Hyperion Evergrowing

Chapter 112: Excavation

The fire user spontaneously combusted as maddened laughter clawed out of his mouth. Leif sighed, raising an arm to shield his face from the following detonation of power. The battle had wounded him, though his cultivated base of life-force hadn’t been overly tapped into. The two injured humans however, were in far worse conditions. They fled, vanishing over a ledge as the cavern began to collapse. He turned, and dashed for their packs, all the while cursing the fact he was about to get trapped underground, again.

Should have learnt from the Mythold back in Pherin. He mused darkly, backing away as the sound of manic laughter mixed with the crashing reverberation of several tonnes of stone falling down from above. He turned to the entrance of the cavern, then watched as it collapsed, his already fraying connection to the anchors created by [The Amber Path] were severed by the physical barrier that now separated them. There were several smaller side exits, but they were rapidly becoming untenable. A colossal chunk of stone crashed down barely a metre away, then flames washed over everything.

Leif whirled to protect the packs he had grabbed, covering them as best he could, then kicked off and sprinted for the nearest exit. If he was lucky, it wouldn’t be a dead end. If he wasn’t, well, there were probably dumber ways to die. Not that he would be overly pleased with the current situation. Though it angered him more than he wanted to admit, letting two of the terrorists escape wasn’t the end of the world. At least the fire user won’t survive this. He thought, sensing the wavering emotions of the human as his altered form was crushed. But flames writhed free from tiny cracks, elemental energy spooling back into a vaguely human shape. Hopefully won’t survive this. Leif amended.

Then he was through the small gap he had chosen to escape down, pushing the packs in front of him and down the natural passageway. After several metres something became obvious: packs would fit, but he wouldn’t. Leif focused his will and began to warp and change his body, already tightly compressed wood and plant fibre twisted and flattened, his entire form slowly shifting to become smaller and narrower.

Pain burnt within him as his body began to break, such delicate changes should not be rushed, but here he was performing them while trying to escape. The narrow passageway shook, rubble fell from above, an angular chunk of stone collided with his shoulder and pinned him against one of the increasingly narrow walls. Leif grunted, conjuring several limbs to dislodge the rock and protect himself from any more falling from above. He wouldn’t be crushed to death, not with his physique, instead the danger was becoming stuck in a crevasse and being unable to escape.

Heat erupted from behind him, the human turned animated bonfire either still alive or some sort of lingering effect having been triggered. He could stretch back his perception to check, but he’d rather not attract attention. The fight may not have been an overwhelming victory, but at least he had gotten out of there with what he needed.

The further he travelled the more distant the irregular flares of heat became, the rumbling faded away, the collapsing cavern no longer a threat. Leif hacked away at the passageway before him, amber arms converted into blades punching through loose rock and debris. His storage ring didn’t have enough room for even a fraction of either pack he had grabbed, his luggage a burden he had to be constantly aware of as he progressed.

Finally the gap he had been wriggling through ended, but not in a new cavern for him to escape into. Instead the inky darkness of a ravine stretched out beneath him, like a maw eager to devour him whole. He turned, looking back the way he had come. Nothing for it, he took a deep breath, then carefully began to lower himself down into the darkness.

It was a perilous and near blind descent. His conjured arms, that he used to carefully lower himself down into the depths below, emitted a soft amber glow, but that glow was hardly enough by which to see. The darkness was oppressive, the tight confines of the ravine suffocatingly tight.

A part of him, the monstrous part of himself he was gradually becoming more and more familiar with, hated being underground. It was against his nature to not be under the open sky, surrounded by warmth and life. It wasn’t quite claustrophobia, his rationality and mental fortitude battered away any fear that flickered into existence, but it was far from comfortable.

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Finally the descent widened, only to split off into two even narrower cracks. The choice of which to take was stolen from him, as he crouched awkwardly on a ledge, restoring his physical form back into a shape that didn’t cause pain, he noted that one of the ways forward was simply too small.

He was tempted to just leave, to take a step and teleport himself back to Far-reach and the domain tree he had left his teleportation anchor at the base of. He glanced up, the path he had already taken to get this far down was swallowed by darkness. At least I can’t sense the human with fire powers, hopefully the collapsing cavern crushed him. He somewhat doubted it, turning into elemental energy had to have advantages he wasn’t aware of. Though the more he considered it the more he became certain that there was something very wrong about the pyromancer, or whatever his actual class was called.

He floated a small orb of wood he had infused with vitality into the narrow path he would have to take, trying to see if it widened or became untraversable. They attacked a business that was taking commissions from the imperial army, then they attacked the guild building soon after. Leif tapped ivory fingers along the nearby rock surface. They mentioned ‘expendables’ that were imprisoned by the Ahle-ho guard, what are the odds they were talking about the bandits we brought in?

He didn’t know, but the terrorist trio were likely foreign agents, their actions didn’t really make sense otherwise. He sighed and looked up, smacking his head against the stone he was resting against. I just hope nothing terrible happens before I can get back.

===

“Well.” Liv said, chewing a frosted bun as she looked at the still smoking remains of the guild building. “This is shit.”

“That’s one way of putting it.” Samil said, the man staring despondently at the pile of ash and charred timber.

Ahead of them teams of adventurers and soldiers picked through the aftermath, small groups disappearing down into the hole to seek out the culprits of the attack. Survivors lingered around, all the severely injured had been taken away, the one’s still lying in the streets only half dead instead of three quarters.

“He’s alive, yes?” Olav asked. “Unless he is very weak to fire? I’m not sure how these things work.”

“He should be mostly unharmed, yes.” Samil said, frowning at a passing group of civilians openly gawking at Liv and Olav’s horns. “Though I think he’ll be more worried about other things at the moment.”

“We have most of what we need.” Liv said, licking frosting off her fingers. “And separating was always part of the plan, not like this, but it was part of the plan.”

“So we go back home?” Olav said. “I didn’t even get my fight. I was promised a fight.”

“If we wait around too long, we might get caught up in a fight trying to get out.” Samil pointed out, nodding in the direction of a brewing argument between two different groups of soldiers. “They haven't come to blows yet, but it’s getting more and more likely the more time passes.”

Olav grunted, adjusting the bulging sack slung over his shoulder. The large demikin opened his mouth, then paused, staring out over the town. He pointed, the other two following his direction. “What is it with this town and things catching on fire?” He asked dubiously. “Does this always happen? I hope the one we’re building doesn’t do this.”

“No.” Samil replied, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun as he took a closer look at the strange manifestation of fire energy hanging over the town. “Oh… oh no.”

A street over from where they were standing erupted into a geyser of flames as a vaguely human shaped ball of fire streaked down from above. Moments later the screaming started. Liv and Samil turned to face one another, faces pale.

“Holy shit.” Liv said, backing away while wiping away crumbs. “We should go.”

“Y-yeah.” He replied, a nearby explosion sending chunks of building raining down. “This is not something we should get stuck in the middle of, at least not without a plan.”

“Finally!” Olav cheered, letting his pack slump to the ground. Then he took off towards the living inferno.

The other two demikin watched him go, expressions blank. “Your cousin’s an idiot.” Samil said, running a hand through his hair and letting out a groan.

“We should probably not watch while he gets himself killed.”

“...Sure.”