Liam and the girls stepped into the cave, and right away the darkness wrapped around them like a thick blanket. The air felt cooler and heavier, with a faint musty sll that made Liam wrinkle his nose.
He held his sword a little tighter, squinting ahead. "Man, this place is really dark," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
His voice echoed off the rough stone walls, sounding smaller than he wanted it to.
Crya stayed close, one arm looped around Pyra’s shoulders to keep the smaller girl steady, she had been out cold since the fight earlier, her breathing shallow but even. Beatrix walked just behind them, her steps careful on the uneven floor.
They hadn’t gone more than ten feet when a soft glow suddenly flared up from deeper inside the cave. It looked like a floating ball of pale light, hazy and shifting, and it shot straight toward Crya.
Crya yelped and jumped back, nearly dropping Pyra. "A ghost!" she scread, her voice cracking with real fear.
Her eyes went wide, and she pressed herself against Liam’s side without thinking.
Liam’s hand shot out and pulled her close, steadying both her and Pyra. "No," he said quickly, his voice firm even though his own heart had jumped.
"This is different. Hold on." He kept his arm around her for a second, feeling how fast she was breathing, and stared hard at the glowing thing.
It hovered there now, pulsing gently, not attacking, just... waiting. Up close it didn’t look scary anymore. It looked almost peaceful, like a living spark of light.
Liam’s mind raced back to everything he had read or heard about this world. If he rembered right, spirits were sacred beings. They only showed up in places packed with mana, spots so full of energy that normal people could feel it in the air.
He swallowed hard, the gulp loud in his own ears. Dense mana... Could this whole cave be the lair of that dragon they had run into outside?
The thought made his stomach twist. That thing had been huge. If it lived here,
Liam shook his head fast, pushing the idea away. No. The dragon they had seen was way too big. This cave was small, barely tall enough for them to stand straight in so spots.
There was no way that monster could squeeze inside. But then what was it? What else could need this much mana?
Before he could figure it out, the spirit drifted sideways. It floated past Crya and straight toward Pyra, who was still limp against Crya’s shoulder. Liam’s eyes widened.
"Pyra, wait!" he shouted, but it was too late. The glowing light sank right into her chest, smooth and quick, like it belonged there.
Liam tensed up, every muscle going tight. "Pyra!" he called again, stepping forward.
Nothing bad happened. Instead, the cuts and bruises on Pyra’s arms and face started to close up right in front of them.
The red scrapes faded, the swelling went down, and her breathing grew deeper and steadier. Liam stared, mouth half open.
"That’s... impossible," he murmured. From what he rembered, spirits were picky. Really picky. They didn’t just go near humans.
They usually stayed far away, like they could tell people weren’t part of the natural magic around here.
Then it clicked. The spirit had rushed at Crya first because she was the one carrying Pyra. It had sensed Pyra through her. That was why it had co close.
Liam looked at Pyra again, really looked. Sothing about her had changed.
The air around her felt different now, warr, almost humming.
Her red hair had shifted to a brighter orange with streaks of deep red running through it, like fresh flas.
Her closed eyes, when they fluttered open for just a second, weren’t brown anymore. They were a vivid red, glowing faintly before she slipped back into sleep.
At the sa mont, a roar exploded from outside the cave. The dragon. It sounded furious, like it had just realized they had slipped away.
The ground shook hard under their feet, pebbles rattling down from the ceiling. Liam’s stomach dropped.
He spun toward the entrance just in ti to see the opening cave in with a crash of rocks and dust. The exit was gone, blocked solid.
Then a massive scaled arm shoved into the gap, claws scraping against stone as it tried to reach inside. The dragon was digging, trying to grab them.
"Follow !" Liam said, voice sharp but steady. "Deeper. Now." He didn’t wait for answers. He grabbed Crya’s hand, and she kept Pyra tucked against her as they moved.
Beatrix stayed right behind, breathing fast but keeping up. They pushed farther into the cave, the tunnel narrowing and then opening up again.
The new space was bigger, an underground chamber with a dark lake lapping quietly on one side and a bunch of smaller tunnels branching off the other wall. Liam’s heart hamred against his ribs.
The dragon’s arm was still scraping sowhere behind them, and the roar echoed down the passages. "Let’s go right," he said, pointing to the tunnel that looked the clearest. It felt like the safest bet, even if "safe" was a stretch right now.
They ran. Their footsteps slapped against the stone, and after a few seconds Liam heard a new sound, buzzing, low and chanical, like a swarm of angry machines.
It grew louder fast. They rounded a bend and there they were: flying cha bees, tal bodies glinting in the dim light, wings humming as they hovered and then dove straight at them.
"Watch out!" Liam yelled.
The swarm rushed in. He threw his arm up, sword ready. "Get behind that depression in the back wall of the tunnel!" he ordered, pointing to a dip in the rock that looked like it might give them so cover.
The girls nodded without arguing. Crya pulled Pyra along, and they all scrambled into the corner. Liam planted himself in front of them, sword swinging in wide arcs.
He slashed at the nearest bee and felt the blade connect, but the thing didn’t drop. Its tal skin just rang like a bell and absorbed the hit, vibrating the shock right out of his arm.
He kept swinging, gritting his teeth. More bees ca. He killed a couple, barely, but most of them just got knocked back. His shoulders started to burn.
Sweat stung his eyes. He was getting tired already, and he hadn’t taken down more than a handful. They kept coming, relentless.
An idea hit him. "Stay there!" he called over his shoulder. He glanced at Crya. "Make an ice shield, keep it over you guys, okay?" She nodded, already lifting her hands.
Blue light flickered around her palms. Liam turned and ran straight at the swarm, waving his sword like crazy to pull every single bee after him. "Co on, you tal pests!"
He sprinted toward the lake, the buzzing growing louder behind him. The swarm followed like a black cloud. When he reached the water’s edge he didn’t slow down.
"Okay," he muttered to himself, "ti to test it." He jumped in, the cold hitting him like a slap. He held his breath and ducked under, eyes open underwater. The bees poured in after him, diving straight down.
Then they stopped. The second they touched the water, their wings locked up and they sank like stones, twitching once before going still.
Liam’s eyes widened under the surface. It worked. The water shorted them out or sothing. He waited a few more seconds, then kicked back up and broke the surface, gasping.
A notification flashed in front of his eyes: Congratulations. Level up to level 37.
Liam grinned even though he was still dripping wet. "The plan worked!" he said out loud, laughing once in relief. He swam to the shore, climbed out, and looked back at the lake.
Every last bee had followed him in and was now floating lifeless on the water or sunk at the bottom. He smacked his lips, still catching his breath. "Thanks for that juicy exp dose, guys."
He jogged back to the girls. The ice shield glowed faintly in the corner, solid and blue. Liam knocked on it with his knuckles. "You okay in there?"
The shield lted away at Crya’s touch. She stepped out, still holding Pyra, and peeked past him toward the lake. "What about the bees?"
Liam smiled, wiping water from his face. "Already taken care of. You don’t need to worry."
Both girls let out long sighs of relief, shoulders dropping. Beatrix even managed a small smile.
"Let’s check the other tunnels," Liam said, nodding toward the branching paths.
They hesitated, glancing at each other. He could see it in their faces, the fear of running into sothing worse.
The tiredness, the worry about Pyra still sleeping against Crya’s shoulder. Liam got it.
He felt the sa pull to keep moving, but pushing them right now might break sothing.
"How about we spend so ti in this room instead?" he offered, keeping his voice easy. "I’ve already taken care of the bees.
We just need to block the tunnel entrance so nothing else wanders in. We can rest a minute."
They nodded, the relief clear on their faces.
Liam and the girls sat down on the cool stone floor, backs against the wall. Pyra stayed curled up between them, still out cold.
Liam stared at the dark tunnel they had co through and wondered how they were supposed to make a fire down here. No wood, no nothing.
Beatrix reached into her small purse and pulled out a little lamp. "This would do," she said quietly, setting it in the middle of their small circle.
She clicked it on. A soft, eerie violet fire blood inside the glass, steady and warm enough to push back so of the chill.
Liam watched the purple light dance across the walls for a mont.
Then turned his gaze to Pyra’s sleeping face, her new orange-and-red hair, the faint glow still clinging to her skin.
His mind spun with questions he couldn’t quite put into words.
What should I do?
Reviews
All reviews (0)