Run, run, run! The tunnel narrowed the farther they went. Soon, its width could only fit one person. Elian was in front; their pace depended on him. Too bad he was slower than Thorren.

  Elian wanted to bring up the rear. He was the tank, after all. But Thorren insisted it should be him. The Rakhonite shot magic arrows and left traps to slow down the spear lobsters, muttering about the costs of materials he used.

  Thorren did delay the spear lobsters.

  One magical arrow exploded, partly collapsing the tunnel behind them. The spear lobsters tore through the rocks as if they were wet parchment. Another arrow burst into lightning, momentarily stunning the spear lobsters. Bought some time. Several seconds here and there. An elaborate trap creating a confusion array stalled their pursuers for a couple of minutes. But the spear lobsters caught up to them eventually.

  The tunnel was just one path. No forks. No way to lose these blasted, many-legged crustaceans!

  Turning around to fight wasn’t an option. Elian and Thorren both knew they couldn’t kill these tenacious creatures that preyed on Solbasks.

  I have to hold them so Thorren could escape, Elian thought.

  Elian survived getting chewed by a Grumpbeing. He’d survive the spear lobsters. What came next after surviving? He didn’t know. So long as he wouldn’t die, there was a way out. Thorren, on the other hand, would quickly die to the spear lobsters. If worse comes to worst, Elian knew what he had to do.

  Hints of light in the distance.

  “Our escape!” Thorren exclaimed.

  “We’ll see,” Elian said. They were still underground. What could these lights be?

  “I’ll use the last of my traps,” Thorren said. “A gamble. May Lady Fortuna watch over us.”

  Several pops. Elian glanced back. Pink goo slathered the spear lobster in the lead, sticking it to the floor and walls like bubblegum. The spear lobster furiously struggled. Its fellows behind it pushed forward. The tunnel shook as the gum started to pull rocks loose—such strong creatures.

  Elian and Thorren exited the tunnel and found themselves in a massive cavern stretching up at least a hundred and fifty feet. The buildings of the school of the Immaterial Path could fit inside with some expert stacking. In the middle of the space was a column made of a shiny black material. Depicted on it were hands performing various signs. Elian’s vision wavered looking at it, and he became lightheaded.

  “It’s that obelisk,” Elian said. “We’re under the kudzun’s shed body.”

  Following the black obelisk upward revealed the roof of hardened vines. In places where the layers of tendrils were thin, light could shine through. They had reached the edge of the Dark Forest.

  “We can climb up,” Thorren said. “Perhaps…”

  At ground level, there were carvings of catfolk doing their bizarre rituals, sacrificing and hurting each other. And themselves. There were also pictures of buildings and altars. Was this the Forbidden Temple?

  Unfortunately, past this tier of carvings, the walls were completely smooth, the line between the slabs almost invisible. And there were no cracks or any signs of aging. Magic was at play in their construction.

  There were only two ways up.

  The first one was a fossilized kudzun tendril that had climbed down long ago. It looked suspiciously fragile. A risk if it could hold its weight. The second option was…

  “The obelisk,” Elian said. “Should we try?”

  “I dare not touch such a threatening artifact,” Thorren said. “Remember the sinister effect of the Forbidden Temple. We may escape but suffer an inexplicable curse. Even if we risk the obelisk or that tendril, I fear that those spear-touting creatures can climb faster than we could.”

  “Right. But we can’t run forever.” Elian looked left and right. “Where do we even run? Over there!” Blocked from view by the obelisk, there was another tunnel opposite the one they had left. It was covered by dried kudzun vines. It’d take some work clearing them.

  A crash echoed out of the tunnel behind them, followed by a chorus of scratching. The spear lobsters had broken loose and were coming.

  Elian pushed Thorren. “Destroy those vines! Open the way while I hold them back.”

  Thorren was about to run but exclaimed, “No! I’m not going to—”

  “Go!” Elian rushed to block the spear lobsters before Thorren could protest. Thorren realized what was going to happen but didn’t try to stop him; his cousins were probably on his mind.

  Elian positioned himself right at the exit, under the sturdy stone archway, and lowered his stance. Cleaver in hand, angling a bit to the side to keep his weapon safe, he was ready to meet the spear lobsters. He didn’t go deeper into the tunnel because they might dig around or collapse it on him. This underground structure of the catfolk had survived for ages with no damage whatsoever. Surely, the spear lobsters couldn’t dig through that.

  One last look over his shoulder—Thorren hacked away at the vines, a purple streak with each swing—before facing forward right as a spear headed for his face.

  Elian leaned left. The spear went over his shoulder. No one said he should tank every hit.

  But he couldn’t avoid the spear lobster’s second arm. It hit him right on the chest. His Armor attribute reduced much of the damage, but he did feel the pain of a punch. Without his twin Curses, the spear would’ve blasted right through him.

  The spear lobster skittered back a few feet to the rest of its fellows in the shadows. Their stalks warily waved as they judged him, their eyes glinting in the scant light reaching the tunnel. An ominous zing. The first spear lobster rubbed its spear arms together like a butcher sharpening his knife. Zing, zing, zing. The rest of the swarm made the same noise.

  Then they attacked.

  Spears hit every part of Elian’s body, the monsters clambering over each other to strike him. Pain wracked him. The spear lobsters could shatter a Solbask’s shell. And they were hitting him hard.

  “Is this the best—ugh!” A spear hit his jaw. “Is thi-this the best you got, you damn overgrown lobsters?” Elian could only laugh and taunt them in return. Not that they understood him. “Thank the Storm God, you’re all dumb!”

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  If the spear lobsters weren’t bound by their instincts to spear their targets, they would’ve realized that they could overwhelm Elian by sheer mass. They could use their combined weight to nudge him out of the way. Elian was just nullifying the force of their strikes, the same as what the Elder Giant’s Curse did to his attacks. He didn’t weigh several tons because of his Armor. An impenetrable armor could still be moved.

  “Elian, I’ve cleared the way!” Thorren shouted. Elian could hear the Rakhonite running towards him.

  “You’re still here?” Elian couldn’t look back at Thorren. “Go already! You know I can’t move away from here. They’ll swarm us, and you’ll die.”

  “I’m well aware of that. I came to offer aid. You’re bleeding.”

  Elian looked down. Red trickled from his legs. Shallow wounds, but wounds nonetheless. His Tribulation was stronger than the force of the overgrown lobsters. But their spear arms concentrated their force into a tiny area.

  He spat out curses as his blood steadily dropped to the ground like a leaky faucet. The blood drained into grooves into the ground. He wanted to examine the rune carvings below him, but he had to face the spear lobsters.

  “This will help,” Thorren said. Footsteps approached.

  “Don’t come near me!”

  A spear lobster tried to aim for Thorren, but he evaded. Thorren quickly fit something over Elian’s head and fixed it around his neck. It was the interlocking glyph stone necklace from his uncle.

  Elian felt himself getting tougher as a coat of silver wrapped him, followed by a gold. These were the twin barriers generated by the necklace. After several hits, silvery shards burst outward. The gold shield held firm as the silver slowly reformed itself. The two other glyph stones were a damage reduction one and a modifier that strengthened the other stones.

  “I’ll find help,” Thorren said. “Endure until then.”

  “Who will you ask for help? No one’s here! Go back to Forge Hill. I’ll figure this—”

  “The priest.”

  “Priest?” Elian frowned when Thorren’s plan clicked in his head. “You can’t mean the Forbidden Temple?”

  “I’ll return as quick as I can, my friend!”

  “Just go back to your cousins!” Elian shouted. He risked checking on Thorren behind him. The Rakhonite headed for the other tunnel.

  That idiot! Elian didn’t save Thorren just for him to jump into the arms of danger again. Would Thorren find a priest at the Forbidden Temple? They didn’t know if the rumors were true. What was true was that the Dark Forest was a dangerous place. Elian thought of chasing Thorren.

  Not possible.

  If Elian unblocked the hole, the spear lobsters would spill into the cavern. Without Thorren’s traps delaying them, they’d catch up to Elian and pummel him from all sides. There’d be no escape. Would take a long time, but they could kill him.

  They were killing him now! Very slowly.

  Thorren’s necklace boosted Elian’s tankiness, but the blows of the spear lobsters still hurt and drew blood.

  How long until these crustacean bastards get tired of forcefully poking him? They must have a limit at some point. Predators weighed expending energy with the food they’d gain. He was just one tiny body compared to a Solbask.

  Elian’s hurt sank when he noticed the spear lobsters swapped out with each other to attack him. This was beyond hunting or protecting their nest. They wanted him dead for some reason and were working together for it.

  So… yeah… Maybe he needed Thorren’s help.

  Recalling Gideon’s map, the Forbidden Temple was around two hours of travel from here. Going as fast as he could, Thorren could probably reduce that to an hour and a half. Maybe an hour. How long until Thorren got hold of a priest? How fast could the priest get here?

  Would the priest even help?

  Elian had almost two and a half thousand Health points. It got slowly chipped down as the strikes landed, a point there, another point here. Without any healing, he wasn’t going to last for a couple of hours.

  He had to.

  Closing his eyes, Elian recited the strongest meditation chants he knew to fall into a trance. Quite insane to accomplish while getting beaten nonstop. He wanted to clear his mind as much as possible to absorb Aether the fastest, weaving them into his skin to harden it. Along with the barriers of Thorren’s necklace, Elian hoped to slow the injuries he suffered.

  Minutes rolled by. Elian was in a half-conscious state. Both the silver and gold barriers were gone. Took them around ten minutes to reform. He didn’t waver.

  Another half an hour passed. Maybe. He couldn’t tell. Blood running down his body was more annoying than the spears tenderizing his body. The spear lobsters were still none the wiser that they could push him. Or just shove themselves past him.

  Maybe they didn’t want to do that. Maybe… they just wanted to kill him.

  They were succeeding. He was at half of his Health. Could he last another hour? Possible. He was gaining insights on Aether Magic at a rapid pace, the prospect of death powering him. How about two hours? Probably not. Might not be enough time for Thorren to get help… that was if the Rakhonite hadn’t already been eaten by monsters.

  Dammit. He worked hard to save Thorren. If that idiot got himself killed… What would Elian do? Figure this out first before thinking of how to apologize to Nelisha.

  He had hoped the spear lobsters had left by now or at least reduced their numbers. Nope. Still there. Still very many. Still stabbing him.

  Elian checked his Covenant to figure out how long he had until things were dire, as if his situation wasn’t already dire. His Health was a bit higher than he expected. Likely, he wasn’t in a trance for as long as he thought. He observed his Health tick down.

  Then, it ticked up by a single point before descending again after he got hit.

  “What? Where did that—? My symbiont!”

  Guardian Exactor Vine | Plant Symbiote | Level: 2

  Health: 130/130

  Energy: 40/40

  ATTRIBUTES:

  Attack Power: 13

  Magic Power: 13

  Armor: 73

  Magic Resilience: 13

  TRAITS:

  Host Attribute Absorption – Absorb (180) Attribute points from the host and gain a third of it.

  Rejuvenating Roots – Restore (1) Health Point of the host every second.

  “Great job, little guy!” Elian glanced at his right arm, which he had kept to the side to protect the symbiont and the cleaver. A tiny tendril had reached down to the ground to feed on… what?

  The symbiont had dipped its tip into a groove on the ground filled with red liquid. That wasn’t his blood, was it? He looked behind him, even as a spear lobster kept hitting the side of his head. All thoughts of pain left him as his eyes widened.

  The entire floor of the cavern was covered in red writing, layers upon layers of magical circles and unknown symbols. The red lines converged in the middle, climbing up the obelisk. The carved hands on the obelisk began turning red. The red lines stopped around twenty feet up. None of the carved hands above it lit up.

  “Wait, I’m not getting hit?” Elian found the spear lobsters retreating into the tunnel, waving their arms at him. It wasn’t a goodbye, he was sure.

  They were scared of what was happening to the obelisk, and maybe he should as well.

  He tucked his cleaver into the rope keeping his pants up and ran across the floor filled with red runes.

  As he neared the obelisk, intending to circle it to reach the exit on the other side, the ground shook. At the base of the obelisk, a small column rose to four feet. A pedestal. A small item floated on top of it, pulsing familiarly, a faint blue and then seaweed green. The item was enchanted. Two enchantments.

  The red carved hands on the obelisk started to lose their glow, returning to black as the red lines receded to the floor. Elian looked at his feet. Everything was returning to normal. He could hear the spear lobsters returning. Then he turned to the pedestal.

  “Ancient artifact?” Elian grinned, changing direction to get it. “Don’t mind if I do.”

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