Glowcap next to Dawnwatch’s walls.

“No,” I called up. “We deal with these eggs first. If there are too many ants to fight, we get out.”

“Fine. Then grab the rope and get out. I’ll fill the chamber with fire,” Nabeeh said. “Cook them all from up here.”

“Wait!” Roq pleaded. “Let me smash just one. For science! And… for a snack.”

I sighed, but walked to the nearest intact egg and brought my warhammer down. It split with a wet squelch.

“Delicious!” Roq cried. “It’s like… the platonic ideal of an egg! I see now why you bipeds are so obsessed! And… By my haft! I got experience! A full monster’s worth! Ash, we must crush them all! Let me feast! Let me grow!”

“I can drown the chamber,” Lan’s voice came from above. “Flood the whole damn thing. You owe me some experience after I saved Knut.”

“Shoot them, wielder. Swiftly,” Arclight said. “I am close to my breakthrough.”

“Everyone, hold on!” I shouted. “Save your spells and arrows for now. If enemies come, you have to help me deal with them. Knut, stand ready to pull me out.”

I started smashing the eggs, moving from one side of the room to the other. Roq cackled with glee as his experience bar ticked upward. He was right. Each egg gave as much as a fully grown Emmet.

“I’m nearing level fifteen!” he crowed between chomps. “A new spell awaits! Oh, the glorious possibilities!”

“How does that even work?” Lan asked from the edge of the hole.

“The life force must already be present,” Roq explained, his voice muffled as if munching on…eggs. “Fully formed, just waiting for the shell to break. It matters not if I consume it now or later. The essence is the same.”

Hearing that, I stopped. If Arclight was close to her breakthrough…

“Eryn! Start shooting!” I said. “Let’s see if we can get Arclight her breakthrough, too!”

“But what about me?” Lan complained. “I need to level up, also! There’s nothing to fight up here!”

“Are you willing to trade?” Nabeeh’s voice was sly. “Tell us about your staff, every last secret, and I’m sure Ash’ll let you have what’s left of the eggs.”

I paused mid-swing, thinking. I could have them pull me up, then Lan could have her way with the chamber.

“Ash, just hurry!” Eryn urged, shooting an arrow through an egg against the far wall.

Then I heard it. A faint, chittering sound, echoed from one of the dark tunnels. It was distant, but it was getting closer.

“Lan! Decide now!” I yelled.

“Puddle drowned puppies!” she cursed. “Fine, you nosy bastards! Just get out of there Ash and I’ll destroy them all.”

I grinned and ran for the rope.

“No!” Roq said. “My eggs!”

Knut hauled me up. Just because I’d gotten bigger didn’t mean he had any trouble lifting me, as his strength was way higher than my weight. 

Just as I reached the hole in the roof, an angry screech came from below. I pulled my legs up just in time, rolling to the side as drops of toxin floated up. 

Knut laughed and helped me get to my feet. “Good timing, brother,” he said. “Almost get hit, drop rope, and be eaten by ants.”

“Go ahead, Lan,” I said and waved a hand at her. “Break them all.”

“This is Overcharge,” she said. “Increases power of my next spell. By a lot.” 

“By how much exactly?” Nabeeh asked, a nervous tinge to her voice. 

Lan just grinned, her eyes freakily wide, as she pointed her staff at the hole and whispered, “Water wall.”

My smile faded and I looked down at the ground below. I started telling her to stop, but it was too late.

A loud rumble came from below. The hill shook. Water shot out of the hole I’d fallen through as the chamber flooded.

And then, the ground we stood on collapsed, dropping us into a crushing pool.